Jessica Shaw, PhD, MSW, BSW, BA (RSW)

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Calgary, Canada
Master of Social Work - specialization in Gender and Women's Studies, Lakehead University, Canada
Honours Bachelor of Social Work, Lakehead University, Canada
Baccalaureate of Arts - joint specialization in Psychology and Feminist and Gender Studies, University of Ottawa, Canada
Close up image of Dr. Shaw's smiling face. They have long brown hair and are wearing navy glasses and a light grey blazer. They are resting their chin on their hand.

Areas of Research

(Subversive) Autonomous Health Movements
Especially abortion rights, including access to abortion outside of medicolegal systems (ex. self-managed abortion, home abortion provision, herbal abortion, lay providers, activist providers).
Gender and Sexuality
Especially research and work that is affirming of queer, transgender, and gender non-conforming experiences of community, health, and/or (in)justice.
Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD)
Especially understanding perceptions and experiences of end-of-life care - including MAiD - of people who have limited social and medical supports (ex. people experiencing poverty, prisoners), and qualitative experiences of MAiD provision. Dr. Shaw is an internationally recognized expert on assisted dying for incarcerated people as it relates to social determinant of health.
Relational Accountability
Especially work that is rooted in and led by community, and as informed by: community-based participatory action research, standpoint theory, intersectional analysis, sex and gender based analysis, queer phenomenology, oral and narrative ways of knowing, decolonial and Indigenous ways of knowing, ethical space, parallel practices, and anti-racism.

Supervising degrees

Social Work - Doctoral: Accepting Inquiries
Social Work - Masters: Accepting Inquiries

Working with this supervisor

I use she/they pronouns. I value relational accountability in a supervisory arrangement, where both supervisor and student work together to build trust and to engage in open and transparent dialogue. It is important to me that students feel respected and supported during our time together. I value students who approach me with research ideas of their own, and who seek to engage in social justice work through research. To better understand my program of research, I have included some of my recent projects below. 

PROJECTS (Updated September 2024; *refers to ongoing projects)

Creative Outcomes

Abortion and mothering: Research, stories, and artistic expressions (completed)

The Calgary Homeless Memorial Project: Public art as an expression of community advocacy and research (completed)

Indigenous-led

*Developing an Indigenous model of mental wellness (ongoing)

2SLGBTQIA+ 

*Community-based peer support as a mitigating factor of transgender and gender non-confirming suicidality (ongoing)

Implications of Queer experiences of psychedelic states of consciousness on the development and practice of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (completed)

Women's experiences of treatment-emergent sexual dysfunction (completed)

How waiting for medical care affects the well-being of trans* people in Alberta (completed)

Menstruation, Abortion, Birth 

*Self-managed abortion: Demystified, demedicalized, decentralized, decriminalized, destigmatized (ongoing)

Menstrual Product Programs and Free Vend Dispensers (completed)

What happens beyond the clinic?: New data on home abortion providers and practices in North America (completed)

Assessment, education, and outreach related to mifepristone knowledge and access among community-based abortion providers outside the formal healthcare system in the United States (completed) 

Physicians of conscience: A narrative inquiry with Canadian abortion providers (completed)

Pregnant peoples' experiences with birth doulas in Winnipeg, MB (completed)

The medicalization of birth and midwifery as resistance (completed)

A feminist discourse on how the concepts of choice, informed consent, and empowerment are constructed in medical birthing literature (completed)

Medical Assistance in Dying

Exploring palliative care and medical assistance in dying in Canadian prisons (completed)

Clinical presentations of suicidality in relation to medical assistance in dying (completed)

Acute advanced requests for medical assistance in dying: A pilot project (completed)

Perceptions and experiences of medical assistance in dying in marginalized communities: Including illicit substance users, people living in poverty, and people who have experienced homelessness (completed)

Physician assisted death: The experiences of patients, support persons, and physicians (completed)

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Bridging the university/community divide: Exploring ways to implement practice-based research in social work education (completed)

Making social work accessible through the airwaves: Developing podcasting as a pedagogical approach for experiential teaching and learning (completed)

The alignment of the Virtual Learning Circles program to university strategies and online program quality standards (completed)

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