Name: Laura Bisaillon
Position: Associate Professor, University of Toronto Scarborough
Educational Background: PhD – Interdisciplinary
Professional Background and Affiliations:
My undergraduate appointment is at the Department of Health and Society. At the graduate level, my appointments are at Social Justice Education Department and the Centre de recherches en éducation franco-ontarienne.
Contact Information: laura.bisaillon@utoronto.ca
Academic Website: https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/healthsociety/laura-bisaillon
What are your main research interests?
My career has been dedicated to social research, services, care and activism. As a university professor and qualitative sociologist, I work on the social production and organization of knowledge about migration, health and the state.
What projects are you currently working on?
I continue to shine light on the institutional barriers that people with chronic illness, disability and developmental difference confront when they apply for permanent residency in Canada. I have created a project website with substance featured in original artwork, vodcast, and film; see https://canadamedicalexclusion.com/bits/
What interesting findings have emerged from your work? How have they been applied?
The bulk of my work has explored and critiqued HIV-related policy in Canadian immigration law. Results from this body of scholarship will appear with UBC Press in 2022 as “Screening Out: HIV Testing and the Canadian Immigration Experience.” I communicate my research in various formats, including article, prose, blog, film, photo exhibit, and art exhibit.
Are there other aspects of your work or your interests that you would like to share?
Since 2013, I have carried out institutional ethnographic fieldwork in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran and Romania. I am fluent in English and French, and I research, teach and supervise in both languages.