I am currently pursuing a Master’s of Communication and Media studies as well as a Diploma in Curatorial Studies from Carleton University.
Over a year after the devastation of the 2023 Southern Quebec Wildfires, my research objective is to respond slantwise to the demand of inserting specificity within the flattened cause and effect of the Anthropocene. When read with the grain, our systems of communication and visualization often reproduce the very systems that cause our current ecological crisis. It is of critical imperative today, and moving forward, to address these systems and their presence within our visual culture. One approach to discussing both media technologies and contemporary ecological issues is through a philosophy of elemental media studies. With this philosophy, our world is seen as intertwined with the elements and offers generative ways of thinking through our systems and multi-agent encounters. Fire, then, offers a framework not only of understanding the impact, affect, movement, destruction, regeneration, fuel and friction inherent to wildfires, but could also act as a mirror to reflect on the human behavior embedded within ecologies. My thesis ultimately asks: how can fire as a heuristic shed light on the systems, pasts, and futures made visible in visual culture emanating from the 2023 Southern Quebec Wildfires?
Coupled with curatorial studies, I hope to graduate from Carleton with newly strengthened skills in navigating, analyzing and communicating (with and through) visual culture.
Joint Health and Safety Officer, CUPE 4600.
Teaching Assistant, Art and Architectural History and Communication and Media Studies departments.
Graduate Mentor, Communications and Media Studies Recruitment.
Research Assistant to Dr. Siobhan Angus.
Public Presentations:
How to Apply to Grad School. Communication and Media Studies, Carleton University.
Research Methods Talk. Invited guest presentation for COMS 2004 Introduction to Communication, Carleton University.
Students of Excellence: Protesting as Customers, Consumers, and Commodities. Presented at the 19th Annual Conference, Communication Graduate Caucus. Carleton University.
My undergraduate degree in Art History and Studio Arts from Concordia University was full of making and writing. My studio classes were almost exclusively reserved for painting courses where I sharpened observational skills and developed a personal touch. My focus was less precise within art history, where I explored a variety of issues including postcolonial theory, philosophy, feminist methodologies and new media studies. In 2020 I was awarded a Mitacs Research Training Award and joined the Ethnocultural Art History Research Group to work on a series of digital curatorial projects (see Curator page!). From then on, I was motivated to work alongside artists and explore the realm of cultural mediator in a variety of forms. I worked on projects ranging from the Worlding Public Cultures conference to a library research residency. I continued fostering academic relationships with my colleagues at Concordia University during the two years between my undergraduate degree and application to Carleton University. Mentorship from both Dr. Alice Ming Wai Jim in art history and Susan Scott in painting are essential to the work I have done and continue to do.
Professional Experience:
Montréal liaison and event coordinator for the Worlding Public Cultures Montréal Conference, Concordia University.
Studio Assistant to Susan G. Scott.
Coordinator and Content Editor for Ethnocultural Art History Research-Platform, Concordia University.
Teaching Assistant, Studio Arts, Concordia University.
Ethnocultural Art History Research Library Residency, Concordia University.
Research Assistant to Dr. Alice Ming Wai Jim, Concordia University.
Mitacs Research Training Internship supervised by Dr. Alice Ming Wai Jim, Concordia University.
Public Presentations:
Curatorial Research Talk. Invited guest presentation for the ARTH 389: Race, Citizenship, and Art in Canada course, Concordia University.
Publications:
“My-Van Dam, Ivetta Sunyoung Kang, Reyhan Yazdani, Florence Yee and Ketty Zhang: Familial Writing: Artistic Responses During covid-19.” Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas vol 6, no. 3, 2021. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, pp 307-316. Print ISSN: 2352-3077