Ongoing Projects and Latest Achievements from Cultural Mediations Students (also browse our Graduate Virtual Bookcase)
Xiofan Wu
June 2023: Congratulations to Cultural Mediations doctoral student Xiaofan Wu who, together with co-members of the Shanghai-based Grey Matter research group, was awarded a Sigg Fellowship for Chinese art research! Awarded by Hong Kong’s M+ Global Museum of Visual Art Culture, the fellowship “supports new research on Chinese art in dialogue with the M+ Collections.” The fellowship will support Grey Matter’s 22-23 Undercurrent research project, focused on “outlining a feminist narrative of Chinese conceptual art from the late 1970s to mid-1990s … to present a richer and more diverse picture of China’s development of contemporary art. ” Created in 2022 in Shanghai, Grey Matter is a research group founded by Yun Qiu, Xiaofan Wu, and Luqi Lin, with a research focus on the conceptual practices of Chinese female artists in the last three decades of the 20th century. More details on Undercurrent: A Feminist Retelling of Conceptual Practices of Women Artists in Contemporary China can be found here. To find out more about Xiofan’s research, her doctoral profile can be found here.
Kevin Pat Fong
January 2022: Kevin Pat Fong, a doctoral candidate in the Cultural Mediations program, will be giving a talk on alternative comics and how they help shape today’s American comics industry at the OPL’s main branch (room B125) on Thursday February 2 at 6 pm. Kevin’s doctoral research focuses on the relationship between characters of Asian descent and the practice of racial passing in contemporary/alternative comic books. Read here for more information on his project and profile.
Patrica Bérubé
December 2022: Cultural Mediations PhD candidate Patricia Bérubé successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, “Towards a more inclusive museum: developing multi-sensory approaches to the visual arts for visually impaired audiences”. Congratulations from all of us at ICSLAC, Dr. Bérubé! A Trudeau Foundation Scholar, Patricia was co-supervised by Professors Jesse Stewart and Lois Frankel. More can be read here about Jessica’s work and profile.
December 2022: Congratulations to Cultural Mediations PhD candidate Victoria Nolte for the publication of her article “Toward a Formal Language of Resonance: Diaspora and Place in the Video Works of Jin-me Yoon.” Verge: Studies in Global Asias, vol. 8, no. 2, Fall 2022, pp. 91-118. To read this article: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/23/article/861668 For more information on Victoria’s research, you can view her profile here.
Krista Ulujuk Zawadski
November 22: Congratulations to Cultural Mediations PhD Candidate Krista Ulujuk Zawadski on being nominated as a finalist for a SSHRC Talent Award. Krista is an Arctic anthropologist, curator and Inuk researcher. Her doctoral project focuses on Qatiktalik (Cape Fullerton) as a “nexus of colonial encounters” and offers ”a (re)interpretation of known history – written and oral – through Inuit eyes and voices.” Krista’s doctoral research is being supervised by Cultural Mediation professor and Canada Research Chair holder Dr. Carmen Robertson. Recipient of a Polar Northern Resident Scholarship and an Inuit Cultural Repatriation Award, Krista is an engaged and prolific Inuk curator, with an impressive body of exhibitions and collaborations spanning the new Inuit Art Centre, Qaumajuqat, at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (INUA), The National Art Center (Breaking Ground), Canadian Heritage (Echoing the Land) and the Carleton University Art Gallery (Nuvisi: Threading Our Beads at Qatiktalik).Nominations for a Talent Award are highly prestigious, with only three finalists selected nation-wide, The award recognizes “outstanding achievement by someone who currently holds a SSHRC doctoral scholarship or fellowship or postdoctoral fellowship“, in areas of academic excellence, research and knowledge mobilization and leadership potential. Congratulations on this tremendous achievement, Krista! For a fuller article with updates on Krista’s work, read “Threading the Needle” on the FASS page.
Pansee Abou ElAtta
October 22: Some sincere congratulations to Dr. Pansee Abou ElAtta, who is graduating from the Cultural Mediations PhD program with a Senate Medal for Outstanding Achievement. What a tremendous and well-deserved recognition! Titled Unruly Appreciations: How contestation shapes the value of Pharaonic things,Pansee’s dissertation focuses on how public contestations inform the struggles to repatriate and retain Pharaonic artifacts, from the 18th century to the present day. Pansee’s research is aimed at understanding how such struggles shaped the value and meaning of these artifacts and influenced museum practices. Her profile can be found here. Much gratitude to her co-supervisors, Drs. Monica Patterson and Ming Tiampo.
Jessica Marino
August 2022: Cultural Mediations doctoral candidate Jessica Marino was selected for a Fellowship at the Summer Institute on the Holocaust and Jewish Civilization (Holocaust Education Foundation of Northwestern University). In the summer of 2022, Jessica was a Fellow at the Summer Institute on the Holocaust and Jewish Civilization of the Holocaust Education Foundation of Northwestern University. This two-week residential fellowship is aimed at emerging and established scholars in Holocaust studies. It offers an intensive and in-depth course to broaden and deepen knowledge of the Holocaust and provides pedagogical training to teach higher education courses related to the field. The fellowship is held annually on the Evanston campus of Northwestern University and taught by well-known Holocaust studies scholars. It covers topics such as, history of the Holocaust, Jewish religion and history, Jewish and US responses to the Holocaust, intermarriages and postwar trials, gender, art history, museums, literature, and film, as well as workshops centered on pedagogical training, such as syllabus development. Information about HEFNU’s Summer Institute is available on their website. For more information on Jessica’s work, her graduate profile is accessible here.
Lale Eskicioğlu
April 2022: Some warm congratulations to Lale Eskicioğlu, PhD candidate in the Cultural Mediations program, on the successful oral defence of her doctoral dissertation! Titled Beyond Postcolonialism: Urban and Social Realist Turn in Indian and Nigerian Literatures, her dissertation investigates contemporary city literature, with a focus on Mumbai and Lagos in the works of several Indian and Nigerian writers. Her profile can be found here. Much gratitude to her supervisor, Dr. Sarah Casteel.
Jessica Marino
March 22: Jessica Marino, PhD Candidate in the Cultural Mediations program, contributed a lecture to the Hear Our Voices: Holocaust Survivors Share their Stories of Trauma and Hate project or HOV. HOV is a bilingual online course that aims to educate students on the Holocaust and Antisemitism by placing the voices of Holocaust survivors at its centre. The project is led by Prof. Deidre Butler, and coordinated by ICSLAC PhD Candidate, Marie-Catherine Allard. It has been developed in conjunction with Carleton University’s Max and Tessie Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies, Concordia University, The University of Ottawa, Nipissing University and eCampus Ontario. Jessica’s contribution was in the form of a guest lecture for Module 5: “Memory and the Holocaust.” (Marino, Jessica. “HOV Module 5: Memory and the Holocaust: An Introduction.” Hear Our Voices: Holocaust Survivors Share their Stories of Trauma and Hate/ Écoutez nos Voix! Survivants de la Shoah partagent leurs moments de haine et de traumatismes, eCampus Ontario and the Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies, 2022, https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/hearourvoices/chapter/holocaust-remembrance/) For more information about HOV, see https://carleton.ca/jewishstudies/holocaust/hear-our-voices-project/ and https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/hearourvoices/. For more information on Jessica’s work, her graduate profile is accessible here.
Fara Abn
March 2022: Some warm congratulations to Curatorial Studies and Cultural Mediations PhD student Fara Abn, 2022 recipient of the Reesa Greenberg Exhibition Studies Award. Fara’s doctoral research focuses on the Venice Biennial, which she approaches through a comparative study situating Iranian artists’ participation from 1956 to present. The Reesa Greenberg Award will support her current curatorial research on location in Italy. For more information on Fara’s work, her graduate profile is accessible here.
Patricia Bérubé
March 2022: 4th-year PhD candidate Patricia Bérubé is featured as one of Five Inspiring Student Leaders Making a Difference in Their Communities in a Carleton Story marking International Women’s Day:
Accessibility of visual art is a focus of PhD candidate Patricia Bérubé’s research. She started by exploring tactile translations of paintings to improve accessibility for visually impaired museum visitors in her master’s program. As part of her PhD in Cultural Mediations, Bérubé is adding an audio component to help these visitors experience art in their own terms and with autonomy.
You can read the full story here and find out about Patricia’s research on her Cultural Mediations profile.
Doctoral Defenses
January 2022: We are delighted to announce that Amy Bruce (Resistivity in Contemporary Art Biennials: A Synchronic Analysis, Supervisors, Drs. Birgit Hopfener and Ming Tiampo) and Nicola Oddy (Seeking Awareness of Our Selves and the Environment through Vocal Improvisation in The Singing Field, Supervisor Dr. Jesse Stewart) successfully defended their doctoral dissertations. Congratulations to both, with much gratitude to their supervisors for their support and mentoring.
Christina Williamson
November 2021: Some warm congratulations to Christina Williamson, PhD candidate in the Cultural Mediations program, on the successful oral defence of her doctoral dissertation! Christina’s project, Inuit Women, Labour and the Parka: A History of Sewing in Arviat, Nunavut, is detailed on her graduate profile. Much gratitude to her co-supervisors, Dr. Michel Hogue and Dr. Ruth Phillips.
Gemey Kelly
October 2021: Congratulations to Cultural Mediations PhD candidate Gemey Kelly on the successful defence of her thesis proposal. Gemey’s project is entitled Place and Standing in Canadian Art. The Discourses of Regionalism and the Nationalization of Culture in Canada, 1930–1967. For more information, consult Gemey’s profile.
Nuvisi: Threading Our Beads at Qatiktalik, CUAG Exhibition
September 2021: Congratulations to Cultural Mediations PhD Candidate Krista Ulujuk Zawadski for the exhibition “Nuvisi: Threading Our Beads at Qatiktalik” she is currently curating at the Carleton University Art Gallery (running from September 28 to December 12, 2021).To find out more about this exhibition, see here.
Patricia Bérubé
Summer 2021: Congratulations to Cultural Mediations PhD candidate Patricia Bérubé, who was announced as one of the two inaugural Student Accessibility Champions, helping to shape and inform accessibility across campus. For more information of this announcement and Patricia’s involvement in the READi (Research, education, Accessibility and Innovation) program, read here. Patricia’s full profile can be found on the Cultural Mediations students profile page.
Thesis Proposal Defenses
Summer 2021: Some warm congratulations to all seven Cultural Mediations PhD candidates who successfully defended their thesis proposal over the summer: Patricia Bérubé, Wahsantio Cross, Kevin Pat Fong, Jessica Marino, Kelsey Perreault, Helen Roumeliotis, Krista Zawadski.
March 2021: Doctoral student Krista Ulujuk Zawadski and Cultural Mediations graduate Professor Heather Igloliorte are both guest curators of INUA, the inaugural exhibition of the the new Inuit Art Centre, Qaumajuqat, which recently opened at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Audio guide and virtual tour: https://www.wag.ca/inua-online/ Read more… Photo Supplied by Winnipeg Art Gallery (from left: Kablusiak, Krista Ulujuk Zawadski, Asinnajaq, and head curator Dr. Heather Igloliorte.)
March 2021: In collaboration with the CTCA, Cultural Mediations doctoral students Marie-Catherine Allard, Jessica Marino, and Anna Paluch along with alumna Dr. Trina Cooper-Bolam organized a roundtable at the University of Ottawa EGSS conference on the theme of “Memory Entanglements: Dialogues on Memory, Community, and Remembrance in Local/Transnational Contexts” (moderated by doctoral student Emily Putnam and Dr. Rebecca Dolgoy, a former ICSLAC postdoctoral fellow).
Nicola Oddy
February 2021: Cultural Mediations PhD candidate Nicola Oddy premiered the Singing Field, a film documenting some of her doctoral fieldwork. Nicola undertook this project as a part of her dissertation (under the supervision of ICSLAC Professor Jesse Stewart) on vocal improvisation. Read more…
Winter 2021: Some sincere congratulations to Cultural Mediations winter graduates Dr. Hicham Gourgem and Dr. Emma Lind, who successfully defended their doctoral dissertations. Some warm thanks to their supervisors for their support and mentorship.
Emily Putnam
January 2021: Cultural Mediations PhD candidate Emily Putnam is curating the exhibition Sites of Memory: Legacies of the Japanese Canadian Internment, programmed by the Carleton the Carleton University Art Gallery until January 26. Drawing on documentary records, artists Norman Takeuchi, Emma Nishimura and Cindy Mochizuki negotiate the complexity of reflecting on this traumatic history while articulating a delicate balance between remembering and forgetting. Read more…
EJ (EuiJung) McGillis
December 2020: Cultural Mediations PhD candidate EuiJung McGillis is curating an exciting exhibition on Korean traditional attire at the Korean Cultural Centre in Ottawa. EJ and Ilyoung June (exhibition designer) came together to produce Hanbok, Poetics of Line and the Passage of Life, which showcases an array of Hanbok ranging from a baby’s first birthday dress to ceremonial robes for weddings to the royal wardrobes of pre-modern Korea to everyday clothes.
Patricia Bérubé
November 2020: Cultural Mediations PhD candidate Patricia Bérubé receives media coverage from Accessible Media Inc for her doctoral research on interpreting colour in art works for the blind and visually impaired community:
https://www.ami.ca/category/ami-week/media/accessible-art-patricia-berube.
Cara Tierney
October 2020: Cultural Mediations PhD candidate Cara Tierney is cocurating, with Anna Shah Hoque, To Be Continued: Troubling the Queer Archive at the Carleton University Art Gallery. The exhibition is running from September 24 – December 12, 2020. To find out more about this exhibition, see here.You can also listen to weekly podcasts of this project here: https://to-be-continued-a-stonecroft-symposium-podcast.castos.com/
Summer 2020 Graduates
Summer 2020: Our warmest congratulations to 2020 Cultural Mediations graduates Dr. Trina Cooper-Bolam, Dr. Konstantinos (Dino) Koutras and Dr. Matthew Purvis, who were recognized for the excellence of their doctoral dissertations. All three were nominated for a university medal, with a Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement awarded to Dr. Cooper-Bolam and Dr. Purvis. ICSLAC takes tremendous pride in their achievements and extends congratulations to their supervisors for their support and mentorship.
Krista Ulujuk Zawadski
December 2019: Cultural Mediations PhD candidate Krista Ulujuk Zawadski and Danielle Printup are curating Breaking Ground Art Exhibition, hosted by the National Arts Centre, NAC Indigenous Theatre and Carleton University Art Gallery. This exhibition features drawings and prints selected from Carleton University Art Gallery’s permanent collection.
For more details on some of our Cultural Mediations students and their doctoral projects: https://carleton.ca/culturalmediations/student-profiles