Jessica Jacobson-Konefall’s Research on Contemporary Art in Canada

Thu. Oct. 6, 2016

A Q&A with Dr. Jessica Jacobson-Konefall, UW Alumnus and English Department Contract Faculty

Dr. Jessica Jacobson-Konefall has been both a student and faculty member in the English Department. We asked her some questions about her groundbreaking research in Indigenous New Media Arts and Eco Art.

What degrees did you do at UW? Were there any courses or texts that inspired your current interests?

At UW I undertook a BA (Hons) (2009) and MA (2010) in English literary studies and Cultural Studies. I was inspired by the interdisciplinary approaches of Candida Rifkind and Andrew Burke, who taught visual arts and film along with literature, and emphasized critical social theory in their honours seminars.

What did you do after graduating from the MA in Cultural Studies?

After graduating in 2010 I pursued a PhD in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University, as a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholar (2011-15). Since 2010 I have also taught seven unique courses, ranging from first-year to graduate level, in the departments of English, History, Religion and Culture, and the MA program in Cultural Studies at University of Winnipeg.

During this time I published seven journal articles and book chapters with academic publishers including Oxford University Press.

I have also worked as an archivist and assistant to Cree curator and Gallery Director Daina Warren, at Urban Shaman: Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery, as well as for Anishinaabe artist Rebecca Belmore.

Can you give us a brief synopsis of your forthcoming book?

Daina Warren’s and my forthcoming book Indigenous New Media Arts: Translocal Cosmologies(forthcoming with McGill-Queen’s UP) provides an original way to understand Indigenous new media art in Canada, through the lens of intertwining cosmology and place-based citizenship theories. Our approach theorizes that Indigenous new media art is significant and central in both contemporary arts and Indigenous resurgence in Canada because it plays a key role in reframing civic spaces and belonging through Indigenous standpoints.

What is your current research program?

Currently, I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Globalization and Cultural Studies, University of Manitoba. I am undertaking a literature review for a second monograph, to begin writing in 2017. This topic will be reflected in my forthcoming UW course, ENGL-3709, Topics in Canadian Literature and Culture: Ecology and Landscape in Contemporary Literature and Arts in Canada.

My forthcoming research focuses on ecological art in light of neoliberal shifts in Canada, that is, creative cities discourses (Florida); culture as expedient (Yúdice); DIY cultures; and offloaded responsibility for environmental protections onto citizens (Wiebe). I am interested in how eco art in Canada memorializes, inspires, and embodies ecological citizenship. Eco art designates artworks concerned with themes of climate change and other environmental issues; ecological citizenship describes activities supporting sustainability and environmental justice. Eco art in Canada conveys significant histories and visions of a just future, making long-term contributions to Canadian artistic and citizen communities. My research will ask how ecology, culture, and politics are integrated in neoliberalism, and how this imbrication both challenges and supports artistic and community framings of eco art and citizenship in Canada.

My two children, who I co-parent with my husband, Jason, inspire me to pursue environmental citizenship, justice, and wellbeing.

 

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