Elizabeth McGibbon

Elizabeth McGibbon head shot

Elizabeth McGibbon

Professor
Department
School of Nursing
Campus Location
Camden Rm 255
Email
Email
Phone
(902) 867-5889
Biography

I received my doctorate at University of Toronto in 2004 and completed my postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Dennis Raphael, York University, in 2008.  As an applied health researcher, I center on the study of health as it relates to instigating public policy change for justice in population health outcomes. My publications and presentations are about translating critical social science into readable, actionable ideas and strategies to address oppression as a social determinant of health—how public policy created oppression “gets under the skin” to deepen disadvantage and create intergenerational health damage,  while at the same time enhancing privilege and wealth for some. I am particularly interested in synergies among the structural determinants of health, the ecological determinants of health, and the social determinants of health. I draw on the works of Friedrich Engels, Angela Davis, Johan Galtung, and many others to illustrate the root causes of oppression and violence that increasingly destroys human and plant health. I live and work near the sea with my partner Pat on the East Coast of Canada in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.

Research

NATIONAL, PROVINCIAL COMPETITIVE PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH GRANTS (2006-Present)

  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC, PI, $49,800; 2017-2021). Mapping the social organization of health equity discourses in Canadian public policy: An institutional ethnography. Insight Development Grant.
  • Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR, Co-I. $270,000; May 2015-June 2019). Diversifying our ways of understanding heart health among First Nations people in Manitoba: A mixed-methods study governed by a two-eyed seeing approach (PI Dr. Annette Schultz).
  • Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation (NSHRF, Co-PI, $10,000; July 2012-September, 2013).

Environmental justice: Toxic industry location and Indigenous and Black Nova Scotian communities. Development Innovative Competition.

  • Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR, Co-I, $13,000; 2011-2012). Developing a conceptual framework of public health organizational capacity for action to promote health equity. Operating Grant Competition, Health Inequities, LOI. (PI- Dr. Benita Cohen).
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Institutional Grant (SSHRC/STFX, PI, $4,760, 2012). Rights-based social inequality report card: Supporting accountability and action for policy intervention in the Atlantic Region.
  • Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR, Co-I, $74,997; 2010-2011). Advancing the evidence to build a research program for developing Public Health capacity to promote health equity. CIHR Health Equities Catalyst Grant Competition. (PI- Dr. Benita Cohen).
  • Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR, PI, $24,310; January, 2009-September, 2011). Planning for research to decolonize population health interventions. Meetings, Planning, Dissemination Competition.
  • Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation (NSHRF, PI, $74,000; May, 2006-September, 2008). Health inequity, the social determinants of health, and health-geographic information science. Post-doctoral Research Competition.
  • Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR, PI, $75,000; May, 2007-June, 2008). Inequities in access to health services for rural Aboriginal and African Canadians: A scoping review.  Knowledge Synthesis Competition, Health Inequities.
  • Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation (NSHRF, PI, $10,000; 2006). Geospatial mapping of African Nova Scotia health inequities. Development Innovative Team Competition.

 

NATIONAL, PROVINCIAL HEALTH EQUITY INFRASTRUCTURE & POLICY DEVELOPMENT GRANTS (2006-Present)

  • Canadian Nurses Association (CoPI, $25,000, 2014-2016). Social determinants of health and health equity: An internationally accessible toolkit for policy change. Module design (content and pedagogy). Co-I C. McPherson.
  • Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC, Co-PI, 4.3 million, April, 2006-2011) Building a new agenda for public health: Participatory strategies for social justice and health (Grant for Initiating and implementing the National Collaborating Center for the Determinants of Health). (Co-PIs: D. Gillis & L. Hallstrom).
  • Guysborough Antigonish Strait Area District Health Authority (CoPI, $4,000, 2011). Emancipatory access to dementia support: Canada’s first Alzheimer Café.  Guysborough Antigonish Strait District Health Authority.
  • Guysborough Antigonish Strait Area District Health Authority (CoPI, $4,000, 2011). Social justice capacity building in District Health Authorities. Guysborough Antigonish Strait District Health Authority.
Publications

WORKS IN PROGRESS

  • McGibbon, E. (2023). The Politics of Social, Ecological, and Structural Determinants of Health in Canada. Invited book in Politics of Health book series (D. Raphael, Book Series editor).
  • Etowa, J. & McGibbon, E. (2024, estimated). Anti-racist health care practice. (Second Edition in Progress).
  • McGibbon, E. (2024). Classism and the social determinants of health: What the body remembers. In Bryant, T. & D. Raphael (Eds.). Handbook on the Social Determinants of Health.  Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

 

BOOKS 

  • McGibbon, E. (Ed., 2021). Oppression: A social determinant of health. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing (2nd Ed.).
  • McGibbon, E. (Ed., 2012). Oppression: A social determinant of health. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. (1st Ed.).
  • McGibbon, E. & Etowa, J. (2009). Anti-racist health care practice. Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press.

BOOK CHAPTERS (2012-2022)

  • McGibbon, E. (2021). Embodied oppression: The social, ecological and structural determinants of health. In Antony W. & Antony, J. (Eds.). Power and Resistance: Critical Thinking about Canadian social issues. 7th Ed. Toronto: Brunswick Books.
  • McGibbon, E. (2021). Oppression in the everyday: How oppression operates to promote and sustain health inequities. In E. McGibbon (Ed.). Oppression: A social determinant of health (2nd Ed). Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
  • Etowa, J. &  McGibbon, E. (2021). The racialization of oppression. In E. McGibbon (Ed.). Oppression: A social determinant of health. (2nd Ed). Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
  • McGibbon, E. (2021). The politics of mental health: Pathologizing the impacts of injustice. In E. McGibbon (Ed.). Oppression: A social determinant of health. (2nd Ed). Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
  • McGibbon, E. & Hallstrom, L. (2021). Oppression and the political economy of health inequities. In E. McGibbon (Ed.). Oppression: A social determinant of health. (2nd Ed). Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
  • McGibbon, E. & Shebib, M. (2021). Human rights and health. In E. McGibbon (Ed.). Oppression: A social determinant of health. (2nd Ed). Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
  • Aquanno, S., Bryant, T, Etowa, J.B., Lexchin, J., McGibbon, E., Raphael D., et al. (2021). covid-19: Oppressions laid bare. In E. McGibbon (Ed.). Oppression: A social determinant of health. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
  • McGibbon, E., Bailey, A. & Lukeman, S. (2020). Violence and health: Contexts of power and social inequities. In. J. Etowa & Van Daalen-Smith, C. (Eds.). Community Health Nursing: Contemporary Health and Social Imperatives. New York: Pearson.
  • McGibbon, E. & Mbugua, J.  (2020). Culture, racism, and health. In. J. Etowa & Van Daalen-Smith, C. (Eds.). Community Health Nursing: Contemporary Health and Social Imperatives. New York: Pearson.
  • McGibbon, E. & Mbugua, J. (2018). Race and racialization in health, health care, and nursing education. In M. McIntyre & C. McDonald (Eds.). Realities of Canadian Nursing. 5th Ed. New York: Wolters Kluwer Health.
  • McGibbon, E. (2017). Embodied oppression: The social determinants of health. In Antony W. & Antony, J. (Eds.). Power and Resistance: Critical Thinking about Canadian Social Issues. 6th Ed. Toronto: Brunswick Books.
  • McGibbon, E. (2016). Oppressions and access to health care: Deepening the conversation. In D. Raphael (Ed.). The Social determinants of health, 4th Ed. Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press.
  • McPherson, C. & McGibbon, E. (2014). Intersecting contexts of oppression within complex public systems. In A Pycroft & E. Bartollas (Eds.). Applying complexity theory: A whole systems approaches to criminal justice and social work, (159-180).
  • McGibbon, E. (2012) Introduction to oppression as a social determinant of health. In E. McGibbon (Ed.). Oppression: A social determinant of health. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, (16-27).
  • McGibbon, E. (2012). People under threat: Health outcomes and oppression. In E. McGibbon (Ed.). Oppression: A social determinant of health. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, (32-44).
  • McGibbon, E. & Shebib, M. (2012). Health as human right: Challenges and supports for accountability. In E. McGibbon (Ed.). Oppression: A social determinant of health. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing (186-204).
  • Etowa, J. & McGibbon. E. (2012). Racism as a determinant of health. In E. McGibbon (Ed.). Oppression: A social determinant of health. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. (73-87).
  • McGibbon, E. (2012). Oppression and mental health: Pathologizing the outcomes of injustice. In E. McGibbon (Ed.). Oppression: A social determinant of health. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. (123-137).
  • McGibbon, E. & Hallstrom, L. (2012). Oppression and the political economy of health inequities In E. McGibbon (Ed.). Oppression: A social determinant of health. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. (167-185).

 

PAPERS IN REFEREED JOURNALS

  • McGibbon, E., Fierlbeck, K., & Ajadi, T. (2022). Institutional ethnography and critical policy analysis: Catalyzing justice in policymaking. Critical Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal (Accepted for publication, May 2, 2022).
  • McGibbon, E., Fierlbeck, K. & Ajadi, T. (2021). Health equity and institutional ethnography:
    Mapping the problem of policy change    . Witness: The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse, 3(2), pp 64-80.
  • McGibbon, E. (2021). The Covid-19 pandemic: On the mechanisms of social murder. Critical Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal.
  • Schultz, A, Nguyen, T., Sinclaire, M., Fransoo, R. & McGibbon, E. (2021). Historical and continued colonial impacts on heart health of Indigenous Peoples in Canada: What’s reconciliation got to do with it? Canadian Journal of Cardiology Open.
  • Schultz, A.S.H., Dahl, L., McGibbon, E. et al. (2020). Differences in coronary artery disease complexity and associations with mortality and hospital admissions among First Nations and non–First Nations patients undergoing angiography: a comparative retrospective matched cohort study. Canadian Medical Association Journal, In Press.
  • McGibbon, E. (2019). Truth and reconciliation: Health care organizational leadership. Healthcare Management Forum, 32(1), 20-24.
  • McGibbon, E. & Lukeman, S. (2019). Critical social justice: The moral imperative for critical perspectives in nursing. Witness: The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse, 1(1), 3-12).
  • Dahl, L., Schultz, A.S.H., McGibbon, E., Brownlie, R.J., Cook, C., Elbarouni, B., Katz, A., Nguyen, T., Sawatzky, J., Sinclaire, M., Throndson, K., Prior, H., Fransoo, R. (2019). Cardiovascular medication use and long-term outcomes between First Nations and non-First Nations patients following angiography: a retrospective cohort study. Journal of the American Heart Association Aug 20;8(16):e012040. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.119.012040.
  • Schultz, A.S.H., Dahl, L., McGibbon, E., Brownlie, R.J., Cook, C., Elbarouni, B., Katz, A., Nguyen, T., Sawatzky, J., Sinclaire, M., Throndson, K., Fransoo, R. (2018). Health outcome and follow-up care differences between First Nation’s and non-First Nation’s coronary angiogram patients: A retrospective cohort study. Canadian Journal of Cardiology, 34, 1333-1340.
  • Schultz, A.S.H., Dahl, L., McGibbon, E., Brownlie, R.J., Cook, C., Elbarouni, B., Katz, A., Nguyen, T., Sawatzky, J., Sinclaire, M., Throndson, K., & Fransoo, R. (2018). Index coronary angiogram utilization in Manitoba, Canada: A population-level descriptive analysis of First Nations and non-Frist Nations recipients British Medical Journal Open, Mar 25, 8(3), e020856. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020856
  • Schultz, A. Dahl, L. & McGibbon, E. et al. (2018). Health outcome and follow-up care differences between First Nation and non-First Nation coronary angiogram patients: A retrospective cohort study. Canadian Journal of Cardiology.
  • McGibbon, E. (2018). Truth and reconciliation: Organizational leadership in health care. Healthcare Management Forum, 32(1), 20-24.
  • McGibbon, E. (2018). Decolonizing health care: Reconciliation roles and responsibilities for white settlers. Women’s Health and Urban Life, 13(2).
  • Schultz, A. Dahl, L. & McGibbon, E. et al. (2018). Index coronary angiography utilization in Manitoba, Canada: A population-level descriptive analysis of First Nation and Non-First Nation recipients. British Medical Journal Open.
  • McGibbon, E. (2016). Access to emergency care; Spotlight on a social determinants of health intersectionality lens. British Medical Journal Open, Published online, February 3, 2016. http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/1/e010274.responses#access-to-emergenc…
  • Jackson, J, McGibbon, E. & Waldren, I. (2013). Racism and cardiovascular disease: Implications for nursing science. Canadian Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 23(4), 12-18.
  • McGibbon, E. & McPherson, C. (2013). Stress, oppression, and women’s mental health: A discussion of the health consequences of injustice. Women’s Health and Urban Life: An International Journal. 
  • McGibbon, E., Waldren, I. & Jackson, J.  (2013). Social determinants of cardiovascular health: Time for a focus on racism. Invited Guest Editorial. Diversity and Equality in Health and Care: An International Journal,10(139-42).
  • McGibbon, E., Malaudzi, M., Didham, P., Barton, A., & Sochan, A. (2013). Towards decolonizing nursing: The colonization of nursing and strategies to increase the counter-narrative. Nursing Inquiry, 21(3), 179-191.
  • Cohen, B., Schultz, A., McGibbon, E., VanderPlaat, M., Germann, C., Beanlands, et al. (2013). Conceptual framework of organizational capacity for Public Health equity action. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 104(3), e262-e266.
  • Bassett, R. & McGibbon, E. (2012). A critical participatory and collaborative method for scoping the Literature: Participatory approaches to scoping reviews. Quality and Quantity: An International Journal. April, 26, 2012.
  • McGibbon, E. & McPherson, C. (2011). Applying intersectionality theory and complexity theory to address the social determinants of women’s health. Women’s Health and Urban Life: An International Journal, (10)1, 59-86. University of Toronto Press.
  • McGibbon, E. (2011). Political economy of maternal and newborn mortality. British Medical Journal Open, Page 343. DOI: d4044doi: 10.1136
  • McGibbon, E. & Peter, E. (2010). A reformulation of the nature of stress in nursing: An institutional ethnography. Qualitative Health Research, 20(10), 1353-1378.
  • McPherson, C., & McGibbon, E. (2010). Addressing the determinants of child mental health: Intersectionality as a guide to primary health care renewal. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 42(3), 50-64.
  • McPherson, C. & McGibbon, E. (2010).  Rural interprofessional primary health care team development and sustainability: Establishing a research agenda. Primary Health Care Research & Development, 11(4), 301-314.
  • McGibbon, E, Etowa, J. & McPherson, C. (2008). Health care access as a social determinant of health. Canadian Nurse Journal, 104(7), 22-29. 
  • McGibbon, E. & Peter, E. (2008). Everyday caring for the living, the dying, and the dead: Towards a biomedical technography. International Journal of Qualitative Inquiry (14)7, 1134-1156.
  • McGibbon, E. (2008). Health care top-up fees, privatization, and market driven health care. British Medical Journal, 335(7653), 1105-1106.
  • McGibbon, E., McPherson, C., & Etowa, J. (2007).  The social determinants of health: Bringing advocacy to a health and public policy level. Nursing in Focus, 8(2), 17-19.
  • McGibbon, E. & McPherson, C. (2006). Interpretive pedagogy in action:  Design and delivery of a violence and health workshop for baccalaureate nursing students. Journal of Nursing Education, 45(2), 81-85.