Dr. Fiona Whittington-Walsh
BA (Ryerson), MA (York), PhD (York)
I am currently the President of the Board of Directors for Inclusion BC, a provincial non-profit organization that strives for the full inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in all aspects of life. I am also on the Board of Directors for Canadian Association for Community Living. I am actively engaged in creating ways to support students with disabilities in post-secondary education including people with intellectual disabilities. I am principle researcher for the Including All Citizens Project (IACP). The IACP is a project that is researching teaching that can reach a wide range of learners including students with intellectual disabilities. Key to the project is transformative teaching using Universal Design for Learning Principles not adapting curriculum. Since Spring 2016, five students with intellectual disabilities have been involved in the pilot and to date have taken 7 arts courses (including 5 sociology courses with me) for credit on par with their 'neurotypical' peers.
I am also principle researcher for The Bodies of Film Project which examines disability representation in Hollywood films. This is a collaborative, participatory research project with the Bodies of Film Club a film club that has a wide range of membership including people with intellectual disabilities.
Courses taught
- SOCI 1125: Introduction to Society: Processes and Structures
- SOCI 2225: Canadian Society: Conflict and Consensus
- SOCI 2240: Gender in Canada
- SOCI 2255: Sociology of Everyday Life and Interaction
- SOCI 2260: Introduction to Research Methods
- SOCI 2275: Mass Media and Society
- SOCI 2280: Sociology of Health, Disability, and Society
- SOCI 3245: Gender, Bodies, and Sexualities
- SOCI 3275: Sociology of Popular Culture
- SOCI 4325: Sociological Aspects of Community Service
Areas of Interest
My primary areas of interest are: disability and media; gender and media; gender and cosmetic surgery; freak shows; disability and institutionalization; inclusive post-secondary education; Universal Design Principles for Learning.
Scholarly Work
- Whittington-Walsh. and Bezanson, Burton, MacKendrick, Miller, Sawatzky, Turner. (forthcoming, 2019). The Bodies of Film Club: Disability, Identity and Empowerment. Goggin, Elis, Haller (Eds), Disability and the Media. Routledge.
- Whittington-Walsh. (2018). One of Us or Two? Conjoined Twins and the Paradoxical Relationship of Identity in American Horror Story: Freak Show. In, Leeson-Schatz and George, Eds, Media and Disability (pp. 11-27). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Press.
- Warfield, K., Whittington-Walsh. (Forthcoming 2015). Stich the Bitch: #girls#socialmedia#body#human. In, N. Mandell and J. Johnson (Eds), Feminist Issues: Race, Class, and Sexuality. Sixth Edition. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada.
- Mandell, N., Whittington-Walsh. (2014). Building Alliances: A Resource to Help Enhance Community-Academic Research Partnerships. In, Berman, R. (Ed), “Corridor Talk”: Canadian Feminist Scholars Share their Stories of Research Partnerships. Toronto: Iannna Publications and Education Inc.
- Whittington-Walsh. (2012). Reality Television and the Armchair Flâneur. In, Greenberg, J. and Elliott, C (Eds), Communications in Question: Canadian Perspectives on Controversial Issues in Communication Studies. Second Edition (pp. 268-274). Toronto: Thomson-Nelson.
- Whittington-Walsh. (2010). Beautiful Ever After: “Extreme Makeover” and the Spectacle of Rebirth. In, Pomerance and Sakeris (Eds), Popping Culture: Sixth Edition (pp.179-190). Boston: Pearson Education. REVISED
- Whittington-Walsh. (2008). Guilty by Assumption: Style By Jury and Makeover Reality TV. In, Greenberg, J. and Elliott, C (Eds), Communications in Question: Canadian Perspectives on Controversial Issues in Communication Studies (pp.273-282). Toronto: Thomson-Nelson.
- Whittington-Walsh. (2006). The Broken Mirror: Young Women, Beauty, and Facial Difference. In, Women’s Health and Urban Life (Special Issue. pp. 7-24 ). Vol. 6, No. 2. December, 2006.
- Mandell, N., Whittington-Walsh. (2004). Building Alliances: A Resource to Help Enhance Community-Academic Research Partnerships. Supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, resource distributed by Joint Centre for Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement (CERIS) across Canada to community groups, Working Paper #33, pp. 1-34. PEER REVIEWED.
- Whittington-Walsh. (2002). From Freaks to Savants: Disability and Hegemony from the Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) to Sling Blade (1997). In, Disability & Society. (695-707). Vol. 17 No. 6.
- Zitzelsberger, H., Odette, F., Rice, C., Whittington-Walsh, F. (2002). Building Bridges Across Difference and Disability. In, Abbey, S. (Ed), Ways of Knowing In and Through the Body: Diverse Perspectives on Embodiment (pp.259-261). Toronto, Canada: Canadian Association for the Study of Women and Education.
- Zitzelsberger, H., Rice, C., Whittington-Walsh, F., and Odette, F. (2002). Building Bridges Across Difference and Disability: A Resource Guide for Health Care Providers. Toronto, Canada: Regional Women's Health Centre and AboutFace International. Whittington-Walsh, F. (1997). The Miracle Workers. In, Today’s Parent. Vol. 14, No. 9.