About

Nick’s current research examines both the structures of discrimination such as social and physical barriers that many gay men and lesbians with disabilities faced, as well as how they used style to navigate their disabilities in relationship to Toronto’s larger queer community between 1969 and 1995. His project builds on the able-bodied politics of desire highlighted in my dissertation by exploring the ways in which disabled gay men and lesbians navigated discrimination and marginalization from within the LGBT community.

His research also examines important intersections of disability activism in the queer community with the work of anti-racist activists of the time period. The overlap occurring around disability and anti-racist advocacy in the queer community was primarily the result of AIDS activism of the 1980s. The racialization of the AIDS epidemic and discourses around disease and normative “healthy” bodies that followed has created an enduring collision between health and disability that continues to exist within the queer community.

The trauma that has accrued from racism, ableism, and AIDS-phobia from outside and within the queer community is shaping a current co-authored manuscript with Celeste E. Orr titled: Anticipated Violence and the Queer Subject.

Hrynyk examines historical and contemporary social activism, advocacy, and lived experiences from an interdisciplinary framework. He draws on social and cultural history, feminist and gender studies, disability/crip studies, critical race studies, sexuality studies, philosophy, feminist sciences, and sociology.

Hrynyk earned a doctorate at Carleton University in the Department of History in 2018. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in History from the University of Windsor. His graduate research had been generously supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Ph.D.) and the Lambda Foundation.

He resides on the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations, which includes the Ojibwa, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi (Windsor, Ontario).