General Members are professors, and students (undergraduate, masters, and PhD) who are affiliated with the Hub!
Dr. van Daalen-Smith is the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, long-time public health nurse, and a researcher interested in the medicalization and pathologization of girls and women's emotions. With scholarship exposing the experiences of both electroshock and psychiatric hospitalization, Cheryl's work seeks to illuminate the social antecedents to emotional distress so that responses are structural versus individual. Currently, she is working to ensure animals asked to support human mental health, are viewed as sentient beings with their own rights, needs and intrinsic value. In her spare time, she has a small animal rescue farm in rural Ontario.
Geoffrey Reaume is Associate Professor in Critical Disability Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada. He earned his PhD in History (1997) at the University of Toronto and his work was published as a book, "Remembrance of Patients Past: Patient Life at the Toronto Hospital for the Insane, 1870-1940" (OUP, 2000). His study was made into a play performed by psychiatric survivors in Toronto from 1998-2000. Reaume is a co-founder of the Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto and co-editor with Brenda LeFrancois and Robert Menzies of "Mad Matters: A Critical Reader in Canadian Mad Studies" (CSPI, 2013). He created the first university credit course on Mad People's History which he has been teaching since 2000; he also teaches a course on disability history at York University.
Dr. Vidya Shah is an educator, scholar and activist committed to equity and racial justice in the service of liberatory education. She is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University, and her research explores anti-racist and decolonial approaches to leadership in schools, communities, and school districts. She also explores educational barriers to the success and well-being of Black, Indigenous, and racialized students. Dr. Shah is committed to bridging the gaps between communities, classrooms, school districts and the academy, to re/imagine emancipatory possibilities for schooling. Dr. Shah is also a facilitator with the Center for Courage and Renewal, focused on nurturing deep integrity and relational trust for a more loving, equitable, and healthy world. You can learn more about her work at https://www.yorku.ca/edu/unleading/.
As a Professor in the Historical, Theoretical, and Critical Studies of Psychology graduate area in the Dept. of Psychology, I use critical historical and qualitative approaches to analyze the development and contemporary status of the human sciences. Most generally, I am interested in critically analyzing how psy-professionals have used their scientific ‘expertise’ to impact society and how, in turn, social and political factors have shaped the nature of this expertise and its influence. Specifically, I am interested in how feminist psychologists have attempted to influence policy from the disciplinary to the national levels in the United States over the course of the 20th century. A central focus of this project is the history of the feminist critique of diagnosis and mental health practice and policy. Over the past two decades I have developed a multimedia digital archive of the relationship between feminism and psychology called Psychology's Feminist Voices. At the heart of the archive is an oral history collection of over 130 interviews with feminist psychologists from all over the world. I also teach a senior seminar on critical mental health in the undergraduate program in Psychology.
Dr. Ahmad conducts mixed-method community engaged research to examine and address inequities in health, care, and policy at the intersection of gender, race and immigration status, especially for the socially stigmatized issues as partner violence, mental health, and disability.
Thomas Teo is a professor of psychology in the Historical, Theoretical, and Critical Studies of Psychology Program at York University, Toronto, Canada. His research has been meta-psychological to provide a more reflexive understanding of the foundations, trajectories, and possibilities of human subjectivity within the psychological humanities. He is editor of Theory & Psychology (Sage), editor of the Palgrave Studies in the Theory and History of Psychology, and co-editor of the Palgrave Studies in Indigenous Psychology. He is Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association and the American Psychological Association and has a research record with more than 300 academic publications, refereed, and invited presentations.
Lisa Farley's research considers the uses of psychoanalysis in conceptualizing the meaning of childhood and education. Her book, Childhood Beyond Pathology (2018) examines how psychoanalytic concepts can inform ongoing challenges of representing development, belonging, interiority, and relationality, with a focus on debates over how children should be treated, what they might know, and who they should become. Within teacher education, Farley has explored teachers' memories of childhood and schooling as key parts of becoming a teacher. Her most recently SSHRC-funded project partners with the Association of Children's Museums to examine the meaning and challenges of museum programming and practices that represent difficult knowledge with children.
Lyndsay Hayhurst is a qualitative, feminist participatory action researcher and Tier 2 York Research Chair in Sport, Gender and Development, and Digital Participatory Research. An Associate Professor at York University, she directs the DREAMING in Sport Lab and collaborates with diverse community partners to address social justice and inequities in sport, leisure, and recreation. Lyndsay’s recent work critically explores issues of gender (in)equity, mobility, and feminist climate (in)justice with equity-owed groups in local and global contexts. She co-directed Changing Gears (2024), a documentary on bicycles and mobility justice. Twitter: @drlyndzhayhurst @bicycles4devs @SSJDpodcast
Kinnon Ross MacKinnon is a social scientist who studies transgender medicine, including how sexual and gender minority populations access and experience hormonal/surgical interventions. Drawing from critical theoretical and empirical training, Kinnon's research investigates the social and structural dimensions of care delivery for LGBTQ+ people. Through a mad studies and critical mental health lens, his current research aims to interrogate mainstream beliefs about transgender medicine and gender dysphoria at the intersection of madness and neurodivergence.
www.brandonvickerd.com Brandon Vickerd is a sculptor whose site-specific interventions, public performances and object-based sculptures act as a catalyst for critical thought and engagement with the physical world. Purposely diverse, his studio work straddles the line between high and low culture, acting as a catalyst for critical thought and addressing the failed promise of a modernist future predicated on boundless scientific advancement. Whether through craftsmanship, the creation of spectacle, or humor, the goal of his work is to provoke the viewer into questioning the dominate myth of progress ingrained in Western world views. Vickerd’s current research engages in enriching public spaces through the development of public art that challenges citizens to reflect on our notions of public space. Projects such as Dance of the Cranes (Edmonton and Washington DC) transform the cityscape through choreographed dances executed by high-rise construction cranes perched upon condos developments. Most recently Vickerd was awarded a commission for a permanent installation for 12th Street S.E. Bridge Public Art Project in Calgary. The resulting artworks was titled Wolfe and the Sparrows and resulted from a three-month collaborative process with the citizens of Inglewood and the City of Calgary.. Wolfe and the Sparrows consists of a traditionally rendered monument that appears intact from a distance; however, as the viewer moves closer, the upper body of the sculpture transforms into a flock of sparrows scattering into the distance. Cast in bronze and positioned on a traditional raised pedestal, this sculpture utilizes the language and aesthetic of traditional statuary to actively subvert the authority of public monuments. Professor Vickerd is principal investigator for the CFI-supported Digital Sculpture Lab at York University, dedicated to studying the convergence of the digital and the physical in art by translating digital code into physical reality.” Vickerd has received numerous awards and grants from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Ontario Arts Council.
Dr. Maiter is Professor in the School of Social Work at York University. Her scholarship, teaching, and professional interests focus on anti-racist and intersectional approaches to social work; policy and service responses to racialized and visible minority families involved in child welfare and mental health systems; and decolonial and African-centered methodologies. With a strong foundation in community-engaged and participatory research, her work amplifies the voices of marginalized populations and critically examines how structures of power and coloniality shape social work theory, research, and practice. Grounded in critical pedagogy, Dr. Maiter’s teaching emphasizes student-centered, inclusive, and experiential approaches to learning. She mentors emerging scholars and practitioners and fosters transformative learning environments through critical reflection and dialogue. Dr. Maiter also collaborates with international partners to advance socially just and contextually grounded knowledge production. As principal investigator and co-investigator on multiple research projects, her work critically explores institutional responses to racialized and minoritized families, examining how systems of care can both support and harm through embedded structures of inequality. Her commitment to social justice extends beyond academia through advisory roles with community organizations, working groups, and professional boards.