Introduction
The Reimagining Care cluster, co-led by Dr. Roberta Hawkins and Dr. Amy Kipp, considers how care is and could be practiced in a range of community, academic, and digital spaces. We examine care through practices that are often overlooked or undervalued, such as cultivating friendships with colleagues, sharing resources with neighbours, and organizing online spaces of care. Together, we imagine alternative, more caring futures and the transformational potential of care.
Current and Future Projects:
Reimagining Care Conversation Series
Between November 2025 and April 2026, the Reimagining Care cluster will be hosting a series of conversations through workshop, panel, and discussion format around the theme of ‘reimagining care.’ Building on the themes and insights of the projects below, this series will include conversations on:
- digital methodologies of care,
- pedagogies of care,
- methodologies of care in community engaged research, and
- practices of care in academia.
Sign up for the Live Work Well Research Centre newsletter to be notified of the dates and locations of each of these exciting conversations.
Feminist Ethics of Care in Academia
How might a feminist ethic of care be practiced in academia and why is such an approach needed? We identify and highlight unequal power dynamics and neoliberal influences in academic institutions and describe people’s embodied experiences of these power dynamics. We also offer possibilities for restructuring and reimagining what academia could look like centred around a feminist ethics of care.
As part of the LWWRC’s “Reimagining Livelihoods Forum” held August 2023 in Guelph, Ontario, we held a collective conversation during “Imagining a Caring University: A Creative Workshop,” organized by Roberta Hawkins, Amy Kipp, and Leah Levac. Through the Zine Creating a More Caring University, we share some stories of uncaring universities, already existing moments of care in universities, learnings from those moments of care, and strategies for creating more caring academic futures.
View accessible Zine in Canva (PDF)
View plain-text version of the Zine (PDF)
Related publications
Community, Care, and Social Change
In the last few years, talk about care—and the need for more care—has been everywhere. We explore the multiple and intersecting crises of care and highlight social changes needed to create more caring communities. We are interested in understanding the ways in which care is being practiced at a local level, the processes involved in strengthening social infrastructures of care, and individuals’ everyday experiences of these processes.
This work includes Art in a Just Recovery, a community-based research in partnership with Art Not Shame, the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition, and Social Artist Melanie Schambach, exploring community care and collective artmaking. Work in this area included an exhibit at the Guelph Civic Museum that ran for nearly one full year and welcomed over 7000 attendees from August 24, 2024, to August 10, 2025.
Related References
Care in Digital Worlds
In an increasingly digital world, care is being practiced in new ways. For example, there are apps for consumers who care about where their products come from, emojis that allow Facebook users to show that they care about friends’ posts, and digital spaces where communities of care can be organized and facilitated. We examine how care is being practiced virtually and consider the opportunities and tensions associated with online caring.
Current projects include an exploration of how to use feminist ethics of care and feminist methods in social media research. Drawing on diverse sources, including co-creation workshops, the project aims to advance change towards socially just ways of social media–based research methods.
For more information, please visit the Feminist Digital Research website.
Related references
Cluster Leaders:
Image Credits:
Book with sprouts: Cdd20 from Pixabay
Woman online shopping: Colourbox
People figures with arrows: Dr. Alex Sawatzky
Interested in joining?
