Varda Burstyn 

As an independent writer, scholar and consultant, over the years Varda Burstyn has produced an extensive body of work in popular print media, in radio and film documentaries and in fiction, as well as in scholarly journals and books. On the cultural side, she has tackled controversial issues in government and in sex and gender in sport culture, film and fine art and in the representation of sexuality in art and pornography. On the science, technology and environment side, she has also produced a body of work across media, in her own name and as a consultant in reproductive and genetic technologies, water and climate change, and, especially in the last twenty years, in the adverse health impacts of common chemicals and the growing phenomenon of the disease processes involved in chemical intolerance.

Since 2009, most though not all of Varda Burstyn’s work has been produced for several internal Ontario government processes related to research, policy, and health system development for epidemic-level environmentally-linked illnesses.  Now, in addition to her public writing, her major reports from this period have been made available here. As well, a link to her informational website and blog on toxics and health, Dispatches from the Chemical Edge.com, can be accessed directly from this site.

Varda Burstyn has been described as one of Canada’s foremost left-feminist theoreticians and eco organizers. This site, now under reconstruction, will provide a selected archive of works in Varda’s main areas of interest. A number of works are still accessible at this time via the links on Varda’s work biography page.