About Us
ABOUT US
This project arose from the convergence of research on sexuality education at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE) following the release of the new Ontario Health and Physical Education Curriculum in 2015. There are dozens of students at OISE and around Toronto conducting critical research and interventions at the forefront of sexuality, education, and social justice. The idea for both the graduate student workshop and this online community arose from the desire to create a network for researchers and educators committed to improving sexuality education in Ontario.
Meet The Team
Lauren Bialystok
Principal Investigator
Lauren Bialystok is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Justice Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). She holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto and has been faculty at OISE since 2012. Her research interests include identity, ethics, education, and sexuality. In 2016 she was awarded a SSHRC grant to investigate the aims of sexuality education according to different stakeholders and the origins of the public controversy witnessed in Ontario. She is interviewing policy-makers, educators, and leaders of dissenting communities to better understand the clash of values over sex education and to theorize educational justice in a diverse democracy.
Caileigh Guy
Workshop Logistics Coordinator
Caileigh is an EdD student in the Department of Social Justice at OISE, University of Toronto. Her work explores sexuality education in Ontario’s publicly funded Catholic schools. She is particularly interested in the Catholic response to the Government of Ontario’s 2015 update to the Health and Physical Education curriculum and in how this revised curriculum will be implemented in Catholic schools. Caileigh is responsible for coordinating the logistical aspects of this project as well as collaborating with the team to develop ways to create community among individuals interested in sexual health education.
Jessica Wright
Communications Coordinator
Jessica is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Their doctoral thesis research engages an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to explore how youth with histories of trauma experience and perceive the 2015-revised sexuality education curriculum and its implementation. Her primary role as part of the organizing committee for the Sexuality, Education, and Social Justice Graduate Workshop is to communicate with presenters as well as act as a liaison between workshop participants and the organizing team. Jessica is committed to ensuring that the workshop is accessible in a variety of ways so that communication and community between participants can flourish during the event. She has also prepared and submitted multiple funding applications to secure grants and donations for the workshop.
Maria Ahmed
Maria is a Masters student at the University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. Her research looks at institutional entrepreneurship in Toronto's independent schooling segment. Her focus on organizational life cycle lends an interdisciplinary lens spanning education, sociology, and economics. For this project, Maria has been responsible for researching ways to improve information flow to researchers and practitioners and organizing an online community to build a social network improving communication on sexual health education in Ontario.
Information Systems Coordinator
Taylor Berzins
Taylor is a first year Master’s student at the University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, in the Department of Social Justice Education in collaboration with Women and Gender Studies. Taylor’s research and activism interests center on intersectional feminism, media based learning, pleasure, trauma and consent education. For this project Taylor has designed print resources and maintains the workshop’s social media accounts.
Design and Outreach Coordinator