School of Social and Political Science

Profile

Karissa is a historian of gender, sexuality, health, and activism in the late 20th century. Her current project, ‘Wombs of the Nation,’ comparatively analyses the politics of reproductive healthcare in Canada and the United Kingdom from 1967 to the 1980s. Before joining the Centre for Biomedicine, Self, and Society at the University of Edinburgh, she researched the history of the self-exam as a feminist health practice, collaborating with Whitney Wood, as a postdoctoral fellow at Vancouver Island University. Her doctoral work at the University of Saskatchewan examined the history of local birth control centres in Southern Alberta. Some of this work is featured in her co-edited collection, Bucking Conservatism (open access).