On any given day, Dr. Amy Kipp's work might take her into a community meeting, a collaborative art space, or a conversation that challenges what research is, and who it's for. It's research that doesn't stay on the page. Instead, Kipp's work is grounded in the everyday realities of care: how people support one another, how communities respond to crisis, and how systems can better reflect the needs of those they serve. Through her research, she is helping redefine care not as something private or invisible, but as a powerful force for social change.
A Journey Deeply Rooted at U of G
Kipp's connection to the University of Guelph began in 2010, when she first arrived as an undergraduate student in international development studies. From there, her academic path evolved alongside her growing commitment to community-engaged work, leading her to achieve a master of arts in geography and international development, and ultimately a PhD in social practice and transformational change. Today, Kipp finds herself working as a postdoctoral research fellow, collaborating with leading researcher and professor Dr. Leah Levac, where they focus on the intersections between critical community engaged scholarship and public policy.
Research That Starts with Relationships
At the heart of Kipp's work is a simple but profound idea: knowledge should be created with communities, not just about them. Dr. Amy Kipp's research "co-creates community-based knowledge," a collaborative approach that draws on lived experience and collective insight to better understand how communities thrive.
Her research spans feminist geography, public policy, and critical development studies, bringing together perspectives that are not always in dialogue, but are deeply connected through questions of equity, wellbeing, and care. That work often unfolds in unexpected places. From mutual aid networks to community art projects, Kipp examines the social infrastructures that shape how care is organized and accessed, highlighting the everyday practices that sustain people, especially during times of uncertainty.
Using Lived Experience as a Starting Point
"What makes Kipp's work particularly compelling is that care is not just her topic, it's her approach. By 'thinking with' others, whether community members or fellow researchers, she uses lived experiences as a starting point for generating new knowledge and imagining alternatives," reflects Elizabeth (Liz) Jackson, Director of the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute.
Kipp's research draws on collaborative and creative methods that foreground relationships, reflexivity, and shared learning. This means that research becomes something dynamic and participatory. It is not a one-way process of gathering information, but a shared effort to understand and respond to complex social realities.
While much of Kipp's work is grounded in specific communities, her research also examines how care extends across borders. Questions of ethical consumption, global volunteerism, and development practices reveal how care is shaped at multiple scales. These areas of focus challenge individuals and institutions alike to consider how their actions contribute to, or complicate, broader systems of inequality and responsibility.
A Different Kind of Impact
For Kipp, impact is not measured solely in publications or citations, it’s found in relationships, in community change, and in the spaces where research and everyday life intersect.
"Her work speaks to a growing movement within academia that is rethinking how knowledge is produced and mobilized. By centring care and collaboration, Amy is helping to reimagine what research can look like, and what it can do," says Dr. Leah Levac, Kipp's postdoctoral supervisor.
Because for Amy Kipp, research is not just about understanding the world. It's about helping to change it. It's a vision that continues to evolve, shaped by the communities she works with and the questions that drive her forward.