Biographical Information:    

Professor Cushing comes to King’s from a year in Scotland to teach two SJPS core courses and sociology. A Cultural Anthropologist, her research interests include: cultural and justice dimensions of health (disability studies, developmental disability, social inclusion, caregiving, quality of life), the politics of difference, organizational cultures, ethics in methodology, and linking alternative pedagogies with civic engagement. She grew up in Montreal, speaks French and German, and has made home in various places in Ontario, Europe, U.S.A. & Togo.

In 2004-5 she was a SSHRC Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at University of Aberdeen, Scotland doing participant observation fieldwork with youth with complex needs and developmental impairments on questions of well-being and social inclusion with the Camphill residential schools. She was awarded her PhD and Master’s in Anthropology from McMaster University. Her doctoral ethnography involved intense fieldwork as a caregiver in L'Arche Canada communities for adults with physical & intellectual disabilities. She examined their organizational enculturation processes and narratives that help shape and stimulate the moral imagination of young caregivers.

<>Her Masters research used a rites of passage framework to assess how course culture contributes (or not) to student transformation on Outward Bound outdoor, experiential education programmes. Her undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University with a thesis on the ethics of marketing partnerships between non-profits and businesses. She has worked as a marketing and advertising manager at Procter & Gamble (Tide, Bounce, & Cheer) and done various consumer research projects.

Office Location: 
Dante Lenardon Hall 109

Office Hours:
by appointment

Phone:
433-3491 ext. 4469

Website: www.pamelacushing.com

Email: pcushin@uwo.ca