dr. reisa klein, research associate

Dr. Reisa Klein (she/her) is an Adjunct Academic Colleague in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies (MLCS). With a PhD in Communication from Carleton University, her research examines mediated representations of gender, embodiment, and health through an intersectional lens. Current research includes the emerging trend of commemorative Holocaust tattoos by descendants of Holocaust survivors, and the social significance of making Jewish identities more visible in a contemporary context of increased antisemitism (SSHRC Insight Development Grant), and the healing role of tattooing practices in response to individual and collective trauma including in the contexts of self-harm, sexual assault, systemic racism, and colonization (SSHRC Insight Grant). Additionally, Dr. Klein’s recently completed postdoctoral research investigated the emerging practice of mastectomy tattoos by breast cancer patients in the cosmetic masking of post-operative mastectomy scars and their implications for a digital feminist body politics. Recent publications include: ‘When the phallus is a “dick”: The cultural/material turn to breasts’ (With D. Woodman) in the Routledge Companion to Gender, Sexuality and Culture (2022) and ‘Chosen scars: Breast cancer and mastectomy tattooing as digital feminist body politics’ in Talking Bodies Vol. II: Bodily Languages, Selfhood and Transgression (2020).

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