Reem Mohammed
DARE Project: A Matter of Life and Death: The Politics of Religious Diversity in Canadian Hospitals
Program(s) of Study: Human Rights & Equity Studies
Project Supervisor: Amélie Barras
By identifying areas of concern in hospital policies on equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism and belonging, this research will be an invaluable resource for hospitals to improve policies and patient care.
Project Description:
Although we tend to think of religion and health care as not interacting, they share one thing in common: they are both deeply concerned with fundamental questions related to human life, death, and human wellbeing. This research project will investigate how Canadian hospitals respond to religious diversity as they meet the healthcare needs of their patients. In the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in particular, a number of major hospitals have a religious history and affiliation, while other hospitals are entirely non-sectarian. All hospitals, however, provide services to a patient population living in one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse cities in the world. How do hospitals in the GTA respond to the religious diversity of their patients? How, if at all, does the religious or non-religious identity of a hospital influence its service provision, and are there variations in this regard between hospitals? In particular, how does religious identity of institutions, healthcare providers and/or patients and their families matter when it comes to providing healthcare services related to the beginning or end of life, such as assisted dying, abortion, responses to miscarriage , and circumcision. The research project is co-led by Amélie Barras (Department of Social Science, York University) and Andrea Paras (Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Guelph University). The DARE student will report directly to Prof. Barras, but will work with both investigators.The Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE) – Undergraduate enables our students to meaningfully engage in research projects supervised by LA&PS faculty members. Find out more about DARE.