Media
The Agenda: Freedom of Expression on Campus
November 30, 2017 panel discussion on The Agenda with Steve Paikin on the topic of freedom of expression on campuses.
Innovate: Creating Accessible Learning Environments
A Council of Ontario Universities video offering tips on creating learning environments and instructional design that is accessible to all learners.
Discover: An Educator's Introduction to the AODA
A Council of Ontario Universities video introducing educators to the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), and discussing the basics of accessible instruction.
A Short History and Philosophy of the Sexes
A public lecture on the history and philosophy of biological sex. How many sexes are there? It turns out that the question is more puzzling than you might think.
Using Learn Quizzes to Help Scaffold Active, Critical Reading Skills
Looking for a way to get students reading and reflecting on course texts before they come to class so that they're better prepared to participate in class discussions? Shannon Dea uses LEARN's quiz feature to scaffold active, critical reading skills. She'll share examples of this from her second year Philosophy/Women's Studies course.
Rape Culture and Trans People
A 15 minute lecture about rape culture and trans people. The lecture was delivered at the University of Waterloo in September 2016 as part of the Faculty of Arts' Rape Culture Teach-a-Thon.
Canadian Scholars Boycott U.S. Conferences
CBC News, February 1, 2017Television
URL: http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/867718211641
Suhana Meharchand interviews Shannon Dea about Canadian academics' boycott of travel to the U.S. in light of President Trump's travel ban on citizens from selected Muslim countries.
Why words like 'policeman' and 'repairman' could soon be obsolete
CBC The Morning Edition K-W, July 19, 2019Radio/Podcast
URL: http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1573413443951/
This is one of 12 CBC Radio 1 interviews across the country that I did on this topic.
Provincially ordered policy on free speech at Ontario colleges and universities
CBC Ontario Morning, December 18, 2018Radio/Podcast
Story starts at 33:05. (This is one of 10 CBC Radio 1 interviews across the province that I did on this topic.)
Reclaiming B!#ch?
Very Bad Words, March 7, 2018Radio/Podcast
URL: https://www.acast.com/verybadwords/26-minicast-reclaimingb-ch-
B!#ch is Back
Very Bad WordsRadio/Podcast
Matt Gurney interview with Shannon Dea about New York Magazine cover featuring Bill Cosby sexual assault accusers
SiriusXM National Post Radio, July 28, 2015Radio/Podcast
Campaign against campus appearance by far-right activist Faith Goldy raises over $12,000
The Globe and Mail, April 26, 2018Print
Are University Campuses Where Free Speech Goes to Die?
The Walrus, May 22, 2019Print
URL: https://thewalrus.ca/are-university-campuses-where-free-speech-goes-to-die/
The Role of Faculty Associations Following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Academic Matters, May 1, 2019Print
Free Speech and the Battle for the University
Academic Matters, November 1, 2018Print
URL: https://academicmatters.ca/free-speech-and-the-battle-for-the-university/
Has #MeToo lost focus?
Gulf News, January 25, 2018Print
URL: http://gulfnews.com/your-say/your-view/has-metoo-lost-focus-1.2163060
#MeToo: Taking it lightly?
Gulf News, October 26, 2017Print
URL: http://gulfnews.com/your-say/your-view/metoo-taking-it-lightly-1.2113528
Look Both Ways Before You Ban Abortion
Waterloo Chronicle, May 3, 2012Print
URL: https://www.waterloochronicle.ca/opinion-story/5906996-look-both-ways-before-you-ban-abortion/
Academics boycott US conferences over Trump travel ban
The Australian, February 2, 2017Print
Why is Algonquin supporting Saudi Arabia's gender Apartheid?
Ottawa Sun, February 1, 2016Print
URL: http://www.ottawasun.com/2016/02/01/dea-why-is-algonquin-supporting-saudi-arabias-gender-apartheid
Canadian academics boycott U.S. conferences over Trump ban
Toronto Star, January 31, 2017Print
Academics around the world are boycotting international conferences in the U.S. in response to Trump's Muslim travel ban.
Why words like 'policeman' and 'repairman' could soon be obsolete
The uproar over taking "man" out of "manhole"
The Conversation, July 23, 2019Online
URL: https://theconversation.com/the-uproar-over-taking-man-out-of-manhole-120821
Dispatches on Academic Freedom
University Affairs, June 1, 2019Online
URL: https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/dispatches-academic-freedom/
Professor Dea's ongoing monthly online column in University Affairs, the official magazine of Universities Canada.
How can leaders, including teachers, chairs, deans, etc. respond to failure in a way that nurtures the will to try again?
Faculty of Arts, University of Waterloo, January 12, 2016Online
URL: https://uwaterloo.ca/arts/blog/post/how-can-leaders-including-teachers-chairs-deans-etc-respond
What do mistakes and setbacks teach us?
Faculty of Arts, University of WaterlooOnline
URL: https://uwaterloo.ca/arts/blog/post/what-do-mistakes-and-setbacks-teach-us
Four strategies to help students feel safe(r) making mistakes
Faculty of Arts, University of WaterlooOnline
URL: https://uwaterloo.ca/arts/blog/post/what-strategies-do-you-use-teach-or-communicate-its
How can we cultivate the courage to take risks and embrace challenge in teaching and learning? Why should we do so?
Faculty of Arts, University of Waterloo, January 12, 2016Online
URL: https://uwaterloo.ca/arts/blog/post/how-can-we-cultivate-courage-take-risks-and-embrace
Electronics in the classroom – time to hit the “escape” key?
Faculty of Arts, University of Waterloo, January 6, 2015Online
URL: https://uwaterloo.ca/arts/blog/post/electronics-classroom-time-hit-escape-key
Canadians take to Twitter to report ‘barbaric cultural practices’ to government
University of Waterloo spending $1M on pay equity for female faculty
CTV News, August 4, 2016Online
Beyond the Binary: Thinking About Sex and Gender
by Shannon Dea
Broadview Press
May 15, 2016
9781554812837 / 1554812836
How many sexes are there? What is the relationship between sex and gender? Is gender a product of nature, or nurture, or both? In Beyond the Binary, Shannon Dea addresses these questions and others while introducing readers to evidence and theoretical perspectives from a range of cultures and disciplines, and from sources spanning three millennia. Dea’s pluralistic and historically informed approach offers readers a timely background to current debates about sex and gender in the media, health sciences, and public policy.
Curriculum vitae
For my full scholarly publication history, click here for my curriculum vitae.
Biography
Shannon Dea is the Dean of Arts at University of Regina. Her recent research spans academic freedom and related issues, equity and accessibility in higher education, sex and gender, harm reduction, abortion, and history of philosophy. She is the author of Beyond the Binary: Thinking About Sex and Gender (Broadview: 2016), and of numerous articles and book chapters. Shannon is the creator and author of Dispatches on Academic Freedom, a monthly University Affairs column. She regularly engages with the media and the public, especially on issues related to academic and expressive freedom, or gender and social justice.
Recognition/Reconnaissance
Distinguished Teacher Award | Professional
University of Waterloo's highest award for excellence in teaching.
Leading Women Building Communities | Personal
Ontario Women's Directorate award for women and girls who are having a positive impact on their communities.
Past Talks
President's Luncheon on Academic Freedom
University of Waterloo, March 12, 2018
Testimonials
...Shannon Dea contributes something wonderful and surprising: a new perspective on the entrenched and calcified debate over the morality of abortion. Dea points out that--as anyone concerned with the moral considerability of nonhuman animals or of the environment well knows--fetuses may be morally considerable without being persons. Dea calls for a "harm reduction" approach to abortion, arguing that we should concern ourselves with the lives and suffering of both women and fetuses, "and that such concern is consistent with the view that abortions ought to be safe and accessible" (290) because safe and legal abortion effectively minimizes harms for all concerned. Dea's article is strongly argued, and by grounding her argument in the well-established public health paradigm of harm reduction, she provides a refreshingly practical and evidence-based approach. Her article would be a good fit for humanities classes discussing abortion and morality, but also for classes in public health or public policy. I look forward to teaching it in my moral philosophy classes in the future.
http://hypatiareviews.org/reviews/content/329
Thank you again for coming this weekend. It was truly so invaluable and wonderful to have you. We enjoyed your talk so much and your companionship, contribution and advice throughout the conference and talks was so very much appreciated by all the students. We've never had a guest speaker as involved, charismatic and instrumental as you were. So I thank you again.