Assistant Professor, University of Victoria
Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Alberta, Canada
Vice-chair 2025-2027
I am an Associate professor in the School of Nursing, University of Victoria, Canada. My scholarly interests lie in theoretical analyses of nursing practice. Currently, my program of research combines my interest in eHealth and Health Information and Communication Technology (e.g., EHR and electronic patient portals) and philosophies and theories attuned to the socio-materiality of nursing practice. My recent publications explore technology through the lens of actor network theory.
Additionally, my longstanding philosophical interests include post-structuralism and other critical theories. In 2022, I published my first book, Nursing Theory, Postmodernism, Poststructuralism, and Foucault, with Routledge. I review manuscripts for Nursing Philosophy, Nursing Inquiry, and Health journals, including manuscripts informed by the ideas of Michel Foucault. Journal editors often express appreciation for my detailed and constructive feedback that helps elevate a paper to the next level. I feel fortunate to regularly teach Undergraduate and Master’s courses on nursing knowledge and theory. Helping students understand and appreciate the world of nursing philosophy, and create excitement about its potential for their practice—what can be the highest reward for an instructor? This is the goal I set for myself! My teaching draws on diverse examples of nursing philosophical scholarship authored by IPONS members and friends of the Society. It is cool that I can tell students I know many authors personally!
I first encountered IPONS in 2009 as a graduate student and have since been attending its stimulating conferences and serving as an abstract reviewer. Belonging to the IPONS now feels like a part of my identity! I am proud that in 2014, I won First Prize in the IPONS student writing contest for my paper on phenomenology. I have served on the IPONS Executive Board before being elected as Vice Chair in 2021.
Over the last 4 years, my most significant contributions to the Society include:
- A presentation at the virtual panel co-hosted by the IPONS and the Centre for Nursing Philosophy at the University of California Irvine (CNP UCI) in 2020. I spoke about challenges and opportunities for nursing philosophy in research-intensive nursing departments in academia.
- I co-facilitated, with Dr. M. Bender, CNP UCI, the inaugural international reading group on actor-network theory in Spring 2021.
- A keynote presentation, “Farwell to humanism?”, at the 23rd IPONS conference in Irvine, California, in August 2022.
- I led the working group to organize a virtual panel (co-hosted by IPONS and CNP UCI) on Critical Posthumanism in Nursing. This webinar panel took place in January 2024, where I co-presented with Dr. M. Risjord on implications of posthumanism for qualitative research.
- I continued to be active on the Executive Board particularly contributing to conversations about the future of IPONS. It was inspiring to see how the Society embraced digital platforms for events over the last year and enhanced its international presence.
Being active in the IPONS networks for 15 years, I am eager to continue in the role of Vice Chair. My vision for strengthening the role of Society involves both nurturing its traditions (eg, annual conferences, reviving the student essay contest, enhancing the website) and embracing new opportunities such as targeted efforts to attract graduate students. In addition to annual conferences, Zoom panels offer a great venue for nursing philosophical scholarship. I support the Society’s efforts to use philosophical and theoretical tools to analyze social inequities and discrimination experienced by many communities; this work will be ongoing as nursing revisits its past and engages in a struggle to create a better world.
Education
- PhD 2016, Nursing, University of Victoria, Canada
- BScN 2007, Nursing, York University, Toronto, Canada