Who is R. Alexia McFee?

My professional work has been dedicated to alleviating social discrimination and providing access to resources for a variety of vulnerable groups in Jamaica and the Caribbean at large.  My early work, including my B.Sc. and M.Sc. theses from the University of the West Indies in Sociology/Criminology and Sociology, respectively, focused on socially vulnerable groups.  My B.Sc. final paper interrogated how blind men differently understood and negotiated their masculinity in light of their disability, while my M.Sc. focused on the challenges of reintegration faced by deported migrants who had returned to Jamaica (research supplemented by my volunteer work with the National Organization for Deported Migrants). 

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I have worked with Aphrodite’s Pride, an advocacy group focused on LGBT youth, where I led a series of trainings that focused on skills development and understanding gender and sexual diversity.  From there I went to United Nations Population Sub-Regional Office (UNFPA  SRO) where my work expanded to further include gender policy and advocacy and communication, particularly targeting socially produced vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and supporting sexual reproductive health in Jamaica.  

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At UNFPA I began building Monitoring and Evaluation [M&E] skills that I have continued to develop.  As a result, building off of ongoing volunteer work with J-FLAG, I joined the organization (2015) as the M&E Specialist responsible for overseeing the efficacy and strategic implementation of the Health and Youth projects.  This work  included developing work plans in line with strategic objectives, monitoring implementation of activities, and conducting impact analysis, appraisals, and trainings.  

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As an ardent advocate to end violence against women and encouraging the self-empowerment of LBT women in Jamaica, I co-founded both WE-Change (2015) and the Tambourine Army (2016); the former a women-led organization focused on increasing the number of LBT women participating in social justice advocacy in which I worked as M&E Specialist and Associate Director with responsibility for policy and advocacy; and the latter a movement organized around eliminating the scourge of sexual violence against women and children. 

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I have other experiences including work with the JCF through COMET II around its  Diversity Policy, which specifically targeted LGBT population, sex workers, and people living with disabilities; conducted training around sexual grooming and domestic violence for community based organizations and police officers, also through COMETT; and editor of the Developmental Cost of Homophobia, a national study published in 2016. My experience spans research, policy management, the evaluation of advocacy efforts, and teaching.  Since the completion of my M.Sc. I have taught multiple courses at UWI including Research Methods, The Sociology of Development, and Sociology for Development at UWI. My broad interests in the social conditions that not only render various populations vulnerable to interpersonal, social, and political violence, but also hampers them from accessing resources necessary for living a quality life, fundamentally structures my approach to the various projects I have worked on. By interrogating how exclusion, stigma, and discrimination come to shape social structures, while attending to most effective ways in which advocacy policy leads to tangible results.  My experience and approach includes both a commitment to interrogative research and an attention to material efficacy. 

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I am currently a Ph.D candidate in Ethnic Studies at the University of California San Diego with research interest in gender and sexuality, violence against women and girls,  feminist movement building, Immigration and reintegration of Deported Migrants.