Mount Allison professor focuses on young women’s health, homelessness in award-winning study
2013-04-11 11:22:36
SACKVILLE, NB — Mount Allison University sociology professor Vanessa Oliver’s research on health and homelessness is working to tell the stories of young women in Toronto who have experienced homelessness and to inspire action. Her study, which combines sociological methodology with a storytelling approach, was awarded the Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal and was recently published as a book — Healing Home: Health and Homelessness in the Life Stories of Young Women.
“Through their own personal stories, I looked at young women’s access to health services, their understandings of these services, and the barriers they face in seeking both health and social services. At the same time, I also wanted to focus on their strengths and resistance,” says Oliver.
For Oliver, it is important not only to listen to what youth have to say but to have a strengths-based approach to the issues. “It is a stage in life when, no matter how bad things are, young people are still hopeful for a better future,” said Oliver. This is in contrast to many previous studies that tend to focus on young people as the source of the problem.
By supporting young women in telling their own stories, Oliver not only demonstrates how their personal, social, and structural experiences shape health outcomes, but also hopes to inspire action.
She says, “I wanted to show who they are as people in all their complexity, and how discrimination and inequity have shaped their realities. Young people are not marginalized by accident. Through their stories the reader then comes to identify with the young person and will hopefully be more likely to do something to create change.”
Healing Home: Health and Homelessness in the Life Stories of Young Women was recently published by University of Toronto Press. It has been cited as required reading for healthcare professionals and policy makers across Canada and is available online and at bookstores across Canada.
Oliver earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature before going on to her doctorate in Women’s Studies. She teaches courses in community based research, health and illness, sociology of youth, and sociology of the family, in the sociology department at Mount Allison University.