Name: Laura Bisaillon

Position: Professor (assistant rank), University of Toronto

Educational Background: PhD –  Interdisciplinary

Professional Background and Affiliations: 
I am appointed at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health and Society and the Social Justice Education Department. I am also affiliated with l’Université de l’Ontario français and le Centre de recherches en éducation franco-ontarienne.

Contact Information: lbisaillon@utsc.utoronto.ca 

Personal Website:  https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/healthstudies/laura-bisaillon

What are your main research interests? 
I am a sociologist of health and illness working in the medico-legal borderlands. I use the social organization of knowledge approach and institutional ethnography in social studies of HIV-related policy and medical inadmissibility law in the Canadian immigration system.

What projects are you currently working on?
I am continuing to work on unmaking permanent residency restrictions for people with illness, disability and developmental difference in Canadian immigration law.

What interesting findings have emerged from your work? How have they been applied?
In terms of research findings, see this online special issue http://somatosphere.net/2019/searching-studying-and-doing-sociology-in-the-medico-legal-borderlands.html/ . Regarding applied sociology, see https://theconversation.com/finally-some-changes-to-health-based-discrimination-in-canadian-immigration-law-93340

Are there other aspects of your work or your interests that you would like to share?
Since 2013, I have conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran and Romania. I teach feminist policy analysis, migration and health, institutional ethnography, and qualitative methods. I am fluently bilingual in English and French, and teach and supervise students in both languages.