Siobhan McGrath

Associate Professor, Geography

Working within labor geography, economic geography and development geography, Siobhan McGrath takes a political economy approach to labor. Her scholarship to date has focused on 1) ‘unregulated work’ including wage theft and other violations; 2) how to understand freedoms and unfreedoms within labor relations; 3) how labor unfreedoms are represented and acted upon through categories such as ‘modern slavery’; and 4) how conditions of work are determined through the dynamics of Global Production Networks (GPNs).
She currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Economic Geography. She has taught at Manchester University, Lancaster University and Durham University in the UK and has also worked within, and alongside, the labor movement. She holds a BA from the School for International Training, an MA in Economics from the New School for Social Research, and a PhD in International Development from the University of Manchester.
 

Degrees

  • Ph.D. in Global Development, University of Manchester, 2010
  • M.A. in Economics, New School for Social Research, 2005
  • B.A. in International Studies, School for International Training, 1998

Affiliated Department

Geography

Scholarly and creative works

  • Other Scholarly or Creative Work

    Economic Geography for the next century

    Taylor & Francis
    Siobh’an McGrath
  • Chapters In Books

    The Springer Handbook of Economic Geography
    Chapter: Work(ers)

    2026
    Siobhan McGrath
  • Presentations

    Keynote

    IAG2025: Institute of Australian Geographer’s Conference
    Newcastle, NSW, Australia
    July
    2025
    Siobhan McGrath
  • Presentations

    Co-organizer and Chair, Roundtable on Economic (In)Justice, Space and the Law

    Global Conference on Economic Geography
    Clark
    May
    2025
    Siobhan McGrath
  • Presentations

    Co-organizer of two sessions on Labor Geographies and the State, within which I am presenting a paper with my co-author

    Global Conference on Economic Geography
    Clark
    May
    2025
    Siobhan McGrath
  • Presentations

    Panelist, Economic Geography at 100 #3: Imagining EG futures, the next century

    Global Conference on Economic Geography
    Clark
    May
    2025
    Siobhan McGrath
  • Presentations

    The political climate and US Higher Education

    Global Conference on Economic Geography
    Clark
    May
    2025
    Siobhan McGrath
  • Presentations

    Everyday Labor Unfreedoms and the Law

    Sydney, Australia
    2025
    Sponsored by University of Sydney, School of Geosciences
    Siobhan McGrath
  • Presentations

    Theorising unfreedom, spatializing anti-slavery

    International Labor Process Conference
    Goettingen, Germany
    April
    2024
    Siobhán McGrath, Ayushman Bhagat
  • Reviews, Abstracts, Pamphlets

    Book Review Essay—Decolonising “Modern Slavery”

    Antipode Online
    November
    2024
    Siobhan McGrath, Ayushman Bhagat
  • Article in Refereed Journal

    Life Stories of Garment Workers in India: Towards a labor-centric labor regimes framework

    Annals of the American Association of Geographers
    2024
    Vol. 115
    Issue #3
    Madhumita Dutta, Siobhan McGrath
  • Chapters In Books

    Handbook of Research on the Global Political Economy of Work
    Chapter: Unfree Labor in the 21st century?

    Published by Edward Elgar
    2023
    Siobhán McGrath, Mario Atzeni, Dario Azzellini, Alessandra Mezzadri, Ursula Apitzsch, Phoebe Moore
  • Reviews, Abstracts, Pamphlets

    Review of Labour Regimes and Global Production By Elena Baglioni, Liam Campling, Neil M. Coe and Adrian Smith

    British Journal of Industrial Relations
    December
    2023
    Vol. 61
    Issue #4
    Siobhán McGrath