Jen Sebring

Jen Sebring is a graduate student in Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. As an artist-activist-scholar, Jen’s work engages creatively with the social studies of medicine using feminist, queer and crip theory and arts-based methods. In particular, their interest is in the politics of navigating healthcare while living with chronic and contested illnesses. Jen’s MSc thesis sought to 1) explore how women and non-binary folks living with chronic illnesses understand and experience patienthood; and 2) document and examine the consequences of medical invalidation in and beyond the clinical encounter.

Prior to attending the University of Manitoba, Jen earned an Honours BA in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Winnipeg. Her interest in the arts bloomed as an undergrad while working as an artist-researcher in the greenhouse artlab (Dr. Roewan Crowe) and interning at Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art. Jen has also worked as a research assistant on the SSHRC-funded project Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology and Access to Life and projects related to directly-funded home care under the supervision of Dr. Christine Kelly.

A prairie kid at heart, Jen currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba with her wife, Sky, and their non-human companions: three mischievous guinea pigs (Aqua, Wink, and Pi), and an aptly named cat, Lucipurr.