I am a Lecturer in Human Geography at Newcastle University. My work engages the intersection of performance and politics, with interests in testimony, witnessing, subaltern urbanisms and precarious labour. I have a long history in political theatre, having curated several main stage productions (City of Dreams, Counter Mapping, Do You See What I Mean?). I also co-wrote and co-produced Nanay, a site-specific testimonial theatre project engendering public debate about Canada’s Live-In Caregiver Program. This work premiered at Vancouver’s PuSh Festival (2009), and went on to tour to Berlin’s HAU1 Theatre (2009), Edinburgh (2012), Whitehorse (2015), and Metro Manila (2013; 2015). With Geraldine Pratt, I've recently finished working on a new theatre project with Tlingit and Filipino theatre artists in the city of Whitehorse. This piece revolves around a game of bingo wherein audience members participate as bingo players and potential storytellers. The playfulness of the event provides an occasion for serious play around shared histories of dispossession, structural racism, and to complicate the relationship between First Nation communities and Filipino migrants in the Canadian North.
Research Interests
Performance and politics
Testimony, witnessing and theatre
Subaltern urbanism and adivasi resistance
Migration, labour and global care
Posts
Lecturer in Human Geography 2017 -
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology
Newcastle University
Lecturer in Human Geography
 2013 - 2016
Institute of Geography
University of Edinburgh
Education
Ph.D. University of British Columbia 2010
MA UBC, Geography 2006
BA UBC, Geography 2004
Current Service
Steering committee member of the Glasgow, Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network
Editor for Creative Interventions in Studies for Social Justice
Editorial board member for Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Steering Committee, Institute for Creative Practice, Newcastle University
Past Service and Esteem
2017 Recruitment Panel, Institute for Creative Arts Practice, Newcastle University
2017 Member, Creative Practice Research Forum, Newcastle University
2014-15 Co-Convenor, International Emotional Geographies Conference
2013 Plenary Talk, Royal Geographical Society, London
2013-16 Managing Committee, Global Justice Academy, University of Edinburgh
2012-13 Advisory Committee, School of Health, University of Edinburgh
2012-13 Jasmin Leila Award, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
Project Grants (as principal investigator)
2017 Impact Accelerator Account, Newcastle University
2017 Faculty Research Fund, Newcastle University
2013 Economic and Social Research Council, KEO Scheme
2013 Roundhouse, Residency Grant
2012 Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
2012 British Columbia Arts Council, Projects
2011 British Columbia Arts Council, Projects
2011 City of Vancouver, Cultural Grants Program
2010 British Columbia Arts Council, Projects
2010 City of Vancouver, Cultural Grants Program
2009 Vancouver Foundation, Arts and Culture
2008 British Columbia Arts Council, Projects
2008 Vancouver Foundation, Health and Social Development
2008 City of Vancouver, Cultural Grants Program
2008 Canada Council for the Arts, Projects
Fellowships
2011 Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Postdoctoral Fellowship
2009 Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, India Studies Fellowship
2006 Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Doctoral Fellowship
2005 Northern Telecom, Master’s Fellowship
2004 Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Master’s Fellowship
Project Grants (as co-applicant)
2016 Yukon Government, Arts Fund
2016 Yukon Government, Culture Quest
2012 British Columbia Arts Council, Innovations Program
2012 Koerner Foundation, Cultural and Creative Arts
2012 Hamber Foundation
2012 Vancouver Foundation, Arts and Culture
2012 Telus Foundation, Community Investment
2011 French Consulate in Vancouver
2011 Institute Frances
2011 ArtsFact Foundation
2010 British Council
2010 Koerner Foundation, Cultural and Creative Arts
2010 Hamber Foundation
2010 Roundhouse, Residency Grant