White male smiling with a mustard shirt and a backpack, against the backdrop of a pastel-yellow building and a blue sky.

Jay Cavanagh

BA (Hons.), MA
Pronouns: He/Him | Ele/Dele

Positions

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Faculty of Arts, Department of Sociology

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Cumming School of Medicine, Department of Community Health Sciences

Graduate Assistant (Non-Teaching)

Faculty of Arts, Department of Sociology

Assistant Editor

Faculty of Arts, Department of History

Graduate Assistant Research

Faculty of Arts, Department of Sociology

Graduate Assistant Research

Faculty of Arts, Department of Sociology

Contact information

Email

jay.cavanagh@ucalgary.ca

Web presence

LinkedIn

Website

Location

Office: Social Sciences938

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Background

Credentials

Category 1 Training in Diploma Programme History, International Baccalaureate, 2021

TCPS 2: CORE (Course on Research Ethics), Panel on Research Ethics, Government of Canada, 2023

Educational Background

Bachelor of Arts with Honours History, University of Leicester,

Master of Arts History, University of Toronto,

Academic curriculum vitae (2024-2025).

Biography

Jay Cavanagh is a queer and first-generation doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Calgary, where he is currently working under the supervision of Professor Ariel Ducey. Jay is a Graduate Scholar at the Graduate College, and currently holds two leadership positions within the Sociology Graduate Student Caucus (SGSC), the departmental graduate association of the Department of Sociology, University of Calgary. 

Between the Fall of 2022 and Spring 2024, Jay has received a number of competitive awards, including a Doctoral Entrance Scholarship ($20,000) and an Eyes High International Doctoral Scholarship ($15,000), both from the University of Calgary. In March 2024, Jay also received the Michael & Michelle Williams Award in Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine Studies for his research on the work of revolutionary Brazilian psychiatrist, Dra. Nise da Silveira. 

Jay's thesis research lies at the intersections of the sociology of health and illness, the sociology of knowledge, mad studies, and critical phenomenology. He is primarily interested in the subjective sensory experience of the borderlines, and how people living within them make sense of their experiences.

A self-identifying member of mad and psychiatric survivor communities, Jay's work takes up the task of reorienting understandings of the borderline personality through lived-experience lenses. It sets out to frustrate the many ways in which society suppresses and systemically others neurodivergent ways of being and feeling, considering how a reimagining of how we conceptualise emotion and borderline experiences might contribute to better care and support for those living with mental illness. 

Awards

  • Departmental Scholarship, University of Calgary. 2022
  • Suzanne Kanuka Award, University of Calgary. 2022
  • Doctoral Entrance Scholarship, University of Calgary. 2023
  • Eyes High International Doctoral Scholarship, University of Calgary. 2024
  • Michael & Michelle Williams Award in Science, Technology, Environment and Medicine Studies, History of Medicine Days Conference, University of Calgary. 2024