Alex Nelson

Alex Nelson (They/Them), BA (Hons), MA, is a PhD candidate at Western University in the Department of Anthropology. Their SSHRC-funded doctoral research explores concepts of gender, homelessness, and housing policy—focusing on the role of lived experience in policy advocacy. Alex’s interdisciplinary work draws on visual anthropology, disability studies, and trauma studies, as well as queer feminist theory. Alex grew up in Alberta and B.C. experiencing prolonged periods of homelessness and foster care. They advocate in their academic and professional work for lived experience leadership in efforts to end and prevent homelessness, and child welfare reform. Alex sits on the steering committee for the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network (an affiliate of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness), co-chairing the WNHHN Lived Voices Working Group, and the WNHHN LGBTQ2S+ Working Group. Alex is also a member of the LivEx Network of the Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab.