Full Name
Amber Young
Job Title
PhD Candidate
Company
University of Calgary
Speaker Bio
Amber Young is a PhD candidate with the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary, Canada. Her research approach involves foregrounding multisensory and embodied ways of knowing and is oriented toward mobilizing knowledge in pursuit of more just futures. Guiding her work are values of community and collective care; Asil El Galad is a medical student at McMaster University. As a research assistant with the Multisensory Studio, she facilitated digital storytelling workshops for diverse groups of youth with developmental disabilities and youth exposed to intimate partner violence, using trauma-informed, community-partnered approaches to investigate digital storytelling as a knowledge translation tool. Her commitment to storytelling and creativity extends beyond research—she performs stand-up comedy and uses humour to spark conversations about social issues and foster connection. Her research explores equity, accessibility, and systemic barriers in medical education, with publications in medical education journals. Living with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, she brings lived experience of disability to her advocacy work focused on accessibility, equity, and culturally responsive care in healthcare and education;Kathleen C. Sitter, PhD: Dr. Sitter is the Canada Research Chair in Multisensory Storytelling in Research and Knowledge Translation, Dorothy Killam Fellow, and a Professor of Social Work at the University of Calgary. Dr. Sitter’s work focuses on creating accessible research using sensory and arts-based methods in collaboration with the disability community. She has published in national and international journals, and her research includes over 200 arts-based works such as documentary films, photography, cartoons, soundscapes, and smellscapes, with over 100 invited and juried screenings/exhibitions.
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