Phillip Joy, PhD (Health), PDt, M.Sc
Assistant Professor
Evaristus 323
I am a registered dietitian with the Nova Scotia Dietetic Association (NSDA) with a focus on gender, sexuality within nutrition, dietetics, and health.
Research and Professional Interests
My research is qualitative and is often framed within poststructural and social constructivism frameworks. I also use arts-based methodologies, such as photovoice, cell-philming, and comics. Such methodologies can disrupt the foundations of nutrition and health research by allowing by involving the emotions, the senses, the creativity, and the bodies of participants. Art can challenge and subvert social norms and contribute to social transformation through the expression of new perspectives.
My main areas of research include: 1) LGBTQ+ nutrition, body image, and health, 2) Community advocacy and social disruption and, 3) Pedagogy, curriculum, and training.
Compassion has been recognized by many 2SLGBTQ+ people as a component of their happiness and well-being. Throughout this research, we seek to understand through personal narratives how experiences of compassion shape the lives, health, and well-being of 2SLGBTQ+ people.
This research uses an arts-based method called cell-philming in which participants use their cell phones to create videos to will explore how body image is produced and reproduced through the beliefs, values, and practices of GBTQ men within the “puppy play” or “pup” community. We propose to explore how identification with this form of BDSM role-play informs how a person experiences their body.
Featuring uplifting narrative short films, Wicked Bodies will help to reduce stigma, generate hope, and invite more open conversation among those struggling with disordered eating, eating disorders and body dysmorphia. “Wicked Bodies gives 2SLGBTQIA+ voices the mic to share their own lived experience authentically”, stimulating conversation to challenge and disrupt rigid body ideals, improving the health and wellbeing of our communities.
This project is a community partnership with Eating Disorders Nova Scotia (EDNS). Our aims were to give voice to people within the queer communities, to recognize that queer people need ED support and to understand how best to reach queer communities, and to see how EDNS can better provide services for queer clients.
Nutrition is very important to the wellness of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Nutritional status and antiretroviral treatment (ART) play a key role in keeping immune function high and stopping HIV from turning into AIDS. Poverty, marginalization, racism, violence, stigma, poor nutrition, and HIV create a “perfect storm” that often causes harm to the health of PLWHA. FoodNOW (Food to eNhance Our Wellness) commits to a community-based approach in looking at the needs and wants of PLWHA in Nova Scotia as they relate to food, policy, and programs.
Art and scholarship come together in this stunning full-colour comics anthology. Thirty-eight short comics reflect on body image from the perspectives of queer men, exploring our understandings of masculinity, attraction and self-worth. Interspersed throughout the book are fact sheets with the latest findings in queer men’s health research, providing readers with a mix of scholarly literature and heartfelt depictions of personal experience.
The comic book aims to illustrate how sex and gender can influence the health of people and to create knowledge, enthusiasm, and discussions among health professionals and researchers. We follow the story of H, a person who represents the common Humanity we all share. H is not listed by the binary he or she and does not identify with a particular gender. The story follows H throughout their life path, using illustrations with summaries of the relevant literature to explore how gender can shape their health, health experiences, and health care.