Meredith Bessey, PhD, RD

Assistant Professor

Evaristus 313

Meredith.bessey@msvu.ca

Phone: 902-457-6243

 

Education:

PhD, Applied Human Nutrition (2025)
Dissertation: Weighing the Risks: Understanding Patients’ and Providers’ Perceptions and Practices Influencing Decision Making, Experiences, and Outcomes of Bariatric Surgery in Canada
University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario

MSc, Applied Human Nutrition, with Internship Education Program (2020)
Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

BSc (Honours), Applied Human Nutrition (2017)
Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

BSc (Honours), Psychology (2012)
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

 

Teaching Areas:

NUTR 2211, Intermediate Human Nutrition

NUTR 3325, Advanced Human Nutrition and Metabolism

NUTR 4408, Medical Nutrition Therapy I

NUTR 4409, Medical Nutrition Therapy II

 

Research Interests:

I recently defended my PhD dissertation, which was a qualitative and arts-based exploration of bariatric surgery in Canada and was supervised by Dr. Carla Rice in the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition at the University of Guelph. As a dietitian and scholar, my research interests are broadly focused on critical perspectives on food, bodies, nutrition, health, and fitness. To explore these broad areas of inquiry, my work draws on qualitative and arts-based methods and critical feminist theory, including feminist neomaterialism, critical disability studies, queer theory, and fat studies to open new methodological approaches and ways of thinking within dietetics and nutrition. The broad goal of my research program is to positively shift perspectives, beliefs, and practices within dietetics and healthcare more broadly, to more meaningfully support the wellbeing of fat people, especially women, and to reduce the stigma and mistreatment that they frequently face.

If you are an undergraduate or graduate student interested in this area of research, please reach out to me by email to discuss opportunities to work together.

Other Activities:

Selected Scholarly Publications:

1.      Joy, P., Bessey, M., & Mann, L. (2025). ‘I believe in Santa Claus’ and Ozempic: A Foucauldian discourse analysis of holiday health advertising. Qualitative Health Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497323251350876

2.      Bailey, A., Bessey, M., Lamarche, L., & Griffin, M. (2025). The Body Mass Index: What’s the use? Body Image, 54, 101924. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2025.101924

3.      Bessey, M. & Rice, C. (2025). Body-mapping the affective politics of bariatric surgery. International Review of Qualitative Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/19408447251334614

4.      Bailey, K.A., Bessey, M., Rice, C., Kelly, E., McHugh, T.-L., Punjani, S., Dube, B., Tshuma, P., Besse, K., Sookpaiboon, S., & quest, s. (2024). In the wake of Canada’s violent eugenic legacies: An urgency to ReVision Fitness. Leisure/Loisir, 48(2), 347-370. https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2023.2291033

5.      Bailey, K.A., Bessey, M., Rice, C., Poplestone, L., & Gillett, J. (2023). #AccessibleYoga for whom? The non-performativity of accessibility and inclusion on Instagram. Leisure/Loisir. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2023.2291016

6.      Bessey, M., Bailey, K.A., Besse, K., Rice, C., Punjani, S., & McHugh, T.-L. (2023). ReVisioning Fitness through a relational community of practice: Conditions of possibility for access intimacies and body-becoming pedagogies. Social Sciences, 12(10), 584. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12100584

7.      Rice, C., Bessey, M., Roosen, K., & Kirkham, A. (2022). Transgressing professional boundaries through fat and disabled embodiments. Canadian Woman Studies, 35(1-2), 51-61. https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/view/37866

8.      Bessey, M., & Brady, J. (2021). Covid-19 risk and “obesity”: A discourse analysis of Canadian media coverage. Critical Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal, 16(1), 16-34. https://doi.org/10.51357/cs.v16i1.139

9.      Bessey, M., Brady, J., Lordly, D., & Leighteizer, V. (2021). “This is what you’re supposed to do”: Weight stigma in dietetics education. Fat Studies, 10(2), 184-196. https://doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2020.1859078

10.  Bessey, M., Frank, L., & Williams, P. (2020). Starving to be a student: The experiences of food insecurity among undergraduate students in Nova Scotia, Canada. Canadian Food Studies / La Revue Canadienne Des études Sur L’alimentation, 7(1), 107-125. https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v7i1.375

For a full and up-to-date list of publications, see my Google Scholar profile.