UBC Public Scholar, UBC Killam Graduate Teaching Assistant award winner, and PhD Candidate currently studying queer food security in Vancouver, Canada. I am a member of two health research groups, the Two-Spirit Dry Lab and the Public Health & Urban Nutrition Research Group. I also hold memberships with two community-based food justice organizations, Saige Community Food Share and the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House. Saige Community Food Share is a 2022 grant recipient of the UBC Partnership Recognition and Exploration Fund.

Research Interests:

Food Sovereignty & Security; Placemaking; Medical Sociology; Sexualities, Gender, Family; HIV/AIDS & PrEP; Qualitative & Quantitative Methods

Current Research:

My research interests are in queer placemaking, food security, and health disparities and their social determinants.

As a Master’s student at the University of Chicago and Research Assistant at NORC at the University of Chicago, I examined the construction of social scripts transmitting biomedicalized ways of knowing the self among LGBTQ populations through HIV prevention marketing and public health surveillance methods. I spent two years (2014-2016) volunteering for a sex-positive public health campaign, #PrEP4Love, convened by AIDS Foundation of Chicago, which is in its second advertising wave across Chicago (Fall 2016). At NORC (2015-2016), I worked on two community-based HIV prevention and treatment studies (uConnect; PrEP Chicago) on the South Side of Chicago. Additionally, I helped design a forthcoming national representative HIV surveillance survey of young gay, bisexual adolescent males and adolescent transgender females in the U.S. with the Fenway Institute for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

I was a resident member of Green College from 2016 to 2017. I am originally from outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Supervisors: Drs. Becki Ross & Thomas Kemple

Selected Articles:

Kloshe Tillicum Research Team: Chee Mamuk BCCDC, Simon Fraser University. 2023. “Kloshe Tillicum (good relations) move at the speed of trust.” BCMJ 65(8): 315 BC Centre for Disease Control. October.

Consolacion, Theodora, Harlan Pruden, Ryan Stillwagon. 2023. “Two-Spirit Dry Lab Goes to California: Working for better tomorrows for Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer and/or LGBTBQI+ Indigenous peoples and communities.” Latest News. Two Spirit Dry Lab. April 26^th.

Harlan Pruden, Travis Salway, Theodora Consolacion, Jannie Wing-Sea Leung, Aidan Ablona, Ryan Stillwagon. 2020. “Drivers of Sexual Health Knowledge for Two-Spirit, Gay, Bi and/or Indigenous Men Who Have Sex with Men (gbMSM)” Journal of Indigenous HIV Research. 11. https://www.ahacentre.ca/drivers-of-sexual-health.html

Gancena, Arsebel, Ryan Stillwagon, Harlan Pruden. 2019. “Divergent Public Health Responses to a New HIV Prevention Option: Comparing Health Equity Approaches in Two North American Cities.” Press Release, UBC Sociology. July 25.

Stillwagon, Ryan and Amin Ghaziani. 2019. “Queer Pop-ups: A Cultural Innovation in Urban Life.” City & Community 18(3): 874-895
DOI: 10.1111/cico.12434

Dehlin, Jessica M, Ryan Stillwagon, Jim Pickett, Lance Keene, John A Schneider. 2019. “#PrEP4Love: An Evaluation of a Sex-Positive HIV Prevention Campaign”
JMIR Public Health Surveill 5(2):e12822
DOI: 10.2196/12822

Stillwagon, Ryan. 2011. “Terror (Still) in Mumbai.” Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations. April 7th.

Stillwagon, Ryan. 2011. “Afghan students in India: different, displaced but undeterred.” Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations. January 23rd.

Selected Presentations:

Invited Speaker with Tanya Kuhn, Jessica Atari, and Thomas Kemple. 2024. “Hearts Held by Saige Community Food Share: Empowering Queer Community through Social Support & Food Justice.” City of Vancouver: Queer Change Makers ERG. Vancouver, BC. July 23^rd.

Invited Speaker with Harlan Pruden. 2023. “Learning from Water: Experiential Learning from the Two-Spirit Dry Lab.” BCCDC Nurse Educator Forum. British Columbia Centre for Disease Control. Vancouver, BC. November 29^th.

Invited Speaker with Jae Ford and Harlan Pruden. 2023. “Water Teachings: Experiential Learning from the Two-Spirit Dry Lab.” Health Officers Council of BC. Haisla Nation/Kitimat Village, BC. October 17^th.

Invited Speaker with Lark Doolan. 2023. “No one is safe until we all are safe: What Indigenous students tell us about school safety in the 2023 Humboldt County Youth 2S/LGBTQIA+ Survey.” Northern California Two-Spirit Conference. Azelea Hall. McKinleyville, CA. October 1^st.

Invited Speaker with Harlan Pruden and Oblio Stroyman. 2023. “The Rainbow Connection: We Are All in This Together.” Four Directions: Cultural Awareness and Healing Support Conference. Evergreen Council on Problem Gambling. Ilani Casino Resort. Ridgefield, WA. September 20^th.

Invited Speaker with Harlan Pruden and Oblio Stroyman. 2023. “Words have Power: Breaking Through Stigma and Negative Bias with Supportive and Respectful Language.” Four Directions: Cultural Awareness and Healing Support Conference. Evergreen Council on Problem Gambling. Ilani Casino Resort. Ridgefield, WA. September 20^th.

Presenter. 2023.“Queer Food Insecurity: How Trauma and Community Connection Shapes Food Insecurity in Canada.” Sociology of Food: Food Insecurity and its Intersections. The Educative Power of Sociology: 118^th American Sociological Association Annual Meeting. Philadelphia Convention Center. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. August 18^th.

Invited Speaker with Milo Applejohn and Harlan Pruden. 2023. “Who and What is Two-Spirit: What Do You Mean Two-Spirit Doesn’t Simply Mean a LGBTQI+ Indigenous Person?” Two-Spirit Dry Lab Guest Speaker (2SDL) Event. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC). Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. July 27^th.

Invited Speaker with Milo Applejohn, Jae Ford, Rayka Kumru, and Harlan Pruden. 2023. “Walking with our Two-Spirit Relatives.” Two-Spirit Dry Lab Meeting with Old Masset Village Council. Gaw Tiaagee (Old Masset), Haida Gwaii, Canada. June 22^nd.

Invited Keynote Speaker with Harlan Pruden. 2023. “Supporting Two-Spirit Healing while Challenging Colonial Narratives of Sexualities & Gender Expression.” Keynote Address: Thinking Qualitatively: Doing Intersectionality. Department of Sociology, University of Alberta (remote from Old Masset, Haida Gwaii), Canada. June 21^st.

Presenter. 2023. “Queer Food Insecurity in Canada: Identifying Structural and Intersectional Determinants of Food Insecurity using the Canadian Community Health Survey.” Research on 2S/LGBTQ+ Communities using Survey and Administrative Data. Reckonings and Reimagings: Canadian Sociological Association at Congress. York University, Toronto, Canada. June 1^st.

Invited Speaker with Harlan Pruden. 2023. “Being in Good Relations: Two-Spirit in Health Research.” & “Water Teachings: Taking the Path of Least Resistance: Methodological Reflections from the Two-Spirit Dry Lab on Capacity Bridging within Communities across Turtle Island.” Focus on the Future: Western Regional Conference on Problem Gambling Awareness. Evergreen Council on Problem Gambling. Tacoma, Washington, U.S. May 2^nd. **Presentation promotional video here.

Invited Speaker with Jae Ford and Harlan Pruden. 2023. “Water Teachings: Reflections from the Two-Spirit Dry Lab on Capacity Bridging within Indigenous Communities Across Turtle Island.” Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Symposium. Kansas University Medical Center. Kansas City, Kansas, U.S. March 30^th.

Invited Speaker with Teddy Consolacion and Harlan Pruden. 2023. “Water Teachings, Taking the Path of Least Resistance: Insights from the Two-Spirit Dry Lab on Capacity Bridging/Building within Communities from Hoopa to Haida Gwaii.” 4^th Annual Native Youth School and Community Wellness Conference. Two Feathers Native American Family Services & Stanford University. Palo Alto, California, U.S. March 10^th.

Invited Speaker with Harlan Pruden. 2023. “Water Teachings—Taking the Path of Least Resistance”: Insights from the Two-Spirit Dry Lab on Capacity Building within Indigenous Communities from Hoopa to Haida Gwaii. HIV Intervention Science Training Program for Underrepresented New Investigators (HISTP). Columbia University (held at the University of Central Florida). Orlando, Florida. January 26^th.

Invited Keynote Speaker with Harlan Pruden. 2023. “Lessons Learned from Water: Methodological Reflections from the Two-Spirit Dry Lab on Capacity Building within Communities across Turtle Island.” Intersectionality in Indigenous Studies Research. Faculty of Native Studies Research Colloquium. University of Alberta. Edmonton, Canada. January 13^th.

UBC Public Scholar Award, 2021 – 2023

Department of Sociology Graduate Teaching Award, 2020 – 2021, 2022 – 2023

Fellowship, Third Coast Center for AIDS Research (TC-CFAR) and Sexualities Project (SPAN), “Pleasure/Danger: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Sexual Pleasure and Sexual Risk” TC-CFAR and SPAN, The University of Chicago and Northwestern University, 2015 – 2016

Guest Lectures:

“Rejecting the Apology: Colonial-Capitalism, Reconciliation, & Settler Moves to Innocence.” SOCI 372. 2023

Instructor: Thomas Kemple

“I go to bed thinking about eating:” The Many Layers to
Food Insecurity in Canada. SOCI 310 101 & 102, 2022

Instructor: Rima Wilkes

“Queer Geographies of Urban Sex & Space.”
SOCI 369. 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Instructor: Becki Ross

Co-lecturer. SOCI 200. Summer T1, 2019
Instructor: Oral Robinson

“Queer Geographies of Urban Sex & Space.”
SOCI 369. October 09, 2018.
Instructor: Becki Ross

“Work & Family Life.”
SOCI 200. June 05, 2018.
Instructor: Oral Robinson

“Stress & Violence: Realities of Family Life.”
SOCI 200. February 26, 2018.
Instructor: Oral Robinson

“Theorizing Family & Fictive Kin Work.”
SOCI 415. October 31, 2017.
Instructor: Sinikka Elliott

2022

Teaching Assistant. SOCI 310. Canadian Society.
Instructor: Rima Wilkes

2019 – 2021, Terms 1 & 2

Teaching Assistant. SOCI 369. Sociology of Sexualities.
Instructor: Becki Ross

2019, Summer T1

Teaching Assistant & Co-lecturer. SOCI 200. Sociology of Family.
Instructor: Oral Robinson

2018, Terms 1 & 2

Teaching Assistant. SOCI 369. Sociology of Sexualities.
Instructor: Becki Ross

Teaching Assistant. SOCI 369. Sociology of Sexualities.
Instructor: Brandy Wiebe

2018, Summer T1
Teaching Assistant. SOCI 200. Sociology of Family.
Instructor: Oral Robinson

2017 – 2018, Terms 1 & 2

Teaching Assistant. SOCI 415. Theories of Family and Kinship.
Instructor: Sinikka Elliott

Teaching Assistant. SOCI 302A. Ethnic and Racial Inequality.
Instructor: Wendy Roth

2017, Summer T2
Teaching Assistant. SOCI 200. Sociology of Family.
Instructor: Oral Robinson