Don Bapst is a writer and filmmaker whose work explores alternatives in content, form, and style to give a voice to the marginal, the unnoticed, and the forbidden.

I am a Ph.D. student at York University Cinema and Media Studies. I am also a multimedia artist and researcher focusing on the liminal relationship between the virtual and reality. I have exhibited works in various locations virtually and physically, including the CICA museum in South Korea, Walter Otero Contemporary Art in Puerto Rico, Vox Populi in Philadelphia, Hunan Museum of Art in China, and many more. I founded a Mixed Reality collective, Chameleon Gallery, in 2017.

​​Jeanine is a Mi'kmaw epit/woman. She is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton). Her SSHRC-funded research examines the photographic materials and record of Mi’kmaq persons and relations while situating myself as a Mi’kmaw epit/woman in this continuum of kinship relations through photographic self-portraiture. This work is grounded in Indigenous Studies disciplinarity focused on Indigenous feminisms and critical Indigenous theory with a methodological engagement in relationality, situated knowledges, and eroticanalysis. As a Mi’kmaw film photographer, she uses self-portraiture to dismantle settler colonial representations of self (corporeal/body and personhood) and collective nationhood/peoplehood experiences through a critical response to archival images of Mi’kmaq women. This research creation work recognizes Mi'kmaq women’s self-determination and corporeal (body) sovereignty, and points to a continuum of socio-political relationality that has been ignored in the archives. In this work, she acknowledges that, as Indigenous peoples, we are not solitary “objects” or “subjects,” but are embedded in spiritual/religious relations with other humans and more-than-human peoples in storied places, across time and space.

Geneva Gillis is a Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto studying community museums in Ontario. She holds a MA in History from McMaster University and a MMSt from the University of Toronto where she critically examined the relationships between historiographical practices, memory, and interpretation used for public engagement with community histories in the GLAM sector. Geneva’s current research examines community engagement in small, local museums from the community’s perspective, focusing on how the histories, internal power dynamics, and local relationships of community museums challenge and change the engagement process and moments of transition in the institution. Geneva draws on years of professional experience in the GLAM sector and community-based research practices to inform the future of museum practices from local community perspectives.

Olive Zeynep Kartal is an MA student in Film Studies at Concordia University. She received her BA in English (Cultural Studies) and Gender Studies from McGill University. Her previous work has focused on textiles and queer theory. Her research interests include feminist film and literature, spectrality, media studies, and disability studies.

Kathryn Armstrong (she/her) is a SSHRC Research Fellow and PhD Candidate of Concordia’s Communication Department. Her work examines the Canadian public media system, including Canada’s approach to international media distribution and its handling at the governmental level of content development and digital content platforms. Kathryn specializes in Canada’s international treaty co-production partnerships and how Canadian media producers forge these collaborations. She holds two Master’s degrees from the University of Toronto (Cinema Studies) and Toronto Metropolitan University (Media Production), as well as an Honours Bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies Institute. Kathryn's past work in producer advocacy at the Canadian Media Producers Association as well as her management of international director and producer relations for the Toronto International Film Festival continue to drive her research inquiries. Kathryn often attends academic conferences including the Film Studies Association of Canada and the TIFF/Sheridan College’s NextGen Seminar. She is currently working on the 2022/2023 Canada Media Fund Trends report, and has appeared as a media analyst in defence of film and arts support, including her recent spot on CBC’s The National. 

Arvin (Yanwen) Zhang is a MA student in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies at Queen’s University. As a media art student researcher and creator, she has produced short films and still photos, some of which entered film festivals. Her work focuses on the use of technology in media and new materialism. Arvin has been working with the VML on digitization and documentation of the Arnait archives, and she will continue to contribute to the projects.

Melissa Noventa is a dancer and ethnographer originally from Guelph, Ontario. Throughout her career, she has accumulated a wide range of training, performing, teaching experience. Melissa’s work has spanned across commercial, academic, and artistic settings, traversing a wide breadth of dance genres including: classical, contemporary, urban, West African, Latin, and Afro-Caribbean dance forms. Her work has garnered her an eclectic career, allowing her to present her research internationally and perform alongside a formidable list of distinguished artists from Canada and abroad, including some of Cuba’s premiere folkloric ensembles. Currently a PhD student in Cultural Studies at Queen's University, Melissa's research explores themes related to body politics, identity and embodied knowledge as they pertain to Afro-Cuban folkloric performance.

Building on her three previous graduate degrees in Law (Osgoode Hall), Journalism (Western University) and Political Science (Dalhousie University), Noftle brings a truly interdisciplinary approach to her PhD in Cultural Studies at Queen’s. As an academic and as an artist, Noftle incorporates the use of photographic images and video in creating innovative methods of research into visual cultural identity among Indigenous communities. With a focus on relationship-building through storytelling, Noftle seeks to facilitate communication and increased understanding among different peoples by creating visual bridges across cultures.

deneige nadeau is a gutter philosopher, an angry dyke and an ivory tower terrorist. s_he recently returned to being an unruly university student in the Cultural Studies Program at Queen's University. As a first generation scholar/activist, s_he is a reluctant product of the academy: a proud dropout of the social justice institute at the University of British Columbia; holding at a distance an MA in Philosophy, Art and Critical Thought from the European Graduate School; and a BFA in Visual Art from Emily Carr University of Art + Design.