Research Fridays @ Intersections of Gender - My body is my kitchen tool: Disability in the kitchen

IG welcomes Alexis Hillyard (she/her), a queer and disabled YouTube creator of the show Stump Kitchen, self-taught vegan chef, and entrepreneur who will present a "limbs on” cooking demonstration showing disability in action, peppered with real life experiences and stories relating to accessibility, ableism, fetishization, disability representation, and her personal cooking journey.

Hosted by Danielle Peers (they/them), Tier II Canada Research Chair in Disability and Movement Cultures and the Co-director of the Just Movements CreateSpace and Co-PI of the Re-Creation Collective.

Bios

Alexis Hillyard (she/her) is a queer and disabled YouTube creator, self-taught vegan chef, and entrepreneur. Born without her left hand, Alexis uses her stump as a kitchen tool - from spatula to juicer - while expanding the vocabulary of what's possible in the kitchen each week on her YouTube show Stump Kitchen. This series celebrates body diversity, gluten free vegan cooking, and the amazing, unique ways we move through the world. In 2016 and 2018, Stump Kitchen won Best Food Blog in VUE Magazine’s Best of Edmonton, Canada. In 2017, Alexis was named the first Canadian Ambassador to the Lucky Fin Project, an organization dedicated to limb difference awareness, education, and celebration. Alexis was also awarded the Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada for her Stump Kitchen work, one of the highest honours that Canada can bestow on its citizens.

Danielle Peers (they/them) is a Canada Research Chair in Disability and Movement Cultures (SSHRC, Tier II), a Killam Laureate (Accelerator Award), and Associate Professor, Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation. Alongside traditional academic publications, Peers also does research-creation and arts-based research, through dance/performance art and film. They completed a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship in Communication Studies at Concordia University in Montreal (2016), focusing on research-creation methods in critical disability studies and completed their PhD and Masters at the University of Alberta, working from the Sociocultural and Adapted Physical Activity areas, respectively. Peers previously competed as a Paralympic Athlete in wheelchair basketball (2002-2007), winning a bronze Paralympic medal and a world Championship. They also competed on several professional-level men’s teams. Further, they coached both wheelchair basketball and “stand up” basketball from local to elite levels (1993 – 2012), including assistant coaching at MacEwan University and program coaching for Wheelchair Basketball Canada.