Dr. Geneviève Rail

Education

*  Ph.D. Kinesiology (spec. in Sociology of Health and the Body), University of 

    Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

*  M.Sc. Sciences de l’activité physique (spec. in Sociology of Health and Physical 

    Activity), Université Laval

*  B.A. Sociologie, Université Laval

Research Interests

Please note that Geneviève Rail is not supervising new graduate students although as a Distinguished Professor Emerita, she is pursuing her research and publications. 

• Biopolitics, public health, women’s bodies and health practices
• Discourses of health, obesity, HPV vaccination
• Queer/trans bodies and cancer care
• Feminist critiques of health sciences, pharmaceutical industries, health care systems
• Poststructuralism, decolonial theory, queer theory

Mini-Biography

Geneviève Rail received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where Cultural Studies specialist Norman Denzin supervised her. She has taught courses related to women’s bodies, physical activity and health at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Health Sciences from 1991 to 2009. Since then, she has been Principal, and then Professor of Feminist Cultural Studies of Health at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute of Concordia University. In 2020, Geneviève received the title of Distinguished Professor Emerita. Still involved in research, she focuses on women’s experiences of body-related institutions (e.g., health systems, pharmaceutical industries, media) and her approaches are feminist, poststructuralist, decolonial and queer. Author of over 100 articles or book chapters, she has been a keynote speaker in over 50 national or international conferences. In the last 20 years, she has received funding from Canadian and Australian research councils (ARC, SSHRC, CIHR) for a series of research projects involving women from varying sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, and socioeconomic milieus. She is interested in these women’s discursive constructions and embodied experiences of the body and health. Her latest CIHR-funded projects deal with: (a) fatness; (b) HPV vaccination, and (c) breast and gynaecological cancer care for LBTQ persons.

Rail, G. et al. (2024-25, RéQEF-Antenne Concordia, $5,000). Conference: Pour une présence féministe au Bandung du Nord : Soutien à la traduction des féministes anglophones.

Rail, G. et al. (2024-25, RéQEF-Antenne Concordia, $5,000). Pour une présence féministe au Bandung du Nord : Soutien à la conférence « Genres, civilisations et suprématie blanche ».

Petherick, L., Norman, M. & Rail, G. (2019-2021, SSHRC, $64,286). Sexuality Education as Public Pedagogy: Media and Parental Constructions of Sexuality Education.

McPhail, D., Rail, G., Gingras, J., & Jette, S.L. (2014-2019, CIHR, $230,130). Reproducing Stigma: Obesity and Women's Experiences of Reproductive Care.

G. Rail, Fusco, C., Burns, K., Russel, K., Bryson, M., Macdonald, M., Moola, F., Norman, M.E., Petherick, L., & Polzer, J. (2012-2017, CIHR, $273,359). HPV vaccination discourses, spaces and biopedagogies: Affects and effects on youth’s bodies and subjectivities.

Bryson, M, Gahagan, J., Hart, S., Rail, G., Ristock, J. et al. (2012-2015, CIHR, $356,377). Cancer’s margins and the choreography of knowledge: Toward a queer biopolitics and the mobilization of public health knowledge.

Bryson, M, Gahagan, J., Hart, S., Rail, G., et al. (2012-2013, CIHR, $100,000). Cancer’s margins and the choreography of knowledge: Genders, sexualities and the queer biopolitics of access to health knowledge mobilization (Priority Announcement Grant).

Burns, K., Russell, K., Rail, G. & Fusco, C. (2011-2012, International Program Development Fund – University of Sydney, $6,000). A comparative study of school-based HPV/cervical cancer vaccination programs and HPV-related knowledge in Australia and Canada (International Linkage). 

Rail, G., Jette, S., Norman, M.E., & Tlili, H. (2011-2012, CIHR, $43,850). The weight of words: Discursive constructions of obesity and health among health professionals.

Rail, G., & Dumas, A. (2008-2011, SSHRC, $145,000). Young women’s discursive constructions of the body and health in the context of obesity discourses and biopedagogies.

Rail, G. (2024). Dans les marges du cancer : vulnérabilité, résistance et « artivisme » queer. Dans A. Meidani, C. Siino et O. Troupel (dir.), La vulnérabilité dans tous ses états : parcours de vie et inégalités sociales (pp. 1-24). Paris, France : Éditions Matériologiques. Available here

Keyser-Verreault, A., & Rail, G. (2023). Gender, beauty and the future of neoliberalism: Aesthetic labour and women’s (anti)aspirationalism in Taiwan. Chinese Sociological Review, 55(5), 564-590. Available here

Rail, G. (2021). La violence de l’impératif du bien-être. Bio-Autres, missions de sauvetage et justice sociale. 40 ans de revue STAPS, (Hors-série), 83-99. Available here

Rail, G., Bryson, M., Hart, T.L., Gahagan, J. & Ristock, J., & Boschman, L. (2020). « Queerir » le cancer. Subjectivités, savoirs, soins du cancer et justice sociale. In A. Alessandrin, J. Dagorn, A. Meidani, G. Richard & M. Toulze (Eds.), Santé LGBT: les minorités de genre et de sexualité face aux soins (pp. 71-81). Lormont, France: Éditions Bord de l'eau. Available here

Bryson, M., Rail, G., Taylor, E., Boschman, L., Hart, T., Gahagan, J., & Ristock, J. (2020). Chorégraphies difficiles dans les « Marges du cancer ». Minorités sexuelles et/ou genrées et incommensurabilité des savoirs biographiques et biomédicaux. In A. Meidani (Ed.), Masculinités et féminités face au cancer. Expériences cancéreuses et interactions soignantes (pp. 137-159). Toulouse, France: Éditions Érès. Available here

Biron, P., St-Onge, J.-C., & Rail, G. (2019). Medical science integrity decapitated. PharmaWatch Canada, June 14. Available here

Taylor, E.T., Bryson, M.K., Boschman, L., Hart, T., Gahagan, J., Rail, G., & Ristock, J. (2019). Cancer’s Margins: How media and community networks promote knowledge access, sharing, and mobilization by sexual and gender minority cancer patients. Media and Communication, 7(1), 102-113. Available here

Bryson, M., Taylor, E., Boschman, L., Hart, T., Gahagan, J., Rail, G., & Ristock, J. (2018). Awkward choreographies from Cancer's Margins: Sexual and/or gender minority cancer patients’ encounters with biographical and biomedical knowledge in treatment. Journal of Medical Humanities. Available here

Rail, G., Molino, L., Fusco, C., Norman, M.E., Petherick, L., Polzer, J., Moola, F., & Bryson, M. (2018). HPV vaccination campaigns and the discursive construction of “at-risk” girls. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 109(5), 622-632. Available here

Rail, G.,  Bryson, M., Hart, T., Gahagan, J., Ristock, J. (2017). Proyecto Cancer’s Margins: minorías sexuales, asistencia oncológica, conocimiento y subjetividades (Cancer’s Margins: Sexual minorities, cancer care, knowledge and subjectivities). In A. Porroche-Escudero, G. Coll-Planas, & C. Riba (Eds.), Cicatrices (in)visibles: Perspectivas feministas sobre el cáncer de mama (Spanish version of Invisible scars: Feminist perspectives on breast cancer) (pp. 71-82). Barcelona, Spain:  Edicions Bellaterra. Available here

Petherick, L., Norman, M.E., & Rail, G. (2016). Manufacturing (parental) consent: A critical analysis of the HPV vaccination informed consent process in Ontario, Canada. In S. Dagkas & L. Burrows (Eds.), Families, young people, physical activity and health: Critical perspectives (pp. 96-113). London: Routledge. Available here

Rail, G. (2016). La violence de l’impératif du bien-être. Bio-Autres, missions de sauvetage et justice sociale. Section “Sociologie,” Revue STAPS, 36(2), 17-31. Available here

Norman, M.E., & Rail, G. (2016). Encountering fat others, embodying the thin self: Emotional orientations to fatness and the materialization of feminine subjectivities. Subjectivity, 9(3), 271-289. Available here

Rail, G., Bryson, M., Hart, T., Gahagan, J., Ristock, J. (2016). Projecte Cancer’s Margins: Minories sexuals, assistència oncològica, informació I subjectivitats (original: Cancer’s Margins: Sexual minorities, cancer care, knowledge and subjectivities). In A. Porroche-Escudero, G. Coll-Planas, & C. Riba (Eds), Cicatrius (in)visibles: Perspectives feministes sobre el càncer de mama (Invisible scars: Feminist perspectives on breast cancer) (pp. 75-89). Vic, Spain: Eumo Press.

Norman, M.E., Rail, G., & Jette, S. (2016). Screening the un-scene: De-constructing the (bio)politics of storytelling in a reality makeover weight loss series. In J. Ellison, D. McPhail & W. Mitchinson (Eds), Obesity in Canada: Historical and Critical Perspectives (pp. 342-372). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Adams, M.L., Davidson, J., Helstein, M. Jamieson, K., Kim, K.Y., King, S., McDonald, M.G., & Rail, G. (2016). Feminist cultural studies: Uncertainties and possibilities. Sociology of Sport Journal, 33(1), 75-91. Available here

Rail, G., & Jette, S. (2015). Reflections on biopedagogies and/of public health: On bio-Others, rescue missions and social justice. Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies, 15(5), 327-336.  Available here

Rail, G., & Jette, S. (Guest Eds.) (2015). Special issue: “Biopedagogies and/of Public Health.” Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies, 15(5). (92 pages) Available here

Rail, G., Molino, L., & Lippman, A. (2015).  La réplique. Vaccination contre le VPH : contre la loi du silence. Le Devoir, 29 octobre. Available here

Rail, G., Molino, L., & Lippman, A. (2015). Appel urgent à un moratoire sur la vaccination contre les VPH. Le Devoir, 5 octobre, p. A7. Available here

Abou-Rizk, Z., & Rail, G. (2015). “Haram, she’s obese!”: Young Lebanese-Canadian women’s discursive constructions of obesity. Atlantis, 37(1),129-142. Available here

Norman, M.E., Rail, G., & Jette, S. (2014). Moving subjects, feeling bodies: Emotion and subjectification in “Village on a Diet.” Fat Studies Journal, 3(1),17-31. Available here

Rail, G. (2014). Femmes, « obésité » et confessions de la chair : regard critique sur la Clinique de l’obésité. Labrys, études féministes/ estudos feministas, 25 (janvier-juin 2014). Available here

Petherick, L., Norman, M.E., & Rail, G. (2023, June). A discourse analysis of the media coverage of the debate surrounding sex and sexuality education. Canadian Society for the Study of Education Conference, York, Ontario.

Rail, G. (2023, April). Dans les marges du cancer: vulnérabilité, résistance et genre. Opening keynote, Interdisciplinary and International Colloquium on Cancer and Disability organized by Université de Toulouse Jean-Jaurès.

Rail, G. (2022, November). In my queer zone: “Vulnerable” bodies and carnal knowledge in cancer’s margins. Invited keynote, inaugural Brian Pronger Memorial Lecture, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario.

Rail, G. (2022, November). Body fascism: On bio-others, rescue missions and social justice. Invited presentation, Masters Seminar, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario.

Rail, G. (2021, May). Corps sous emprise. De la nécessité des savoirs féministes/subversifs en santé. Invited presentation at the « Université féministe d’été » focusing on « Féminismes, corps et sexualités », Université Laval, Québec, Québec.

Rail, G. (2021, February). Corps sous emprises. De la nécessité des savoirs féministes et queers en santé. Invited presentation at the Master’s Seminar « Éducation à la Sexualité Humaine » (via Zoom) organized by Université de Toulouse Jean-Jaurès.

Rail, G. (2020, May). HPV vaccination in Canada: A failed “rescue mission.” Invited presentation at the HPV Vaccine Information International Symposium (via Zoom), Chicago, USA.

Rail, G., Bryson, M., Taylor, E., Boschman, L., Hart, T., Gahagan, J. & Ristock, J. (2020, March). Cancer et minorités sexuelles et/ou genrées : incommensurabilité des savoirs biographiques et biomédicaux. Invited presentation, « La santé au prisme du genre » Series, Réseau de recherche Québec Sciences Sociales et Santé, UQAM, Montreal, Canada.

Rail, G. (2019, November). Le paternalisme médical, les soins du cancer du sein et autres histoires d’horreur de la médecine allopathique. Invited presentation at the occasion of Marie-Claude Belzile’s booklaunch “Penser le sein féministe,” Euguélionne Bookstore, Montreal, Canada.

Rail, G. (2019, May). The vaccine industry, the construction of ‘at-risk’ girls, and the manufacturing of mothers’ consent. Simone de Beauvoir Summer Institute, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

Rail, G. (2019, May). Artivism and the queering of cancer. Simone de Beauvoir Summer Institute, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

Rail, G. (2019, January). Health interventions, gender, at-risk bodies, and the danger of rescue missions. Invited presentation at the Department of Family Medicine’s Graduate Seminar, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Rail, G. (2018, April). What could community-based health care look like if people counted? Invited presentation at University of the Streets, La Place Commune, Montreal.

Rail, G. (2018, March). Women and the well-being imperative: On bio-Others, rescue missions and social justice. Invited presentation at Dawson College, Montreal, Canada.

Rail, G. (2018, February). Les femmes, la santé mentale et l’industrie pharmaceutique. Invited presentation at the Réseau des groupes de femmes de Chaudière-Appalaches, Lévis, Québec.

Rail, G., Bryson, M., Hart, T., Gahagan, J., & Ristock, J. (2018, January). Pratiques narratives de « queerison » du cancer et coproduction de nouveaux savoirs. Invited keynote at the international colloquium entitled « Santé LGBTI », Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France.

Rail, G. (2017, December). Vaccination contre les VPH au Québec : l’hyperresponsabilisation des mères. Journée annuelles de santé publique, Québec, Québec.

Rail, G., Bryson, M., Hart, T., Gahagan, J., & Ristock, J.(2017, Novembre). « Queerir » le cancer : subjectivités, savoirs, soins du cancer et justice sociale. Invited keynote at the international colloquium entitled « Assises du Cancer et du Genre : Autour des inégalités sociales de santé », Université Toulouse II, Toulouse, France.

Taylor, E., Bryson, M., Boschman, L., Taylor, E., Boschman, L., Hart, T., Gahagan, J., Rail, G., & Ristock, J. (2017, October). Cancer’s Margins: Biopolitical implications of gender marginalization and cancer health and treatment. Canadian Professional Association for Transgender Health, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Rail, G., Molino, L., Fusco, C., Norman, M.E., Petherick, L., Polzer, J., Moola, F., & Bryson, M. (2017, August). Overdiagnosis and the construction of “at-risk” girls: HPV vaccination campaigns as rescue missions. Preventing Overdiagnosis Conference, Québec, Québec.

Rail, G. (2017, August). Challenges and potential of incorporating feminist social theory and methods in research on overdiagnosis. Invited presentation at the Seminar on Social Theory and Overdiagnosis, Preventing Overdiagnosis Conference, Québec, Québec.

Rail, G. (2017, May). A nomadic feminist voyage for collective mobilizing. Simone de Beauvoir Summer Institute, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

Rail, G., & Bryson, M. (2017, May). In/visible bodies at the margins: Artivism and the queering of cancer. Simone de Beauvoir Summer Institute, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

Rail, G., & Bryson, M. (2017, March). “Artivism,” sexual minorities and breast and gynecological cancer care. Division of Community Health Seminar Series, Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.

Rail, G. (2017, March). A feminist critique of the wellbeing imperative: On biOthers, rescue missions and social justice. Department of Gender Studies Seminar Series, Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.

Rail, G. (2017, February). Girls, mothers, and the HPV vaccine: Manufacturing consent. Microtalks Evening, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

Rail,G. (2016, October). Les « industries » de la santé et lacolonisation du corps des femmes. Invited presentation at the Réseau des groupes de femmes de Chaudière-Appalaches, Lévis, Québec.

Rail, G., & Bryson, M. (2016, September). Artivisme lesbien et queer dans les « Marges du cancer ». De l’importance des savoirs subjugués dans les soins de santé. Colloquium « Artivismes lesbiens à l’ère de la mondialisation », University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Rail, G., & Bryson, M. (2016, May). Auto-représentations et nouvelles connaissances dans les « Marges du cancer »: Sexualité et agentivité. Annual congress of ACFAS, Montréal, Québec.

Rail, G. (2016, May). Le poids des mots : représentations de l’obésité et de la santé chez les jeunes filles et les femmes. Invited presentation at « Université féministe d’été », 23-27 mai, Université Laval, Québec, Québec.

Rail, G. (April, 2016). Femmes, corps et santé: pour une sociologie engagée. Invited presentation at Université Paris-Descartes, Paris, France.

Rail, G. (March, 2016). Injonctions au bien-être, vulnérabilités, pseudo-sauvetages et justice sociale. Invited presentation at Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France.

Rail, G., Bryson, M., Hart, T., Gahagan, J., Ristock, J., & Molino, L. (2015, August). Les marges du cancer : minorités sexuelles, savoirs sur les soins du cancer et justice sociale. Colloque “Santé, féminisme et justice sociale” au sein du 7e Congrès international des recherches féministes dans la francophonie, Montréal, Québec.

Molino, L., & Rail, G. (2015, August). Discours sur le vaccin anti-VPH: quelles éthiques, quelle justice sociale? Colloque “Santé, féminisme et justice sociale” au sein du 7e Congrès international des recherches féministes dans la francophonie, Montréal, Québec.

Molino, L., Rail, G., & Bryson, M. (2015, October). Cancer’s Margins: Sexual minorities, cancer care, knowledge and subjectivities. Invited presentation at the Breast Cancer Action Quebec and the Center for Gender Advocacy’s conference on “Where is feminism when my body needs it most? Breast cancer and the absence of a feminist perspective,” Montreal, Quebec.

Rail, G., Bryson, M., Hart, T., Gahagan, J., Ristock, J., & Molino, L. (2015, June). Cancer’s Margins: Sexual Minorities, Cancer Care, Knowledge and Subjectivities. Gender and Health Symposium organized by the Institut Emilie du Châtelet in partnership with INSERM, Paris, France.

Rail, G. (June, 2015). The wellbeing imperative: On biOthers, rescue missions and social justice. Invited keynote presentation at the International Sociology of Sport Association annual conference, Paris, France.

Molino, L., Rail, G., & Fusco, C. (2015, February). HPV Vaccines and Discourses: Impact on Canadian Girls. International Conference on “Public Health Infrastructure in Transition: Challenges and a way Forward,” New Delhi, India.

Rail, G., Bryson, M., Hart, T., Gahagan, J., Ristock, J., & Molino, L. (2015, February). Cancer’s Margins: Sexual Minorities, Cancer Care, Knowledge and Subjectivities. International Conference on “Public Health Infrastructure in Transition: Challenges and a way Forward,” New Delhi, India.

Rail, G., Molino, L., & Fusco, C. (2015, February). HPV Vaccines: Protecting Canadian Girls and Public Health? Fourteenth World Congress on Public Health, Kolkata, India.

Rail, G., & Molino, L. (2015, February). No longer objects: Women, health and the politicization of archives in the digital age. International Conference on “Shifting Contours, Widening Concerns: Women’s History, Historiography and the Politics of Historical Representation,” Mumbai, India.

Rail, G. (2014, November). Gendered bodies, physical activity and discrimination. Teleconference participation in the conference entitled “Cuerpos, deporte y discriminación” organized in Buenos Aires in collaboration with the Canadian Embassy in Argentina (Montreal office).

Rail, G. (2014, November). Les enjeux clés liés aux féminismes au Québec, au Canada et à l'échelle internationale. Paper presented at the Institute for Canadian Studies of McGill University, Montreal, Quebec.

Rail, G., Molino, L., & Fusco, C. (2014, August). Guarding girls? HPV vaccine discourses’ impact on bodies and subjectivities. Panel on “Anticipation, anxiety and HPV vaccine politics. Global tensions and local enactments,” Society for Social Studies of Science Annual Conference, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Rail, G. (2014, May). Critique féministe des discours dominants en santé à trois âges de la vie. Invited presentation at the « Université Féministe d’été », Université Laval, Québec, Québec.

Rail, G., Bryson, M., Hart, T., Gahagan, J., Ristock, J., & Molino, L. (2014, April). Queering qualitative cancer research: Cancer’s Margins, knowledge and subjectivities. Presentation at the “Qualitative Cancer Research" conference, Berlin School of Public Health, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany.

Rail, G. (2014, April). Women, obesity discourses, biomanagement and biopedagogy. Invited presentation at the symposia “Managing social issues.” Department of Governance and Organization Studies, Utrecht University, Netherlands.

Molino, L., Rail, G., & Fusco, C. (2014, April). HPV vaccination discourses: Impact on Canadian girls’ bodies and subjectivities. Presentation at the “Qualitative Cancer Research" conference, Berlin School of Public Health, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany.

Rail, G. (2014, March). Santé des femmes et biopouvoir : Une critique du mouvement sur les données probantes. Presentation made in graduate seminar organised at the Faculty of Kinesiology, Université de Montréal, Montréal.

Rail, G. (2013, November). Panel presentation: “Feminist cultural studies: Uncertainties and possibilities.” Annual Conference of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Quebec City, Canada.

Rail, G., Moola, F., Molino, L., Jette, S., Norman, M.E., & Tlili, H. (2013, November). The weight of words: Health professionals, obesity discourse and the sport environment. Annual Conference of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Quebec City, Canada.

Rail, G. (2013, October). Femmes, obésité et santé: regard critique sur les discours dominants. Presentation at the l’Institut de recherches et d’études féministes, UQAM, Montréal.

Boschman, L., Bryson, M., Gahagan, J., Ristock, J., Hart, T., & Rail, G. (2013, October). Methodological considerations in tracing cancer’s margins: Genders, sexualities and the queer biopolitics of access to health knowledge mobilization. Qualitative Health Conference, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Rail, G. (2013, May). Dones, obesitat I salut: un avisió crítica dels discursos dominants. Invited presentation (in English with simultaneous translation in Catalan), Equality Unit, University of Vic. Vic, Catalogna, Spain.

Rail, G. & Lippman, A. (2013,February). Selling HPV: Promises, profits and problems. International conference on “Selling Sickness 2013: People Before Profits.” Washington D.C., U.S.A.

Rail, G. (2012, December). Remembering/rewriting women’s bodies: Reflections on poststructuralism and feminist historiographies. Invited presentation, International Seminar organized by Archives for Women, Research Centre for Women’s Studies and University Library, SNDT Women’s University in association with the Indian Association for Women’s Studies. Mumbai, India.

Rail, G., & Tlili, H. (2012, August). Le poids des mots : le discours sur l’obésité et ses effets discursifs sur des Canadiennes de divers milieux socioculturels. 6th International Conference on Francophone Feminist Research. Lausanne, Switzerland.

Tlili, H., & Rail, G. (2012, August). Les jeunes Montréalaises d’origine magrébine : culture, religion et corps à corps avec les discours sociaux. 6th International Conference on Francophone Feminist Research. Lausanne, Switzerland.

Rail, G. (2012, February). The Cultural Politics of Women’s Health in Quebec. Keynote address delivered at the Seminar entitled “Gendered Politics and the Public Domain: Perspectives for India and Quebec” and jointly organized by SNDT Women’s University and the Bureau du Québec à Mumbai. Mumbai, India.

Rail, G. (2012, February). Postcards from the obesity factory: Impact on young women’s constructions of health. Health, Leisure and Human Performance Research Institute, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Jette, S., & Rail, G. (2011, November). Dancing mothers: Exploring alternative body practices in pregnancy. Annual Conference of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Rail, G. (2011, November). Toward a biomedicalized civilization of the body. Keynote panel at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Annual Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Tlili, H., & Rail, G. (2011, September).  Young Canadian women immigrating from the Mahgreb and their discursive constructions of health and the body in the context of the current obesity discourse. Conference of the European Sociological Association, Geneva, Switzerland.

Rail, G. (2011,June). Postcards from the obesity factory: Impact on Canadian adolescents’ discursive constructions of health and the body. Keynote address at the CIHR’s sponsored International Symposium on “Speaking the Unspoken: Masculinities, bodies and body images in health and education,” Ottawa, Canada.

Rail, G. (2011,February). Doing more harm than good? Obesity discourses and young students’ health perceptions and practices. Health and Physical Education class, Lakehead University, Ontario.

Rail, G. (2011, February). The weight of words: Obesity discourses, biopedagogies and young women’s constructions of health. Faculty and Graduate Students Seminar, Faculty of Education, Lakehead University, Ontario.

Rail, G., Norman, M.E., & Jette, S. (2010, November). The weight of words: Obesity discourse and its discursive effects among young Canadian women. CIHR Conference on “Innovations in Gender, Sex, and Health Research.” Toronto, Ontario.

Tlili, H., & Rail, G. (2010, November). Resisting dominant bodily discourses: The case of North African immigrant women living in Montreal. Annual Conference of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, San Diego, California.

Jette, S., & Rail, G. (2010, November). Resisting, Reproducing, Resigned? Pregnant Women’s Discursive Constructions of a ‘Healthy’ Pregnancy and ‘Proper’ Weight Gain. Annual Conference of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, San Diego, California.

Rail, G. (2010, November). The birth of the obesity clinic: Confessions of the flesh, biopedagogies and physical culture. Keynote address at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Annual Conference, San Diego, California.

Pouliot, A., & Rail, G. (2010, May). “I might be blind… but I am not obese”: Avoiding “obesity” as a way to “fit in” and controlling the disabled body. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Women Studies Association, Montreal, Canada.

Jette, S., & Rail, G. (2010, May). ‘Weighing in’: Pregnant women’s discursive constructions of physical activity and the body in the context of the so-called ‘obesity epidemic.’ Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Women Studies Association, Montreal, Canada.

Abou-Rizk, Z., & Rail, G. (2010, May). “Judging a body by its cover”: How young Lebanese-Canadian women construct a “healthy body.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Women Studies Association, Montreal, Canada.

Harper, E., & Rail, G. (2010, May). Resistance or restraint? Young pregnant women’s discursive constructions of the body. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Women Studies Association, Montreal, Canada.

Harper, E., & Rail, G. (2010, May). Gaining the ‘right’ amount: Exploring contradictions between dominant constructions of health and lived experience during pregnancy. Paper presented at the Bodies of Knowledge Conference, Toronto, Canada.

Rail, G. (2010, March). “Confessions of the flesh”: On obesity, medicalisation and (bio)pedagogies of impending epidemics. Invited presentation for the “Wellness and Disease” Series, Kahn Liberal Arts Institute, Smith College, Massachusetts, USA.