Melanie Lalani

Melanie is a PhD student in the Social & Behavioural Health Sciences program at the University of Toronto in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (St. George campus) and a Course Instructor in the Department of Health and Society (Scarborough campus). Inspired by her family’s experiences as carers on her mother’s journey with dementia, Melanie’s research uses arts-based methods to explore meaning between people living with dementia in long-term care and young children, and the barriers to experiencing these relationships. A highly interdisciplinary background in environmental studies, geography, public health, and a career in public policy has shaped Melanie’s interests in the relationships between the humanities, health, and care practices. She explores how the integration of arts and nature-based approaches including visual arts, narrative and horticulture can nurture quality of life and challenge stigma associated with aging, dementia, long-term care and dying. Melanie brings these experiences to teaching health humanities and qualitative health research approaches in the Department of Health and Society. Prior to her studies, Melanie taught in the Cities Engineering and Management graduate program, University of Toronto and was a research and policy analyst at Health Canada, the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s Office of Ontario and Toronto Public Health.