Phyllis L. F. Rippey, PhD
Phyllis L. F. Rippey, PhD, is a full professor of sociology at the University of Ottawa and former director of the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies (2023-2024). She was also an assistant professor of sociology at Acadia University from 2007-2012, where she coordinated the program in Women’s and Gender Studies in her final three years there.
Her research explores issues of inequality, especially gender inequality related to infant feeding. In Breastfeeding and the Pursuit of Happiness (McGill-Queen’s UP 2021) she draws on qualitative interviews, historical discourse analysis, and quantitative data analysis to explore how breastfeeding has been used as a tool of patriarchal, racist, colonial and capitalist interests. She has also published research in the American Sociological Review, the Journal of GLBT Family Studies, IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, and The Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, among others. Her research has caught the interest of news outlets that include Bloomberg, Le Droit, Chicago Tribune, Slate.com, GoodMorningAmerica.com, Fortune.com, Live Science, MSNBC, the Globe & Mail, and Huffington Post. Her work on the economic costs of breastfeeding was featured on the BBC World Service program the “Food Chain” and the NPR show The Takeaway.
Farinaz Basmechi, PhD
Farinaz Basmechi, PhD holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of North Texas and is currently pursuing a second PhD in Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa. Her research interests include gender and sexuality, content analysis, and digital media, and she is currently a researcher on the Lesbian and Gay Liberation in Canada project. Her dissertation in sociology was Not Just About a Piece of Cloth: Three Content Analysis Studies of an Online Anti-Mandatory Hijab Movement in Iran. In her current research, she is focusing on the graduate students’ experiences with their sexuality and sexual violence in the era of crisis. She has published research in Sociological Spectrum, First Monday and with Oxford University Press.
Contributions: 16 Tips for Succeeding in Graduate School
Vera Oko, MA
Vera Ene Oko is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Film Arts and a Master’s of Arts in Women’s Studies. Her research areas include the politics of breastfeeding, motherhood studies, feminist epistemologies, feminist theories, feminist methodologies, and global health policies. She is a creative writer whose works have found homes and been published in national and international magazines including Not Very Quiet Australia, Brittle Paper Africa, Capsule Stories USA, the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), and the F-Word literary magazine run by students at the University of Pennsylvania (forthcoming). When she is not writing and researching and even when she is writing and researching, she prides in mothering the brilliant Kimberly, her muse.
Contributions: Vera contributes to content creation for the Doing Social Research Podcast, our social media accounts, and the following posts: Writing Prompts to Overcome Writer’s Block; Five Online Tools for Doing Social Research