Ciann L. Wilson

Dr. Ciann L. Wilson has over fifteen years of experience working within Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities across Canada - first as a youth programmer, and now as a health researcher doing work across the country. Wilson’s body of work aims to utilize research as a tool for intervention and transformation in understanding and addressing the realities of systemically marginalized communities. Wilson’s research chair (CRC) focuses on her expertise in community-based research and evaluation, including arts and digital media-based approaches; ethical considerations for research and data usage in the current technological age; and community development, and overall health and wellbeing. 

Dr. Ciann L. Wilson’s areas of interest include: Intersectional theory, anti-/de-colonial theory, Black, Indigenous and racialized community health, 2SLGBTQ+ communities, HIV/AIDS, substance use and mental health, public health, social determinants, political economy, children and youth, education, sexual and reproductive justice, and community-based participatory action research.

Recent and Ongoing Projects:

• Proclaiming Our Roots: Afro-Indigenous Community Realities and Wellbeing  (proclaimingourroots.com) 
• Black & Indigenous Lives, Artificial Intelligence, and Data Management in a Time of Transition: Implications for Ethics and Self-determination
• Equitable Evaluation Capacity-Building: Co-Creating Frameworks for Action
• Art as Knowledge Mobilization: Amplifying Youth Voices to Inform Harm Reduction Practice for Preventing Youth Homelessness
• Tailoring an Evidence-Based HIV Prevention Intervention for Application with Young ACB Women in Canada HIP Teen Intervention
• The Mental Health of Intersectionally Marginalized Communities

• Canada Research Chair in Community-Based Research, Ethics, and Wellbeing. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (2024-2029)
• Recipient of the 2023 Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity, Canada Research Chairs Program (2024-2026)
• Award of Service Excellence and Community Engagement, Wilfrid Laurier University (2021)
• Status of Women and Equity Award of Distinction, Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (2021)
• Junior Investigator Award, Ontario HIV/AIDS Treatment Network (2020-2023)
• Ethnic Minority Mentoring Award. Culture, Ethnicity, and Racial Affairs Committee fo the Society of Community, Research, and Action (2019)
• Early Career Researcher Award, Wilfrid Laurier University (2019)

I am very interested in working with student trainees who have research interests and a track record of work in the areas of interest outlined  above. I onboard new students in the Access & Equity Research Interest Group (RIG), which I co-direct from April through August each year. Our RIG meets monthly to engage in topics such as: peer-to-peer writing and research knowledge mobilization, qualitative research data collection and analysis training, intersectional and anti-oppressive practice training, as well as other relevant practice-based skills development. More information about the RIG is available here. 

• A. M. Beals, C. L. Wilson, & R. Persaud. (2025). Proclaiming Our Roots: Afro-Indigenous Identity, Resistance, and the Making of a Movement. Religions, 16(7), 828. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16070828 
• O. Faruquzzaman, S. Tse, R. Cameron, K. Chee, S. Mendis-Millard, M. Kirst, and C. L. Wilson. (under review). Equitable Evaluation Scoping Review. Journal of Evaluation and Program Planning. 
• N. Darko, C. L. Wilson, V. Oliver. (2024). We are Mothers, Sisters, and Lovers Too’: Examining Young Black Women’s Experiences Navigating Sex and Sexual Health. American Journal of Community Psychology, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12753 
• C. Hastings, M. French, A. McClelland, E. Mykhalovskiy,. …C. L. Wilson. (2023). Criminal Code reform of HIV non‑disclosure is urgently needed: Social science perspectives on the harms of HIV criminalization in Canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-023-00843-9  
• M. Khan and C. L. Wilson. (2023). We Have Some Reconciliatory Work to Do: Kitchen Table Conversations Between Black and Brown Scholars in Canadian Academe. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping Journal, 29(2), 84-97. 
• D. Burchell, T. Coleman, R. Travers, I. Aversa, E. Schmid, S. Coulombe, C. L. Wilson, M. Woodford, and C. Davis. (2023). I don’t want to have to teach every medical provider: barriers to care among non-binary people in the Canadian healthcare system. Culture, Health, and Sexuality. 26(1), 61–76.  https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2023.2185685  
• C. L Wilson., S. Flicker, & J. Restoule. (2022). Building Black and Indigenous Alliances for Health and Wellbeing In Harriet’s Legacies: Race, Historical Memory and Futures in Canada. Eds. R. Cummings and N. Caple. McGill Queens University Press. pp. 278-303 
• C. L. Wilson and L. James. (2022). Imagining Possible Futures for Black and Indigenous Relations and Wellbeing. The Feral Feminisms Journal. 10: 66 – 76 
• T. Fante-Coleman, C. L. Wilson, R. Cameron, T. Coleman, & R. Travers. (2022). ‘Getting Shut Down and Shut Out’: Exploring ACB Patient Perceptions on Healthcare Access at the Physician-Patient Level in Canada. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being. 17(1): DOI: 10.1080/17482631.2022.2075531
• A.M. Beals, D. Thomas. J.S. Fernández, C. L. Wilson, and G. Palmer. (2021). Resisting the coloniality and colonialism of a westernized community psychology: Toward a critical racial justice praxis. Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice, 12(2), 1-22