“Skankalicious”: Erotic Capital in Women's Flat Track Roller Derby

Fifty shades of complexity: Exploring technologically mediated leisure and women's sexuality

Leisure research for social justice: A response to Henderson

From "Stroller-Stalker" to "Momancer" Courting Friends through a Social Networking Site for Mothers

Feminist leisure research in the contemporary era

My Transformative Desires: Enacting Feminist Social Justice Leisure Research

Living With Cancer? Come As You Are

Dragon boat racing for breast cancer survivors: Leisure as a context for spiritual outcomes

The Contribution of Dragon Boat Racing to Women's Health and Breast Cancer Survivorship

“We Wanted a Birth Experience, not a Medical Experience”: Exploring Canadian Women's Use of Midwifery

My research explores the roles of leisure in women’s health and wellbeing through a feminist lens. It is difficult to capture an understanding of health experiences solely through the documentation of physiological causes, psychological outcomes, and technological solutions, the focus of much research to date. Everyday life events and experiences also warrant attention. Consequently, my research directs attention away from the medicalization of women’s health issues. Instead, I focus on a more a holistic approach to women’s health including their emotional and social well-being. I have studied the roles of leisure in women’s experiences of menopause/mid-life, infertility, pregnancy/midwifery and dragon boat racing for breast cancer survivors. Most recently, I have studied women’s experiences in roller derby and women’s use of digital technology to consume sexually explicit material such as pornography and erotica. 
In conjunction with my research profile, I also serve as the special adviser to the President of the University of Waterloo on Women’s and Gender issues. As special advisor, I liaise with senior administration, faculty, staff, and students to advise on policy and structural level gender equity issues, and to help foster a supportive environment in which female students, staff, and faculty can maximize their career opportunities. Some accomplishments in this regard include establishing a gender and equity lecture series, the development of a refrigerator rental program for breastfeeding women on campus, facilitating a collaborative research project on gendered violence, initiating a female centric hackathon,  and promoting a sense of community around gender equity through three campus-wide events: (1) Take Back the Night, (2) December 6 memorial, and (3) International Women’s Day.
Most recently in my role as special advisor, I successfully facilitated Waterloo’s involvement in the United Nations Women’s HeForShe campaign and 10x10x10 initiative. The HeForShe campaign is a global effort to engage boys and men in addressing gender equity. On May 5, HeForShe launched the IMPACT 10x10x10 framework that involves 10 Heads of State, 10 CEOs, and 10 University Presidents to advance gender equity. As the only Canadian institution selected to be part of this global initiative, Waterloo will have a special opportunity to lead our National efforts to address gender equity: https://uwaterloo.ca/heforshe/about-heforshe-impact-10x10x10

Women's Leisure

Gender

Leisure  Health and Well-Being

Qualitative Inquiry

Feminist Theory

Consider how to prevent sexual assault

Take gender-based violence seriously and commit to change

UW announcing new gender equity research grants

University of Waterloo joins United Nations HeForShe campaign

Women are consuming more pornography

Family Day a day of work, not leisure, for many women

The Abortion Debate in Canada

Postpartum depression and online social networking

Motherhood and social networking sites

Mapping the journey: Cancer narratives and the need for navigation

Gilda’s Club as a third place in the everyday lives of people living with cancer

Gilda's Club of Greater Toronto as a therapeutic landscape for people living with cancer: The juxtaposition of built environment, social relations, and belief

Women’s leisure as a site for resistance to gendered ideologies: The politics of leisure

Professor, Applied Health Sciences, Special Advisor to the President, Women's and Gender Issues

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