The Milieux Institute is thrilled to announce our undergraduate fellowship recipients for 2020-21. This year’s cohort hails from more than five academic departments and is representative of the creative diversity and critical social engagement that bring the Institute to life. With students engaging in topics ranging from accessible medical design to textile exploration of astrophysical concepts, each fellow is enriching the work of both their cluster, and Milieux at large. We are proud to welcome them as the next generation of critical and creative researchers.
The fellowship recognizes undergraduate students who are advancing discussion and practice in their respective research clusters. Each student, nominated by Milieux’s faculty affiliates, will receive a $500 stipend, and access to Milieux resources to develop their projects over the academic year. In February, the fellows will take part in an online Pecha-Kucha presentation open to all Milieux members and staff. This is a great opportunity to reconnect with Milieux, and share some (digital) warmth and energy as we go forward into 2021 together.
T&M is proud to have three undergraduate fellows represented: Jacqueline Beaumont, Shaya Ishaq, and Leah Watts. Read more about them below.
Jacqueline Beaumont
Jacqueline describes herself as an interdisciplinary bioartist, witch, and transhumanist. Her work investigates queer ecology, transgender fertility, and genetics. She scrolls her body across a bed of broken glass, searching for the final gasp, under the weight of a dying world. With a background in synthetic biology and material practices, she utilizes the wonder, resilience and hopelessness of the biological world, to illustrate a speculative view of life within the Anthropocene and possible futurities beyond its grasp.
Shaya Ishaq
Shaya is a first generation Kenyan-Ugandan and (afro)futurist who often thinks about her place in the diaspora and existence here on Turtle Island. Through design, form, and storytelling she creates work that animates spaces to foster potential dialogue around the nuance of her positionality. She is interested in the liminality of rites of passages and translates the feelings associated with it by way of abstract materiality and meditative processes such as weaving, felting, and hand built ceramics.
Leah Watts
Leah is a visual artist whose work is informed by her mixed James Bay Cree and White settler identity. She explores memory, the transmission of knowledge, and Cree oral tradition through drawing, paper making, performance, and beadwork.
Full list of recipients here: https://milieux.concordia.ca/welcome-undergraduate-fellows-2020-21/
textiles + materiality research cluster 