A picture of woman with dark hair with highlights, large round glasses, and a tan t shirt with a blurred background.

Dr. Carly-Ann Franceschi

BSW, MSW, RSW, PhD

Positions

Assistant Professor (Teaching)

Faculty of Social Work, Lethbridge Campus

Director, BSW Online Program

Faculty of Social Work

Contact information

Background

Credentials

Registered Social Worker, Alberta College of Social Workers,

Educational Background

Bachelor of Social Work University of Calgary,

Master of Social Work University of Calgary,

Doctor of Philosophy Social Work, University of Calgary, 2026

Biography

Dr. Carly-Ann Franceschi is an Assistant Professor (Teaching) in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary, where she also serves as Director of the BSW Online Program. Her teaching and scholarship are grounded in critical, feminist, and queer approaches to social work, with a particular focus on fat studies, embodiment, and the transformation of health and social care systems.

Dr. Franceschi’s research examines the social, cultural, and institutional dimensions of fatness, with an emphasis on reimagining health and social care through more expansive, relational, and justice-oriented approaches. Her doctoral work, Towards a Fat Future: Transforming Primary Healthcare by and for Fat Service Users, reflects her broader commitment to community-engaged and participatory research that centers lived experience and resists pathologizing frameworks.

Her interdisciplinary scholarship spans qualitative, arts-based, and multisensory methodologies, and has been published in journals such as Fat Studies, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, and Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry. She serves as Journal Editor and Funding Coordinator for Excessive Bodies: A Journal of Artistic and Critical Fat Praxis and Worldmaking, where she supports the development and dissemination of creative, critical, and interdisciplinary work in fat studies and beyond.

As an educator, Dr. Franceschi is recognized for her commitment to creating engaged, critical, and relational learning environments. She has received multiple teaching awards, including the Faculty of Social Work Teaching Excellence Award (Graduate Teaching). Her courses emphasize critical dialogue, reflexivity, and the integration of theory and practice, encouraging students to interrogate dominant assumptions and take up more intentional, accountable approaches to practice.

Dr. Franceschi’s work pushes at the boundaries of how bodies, knowledge, and care are understood—advancing scholarship and pedagogy that refuse neutrality and instead insist on more just, embodied, and transformative possibilities.

Research

Areas of Research

Fat Studies, Queer Theory, Art-based research, 2SLGBTQ+ communities , Sexuality

Awards

  • Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council . 2023
  • Teaching Excellence Award (Graduate Teaching), Faculty of Social Work . 2024