Department of Health and Society Chair and Professor Jessica Fields is the co-lead (with Jen Gilbert, PI) of the Beyond Bullying Project, a storytelling project that challenges perceptions of LGBTQ+ sexuality, gender, and youth as problems and considers what is required of schools in order to open up to the uncertainty, discomfort, and pleasure of learning from and about LGBTQ+ people and lives. Beyond Bullying began in the United States with funding from the Ford Foundation and as a collaboration with Laura Mamo and Nancy Lesko. Now, thanks to funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Beyond Bullying is coming to Canada.
Together with its co-leads, the Beyond Bullying Project team of post-doctoral, doctoral, and undergraduate student researchers from York University, University of Toronto, and University of Toronto Scarborough is hard at work preparing to collect stories from three Canadian high schools in Toronto and Scarborough.
Beyond Bullying previously invited students, teachers, and school administrators to step into a quiet and private storytelling booth to record stories of LGBTQ+ life. Past projects have set up a mobile recording booth at schools. This time, Beyond Bullying is going virtual as a result of Public Health guidelines related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Participants from our three schools will visit the Beyond Bullying website and access a storytelling portal and virtual storytelling booth. In addition to collecting the many LGBTQ+ stories that circulate in high schools, the current project also considers the impact COVID-19 has had on the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ students and staff; on their family, friend and intimate relationships, self-expression, learning, and more.