Faculty Accolades | Department of Health and Society

Prof. Obidimma Ezezika has been awarded the 2021 D2L Innovation in Teaching and Learning Award. The prize, awarded in partnership with the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, recognizes educators who are redefining the learning experience of students through innovative practices.

Prof. Andrea Charise's book The Aesthetics of Senescence, has been shortlisted for the 2020 Book Prize from the British Society for Literature and Science! It has also been nominated for the South Atlantic Modern Languages Association Book.

The interdisciplinary team involved with developing and launching the Modern-Day Griot Project has been awarded an Experiential Education Award. The Modern-Day Griot Project is a Black, community-led collaboration between community partner Sweet Lime Communications, U of T Scarborough students, U of T Scarborough's Departments of Arts, Culture & Media, Health & Society, and the Office of Student Experience & Wellbeing. DHS professor Dr. Suzanne Sicchia is one of the collaborators on this project. Modern-Day Griot is designed to support Black UTSC students grow the skills to showcase the strength and beauty of Black communities and create open space for healing and sharing.

A new study by DHS professor Dr. Hilary Brown has found that women with disabilities are more than twice as likely to experience life-threatening complications in pregnancy and maternal death compared to their peers. Read more about Dr. Brown's study in the UTSC news here. The study was published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

Dr. Suleyman Demi, a post-doctoral scholar and winner of a UTSC Inclusive Excellence Post-doctoral Fellowship, is studying food insecurity in Scarborough during the pandemic. The Inclusive Excellence Post-doctoral Fellowship Program provides funding to increase opportunities for hiring post-doctoral fellows from underrepresented groups, especially Black and Indigenous scholars. Click here to view a video of Dr. Demi's recent presentation.

Prof. Élyse Caron-Beaudoin's research is featured in the University of Toronto Scarborough News. The article, "An environmental injustice: Study finds exposure to certain organic pollutants on the rise in pregnant Inuit women" is based on a study published in Environment International and explains how people's food in the arctic is being contaminated by chemicals which are dangerous to fetal development.

Professor Hilary Brown has been awarded a Tier 2 Canada Research Chairs in Disability and Reproductive Health. Professor Brown's research focuses on pregnancy-related health outcomes and healthcare experiences of women with disabilities. (2020)

Professor Michelle Silver was featured as a speaker at the American Medical Association’s November 2020 meeting on a panel called "Understanding ageism and strategies to reduce its negative impact."

Professor Michelle Silver presented a presentation at TEDxUTSC on phenomena of retirement and how we have a responsibility to look for new strategies to be more sustainable in our working lives. Click here to watch her presentation.

Prof. Obidimma Ezezika and Prof. Suzanne Sicchia have received a Learning and Education Advancement Fund (LEAF) seed grant for their project Animated Interactive Storylines for Global Health. The project will support undergraduate learning through the development of web-based modules where students can interact with animated storylines on global health issues. These storylines allow students to engage more fully with the course content through interactive questions/quizzes and reflective learning exercises. This new project stems from a research study published in the Journal of Education titled "A Case Study on the Impact of a Web-Based Animated Storyline Module for Global Health Pedagogy: Student Perspectives." (2020)

Congratulations to Prof. Andrea Charise, who has been honoured with the University of Toronto Early Career Teaching Award. The award recognizes Professor Charise's leadership and innovation in interdisciplinary teaching. (2020)

Prof. Nicholas Spence has been named editor-in-chief of the International Indigenous Policy Journal, a peer-reviewed, policy-relevant journal addressing issues pertaining to Indigenous Peoples throughout the world. (2020)

In 2020-2021, Prof. Laura Bisaillon will hold two visiting researcher fellowships. As Visiting Research with the Brocher Foundation Residency Fellowship in Switzerland, Prof. Bisaillon will investigate questions related to the federal immigration law and the circumstances and aftermath of exclusion for people with chronic illness and developmental differences. As a visiting fellow at the Netherlands Institution for Advanced Study, Prof. Bisaillon will work on a project entitled “Detecting, Diagnosing, and Excluding: What Happens Next for People with Illness and Disability?” This is a prestigious award that invites researchers into residence, supporting them to devote all of their attention to furthering a research project. Professor Bisaillon will work on research funded by the Canadian Bar Association's Law for the Future Fund.

Prof. Maureen Murney’s research about the stigmatization of substance use and mental illness has been published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being. The article is titled “Stigma and discrimination related to mental health and substance use issues in primary health care in Toronto, Canada: a qualitative study” and can be accessed here. (2020)

Prof. Hillary Brown has won the inaugural UTSC Pre-Tenure Research Award -- Science Discipline. (2020)

Prof. Obidimma Ezezika has received the University of Toronto Global Educator Award. The award recognizes faculty members who embody U of T's global mission and whose teaching demonstrates global and intercultural fluency. (2020)

An article co-authored by Prof. Michelle Silver, “Ontario’s Retirement Homes and Long-Term Care Homes: A Comparison of Care Services and Funding Regimes,” has been chosen as the Canadian Journal on Aging’s article of the month for February 2020.

Prof. Cassandra Hartblay’s monograph I Was Never Alone, or Oporniki: An Ethnographic Play on Disability in Russia is now available from University of Toronto Press. At the core of the book is the play itself, based on fieldwork with adults with disabilities in Russia. The script is accompanied by a description of the research and writing process and by an essay arguing for the potential of both theatre and ethnography as designs for being together in unusual ways. (2020)

Prof. Andrea Charise’s book, The Aesthetics of Senescence: Aging, Population, and the 19th-Century British Novel was released in January 2020. The monograph explores how aging has become a hotly politicized crisis through the lens of 19th-century fiction. Prof. Charise will be celebrating the publication of her book with a book launch at UTSC on April 1st.

Prof. Obidimma Ezezika has won the Next Einstein Forum Fellow Award for his research around public health and nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa. The Next Einstein Forum recognizes and supports Africa's top scientists, following the belief that the world's next Einstein will be African. (2020)

Prof. Laura Bisaillon will give a talk titled "The Making (and Unmaking) of Medical Inadmissibility: Illness and Disability in Canadian Immigration Law" at University of Waterloo on November 2, 2019.

ICHS Prof. Laura Bisaillon convened an opening of a photo exhibition at a branch of the Toronto Public Library. Current and past ICHS students, as well as members of the general public were present for an interactive discussion, covered by the Toronto Star. (Fall 2019)

Prof. Cassandra Hartblay gave a public lecture at Middlebury College in Vermont titled "I Was Never Alone: Disability Studies and Performance Ethnography" co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, the Program in Gender, Sexulaity, and Feminist Studies, and the Mahaney Center for the Arts. (Fall 2019)

Prof. Laura Bisallion, along with collaborators, has received a research grant from the Canadian Bar Association to study the barriers faced by prospective immigrants who have been ruled medically inadmissible, with a goal of reforming immigration law surrounding medical inadmissibility. (Fall 2019)

Prof. Hilary Brown's new research shows that new mothers with chronic pain may be at increased risk for mental health issues, due to social impacts of biological conditions. Read about the research here, in UTSC news. (Fall 2019)

Farewell to Prof. Holly Wardlow, who has served a stellar term as Interim Director of the ICHS, and welcome to Prof. Jessica Fields, who assumed her new role as Director of ICHS in July 2019! Prof. Fields is one of the creators of The Beyond Bullying Project. A sociologist, Prof Fields comes to UTSC from SFSU in California. Prof. Wardlow returns to her long term position at the Department of Anthropology at the St George campus. (Fall 2019)

Congratulations to Prof. Andrea Charise, who received the 2019 UTSC Principal's Award for Teaching in the Assistant Professor category! (Summer 2019)

In June, Prof. Michelle Silver was an invited speaker at the American Medical Association’s annual meeting for a well attended session on physician retirement. (Summer 2019)

Prof. Cassandra Hartblay published an article, "After Marginalization: Pixelization, Disability, and Social Difference in Digital Russia" in the academic journal South Atlantic Quarterly. (Summer 2019)

Prof. Ghazal Fazli published an article on the ethnic differences in pre-diabetes prevalence in the academic journal BMC Medicine. (Summer 2019)

Congratulations to Prof. Laura Bisaillon, who received the 2018-2019 Scarborough Campus Students' Union Best Staff and Faculty Award! And congratulations to the health studies students who nominated her! Below, pictured with ICHS student during the award presentation in April. (Summer 2019)

Dr. Bisaillon, a tall white woman, receives an award from two women of color, while standing on a stage wtih balloons and a festive backdrop

Prof. Michelle Pannor Silver interviewed on Forbes about her new book book, Retirements and its Discontents: Why We Won't Stop Working, Even if We Can (Fall 2018)

Prof. Brown gives talk at TEDx UTSC: Forgotten: Reproductive health in women with disabilities

Read Prof. Ezezika's article on global nutrition on The Conversation.com (July 2018)

Prof. Michelle Pannor Silver's new book, Retirement and Its Discontents: Why We Won't Stop Working, Even if We Can, is published this month with Columbia University Press. Congratulations! (July 2018)

Congratulations to Prof. Ezezika on the publication of his new co-authored textbook, An Introduction to Global Health (3rd ed.)!

Prof. Bisaillon's research featured in the news! "Modernizing Canada’s Immigration Act for applicants with disease and disability" (April 2018)

Check out Prof. Laura Bisaillon's research on health status, morality, and HIV in Canada's immigration system just featured in The Conversation (February 2018)

Prof. Brown receives a CIHR New Investigator Grant to study the health and health care use of infants born to women with disabilities! Read all about it here. (January 2018)

Prof. Michelle Silver’s research on physician retirement published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (December 2017)

"Hi-tech humanities approach to understanding aging earns recognition for UTSC professor": Prof. Charise is the recipient of the first Jackman Humanities Institute-University of Toronto Scarborough Digital Humanities Fellowship (Fall 2017)

Prof. Obidi Ezezika chosen as Next Einstein Forum Ambassador (December 2017). Read up on this global health initiative here.

Congratulations to Prof. Andrea Charise who was just featured in UofT news for pioneering the development of Canada's first undergraduate program in health humanities, which looks at the impact of the humanities and critical social sciences on health (September 2017)

Congratulations to Prof. Hilary Brown, who just received a CIHR grant to study the connections between medical conditions during pregnancy and mental health (June 2017)