Valerie Uher is a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo. She teaches and writes about issues of precarious work, labour unrest and resource extraction in the literatures of Canada. Her research interests include critical theory and energy humanities, and she is a co-editor of The John Hopkins Guide to Critical and Cultural Theory. A life-long advocate for labour rights, she served as steward, chief negotiator and grievance officer for OSSTF D34 ILSC. From March 2020 until December 2023, she was a dedicated organizer in the successful unionization campaign among student and sessional workers at the University of Waterloo.