Professor Bouclin succeeds Professor Jennifer Chandler, who has provided exceptional leadership over the past three years, helping to strengthen the Common Law Section’s considerable research profile.
Professor Bouclin is widely recognized for her contributions to access to justice, feminist legal scholarship, and public legal education. A prolific and interdisciplinary researcher, she has explored how media and cultural narratives shape public understandings of the legal system. Her award-winning book Women, Film, and Law: Cinematic Representations of Female Incarceration (UBC Press, 2021) explores how popular fictional portrayals of women’s imprisonment reveal and reinforce the legal, social, and cultural forces that marginalize criminalized women, offering a powerful lens through which to examine gender, justice, and representation. Professor Bouclin is also the author of a landmark French-language textbook on dispute resolution, Une introduction à la théorie et à la pratique de la résolution des différends(Éditions JFD, 2024), bridging a significant gap for Francophone common law practitioners.
Deeply committed to equality and social justice, Professor Bouclin has long blended academic inquiry with service to the community. In 2014, she established Ottawa’s Ticket Defense Program, a mobile legal clinic for unhoused community members. She has also worked with numerous national legal organizations to advance equity in law. Her contributions as a member of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (2016-2018), and her work with organizations such as the Court Challenges Program of Canada and the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund reflect her broader commitment to inclusive legal practice and pedagogy.
As we welcome Professor Bouclin to her new role, the Common Law Section also extends its deep gratitude to Professor Jennifer Chandler, whose tenure as Vice-Dean of Research coincided with an important period of transition for the Faculty. Stepping into the role shortly after the appointment of Dean Kristen Boon, Professor Chandler played a pivotal part in shaping and advancing the new leadership’s research vision. She also helped usher in Maxime Raymond-Dufour as the Faculty of Law’s new Assistant Dean of Research in 2024. Her guidance also helped the Common Law section secure several new research chairs, including her own Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in the Law and Ethics of Brain Technologies and Professor Jeremy de Beer’s Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Innovation and Intellectual Property Law.
Professor Chandler’s term also saw sustained support for early-career researchers, and she played a key role in advancing interdisciplinary dialogue across faculties. Thanks to her unparalleled sense of diplomacy, her keen interest in cutting-edge research and her proactive approach to supporting researchers in the Common Law Section, she established herself as one of the driving forces behind the faculty management team.
Professor Chandler’s own research program has helped to position uOttawa as a leader in the legal and ethical analysis of emerging technologies. Her research at the intersection of law, neuroscience, and bioethics continues to build bridges with medical, scientific, and policy communities, and she is dedicated to supporting and training the next generation of health law thinkers to advance the work of understanding how evolving health-related technologies affect individuals and societies, and how to respond to the new powers they offer.
The Common Law Section thanks Professor Chandler for her exemplary service and dedication.
Please join us in expressing our gratitude to Professor Chandler and welcoming Professor Bouclin as the new Vice-Dean of Research for the Common Law Section.