📚 Academics Overview
This page highlights key research papers, projects, and presentations from my academic journey. Each entry includes a summary, key takeaways, and a link to the full document.
📌 Academic Research and Writing
Description:
This research examines how race and disability intersect to influence income inequality in Canada. Using quantitative analysis, including T-tests, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson’s correlation, it explores disparities in income based on visible minority status, disability, and other demographic factors.
Key Takeaways:
- Developed quantitative analysis skills using SPSS
- Strengthened data interpretation and statistical reporting abilities
- Gained experience in analyzing the intersections of race, disability, and income inequality
- Applied sociological theory to explore structural economic disparities
📄 Read Full Paper (Link will be added May 2025)
Description:
This research paper investigates the gap between British Columbia’s public representation of gender-affirming healthcare and the lived experiences of transgender people. Through Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), I analyzed government websites alongside social media posts from platforms like Reddit and TikTok to examine systemic issues related to access, affordability, and bias in healthcare delivery.
Key Takeaways:
- Developed applied skills in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
- Strengthened qualitative research design, including data selection and coding
- Gained experience in analyzing social media narratives as data
- Applied reflexivity and researcher positionality in sensitive, identity-based work
Description:
This media analysis explores queer temporality and identity through Jane Shoenbrun’s 2024 film I Saw the TV Glow. Using metaphors, lighting, and symbolism, the paper unpacks how the film critiques heteronormativity and presents queerness as nonlinear, transformative, and deeply tied to self-recognition. The analysis highlights themes like chosen family, suppressed identity, and the cost of living inauthentically within a cisheteronormative world.
Key Takeaways:
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Built skills in close reading and symbolic analysis of queer-coded media
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Applied queer theory and concepts of temporality to visual storytelling
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Improved my ability to communicate abstract concepts in accessible language
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Practiced drawing connections between narrative, metaphor, and real-world queer experience
Description:
This paper explores how trans narratives have historically erased desire and how reclaiming it can be a powerful act of resistance, joy, and community-building. Drawing on works by Vivek Shraya, Cheryl Clarke, and others, the essay argues that desire—understood as intimacy, self-expression, and gender euphoria—is central to reshaping trans identity beyond the narrow lens of dysphoria. The analysis connects personal and theoretical perspectives to frame desire as both personal and political.
Key Takeaways:
- Enhanced skills in integrating queer and trans theory into literary analysis
- Practiced synthesizing scholarly sources across disciplines
- Strengthened argument development and framing through a trans-affirming lens
- Deepened understanding of how cultural narratives shape identity, desire, and representation
Description:
This paper explores the concept of death beyond its biological definition, weaving together philosophical, sociological, and Indigenous perspectives. Drawing on thinkers like Thomas Nagel, C. Wright Mills, Kim Tallbear, and Jerrigrace Lyons, the piece examines how death can be spiritual, metaphysical, and even metaphorical — especially within systems of capitalism, colonialism, and identity formation. The paper includes personal reflections on queer identity and the experience of “living death” as a form of transformation and resistance.
Key Takeaways:
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Developed interdisciplinary research skills combining sociology, philosophy, and cultural theory
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Improved critical reading and application of complex theoretical texts to personal reflection
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Strengthened analytical writing through the use of the sociological imagination
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Practiced integrating lived experience into academic discourse in a respectful and critical way
📌 Creative Academic Projects and Presentations
Description:
This 20-minute group presentation was developed as part of a policy analysis project in SOCI 390: Drugs and Society. Our group conducted a review of the report Safer Opioid Supply: A Rapid Review of the Evidence by The Ontario Drug Policy Research Network. We explored barriers to access, diversion, healthcare resistance, and temporal inequality to assess the effectiveness of harm reduction interventions. Our work aimed to inform ethical, evidence-based drug policy reform through a sociological lens.
Key Takeaways:
- Strengthened policy analysis and research synthesis skills using real-world case studies
- Developed public speaking and presentation skills
- Gained experience applying harm reduction frameworks and social determinants of health to policy critique
- Collaborated in a multidisciplinary team to propose practical, community-informed recommendations
Description:
This 20-minute group presentation compared the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto’s adoption of the Scarborough Charter, a framework to address anti-Black racism in Canadian post-secondary institutions. We critically evaluated each institution’s equity strategies, task forces, and public accountability structures using sociological theory, including Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatus and Sara Ahmed’s concept of non-performativity. Our findings were presented with specific recommendations for enhancing the Scarborough Charter’s implementation at UVic.
Key Takeaways:
- Applied sociological theory to evaluate institutional policy and performative equity commitments
- Strengthened collaborative presentation skills and peer-led facilitation on racial justice topics
- Practiced critical policy analysis using public-facing institutional reports and charters
- Developed recommendations grounded in anti-racist frameworks and student-led advocacy
Description:
As a group project, I created and presented a zine titled Queering the Family. The project explored how colonialism, heteronormativity, and monogamy shape dominant understandings of kinship, and how queer and Two-Spirit communities resist and reimagine family outside of these structures. Drawing from scholars like Kim TallBear and Ma-Nee Chacaby, our zine centers decolonial, polyamorous, and non-biological visions of love, intimacy, and care. We shared the zine with classmates as a creative, educational tool during a class presentation.
Key Takeaways:
- Gained experience in collaborative creative research and zine production
- Applied intersectional feminist, decolonial, and queer theory to analyze family systems
- Practiced knowledge translation by presenting academic ideas in accessible, artistic formats
- Deepened understanding of how colonialism shapes norms around sexuality, care, and kinship
🌱 Future Areas of Interest
- The Societal Demand for Third Spaces: Investigating the need for inclusive, community-centered environments where people can access support, resources, and belonging.
- Trans Healthcare, Safety, and Belonging: Examining the effects of gender-affirming care access, gatekeeping, and social stigma on trans mental health outcomes.
- Queer and Trans Joy as Resistance: Understanding how expressions of joy, celebration, and cultural pride function as forms of resistance against oppression.
- Digital Activism and Online Belonging: Examining how digital spaces foster community-building, advocacy, and resource-sharing for marginalized identities.
- Restorative and Transformative Justice: Investigating alternatives to punitive systems through community-led models of harm reduction, accountability, and healing.
- Healthcare Access and Equity: Analyzing how healthcare systems reinforce inequities through systemic racism, transphobia, ableism, and other forms of exclusion — and exploring ways to create equitable, affirming care.
- Disability Justice and Care Networks: Investigating how disabled and neurodivergent communities navigate systemic ableism, advocate for accessible care, and build networks of mutual support.
- Organized Abandonment and Structural Harm: Investigating how state policies and institutional neglect systematically marginalize communities through the withdrawal of resources, services, and protections.
- Critical Theory and Social Change: Applying intersectional, feminist, queer, and decolonial theories to analyze how power structures shape lived experiences, while exploring theoretical frameworks that inform activism, policy reform, and community resilience.
Note: This list represents a range of potential areas of interest and is not exhaustive. My interests continue to evolve as I engage with new experiences, research, and perspectives.