I currently hold a SSHRC Insight Development Grant to investigate the impact of social distancing measures on 2SLGBTQIA+ communities in Alberta and Manitoba during the COVID-19 pandemic. Framed by queer theory’s expansive definition of family and kinship, the project aims to unpack the experiences of 2SLGBTQIA+ folks navigating “stay-at-home” measures that disconnected community members from their social supports. I am the Co-PI on this project with Deb McPhail (PI) alongside team members Fenton Litwiller and Robert Lorway. We have recently completed interviews, and will begin analysis and knowledge mobilization in Summer and Fall 2024.

I am a co-investigator on a SSHRC Explore Grant (with Leah Hamilton, Celeste Pang, Gio Dolcecore and Jill Thompson) entitled “Exploring Gender Euphoria through Arts-Based Action Research with Youth.” This project investigates how Calgary-based trans and gender creative (TGC) youth and their caregivers define and experience “gender euphoria” in local social  contexts, such as within peer groups, families, educational settings, healthcare (physical and mental), and sports and recreation. In arts-based focus groups, TGC youth and caregivers will work with social artists to define gender euphoria in their own words and to explore experiences of and dreams for experiencing gender euphoria in local social contexts via the creation of digital murals.

I am also a collaborator on the SSHRC Insight project “Transformative Encounters: Gender and Sexuality Pedagogies in Canada” (Natalie Kouri-Towe, PI).

I recently completed a SSHRC IDG project (with Irene Shankar) that explored feminist faculty responses to sexualized violence across (what is colonially known as) Canada. In the wake of #MeToo, Canadian universities found themselves under pressure to respond to sexualized violence on their campuses, and struggled to do so. Perplexingly, postsecondary institutions had access to feminist expertise on campus, but this didn’t always translate into robust responses, especially for Black, Indigenous, racially minoritized, 2SLGBTQIA+, disabled and/or neurodivergent members of campus communities. We are in the process of publishing our findings from this project.

In preparation:

Radical Flourishing Through Collapse: Queer, Entangled, More-Than-Human Artistic Experiments in the greenhouse artlab, SSHRC Insight, Roewan Crowe (PI), University of Winnipeg (Co-applicant).