Dr. Jessica Shaw
Affiliations
Associate Professor
Faculty of Social Work, Calgary Campus
Graduate Program Director
Faculty of Social Work, Calgary Campus
SSHRC Adjudication member for 2021-2022; 2022-2023; 2023-2024
SSHRC
Contact information
Phone number
Office : +1 (403) 220-7361
Location
Office : MacKimmie TowerMT425
I'm looking for...
Research partners
NGOs, PhD, MSW Thesis, or other graduate students who are interested in community-based and self-managed abortion care and activism (particularly in Canada; open to herbal, medication, and procedural)
Learning opportunities
Offering social work research practicums to students interested in sexuality, gender, and reproductive justice and/or secondary data analysis opportunities (topics vary, please contact).
Background
Educational Background
B.A. Women's Studies and Psychology (Joint), University of Ottawa, 2006
B.S.W. Social Work, Lakehead University, 2009
M.S.W. Social Work and Women’s Studies (Joint), Lakehead University, 2010
Ph.D. Social Work, University of Calgary, 2015
Biography
Social Work Professor, Policy Consultant, and Community Advocate with 10+ years of experience translating academic research into actionable government policy and community-led initiatives. Internationally recognized expert in assisted dying, especially as it relates to prisoners and social determinants of health. President of Women Help Women, an international feminist non-profit organization that operates in over 40 countries and across 10 language groups and provides abortion care to people in places where it is highly stigmatized or restricted. Consultant to the Ministry of Public Safety, Government of Canada, and an invited expert witness before the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying. Committed to cultural humility, relational accountability, ethical space, and combining rigorous qualitative research with grassroots activism to drive systemic change. For her work related to abortion, assisted dying, and social justice, Shaw received the Ron Ghitter Award in Human Rights and was named "Top 40 Under 40" by Avenue magazine.
Research
Areas of Research
Especially abortion rights, including access to abortion outside of medicolegal systems (ex. self-managed abortion, home abortion provision, herbal abortion, lay providers, activist providers).
Especially understanding perceptions and experiences of end-of-life care - including MAiD - of people who have limited social and medical supports (ex. people experiencing poverty, prisoners), and qualitative experiences of MAiD provision.
Especially work that is rooted in and led by community, and as informed by: community-based participatory action research, standpoint theory, intersectional analysis, sex and gender based analysis, queer phenomenology, oral and narrative ways of knowing, decolonial and Indigenous ways of knowing, anti-racism.
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Projects
Indigenous-led
Making relatives: Paralleling Indigenous teachings and practices of mental health (complete)
2SLGBTQIA+
Community-based peer support as a mitigating factor of transgender and gender non-confirming suicidality (advisor)
Implications of Queer experiences of psychedelic states of consciousness on the development and practice of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (complete)
Women's experiences of treatment-emergent sexual dysfunction (complete)
How waiting for medical care affects the well-being of trans* people in Alberta (complete)
Menstruation, Abortion, Birth
Self-managed abortion: Demystified, demedicalized, decentralized, decriminalized, destigmatized (ongoing)
Menstrual Product Programs and Free Vend Dispensers (complete)
What happens beyond the clinic?: New data on home abortion providers and practices in North America (complete)
Assessment, education, and outreach related to mifepristone knowledge and access among community-based abortion providers outside the formal healthcare system in the United States (complete)
Physicians of conscience: A narrative inquiry with Canadian abortion providers (complete)
Pregnant peoples' experiences with birth doulas in Winnipeg, MB (complete)
The medicalization of birth and midwifery as resistance (complete)
A feminist discourse on how the concepts of choice, informed consent, and empowerment are constructed in medical birthing literature (complete)
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Bridging the university/community divide: Exploring ways to implement practice-based research in social work education (complete)
Making social work accessible through the airwaves: Developing podcasting as a pedagogical approach for experiential teaching and learning (complete)
The alignment of the Virtual Learning Circles program to university strategies and online program quality standards (complete)
Medical Assistance in Dying
Exploring palliative care and medical assistance in dying in Canadian prisons (complete)
Clinical presentations of suicidality in relation to medical assistance in dying (complete)
Acute advanced requests for medical assistance in dying: A pilot project (complete)
Perceptions and experiences of medical assistance in dying in marginalized communities: Including illicit substance users, people living in poverty, and people who have experienced homelessness (complete)
Physician assisted death: The experiences of patients, support persons, and physicians (complete)
Creative
Abortion and mothering: Research, stories, and artistic expressions (complete)
The Calgary Homeless Memorial Project: Public art as an expression of community advocacy and research (complete)
Other
City of Calgary: Social Impacts of an Economic Downturn (complete)
Publications
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