Bio

Born in southern Ontario, Gerry Veenstra received undergraduate degrees in Pure Mathematics and Sociology from the University of Waterloo and graduate degrees in Sociology from McMaster University. He is past holder of a New Investigator career award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, an Early Career scholar award from the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, a Senior Scholar career award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and a Killam Research Fellowship from UBC.

Research

Veenstra has primarily investigated how social class and racial/ethnic identity are associated with physical and mental health. His research has been based mostly in Canada but also in China, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States. This research has been funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, Public Health Agency of Canada and Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada.

One of his longstanding areas of interest concerns the relationship between social class (or socioeconomic status) and health. For example, he has applied Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power to health-related factors, identifying class groupings and a range of aesthetic tastes and dispositions in the Canadian field of power that illuminate the logic of health practices dispersed in the field. He has studied interplays between capitals – economic, cultural and social – as determinants of health in Canada, Switzerland and the United States and used fixed effects models applied to panel data to investigate whether associations between family income and self-rated health and mental health in Canada are causal in nature. He has also studied the health effects of intergenerational socioeconomic reproduction in Canada, China, South Korea and Switzerland and the health effects of intergenerational mobility in Canada.

Veenstra has also contributed to the literature on racial health inequalities in Canada. He has studied associations between health and incongruities between the racial identities people express to others and the racial identities they believe that others believe them to be, as well as the health implications of colourism, discrimination targeted at relatively darker skinned people of colour. He has investigated health inequalities by way of the racial identities (Asian, Black, South Asian, White) reported by respondents to nationally representative surveys and examined the degree to which they intersect with gender and immigrant status. He has also examined correspondences between multiracial identities and health.

In the last decade or so, Veenstra combined his interests in social class and racial health inequalities under the auspices of intersectionality theory, examining whether “intersections” between ‘race,’ class, gender and sexuality are associated with health and health-related practices in Canada.

Finally, Veenstra is interested in the class bases of cultural phenomena such as musical tastes and sporting knowledge and participation. In particular, he has endeavoured to contribute to the debate regarding the relative merits of the homology approach (specific cultural tastes and practices are aligned with specific class positions) and the cultural omnivorism perspective (elites are increasingly characterized by the breadth and eclecticism of their cultural tastes and practices). He has recently embarked upon a study of the lived experience — and health effects — of pickup soccer in a sample of middle-aged men in Vancouver.

Social Class and Health

• Zhang, Xueqing and Gerry Veenstra. 2024. Intergenerational socioeconomic reproduction and feelings of anxiety or depression in China. SSM – Population Health 25, 101645 (pp. 1-8).
• Vanzella-Yang, Adam and Gerry Veenstra. 2024. Social mobility and mental health in Canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health 115, 148-156.
• Abel, Thomas and Gerry Veenstra. 2023. Cultural capital and health. In Oxford Bibliographies in Public Health. Ed. David McQueen. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Veenstra, Gerry and Adam Vanzella-Yang. 2022. Intergenerational reproduction and self-rated health in Canada. Canadian Review of Sociology 59, 3, 292-308.
• Zhang, Xueqing and Gerry Veenstra. 2022. Intergenerational reproduction and self-rated physical health in China. SSM – Population Health 19, 1101131 (pp. 1-8).
• Veenstra, Gerry and Adam Vanzella-Yang. 2021. Interactions between parental and personal socioeconomic resources and self-rated health: Adjudicating between the resource substitution and resource multiplication theories. Social Science & Medicine 292, 114565 (pp. 1-6).
• Veenstra, Gerry and Adam Vanzella-Yang. 2021. Intergenerational social mobility and self-rated health in Canada. SSM – Population Health 15, 100890 (pp. 1-6).
• Vanzella-Yang, Adam and Gerry Veenstra. 2021. Socio-economic resources and adult mental health in Canada: Controlling for time-invariant confounders and investigating causal directionality. Canadian Journal of Public Health 112, 1042-1049.
• Vanzella-Yang, Adam and Gerry Veenstra. 2021. Family income and health in Canada: A longitudinal study of stability and change. BMC Public Health 21:333 (pp. 1-8).
• Veenstra, Gerry and Adam Vanzella-Yang. 2021. Does household income mediate the association between education and health in Canada? Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 49, 8, 857-864.
• Veenstra, Gerry and Adam Vanzella-Yang. 2020. Family income and self-rated health in Canada: Using fixed effects models to control for unobserved confounders and investigate causal temporality. Social Science & Medicine 250, 112884 (pp. 1-4).
• Veenstra, Gerry and Thomas Abel. 2019. Capital interplays and social inequalities in health. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 47, 6, 631-634.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2018. Infusing fundamental cause theory with features of Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 46, 1, 49-52.
• Burnett, Patrick John and Gerry Veenstra. 2017. Margins of freedom: A field-theoretic approach to class-based health dispositions and practices. Sociology of Health & Illness 39, 7, 1050-1067.
• Jeong, Baekgeun and Gerry Veenstra. 2017. The intergenerational production of depression in South Korea: A cross-sectional study. International Journal for Equity in Health 16: 13 (pp. 1-8).
• Veenstra, Gerry and Baekgeun Jeong. 2016. The intergenerational production of health in South Korea. Health Sociology Review 25, 3, 288-299.
• Veenstra, Gerry and Thomas Abel. 2015. Capital interplays and the self-rated health of young men: Results from a cross-sectional study in Switzerland. International Journal for Equity in Health 14: 38 (pp. 1-10).
• Veenstra, Gerry and Patrick John Burnett. 2014. A relational approach to health practices: Towards transcending the agency-structure divide. Sociology of Health & Illness 36, 2, 187-198.
• Veenstra, Gerry and Andrew C. Patterson. 2012. Capital relations and health: Mediating and moderating effects of cultural, economic, and social capitals on mortality in Alameda County, California. International Journal of Health Services 42, 2, 277-291.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2007. Social space, social class and Bourdieu: Health inequalities in British Columbia, Canada. Health & Place 13, 1, 14-31.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2006. Neo-Marxist class position and socio-economic status: Distinct or complementary determinants of health? Critical Public Health 16, 2, 111-129.
• Dunn, James, Gerry Veenstra and Nancy Ross. 2006. Psychosocial and neo-material dimensions of SES and health revisited: Determinants of self-rated health in a Canadian national survey. Social Science & Medicine 62, 6, 1465-1473.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2005. Social status and health: Absolute deprivation or relative comparison, or both?  Health Sociology Review 14, 2, 121-134.

Social Capital and Health

• Veenstra, Gerry. 2007. Social capital and health in Canada: (compositional) effects of trust, participation in networks and civic activity on self-rated health. In Johnston, Richard & Fiona Kay (Eds.). Social Capital, Diversity, and the Welfare State. Vancouver: UBC Press, pp. 249-275.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2005. Location, location, location: Contextual and compositional health effects of social capital in British Columbia, Canada. Social Science & Medicine 60, 9, 2059-2071.
• Veenstra, Gerry, Isaac Luginaah, Sarah Wakefield, Stephen Birch, John Eyles & Susan Elliott. 2005. Who you know, where you live: Social capital, neighbourhood and health. Social Science & Medicine 60, 12, 2799-2818.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2002. Explicating social capital: Trust and participation in the civil space. Canadian Journal of Sociology 27, 4, 547-572.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2002. Social capital and health (plus wealth, income inequality and regional health governance). Social Science & Medicine 54, 6, 849-868.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2000. Social capital, SES and health: An individual-level analysis. Social Science & Medicine 50, 5, 619-629.
• Veenstra, Gerry & Jonathan Lomas. 1999. Home is where the governing is: Social capital and regional health governance. Health & Place 5, 1, 1-12.

Racial Health Inequalities

• Veenstra, Gerry, Maria Vas and D. Kyle Sutherland. 2019. Asian-White health inequalities in Canada: Intersections with immigration. Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health 22, 2, 300-306.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2019. Black, White, Black and White: Mixed race and health in Canada. Ethnicity & Health 24, 2, 113-124.
• Patterson, Andrew C. and Gerry Veenstra. 2016. Black-White health inequalities in Canada at the intersection of gender and immigration. Canadian Journal of Public Health 107, 3, e278-e284.
• Veenstra, Gerry and Andrew C. Patterson. 2016. South Asian-White health inequalities in Canada: Intersections with gender and immigrant status. Ethnicity & Health 21, 6, 639-648.
• Veenstra, Gerry and Andrew C. Patterson. 2016. Black-White health inequalities in Canada. Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health 18, 1, 51-57.
• Veenstra, Gerry and Andrew C. Patterson. 2015. Health differences between native-born Black and White Canadians: Revisiting Lebrun and LaVeist (2011, 2013). Canadian Ethnic Studies 47, 3, 163-176.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2011. Mismatched racial identities, colourism, and health in Toronto and Vancouver. Social Science & Medicine 73, 8, 1152-1162.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2009. Racialized identity and health in Canada: Results from a nationally representative survey. Social Science & Medicine 69, 4, 538-542.

Intersectionality and Health

• Gagné, Thierry and Gerry Veenstra. 2017. Inequalities in diabetes and hypertension in Canada: Intersections between racial identity, gender, and income. Ethnicity & Disease 27, 4, 371-378.
• Abichahine, Hayfa and Gerry Veenstra. 2017. Inter-categorical intersectionality and leisure-based physical activity in Canada. Health Promotion International 32, 4, 691-701.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2013. Race, gender, class, sexuality (RGCS) and hypertension. Social Science & Medicine 89, 16-24.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2013. The gendered nature of discriminatory experiences by race, class, and sexuality: A comparison of intersectionality theory and the subordinate male target hypothesis. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research 68, 11, 646-659.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2011. Race, gender, class, and sexual orientation: Intersecting axes of inequality and self-rated health in Canada. International Journal for Equity in Health 10: 3 (pp. 1-11).

Culture and Class

• Veenstra, Gerry. 2015. Class position and musical tastes: A sing-off between the cultural omnivorism and Bourdieusian homology frameworks. Canadian Review of Sociology 52, 2, 134-159.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2010. Culture and class in Canada. Canadian Journal of Sociology 35, 1, 83-111.
• Garnett, Bruce, Neil Guppy and Gerry Veenstra. 2008. Careers open to talent: Educational credentials, cultural talent, and skilled employment. Sociological Forum 23, 1, 144-164.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2007. Who the heck is Don Bradman? Sport culture and social class in British Columbia, Canada. Canadian Review of Sociology 44, 3, 319-344.
• Veenstra, Gerry. 2005. Can taste illumine class? Cultural knowledge and forms of inequality. Canadian Journal of Sociology 30, 3, 247-279.

Current students
Madani, Rana (MSc Pharmaceutical Sciences; committee)
Prisk, Dan (MA Sociology; committee)

Former students
Abichahine, Hayfa (MA Sociology; supervisor)
Ahmadi, Naseam (MSc Food Sciences; committee)
Bombard, Yvonne (PhD Interdisciplinary Studies; committee)
Burnett, Patrick John (MA Sociology; supervisor)
Burnett, Patrick John (PhD Sociology; supervisor)
Buse, Christopher (MA Sociology; supervisor)
Capell, Jennifer (MSc Rehabilitation Sciences; committee)
Chen, Minheng (MA Sociology; committee)
Christy, Kayonne (MA Sociology; co-supervisor)
Gu, Jiaxin (MA Sociology; committee)
Jaffe, Kaitlyn (PhD Sociology; committee)
Legun, Katharine (MA Sociology; committee)
Ma, Amy (MA Educational Studies; committee)
Nannar, Rumnique (MA Journalism; committee)
Patterson, Andrew (MA Family Studies; supervisor)
Patterson, Andrew (PhD Sociology; supervisor)
Shortt, Jennifer (MA Sociology; supervisor)
Sutherland, D. Kyle (PhD Sociology; committee)
Valdes, Mirah (MSc Food Sciences; committee)
Vanzella Yang, Adam (MA Sociology; supervisor)
Vanzella Yang, Adam (PhD Sociology; supervisor)
Wang, Zhonghao (MA Sociology; committee)
Zhang, Feng (PhD Sociology; committee)
Zhang, Xueqing (MA Sociology; supervisor)

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