Jessica Hutchison

Photo of Jessica Hutchison

Assistant Professor Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work Waterloo, Ontario jhutchison@wlu.ca

Bio/Research

I am a critical, multi-disciplinary, and community-engaged scholar, with a focus on researching and disrupting racism, settler colonialism, and gendered state violence with a specific focus on carceral sites such as prisons and policing. I firmly believe those most impacted by systems of dominati...

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Bio/Research

I am a critical, multi-disciplinary, and community-engaged scholar, with a focus on researching and disrupting racism, settler colonialism, and gendered state violence with a specific focus on carceral sites such as prisons and policing. I firmly believe those most impacted by systems of domination and oppression are best positioned to inform micro, mezzo, and macro level analyses and interventions, and my role is to work in relationship and solidarity with those facing these forms of harm.

I completed my PhD in Social Work in 2023, under the supervision of Dr. Shoshana Pollack and committee members Drs. Kathy Absolon, Jennifer Root, and Rai Reece. My research explored how the use of strip searching in women’s prisons is a form of gendered, misogynoir, and colonial genocidal state-inflicted sexual violence. My research program is informed by this work and focuses primarily on anti-carceral/abolitionist and decolonizing social work.

My decolonizing social work practice and pedagogies are deeply informed by the teachings I have received from the Centre for Indigegogy at Laurier. To date, I have completed the Advanced Decolonizing Education Certificate, Indigenous Research Series, and Introduction to Circle Work. From 2021-2022 I was a project coordinator with the Centre for Indigegogy for a SSHRC Insight Grant exploring settler and Indigenous decolonizing journeys through sharing circles and digital story-making. I am currently a research associate with the Centre.

Prior to joining the FSW, I completed my MA in Community Psychology at Laurier in 2010 and my BSc in Psychology from Western University in 2004.


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Media Relations

Aonghus Kealy
Communications and Media Relations Officer
akealy@wlu.ca
(519) 884-0710 ext. 3684

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Media Relations

Aonghus Kealy
Communications and Media Relations Officer
akealy@wlu.ca
(519) 884-0710 ext. 3684

Lori Chalmers Morrison
Director: Integrated Communications
lchalmersmorrison@wlu.ca
(519) 884-0710 ext. 3067

Deirdre Healey
Director: Communications & Issues Management
dhealey@wlu.ca
(519) 884-0710 ext. 3070

Brantford Campus:

Beth Gurney
Associate Director: Communications & Public Affairs
bgurney@wlu.ca
(519) 884-0710 ext. 5753

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