We are excited that Dr. Emilia Nielsen is joining the department for the next two years as a full-time instructor. Emilia received her PhD in Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice from the University of British Columbia. She also earned a BFA in Writing (University of Victoria) and a MA in English (University of New Brunswick).
Emilia's primary area of research is feminist cultural studies with an emphasis in life writing and specific attention on breast cancer and queer disability. Through an intersectional feminist framework, this research explores the body, narrative and social justice. Besides her academic work, Emilia is also a poet. Her debut collection, Surge Narrows (Leaf Press, 2013) was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, granted by the League of Canadian Poets.
In 2015/6, Emilia will teach a series of our courses, including WGS 380 Canadian Feminist Activisms in the fall, and, in the winter, our new WGS 102 Gender and Social Justice, as well as WGS 244 Disability Studies, and WGS 498 Special Topics: Gender and Health: Exploring Graphic Medicine. This latter course situates the study of gender and health via an intersectional feminist perspective and turns to examples of graphic novels and literary comics to explore first person accounts of health and illness.