Joanna Gye
Bio: MA in Gender and Social Justice Studies (2022)
Graduated from the University of Alberta with a major in Sociology and minor in Political Science. Joanna joined as a part-time student of the 2019/2020 cohort while working full-time.
Joanna originally planned to research health inequities in marginalized communities. But early on in the program, Joanna was inspired to follow a different direction. After reading guest discussant Dr. Doris Kieser’s article “The Female Body in Catholic Theology: Menstruation, Reproduction and Autonomy” for the GSJ 502 Gender and Research Workshop course. Taking on a Muslim focus, Joanna decided to address Muslim women's experiences of menstruation and period shaming during Ramadan. Joanna opted to do a short documentary for the capping project rather than write a paper so that her work would be more accessible. Joanna recruited seven Muslim women from Edmonton and Calgary for interviews, which she then turned into a 35-minute documentary entitled Men Must Not Know: Concealment and Menstruation.To accompany the documentary, Joanna wrote a 10-page research paper focused on how Islam's teachings around menstruation have been distorted in a religion dominated by men.
Joanna volunteers with Days for Girls Edmonton, an affiliate with Days for Girls International. Days for Girls is a not for profit organization that provides safe, reusable menstrual kits around the world. Joanna will be joining the University of Alberta School of Business 2024/2025 cohort to complete the part-time MBA.
Link to Documentary
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17gQA3st6CTX7L4d5c4RJvt5jb0R1-LX0/view?usp=drive_link