Research Assistants


Adrienne Huard (current)
Adrienne Huard (they/them) is a Two-Spirit Anishinaabe curator, writer, scholar and performer. They are a citizen of Couchiching First Nation, Ontario, and born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. They are a former Editor-at-Large at national arts publication, Canadian Art magazine and are a co-founder of gijiit curatorial collective alongside their collaborator, Jas M. Morgan. They hold a bachelor of fine arts in art history at Concordia University in Montreal and went on to complete OCAD University’s graduate-level program in criticism and curatorial practice in Toronto. Currently, they are enrolled in the PhD-level program in Indigenous studies at University of Manitoba.


Adrian Deveau (current)
Adrian Deveau is a writer, artist, and PhD student in Art History at Concordia University and holds an MA in Art History and Theory from the University of British Columbia. Adrian has worked with arts-based organizations including the Museum of Anthropology (Vancouver), Vancouver Biennale, Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre, and Reelout Film Festival. In their research, Adrian is interested in the intersection of queer art and political protest, Artist-Run Centre Culture, and the methodology of Telepathy within the archive.


Mika Castro (current)
Mika Castro is an undergraduate student at the University of Winnipeg who is currently working on completing an Honours Degree in Psychology. Their main research interests include learning about the stories and lives of queer POC immigrants, mainly that of queer Filipinos in the Diaspora, and looking at the psychological implications of immigration. 


Mahlet Cuff (current)
Mahlet Cuff is currently an undergraduate student majoring in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Winnipeg. While being a student, they have gained experience as an interdisciplinary artist, in curation, and in archival research. Cuff’s main research interest is the history of Black queer life in Manitoba. She is also interested in looking into the past to discover how we are able to create new futures.


Niamh Griffin (past)
Niamh Griffin (they/them) is a Winnipeg-based writer and researcher. Niamh holds an Honours Bachelor of Digital Communications from Humber College, and they are a current MA student in the Cultural Studies program at the University of Winnipeg. Their research interests include technopolitics, ideological violence, decolonial theory, and cultural hegemony.


Sav Jonsa (past)
Sav Jonsa is an autistic, Transgender Two-Spirit Metis person with familial roots in St. Norbert. Sav is in the process of obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Film, with a minor in English, at the University of Winnipeg. Their aspiration is to create children’s entertainment using a mix of live action, puppetry, and stop-motion techniques in hopes of developing programming that fosters children’s imaginations and provides a feeling of safety, joy, and possibility. Sav is passionate about archives, rediscovering lost media, historical queer coding and these interests’ connection to the relationship between nostalgia and childhood trauma.


Thomas Boeckner (past)
Thomas Boeckner is currently a student in the Cultural Studies MA program at the University of Winnipeg. They completed their undergraduate degree at OCAD University with a major in Visual and Critical Studies. Being a visually impaired, queer artist, they are interested in how disability studies and queerness intersect with the museum and art worlds. Thomas comes from a small Northwestern Ontario city and realizes the potential and importance the rural and peripheries have in being a part of a thriving network of art and culture beyond urban centres


Brittany Bauer (past)
Brittany Bauer is currently a student in the Cultural Studies MA program, and she received her undergraduate training in both Environmental Studies and Classics. Her work primarily focuses on underrepresented aspects of classical scholarship such as the lives of queer women and the poor. She is currently engaged in projects centred on recreating foodways and pathways of the poor in Roman Italy via ethnoarchaeology and experimental archaeology.


Amber Ali (past)
Amber Ali is a senior undergraduate at the University of Winnipeg in a student designed major for International Migration and Sociology. Amber has been a longstanding research assistant on the Landscapes of Injustice project addressing the dispossession of Japanese Canadians during World War II, run out of the University of Victora under Dr. Jordan Stanger-Ross, as well as a researcher for the Oral History Department at the University of Winnipeg. Her relationship with the Japanese Cultural Association of Manitoba has flourished into a working relationship, constructing an online educational space and digital archive. Additional key interests are in LGBTQAI* representation in the arts and in historical narratives as well as Newcomer-Indigenous relations in Canada. 


Naomi Bird (Summer Scholar, past)
Naomi Bird is a Nehiyaw woman from the Montreal Lake Cree Nation in Treaty Six Territory. Naomi uses she/them pronouns. Next spring, they will graduate from Dalhousie University with a double major in Sustainability and Urban Planning, and a minor in Indigenous Studies. In the academic realm, Naomi is passionate about many topics including: land-based, decolonial education, urban Indigenous realities, and how historical trauma impacts contemporary Indigenous health. Naomi has witnessed the erasure of Indigenous histories and realities in both faculties she studies under; experiencing this, Naomi plans on pursuing a masters degree in curriculum studies or place-based education in the coming years. They wish to address the Eurocentrism of the Academy, in an attempt to lessen the violence(s) enacted upon Indigenous students navigating academia.


Dallas Cant (past)
Dallas Cant is currently working towards completing a B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Winnipeg. They are interested in exploring queer embodiments, curatorial methodologies, and queer cultural production in relation to sex work. Dallas recognizes the creative form as medium of resistance and incorporates digital photography, poetry, and hand stitching into their research-creation methodology. Currently, they are developing an undergraduate course in sexuality and online communities alongside Dr. Fiona J. Green (University of Winnipeg). Dallas also works as a research assistant with the Greenhouse Artlab to explore and think queerly in relation to bee eco-cultures. In the future, Dallas intends to pursue an M.A. in sexuality studies.


Thiané Diop (past)
Thiané Diop holds a B.A. in History from the University of Manitoba and is enrolled in the Cultural Studies M.A. program at the University of Winnipeg. Through her work at numerous historic sites and museums in Manitoba, she has become interested in the representation of intersectional queer identities. She is particularly interested in the narratives attached to the few stories featuring people who identify as both queer and racialized.


Thomasena Downes-Mitchell (Summer Scholar, past)
Thomasena Downes-Mitchell is an Afro Indigenous woman from Rolling River First Nation. In June 2018 Thom will be graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Human Resources from the University of Winnipeg. Thom’s goal is to pursue Grad school at the University of Manitoba in Business. Thom is passionate about Indigenous and African justice issues and spends her spare time diligently studying these topics. Giving back to the community is important to Thom as she has spent the last 10 plus years volunteering with Child and Family Services. Thom is a strong pupil and has worked as a student marker for the Religion and Culture department. When faced with adversity Thom draws on the strength, teachings and guidance of her mother Terry.


Evan Durance (past)
Evan Durance is an undergraduate student currently completing a B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Winnipeg. His interests lie mainly in trans history as well as queer cultural production. Evan aims to integrate and foster emotion, creativity and care in his research and academic pursuits.


Chris Eastman (past)
Chris Eastman is an Indigenous queer undergrad currently working towards a BSc in Information Technology and a BA in Theatre Productions at the University of Winnipeg. He is interested in Indigenous feminism and queer theory, as well as the role technology can play in sharing knowledge with accessibility in mind.


Jana Elazar (past)
Jana Elazar recently graduated with a B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies and Political Science at the University of Winnipeg. She is particularly interested in decolonizing settler institutions and spaces through a queer of colour critique. In the future, she plans to pursue graduate studies in culture and communications.


Misha Falk (past)
Misha Falk is an undergraduate student working towards an honours degree in English at the University of Winnipeg. They are particularly interested in queer theory with a focus on trans subjectivities, cultural production & history.


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DJ Fraser (past)
D.J. Fraser is a graduate of the University of British Columbia (BA, Art History) and the University of Victoria (MA, History in Art) and a third year doctoral student at Concordia University’s Art History department. As a writer, an art historian and an instructor, they operate at the messy intersection between archival practices and queer cultural production in the frame of art history’s evolving relationships with archives. In their current work they are exploring the content and structural elements of the Electronic Media and Film Art Memory Archive for queer constellations and art praxis-activism in New York.


Hubery (Liang) Huang (past)
Hubery Huang is currently studying at Northwest A&F University as an English major in China. She is particularly interested in queer theory and how LGBTQ groups influence museum cultures. She joins the Museum Queeries project as a Mitacs Intern for 2019.


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Hailey Primrose (past)
Hailey Primrose is a queer Métis undergraduate student completing a BA in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Winnipeg. With a focus on queer, trans and anti-racist feminist discourse, her goal is to contribute to feminist ideology through a decolonizing and queer-centered framework. In addition to her studies, Hailey works as an RA with Dr. Karen Harlos (University of Winnipeg), contributing to knowledge gaps surrounding LGBTQ employees and workplace bullying and mistreatment. In the future her interest lies in completing an MA in Women’s and Gender Studies and Indigenous Studies.


TJ Shannacappo (past)
TJ Shannacappo is an urban Anishinaabe-kwe from Winnipeg, MB. She holds a BA from the University of British Columbia (Women’s and Gender Studies and First Nations Studies) and currently works as an editor at an organization dedicated to promoting Indigenous education. In the near future, TJ intends to pursue a Master of Education in School and Applied Child Psychology, and she is passionate about the intersections between mental heath, self-representation, and access to meaningful cultural production. Practicing a decolonial and feminist methodological approach, she primarily engages her theoretical interests with creative interventions by Indigenous peoples, women, and LGBTQ/2-Spirit communities.


Claire Wright (past)
Claire Wright holds a BFA in printmaking from OCAD U, and has recently completed an MA in Cultural Studies at the University of Winnipeg. She is interested in the role of aesthetics and material culture in affective communication and meaning-making; and with relationships between art, activism, and education.