My research activities are animated by questions like: what do people ‘say and do’ (Schatzki, 2012, p 14) when they use artistic practices in everyday activities? What are the relationships between artistic practices in non-traditional environments? What new knowledge can be uncovered when aesthetic expectations and traditions are valued in non-art-based activities? Using interpretive approaches, such as hermeneutics, I explore relationships between expectations and practices that are carried by individuals and groups using art in non-traditional ways. Often these non-traditional activities are taken up in hidden or unrecognized ways that are influenced by artistic practices, our expectations of what ‘art’ looks like, or where it is expected to be found.
I continue to explore relationships between artistic practices and non-art environments to imagine and question understandings of what artistic practices look like, what they say about societ(ies), and what people do with art. Recently, these questions have pulled me back to my academic roots in art history, visual culture, and Gadamerian hermeneutics but have propelled me to explore what relationships exist between artistic practices, expectations and traditions, and marginalized, de-valued, or overlooked environments such as higher education and thanatology.
My interests in art, death, and diverse learning practices stem from my professional and personal experiences in all three areas. I spent nearly two decades working in arts education and arts infused environments, I collect artworks and objects with morbid perspectives on living, and I have experiences, professionally and personally, with neurodivergence, such as Autism, ADHD, and CAPD, and the benefits of learning through art infused practices for neurodivergent learners.
Education
2016
PhD., Graduate Program in Communications & Culture, Faculty of Arts, University of Calgary, Alberta. Supervisor: Brian Rusted
Dissertation Title: Artistry in Social Science Research: What is the Relationship between Photographic Based Aesthetic Practices and Photographic Based Research Practices as Understood by Social Science Researchers?
2007 – 2009
PhD. Coursework, Graduate Department of Educational Research, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta. Supervisor: Lisa Panayotidis. Transferred Faculties September 2010.
1997
Masters of Studies (MSt.) in History of Art and Visual Culture, Linacre College, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, Trinity Term. Supervisor: Paul Crowther
Dissertation Title: A Critical Analysis of the Perception and Censorship of Photographic Images of Jock Sturges and Sally Mann.
1993
Combined Honours BA (BA Hons. Comb.) in Fine Arts and Classical Studies, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario.
Areas of Specialization
Visual theories and practice, art theories, hermeneutics, history of photography, thanatology
2022
End-of-Life Doula Certificate, Douglas College, Completed March 2022
Examples of Writing
2021
Author, “Breaking the Frame: Evolving Practices of First-generation Photo-elicitation Researchers”. Visual Studies. 2021.
2019
Author, “Cicansky at Play: A Genuine Conversation with SC Dam”, in Victor Cicansky” The Gardener’s Universe ed. Timothy Long and Julia Krueger, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK. 2019. The Book was awarded the High Plains Book Art + Photography Award, 2020.
2016
PhD. Dissertation Title: Artistry in Social Research: What is the Relationship between Photographic Based Aesthetic Practices and Photographic Based Research Practices as Understood by Social Science Researchers? Department of Communications + Culture, University of Calgary. Awarded the IVSA 2016 The Jon Rieger Award for Thesis/Dissertation
“Breaking the Frame: Evolving Practices of First-generation photo-Elicitation Researchers”, Visual Studies, vol. 37, iss. 1-2, pp.140-153. 2022.
Victor Cicansky: The Gardener’s Universe, Ed. Timothy Long + Julia Krueger, Mackenzie Art Gallery, 2019. Winner 2020 Art + Photography High Plains Book Award