The Live Work Well Research Centre is made up of five intersecting Research Clusters: Sexual and Gender Diversity; Disabilities, Access and Inclusion; “All my Relations” Indigenous Ways of Knowing; Integrating Care and Livelihoods; and, Displacements, Emergence and Change. Below is a directory of the Centre Director, Cluster Leaders and Centre staff.
Staff
Dr. Deborah Stienstra, Director
Dr. Alex Sawatzky, Research and Knowledge Mobilization Manager
Sharon Findlay, Project Manager, Engendering Disability-Inclusive Development
Siobhan Grant, Project Coordinator, Canadian Feminist Disability Coalition
Benedicta Hughes, Administrative Assistant to the Director
Centre Staff
Deborah is a cluster co-lead for the Displacements, Emergence and Change cluster and the Disabilities, Access and Inclusion cluster.
The Director of the Live Work Well Research Centre, Deborah holds the Jarislowsky Chair in Families and Work and is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Guelph. She is the author of About Canada: Disability Rights (Fernwood, 2012). Her research and publications explore the intersections of disabilities, gender, childhood, and Indigenousness, identifying barriers to, as well as possibilities for, engagement and transformative change. Her work also contributes to comparative and trans/international research and theory related to intersectional disability rights.
Over the past fifteen years, she has led or co-led multiple community-engaged research partnerships. Between 2010 and 2016, Jane Stinson, from the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), and Deborah Stienstra co-led FemNorthNet or the Feminist Northern Network. FemNorthNet included northern and southern community organizations, Indigenous and settler women, and researchers and community women. Its goals were to examine the consequences of economic restructuring for diverse women in Northern Canadian communities, support these women to engage in decision-making about the changes in their communities brought about by these developments and help to amplify and insert women’s voices into discussions, decision-making and planning processes.
Deborah is engaged in several initiatives across Canada, in Vietnam and with partners in countries including Haiti, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Vietnam and Canada.
Email: deborah.stienstra@uoguelph.ca
Phone number: 519-824-4120, extension: 54553
Website: https://www.deborahstienstra.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dstienstra
Sharon Findlay is the Project Manager providing leadership and support for the day-to-day activities of the Engendering Disability-Inclusive Development (EDID) partnership, as well as the complementary WAGE-funded Canadian Feminist Disability Coalition. Sharon has a background in project development and international collaborations in secondary and post-secondary education. Her research at the University of Guelph, where she earned her BA and MA in European Studies, centred around connecting people and their stories; her work looks at migration, oral history, individual and collective memory and the concept of home.
With a particular interest in the representations of narratives through art and performance, Sharon has experience managing an international chamber music festival in southern Italy and co-founding Italian Heritage Projects in collaboration with the Italian Studies program at the University of Guelph to collect and curate stores from Italian immigrants to Canada. Additionally, Sharon consults as a freelance grant writer and project developer in the heritage and arts sectors.
When not at work, Sharon can be found hiking with her daughter and dog, biking, exploring areas of natural beauty and spending quality time with friends and loved ones.
Contact: sfindl01@uoguelph.ca
Siobhan Grant joined the Live Work Well Research Centre with a background in Urban Studies (BA Hons.) and International Business Management from York University and Seneca College, respectively. Siobhan is the Project Coordinator for the Canadian Feminist Disability Coalition (CFDC), an exciting and meaningful project to build leadership and advocacy skills of diverse women and girls with disabilities to become agents for their rights in Canada.
In Siobhan’s free time, she enjoys cooking, exploring the city of Toronto and its various points of attraction, and spending time with her loved ones.
Contact: sgrant10@uoguelph.ca
Cluster Leads
Keywords: feminist geography, social practice, public health, critical development studies, ethics of care, social change, community care, and wellbeing
Contact: akipp@uoguelph.ca
