Publications & Presentations
May 16th 2023
Not a Checkbox: Engaging in a Culture of Equitable Teaching
[DEDI] Community Practice & Teaching
York University
Presentation of "A Fat Teacher's Manifesto: Introduction to Fat-Informed, Compassion Based Teaching"
This paper aims to critique the systemic oppression of fatness within the Physical Education space. Firstly, acknowledging that fatness has long been viewed not only as a medical issue but as personal failure in need of intervention. This paper will propose how the medical model of disability within education creates punitive and disciplinary systems for fat students, particularly children. We will explore how the Ontario Physical Education system subjugates fat bodies, drawing on language used within curriculum and policy in Ontario to support the medical model of disability. This paper outlines how fat-informed compassion-based teaching requires the following practices: (1) the teacher must acknowledge that fat-students are vulnerable and often discriminated against by peers and people in authority including teachers, (2) the teacher uses compassion as a modality of connection and equity in place of discipline (3) the
August 25th-28th, 2022
Liminal: The Second Annual Critical Femininities Conference
York University
Fringe-Fat
An autho-ethnographic talk to explore the nuances of the body-positivity movement. Exploring concepts of internalized fat-phobia, gastric bypass surgery and cancel culture, how do fat-bodies find themselves on the fringe of even fat-studies themselves.
August 11-13, 2022
Feminist Digital Methods Event and Conference
York University
Please Comment on My Body, I Beg of You;
Fatness, Pregnancy & Representation in a Digital Age
Profound feelings and embodied self-acceptance were sometimes met with stark loneliness as my pregnancy coexisted with several coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdowns and transitions to online work and socializing. This paper explores my experience of fat-pregnancy as I engaged in the liminal space of COVID-19 digital citizenship.
May 5th, 2022
Somatic Cartography Conference
English Graduate Studies at York University
A Personal Account of Being the Fat Teacher
A personal narrative on the experiences of being ‘the fat teacher’. This paper details the physical and emotional challenges faced and the liminal space between fat-shame and fat-acceptance. Acknowledging the body as a location for learning, this paper describes the author’s unique and individual experience when thanked for being fat by a parent of a fat child. Written in illustrative prose this paper explores the entanglement of identity, oppression and acceptance.
Publication
Pivot, Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies & Thought
Di Giammarino, O. (2022). A Personal Account of Being the Fat Teacher. Pivot: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies and Thought, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.25071/2369-7326.40319
March 3-4, 2022
Conference of Disability at the Intersection of History, Culture, Religion, Gender, and Health
Marquette University
Presentation of "A Fat Teacher's Manifesto: Introduction to Fat-Informed Compassion-Based Teaching"
This paper aims to critique the systemic oppression of fatness within the Physical Education space. Firstly, acknowledging that fatness has long been viewed not only as a medical issue but as personal failure in need of intervention. This paper will propose how the medical model of disability within education creates punitive and disciplinary systems for fat students, particularly children. We will explore how the Ontario Physical Education system subjugates fat bodies, drawing on language used within curriculum and policy in Ontario to support the medical model of disability. This paper outlines how fat-informed compassion-based teaching requires the following practices: (1) the teacher must acknowledge that fat-students are vulnerable and often discriminated against by peers and people in authority including teachers, (2) the teacher uses compassion as a modality of connection and equity in place of discipline (3) the teacher encourages students to advocate for themselves using the social model of disability. There is no requirement for a fat-informed compassion-based teacher to be fat or to identify as fat. Lastly this paper will turn to my own experience as a fat-kid, now fat-teacher, the prevalence of fat-identity and how fat-informed compassion-based teaching could potentially change how teachers and students approach Physical Education.