The Project
The Religion, Gender and Sexuality Among Youth in Canada (RGSY) project collects information about how young adults (aged 18-25) living in Canada understand their religiosity, their gender, their sexuality and the relationships among these three categories. Data is compiled in three ways: from a web-based survey (closed July 2013); from interviews, and from video diaries (conducted 2013-2014).
The information collected through this project will be analyzed and presented to a range of audiences (e.g. the general public, policy makers, groups of youth and youth leaders, religious leaders and groups). The study builds on resources from Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip’s Religion,Youth and Sexuality research project at Nottingham University.
The study is funded by the Religion and Diversity Project.
Click the following link to read the final report for the project: Religion, Gender and Sexuality Among Youth in Canada: Summary and Selected Findings
Project Aims
The Religion, Gender and Sexuality among Youth in Canada project has four primary aims:
- To explore the constructions and management strategies undertaken by young adults (aged 18-25), both religious and non-religious concerning their sexual identities, values, and choices.
- To examine the significant social, cultural, and political factors that inform the above-mentioned processes.
- To study how young adults manage their religious, sexual, and gender identities.
- To generate rich qualitative and quantitative data that will contribute new knowledge and to academic and policy debates on religion, youth, sexuality, and gender.
Research Team
Pamela Dickey Young, Principal Investigator
Heather Shipley, Co-investigator
Ian Alexander Cuthbertson, Research Assistant
Advisory Committee
Peter Beyer
Marie-Paule Martel-Reny
Beesan Sarrouh
Events
Lectures
August 19-21, 2016
Pamela Dickey Young
“Sex, Religion and Canadian Youth,” Association for the Sociology of Religion, Seattle.
August 19-21, 2016
Heather Shipley
“Navigating Nonreligion, Gender and Sexuality: Intersections and Reflections,” Identities Under Construction: Youth, (Non)Religion, Sexuality and Diversity in the UK and Canada. Association for the Sociology of Religion, Seattle.
May 4-6, 2016
Pamela Dickey Young
“RGSY: Emerging Themes”
Annual Meeting of the Religion and Diversity Project, Montreal
October 3, 2015
Pamela Dickey Young
“Sex, Religion and Canadian Youth: Identities Under Construction”
Religion Across the Humanities: Matariki Humanities Colloquium, Queen’s University
September 28, 2015
Pamela Dickey Young
“Sex, Religion and Canadian Youth: Identities Under Construction”
The 40th Annual Luther Lecture, University of Regina
June 1, 2015
Pamela Dickey Young
“Gender in the RGSY Project”
Canadian Society for the Study of Religion, Ottawa
May 31-June 2, 2015
Heather Shipley
“Youth in Canada: Sexuality,” Youth in Canada: Religion. Gender. Sexuality, Canadian Society for the Study of Religion.
University of Ottawa
November 3, 2014
Heather Shipley
Seminar, Center for Global Engagement
“Strange Bedfellows: Religion, Relationships, Spirituality, Sex and Health on College Campuses”
Indiana State University, Indiana, United States
November 1, 2014
Heather Shipley.
“Religion, Youth and Queer Identities in Canada”
Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Annual Conference, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
October 31, 2014
Heather Shipley
“Religion, Youth and Queer Identities in Canada,” Queer Religious Young People II, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Indianapolis, IN.
October 18, 2014
Heather Shipley
Youth, Religion and Identity: A Canadian and International Workshop “Apathy or Misunderstanding? Youth’s Reflections on their Religious Identity in Canada” University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
October 17, 2014
Pamela Dickey Young
Youth, Religion and Identity: A Canadian and International Workshop
“Religious Influences on Sexual Values and Sexual Practices among Youth in Canada”University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
October 16-18, 2014
Pamela Dickey Young
“Influences of Religion on the Sexual Attitudes and Practices of Canadian Youth: the Case of Premarital Sex.”
Youth, Religion and Identity: A Canadian and International Workshop, University of Ottawa
October 16-18, 2014
Heather Shipley
“Apathy or Misunderstanding? Youth’s Reflections on their Religious Identity in Canada,” Youth, Religion and Identity: A Canadian and International Workshop.
University of Ottawa
May 25-27, 2014
Heather Shipley
(Invited Panelist) “Taming the Beast of Research Design: A Roundtable Discussion on Ethics and Research Design in Religious Studies,” Canadian Society for the Study of Religion
Brock University
May 26, 2014
Heather Shipley
Canadian Society for the Study of Religion, Religion & Immigration “Belief not Religion: Youth Negotiations of Religious Identity in Canada”Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario
November 5, 2013
Pamela Dickey Young
Whose Religion?: Education about Religion in Public Schools Workshop
“Sex and Religion in Canadian Schools”, University of Ottawa.
November 5, 2013
Heather Shipley
Whose Religion?: Education about Religion in Public Schools Worshop
“The spaces in between: religious and sexual intersections in education”, University of Ottawa.
November 4-6, 2013
Pamela Dickey Young
“Who Speaks for Religion?”
Paper given at workshop on Whose Religion?
Education about Religion in Public Schools, University of Ottawa
November 4-6, 2013
Heather Shipley
“The spaces in between: religious and sexual intersections in education,” Whose Religion? Education about religion in public schools., University of Ottawa
October 31, 2013
Pamela Dickey Young
RGSY Project Results
Religion and Diversity Project Annual Team Meeting 2013, University of Ottawa.
April 23-26, 2013
Heather Shipley
(Invited) “The Policy of Identity: Regulating Religion, Youth and Sexuality in Education in Canada,” panel: Sexuality, Spirituality and the Educational Experience, Gender and Education Association: Compelling Diversities, Educational Intersections
London South Bank University, London, UK
September 3, 2012
Pamela Dickey Young and Heather Shipley. Religion, Youth and Sexuality: Stories from the United Kingdom
and Canada” Religion, Gender and Sexuality among Youth in Canada”University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Publications
Dickey Young, Pamela. “Informal Sex Education: Forces that Shape Youth Identities and Practices,” in Critical Pedagogy, Sexuality Education and Young People, eds. Andrew Yip and Fida Sanjakdar. New York: Peter Lang, forthcoming.
Dickey Young, Pamela. “Influences of Religion on the Sexual Attitudes and Practices of Canadian Youth: the Case of Premarital Sex,” in Youth, Religion and Identity, eds. Peter Beyer, Paul Gareau and Spencer Bullivant, forthcoming.
Shipley, Heather. 2015. “Apathy or Misunderstanding?: Youth’s Reflections on their Religious Identity in Canada.” In Religion, Youth and Identity, edited by Peter Beyer, Paul Gareau, and Spencer Bullivant, forthcoming.
Shipley, Heather, and Pamela Dickey Young. 2015. “Religion, Youth and Queer Identities in Canada.” In Sexual Diversity and Religions, edited by Martin Jaime. PEG/Diversities Publishing, accepted.
Shipley, Heather and Pamela Dickey Young. 2015. “Christianity, Gender and Identity among Canadian Youth,” in The Brill Handbook of Global Contemporary Christianity: Themes and Developments in Culture, Politics and Society, ed. S. Hunt. Leiden: Brill Academic Press: 327-345.
Shipley, Heather. 2015. “The Spaces in Between: Religion, Sexual Identity, Media and Education in Ontario.” In Issues in Religion and Education: Whose Religion?, edited by Lori G. Beaman, and Leo Van Arragon, 211-230. Leiden: Brill Academic Press.
Shipley, Heather, and Pamela Dickey Young. 2014. “Values and Attitudes: How are Youth Integrating Religion and Sexuality in their Daily Lives?” In Globalized Religion and Sexual Identity: Contexts, Contestations, Voices, edited by Heather Shipley, 276-294. “International Studies in Religion and Society.” Leiden: Brill Academic Press.
Shipley, Heather, and Pamela Dickey Young. “Values and Practices: How are Youth Integrating Religion and Sexuality in their Daily Lives?” in Globalized Religion and Sexuality: Contexts, Contestations, Voices. ed. H. Shipley. “International Studies in Religion and Society,” Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2014, 276-294.
Young, Pamela Dickey.“Influences of Religion on the Sexual Attitudes and Practices of Canadian Youth: the Case of Premarital Sex,” in Youth, Religion and Identity, eds. Peter Beyer, Paul Gareau and Spencer Bullivant, forthcoming.
Young, Pamela Dickey. “Informal Sex Education: Forces that Shape Youth Identities and Practices,” in Critical Pedagogy, Sexuality Education and Young People, eds. Andrew Yip and Fida Sanjakdar. New York: Peter Lang, forthcoming.
Young, Pamela Dickey, Heather Shipley and Ian Alexander Cuthbertson. “Religion, Gender and Sexuality Among Youth in Canada: Some Preliminary Findings.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion 45/1 (2016): 17-26.
Young, Pamela Dickey. 2015. “Religious Influences on Sexual Values and Sexual Practices among Youth in Canada.” In Religion, Youth and Identity, edited by Peter Beyer, Paul Gareau, and Spencer Bullivant, forthcoming.
Young, Pamela Dickey, and Heather Shipley. 2015. “‘A Protestant with a seatbelt, I guess’: Christianity, Gender and Identity.” In The Brill Handbook of Global Christianity, edited by Stephen Hunt. Leiden & Boston: Brill Academic Press, forthcoming.
Young, Pamela Dickey and Heather Shipley. 2015. “Belief, not religion: Youth Negotiations of Religious Identity in Canada,” in Handbook of Children and Youth Studies, eds. J. Wyn and H. Cahill. Singapore: Springer: 861-873.
Young, Pamela Dickey. 2015. “Who Speaks for Religion?” In Issues in Religion and Education: Whose Religion?, edited by Lori G. Beaman, and Leo Van Arragon, 307-320. Leiden: Brill Academic Press.
Collaborations
Taylor, Yvette, and Heather Shipley. 2014. “Making Space Across Religion, Gender and Sexuality: Canada-UK Connections.” The Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research, March 2, 2014.