Department of Gender Studies, Memorial University

10/01/2026

We are excited to introduce Dr. Julia Temple Newhook as a new adjunct professor in the department!

"I am a sociologist of health, and my research program focuses on the health and well-being of trans, Two-Spirit, and gender diverse children, youth, and their families. I am interested in collaborative, participatory action research, and I have expertise in both qualitative and quantitative methods. My most recent research study is with a national team exploring the advocacy experiences of parents of trans youth across Canada. Our next project will include creative arts-based methodologies focused on parent and youth advocates in Indigenous, racialized, and rural and isolated communities."

09/23/2026

Event Announcement!

📆Thursday, October 1
🕖10:30-11:45 am
📍Education Building, Room 2003, Memorial University
🎟️ Free event

"Death by Disinformation: Covid-19 and the Affective Economies of Anti-Public
Health Memes"

Analyzing an archive of anti-public health memes that circulated during the Covid-19 pandemic, I show how these memes mobilize discourses of superiority and domination to appeal to the American right. Drawing on the field of whiteness studies, I argue that an investment in whiteness and remaining atop an imagined racial hierarchy makes right-wing voters susceptible to health disinformation about vaccines, masking, and other public health measures. Identifying white supremacy as a factor, I argue that dismantling systems of oppression is necessary to move beyond individualist decision-making to create public health responses predicated on interdependence, collective action, and mutual flourishing.

Martha Kenney is Professor in Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State
University and Director of the SFSU Science, Technology, and Society Hub. Located in the tradition of feminist science studies, her research examines how technoscientific narratives support, contest, and reconfigure collective visions of desirable futures. She teaches classes in feminist science studies, environmental justice, critical AI studies, video game studies, and speculative fiction.

09/14/2026

Join us for the next installment of . . . the Feminists Tackle AI Series!

📆Friday, October 2
🕖7-8:30 pm (doors open at 6:30 pm)
📍Suncor Energy Hall, School of Music, Memorial University
🎟️ Free event with free parking in Lot 15B
🍪Reception with light refreshments to follow

“Marthas Against AI: Inside the Fight for Higher Education”

AI use is infiltrating higher education, threatening to destroy originality, critical thinking, and the learning process itself. What are we going to do about it? Join Drs. Martha Kenney and Martha Lincoln (both of San Francisco State University) for a conversation addressing one of the most pressing issues in Higher Education: AI.

🎤Speakers

Martha Kenney is Professor in Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State
University and Director of the SFSU Science, Technology, and Society Hub. Located in the tradition of feminist science studies, her research examines how technoscientific narratives support, contest, and reconfigure collective visions of desirable futures. She teaches classes in feminist science studies, environmental justice, critical AI studies, video game studies, and speculative fiction.

Martha Lincoln is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Public Health at San
Francisco State University. Her research addresses public health in cultural politics, the circulation of health content on digital platforms, and the adoption of artificial intelligence technology in higher education.

This series is organized by the Department of Gender Studies. The event is co-
organized with the Department of Anthropology with support from the Nexus Centre and MUNFA.

09/11/2026

Participant recruitment still open:

Are you currently or were you recently (within the past 3 years)…
a student, faculty or staff member at a Canadian university or college?
OR

a staff member at a community organization working in partnership with a university or college on an experiential learning project?


Did you ever work or learn in women’s, gender, feminist, or s*xuality related courses, programs, or experiential learning opportunities?


Are you interested in sharing your story about a transformative learning experience you had?


If you answer YES to the above questions, we are seeking participants to be interviewed by our study that investigates learning experiences that have led teachers, students, and staff to feel a sense of transformation and change through gender and s*xuality education. The goal of the study is to try to understand what kinds of teaching and learning strategies, dynamics, and contexts help foster a transformative learning experience.



Participation in the study is entirely voluntary and involves attending an individual or group interview.



To participate and for questions about the project, please email: [email protected]



Study Title: Transformative Learning Experiences in Gender and S*xuality Education in Canadian Universities and Colleges



Researcher Team

Principal Investigator: Dr. Natalie Kouri-Towe (Concordia University)

Co-Investigators: Susanne Luhmann (University of Alberta), Michelle Miller (OCAD University), S. Trimble (University of Toronto), Ardath Whynacht (Mount Allison University)



Source of funding for the study: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Insight Grant



https://transformativepedagogies.ca/en/projects/transformative-encounters

09/07/2026

Date: Monday, October 5th from 12-1:30pm NST

Compromising Positions: S*x Scandals, Politics, and American Christianity

Dr. Leslie Dorrough Smith will join us online to share some of her thinking on American s*x scandals and what they tell us about gender politics and religion in the contemporary United States.

Hybrid. In the Nexus Centre (with light refreshments) and online.



Link to register for Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/cZun571NSdC1UyniXRlAVw #/registration

09/01/2026

We are excited to introduce Dr. Julia Connell Stryker as a new adjunct professor in the department!

Julia Connell Stryker received her MA in History from MUN and her PhD in History and certificate in Gender Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on women's work at sea in the 19th Century British empire, and she works with the Maritime History Archive on MUN campus. She was the Ewart A. Pratt Postdoctoral Fellow and was very happy to have the chance to return to Newfoundland and study the vital place NL had in the empire. Her interests include Gender, Labour, Empire, Maritime History, History of Medicine, and Digital Humanities.

08/28/2026

Welcome to our department’s most recent postdoctoral fellow!



Andreae Callanan is a poet, essayist, creative writing facilitator, and scholar from St. John’s. She holds a PhD in English from Memorial. Her doctoral thesis examined similarities between autistic and poetic modes of engagement with language; her postdoctoral research looks at representations of joy and sensory pleasure in the literary disability memoir. Dr. Callanan is co-convener of the research and Knowledge Exchange on Critical Disability Studies (NL Centre for Applied Health Research), and is a regular contributor to public discussions on disability, neurodivergence, and creativity.

08/26/2026

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Sonja Boon will continue as an adjunct professor with our department! Welcome (back), Dr. Boon 😊!

"I am interested in the politics of life writing, and in the haunted stories that live in the silences between, under, within, and around official archival records. I am increasingly working with creative and experimental approaches to research and writing (but feminist theory always burbles just under the surface of anything I think, dream, or write). The author, co-author, or co-editor of seven books, including, most recently, the edited collection, Dear Mr. Smallwood: Confederation in the words of those who lived it (Memorial University Press, 2025), I am a mentor in the MFA program in Creative Nonfiction at the University of King’s College (Halifax), a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists, and co-editor of the Life Writing series at WLU Press. I was a professor of gender studies at MUN for 15 years."

08/20/2026

Course offering this fall that might be of interest to students in the Gender Studies department. Reach out to the professor, Dr. Julia Polyck-O’Neill ([email protected]) if you have any questions:

CMST 4000: Advanced Communication Theory, Fall 2026

Analyze and apply theories of communication and media at an advanced level
Learn about contemporary theories and debates, including how knowledge and cultural memory come to be institutionalized
Explore how archives and institutions come to help us define and understand ourselves, our experiences, and our shared interpretations of the world through readings, exercises, and site visits
The course primarily focuses on diverse, feminist theories and approaches to archives, collections, and knowledge, with attention to marginalized communities and identities

Looking for a great course this fall? Sign up for CMST 4000: Advanced Communication Theory, Fall 2026

• Analyze and apply theories of communication and media at an advanced level
• Learn about contemporary theories and debates, including how knowledge and cultural memory come to be institutionalized
• Explore how archives and institutions come to help us define and understand ourselves, our experiences, and our shared interpretations of the world through readings, exercises, and site visits

08/12/2026