{"id":28497,"date":"2026-06-18T08:04:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/?post_type=cu_people&p=28497"},"modified":"2026-06-18T08:25:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:25:24","slug":"orly-lael-netzer","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/people\/orly-lael-netzer\/","title":{"rendered":"Orly Lael Netzer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n \n \n \n <\/h1>\n\n \n <\/header>\n\n\n\n\n\n

My research focuses on the public work of testimony in contemporary Canada. I turn to testimony because it outlines the relational and ethical stakes of this moment, inviting us to contend with the gaps between our aspired values, shared narratives, and lived realities. Working at the intersection of autobiography, memory, and cultural studies, with particular focus on histories of injury, and discourses of redress and reconciliation \u2014 my scholarship explores how testimonial culture (in literature, performance, and visual arts) invites us to become witnesses, rather than readers or spectators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interlacing settler, Indigenous, and diasporic approaches, my research practice focuses on inheriting difficult knowledge, weaving diverse ways of knowing, centering survivors and communities\u2019 agency and aims, and fostering socially-responsible spaces for learning and dialogue. In so doing, my scholarship uses critical humanities approaches to explore how cultural production shapes our ways of being with others, within and beyond the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selected Publications<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Edited collections<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In Search of Right Relations: Provocations on Ethics and Life Stories.<\/em> Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2027. (ISBN 9781771127479<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaching Life Writing: Theory, Methodology, and Practice<\/em>. Co-edited with Amanda Spallacci. Routledge, 2025. (ISBN 9781032781167<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trans Narratives: trans, transmedia, transnational<\/em>. Co-edited with Anna Horvat, Sarah McRae, and Julie Rak. Routledge, 2021. (ISBN 9781032058436<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peer reviewed journal articles<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn Teaching Life Writing in an Age of Social Change.\u201d Co-authored with Amanda Spallacci. \u201cTeaching Life Writing: Theory, Methodology, and Practice\u201d special issue of a\/b: Auto\/Biography Studies<\/em> 37.3, 2022. doi: 10.1080\/08989575.2022.2154437<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaterial Weapons: Paratext, Ethics, and Testimony in Carmen Aguirre\u2019s Something Fierce<\/em>.\u201d \u201cTestimonial Encounters in the Americas\u201d special issue of AmLit \u2013 American Literatures<\/em> edited by Molly Appel and Leila Pazargadi, 1.1 (Oct. 2021): 64-85. doi: 10.25364\/27.1:2021.1.5<\/a> [open access].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA VR Empathy Machine: Canada Reads<\/em> 2019, Testimonial Transactions, and the Cunning of Affective Recognition.\u201d Canadian Literature<\/em>, 242 (2020): 58-78. https:\/\/ojs.library.ubc.ca\/index.php\/canlit\/article\/view\/192411<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCollaboration\u201d co-authored with Maria Faini and Emma Maguire, in \u201cWhat\u2019s Next? The Futures of Life Writing\u201d special issue of a\/b: Auto\/Biography Studies<\/em>. 32.2 (2017): 247-250. doi: 10.1080\/08989575.2017.1289017<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom Qallunaat to James Bay: An Interview with Mini Aodla Freeman, Keavy Martin, Julie Rak, and Norma Dunning\u201d co-authored with Rebecca Fredrickson, Brandon Kerfoot and Katherine Meloche. Canadian Literature<\/em> 226 (Autumn 2015): 112-123. doi: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.14288\/cl.v0i226.187571<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":386,"featured_media":28498,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cu_people_first_name":"Orly","cu_people_last_name":"Lael Netzer","cu_people_initials":"OL","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_people_type":[147],"cu_people_expertise":[],"class_list":["post-28497","cu_people","type-cu_people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_people_type-adjunct-research-professors"],"acf":{"cu_people_job_title":"Adjunct Research Professor","cu_people_degree":"PhD (Alberta)","cu_building":"","cu_people_office_num":"","cu_people_pronoun":"","cu_people_designation":"","cu_people_email":"orlylaelnetzer@cunet.carleton.ca","cu_people_phone":"","cu_people_phone_ext":"","cu_people_linkedin":"","cu_people_bluesky":"","cu_people_twitter":"","cu_people_instagram":"","cu_people_facebook":"","cu_people_website":"","cu_people_orcid":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/28497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_people"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/386"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/28497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28502,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/28497\/revisions\/28502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_people_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_type?post=28497"},{"taxonomy":"cu_people_expertise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_expertise?post=28497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}