Dr. deborah stienstra

Deborah Stienstra holds the Jarislowsky Chair in Families and Work at the University of Guelph, where she is the Director of the Live Work Well Research Centre and Professor of Political Science. She is the author of About Canada: Disability Rights (Fernwood, 2020). Her research and publications explore the intersections of disabilities, gender, childhood, and Indigenousness, identifying barriers to, as well as possibilities for, engagement and transformative change. Her work also contributes to comparative and trans/international research and theory related to intersectional disability rights and justice. In 2016, she was invited to be part of the United Nations Expert Group meeting on women and girls with disabilities in Santiago, Chile. Over the past fifteen years, she has led or co-led multiple community-engaged research partnerships. Between 2010 and 2016, with Jane Stinson, from the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), she co-led FemNorthNet or the Feminist Northern Network. FemNorthNet  examined the consequences of economic restructuring for diverse women, including those with disabilities, in Northern Canadian communities, supported these women to engage in decision-making about the changes in their communities, and helped to amplify and insert women’s voices into discussions, decision-making and planning processes. Since then, Deborah, with various members of the team, has led and published research on the gendered and intersectional implications of resource development and environmental or impact assessments.

Deborah also works with partners on research in Vietnam, Haiti, South Africa and Uganda.