Biography

Julie Devaney is a health activist and patient-expert in the fields of disability rights advocacy and health care delivery. Based in Toronto, she is the writer and performer of the critically acclaimed show, educational workshop series, and forthcoming book, My Leaky Body (MLB). Julie is sought after as a facilitator who uses participatory techniques with health care professionals to stimulate discussion and collaborate on strategies for change.

Since the inception of the project, Devaney has been invited to perform and facilitate workshops in over 60 venues (see “calendar”) including medical schools, nursing conferences, disability and women’s studies conferences and classrooms, arts festivals and theatres, including a successful 6-show run on the mainstage of Theatre Passe Muraille in the SummerWorks Theatre Festival in Toronto in 2008. She has performed her work and provided workshops coast to coast in Canada and in Washington, New York and the UK.

Julie Devaney has received national media attention, most recently on CBC's White Coat Black Art, and including profiles in Chatelaine, Abilities Magazine and the Toronto Star; as well as on the York University website and campus and local press across the country (see “gallery” for clippings).

As a writer, she has chapters in two anthologies, Dissonant Disabilities (2008: Canadian Scholars’ Press; eds. Driedger & Owen) and Turbo Chicks (2001: Sumach Press, eds. Rundle, Mitchell & Karain). In 2005 her essay “Lorelai the kitty is part of the cure” was published in the Globe and Mail. My Leaky Body, the book, will be published in Canada by Key Porter books in 2011.

Julie has a Masters’ Degree in Critical Disability Studies from York University in Toronto. The initial phases of MLB were part of her Master's Project: "Clinical Encounters: the politics of my leaky body", which was supervised by Dr. Margrit Shildrick. After being awarded her Master's Degree in February 2007 Julie began to perform more extended versions of her piece publicly, and develop educational workshops specifically designed for students and professionals.

At the same time as traveling with MLB, Julie coordinated the Gateways to Cancer Screening Project which explores narrative accounts of disabled women accessing the healthcare system. Gateways has made recommendations to healthcare facilities and policy-makers while establishing creative techniques to teach healthcare professionals how to better facilitate healthcare access. She is a principal co-author of an article about this project in the international, peer-reviewed journal Disability & Society.