Desai Shan is Assistant Professor at Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland. She received her PhD from Cardiff University in 2017. She held the Ocean Frontier Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship (Dalhousie University, 2018-2020), On the Move Research Partnership Postdoctoral Fellowship (University of Ottawa, 2017-2018), Nippon Foundation-Seafarers International Research Centre PhD Fellowship (Cardiff University, 2011-2015).
As a dedicated researcher in the fields of international maritime law and occupational health and safety (OHS), she has published fifteen research articles and book chapters on Canadian and international seafarers’ rights to occupational health and safety. She sat on the expert panel of the Ministry of Foreign affairs of the Republic of Indonesia to develop guidelines on international seafarer abandonment cases.
Her research motivation in seafarers’ rights is rooted in her maritime legal practice experience of handling seafarers’ claims. In one accident, a ship capsized and sank in the South China Sea. One sailor died and twelve were missing. Having realized the claim process for seafarers’ families is long, painful and disempowering, she decided to start her research career in seafarers’ rights in Cardiff University.
Desai is now conducting research projects on Maritime Occupational Health and Safety in Canada, including Arctic maritime occupational health and safety issues, occupational noise exposure on merchant and fishing vessels . Her research projects have been funded by the Ocean Frontier Institute, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council through the On the Move Partnership.
Selected publications:
Desai Shan (2020) The Need to Enhance Marine Occupational Health and Safety in Canada. Ocean Yearbook Vol 34: 526-544
Desai Shan and Barb Neis (2020) “Employment-related Mobility, Regulatory Weakness and Potential Fatigue-related Safety Concerns in Short-sea Seafaring on Canada’s Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway: Canadian Seafarers’ Experiences.” Safety Science 121 (2020): 165-176
Desai Shan and Katherine Lippel (2019) “Occupational Health and Safety Challenges from Employment-related Geographical Mobility Among Canadian Seafarers on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway.” New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy 29 (3): 371-396
Desai Shan (2017) “Workplace Death at Sea: Chinese Surviving Families’ Experiences of Compensation Claims.” Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations. 72 -1, 2017, 125-148.
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300 Prince Philip Drive, St John’s, NL
A1B 3V6
