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.

Barbara is a graduate student in the Cultural Studies program at Queen's University. Prior to this she completed her BA at Simon Fraser University in Visual Culture and Performance Studies. In academia her research has focused on film and media, theory and criticism and artists that investigate archives and museums. She is currently serving on the Board of Directors for Modern Fuel and has held various positions in galleries, artist-run centers and film festivals. Her thesis will explore questions of incarceration and abolition through the audiovisual archives of the P4W, a former women's prison site in Ka'tarokwi/Kingston, ON.

Jade Courchesne is a student at The University of British Columbia pursuing a Master’s in Cinema and Media Studies. She currently researches the concept of performativity within the Canadian-Chinese diaspora, especially looking at code-switching practices of multiracial individuals. Her published work contributes to the expanding body of anti-racist literary media through discussions of representation, identity and mental health.

Brianna Setaro is a Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal-based visual artist and researcher who is currently completing her MA in Film and Media Studies at Concordia University. Her research explores regional and community-based archives and the archival practices implemented by said institutions that serve to animate and activate alternative forms of historical and cultural knowledge, specifically from marginalized communities. She worked as a Student Cultural Agent at la maison de la culture Marie-Uguay where she developed and exhibited a participatory timeline, "m[a/i]crohistoire]". She is presently a Guest Editor at Synoptique Film Journal and is serving as Resource and Education Co-ordinator for C.I.A.O Mtl (Canadian Italians Against Oppression). 

Genevieve Flavelle is an independent curator and PhD student in the Art History program at Queen’s University. She is a white settler of Scottish and French ancestry raised and currently living in Tkaronto/Toronto. Her doctoral research investigates the work of contemporary visual artists who are challenging traditional forms of historical research to give voice to underrepresented, forgotten, or imagined histories. Her broader research and curatorial interests include queer theory, queer feminist art histories, contemporary art, archives, public art, and feminist curatorial strategies. She holds an MA from Western University and a BA from NSCAD University, both in Art History. She has curated exhibitions at Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre (Kingston, ON), Younger Than Beyonce Gallery (Toronto, ON), The Khyber (Halifax, NS), and the Anna Leonowens Gallery (Halifax, NS). She has also held the positions of Operation Director at Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre and Programming Assistant at Eyelevel Gallery. Her writing has appeared in C Magazine, BlackFlash, Esse, and various exhibition catalogues.

Sarah Irvine is an MA student in the Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management program at Toronto Metropolitan University. She has a History BA from TMU, as well as an MMst in Museum Studies from the University of Toronto. Sarah has been a researcher on several archives-based projects, including working with material from the Archives of Ontario, the Toronto Star, and the TMU Motion Picture Lab. Her interests include the history of moving image technology, the corporate development of cultural products, and the preservation of film and video equipment.

Lara Bulger has a deep-rooted commitment to the arts. With a Bachelor’s degree in Music with minors in Film and English, plus a Master’s Degree in Arts Leadership, she is passionate about the capacity of art to bring about social change. Lara is currently pursuing her PhD in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University, focusing on documentary film and its social, political and cultural impacts. She also has been involved with a variety of film festivals, including working as a programmer for the Toronto Jewish Film Festival.

Ana is a Vancouver-based writer, director, and artist whose films have screened and won awards internationally. She is an alumna of the Canadian Film Centre, WIDC at Banff, the TIFF Talent Lab, and Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

From theatre, visual arts and writing, to experimental filmmaking, her creative projects have been enhanced by adventurous life experiences including a welder’s apprenticeship on the Alberta pipeline, training horses, tree planting, and a brief stint doing phone sex. 

Her narrative films have travelled to Spain, Russia, India, Busan, Turkey, Armenia, New York, Iceland, and more, and have been awarded for their tense family relationships and bittersweet dark humour. Her art films have screened at The Polygon Gallery, The Libby Leshgold Gallery, and Paneficio Gallery in Vancouver as well as Modern Fuel in Kingston, Ontario.

Ana has recently completed an MFA degree with a focus on film, is writing her third feature screenplay, and is working on a PhD in film studies at Queen’s University.

Naomi Frooman is a 4th-year student completing a Bachelor's degree in Film and Media and Art History at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Naomi likes to combine elements of Art History and Film and Media in her research as well as in her personal and academic projects. She is interested in documentaries, queer theory, and feminist theory and hopes to complete a Master's degree in documentary filmmaking upon graduation.