lecture series highlights innovative research in the history of gender and health | News | Vancouver Island University

The Gender, Health and Social Justice Lecture Series presented by VIU and the University of Saskatchewan is available free through Zoom and will begin November 19.

A series of conferences taking place this winter and spring will introduce participants to the innovative scholarships carried out by early career researchers in the history of gender and health.

“The conversations that take place around this research highlight the intersections between gender, health and social justice on a global scale, and provide important historical context for the social issues and inequalities that are growing. visible due to the ongoing pandemic, ”said Dr. Karissa Patton, a postdoctoral fellow in the Canada Research Chair at Vancouver Island University (VIU) and one of the series organizers.

The series – the Gender, Health and Social Justice Lecture Series – is co-presented by Dr. Whitney Wood, UIV Canada Research Chair in Historical Dimensions of Women’s Health, and Dr. Erika Dyck, Canada Research Chair in Health and Social Justice at the University of Saskatchewan.

The series was curated by University of Saskatchewan PhD candidate Patton and Letitia Johnson.

“We are delighted to support the initiative of Karissa and Letitia. At this virtual moment, it’s a wonderful opportunity to be able to come together and coordinate our research programs to support these essential conversations, ”said Dyck.

Patton and Johnson have taken the initiative to create an agenda that will build a community around the important topics covered in the series.

“Living in pandemic isolation, we hoped to bring together academics to create a sense of global community, while also working to support early career researchers who study gender and health stories in different parts of the world,” said Wood.

There are five presentations in the series. Topics covered include the history of birth control, vasectomy, health technologies and public health, from global perspectives ranging from Canada to Great Britain to India. The presentations are free and are offered via Zoom on select Fridays from 10 am to 11:30 am People can register for one of the presentations at Eventbrite website.

“Our first four speakers discuss reproductive rights and access to healthcare globally and talk about our current historic moment,” Johnson said.

The gender, health and social justice lecture series will begin on Friday, November 19 with Birth control in India: stories of women, health and technology, 1930s-1960s, presented by Urvi Desai, PhD student in the Department of History, McGill University. Urvi will explain how, in the early 1930s, contraceptives entered Indian markets, but “the danger arose from a condescending leadership, both colonial and postcolonial, which supported rather than challenged existing power structures” . Most women are not heard in discussions that directly affect them.

The other presentations in the lecture series are:

• 20th Century Vasectomy in Britain: Uncovering Men’s Reproductive Choices, presented by Georgia Grainger of the University of Strathclyde on January 21, 2022.
• Sick offenders: sanitation, health care and prison discipline in colonial India, presented by Ipshita Nath of the University of Saskatchewan on March 4, 2022.
• Behind the Screen: The History and Politics of Breast Cancer Imaging in Canada, presented by Jennifer Fraser of the University of Toronto on March 25, 2022.
• Publishing in Scholarly Journals: Q&A with North American Editors of Genre and history, with VIU history teachers, Drs. Cheryl Krasnick Warsh and Katharine Rollwagen, and Dr. Cathryn Spence from the University of Guelph, April 1, 2022.

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Media contact:

Rachel Stern, Communications Officer, University of Vancouver Island

C: 250.618.0373 l E: Rachel.Stern@viu.ca | T: @VIUNews