Jay Cavanagh (he/him) is a queer and first-generation doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Calgary, where he is currently working under the supervision of Professor Ariel Ducey. Jay is a Graduate Scholar at the Graduate College, and currently holds two leadership positions within the Sociology Graduate Student Caucus (SGSC), the departmental graduate association of the Department of Sociology, University of Calgary. 

Between the Fall of 2022 and Spring 2024, Jay has received a number of competitive awards, including a Doctoral Entrance Scholarship ($20,000) and an Eyes High International Doctoral Scholarship ($15,000), both from the University of Calgary. In March 2024, Jay also received the Michael & Michelle Williams Award in Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine Studies for his research on the work of revolutionary Brazilian psychiatrist, Dra. Nise da Silveira. 

Jay's thesis research lies at the intersections of the sociology of health and illness, the sociology of knowledge, mad studies, and critical phenomenology. He is primarily interested in the subjective sensory experience of the borderlines, and how people living within them make sense of their experiences.

A self-identifying member of mad and psychiatric survivor communities, Jay's work takes up the task of reorienting understandings of the borderline personality through lived-experience lenses. It sets out to frustrate the many ways in which society suppresses and systemically others neurodivergent ways of being and feeling, considering how a reimagining of how we conceptualise emotion and borderline experiences might contribute to better care and support for those living with mental illness.