Dr. Anika Stafford’s SSHRC funded dissertation is titled, Gender Foundations: Heteronormativity and Homophobia in Kindergarten. She has recently started a SSHRC Post-doctoral Fellowship with the History department at Simon Fraser University. The study will explore ways children’s recreational programs have been invested in producing gender-conforming, heterosexual citizens. It will expand on the forthcoming article in Gender and Health: Histories (McGill-Queen’s University Press), “Referred for Special Services: Children, Youth, and the Production of Heteronormativity at Alexandra Neighbourhood House in Post-war Vancouver,” co-authored with Dr. Mona Gleason. She is currently co-editing an anthology with fellow GRSJ Institute PhD candidate Sarah Rudrum, Constructions of Risk: the Production of “At Risk” Bodies and Populations in Health, Education, and Community Services.

Sample Publications

“Uncompromising Positions: Reiterations of Misogyny Embedded in Lesbian and Feminist Communities’ Framing of Lesbian Femme Identities.”

Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture and Social Justice

“Departing shame: Feinberg and Queer/Transgender Counter-cultural Remembering”

Journal of Gender Studies:

“Beyond Normalization: An Analysis of Heteronormativity in Children’s Picture Books.”

Rethinking society in the 21st century: Critical readings in sociology

Dr. Anika Stafford’s research interests focus on children and gender justice and spans both sociological and historical methods.  She is committed to teaching history as an activist practice that can provide tools for working toward social change. She is delighted to be a Sessional Instructor with the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice.