Notes from the Field

Stories have the power to make change; this is a driving idea behind the Storied Lives project, a SSHRC-funded research project hosted by the Live Work Well Research Centre, the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute, and the Guelph-Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination, that aims to improve peoples’ understandings of the complex experiences of individuals living with poverty in Ontario and beyond. At the heart of Storied Lives is a series of four podcasts, each telling a composite story.

You say your future was stolen.

Taken from you in the middle of the night when you were least expecting.

And it was precious.

Carried down in your family from your ancestors, all the way to you.

You say you were going to live it brilliantly.

After more than two years of living and working amidst the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Engendering Disability-Inclusive Development - Genre, handicap et développement inclusif (EDID-GHDI) partnership team came together in person and online in Ottawa from June 21^st to June 23^rd for our first Partnership Team Meeting.

During June, it is common practice for corporations and businesses to bring out the Pride Flag colours and flaunt their support of the LGBTQ2SIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Two-Spirit, Intersex, Asexual) communities. Universities and institutions of higher learning are not different in this regard as June becomes centralized on the work being done on university and college campuses to cultivate more inclusive environments for queer and trans students, faculty, staff, and community members.

On January 24th, 2022, our research team gathered in the virtual space of a Microsoft Teams meeting. Rectangular glimpses of our home/workspaces framed our faces: some backgrounds blurred, some messy, some carefully curated with books, plants, and art. On this day, our team – which consists of an associate professor, a postdoctoral research fellow, and four graduate students – met from the relative comfort (and isolation) of our homes to discuss what it means to be a feminist research team.

Being a parent is a challenging full-time job with no vacation, sick leave, pay, or benefits, and guaranteed night duties and extra shifts. Combined with the academic challenges of pursuing a university degree, the job becomes even more daunting. Despite all the hardships, the mom guilt, and the exam stress, the experience of being a student-parent is a rewarding one. Having a child has given my life a lot of meaning and purpose. Education is something that enriches my mind while parenthood is a selfless occupation that nourishes my soul.

Being an ally does not have one uniform definition.  

When pursuing co-op positions as part of an undergraduate degree, many students believe that their employment options are limited to administrative positions consisting of monotonous work that does not seem impactful in the larger scheme of things. Working at the Live Work Well Research Centre (LWWRC) as part of my BA in both Political Science and Philosophy, I was excited to learn that the initiatives I supported were actively used to help equity-deserving groups claim representation in social and political life.

In honour of September being Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, we are sharing strategies commonly referred to as redirection and insights for interacting with persons living with dementia from a Canadian woman with lived experience. Myrna Norman is an advocate, author, speaker, mother, wife, and grandmother who was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2009. Her diagnosis has since shifted to Alzheimer's, Lewy body dementia, and most recently, to mild cognitive impairment.  

When applying for co-op positions during the Winter 2021 semester, I remember being excited about the possibility of getting a research assistant position because I had never done that kind of work before. I had always wondered what exactly a research position as an undergraduate student entailed, particularly because I am still exploring what interests me career-wise. As such, I was thrilled when I received an offer from the LWW Research Centre.