May Friedman

BIO

PhD

May Friedman’s research looks at unstable identities, including bodies that do not conform to traditional racial and national or aesthetic lines.  Most recently much of May’s research has focused on intersectional approaches to fat studies considering the multiple and fluid experiences of both fat oppression and fat activism.  May works at Ryerson University as a faculty member in the School of Social Work and in the Ryerson/York graduate program in Communication and Culture. 

In addition to May’s academic work, she is the mother of four children, all delivered by midwives.  This project blends May’s passion for studying birth and motherhood with her work on ethnicity and race.  May will be supporting the project by bringing in guidance on arts-based methods.

Recent publications include explorations of fat and fertility, reproduction and parenting, examinations of fat temporalities and writing on the intersections of family and social media platforms such as Instagram. May is an affiliate of ReVision Centre for Arts and Social Justice at the U of Guelph with whom she has partnered to support the production of digital stories on a range of themes. May is excited to assist in the supervision and support of student RAs, particularly in the training of videography. Her qualitative discourse analysis skills and experience will be invaluable in the analysis of the videotaped transcripts from a critical sociological and feminist lens. She will also work on preparation of the texts for journal publication.