February 13, 2020 – Unexpected Gender with Dr. Dory Nason
The Collective’s first Unexpected Gender Series event was held on February 13th, 2020 and joined by Dr. Dory Nason from UBC’s Critical Indigenous Studies program. Dory’s areas of research include contemporary Indigenous Feminisms and related Native women’s intellectual history and literature. She locates Native literature as an important and evolving site of feminist, Indigenous resurgent, and anti-carceral resistance often overlooked. Dory took the Collective through some of her earlier writings and archival work as she uncovered aspects of her family history linked to the residential school system. Following Dory’s presentation, the gathering opened to a question period and discussion of experiences as researchers working towards engaging gender+.
March 20, 2020 – Unexpected Gender with Christine D’Onofrio (Cancelled)
Our second Unexpected Gender Series session was due to be led by Christine D’Onofrio, from UBC Visual Arts on March 20th, 2020. Had the event gone ahead, Christine would have spoken to her work called Intuition Commons, her methods, and how she came to gender+ in her work. Christine D’Onofrio is a visual artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia; she currently teaches at the University of British Columbia. Her practice acts as an inquiry to art history and the nature of artistic practice, current and historical feminism, exploitation, virtue, humiliation, humour and desire. Consumer culture and media are set up next to art historical references denoting a promise to both. Christine is interested in the contradictions and ambiguities of liberty, especially through capital. Her past work specifically does this by examining the complications of liberating female representation through canonical structures to the point that it may find new structure, thus liberating it from both, while enacting within them entirely. Per our usual practice, the Collective would have opened to a question period and discussion of experiences as researchers working towards engaging gender+.
Further events due to be held by the Collective in the
Spring were cancelled due to COVID-19.
