Helene Vosters
helenevosters@gmail.com
PROJECT COORDINATOR
2018-2021 Postdoctoral Fellow and Project Coordinator with Transforming Stories, Driving Change, a research and performance initiative funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Council Partnership Development Grant. McMaster University. Principle Co-Investigators: Catherine Graham and Christine Sinding.
POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS
2016-2018 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship.
2015-2016 Canadian Consortium for Performance and Politics in the Americas Postdoctoral Fellowship.
EDUCATION
2015 Ph.D. Theatre and Performance Studies, York University
Dissertation: “Good Mourning Canada? Canadian Military Commemoration
and its Lost Subjects.”
2007 M.F.A. Experimental Performance Institute, New College of California, 2007
Performance Thesis: Rosaceae: There’s a War in the Garden.
2001 B.A. School of Humanities, New College of California.
AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
2017 Mary McEwan Memorial Dissertation Award for feminist scholarship.
2013 Armand and Denise La Barge Graduate Scholarship in Multiculturalism.
2014 Ontario Graduate Scholarship.
2013 Susan Mann Dissertation Scholarship (declined).
2012 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship.
2012 Ontario Graduate Scholarship (declined).
2012 Heather McCallum Research Scholarship, Canadian Association of Theatre Research.
2012 Robert Lawrence Prize, Canadian Association of Theatre Research.
2012 Theatre Practice and Performance Research Award, Canadian Association of Theatre Research.
2011 Ontario Graduate Scholarship.
PUBLICATIONS
2021 Transforming Stories, Driving Change: Bringing New Voices Into Public Debate Through Performance. Helene Vosters, Catherine Graham, Chris Sinding, Jennie Vengris, Adam Perry, Melanie Skene, and Elysée Nouvet. Open access digital book.
2019 Unbecoming Nationalism: From Commemoration to Redress in Canada. University of Manitoba Press.
2019 Co-editor with Roewan Crowe. Return Atacama: Engaging Histories of Political Violence Through Performance and Durational Witnessing. Open access digital book, HemiPress Gesture Series .
2018 “Stitch-by-Stitch: An Unsettling Labour of Re-inscription.” Canadian Theatre Review Issue 174.
2017 “Unbecoming Nationalisms: A Queer Labor of Unproduction/Nacionalsimos Impropios: Una Labor De Improducción Queer.” Emergency Index: Volume 6. 2013. Edited by Yelena Gluzman & Matvei Yankelevich. New York: Ugly Duckling Press, 2017: 288-289.
2017 “Sochi Olympics 2014, Canadian Truth and Reconciliation, and the Haunting Ghouls of Canadian Nationalism.” Performance Studies in Canada. Edited by Laura Levin and Marlis Schweitzer. McGill-Queen’s Press. 184-201.
2016 “Unravel: A Labour of Lament and Unbecoming.” Engaging Affects, Thinking Feelings: Social, Political and Artistic Practices. Eds. Susan Driver, Kara Stone and Melanie Patenaude. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2016. 139-144.
2015 “Diamanda Galás and Amanda Todd: Performing Trauma’s Sticky Connections.” Theatre Research in Canada 36:1 (2015): 89-105.
2015 “Cultivating a Cross-border, Extra-theatrical Assemblage in Resistance to Femicide in the Americas.” Canadian Theatre Review Issue 161 (2015): 22-25.
2015 “State the Nature of Your Emergency.” Emergency Index: Volume 4. 2015. Edited by Yelena Gluzman and Sophia Cleary. New York: Ugly Duckling Press, 2015.
2014 “Military Memorialization and its Object(s) of Period Purification.” Performing Objects and Theatrical Things. Edited by Joanne Zerdy and Marlis Schweitzer. Palgrave McMillan: London, 2014. 104-117.
2014 “Between Worlds: Reflections on a Year of Falling.” Theatre of Affect (Essays), Volume 4 in the New Essays on Canadian Theatre series, Ed. Erin Hurley, Gen. Ed. Ric Knowles. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2014. 263-274.
2014 “Beyond Monumentalization: Activating Empathy for the ‘Lost Subjects of History.’” Canadian Theatre Review Issue 157 (2014): 34-38.
2014 “Shot at Dawn.” Emergency Index: Volume 3. 2013. Edited by Yelena Gluzman. New York: Ugly Duckling Press, 2014: 546-537.
2013 “Impact Lab and the Halprin Life/Art Process: A Practice-based Approach to Creative, Affective, and Political Mobilization.” Canadian Journal of Practice-Based Research in Theatre 5:1 (2013): 1-23.
2013 “Piece/Peace Work: Engendering ‘Rationalities of Care’ through a Thread-by-Thread deconstruction of militarism.” Performance Research 18:3 (2013): 4-14.
2012 “Beyond Heroism and Towards Shared Vulnerability: Re-imagining Canada’s Affective Deployments of Mourning in Response to Afghan War Deaths.” FRAKCIJA Issue 58/59 (2012): 51-59.
2012 “Impact Afghanistan War.” Emergency Index: 2011. Edited by Yelena Gluzman and Matvei Yankelevich. New York: Ugly Duckling Press, 2012: 26-27.
SELECTED PERFORMANCES AND EXHIBITIONS
2019 Socorro! Bloody Mess!: Under (De)construction: A low-tech immersive (un)reality home building and decorating game. Encuentro, Mexico City, Mexico.
2017-2018 Stitch-by-Stitch: TRC Calls to Action Sewing Circle, Learning and Mobilization Network, Children’s Services & Neighbourhood Development Division, City of Hamilton (Dec. 2018); Artfest 2018, Crescent Fort Rouge United Church, Winnipeg, MB (April 2018); Millennial Library, Winnipeg, MB (September 2017); UNsettling Canada 150 Sewing Circle. Queen’s Park, Toronto, ON (July 2017); New Directions, Winnipeg, MB (April 2017); Artfest, Crescent Fort Rouge United Church, Winnipeg, MB (May 2017); Tallest Poppy, Winnipeg, MB (March 2017); greenhouse artlab, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB (March 2017); ArtsJunktion, ArtHive, Winnipeg, MB (February 2017).
2016 Unbecoming Nationalisms/Nacionalismos Impropios, eX-céntrico, Santiago, Chile.
2016 Return Atacama, with CONSTELACIONES, eX-céntrico, Calama, Chile.
2016 Echoes: North, North… with CONSTELACIONES, eX-céntrico, Santiago, Chile.
2016 Re-Manifestations: An anarchivist (re)mapping of place, with Kimberley McLeod, Performing Cartography. Graduate Program in Theatre and Performance Studies, York University, Toronto, ON (April 2016).
2015 #Surveilling/Surveillance, Washington Square, New York City.
2015 Flag of Tears: Lament for the Stains of a Nation, Canadian Classics Reimagined, Factory Theatre, Toronto; Hard Twist 10: Memory, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto; You’re Not Here, Daniel’s Spectrum, Toronto.
2015 Unsettling Canada Day Embroidery Circle Picnic, Queen’s Park, Toronto.
2014 Shot at Dawn, Queen’s Park, Toronto.
2014 Remanifestations: Embodying Routes of Contemporary Protest, with Kimberley McLeod, Encuentro, Montréal.
2014 State the Nature of Your Emergency, with Kimberley McLeod, Canadian Association of Theatre Research Conference, Brock University.
2014 Unravel: A Meditation on the Warp and Weft of Militarism, Cross Sections, Toronto.
2013 Shot at Dawn, WIAprojects: Babble/Babel, Queen’s Park, Toronto.
2013 Unravel: A Meditation on the Warp and Weft of Militarism, WIAprojects: Babble/Babel, Toronto; Walnut Contemporary Gallery, Toronto.
2013 Haunting the Past’s Present, PSi 19, Stanford University.
2013 On Love and War, Litanies for our Survival, York University, Toronto; MARKIT! Videofag, Toronto.
2012 Unravel: A Meditation on the Warp and Weft of Militarism, PSi 18, Armley Mills, Leeds, UK; F.O.O.T.: Theatre and Learning, University of Toronto.
2011 k[NO]w Places, with Life and Limb, Rhubarb Festival, Toronto.
2011 Unravel: A Meditation on the Warp and Weft of Militarism, Visualeyez Performance Art Festival, Edmonton.
July 1 2010 through July 1, 2011 Impact Afghanistan War, A year-long counter-memorial performed daily throughout Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
INVITED TALKS AND PRESENTATIONS
2019 “Making Visible: Artful Labours of Counter Memorialization and Durational Engagement.” School of Social Work, McMaster University, Hamilton.
2017 Caroline Dukes Memorial Artist Talk, CONSTELACIONES Artist Collective, MAWA, Winnipeg.
2016 “Dancing with the Maple Leaf: From Mascot to Palimpsest.” Artist Roundtable: Performance Artists, eX-céntrico, Santiago, Chile.
2015 “The Tactical Queer Craft of Unbecoming Nationalisms” Decolonizing Panamerica: Performance, Activism, Indigeneity performancestudies (Canada) speaker series, York University
2015 “Labours of Counter Memorialization and Durational Engagement.” Canadian Consortium for Performance and Politics in the Americas, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México.
2014 Artist-Activist Dialogue: Exchange of Ideas of Performance and Social Intervention with La Pocha Nostra REBEL ACTS, University of Toronto, Toronto.
2014 Artist Round Table: Urban Interventions. Hemispheric Institute Encuentro, Concordia University, Montréal.
2014 “‘Rationalities of Care’ Through a Thread-by-Thread Deconstruction of Militarism.” Community Arts Practice Lunch Series, York University
2011 “Good Mourning Canada? Performative Responses to Military Memorialization.” Women, War, and Learning, OISE, University of Toronto
2011 “Impact Afghanistan War.” CBKU Gallery, The Artist’s Meal, Utrecht, NL, 2011
Teaching Experience
Primary Instruction
2018-2019 Sessional Instructor. Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies (online). University of Winnipeg. Fall/Winter.
2018 Sessional Instructor. Feminisms: Current Perspectives (3rd year seminar). University of Winnipeg. Winter.
2014 Course Director. Performing Gender (4th year seminar). York University. Winter.
2012-2013 Teaching Assistant. Uncovering the Body: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Prof. Honor Ford-Smith and Nancy Viva Davis Halifax. Departments of Environmental Studies and Health Studies, York University.
2010-2012 Tutorial Leader. Sex, Gender, and Popular Culture. Prof. Allyson Mitchell. School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, York University.
2009-2010 Tutorial Leader. Women, Work, and Family. Prof. Deborah Davidson. Department of Sociology, York University.
2008-2009 Adjunct Faculty. California Institute of Integral Studies. Bachelor’s Completion Program — Year-long, hybrid online/weekend interdisciplinary liberal arts program for mature students.
2003-2008 Core Faculty. New College of California. Unique interdisciplinary liberal arts curriculum developed for aspiring and engaged activists as part of both Bachelor’s Completion and Master’s programs.
1999-2003 Core Faculty. Tamalpa Institute, Kentfield, California. Movement-based expressive arts institute co-founded by Anna Halprin and Daria Halprin. Courses: Tamalpa Life/Art Process; Personal Mythology Through the Body; Movement Ritual.
CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION
2019 “‘In My World’: Metaphor, embodiment, and meaning in performance-based cross-sector collaborations.” Canadian Association of Theatre Research Conference, Vancouver.
2017 “A Blanket Returned: Unbecoming Settler-colonial Hospitalities.” Canadian Association of Theatre Research Conference, Toronto.
2016 “The Canadian Maple Leaf: From Mascot to Palimpsest Matter.” Popular Culture Association of Canada Conference, Montreal.
2014 “Performing Trauma’s Semiotic Excess: Diamanda Galás and Amanda Todd.” Canadian Association of Theatre Research Conference, St. Catherines.
2014 “Labours of Memorialization and Durational Engagement.” Intersections: Thinking/Feeling. Ryerson University, Toronto
2013 “Dressed to Kill: From Reverential Object to Ghostly Matter.” (Re)Activating Objects: Social Theory and Material Culture, London, March 16
2013 “Unravel: A Meditation on the Warp and Weft of Militarism.” Feminist Art Conference, Toronto
2012 “Piece/Peace Work: Engendering ‘Rationalities of Care’ through a Thread-by-Thread Deconstruction of Militarism.” PS1 18 Leeds
2012 “Affective Mobilization, Memory Projects, and Prefigurative Politics.” Canadian Association of Theatre Research Conference, Waterloo
2012 “Between the Worlds: Reflections on a Year of Falling.” Canadian Association of Theatre Research Conference, Waterloo
2012 “If the Dead Could Speak: Avowals and Disavowals of U.S. and Canadian Responses
to Afghan War Deaths.” Cultural Studies Association, San Diego
2011 “Investing in Grief in Times of War: Canada’s Post 9/11 Deployment of Military Projects.” American Society for Theater Research, Montreal
2011 “Beyond Heroism and Towards Shared Vulnerability: Re-imagining Canada’s Affective Deployments of Mourning in Response to Afghan War Deaths.” Canadian Association of Theatre Research, Fredericton
2011 “Towards a Poetics of Shared Vulnerability: Re-imagining Canadian Military Memory Projects.” The Art of Public Memory Conference, Greensboro
2008 “Mourning in the Commons: Women Awakening the Transformative Power of Collective Grief through Performance Intervention.” Women and Power Conference, University of South Dakota
Helene Vosters 