ramanpreet a. bahra, M.A, PhD (A.B.D)

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Education

PhD (ABD) in Sociology 2017 – Present
York University (Toronto, Canada)
Master of Arts in Sociology 2015-2016
Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada)
Bachelor of Arts in Sociology 2009-2013
Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada)

Highlight of Qualifications

  • An interdisciplinary scholar bridging critical race, disability and fat scholarship with a commitment to social justice-based education.
  • Skilled in applying intersectional pedagogical approaches that foster critical thinking, research-creation, and engaged learning.
  • Designs and delivers inclusive, multi-platform course content that promotes active student engagement with both academic material and societal contexts.
  • Certified in research ethics through the TCPS 2: CORE-2022 (Tri-Council Policy Statement)

Research Areas of Interest

  • Substantive Areas: sociology of the body and embodiment; culture and identities; fat studies; critical disability studies; critical race and ethnic studies; affect studies; biopolitical theory; feminist and queer theory; social inequality; qualitative methodology (autoethnography, research-creation, interview, somatic movement)
  • Regional Interests: North America (specifically, Canada); South Asia (specifically, India)

Course Directorships

beginning with most recent

  • SY339, Disability/Abnormality (Fall 2025) – Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada)
  • SY218, Constructions of Deviance (Winter 2025) – Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada)
  • SY339, Disability/Abnormality (Winter 2025) – Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada)
  • HS/HR219, Critical Disabilities Studies (Fall 2024) – Health Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University (Brantford, Canada)
  • SY413, Sociology of Embodiment/Disability – Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada)
  • SY339, Disability/Abnormality (Fall 2023) – Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada)

Speaking Engagements

  • Bahra, R.A and Rathinappillai, N. Cross-Pollinations’ of Sizeism within the Walls of Health/Care [Webinar, remote]. Cross-Pollinations: Canadian Health Humanities Virtual Rounds Series, League of Canadian Poets, Canadian Association for Health Humanities, and Health Arts Research Centre.
  • Bahra, R.A and Ioannoni, K. Big Shoes to Fill: Awareness and Advocacy Skills for Navigating Medical Weight Bias [Webinar, remote]. Social Workers Week 2024, Fraser Health – Joint Health Authority Planning Committee.
  • Ioannoni, K.and Bahra, R.A. Sizing Up Gender-Based Violence Services: Identifying and Dismantling Weight-Based Discrimination [Webinar, remote]. The Learning Network (LN) at Western University. https://gbvlearningnetwork.ca/webinars/recorded-webinars/2023/webinar-2023-11.html
  • Giddings, C., Sasso, T. and Bahra, R.A. Challenging Traditional Pedagogy [Workshop] Hub for Teaching and Learning Excellence at University of Guelph. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9nhKlubduE
     

Invited Keynotes

  • “Fat Femme Posthumanism: Reimagining Embodiment and Care”. Critical Femininities (August 15, 2025), Virtual. Click to see program.

Invited Guest Lectures

beginning with most recent

  • SOCI 1010, Introduction to Sociology, Dr. Amber Gazso, Department of Sociology, York University (Toronto, Canada)
    • Topic: Bodies, Health, and Ageing (Mar. 25, 2023)
  • SOSC 2110, A Critical Study of Health and Society, Dagmara Woronko, Department of Social Science, York University (Toronto, Canada)
    • Topic: Eugenics and Scientific Racism (Mar. 8, 2023)
  • SY 389, Contemporary Social Theory, Dr. James Overboe, Sociology Department, Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada)
    • Topic: Affect, fat studies, the Body (Mar. 2, 2023)
  • SY 389, Contemporary Social Theory, Dr. James Overboe, Sociology Department, Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada)
    • Topic: Critiquing Happiness (Nov. 5, 2019)
  • SY 210, Social Inequality, Dr. Jasmin Zine, SY 389, Contemporary Social Theory, Dr. James Overboe, Sociology Department, Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada)
    • Topic: Dismantling ‘Deviance’: Disability & Sexuality (Oct. 21, 2019)
  • SY 389, Contemporary Social Theory, Dr. James Overboe, Sociology Department, Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada)
    • Topic: Racism, Sexism and Sizeism (Mar. 14, 2019)
  • FRAN*6200, Becomings: Emerging Directions and Critical Dialogues in ‘the Human’ or Rethinking the Human, Dr. Carla Rice, Family Relations & Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph (Guelph, Canada)
    • Topic: What is the Posthuman? (Nov. 14, 2017)

Editorial Leadership

  • Rodier, K., Bahra, R.A., and Negus, C. (Eds.). (Forthcoming). Critical Fat Phenomenology [Special Issue]. Excessive Bodies: A Journal of Artistic and Critical Fat Praxis and Worldmakings, 2(2).
  • Taylor, A., Ioannoni, K., Bahra, R.A., Evans, C., Scriver, A. and Friedman, M. (Eds). (2023). Fat Studies in Canada: (Re)Mapping the Field. Inanna Publications and Education Inc.

Publications

Bahra, R.A. (Summer 2025). Fattening our Worldmakings: A Critical Fat-Posthumanist Assemblage of Care. Feral Feminisms, 14(2), 22-37.
Bahra, R.A., & Ioannoni, K. (2025). Reimagining our Worlds and Futures: Let’s Fatten it!. Excessive Bodies: A Journal of Artistic and Critical Fat Praxis and Worldmaking, 2(1), 1-16.
Haney, C. A., & Bahra, R.A. (2025). A Multisensory Assemblage of our Fatness: Weaving the Affective Entanglements of Fat Politic across Distance. Excessive Bodies: A Journal of Artistic and Critical Fat Praxis and Worldmaking, 2(1), 158-192.
Bahra, R.A and Ioannoni, K. (2023). An Excessively Fat Introduction. Excessive Bodies: A Journal of Artistic and Critical Fat Praxis and Worldmakings, 1(1),1-24.
Bahra, R.A. (2023). The Affective Capacity of Fatness within Debility Politics. In A. Taylor, K. Ioannoni, R. A. Bahra, C. Evans, A. Scriver, and M. Friedman (Eds), Fat Studies in Canada: (Re)Mapping the Field (pp. 396-419). Inanna Publications and Education Inc.
Bahra, R. A., Evans, C., Ionannoni, K., Taylor, A. (2023). Introduction: Our Fat Liminal Grounds. In A. Taylor, K. Ioannoni, R. A. Bahra, C. Evans, A. Scriver, M. Friedman (Eds), Fat Studies in Canada: (Re)Mapping the Field (pp. xxi-xliv). Inanna Publications and Education Inc.
Bahra, R.A & Overboe, J. (2019). Working Towards the Affirmation of Fatness and Impairment. In M. Friedman, C. Rice and J. Rinaldi (Eds.), Thickening Fat: Fat Bodies, Intersectionality, and Social Justice (pp. 197-207). Routledge.
Bahra, R.A. (2018). “You can only be happy if you’re thin!” – Normalcy, happiness and the lacking body. Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society, 7(2), 193-202.
Bahra, R. 2016. “The Biopolitical Critique of the Notion of Being Human and an Affirmation of Lives.” Sociology Major Research Papers. 9 https://scholars.wlu.ca/soci_mrp/9

Conference Presentations

“The Fat Brown Educator: Pedagogical Stories of Flesh-as-Text” at the annual conference of the Canadian Sociological Association at CONGRESS 2025. Toronto, Canada.
**co-chair for panel: Fattening Methods
“The Fat Educator & Posthuman Fat Pedagogy” at the annual conference of Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association: Fat Studies. New Orleans, USA.
** Chair for Panel: Fat Academics, Theories and Methodologies
“Resisting Sizeism/Shapeism as Body-without-Organs: An Intersectional Praxis of Fat-Becomings” presented at Canadian Sociological Association at CONGRESS 2024. Virtual.
“A Multisensory Assemblage of our Fatness: Weaving the Affective Entanglements of Fat Politic across Distance,” presented with Carly-Ann Haney at the annual conference of Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association: Fat Studies. Chicago, USA.
** Chair for Roundtable
Experimental Making & Doing Session (Hybrid), “A Multisensory Assemblage of our Fatness: Weaving the Affective Entanglements of Fat Politic across Distance” presented with Carly-Ann Haney at philoSOPHIA: Society for Continental Feminism 2024, Calgary, Canada.
“Sizeism, Shapeism and the Body-without-Organs” presented at the conference of Irreverence: The Third Annual Critical Femininities Conference. Virtual.
Congress Book Launch of Fat Studies in Canada: (Re)Mapping the Field (Taylor et al., 2023) with Inanna Publications, presented with Kelsey Ioannoni, May Friedman, at the Women’s and Gender Studies et Recherches Féministes (WGSRF) at CONGRESS 2023. [in-person and hybrid]
“Our Excessively Fat World-Makings” presented at the annual conference of Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association: Fat Studies, San Antonio, USA.
** Chair for Panel: Being and Living Fatly
Round Table Panel on “Live: Fat Studies in Canada: (Re)Mapping the Field (2023),” presented with Kelsey Ioannoni, Allison Taylor, May Friedman, Calla Evans, at Fat Studies New Zealand Conference. Virtual.
Round Table Panel on “Live: Covid-19 & Fatness: Fishbowl Discussion,” presented with Dr. Aimee Simpson and Gurleen Khandpur at Fat Studies New Zealand Conference. Virtual
Round Table Panel on “Live: Fat Studies in Canada: (Re)Mapping the Field (2023),” presented with Kelsey Ioannoni, Allison Taylor, May Friedman, Calla Evans, at Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association: Fat Studies. Virtual.
“Personhood and Fat as Debility,” presented at Fat Studies New Zealand Conference. Virtually hosted June 18 – July 8, 2020. Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHfCnNEHM5s&feature=emb_logo
“Fat Affect and the ‘Body-without-Organs,’” presented at the annual conference of Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association: Fat Studies, Washington, USA.
** Chair for Panel: Fat Affect
Workshop: “Queering the Human: The Guelph Seminar,” presented with Angela Underhill, at the area conference of Sexuality Studies Association at CONGRESS 2018, University of Regina, Regina, Canada.
“Becoming-Fat: Fatness as the Impersonal,” presented at the annual conference of Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association: Fat Studies, Indiana, USA.
** Chair for Panel: Living and Being Fat
“Living Outside the Box of Normalcy as a Fat Racialized Body” presented at the annual conference of Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association: Fat Studies, San Diego, USA.
“The Coda and Discipline of Humanism” presented at Bio-Techne Conference, panel: The Politics of Life Rethinking Resistance in the Biopolitical Economy, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada.
“The Biopolitical Genres of Humanism” presented at ENGAGE 2017: Annual Sociology & Anthropology Graduate Student Conference, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada

Fellowships & Graduate Student Opportunities

  • Junior Fellow at Centre for Fat Liberation & Scholarship, 2021- Present
  • Course Co-Developer and Instructor for FRAN*6200 (University of Guelph), Fall 2017

Media Features

Affiliations

  • Co-Chair of the Fat Studies Research Cluster in association with the Canadian Sociological Association, Nov. 2024 -Present
  • Board Member for the Critical Femininities Conference in association with the Centre for Feminist Research (York University), Dec. 2023 – Present
  • Co-Manager-in-chief for Excessive Bodies: A Journal of Artistic and Critical Fat Praxis and Worldmaking, May 2022 – Present
  • Editorial Board Member for Excessive Bodies: A Journal of Artistic and Critical Fat Praxis and Worldmaking, May 2022 – Present
  • General Member of Popular Culture Association, 2017 – Present
  • General Member of Southern Sociological Association, 2019 – 2023
  • General Member for New Sociology: Journal of Critical Praxis, Sept. 2019 – 2023
  • Media Officer for New Sociology: Journal of Critical Praxis, Sept. 2019 – Jan. 2020
  • Editorial Board Member for Inaugural Issue of New Sociology: Journal of Critical Praxis, Sept. 2019 – Jan. 2020

Awards

  • York University Graduate Scholarship, 2017 – 2023
  • Wilfrid Laurier University Graduate Scholarship, 2015 – 2016
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