Deborah Conners
Areas of Interest
Inclusion and community engagement in a social justice context. Conflict resolution. Public conversations and dialogue. Gender politics.
My concern with the politics of gender issues arose during several decades of activist work within women’s movements, including as a coordinator at Women’s Network PEI. Through these experiences I became interested in how we could engage diverse women, men, and gender queer people, to speak with others advocating for social goals that did not necessarily align with their own. My belief that this ability to dialogue across difference is a crucial skill set in our times was fostered in my Masters in Conflict Studies at St. Paul University. In my Sociology PhD at ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ I explored this approach further in a reflexive examination of feminist work to end violence against women. Following this, I did a Mitacs Post-Doctoral Fellowship with the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women looking at the impact of Ontario’s mandatory charging policy in cases of domestic violence.
I bring my interest in a politics of reconciliation to my teaching in the social justice stream and the minor in community engagement, seeking to create opportunities for students to learn across difference and to consider what supports the creation and maintenance of difference. I often take to my students puzzles to which I do not yet have the answer, an approach which generates a joint discovery process. It is this ‘learning together’ that frames a dynamic course that is useful to everyone involved. My goal is that students leave my classes with increased ability to learn how to learn.
Courses
SOCI 2180: Foundations in Community Engagement
SOCI 4170: Community Engaged Sociology
Publications
Johnson, H. & Conners, D. E. (Forthcoming). Mandatory charging and women’s safety. In Fitz-Gibbon, K., Walklate, S., McCulloch, J., & Maher, J. (Eds.), Intimate partner violence, risk and security: Securing women’s lives in a global world. London: Routledge.
Conners, D. E., & Johnson, H. (in revision). The benefits and impacts of mandatory charging: A review of the primary research with women victims. Manuscript accepted with revisions. Trauma, Violence and Abuse.
Etowa, J. B., Debs-Ivall, S., & Conners, D. E. (2015). Engaging with racism: An opportunity to advance nursing practice. International Journal of Health, Wellness and Society, 5(2), 45-54.
Rankin, P. L., Majury, D. M., & Conners, D. E. (2015, September). Working with men and boys to de-normalize violence against women and girls: The state of the field. A synthesis document prepared for Oxfam Canada. ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ University: Ottawa, CA.
Conners, D. E. (2011). Feminists researching fathering: What do we see through a reconciliation lens? Peace Research: The Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies, 43(1), 51-79. Retrieved from http://www.peaceresearch.ca/issues/43-1/