Art and Resistance

Mar Alzamora 

Doublebassist, sound artist, and writer. Founder and double bass player of the Paisaxe Ensamble. Her rhizomatic artistic research is based on the multisensory exploration of cities through soundwalks and improvisation. Currently, she collaborates with the Latin American Experimental Music platform (MUSEXPLAT) in which he writes about new innovative musical productions in Latin America, and also a candidate for the Master of Contemporary Arts at the Simon Fraser University. Visit her website: www.maralzamora.net

Mozhdeh Bashirian

My BA degree is in Film Directing, and I have some experience in filmmaking—fiction and documentary. I value both purely creative and purely academic aspects of arts. I am interested in exploring the unexplored and finding out what possibilities are beyond the familiar conventions. At present, the notable disinterest/skepticism toward film theory and postmodernist approaches in Iran motivates me more for further study in these fields.

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Emily Clarke

Inspired by dissipating arts programming in the BC kindergarten to grade twelve curriculum, Emily’s research practice advocates for a contemporary model of arts integration that serves as a foundation for social and environmental justice in early education. Through a “hybrid” model of pedagogy, she considers how we might we add more depth and meaning to the ways in which we bring Indigenous perspectives, knowledges, and values into the classroom. With a focus on musical storytelling as a pedagogical methodology towards decolonization and reconciliation, Emily’s research aims to influence systemic change, supporting the incorporation of inclusive and equitable music, arts, and creativity in schools.

Doaa Magdy

Doaa is a Nubian Afro-Indigenous interdisciplinary artist living on the unceded stolen lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Doaa works with documentary filmmaking, dance and photography, and uses her art to highlight the racial and social injustices BIPOC individuals face.

As a researcher and an aspiring horror film director, Doaa’s goal is to use her research and art to connect kinship through shared stories of systemic discrimination between Black and Indigenous peoples to dismantle white supremacy together as groups who are systemically marginalized as a result of enslavement and colonialism.

Alexandra Tsay

Alexandra is an aspiring scholar and an art curator. She is interested in contemporary art in transition societies of Central Asia. She curated exhibitions and programmed festivals in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Alexandra wrote a chapter “Contemporary Art as a Public Forum in Kazakhstan” for collective volume edited by Marlene Laruelle The Nazarbayev Generation: Youth in Kazakhstan (Lexington Books, 2019) and is a co-editor of Stalinism in Kazakhstan: History, Memory, and Representation edited by Zhulduzbek Abylkhozhin, Mikhail Akulov, Alexandra Tsay (Lexington Books, 2021).  

Emira Ugun

Emira is a Turkish arts industry professional and performance maker living on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Arts & Cultural Management from Istanbul Bilgi University in Turkey and an L1 degree in Art History & Archeology from Université Lumière Lyon II in France. Her research practice revolves around Turkish Feminist performance art as a counter-strategy to criticize the politicization of womxn's bodies and gender politics in Turkey.

Junjie Wang

Born and raised in China, Junjie Wang has and received professional training in Chinese classical dance, Chinese folk dance, and contemporary dance. As a dancer, Junjie is striving to learn in performance and creation, trying to find the unity of body and mind. As an emerging dance researcher, her research includes Asian Dance Aesthetics, Intangible Cultural Heritage dance, and dance copyright study.

Katie Hyeseung Yeo

Katie works at the intersection of media and modern politics. On a broader scope, she is interested in demonstrating how the media portrays a society, how the public responds, and how the media relates to the ideological perspective of the audience. Her recent research surveys South Korean cinema, focusing on how such films portray and envision conflict in the Korean Peninsula, inter-Korean relations, and possible future for South and North Korea. One of her recent research and publications explores North Korea's clandestine media consumption and how media piracy in North Korea promotes social change.