Our Students

Alireza Gorgani is an artist who has been playing with combining theatre, activism, music, creative writing, film and other things since 2005. He holds a master’s degree in Theatre Directing from the University of Tehran. He is currently pursuing spanning ethnography, migration, and politics, towards a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University.

In my view being a grad student is not a duty, so my interests and joy continue within and outside of my research as I steadily enjoy being engaged with art and people.

Website

I am a storyteller who inhabits the spaces between the academy and the dance world. I have performed in Ottawa, Toronto, and Bangalore in kathak and dance-theatre pieces, including two research-creation works that explored identity, belonging, race, caste, gender and privilege through dance, one of which was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. My practice-based doctoral research builds on my training as a dancer and a public historian (MA, Carleton University) to ask if kathak can be practiced in ways that make visible the erasures that have enabled its performance as a ‘classical’ form today.

When I’m not being a graduate student, I enjoy taking long walks through the city, playing TTRPGS, karaoke, and annoying my cat.

Avia grew up in the British Columbia folk arts scene, and has since come to acknowledge that it rubbed off on her and is evident in almost everything she does. Avia completed a BA Honors in Drama at the University of Alberta and an MA in Devised Theatre at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, England. She is currently working on her PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University.

Avia’s research examines the ways in which heritage and traditional cultures are performed on modern stages and in contemporary life. Other interests include Performance Creation, the Director in the Devising Studio, Photography In/As Performance, Cultural Memory, and Cultural Policy.

Avia has worked extensively as a creative producer with festivals and cultural organizations across North America as well as on individual artistic projects in North America and Europe. Avia is also a photographer and teaches Yiddish dance at festivals around the world.

When not being a grad student she likes sewing clothing (mostly for myself), cooking big dinners with my friends, contra dancing (and organizing contra dances), Morris Dancing, Directing/Creating, Dreaming and Scheming.

Website

Brian Batchelor is a PhD student in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University and holds an MA in Drama from the University of Alberta. His research investigates touristic performances in Chiapas, Mexico and the possibilities for de-tours within these encounters: decolonial co-performances that problematize dominant and unidirectional touristic relations and that offer alternative political imaginings.

Am I ever not a grad student? When I’m not being a grad student I like to cook and eat good food, play video games online with my friends back in Edmonton, and listen to comedy podcasts—all while dealing with the crippling guilt of knowing I should be working.

Dissertation Title: Tourism and/as Performance: Politics and Possibilities in Chiapas Tourist Encounters

Collette “Coco” Murray is an award-winning artist-scholar, dance educator, and performer experienced in arts education, community arts engagement, and arts research in Afrodiasporic dance vernacular. Murray pursues a PhD in Dance Studies, holds a Master of Education, Honours BA in Race, Ethnicity & Indigeneity, and a Certificate in Anti-Racism Research and Practice from York University, and a Sociology BA from the University of Toronto. Miss Coco Murray is her mobile dance education business, and she is the artistic director of Coco Collective, a multidisciplinary, intergenerational team of artists offering culturally responsive art programming using African and Caribbean arts. Murray is published in dance media, educational resources, and academic journals. Murray is the recipient of the 2022 Racial Justice Award for Creative Arts from Urban Alliance on Race Relations for advancing the importance of cultural arts and anti-racism work in dance and the 2019 Community Arts Award from Toronto Arts Foundation for transforming local communities with access to arts and culture. Murray’s dance background is in West African, Caribbean folk, and stilt-walking. Murray serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors for Dance Umbrella of Ontario, a National Council member of the Canadian Dance Assembly, on the Board of Directors for Arts Etobicoke to bring equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonizing lens to lead their organizations.

When I am not being a graduate student, I’m working on my artistic businesses, advocating, and traveling.

Danielle was born in El Salvador and grew up between Regina, Saskatchewan and San Salvador. She holds two bachelor’s degrees, one in Psychology and one in Theatre Studies from the University of Regina. She completed a Master’s degree in Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies from the University of Toronto. She is currently pursuing a PhD with a focus on traditional folkloric dancing performed by the Salvadoran diaspora in Canada.

When not being a grad student, she likes to go to shows, explore the city and try as many desserts as possible.

Deanne Kearney is a dance writer, researcher, and critic, currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Dance Studies at York University in Toronto, Ontario. Her research focuses on the convergence of performance, politics, and new media. As a dance writer, her works have been featured in notable publications such as Dance Magazine, The Dance Current Magazine, Dance International, and Mooney on Theatre. Currently, she provides comprehensive reviews of a wide array of dance performances on her website, The Dance Debrief (DanceDebrief.ca). Her complete portfolio of writings is available at DeanneKearney.com.

Deanne is an editorial board member of Riffs (RiffsJournal.org) and serves as the international secretary for PoP Moves, a global research group dedicated to popular dance and performance (PoPMoves.com). Deanne has interned with the globally acclaimed Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, contributing her skills to the dance archives. Additionally, she completed The National Ballet of Canada’s Emerging Dance Critics program and secured an editorial internship with The Dance Current Magazine, honing her critical and editorial skills. Deanne is not just a theorist but also a dance practitioner and dance teacher. A graduate of the BFA dance program at York University, she is also an alumna and educator of the Toronto B-Girl Movement. As a producer, her company, BreakinGround, has produced performances for the Toronto Fringe Festival, NextStage Festival, and FreshBlood showcase.

When I am not being a graduate student, I enjoy Hiking, biking, swimming, running, camping, hanging out with my wonderful family and animals, going to performances, art shows, galleries, and traveling!

Denise was born and raised in Santiago, Chile. She has a BA in Arts and Humanities with emphasis on Theatre and Cultural Anthropology, from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and an MA in Performance Studies from New York University. Denise has participated in various theatre and performance art projects in Chile, Berlin, New York, and Mexico as a performer, researcher and director. She is interested in activist performance, gender and sexuality in performance, and decolonial feminism. Her research focuses on the politics of menstruation, leaky bodies and bodily fluids in performance, as well as creating and subverting quotidian rituals to foster commonality.

When not being a grad student Denise can be found chillin with my cats, wandering, yoga, embarking in craft projects that are way over my technical skills, and occasional uninhibited dancing.

Derek is a PhD student interested in the ways that games forge connections and support storytelling. He received a BA (Hons.) and BEd from Queen’s University before completing an MA in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University. For his dissertation, Derek is analyzing participatory theatre using a game-design framework to understand the rules governing collaborative play. Understanding the risk and vulnerability audiences may face when asked to assume agency in a performance setting, Derek is particularly focused on approaching his studies with a lens of care.

If you’ve got board game/TRPG/video game recommendations or just want to chat, feel free to reach out to derekmanderson@rogers.com

When I’m not being a graduate student, I enjoy hosting game nights, watching movies/TV/theatre, going for a walk with some catchy music and/or eating too much chocolate.

Sodienye Waboso Amajor is a Dora Nominated Nigerian Actor, Writer, Performer and Mother who lives and works in Ontario. Dienye has played roles such as Puck in Shakespeare in Action’s adaptation of “A Midsummer Nights Dream”, Memory in Theatre Directs “Binti’s Journey” *, Gigi in New Harlem productions, “Gas girls” *, Beka in Volcano Theatre’s Africa Trilogy “Shine your Eye” * Luminato, June 2010 reprising her role as Beka in a Canstage/ Volcano Theatre’s production of “Another Africa” Canstage 2011 and Harriet Tubman in “The Power of Harriet T” YPT 2013. Dienye holds a master’s degree in Theatre and Performance studies from York University with a keen interest in Pre-Colonial African Theory and Development. She currently works with Suitcase in Point Multi arts company as the Arts Mentorship Program director. Dienye is a published writer whose work can be found on the online publication She Does the City. She is also currently developing a new visual and photographic work titled “Rest” which seeks to prioritize and localize the exploration and imagery of Black bodies in a state of Rest. Dienye intends to continue her studies as a PH. D candidate in the Theatre and Performance program at York University, 2023.

In my village there is a circle

In the circle there is a square

In the square there is a hut

In the hut there is a secret

In the secret there is story

In the story there is magic

In the magic

Blackness is at the centre

In the magic

Blackness is at the centre”

I have spent the past twenty plus years working as an actor, an acting teacher, and as a professional cook and adventurous eater. I am also the married father of young twins. I live in Hamilton, Ontario and Bowen Island, BC. My cooking and eating adventures have taken me from street food carts to some of the best restaurants in the world. I even talked my way into el Bulli before it closed. My SSHRC-funded doctoral research is focused on food, place and performance. Specifically, I am interested in how the epistemologies (both praxis and theory) of performance both illuminate and trouble current discourse on the seemingly ontological relationship between food and place. I also have an unspoken (as yet) interest in performance, neuroscience, play, and philosophy (namely, animality — the Deleuzian/Derridean sort, not prancing dogs), and how they might create openings in thinking and doing acting, cooking, and eating.

When not being a grad student I like photography, Acting in T.V. shows, Helping my kids through their lives.

Dissertation Title: Food, Performance, and Place

Website
Flickr
IMDB.com

Elan is from Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Treaty One Territory—the ancestral lands of the Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, Dene, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. She is the former Dance Director and Choreographer of the Chai Folk Ensemble, a troupe of artists who embody Jewish and intercultural performance across the Diaspora. A Vanier Doctoral Scholar, Elan is specifically interested in the role of dance in Indigenous led productions where settler artists who collaborate on these works become implicated in the colonial present through their embodiment of it.

Elan’s writing on dance and public memory has been featured in The Dance Current, Canadian Theatre Review, InTensions Online Journal, and the co-edited book The Art of Public Mourning: Remembering Air India. Respectively, she is an artistic contributor and an embedded performance researcher with Toronto-based companies ParaSoul Dance and Signal Theatre.

When I’m not being a grad student I like to practice Flamenco dance and do hot yoga.

Emma’s research is grounded in love and respect for the wild places of the West Coast, and focuses on anticolonial feminist storytelling and the power of performance and narrative to retell histories. BA, Gender/Canadian Studies (University of King’s College); MA, Canadian/Indigenous Studies (Trent).

When not at the library, Emma can be found hiking, wandering, and exploring in the woods and by ocean, or reading in a shady corner of the garden.

Gdalit Neuman is a PhD candidate in Dance Studies, with research interests in dance and Zionism. She is a proud alumna of York University’s BFA and MA programs in Dance and is a graduate with distinction from Canada’s National Ballet School’s Teacher Training Program. Gdalit has taught ballet and pedagogy at York University’s Department of Dance and Canada’s National Ballet School. She also holds a Bachelor of Education from York University and ISTD teaching qualifications. Gdalit’s writing on dance has appeared in Dance International Magazine, Performance Matters, as well as DanceToday [Mahol Akhshav] in Israel.

In the context of her doctoral research Gdalit is investigating the little-known earliest dance repertoire of the late Yehudit Arnon, Israel’s Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company’s founding Artistic Director, in the framework of Hashomer Hatzair Zionist Youth Movement in Hungary, and with child Holocaust survivors. As part of her fieldwork, which also included oral history interviews and extensive archival work in Israel, she completed a community-based dance reconstruction project last year, which she was invited to present as hour-long lecture-demonstrations both at Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company’s Dance Village in Kibbutz Ga’aton, as well as at Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts in Tel Aviv. Additionally, Gdalit has presented both her MA and PhD research at various conferences internationally – most recently at the Dance Studies Association conference in Valletta, Malta. Throughout her graduate studies Gdalit has been affiliated with the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University, as well as The Hebrew University in Jerusalem; first as a Visiting Graduate Student in the second year of her MA, and later as a Visiting Research Fellow during her PhD.

Hannah Rackow is an MA student originally from Montreal. Her primary research interests are generally under the umbrella of political theatre and performance in the Americas and include protest as performance, the performance of civil disobedience, student movements in Canada and Latin America, guerrilla radio plays, forensics and memorial performance and art, and feminist and queer performance. Having previously costumed and directed for various theatre pieces, she has recently started experimenting with textiles in performance.

When not being a grad student Hannah likes to cook while watching movies, sew costumes and clothes, discover tasty wines, read good books for fun, and make amateur folk-punk music with friends.

Hurmat Ul Ain is a Canada-based, Pakistani artist and art educator. She is a PhD student with the Theatre & Performance Studies program at York University. She holds an MFA in Performance Art from the School of Art Institute Chicago where she was studying as a Fulbright Scholar. Ain is interested in discourse on identity and representation in Media and Arts. Her practice is interdisciplinary and collaborative. Through her practice, she explores image, and gender roles in the context of socio-political rules of acceptability and sacrilege. She researches food and hospitality through cooking and sharing. Her solo and collaborative work has been showcased widely on international art forums in the US, UK, Germany, Spain, Dubai, China, Australia, Hong Kong, India, and Pakistan.

When I am not being a graduate student, I love to spend time with these two awesome boys, my partner, and our toddler. When I am not exploring the city with my family, I am usually teaching myself a new sewing technique. I like to start projects I don’t usually finish. I am also a horror fiction and film fan.

Ian Jarvis is an artist-researcher working in the areas of digital performance, digital humanities and posthumanism. His research focuses on the creation of high-level live coding performance systems (programming as performance) that incorporate gestural control (digital instruments) for the performance of music, sound art, and media art, as well as for the performance of multimodal scholarship. He received his BFA in Electroacoustic Music Composition from Simon Fraser University and his MA from McMaster University in Communication and New Media.

When I’m not being a grad student I like to watch movies, create/produce music, and read.

Websites: Audiobeing | Soundcloud

Irfana Majumdar is a director, performer, and filmmaker. Her main interests are devising and collective creation, physical and vocal training practices, cross-cultural work, and the decolonization of Theatre and Performance Studies. She studied theatre at the University of Chicago, and has also trained in Corporeal Mime, Suzuki and Viewpoints, Clowning, and many forms of body work. She has learnt vocal classical Hindustani music since childhood. She has made three documentaries. Her debut feature film, Shankar’s Fairies (2021), was selected and awarded at many film festivals around the world. She is the artistic director of the NIRMAN Theatre and Film Studio in Varanasi, India.

Website: www.irfana.info

What you like to do when you aren’t being a grad student

When she is not being a grad student, Irfana is bringing up her two children with her husband. This involves drawing and painting, building towers and forts, performing magical feats against (and sometimes with) dragons and ogres, rolling and climbing, telling stories, cooking, reading, dancing, singing, and sleeping.

Jacqueline is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Dance at York University, her research focuses on the corporatization and branding of breaking culture. Her study includes three compelling case studies involving the Olympics, energy drink brands, Red Bull and Monster, as well as b-boy entrepreneur brands. Her academic journey started with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from York University, followed by a Masters of Arts in Fashion from Toronto Metropolitan University, where she explored Canadian celebrities’ fashion collections. Jacqueline has begun presenting research that is related to her dissertation topic at conferences. She presented Breaking and the Olympics: Hip-hop Fashion, Identity, and Functionality at the Virtual Breaking and The Olympics Speaker Series (2022) and A Case Study of Dyzee Threadz: Commodity Culture and Branding in the International Breaking Community at the Virtual Fashion, Body and Culture International Conference (2022) and she also presented Hip-hop Dancers and Sneakerheads: An Analysis of Self-Presentation and Team Performance on Instagram at the Dance Studies Association (2021) in New Brunswick, USA.

When I am not being a graduate student, I eat, sleep, do yoga, pilates, try new recipes, try new restaurants, binge reality television, drink cocktails, karaoke, swim in the ocean, play cards and board games, and most importantly, talk with my friends and family for hours.

Jayna Mees (she/her) is an artist-scholar who specializes in dramaturgy and devised theatre. Jayna holds an MA from the Centre for Drama, Theatre, & Performance Studies at the University of Toronto and a BA in Theatre from York University. Situated at the intersections between immersive performance and critical disability studies, Jayna’s current doctoral research examines access aesthetics, practices, and politics within digital and virtual forms of immersive media. Some recent projects include: accessibility coordinator for the SummerWorks Performance Festival (2021 -22), and assistant dramaturg for SpiderWebShow’s VR production of You Should Have Stayed Home (2022).

When I am not being a graduate student, I enjoy dancing, playing the piano, baking, horseback riding, playing video games, and hiking.

Writing a clear and organized bio inherently misrepresents Joshua Swamy. Influenced by his journey through his BA in Philosophy from York University, his skepticism and criticality within academia can be too radical, even for his own projects, which he realized during his MA in Dance Studies at York University as well. Asking questions that uproot fundamental practices, his line of inquiry, calling out gaps in knowledge, can be frustrating but ultimately brings awareness to the biases and assumptions we have accidentally entrenched ourselves within. His projects are flavoured with post-human discourse, hoping to not only dismantle our own human-centric approach to art, but fantasize about where art will take us. “My head is too in the clouds about a strange future to focus on the known present,” as he spins in his office chair, eyes staring at the ceiling, “but maybe that’s my attention disorders talking, or my desire to infiltrate conversation to address how ableism does not have such a linear solution as we often treat it to. I don’t know, I’ll figure it out later.” He pursues his PhD in Dance Studies to simply keep having these conversations as he became obsessed with a throwaway sentence he heard during class, “Good research anticipates where conversations will be, not where they are.” He just wants to keep reflecting, and ideally teach younger, aspiring artists to stay curious and true to their hearts. Dance studies provide him with that stage; a pun he very much intends.

When I’m not being a graduate student, I’m considering how to put my life lessons into short stories or poems, adding things to my backlog of interests, not doing enough to clear the list, working out and listening to waves crash on the shores.

Joy received her Master’s at the University of Toronto’s CDTPS in 2021. Focussing on Ira Aldridge and Michael Chekhov, she hopes to explore a PhD in multilingual performance and the pressures artists face when forced to relocate due to geopolitical stressors.

When I’m not being a graduate student, I’m hanging out with the family, which includes her hubby and son, their two cats and their dog, who usually engage in chaos and hilarity, while pottering around in the garden brings peace of mind. Every once in a while, she manages to see local theatre to find inspiration. She has been a professional actor for the last thirty years.

Julie Matheson is a doctoral student in T&PS at York. She recently completed the MA in the same program, and previously received an MA in Contemporary Art, Design, and New Media Art Histories from OCAD University. Her undergraduate degree in Theatre (Technical Scenography) comes from the University of King’s College/Dalhousie in Halifax. Her research interests include space, architecture, memory, musealization, and translation (between media). These interests lead her to look at restorations of historic theatre buildings, performances of the past, formations of public space, as well as activism and protest.

When not being a grad student she likes to watch entire series on Netflix in one go. Read things. Create nail art. Explore failure via the medium of video games. Concoct travel plans. Make lists. Organize events. Adjust the thermostat every twelve minutes because it is never quite right.

Justine Conte is a PhD student in the Theatre and Performance Studies Department at York University. With a background in social anthropology, she is interested in better understanding how the ways in which people and objects act and interact demonstrate a relationship to their surrounding societies, and also to ideas of identity. Her current interests include storytelling, object and animal studies, political economy, affective labour, imaginaries of a migrant other, ethnography, and Italy.

I always have grad school on my mind. However, when I am not actively working on my academic endeavours, I enjoy watching various films and tv shows, listening to podcasts, visiting with family, and finding new places to eat with friends.

Kathe Gray is interested in how artmaking and other embodied activities create space for experimenting with new ways of being and doing in the world, as well as for their potential to enhance our sense of social belonging and civic engagement. In her own artmaking, Kathe uses walking and knitting to investigate how change and community can arise from repetitive actions. For her dissertation, she and her canine research assistant are exploring human and other-than-human improvisation, particularly in the face of climate change, in an urban meadow near her home.

Kathe holds an MA in Social Anthropology from York University, a BA in Drama and Fine Art from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto. Prior to her graduate studies, she was an award-winning book designer who specialized in exhibition catalogues, illustrated coffee-table books, and scholarly monographs.

Kathe and her family live on the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit in Guelph, Ontario.

Kelly Jean Lynch (formerly Mullan) is a PhD student in Dance Studies. Her Master thesis from Skidmore College, The Art and Science of Somatics: Theory, History and Scientific Foundations, has been downloaded over 6,000 times and is used in somatic training programs. Lynch’s research focuses on somatic education lineages of women practitioners from the late 19^th century with a focus on the educator and aesthetic dance performer Genevieve Stebbins. Kelly has publications in Currents: The Journal of Body–Mind Centering Association; the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices; Feminist Modernist Studies; Body, Movement, and Dance in Psychotherapy: An International Journal for Theory, Research and Practice and a chapter on physical culture in Mindful Movement: The Evolution of the Somatic Arts and Conscious Action.

Kira is a queer, feminist, theatre artist whose work focuses on LGBTQ++ issues. She is an alumni of The Women’s Room, an all-female playwriting unit facilitated by Sounderlust & Pat the Dog Theatre Creation. Recent writing credits include: The Queer Baby Project (Swelling with Pride: Queer Conception and Adoption Stories), Futch/Bemme (OutFest 2018, Gay Play Day), Under (HamilTEN Festival) and Under the Fire (in collaboration with Erika Reesor, Dark Crop Festival). Select acting credits include: Self in Queer Spawn (Heels on the Diving Board, Impact17, Queer on Stage: Hamilton Pride, Taps Untapped, Dark Day Monday), Mina in Letting Go (West End Theatre Festival), Mrs. Plumm in Uncommon Women and Others (Theatre Erindale), Hetty in Overtones (Beck Festival) and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet; Occupy Verona (Theatre Erindale). Upcoming show dates of Queer Spawn and other productions can be found on her website.

When I’m not being a Grad student, I am an actor/ playwright who hangs out with my wife and three fur-babies.

Laurel Green (she/her) is an artist and researcher who creates invitations to participate and provocations for change. She is a nationally recognized dramaturg and creative producer of new work, from world premiere plays to gameful performances, digital experiences, and community activations. Recent projects include: Remixed a technology-enabled deep listening experience that explores how we instigate change, asses.masses a custom-built video game designed to be played live by a theatre audience, Yarrow Collective pollinator gardening installation series, and Arte Urbana’s Storytellers of the Future residency in Bulgaria.

As a PhD Candidate at York University in Theatre & Performance, Laurel’s doctoral research integrates participatory performance, games, and strategic foresight frameworks inviting communities into creative acts of co-innovation to imagine sustainable futures. She is interested in experience design, dramaturgy, arts leadership, technology, methodologies for creation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She was a Research Associate for the SSHRC-funded project Performance in the Pacific Northwest with the University of Victoria, and co-author of Seeding the Future (This is Not a Metaphor) Creative Acts of Public Gardening in Canadian Theatre Review’s Vol. 197 on Participation. Laurel holds an MA in Drama from the University of Toronto, and a BA with Honours from York University. She is a Connected Minds Trainee.

When she’s not a graduate student, Laurel likes to travel, play games, see shows, sing in choirs, and explore neighbourhoods. www.laurel-green.com.

Liza is a dance scholar from the Philippines, where she has been part of the pole dance community since 2015. Her research on the pole, in part, seeks to amplify the voices of the pole community whose experiences of gender and urbanity are deeply entwined with Philippine and Asian culture. She completed her MA in Literary and Cultural Studies at the Ateneo de Manila University, where she taught courses in research and literature.

When I’m not being a graduate student, I relish in the feeling of being a “bad dancer” by joining popping and K-pop dance classes with no expectations that I will be magnificent. Also, BTS! <3

Marilo Nuñez is a Chilean Canadian playwright and director. She is the 2018 recipient of the Hamilton Arts Awards for Established Theatre Artist and has been shortlisted for the KM Hunter Artist Award in Theatre twice. She is the recipient of the prestigious Graduate Fellowship for Academic Distinction and the Susan Crocker and John Hunkin Scholarship in the Fine Arts among countless other grants and scholarships. She is currently a member of Natural Resources, Factory Theatre’s playwright’s unit for established writers. She is writing a play for Milagro Theatre in Portland Oregon which will premiere in January 2020. She has been a member of the Playwright’s Unit at Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Aquarius, Cahoots Theatre Company, Nightwood Theatre and Alameda Theatre Company. She was Playwright-in-Residence at Aluna Theatre in 2016 and was McMaster University’s first Playwright-in-Residence in 2018. She was founding Artistic Director of Alameda Theatre Company, a company dedicated to developing the new work of Latinx Canadian playwrights. She is a graduate of Ryerson Theatre School, has an MFA in Creative Writing from University of Guelph and is currently obtaining her Ph D. in Theatre & Performance Studies from York University where her research focus will be race and racism in Canadian theatre.

When she’s not being a grad student she likes to write, run with her dog, do Bikram yoga and hang out with her husband and two daughters.

Morgan holds a BA in Drama from Queen’s University and an MA in Theatre and Performance Studies from York University. Her research interests include circus studies and new materialism. She hopes to write her eventual dissertation on juggling and she is an active member of the North American juggling community. In Summer 2017, Morgan created and performed a solo street performance in which she juggles knives and high heel shoes on a five-and-a-half-foot unicycle. In her spare time, she tries to discover every coffee shop and ice cream parlour Toronto has to offer.

Paula John is a multi-disciplinary artist and scholar based in Toronto. She has been exhibiting her work (including photography, film, painting, printmaking, textiles, installation, and performance) since 2003. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography and, a Master of Fine Arts degree in Documentary Media from Ryerson University, and a Master of Arts degree in Communication and Culture from York University. Some of the themes explored in her work include, gender, sexuality, feminism, and performance. Paula is currently working towards a Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University.

I don’t know if I ever really cease being a grad student, but in my spare time I like to read (for pleasure), make art, craft, garden, and spend time with my cats.

Dissertation Title: Performing Charlatans: The Theatricality of Quacks, Spiritualists, Mediums and Psychics

Website

Rajat Nayyar is a filmmaker, anthropologist and a PhD student at the Department of Theatre, York University. His research interests are: everyday forms of resistance, verbal performative traditions, community archives, fiction and performance as a practice in producing collaborative audio-visual ethnography. Rajat is the founder of Espírito Kashi, a media project working on finding new embodied and critical ways of engaging with Intangible Heritage of rural India. His recent film, Kashi Labh, on the social aesthetics of dying in Kashi, India’s holy city, continues to reach newer audiences, conferences, film festivals, as well as private institutions. The film facilitates an intimate space for discussing dying, death and end-of-life care.

When not being a grad student Rajat likes Cine-mon, Cine-tu, Cine-wed…..
Some of my paintings, poetry, cooking recipes and stories from spiritual adventures are on my blog.

Sasha Singer-Wilson (she/her) is a Tkaronto based multidisciplinary artist of Ashkenazi Jewish and European descent who works in performance, theatre-making, creative writing, music, and facilitation. With a practice rooted in the project-specific exploration of creative form and process and the tensions and play between them, her work explores climate justice, place, caregiving, ritual, intergenerational relationships, and the voice. Curious about how we might centre care, relationality and decolonization in scholarship, creation and performance, Sasha teaches Voice and Speech at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre and York University, and has facilitated workshops and taught courses with organizations across the country. A graduate of the Acting Conservatory at York, Sasha has an MFA in Theatre and Creative Writing from UBC, and is currently a PhD student in Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies. When not in student-mode, Sasha likes riding her bike, exploring nature, potlucks with her friends and family, and dancing with her five-year-old kid.

Sebastián is a queer artist and academic who was born in what is known as Santiago, Chile, which is on the traditional territory of the Mapuche peoples, Wallmapu. Sebastián grew up on unceded Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) territory and currently resides in Tkaronto. He has a BA in Psychology from Simon Fraser University and an MA in Dance from York. With a focus on cueca, the Chilean national dance, his doctoral research explores the relationship between movement and memory, or the memory/memorial dimension of the inscription of gesture. This investigation inquires how the repetition of gestures, postures and movements are embodied and remembered, and how these embodied memories might reiterate social norms and ways of moving in the world. He is also interested in in-between/borderland identities; multi-media artistic practices and processes; and the relationship between men and pointe.

When I’m not being a graduate student, I like to eat cake, hang with my cats, watch music videos, make friendship bracelets, draw, listen to music, read and cook.

Recipient of the 2022 Susan Crocker & John Hunkin Grad Scholarship in Fine Arts, Indo-Canadian filmmaker and multi-media artist Shabnam Sukhdev is a first-year PhD student in Theatre and Performance Studies.

I view my Indo-Canadian identity as being in flux. Let me try again: I am a multimedia artist and professional educator, with a strong background in documentary filmmaking.  My research pathways are interdisciplinary, examining the interrelationships between individuals, families and societies, at the intersections of sociological, psychological and critical disability models of inquiry. In my work, I am consciously investigating the cultural dynamics of patriarchy that manipulate mental well-being and inclusion. My MFA thesis film Unfinished (2022) about my daughter’s mental health inspires my PhD research that investigates disturbances and barriers within families that render them ‘dysfunctional’, diminishing their identities and position in the mainstream. I want to delve into an animated examination of spontaneous performance that can inspire emotional authenticity while opening newer avenues of communication and harmony. By challenging historical perceptions of race and disability, in my research, I want to examine theatre informed by critical improvisation to guide intra-cultural tolerance and social inclusion.  I aim to work with South Asian communities to develop alternative models that can be adapted across diasporic communities. Apart from my research, I like to spend time with my family, including Dobby, my pooch. To de-stress, I must meditate, walk, watch films (and sense-less TV shows), listen to music and dance. I also love acting, so if you have a role for me, do let me know!

Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan is an interdisciplinary artist, independent curator, and PhD student working at the interstices of performance art, pedagogy, and embodied practice across borders. Her research examines cross-cultural immersive performance pedagogy as well as contemporary transnational performance art as protest and political act within and across borders—specifically within the context of Canada-U.S.- México.

Shannon is a Canadian born applied theatre practitioner and academic. She holds a B.F.A in Acting from the University of Windsor and an M.A in Applied Drama and Theatre Studies from the University of Cape Town.

After spending 12 years travelling and working across Africa, Asia and Central America, Shannon is thrilled to be expanding her knowledge whilst pursuing a PhD at York.

Shannon has worked, for the most part, with refugee populations residing in host communities; utilizing theatre as a means of social inclusion, education, drama therapy and as a method of lessoning xenophobia.

In 2015, Shannon published a book chapter entitled “Mamma Africa: A Theatre of Inclusion, Hope(lessness) and Protest” describing some of her work in Cairo and Cape Town.

When I’m not being a grad student I like to see the world! It’s on my bucket list to visit every continent (except Antarctica—I hate the cold). I have one to go!

A PhD candidate in Dance Studies at York, Stacey holds an MFA in Theatre Practice from the University of Alberta and a BA in Dance and Kinesiology from the University of Calgary. She was a company member of EDAM dance in Vancouver BC between 2006 – 2014, where she practiced contact improvisation and interpreted the works of artistic director Peter Bingham. As a dance educator, Stacey has instructed and mentored students of all ages and abilities in the styles of jazz, tap, hip-hop, contemporary dance, and contact improvisation. She is a certified yoga instructor and has also been independently producing experimental dance videos since 2006.

Her MFA thesis, Elements Solo: Practice, Performance, and Philosophy (2018) was a research-creation project that integrated nature’s elements: air, fire, earth, water, and spirit into a live improvisational choreography. 

Currently, she is investigating the art and history of roller skating and the many ways it is expressed in popular culture through music, choreography, improvisation and contemporary partnering.

When I’m not being a graduate student, I enjoy spending time with my family, taking walks, listening to records, and hitting a dance floor somewhere.

Stephen is an artist, activist and educator with two decades of experience creating interdisciplinary approaches within the fields of live art, music, print, transmission arts, installation and video. He was a co-founder of the Winnipeg-based performance troupe PRIMUS and his work as a director includes radical multi-disciplinary creations with artists such  as Jess Dobkin. Stephen performs internationally with Montreal musician and poet Alexis O’Hara and since 2001 he has been collaborating with artist Aaron Pollard, creating and touring transmedia performances, installations and videos under the moniker 2boys.tv throughout Canada, Central and South America, and Europe.

Montreal-born Tabia Lau is a Chinese-Canadian playwright, screenwriter, scholar, and proud member of the The Writer’s Guild of Canada, and Dramatists Guild of America. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University and is currently a PhD candidate at York where her research interests include narrative theory, theatre and film history, contemporary dramaturgy, LGBTQA+ theatre, and Asian representation. Her plays and musicals have been seen, heard, produced, and commissioned largely throughout both the United States and Canada. She has also worked extensively with Gilbert & Sullivan troupes both in Montreal and New York City.

When I’m not being a grad student I like cooking, cleaning, and watching every last bit of theatre, film, television and documentaries available.

Tyler was born and raised in London, Ontario. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Studies from York University, a Graduate Diploma in Human Resources Management from Fanshawe College, and a Master’s degree in Theatre and Performance Studies from York University. He is currently pursuing a PhD, and his current research interests include: intermedial theatre, social media, cyberformance, political economy, and epic/dialectical drama.

When I’m not being a grad student, I enjoy trivia, video games, and pretending to travel by watching car trip videos on YouTube. All of these will likely find their way into my research eventually, though.