Colloquium - Presenters

Casey Mecija

Casey Mecija is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication & Media Studies at York University. Her current research examines sound as a mode of affective, psychic, and social representation, specifically in relation to diasporic experience. Drawing on sound studies, queer diaspora studies and Filipinx Studies, her research considers how sensorial encounters are enmeshed and disciplined by social and psychic conditions. In this work, she theorizes sounds made in and beyond Filipinx diaspora to make an argument about a “queer sound” that permeates diasporic sensibilities. She is also a musician and filmmaker whose work has received several accolades and has been presented internationally.

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Karen Cyrus

Dr. Karen Cyrus is an interdisciplinary scholar and educator with a background in ethnomusicology and applied linguistics. Her research focuses on narratives and
cultural expressions of Afrodiasporic communities in Ontario as well as pan-African children's repertoires. She has a driving interest in developing content to increase representation for learners of African descent, which led her to “Mapping Ontario’s Black Archives,” a project which was initiated by Dr. Cheryl Thompson at Toronto Metropolitan University. Dr. Cyrus joined the project and the university as a Postdoctoral fellow; her role is to create the inventory of Black collections.

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