Performance Art, Politics, and Pedagogy in the Borderlands: Curating Cross Cultural Exchange at the Canada-U.S.-México Borders

Cross border political performance art and pedagogy are the focal point of my research—a topic more relevant and urgent than I could have anticipated with the Trump Administration’s proposed wall, immigration policies, and legislation which forcibly separates migrant families caught attempting to cross the Southern border as well as controversies surrounding Canada’s ‘Safe Third Country Agreement’. While previously researching in Mexico I met and collaborated with performance artists from across the Americas and began developing my own performance work and curatorial material that stemmed from experiences of border crossing. My continued Ph.D. research is combined with my curatorial practice and involves working closely with performance artists who are developing original performance material and collaborative cross cultural opportunities across geographic barriers. My work politicizes and grounds live performance at the border and implicates Canada within a larger border studies narrative within the Americas, drawing attention to the Indigeneity upon which boundaries and trade policies have been built upon in the first place. In El Paso I will be examining performance activism in the borderlands fostering long term collaborations, relationships and discussions across dividing lines […]

Faculty Supervisor:

Laura Levin

Student:

Partner:

University of Texas at San Antonio

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Other; Aboriginal Affairs; Education

University:

York University

Program: