Abstract
PANEL SESSION: Transforming Possibilities in Health Social Science and Nursing During and After SARS-CoV-2
University of Hartford
The burden of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on vulnerable populations and the healthcare professionals who care for them has and continues to have devastating ramifications worldwide. What is the potential impact on our future? Notably, what are the transforming possibilities of SARS-CoV-2 for health social science and nursing cross-nationally? This panel seeks to engage applied anthropologists and other scholars with nurses and other health care practitioners to discuss on-the-ground case examples from a variety of national and international realities. Discussions and critiques related to different population groups as well as different categories of health care professionals are encouraged.
PANEL SESSION: Transforming Higher Education: Personal Stories of Resilience and Healing Leading to Best Practices within Academic Work Settings for Nurse Educators of Color
Samuel Merritt University
Academia faces ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining faculty and academic leadership of color. Many academics of color often report feeling the pains of micro and macroaggressions. While also experiencing invisibility and feelings of being discounted on campuses across the nation. The purpose of this panel discussion, based on in progress research, is to use shared stories to foster understanding and develop best practices and supportive work environments for those experiencing pain and seeking healing. The discussion will provide insights to promote transformative norms in academe to influence academic social reform and reckoning, at a pivotal time in higher education.
PANEL SESSION: Challenges and Innovations in Collaborative Research in the Community
University of Regina
Researchers who collaborate with partners in the community have faced unique challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic in their ongoing research projects in and with communities, organizations, and special populations (e.g., Indigenous communities, people with Intellectual Disabilities, homeless, older adults). Continuing relationships are essential for sustained collaboration and achievement of the shared outcomes of these partnerships. This panel will share stories of the unique challenges, successes, adaptations and innovations that researchers have employed to promote relationships with community partners during the pandemic and discuss how this knowledge can be applied in their future work.
PANEL SESSION: The Pandemic Pivot: Lessons Learned from Turning on a Dime
Widener University
The arrival of COVID-19 brought unprecedented changes and challenges to academia that were exponentially more difficult for nursing education. This panel will focus on the ways in which Nurse Educators successfully confronted the challenge of “pivoting” in a rapidly, and continually fluctuating, environment. Bring your best practices forward to share in this collaborative effort to identify and understand the transformative potential of nursing education using new frameworks and methodologies. What approaches best facilitate the transition to virtual learning? How are the lessons of the pandemic pivot informing our programs and plans for teaching in the future?
PAPER SESSION: Explorations of Young Adulthood, Health, and Culture
University of Saskatchewan
Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, young adulthood (the period of life following adolescence and preceding middle adulthood) emerged as a distinct developmental period. As the time to achieve previous cultural markers of ‘adulthood’ (financial independence, family formation) lengthened across many Western countries, researchers worked to define the shared contours of this phase. However, experiences of young adulthood vary according to individual circumstances and local attitudes. In this session, we explore how the media shapes our understandings of particular groups of young adults and how pregnancy and disability can pose unique challenges and possibilities for Canadians aged 18-30.
The sexual experiences of young adults with intellectual disability
University of Saskatchewan
The sexuality of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) is often overlooked and under-researched. This qualitative study aimed to broaden existing knowledge by examining the social, sexual, and romantic lives of individuals with ID. Using life history and semi-structured interviews, we explored experiences of intimacy and romance amongst persons living in an inclusive housing environment. Thematic and syntactic analyses revealed the successes and challenges experienced by young adults in the dating world, how they perceive their sexual identities, how they conceptualize their romantic and sexual aspirations, and how they interpret and navigate local attitudes, values, and morals that frequently stereotype them.
The sexual experiences of young adults with acquired brain injury (ABI)
University of Saskatchewan
Sustaining an acquired brain injury (ABI) is a transformative event that requires survivors to undertake a personal and social process of establishing a “new normal” while navigating a host of cultural attitudes and perceptions. The current study investigated the social, romantic, and sexual experiences of ABI survivors living in Saskatoon, Canada. Data was gathered using life-history and semi-structured interviews that explored participants’ current lives, changes following injury, and future aspirations. Thematic and syntactic analyses revealed how ABI shaped participants’ sexual and romantic experiences, expectations, challenges, and aspirations while also highlighting the shared human need for intimacy and connection.
Moving beyond caricature? Film portrayals of young-adult and parent coresidence from 2010-2020
University of Saskatchewan
Coresidence, wherein an adult child either remains in or returns to the parental home, is increasingly common in Western societies. This paper examines how movies released between 2010-2020 portray protagonist coresiders and coresidence itself. It argues that film portrayals in the first decade of the 2000s depict the young adults who engage in coresidence, and the arrangement itself, in a simplistic, negative light. Although such portrayals deviate from the reality of coresidence, films both shape and reflect cultural values and understandings. Thus, we must consider what these portrayals mean for the lives of young adults and the experience of coresidence.
Anti-oppressive practice and doula care of pregnant young adults
University of Saskatchewan
Research has shown that doulas (non-clinical birth support professionals) can greatly improve birth, breastfeeding and perinatal/infant outcomes; increase quality of care; and reduce birth inequalities and health disparities. This research explored how doulas incorporate anti-oppressive and culturally-safe practices into their care and engage in work that reduces health inequities for pregnant persons and their offspring. Based on qualitative analyses of semi-structured interviews, we outline various beliefs, values, and practices embraced by Saskatchewan doulas that support anti-oppressive practice. We also describe challenges in enacting anti-oppressive ideals and reducing birthing inequities amongst young adults on the Canadian prairies
Voices for change: Representations of environmental activists with autism in news media
University of Saskatchewan
News framing has been shown to influence 1) how subjects are perceived within the broader culture and 2) the individual wellbeing and societal functioning of profiled groups and individuals. This paper explores news framing of Greta Thunberg and Dara McAnulty—prominent young environmental activists with publicly disclosed diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Free online news articles from the United Kingdom were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Common themes and how these relate to established disability media tropes are described. How news framing of environmental activists with ASD differs by subject age and gender is also discussed. Email: