Rachel Loewen Walker teaches in the Women's and Gender studies program, housed within Political Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. Prior to this she was the Ariel F. Sallows Chair in Human Rights with the College of Law (2020-22) and the Executive Director of OUTSaskatoon (2013-2020), a 2SLGBTQ community centre. During her time with OUTSaskatoon she started Pride Home, a long-term, 2SLGBTQ+ group home and moved OUTSaskatoon from a second floor location to its bright, street-front home on Ave C in Saskatoon's core. In 2017, Rachel began working with 2SLGBTQ+ leaders across Canada to develop The Enchanté Network, a national organization that aims to build the capacity and reach of Two Spirit and LGBTQ Centres country-wide. Enchanté incorporated in 2020 and Rachel currently serves as the President of The Enchanté Network's board of directors.

Rachel has a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Alberta and spent more than 10 years as a sessional instructor at the University of Saskatchewan, teaching in the fields of queer theory, feminist media studies, and feminist philosophy. Rachel has worked in a number of research capacities including with the Indigenous Peoples’ Health Research Centre, the Prairie Region Health Promotion Centre, and the Canadian Mental Health Association. While at OUTSaskatoon, Rachel developed the organization’s 2SLGBTQ research portfolio, focusing on community-led research and evaluation that supported effective and comprehensive programs and services for 2SLGBTQ people. This work has led to her development of the SSHRC-funded Social Innovation Lab on Gender and Sexuality, an interdisciplinary, community-led knowledge mobilization hub, that works with students, community organizations, and researchers to action projects for community partners. 

Alongside research interests in queer theory, 2SLGBTQ+ communities, feminist theory, continental philosophy, and human rights and social justice, Rachel has developed expertise in non-profit organization management, facilitation, leadership, and policy analysis. It is in bringing these multiple points of contact that she aims to open up spaces for social change, cultural diversity, and greater collaboration across non-profit, university, governmental, and other spheres.

BOOKS

Loewen Walker, R. (2022). Queer and Deleuzian Temporalities: Stories from a Living Present. Bloomsbury: London.

BOOK CHAPTERS

Tait, C., Henry, B., Loewen Walker, R. (2018). Child Welfare: A Social Determinant of Health For Canadian First Nations and Métis Children? In R. Henry, A. LaVallee, N. Van Styvendale, & R.A. Innes (Eds.), Global Indigenous Health: Reconciling the Past, Engaging the Present, Animating the Future, (pp. 151-173). Tuscon: University of Arizona Press.

Loewen Walker, R., Peers, D., Eales, L. (2016). New Constellations: Lived Diffractions of Dis/ability and Dance. In Bios: Feminist Philosophies of Life. Montreal: McGill-Queens Press.

Loewen Walker, R. (2010). Politically queer: Ellen Degeneres and the changing face of American television 1997-2007. In J. Elledge (Ed.), Queers in American Popular Culture, vol 1 (pp. 1-24). Santa Barbara: Praeger.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Loewen Walker, R. & Hartman, A. (2022). Putting Universities at Risk: A Story of Fear and Self-Loathing. Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Learning 8 (1).

Loewen Walker, R. (2022) Call it Misogyny. Feminist Theory xx(x): 1-22

Dykhuizen, M, Marshal, K., Loewen Walker, R., & Saddleback, J. (2022). Holistic Health of Two Spirit People in Canada: A Call for Nursing Action. Journal of Holistic Nursing xx (x): 1-14.

Niemanis, A. & Loewen Walker, R. (Translation into Turkish) ‘Weathering’: Climate Change and the ‘Thick Time’ of Transcorporeality.Feminist Approaches in Culture and Politics [Kultur ve Siyasette Feminist Yaklasimlar].

2014). Avner, Z, Bridel, W., Eales, L., Glenn, N., Loewen Walker, R., & Danielle Peers. (2014). Moved to Messiness: Physical Activity, Feelings, and Transdisciplinarity.” Emotion, Space and Society 12: 55-62.

Loewen Walker, R. (2014). The Living Present as a Materialist Feminist Temporality. Women: A Cultural Review 25 (1): 46-61.

Neimanis, A. & Loewen Walker, R.  (2014). Weathering: Climate Change and the ‘Thick Time’ of Transcorporeality.” Hypatia 29 (3): 558-575.

Loewen Walker, R. (2014). A fair country?: A feminist and postcolonial reading of Canada’s colonial encounter. Canadian Journal of Native Studies 34 (1): 117-131.

Tait, C., Henry, B., & Loewen Walker, R.  (2013). Child Welfare: A Social Determinant of Health For Canadian First Nations and Métis Children?” Pimatisiwin, 11 (1): 45-60.

Loewen Walker, R. (2013). Environment imagining otherwise. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, vol 10 (1): 34-37.

Loewen Walker, R. (2011). “Toward a FIERCE nomadology: Contesting queer geographies on the Christopher Street Pier. PhaenEx, 6 (1).

Loewen Walker, R.  (2008). Becoming queer: Performance art and constructions of identity. Gnosis, 9 (3), 1-25.

Loewen Walker, R. (2004). ‘Queer’ing identity/ies: Agency and subversion in Canadian education. The Canadian Online Journal of Queer Studies in Education, 1(1).

SELECT COMMUNITY REPORTS 

Loewen Walker, R., MacLean, I., & LeBlanc, K. (2021). Driving Transformational Change: Recommendations for Funders in Supporting 2SLGBTQ Community Organizations. The Enchanté Network and the Social Innovation Lab on Gender and Sexuality.

Loewen Walker, R., (2019). OUTSaskatoon’s Recommendations to the Standing Committee on Health: LGBTQ2 Health in Canada. Presented to the Federal Government of Canada. Ottawa, ON.

Loewen Walker, R., Matthews, C. (2014). Policy Recommendation: Toward the Inclusion of Gender Identity and Expression as Protected Grounds in the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code. The Avenue Community Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity. Saskatoon, SK.

Loewen Walker, R., & Tait, C. (2011). Medical morality and the local worlds of Indigenous peoples: Situating the ethical gaze across the broad spectrum of health care delivery. Indigenous Peoples Health Research Centre and the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Loewen Walker, R., & Tait, C. (2010). An overview of Euro-North American theoretical and applied ethical models that influence Canadian health care. Indigenous Peoples’ Health Research Centre, University of Saskatchewan.

Loewen Walker, R., & Williams, L. (2008). On equal ground? Illustrating the tensions between western and indigenous worldviews in mental health promotion. Prairie Region Health Promotion Research Centre: Saskatoon, SK. 74 pp.

Loewen Walker, R., & Williams, L. (2008). A review and analysis of key constructs in mental health promotion related literature as these inform contemporary practice. Prairie Region Health Promotion Research Centre: Saskatoon, SK. 52pp.

COURSES FOR 2022/23 ACADEMIC YEAR

WGST 220: Queering the Terrain: Queer Theory and Cultural Space (Fall Term)

WGST 311: Contemporary Feminist Theory (Fall Term)

WGST 112: Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies (Winter Term)

WGST 390: Social Justice in Action (Winter Term)

Social Innovation Lab on Gender and Sexuality
SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (2021-2024)

The Social Innovation Lab on Gender and Sexuality (SIL) is made up of students, community partners, and scholars in gender and sexualities studies, community-based participatory research (CBPR), human rights law, and social justice. SIL is a community-university “laboratory” that brings communities and individuals together to collaborate on intersectional projects. The academic team members take responsibility for training and supervision, while community organizations lead and determine the scope, timelines, and goals of the projects.

SIL amplifies the resiliencies of gender and sexually diverse communities, including their tremendous creativity and capacity for innovation. SIL’s inter-sectoral approach helps to explore social, cultural, legal, and political environments, supporting outcomes such as policy development around trans rights, supporting increased legal protections for 2SLGBTQ+ people in prisons, and advocating for access to comprehensive healthcare for gender affirming surgeries, among many other projects.

Queering Leadership, Indigenizing Governance
SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (2022-2027)

PhD, Philosophy, 2019 (University of Alberta): The Matter of Time: Stories from a Living Present

MA, Philosophy, 2009 (University of Saskatchewan): Becoming Queer: From Rhetoric to Rhizomes and Toward and Ethics of Accountability

BA, Dbl Honours in WGST and Philosophy, 2008 (University of Saskatchewan)