Maria Nengeh Mensah, UQAM
Maria Nengeh Mensah is a professor at the School of Social Work and at the Institute for Research and Feminist Studies at UQAM. She is the principal researcher of the Cultures du témoignage | Testimonial Cultures project and co-leader of the three working committees. She specializes in the dynamics of social exclusion linked to women’s health and sexuality, and in collective action against stigma. Her main research interests are the social discourse concerning sexual marginalities and the knowledge/powers of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Janik Bastien-Charlebois, UQAM
Janik Bastien-Charlebois is a professor at the Sociology Department of the UQAM and co-researcher for Testimonial Cultures.
Jade Bourdages-Lafleur, UQAM
Jade Bourdages-Lafleur is a professor in the Social Work Department at UQAM and co-researcher for Testimonial Cultures.
Catherine Chesnay, UQAM
Catherine Chesnay is a professor in the Social Work Department at the UQAM and co-researcher for Testimonial Cultures. She completed a Ph.D. in population health at the University of Ottawa. She is involved in the Committee for Intercultural and International Exchanges (CEII), the EQE Committee, as well as in the Nouvelles pratiques sociales editorial team. Her research interests revolve around the following themes: women and prison, intervention with groups, penal policies, social policies, sociology of health. She is currently the principal investigator on a research project focusing on the public testimonies of women who have been put to trial or who have come into conflict with the law.
Nesrine Bessaïh , UQAM
Nesrine Bessaïh (Ph.D.) is an anthropologist, post-doctoral student in social work (UQAM) and associate professor at the Institute for Research and Feminist Studies (UQAM). From 2022 to 2024 she is pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship under the supervision of Professor Maria Nengeh Mensah.
Jamie Wilson Goodyear, Collège John Abbot
Jamie Wilson Goodyear is an artist (glass & ceramic) and Ph.D. candidate in Études et pratiques des arts at UQAM (defense Fall 2020). His doctoral research-intervention followed the development of Témoigner pour Agir as a queer HIV+ co-curator. His artistic practice combines critical thinking about artistic testimonials, queerness, and living with HIV as a curator and as a maker in the margins between craft and art. He is part-time faculty in the Visual Arts Department and the Arts, Literature and Communications Program at John Abbott College.
Tanguy Hedrich, COCQ-SIDA
Tanguy Hedrich is the community research coordinator at COCQ-SIDA.
Marie Houzeau, GRIS Montréal
Marie Houzeau is the general director of GRIS Montréal. She is a member of the general assembly of the project and sits on the working committee on the testimony of sexual and gender minorities.
Edward Ou Jin Lee, Université de Montréal
Edward Ou Jin Lee is a professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Montreal.
Ève Lamoureux, Département d’histoire de l’art, UQAM
Ève Lamoureux is a professor at the Art History Department of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Her research focuses on art and political reflection, particularly on engaged arts and, community arts and cultural mediation. She is a member of the Centre de recherche Cultures – Arts – Sociétés (CELAT) and the Observatoire des médiations culturelles (OMEC). She recently co-edited the following books: with Julie Paquette and Emmanuelle Sirois, Arts. Entre libertés et scandales. Études de cas (Nota Bene, 2020); with Francine Saillant, InterReconnaissance. La mémoire des droits dans le milieu communautaire au Québec (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2018); with Magali Uhl, Le vivre-ensemble à l’épreuve des pratiques culturelles et artistiques contemporaines (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2018); and with Nathalie Casemajor, Marcelle Dubé, Jean-Marie Lafortune, Expériences critiques de la médiation culturelle (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2017).
Julie Lavigne, UQAM
Julie Lavigne is an art historian and professor at the Sexology Department of the UQAM. She is a member professor of the Réseau québécois en études féministes and the Institut d’études et de recherches féministes. Her research focuses on feminist contemporary art. the representation of sexuality in art and television series and feminist and queer pornography.
Véronique Leduc, UQAM
Véronique Leduc is a professor in the Department of Social and Public Communication and in the Cultural Action Program at the UQAM. Artist and researcher associated with various partnerships, her research and practices are articulated through research-creation approaches and critical, feminist, queer, intersectional, crip (disabled) and deaf perspectives. A member of Cultures of Testimony since its inception, she has notably coordinated the production of three DVD compilations bringing together testimonies from people living with HIV and people with experience of sex work. Together with Nengeh Mensah and Ève Lamoureux, she is currently conducting a study on the reception of the exhibition Témoigner pour Agir.
Ken Monteith, COCQ-SIDA
Ken Monteith is the executive director of COCQ-SIDA. He is a member of the general assembly of the project and sits on the working committee on the testimony of people living with HIV. According to Ken, sharing personal stories is important. He explores such themes in his blog Talk to the Hump as well as in his contributions to various online publications.
Olivier Vallerand, The Design School, Arizona State University (É.-U.)
Olivier Vallerand is a research coordinator at GRIS Montreal and professor at the Arizona State University. He is a member of the general assembly of the project and sits on the working committee on the testimony of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender or intersex. His interest in the project is based on more than twenty years of involvement in community organizations and student associations working against homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia and more specifically on his experience of testimony in schools with GRIS Montréal and GRIS Québec since 2001.
Sandra Wesley, Stella
Sandra Wesley is the director of Stella, l’amie de Maimie.
Collaborators
- Coalition pour l’action et la surveillance de l’incarcération des femmes au Québec (CASIFQ)
- Alexandre Baril, School of Social Work, University of Ottawa
- Emmanuelle Bernheim, Droit/Law, University of Ottawa, Chaire de recherche du Canada en santé mentale et accès à la justice
- Noémie Boisclair, École de Travail social, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
- Sam Bourcier, Université Lille 3 (France)
- Karine Espineira, Observatoire des transidentités (France)
- Marie-Ève Gauvin, Social Service, Cégep régional de Lanaudière
- Alexis Grussi, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Marseille)
- Claire Lahuerta, Centre de recherche sur les médiations, U de Lorraine (France)
- Hélène Martin, Haute école de travail social et de la santé (Suisse)
- Élisabeth Mercier, Sociology, Laval University
Additional contributors
We would like to extend our warmest thanks to the people who have participated in and contributed to this project over the years:
- Aj Ausina Dirtystein, postdoctoral researcher, IREF-UQAM
- Alain Ayotte, research assistant (art history), UQAM
- Alexandra Uhrig, intern (anthropology), Concordia University
- Anna-Aude Caouette, Stella l’amie de Maimie
- Aurélie Hot, community research coordinator, COCQ-SIDA
- Bruno Laprade, PolitiQ – queer radical Montreal
- Carol-Anne Vallé, research assistant (social work), UQAM
- Catherine Lebel, research assistant (social work), UQAM
- Charlotte Guerlotté, community research coordinator, COCQ-SIDA
- Chris Bruckert, professor at the Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa
- Cyrielle Maison, research assistant (human rights law), UQAM
- Elena Santana Parrilla, intern (psychology), Concordia University
- Elisabeth Miller, Department of Communication Studies, Concordia University
- Émilie Laliberté, Stella l’amie de Maimie
- Emily Symons, Prostitutes of Ottawa/Gatineau Work, Educate & Resist (POWER)
- Erin Benzakein, intern (independent student), Concordia University
- Eve-Lyne Cayouette-Asby, associate director of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University
- Florence Marchand, research assistant (social work), UQAM
- Gabriel Giroux, research assistant (social work), UQAM
- “Gary”, Aide aux trans du Québec (ATQ)
- Geneviève Chicoine, Service aux collectivités, UQAM
- Ian Bradley-Perrin, intern (history), Concordia University
- Isabelle Robichaud, research assistant (social work), UQAM
- Joyce Rock, Stella l’amie de Maimie
- Julie Marceau, research assistant (sexology), UQAM
- Kelsey Traikov, intern (women’s studies), Concordia University
- Kira McLean, intern (psychology and interdisciplinary studies in sexuality), Concordia University
- Laura Gagnon, research assistant (social work), UQAM
- Laurence Gagnon, research assistant and coordinator of the Témoigner pour Agir exhibition (travail social), UQAM
- Laurie Fournier, research assistant (social work), UQAM
- Martine Delvaux, Literary Studies Department, UQAM
- Maryka Henry, research assistant (sociology), UQAM
- Mathieu-Joël Gervais, Aide aux trans du Québec (ATQ)
- Maude Ménard-Dunns, research assistant (social work), UQAM
- Mélina Bernier, community research coordinator, COCQ-SIDA
- Mélyssa Legault, Aide aux trans du Québec (ATQ)
- Myriam Pomerleau, research assistant (social work), UQAM
- Philip Lichti, CHORN, Concordia University
- Simon Corneau, professor at the Sexology Department, UQAM
- Sindi Numa, intern (biochemistry), Concordia University
- Stephanie Alyson Gravel, Aide aux trans du Québec (ATQ)
- Steven High, Department of History, Concordia University
- Sylvie Jochems, Social Work School, UQAM