Dr. Mary K. Bryson (Cancer’s Margins Lead Researcher)
Dr. Mary K. Bryson was appointed as Senior Associate Dean, Administration and Innovation, in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Dr. Bryson holds a joint appointment with the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Arts, and is a Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education and in the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice (GRSJ). Most recently, Dr. Bryson held the appointment of GRSJ Director (2012-2015). Mary is a gender nonconforming, queer advocate for social justice efforts within higher education and far beyond the University. Mary is a proud Board of Directors member of Vancouver’s Catherine White Holman Wellness Centre which provides low-barrier wellness services to transgender and gender nonconforming people.
Jacqueline Gahagan, PhD (Cancer’s Margins Principal Investigator)
Jacqueline Gahagan, PhD is Professor of Health Promotion and Head of the Health Promotion Division in the School of Health and Human Performance at Dalhousie University. Dr. Gahagan is also Director of the Gender and Health Promotion Studies Unit which focuses on health research related to the intersectionality of gender and other key determinants of health on health outcomes. Jacqueline also holds cross appointments in Community Health and Epidemiology, International Development Studies, Gender Studies, Occupational Therapy, Nursing and is an Affiliate Member of the Health Law Institute at Dalhousie University. Dr. Gahagan teaches courses in measurement and evaluation, community health promotion, health promotion theory, and women’s health and the environment at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and is a member of the editorial board for several peer-reviewed journals, including Health Care for Women International, Sexual Health, and the Canadian Journal of Public Health.
Dr. Tae L. Hart (Cancer’s Margins Principal Investigator)
Dr. Tae Hart’s research centers on psychological factors associated with adjustment to illness in chronically-ill individuals and their spouses/partners. Primarily, Dr. Hart’s work has investigated quality of life, psychological distress, and symptom burden in patients who have been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Dr. Hart has also conducted research studies on gay men with prostate cancer, transmen and quality of life, couples facing multiple sclerosis, and women with breast cancer. Dr. Hart led the Cancer’s Margins Ontario study during 2012/13 and is currently on a sabbatical.
Geneviève Rail, PhD. (Cancer’s Margins Principal Investigator)
Geneviève Rail, Ph.D., est professeure titulaire en Études culturelles féministes de la santé à l’Institut Simone-De Beauvoir de l’Université Concordia. Elle est connue pour ses recherches sur les expériences des femmes en lien avec les institutions centrées sur le corps (par exemple, l’industrie pharmaceutique, les systèmes de santé, les médias, le sport). Auteure d’une centaine d’articles et de chapitres de livre, elle favorise des approches poststructuralistes, décoloniales et queer pour étudier les femmes provenant de divers contextes socioéconomiques, ethniques, raciaux et sexuels. Elle s’intéresse à l’articulation des identifications de ces femmes avec leurs constructions discursives et leurs expériences corporelles du corps et de la santé. Elle complète présentement 4 projets subventionnés par les Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada et centrés sur les discours et les questions qui entourent l’obésité, la vaccination contre les VPH, ainsi que les soins de santé pour les personnes lesbiennes, bisexuelles, queer ou trans vivant avec un cancer du sein ou gynécologique.
Geneviève Rail, Ph.D., is Professor of Feminist Cultural Studies of Health at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute of Concordia University. She is known for her research on women’s experiences of body-related institutions (e.g., pharmaceutical industry, health systems, media, sport). Author of over 100 articles or book chapters, she favors feminist poststructuralist, post/de/colonial and queer approaches to study women from varying sexuality, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic milieus. She is interested in the intersection and articulation of these women’s identifications with the discursive constructions and embodied experiences of the body and health. She is currently completing 4 projects funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research that focus on fatness, on HPV vaccination, and on breast and gynaecological cancer care for lesbian, bisexual, queer and trans persons.
Dr. Janice L. Ristock (Cancer’s Margins Principal Investigator)
Dr. Janice Ristock obtained her BA (hons) at the University of Manitoba, MA in Applied Social Psychology at the University of Guelph and PhD in Community Psychology at the University of Toronto (OISE). Before assuming the position of Vice‐Provost (Academic Affairs), she was the Associate Vice-President (Research) in the Vice-President (Research and International) office, the Associate Dean (Research and Faculty Development) in the Faculty of Arts and served as Coordinator of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program for twelve years. Dr. Ristock is also Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Disability Studies Program.
Dr. Lorna R. Boschman (Cancer’s Margins Project Coordinator)
Dr. Lorna Boschman has been a post-doctoral fellow and is currently a Faculty Associate, working with Mary Bryson after her doctoral studies at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts & Technology. She co-designed and led the Cancer’s Margins Digital Storytelling Workshop with Dr. Bryson. Before attending graduate school, Dr. Boschman had a long career as a media artist and director of award-winning socially engaged videos. A Cancer Video (1996) was a video collaboration with a friend who had breast cancer; Boschman also directed three videos about the queer art collective Kiss & Tell. In March 2011, she was selected as a featured media artist at the Panorama of Quebec and Canadian Video, 29 FIFA Festival International Du Film Sur L’Art in Montréal. More recently, retrospectives of her work as a director were featured in Brussels and Milan.
Dr. Erin Fredericks (Cancer’s Margins Collaborator in New Brunswick)
Erin Fredericks has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology since 2013. Her area of expertise is sociology of health. Within this field, she examines interconnections between gender and other forms of marginalization, representations of health and illness, and health behaviours. Her PhD work examined women’s experiences of breast cancer in the context of the pink ribbon movement, which has contributed to the creation of popular perceptions of what it means to be a woman with cancer. She has a number of research studies underway, including continued studies of breast cancer experiences and new research on the proscriptions and prescriptions in self-help literature written for the LGBTQ community.
Evan Taylor (Cancer’s Margins Doctoral Researcher on Trans* Health)
Evan Taylor is currently a doctoral candidate in the department of Language and Literacy Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. As a social justice advocate, Evan has been involved in various personal, community, and professional projects that focus on increasing trans* literacies both within and beyond community and institutional settings. Evan’s research interests combine trans* studies, public health & social policy administration, and access to knowledge. Evan’s doctoral research develops knowledge at the intersections of trans* health, cancer health, and trans* and gender nonconforming people’s experiences of health knowledge and decision-making.
Morgan Stirling (Cancer’s Margins Research Assistant, Manitoba)
Morgan Stirling completed a Bachelor of Arts in International Development and Conflict Resolution at the University of Winnipeg, and is currently working on a Master of Sciences in Family Social Sciences at the University of Manitoba. Morgan is currently working on a thesis, the focus of which will be on exploring the perceptions and experiences of safety and inclusion within housing spaces among older LGBTTQ adults. In addition to doing research with LGBTTQ communities and older adults, Morgan is interested in studying family violence and the role gender plays in perpetuating violence between intimate partners.
