Current Research Team
Tara Goldstein
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Tara Goldstein is a professor, ethnographer and playwright at the University of Toronto where she teaches an undergraduate course called Equity, Activism and Education for the Equity Studies program at New College and a graduate course called Gender, Sexuality and Schooling for the Curriculum and Pedagogy program in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. In July 2020, Tara will be a three-year appointment as Vice Principal of New College.
Tara is also the Founding and Artistic Director of Gailey Road Productions, a theatre company that produces research-informed theatre on social and political issues that affect us all (www.gaileyroad.com). She graduated from the MFA Playwriting Program at Spalding University, Louisville, Kentucky, in November 2006. Tara's historical drama Lost Daughter won the 2005 Canadian Jewish Playwriting Contest and was produced by Gailey Road at the 2008 Toronto Fringe Festival. The play was published as one of the three plays in an anthology called Zero Tolerance and Other Plays (Sense Publishers 2013). Harriet's House, a contemporary drama about international adoption in an LGBTQ family, was produced at Hart House Theatre in July 2010, and has been published as part of her book Staging Harriet's House: Writing and Producing Research-Informed Theatre (Peter Lang 2012). Castor and Sylvie about French feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and her companion Sylvie Le Bon was workshopped at the Toronto SummerWorks Festival in 2015, revised and then performed the L Fest in Llandudno, Wales in 2018. Tara's most recent play Out at School, written with Jenny Salisbury and Pam Baer, is a verbatim theatre piece based on interviews with LGBTQ families about their experiences at elementary and high school (www.lgbtqfamiliesspeakout.ca). It was also performed at the L Fest in Llandudno, Wales in 2018 and was performed at the Toronto Pride Festival in June 2019. Harriet's House, Castor and Sylvie and Out at School are all part of Tara's ongoing project of putting queer families on stage. |
Pamela BaerResearch Manager (2014-2017, 2018-2020)
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Pamela Baer is a theatre and media artist with a focus on community engaged work. Drawn from a young age to storytelling as a way of connecting people and building community, her work revolves around personal narratives, oral histories, and life stories. Pamela has facilitated community arts projects with diverse groups, and wide reaching themes, in England, Ghana, and Canada. Her current work focuses on LGBTQ families, stories, and representations, and explores the role of collective community creation in the the production of participatory media. Pam has a BFA in Theatre and Development from Concordia University, a MA in Theatre and Media for Development from the University of Winchester, and a MA and PhD in Education from The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Pam worked as the Research Manager for the LGBTQ Families Speak Out project, and is currently working as instructor in Applied Theatre at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario. |
Austen KoecherResearch Manager
(2017-2018) 
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Austen Koecher's research is in the area of gender and sexual diversity teacher education, specifically studying the use of gender and sexual minority family narratives in teacher education classrooms. Austen's past research has included life history analyses of the ways that student experiences of homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in schooling intersect with contact with mental health systems. Austen has a BA in Anthropology and Equity Studies from the University of Toronto and a MA in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development from OISE. Austen worked as the Research Manager for the LGBTQ Families Speak Out project in 2017-2018. |
benjamin lee hicks
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Research Assistant, Artist Researcher
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benjamin lee hicks is a visual artist, elementary school teacher and PhD candidate in Curriculum and Pedagogy at the Ontario Institute for Education (OISE), University of Toronto. They taught JK-grade 6 classrooms in the Toronto District School Board for 8 years prior to beginning graduate studies full time. benjamin has written and designed curriculum materials on topics of sustainable community building, queering school space and arts-based activism. They are interested in how we might better support teachers to expect queerness and welcome all gender identities in their classrooms. benjamin is also passionate about centring the voices and experiences of trans and non-binary people navigating the school system as students, staff and caregivers. Their current work explores how visual storytelling and comic art can help to engage teachers more personally and continuously in professional learning(+action) for social justice.
You can see more of benjamin's art and learn more about their past + current projects at www.benjaminleehicks.com |
Kate ReidResearch Assistant, Artist Researcher
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Kate Reid will defend her PhD in Education at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto in June 2020. She has a Bachelor of Education and a Master’s of Arts in Social Justice from the University of British Columbia. Kate combines musical activism with teaching by facilitating workshops and giving concerts in secondary schools, post-secondary institutions. She also provides training for educators and community service providers, and performs at live music venues, music festivals, Pride festivals, conferences, and people’s living rooms. Kate has produced five albums: Kate Reid (ep, 2005), Comin’ Alive (2006), I’m Just Warming Up (2009), Doing it for the Chicks (2011) and Queer Across Canada (2013). You can find out more about Kate and her music at www.katereid.net |
Jenny SalisburyArtist Researcher
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Jenny Salisbury is a SHRCC funded PhD candidate at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. Her teaching and research interests include contemporary Canadian play creation and devising processes, with a focus on audience, community-engaged theatre, and the role of the artist as researcher. She is a co-founder and associate director of The Centre for Spectatorship and Audience Research. Jenny's professional work involves project-based arts management, play development, directing, and community engagement, especially for Common Boots Theatre (formerly Theatre Columbus). She has enjoyed sessional work at Huron University College, Western University, as well as serving as the program coordinator for Ask & Imagine, a leadership program for youth and youth leaders. |
Edil Ga'alResearch Assistant
(2018-2019) 
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Edil Ga’al is a recent graduate from the University of Toronto, with a BA in African Studies and Political Science, and a minor in Equity Studies. Edil is interested in equity issues and the arts and joined the team in February 2018. She is currently completing a MA in African Studies at the University of Oxford. |
Yasmin OwisResearch Assistant
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Yasmin is a teacher, community activist and PhD candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto (OISE/UT). She is a graduate of the Masters of Teaching program where she earned her teaching qualifications in the Junior-Intermediate division. Yasmin's PhD research at OISE will explore what happens when queer and trans youth of colour work collaboratively to reimagine and recreate the Ontario sex education curriculum as a way to resist hetero/cisnormativity and whiteness. The research project will focus on the use of critical youth participatory action research and arts-based pedagogies. Yasmin is a member of the Advisory Council for the Young Women’s Leadership Network, an alumni Junior Fellow at Massey College, and one of the organizers of Queer/Trans at OISE. She has delivered sex education and anti-homophobia/transphobia workshops with Planned Parenthood and the Sex Education Centre at the University of Toronto. She is passionate about equity issues in education, LGBTQ+ advocacy and creating equitable spaces for women, trans and non-binary folks of colour in educational and political spaces. |
Ty WalklandResearch Assistant
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Ty Walkland is a writer and social justice educator who works with teachers and youth to confront issues of power and privilege. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in Curriculum Studies at OISE, University of Toronto. Before pursuing full-time graduate studies, Ty taught secondary English, Social Science, and Special Education for the Simcoe County District School Board, where he continues to work as an occasional teacher. He helped to organize Simcoe County’s first-ever “Pride Prom” for LGBTQ+ students and their allies in 2014 and has developed numerous resources for colleagues to better support queer and trans youth. As well as being a member of the LGBTQ Families Speak Out team, Ty is a lead research assistant for Addressing Injustices, a critical practitioner research project that involves students and teachers co-creating social justice curriculum (www.addressinginjustices.com). He continues to facilitate professional development for education workers across the province to better meet the needs of diverse youth and families. |
Other Members of the Research Team
Braden Kenny, MT student, OISE, University of Toronto
Worked on the team as a research assistant in 2018-2019 with the support of the Work-Study Program.
Worked on the team as a research assistant in 2018-2019 with the support of the Work-Study Program.
Doug Friesen, PhD student, OISE, University of Toronto
Worked with Tara on producing Season 1 and 2 of Gender. Sexuality. School. in 2019-2020 with
the support of the New College Initiative Fund.
Tianyue Ma, BA student, Equity Studies, University of Toronto
Worked on the team as a research assistant in 2018-2019 with the support of the Work-Study Program.
Helgi Audarson Gudmundsson, MEd student, OISE, University of Toronto
Worked with Tara on producing Season 1 of the project's podcast Gender. Sexuality. School. in 2018 with
the support of the New College Initiative Fund.
Katie Cook, BA student, Contemporary Studies and Classics, University of King’s College, Halifax
Worked on the team as research assistant from 2017-2018 with the support of SSHRC Funding.
Tarra Joshi, BA student, Major in Equity Studies, University of Toronto
Worked on the team as a research assistant from 2014-2017 with the support of the Research Opportunity
and Work-Study Program
Worked with Tara on producing Season 1 and 2 of Gender. Sexuality. School. in 2019-2020 with
the support of the New College Initiative Fund.
Tianyue Ma, BA student, Equity Studies, University of Toronto
Worked on the team as a research assistant in 2018-2019 with the support of the Work-Study Program.
Helgi Audarson Gudmundsson, MEd student, OISE, University of Toronto
Worked with Tara on producing Season 1 of the project's podcast Gender. Sexuality. School. in 2018 with
the support of the New College Initiative Fund.
Katie Cook, BA student, Contemporary Studies and Classics, University of King’s College, Halifax
Worked on the team as research assistant from 2017-2018 with the support of SSHRC Funding.
Tarra Joshi, BA student, Major in Equity Studies, University of Toronto
Worked on the team as a research assistant from 2014-2017 with the support of the Research Opportunity
and Work-Study Program
Consultations
The Research Team has consulted with the following people and would like to thank them for their guidance:
Lee Maracle Traditional Teacher, First Nations House, University of Toronto
Jean-Paul Resoutle Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Maya Chacaby PhD student, Department of Social Justice, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Alec Butler BA student, Double Major in Aboriginal Studies and Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto
Worked on the team as a research assistant in 2016-2017.
Lee Maracle Traditional Teacher, First Nations House, University of Toronto
Jean-Paul Resoutle Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Maya Chacaby PhD student, Department of Social Justice, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Alec Butler BA student, Double Major in Aboriginal Studies and Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto
Worked on the team as a research assistant in 2016-2017.
Acknowledgments
The Research Team would like to acknowledge the following people and organizations for their support in helping us find LGBTQ families to participate in this study:
LGBTQ Parenting Network, Toronto
Ten Oaks Project, Ottawa
Allison Andlar, Sudbury
Anna Maria Barsanti, Sudbury
Andrew Allan and Finney Cherian, Faculty of Education, University of Windsor
LGBTQ Parenting Network, Toronto
Ten Oaks Project, Ottawa
Allison Andlar, Sudbury
Anna Maria Barsanti, Sudbury
Andrew Allan and Finney Cherian, Faculty of Education, University of Windsor