Current Projects
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Current Projects *
Daughtering: Girls, Their Feminism, and Their Mothers
I’m currently finishing up my PhD studies in the Department of Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies at York University. I plan to defend in the summer of 2025
My dissertation studies contemporary girls’ quotidian political lives in the era of the spectacularized activist girl. It explores how girls negotiate and feel about their activism, their place within ongoing social movements, and their relationships with their mothers and communities. The overarching goal of this project is to complicate popular images of girl activists as singular, heroic, and exceptional by centring everyday girls’ activist efforts without isolating their political actions from their family and community contexts. To do this, I conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews over Zoom with ten activist daughters (aged 11-20) and their mothers and mother figures from September 2021 to April 2022. I applied a combination of one-on-one and paired interviews with daughters and mothers to explore what kinds of affective landscapes would emerge when interviewing girls not only about their mothers but with their mothers when they described their politics. I read these interviews through feminist affect theory and an adapted psychosocial model to better understand not just what politicized girls and their mothers are doing but how their thoughts, feelings, and desires inform and resonate through these actions. I argue that exploring close relationships and these interior features of political life is necessary to understand girls’ politics.
An overview of some of my dissertation findings can be found in a recent article I published in Atlantis
Critical Femininities Conference
I’ve been part of the Centre for Feminist Research’s (CFR) Critical Femininities Conference Committee since 2021. Every year, we organize a fully virtual conference. In 2024, I served as the conference committee chair for the fourth conference, “Generation.”
Critical Femininities is a growing field that seeks to develop nuanced critiques of femininity in all its variations beyond its characterization as a patriarchal imposition and where femininity is not synonymous with ‘woman.’ Rethinking femininity as a concept opens space for a dialogue on the complex, multidimensional feminine expressions beyond heteronormative relations. Our upcoming 2025 conference, “Connection,” marks half a decade of cultivating digital community dialogue around critical femininities,
We accept single-author or co-authored academic papers and experimental or artistic presentations, including autotheory, personal narrative, artist talks, visual art and film, poetry, music, storytelling, life-writing, and performance. We welcome submissions from undergraduate students, graduate students, emerging and established scholars, artists, and those working beyond the university.
I also serve as an editor for the annual conference proceedings. We are currently working on “Irreverence,” and “Liminal” is open access and available online now!
Open Digital Literacy and Access Network (ODLAN)
The Open Digital Literacy and Access Network (ODLAN) connects organizations with solutions to bridge the digital divide in 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. They empower both 2SLGBTIA+ and allied organizations to create more inclusive, safe, and accessible digital programming and services. ODLAN offers comprehensive training on digital tools & services, digital safety, and best practices and conducts original research to develop training materials and curate high-quality resources from across the web.
I helped co-found ODLAN with Dr. Stephanie Jonsson in 2021 and helped build the first iteration of our digital resource directory. I currently provide administrative support to ODLAN
Past Projects
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Past Projects *
COVID in the House of Old (CIHO)
One of the first public commemorations of the pandemic, COVID in the House of Old, brought stories from a national humanitarian crisis to Canadians and asked them to take action. The exhibit was created by Megan J. Davies (curator, writer, interviewer) with Hiroki Tanaka (artist, musician, digital creator) and Kohen Hammond (audio editor, podcast producer). I worked as the communications coordinator for CIHO. My duties included managing the exhibit’s social media pages, creating and posting content, moderating comments, and connecting with news outlets, other scholars, and organizations.
Gender and Sexuality Studies Spotlight
The Gender and Sexuality Studies Spotlight is a podcast that highlights what you can do with your sexuality studies degree. Produced in collaboration with the York University Sexuality Studies Program, episodes feature interviews between undergraduate students and activists, scholars, and professionals. I was responsible for editing and distributing the episodes for the first through third seasons. The podcast production team for the first three seasons included Stephanie Jonsson, Angela Stanley, Kathleen Cherrington, Helen Martin, and Keely O'Brien. This podcast was made possible through support from the York University Sexuality Studies Program, Innovation York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit, and the Media Creation Lab at Scott Library.
Resisting the Script
“Resisting the Script: 25+ Years Of Queer Activism”, is a special series of episodes in the Queer Devotions series by Rainbow Faith and Freedom. It was created in partnership with Out of the Closet Lecture Series and New Horizons for 2SLGBTQ Older Adults. The episodes focus on the unwritten histories of queer organizing in Ontario, the people who are central to these histories and direct witness to them. The work was funded by the Michael Lynch History Grant through the Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. I worked on the podcast with Brigette Pawliw-Fry, Angela Stanley, and Stephanie Jonsson.
Queer Pedagogies Series
In late 2019, Morgan Bimm and I hosted a one-time workshop called “Queering the Classroom” for the Queer Graduate Caucus’ Queer Café Series. This event attracted both graduate and undergraduate students from across York to collaboratively discuss their experiences of queerness in university classrooms and how to navigate higher learning institutions as queer scholars. In 2020, Morgan and I co-created and facilitated a second series of queer pedagogies workshops for graduate teaching assistants. We formed a community of practice that explored the challenges and opportunities of implementing queer, feminist, and trauma-informed pedagogical practices in our teaching.
