Tess Laidlaw (Assistant Professor)
BSc (University of Winnipeg), MA Journalism (University of Western Ontario),
PhD Interdisciplinary Studies (Rhetoric and Media Studies; University of Saskatchewan) | https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tess_Laidlaw
My central passion is the application of rhetorical theory to investigate practical communication on the topics of health and disease: how such communication occurs, its impacts, and the significance of implicit, symbolic, elements.
Research Interests
*Critical theory and discourse analysis approaches to habitual, institutional, and hegemonic language in contexts of illness and health
*Racialization and the phenomena of Othering / scapegoating in the context of disease outbreaks
My research interests have typically focused upon Canadian rhetorical contexts within the realm of rhetoric of health and medicine (RHM), and given my fascination with contexts of health and disease, my activities have included interdisciplinary collaboration.
Current Research
*(Collaboration with Dr. John Moffatt, Univ. of Saskatchewan) Rhetorical exploration of racism and xenophobia in historical documents and contemporary discursive interpretations of leper colonies in Tracadie, New Brunswick and D’Arcy Island, British Columbia in the 1800s. We interrogate commemoration through themes including dark tourism, and approach these historical events heuristically regarding contemporary disease contexts that incorporate ethnicity. Since 2022, we have been exploring how to constitute the “remembrance” of the experiences of Canada’s leprosy victims when Canada was a newly bureaucratic entity.
*I am also studying women’s health and aging discourses, specifically regarding perimenopause and menopause. Lori Beth de Hertogh and Cathryn Molloy note in a recent manuscript that “While reproductive health and wellness are enduring issues of concern for feminist rhetorical scholars, menopause has not been a focus until recently” (2025); this is a level of rhetorical silence that mirrors a society-level need for attention to public health education, medical school curriculum, and informed medical practice.
Teaching
Since 2011, Tess has taught at the Mount in the areas of communication theory, organizational theory, science communication, writing, public relations, and mass media, at undergraduate and graduate levels. She developed a new graduate-level course, Rhetorics of Health and Illness, first offered in Winter 2018. She has also taught at Saint Mary’s University and at the University of Saskatchewan.
Professional background
Prior to beginning her academic career, Tess worked in public relations capacities at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and at a vaccine research and development organization based at the University of Saskatchewan. These roles, combined with employment in biochemistry, microbiology and molecular biology laboratories, spurred an interest in the communication of scientific and health-related topics to the public.
Scholarly and/or Professional Publications and Activities
Articles in Scholarly Journals (refereed)
Laidlaw, T. (2025). An invisible but obvious ailment. Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine, 10(1), 9.
Harvey, A., Chu, G., Lordly, D., Arsenault, J.F., Conlan, S., Laidlaw, T., Wadsworth, L., & Grant, S. (2023). Evaluation of a Media Training Workshop for Nutrition Students and Trainees
in Nova Scotia. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 84(2), 112-118.
Laidlaw, T. (2021). Perspective by incongruity: An identity of interdisciplinarity. Rhetor Special Issue: “National identity and rhetorical scholarly work” (journal of the Canadian Society for
the Study of Rhetoric) 8(1): 9-18.
Laidlaw, T. (2019). Pandemic Stories: Rhetorical Motifs in Journalists’ Coverage of Biomedical Risk. Minerva 57, 433–451. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-019-09383-4
Laidlaw, T., & Moffatt, J. (2019). Symbolic Cures: Scapegoating and the Constabulary Function in the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic. Rhetor, the Journal of the Canadian Society for the Study of
Rhetoric 8: 99-129.
Laidlaw, T. (2010). Epidemic response archetypes: Negotiating unknowns in pandemic planning. Health Science Inquiry 1(1), 19-20.
Conference presentations (selected; refereed)
Laidlaw, T. (2026, May 27). Participatory Critical Rhetoric: A Framework for Choric Invention at Commemorative Sites. Rhetoric, Writing, and Discourse Today 2026 Conference (a joint
conference among CASDW/ACR, RhetCanada, and the Rhetoricon Symposium). Waterloo, ON.
Laidlaw, T. (2025, June 4). A “natural period of transition,” or “heresy in the female body”? Exploring The Lancet’s framing of “menopause as natural.” RhetCanada annual conference, held in
conjunction with the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences online and at George Brown College, Toronto.
Moffatt, J. and Laidlaw, T. (2024, June 12). No haunting without permission: Mapping empathy and appropriation in a therapeutic rhetoric of commemorating injustice in Canadian public
space. RhetCanada annual conference, held in conjunction with the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences online and at McGill University, Montréal.
Moffatt, J. and Laidlaw, T. (2022, June 1). Entelechies of Commemoration: Remembering the Tracadie and D’Arcy Island Lazaretti. Paper presented at RhetCanada/Canadian Society for the
Study of Rhetoric (virtual).
Conference Proceedings (refereed)
Laidlaw, T. & French, A. (2019). The role of faculty in first-year students’ orientations and anticipated continuance. Proceedings of the 2017 Atlantic Universities’ Teaching Showcase.
Graduate Students
Graduate (MA Communication) Thesis Supervisions
*Jessica Long, Mobilities and infectious disease: “Othering” in Canadian political discourse of Ebola. Recipient of the 2018 Graduate Thesis Award.
*Kelly Westerveld, The Canadian Shield: Vaccine Hesitancy and Ontario’s Immunization 2020 Health.
*Cindy Bayers, The Exercise of Public Relations Leadership in the Context of Canadian Universities.
Graduate Thesis Committee Involvement
(Current) *Paulette Brinston, A critical analysis of how Atlantic Canadian universities communicate about mental health resources to students.
*Rob Hiscock, Paradigm lost (and found): A historiographical review of the application of systems theory to public relations since 1975 (MSVU Dept. of Communication Studies)
*Alyssa Simon, Building Online Influence: Empathy in Opinion Leadership (MSVU Dept. of Communication Studies)