Alana Cattapan is the Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Reproduction, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, and an Adjunct Professor at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan. She is also the director of the Politics of Reproduction Research Group at the University of Waterloo. She studies gendered inclusion in policy making related to reproduction, identifying links between the state, the commercialization of the body, and reproductive labour. She has published peer-reviewed articles in Studies in Political Economy, the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the Canadian Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Medical Ethics, among others. She is the co-editor of Surrogacy in Canada: Critical Perspectives in Law and Policy (Irwin Law, 2018) and Feministing in Political Science (University of Alberta Press, 2024).
Holly McKenzie is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Saskatchewan. A community-engaged researcher, she works in partnership with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in the areas of reproductive justice and human-animal relations. She has published peer-reviewed articles in Qualitative Health Research and Cultural Studies and Critical Methodologies, among others, and shares her research through various strategies, including blogs, fact sheets, videos, and community presentations.
Elena Caruso is an AMTD Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, where she is working on her current project entitled ‘Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: Self-Managed Abortion in Italy’. She is also a Visiting Fellow at the Law Department of the European University Institute in Florence and a fellow of the International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, based at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.
Josh Eisenmenger is an undergraduate student majoring in Political Science at the University of Waterloo. His studies and his research interests focus on international politics, governance, and social justice.
Danielle Mastromatteo is an undergraduate student at the University of Western Ontario pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in political science and accounting. Her academic interests include social policy, socio-spatial inequalities, and migration.
Eleanor McGrath is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Waterloo focusing on policy challenges around maternal mortality and maternal morbidity. She is currently working on reproductive politics projects on surrogacy, midwifery, and abortion access. Eleanor is proud to be a member of the 2023 cohort of the Guiding Interdisciplinary Research on Women and Girls' Wellbeing (GROWW) program.
Anya Johnson Poon is the lead research assistant on the Ova Obscura project. She recently graduated from the Balsillie School of International Affairs and the University of Waterloo with an MA in Global Governance. Her interest in medical and reproductive travel has brought her to focus on the politics of reproduction, and in particular on queer reproduction through assisted reproductive technologies.
Jerika Sanderson is a PhD candidate in the Department of English Language and Literature. Her research investigates representations of biotechnology and biomedicine across genres, with a focus on the commodification of biological material. She is also currently a research assistant for a project that investigates early 20th-century obstetric technologies across literary, media, and medical sources.
Hannah Scott is an Masters of Political Science Student at the University of Waterloo. Her research interrogates the regulation of homelessness, particularly affecting women and families, in Hamilton, Ontario.
Sarah Seabrook is a graduate of the Master of Political Science program at the University of Waterloo. Her research examines the systemic barriers to care for patients with endometriosis across Canada. She serves as a research assistant to the Politics of Reproduction Research group and her research interests lie in reproductive policymaking and reproductive technologies broadly.
Lee Whelan is an MA candidate at the Univeristy of Waterloo. Their research looks at gender affirming care policies in Canada.
Alumni
Alanna Benson is a graduate of the Masters program in Political Science Student at the University of Waterloo. Her research examined how climate change policy can and should be informed by Indigenous approaches to clean energy.
Eisha Ali is a graduate of the Masters of Political Science program at the University of Waterloo. Her Master’s research examined public policy related to mobile maternal, prenatal, and infant health initiatives in Canada.