CV

CLICK HERE TO VIEW AND DOWNLOAD COPY OF MY FULL CV

CV Highlights

My research is focused on Toronto history, urban landscapes, public memory and commemoration which, in collaboration with others, has led to direct policy changes such as the promised renaming of Dundas Street and the adoption of a new municipal commemorative framework. I directly apply my expertise in movement and performance theory, the history of art and architecture, spatial theory, interdisciplinary and creative methodologies, Indigenous research methods, and visual studies by organizing interactive public pedagogy events such as walking tours, that engage participants in critical perspectives and practices with respect to the built environment.

Summary of Qualifications
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills, established record of public speaking, research presentation, public pedagogy, and exhibition experience
  • Demonstrated record of success in securing funding for academic and artistic projects
  • Dozens of Guest Lectures and Teaching Assistant experience
  • Demonstrated leadership and community stakeholder collaboration in high-impact projects affecting public policy.
  • Staff supervision, leading teams working to orchestrate large-scale projects
  • Well organized, proficient, multitasker, ability to meet deadlines, collegial manner
  • Skilled graphic designer, photographer, and video editor
Education

Present. PhD Candidate. Media & Design Innovation, Toronto Metropolitan University. Dissertation: “Walking Dundas Street: Critical Practices of Space and Public Memory Through Scenographic Chorography.” Supervisor: Dr. Blake Fitzpatrick. (Defense: June 2026) 

2008. MA. Visual and Critical Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
2006. BA. Art History, University of Windsor.

Technical Skills

Written and oral communication, academic course and reading list development, Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, GSuite Software: Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms,  Adobe CS: Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, Adobe Premiere Pro, iMovie, Audacity, Proficient in basic HTML, WordPress, Wix, Canva, Social Media marketing and audience development, Audio/Visual setup configurations, basic construction, art hanging, frame building, painting, extensive Graphic Design and Desktop Publishing experience. Proficient in both Mac OS and Windows environments.

Teaching Experience

2021-2024 Graduate Teaching Assistant, Toronto Metropolitan University
MPC 102: Art & The Classical World (2021-22); MPC 103: Art and the Modern World (2022-24); MPC 102: Reframing Art History (2023); MPS 406: Analogue as Meaning (2022); MPS 401: Modern Movements in Photography (2021)

Select Guest Lectures and Presentations
  • Monumental: Artists, Memory, Commemoration at Queen’s Park. Offsite Tour and Talk. ANTD20H3 Critical Urban Heritage: Making Place and Claiming Space in the City. Dr. Lena Mortensen. Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough. May 7, 2025.
  • “Walking Dundas Street as Land and Place-based Learning.” EDST 1200 Place and Learning. Dr. Celia Popovic. Faculty of Education, York University. February 7, 2024 and February 5, 2025.
  • “Connecting the Local to Global: Renaming Dundas Street in Toronto.” GBST10020 Global Studies: From Micro to Global. Dr. Jeremiah Garsha, School of History, University College Dublin. October 27, 2023.
  • “Can a Street be a Monument?:Exploring Monumentality through Dundas Street” MPC 102 Reframing Art History. Dr. Heather Diack. School of Image Arts, Toronto Metropolitan University. September 26, 2023.
  • “Renaming Dundas Street: Communication, Public History, and Creative Praxis.” ENV2125 Popular Education for Environmental and Social Justice. Dr. Vanessa Godden. Faculty of Environmental Science, York University. March 8, 2023.
  • “Negritude and Beyond: A Century of Black Presence and Thought in Modern and Contemporary Art”. MPC 103 Art and the Modern World. Instructor: Iain Cameron. School of Image Arts, Toronto Metropolitan University.
Research Experience

2021 – 2026 PhD (ABD), Media and Design Innovation, Toronto Metropolitan Universit

  • Developed scenographic chorography as an original practice-based research methodology
  • My original research project explored the connections between critical movement, performance practices, and public memory in Toronto
  • Devised specialist reading lists in the areas of spatial and temporal theory, monuments and public memory, and creative and Indigenous research methodologies toward the successful completion of comprehensive examinations

2021  Research Assistant, Mash-Koh-Wee-Kah-Pooh-Win/Standing Strong Task    Force, Ryerson University

  • Researched public responses to commemoration and institutional renamings at over twenty-five universities across North America
  • Analysed and coded responses to public facing surveys and questionnaires regarding the commemoration of Egerton Ryerson

Beyond the University: Research Mobilization

Tour Leader and Author. Walking the Annex’s Streets and Place Names.
Bata Shoe Museum. Toronto, ON. August 23, 2026

Co-Presenter and Author. Walking as Land Acknowledgement.
Bata Shoe Museum. Toronto, ON. August 9, 16, 2026.

Interviewee. Streetnames. Directed by Mars Kincaid. Documentary Video (Short), True Sail Productions, 18:00. Screened as part of Toronto Black Film Festival 2026. February 13, 2026.

Special Lecture. “From Dundas Street to Dublin: Performing Spatial Research Through Scenographic Chorography.” Craig Dobbin Legacy Scholar Lecture, Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University. November 24, 2025.

Tour Leader and Author. Monumental: Fifty Years of Creative Memory Activism in Toronto. Walking Tour. Heritage Toronto. May 12, and August 10, 2024

Interviewee. What’s in a Name?. Directed by Nadine Valcin. Documentary Film. OYA Media Group/City TV, 43.24. Originally Aired, September 15, 2023.

Workshop Developer and Facilitator. Debris Mapping Dundas Street: An Alternative Cartography & Walking Workshop. Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto, ON. August 12, 2023. Co-Presenter, Co-Author. Reclaiming and Renaming: Indigenous Placemaking at X University. Walking Tour. Toronto Metropolitan University. September 26, 2022.

Panel Respondent. What’s Next Toronto?: Monumental Conversations. Roundhouse Centre, Toronto. October 25, 2021.

Subject. Scotland, Slavery, and Statues. Directed by Parisa Urquhart. Documentary Film. Urquhart Media/BBC Scotland. 58:00. Originally Aired, October 20, 2020. Winner, BAFTA Scotland, Best Single Documentary, 2021.

Research Contributions

Special Lecturer. “From Dundas Street to Dublin: Performing Spatial Research Through Scenographic Chorography.” Craig Dobbin Legacy Scholar Lecture, Global History Seminar Series. School of History, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. October 23, 2025.

Panel Respondent. Mandated Versus Emergent Research. Learning Together: Connecting Researchers Examining Colonial Injustices and Inheritances at their Universities Symposium. University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia. September 12, 2025.

Paper Presentation. “Monumental: Animating Oral History as Creative Memory Activism.” 9th Annual Finnish Oral History Network Conference: Memory in Movement: Pace, Connection & Introspection. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland. November 29, 2024.

Paper Presentation. “Walking the Twenty-Three Kilometre Monument: Mapping Dundas Street, Colonial Power and Contemporary Resistance in Toronto.” Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory Annual Conference 2023. Pratt Institute, New York City, USA. June 10, 2023.

Paper Presentation. Awakening Potential Histories: Creative Intervention in Toronto’s Public Art & Commemorative Spaces. Ethical Public Art Colloquium. Université de Montréal. August 25, 2022

Paper Co-Presentation. The Power to Matter: Public History, Race and Commemorative Politics in Toronto. (w/ Dr. Melanie Newton.) World in a Historic House Seminar, Institute for Historical Research, University College London. London, UK. June 16, 2022.

Professional Service

2026 Supervising Gallery Manager. ArtspaceTMU. Toronto, ON.

  • Collaborated with Manager, faculty, gallery staff, and the Chair of School of Image Arts (IMA) in planning and executing exhibitions and public programs at Artspace TMU – Toronto Metropolitan University’s off-site, student-run, art gallery
  • Securing internal university funding and supporting ongoing fundraising efforts
  • Managing the gallery budget
  • Programming one or two exhibitions from the gallery’s Open Submissions ● Liaising with artists, external curators, and industry partners such as the Doc Now Festival and the Contact Festival
  • Working with the School of Image Arts faculty, staff, and student organizations to foster meaningful connections between curriculum and gallery activities
  • Supervising and coordinating tasks with the gallery’s team of five undergraduate Career Boost students, including liaising with artists and faculty, mentoring, and supporting students in confidently navigating their roles

2024 – 2026 Gallery Manager. ArtspaceTMU, Toronto, ON.

Managed day-to-day operations at Artspace TMU – Toronto Metropolitan University’s off-site, student-run, art gallery

  • Mentored undergraduate Career Boost students from the School of Image Arts in delivering and developing high-calibre artistic programming featuring the work of students, faculty, and alumni
  • Coordinated internal funding applications and fundraising initiatives
  • Oversaw hiring of undergraduate staff
  • Worked with IMA faculty, students, and staff to develop annual exhibition programming

2025 Panel Moderator. Nuclear Topographies: In Conversation with Blake Fitzpatrick, Logan Rayment, and Avery Nielsen-Webb. ArtspaceTMU, Toronto, ON. November 14, 2025.

  • Lead a public conversation with artists about themes arising from their exhibition Nuclear Topographies, incl. nuclear timescales, landscapes, monumentality, commemoration, and visual culture of the nuclear era.

Coordinator, Program Development. Creative Research Intensive Summer Program. ArtspaceTMU.

  • Collaborated with fellow Media and Design Innovation (MDI) PhD Students, Graduate School Administrators, and the Chairs of the MDI Program and School of Image Arts to develop a summer open studio and artist residency program focused on creative, arts-based, and research-creation practices working at the PhD level.
  • Led weekly critique sessions
  • Developed and coordinated a program of guest speakers, visiting artists and workshop activities
  • Liaised with the Creative School Dean’s Office to further support the CRISP residency
  • 2022 – 2023 Graduate Student Representative. Toronto Metropolitan University Naming Advisory Group
  • Participated in regular meetings of an expert advisory group tasked with offering advice to the University working group developing a new commemorative naming policy for the university. The advisory group was composed of senior university administrators, Indigenous elders and advisors, university managers, and student representatives.

2022 Co-Coordinator. Parallaxes Research Creation Symposium. Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University. November 10, 2022.

  • Worked with members of the Supportive Organic Reflexive Community/Creative Empowerment Research Collective (SORCE) and fellow PhD Students from the York University/TMU Joint Program in Communication and Culture to organize a one-day symposium showcasing PhD research informed by or using creative practices as methods of inquiry.

2022 Co-Organizer/Moderator. What Does It Mean to Decolonize Research Methodologies? Panel Discussion. RUBIX Conference 2022, The Creative School, Ryerson University. January 27, 2022. Speakers: Dr. Cheryl Thompson, Dr. Alexandra Bal, Dr. Michael Doxtater, Dr. Katty Alhayek, and Dr. Henry Navarro. Co-Organizers/Moderators: Justine Woods, David MacFarlane 

Grants, Awards, and Honours

€ 6.000: 2024 Ireland Canada University Foundation Craig Dobbin Legacy Scholarship

$5,000: TMU Graduate Development Award

$750: Media and Design Innovation, Scholarly Research and Creative Funding

$120,000: 2022 Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship
$5,100: TMU Graduate Development Award

$1,000: Jennifer MacTavish Graduate Student Leadership Award 

$16, 000: Ryerson Graduate Fellowship

$1,000: Ryerson Graduate Development Award
2021 Heritage Toronto Award for Public History Official Shortlist

Professional Associations

Landscape Research Group; Memory Studies Association.

References

Available upon request