Welcome to News that Nourishes, the newsletter from the
Live Work Well Research Centre at the University of Guelph!

We are excited to share our work, news, and upcoming events. We publish and distribute our newsletter four times each year, with collaboration and input from diverse individuals families, organizations, and communities. There are many ways you can contribute, including guest posts, research spotlights, Twitter take-overs, and more. Got other ideas? Get in touch and let us know. We look forward to hearing from you!

1.  Welcome
2. Past Events
3. Around the Centre
4. Announcements
5. Research Spotlight
6. Project Updates
7. Book Review
8. Congratulations
9. Notes from the Field
10. Stay Engaged 

Past Events 

Nothing Without Us: Disability Inclusion and the Pandemic Recovery
The disability community in Canada and internationally has continually called upon all levels of government to include persons with disabilities in its management of the current pandemic and recovery efforts. Giving voice to these efforts, Live Work Well Research Centre Director, Deborah Stienstra, presented at “Nothing Without Us: Disability Inclusion and the Pandemic Recovery,” a side event of COSP14.  

The event focused on how countries can take an overarching “nothing without us” approach to the pandemic recovery to ensure full social and economic inclusion of persons with disabilities. This panel shared how persons with disabilities are being included in the pandemic recovery plans and identified challenges being faced and highlight elements that are essential to success. Introductory remarks were made by Bob Rae, Ambassador and Permanent Representative-Designate of Canada to the United Nations in New York, and speakers also included Carla Qualtrough, Canada’s Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, and several members of the UN and international community.

Gender Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) in Impact Assessment: Reflections on the Canadian Experience The Network for Expertise and Dialogue for Impact Assessment (NEDIA) expands the conversation and connects academics, practitioners, and communities through collaborating with impact assessment scholars and by building an online resource space allowing individuals to access information about what ‘impact’ means and how it should be best ‘assessed’. 

On June 29th, 2021, Deborah Stienstra, Anya Knechtel, and Mary Boyden connected in a webinar to discuss the importance of doing Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) in Impact Assessment (IA). GBA+ was given new prominence in Canada’s Impact Assessment Act (2019) and policymakers, practitioners, and scholars agree that GBA+ is increasingly recognized, but putting it into practice is complex. In this webinar, panelists discussed both the advantages and disadvantages of doing GBA+ in IA. They considered what exactly GBA+ is and why it is important in IA as well as shared experiences and lessons learned from previous projects. Some of the questions panelists discussed include the following:  

• What should the role of GBA+ in IA be?
• Can it create positive change? 
• How can we meaningfully include identities beyond gender under the “+”?
• Can GBA+ serve as an invitation for deeper intersectional analysis of how humans and nature interact? 

                
Caption: Presenters at the NEDIA webinar included, clockwise from top left: Debra Davidson, Advancing Impact Assessment in Canada Project; Mary Boyden, Keepers of the Circle; Deborah Stienstra, University of Guelph; Anya Knechtel, Oxfam Canada.  

Watch the webinar 

Check out the Live Work Well’s toolkit page here.

Around the Centre

Introducing new additions to the Live Work Well Research Centre

Amy Kipp joins the Live Work Well Research Centre as the new co-lead of the Integrating Care and Livelihoods cluster. Amy is a PhD student in Social Practice and Transformational Change at the University of Guelph. Drawing from feminist geography and critical development theory, her research focuses on the ways in which care is practiced and experienced by individuals and communities across various scales. Her existing work explores community care in response to COVID-19, the gendered and racialized geographies of care in volunteer tourism, and the individualization of international development issues through ethical consumption campaigns. Her work centres care as a topic of study as well as an approach to research. She is passionate about using research for positive social change and is committed to social justice and feminist praxis.


Promi Nahar has joined the Live Work Well team as a research assistant to support blog activities, website updates, and the Storied Lives project for the Centre. Promi is a Master of Environmental Sciences candidate at the University of Guelph. She has completed a Bachelor of Environmental Studies Honours degree, with a specialization on conservation, resource, and policy. Promi previously worked on projects such as engaging youth in political action around climate change; promoted awareness about food security issues; and supported youth through mobilization of resources in the pandemic recovery. Her passion expands towards volunteering activities such as a council member at the Community Climate Council in the Peel region.

Lutfiyah Jasat is an undergraduate co-op student in the Psychology program at the University of Guelph. She has joined the Centre as a co-op student, supporting knowledge mobilization activities and managing the Centre’s Twitter account. In her spare time, Lutfiyah enjoys reading and spending time outdoors. Her favorite genres include poetry and self-help, particularly books about emotional and mental well-being as well as personal improvement. She hopes to complete her Bachelor of Arts Honours in the Spring of 2022 and continue to get her Master of Science degree in Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, with a specialization in Couple and Family Therapy.

Announcements

Call for Papers
A special issue of Societies invites original research on arts-based and informed approaches in intersectional care research, policy analysis and critical scholarship in the social sciences. The issue editor is Katie Albrecht. The aim of this Special Issue is to advance knowledge on the corporealities of care research, policy and knowledge. Papers are especially welcome that examine the appearance and use of creative and intersectional approaches in care research in relation to disability justice culture. More information 

Research Spotlight

Integrating Care and Livelihoods  
 This summer newsletter highlights the work of Roberta Hawkins, Associate Professor at the University of Guelph and Amy Kipp, PhD Researcher in Social Practice and Transformational Change at the University of Guelph, co-leads of the Integrating Care and Livelihoods cluster. This cluster focuses on care in the context of relationships, livelihoods, and living environments across various scales. 

Current projects include: 

• Feminist Ethics of Care and Academia, which focuses on the power inequalities in academic institutions and aims to provide potential possibilities for reshaping academia with a focus on feminist ethics, 
• Everyday Practices of Global Change, which considers the burden of personal responsibility and accountability when discussing global issues, and 
• Caring Communities, which explores how community care is practiced and experiences across difference, specifically in a “post-pandemic” world.

Roberta and Amy published an essay called Canadian CareMongering: Exploring the Complexities and Centrality of Community Care During the Covid-19 Pandemic in which they aimed to understand the CareMongering movement and examined how the movement functions as a countermeasure to COVID-19. They also explored how the movement came to be and unfolded throughout Canada by analyzing it through Facebook and Twitter.  

Read more about Roberta and Amy’s work here.

Read the published article here.

     

Project Updates

EDID-GHDI Moves Forward With Milestone Report & Research Plans
In Spring 2021, the Engendering Disability-Inclusive Development - Genre, handicap et développement inclusif (EDID-GHDI) partnership submitted its milestone report, outlining the project’s goals through 2023. At the same time, four country study teams (Haiti, South Africa, Vietnam, and Canada) and a transnational project team have been busy developing their plans for intersectional research and knowledge mobilization that will guide their next steps. The projects focus on co-creating knowledge with women and girls with disabilities in each of the study sites, and methods range from critical policy studies to participatory arts-based approaches. Read the EDID-GHDI project summary here in English and French.

Postcards Highlight Experiences of Diverse Women in Happy Valley-Goose Bay 
The Our Knowledge, Our Voices Postcard series highlights the experiences of diverse women in Happy Valley-Goose Bay (HVGB) from survey data that was collected in 2018. Three postcards were created in April 2021 to share statistics surrounding unwanted sexual attention, access to relevant social services, and the strength of community connections amongst diverse women in the HVGB area. Learn more and view the three postcards of the series.

Sharing the Findings of Disability Inclusion Analysis of COVID-19 Response
In Fall 2020, a research project led by Dr. Deborah Stienstra and conducted in partnership with the DisAbled Women’s Network of Canada (DAWN) investigated the impacts of COVID-19 and related policies by gathering information from the media, research, and from interviews and focus groups with diverse people with disabilities. The final report and related fact sheets share the experiences of people with disabilities in their own words, as they share how they have been affected by the pandemic and by COVID-19 policies and programs. The final report and fact sheets are now available, and French versions of all fact sheets will be shared later this summer. Stay tuned for a launch event! Access the final report and fact sheets. 


Caption: Deborah Stienstra shares the findings of COVID-19 research at the University of Guelph Accessibility Conference in May.

Storied Lives Project Awarded Connection Grant 
The Storied Lives project has been awarded a Connection Grant to support the second phase of its activities. In 2021-22, the project will focus on sharing four composite developed in 2020 based on research with community members. The stories will be captured in audio recordings and podcasts, which will be launched at a community event in Spring 2022. The stories highlight the complex experiences of those experiencing poverty and will be used to promote shifts in community attitudes and policies. The Live Work Well Research Centre is partnering with the Guelph-Wellington Taskforce for the Elimination of Poverty and the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute on the project. 

Five Reports Detail the Impact of COVID-19 on People Living with Poverty  
The findings of the Dangerous Disruptions: Local Intersections of Poverty and COVID-19 in Guelph-Wellington and Dufferin project were presented in three mini-reports in April. The research, led by Drs. Laura Pin and Leah Levac, was funded by a COVID Seed Grant and focused on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the daily lives of those living with poverty.  

The reports include compelling first-hand accounts from community members experiencing poverty who share the impacts of lack of access to income, transportation, and technology during COVID-19, and related issues of food insecurity, lack of support services, and housing loss. The reports also include policy recommendations targeted at decision-makers to help improve future emergency responses. Learn more about the project and read the reports.  

Disability and Livelihoods Project Explores Barriers to Artistry 
Members of the Disability and Livelihoods project, Carla Rice, Chelsea Jones, and graduate student Kim Collins shared some of their findings at the Sixteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society in June 2021. The presentation was part of an interdisciplinary panel titled “Arts, TechnoAccess, and Disability Livelihoods in Canada.” The panel explored barriers to the arts and artistry that exist both on the ground and online in Canada. As part of this work, a conference-presentation-style podcast was developed in collaboration with the research project, Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology and Access to Life. Check out the podcast: Disability Saves the World with Fady Shanouda 

Book Review
Social Research and Disability – Developing Inclusive Research Spaces for Disabled Researchers 

By: Kate Ducak  

Do you live with disabilities and are a student, researcher in academia, community-based research partner, or activist? Do you support students and/or researchers with disabilities? Do you want to learn more about the experiences and strategies that disabled researchers use? If you answered yes to any of these questions then read on :) 

The book, Social Research and Disability: Developing inclusive research spaces for disabled researchers, was edited by Ciaran Burke and Bronagh Byrne and published by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group this year. It has an interdisciplinary focus for social science students, experienced academics and everyone who participates in or is curious about disability justice and related research. The underpinnings of this book are for research in the social sciences to be as intersectional and varied as our unique selves and social world.   

Burke, Byrne, and all the authors have lived experience of various disabilities. Social Research and Disability claims to be the first research methods book written entirely by disabled researchers. It aims to fill the sociological research methods gaps encountered by researchers with disabilities as most research methods books assume the reader or researcher does not have disabilities. This overlooks a large percentage of people living in Canada since at least 22% of us have at least one disability with the actual number likely higher due to stigma and internalized ableism.   

A reasonable read at 170 pages, this book is divided into three parts: 1) Navigating the academy, 2) Conducting research ‘in the field’, and 3) Shifting methodologies. Insights and suggestions are provided from and for researchers with complex communication disabilities, physical disabilities, hidden or invisible disabilities, mental health disabilities, cognitive disabilities, vision disabilities, speech disabilities, and d/Deaf researchers. Social Research and Disability provides steps and suggestions for researchers with disabilities to learn about innovative theories and use rigorous methods while conducting evidence-based social science research. 

The authors also cover issues that can arise when disabled researchers try to hide their disabilities or “pass” at normal as well as the benefits of disclosing and using a reflexive approach to research. This book ultimately advocates for sociological research to value and be accepting of inclusive and accessible research methods and researchers living with disabilities. 

I believe the editors achieved their goal of uncovering “ways of being and doing in the academy that have been predominantly hidden and silenced. Disabled people have been positioned, at best, as the subject of research, but never as the instigator, investigator or ‘doer’ of research. As is evident throughout this text, disabled academics are not in a minority of one” (Burke & Byrne, 2021, p. 165). 

I noticed the editors and contributing authors are located in Australia, Canada, Europe, USA, and the UK. It would be interesting and useful for the next edition of this book to feature authors with disabilities who conduct or support research in developing countries in the Global South. This evolution would add to the editors’ and authors’ intentions of social research being as inclusive, diverse and intersectional as we all are. 

Congratulations 

We would like to recognize the accomplishments of our members:  

Dr. Roberta Hawkins, Co-lead of the Integrating Care and Livelihoods cluster, has accepted the position of Interim Director of Social Practice and Transformational Change (SOPR) through the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences (CSAHS).  

Best of luck in your future endeavors and may you continue to be inspired in your research and teaching.   

Notes from the Field

Check out the Notes from the Field blog to uncover new ways to think about and practice living and working well, read fascinating interviews, and learn about the work being done at the Live Work Well Research Centre. Over the past few months, our blog has focused on issues related to Autism Awareness Month, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and National Indigenous History Month. In the upcoming months, we will focus on themes such as youth engagement, pandemic anxiety, dementia awareness and more!

                                    

Your stories, musings and learning are welcome! Email us at liveworkwell@uoguelph.ca and share your ideas about living and working well. Visit the blog.

Stay Engaged

Become a member!
It's free and all researchers, students and community members are welcome. We also encourage and welcome organizations that are interested in or already doing work in responding to the changing needs of families, livelihoods and living environments. Become a member and participate, collaborate and contribute to knowledge sharing, research and teaching in many areas.

Twitter Take-over!
If you are a researcher, student or community member, and you are interested in communicating to diverse individuals about a topic or issue related to families, work and well-being, share your voice and experience through our social media. Contact us and we would be happy to chat with you about it!