Dr. Selena Couture
EDUCATION
2011-2015 PhD, Theatre, University of British Columbia. Vancouver, BC — Dissertation: “χway̓χwəy̓ and Stanley Park: Performing History and Land.”
2009-2011 MA, Theatre, University of British Columbia. Vancouver BC — Thesis: “Margo Kane’s Creative and Community Work: Moving Towards Social Change.”
1986-1991 BA Honours (English and Drama Medial) & Bachelor of Education
(Intermediate-Secondary) Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2021-present: Associate Professor, Dept. of Drama, University of Alberta
2016-2021: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Drama, University of Alberta
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Books
2020 Against the Current and Into the Light: Performing History and Land in Coast Salish Territories and Vancouver’s Stanley Park. McGill-Queen’s Press: Native and Northern Series, 2020. Monograph.
2019 On this Patch of Grass: City Parks and Occupied Land. Fernwood Publishing. Co-authors Matt Hern, Daisy Couture, Sadie Couture with contributions from Denise Ferreira da Silva, Glen Coulthard and Erick Villagomez. Co-authored Refereed Book.
2017 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. Pizarro. Broadview Press. Co-editor Alexander Dick. Refereed Book.
Articles
2022 “Peaceful Weapons: The ‘Voices for the Wilderness’ Festivals and the Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park ” PUBLIC: Art, Culture, Ideas 64, Special Issue: Unsettling Settler Canadian Nation Building. pp. 62-73, eds. Leah Decter and Carla Taunton. Peer Reviewed.
2021 “Moving Together to Reclaim and Resist.” Performance Matters. Vol 7, no.1-2, 2021 (Fall 2021). Collaboratively authored audio and text, pp. 16-28. Peer Reviewed.
2021 “Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and Inheritors: Whiteness, Settler Hunger, Debt and the Blackhawk Purchase Lands.” Palgrave Handbook of Theatre and Race, edited by Tiziana Morosetti and Osita Okagbue. Palgrave MacMillan, 2021, pp. 391-405. Chapter in a Refereed Book.
2020 “A Plenary of Acknowledgments.” Canadian Theatre Review 182, spec. iss. “On Extraction,” edited by Heather Davis-Fisch and Kimberly Richards, Spring 2020. Co-authors Merle Davis, Zoë Heyn-Jones and members of the Encuentro 2019 “From Relajo to Refusal: Resisting Extractivism, Performing Opposition” working group, pp. 39-44.
2019 “Transformational Kinstellatory Relations and the Talking Stick Festival.” Theatre Research in Canada, vol. 40, no.1/2, 2019, pp. 10-26. Co-author Lindsay Lachance. Refereed Journal.
2019 “Rethinking the Practice and Performance of Indigenous Land Acknowledgement.” Canadian Theatre Review 177, 2019, pp. 20-30. Co-authors: Dylan Robinson, Kanonhsyonne Janice C. Hill, Armand Garnet Ruffo, Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen.
2018 “The Relentless Struggle for Commemoration.” Canadian Theatre Review 174, 2018, pp. 5-8. Co-author Heather Davis-Fisch
Edited
2018 Canadian Theatre Review 174. Special Issue “Commemoration.” Co-editor Heather Davis-Fisch.
2017-2021 Book Review Editor. Theatre Research in Canada, vol. 38, iss. 2 to vol. 42, iss. 2.
2013 Stay Solid! A Radical Handbook for Youth. Ed. Matt Hern and the Purple Thistle Collective. Oakland, CA: AK Press. Editorial collective member.
OTHER RESEARCH DISSEMINATION FORMATS
Forthcoming “Disorienting: An Audio Walking Tour of spapəy̓əq and χway̓χwəy̓/ Brockton Point and Lumberman’s Arch, Stanley Park, Vancouver.” A 10 part podcast series.
2021 “Performing History & Land in Vancouver’s Stanley Park – with Selena Couture.” Below the Radar #149. Podcast host Am Johal. Simon Fraser University’s Office of Community Engagement, Vancouver BC, 7 Dec. 2021
2019 “Settler Accountability / Settler Responsibility" with Dorit Naaman. The Fireplace Series: An Interdisciplinary Conversation CFRC: Queen’s University, Kingston ON. Recorded 1 November 2019. Podcast release Nov. 30 2019.
2019 “Politicizing the Urban Park – with Matt Hern and Selena Couture.” Below the Radar Podcast, Hosted by Am Johal. Simon Fraser University’s Office of Community Engagement, Vancouver BC, July 9, 2019.
2019 “Land Acknowledgements: A Decolonizing Practice.” Indigenous United Podcast, season 3, episode 3. Hosted by Cheyenne Tex. Native American Student Development Office, U of California, Berkeley. 5 April 2019.
2018 “Rediscovering Sheridan’s Smash Hit Pizarro with Dr. Selena Couture & Dr. Alex Dick.” Howl Round Theatre History Podcast, episode 53. Hosted by Michael Luegar. 10 January 2018. 2017 Papaschase Cree Treaty 6 Reenactment Event organizing, Edmonton, Summer-Fall 2017
SELECTED AWARDS
2020-2023 Kule Scholar, University of Alberta. “Climate Resilience in the 21st Century.”
2020-2027 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council: Partnership Grant "Hemispheric Encounters: Developing Transborder Research-Creation Practices," P.I. Laura Levin, York University. This is a seven year transnational project partnering with multiple Canadian universities, arts and community organizations; the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics in the Americas at NYU as well as numerous Latin American universities, scholars and artists. Co-investigator and Co-director of Ecologies Research Cluster.
2019-2023 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council: Insight Development Grant "Decolonizing Performative Reenactments of History." Principal Investigator. Collaboration with Dr. Lindsay Lachance (extended timeline due to COVID)
2019 University of Alberta President’s Fund for the Creative and Performing Arts (for professional indexing of monograph).
2019 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Award to Scholarly Publication Program (for monograph).
2019 University of Alberta, Faculty of Arts, Undergraduate Teaching Award (Early Achievement)
2016-2018 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship “Performance, History and Coexistence in Kahnawà:ke/Montreal.” Completed in June 2016 upon taking up tenure-track position at U of A.
ADDITIONAL TEACHING EXPERIENCE
1996-2011 Teacher. Windsor House Alternate Program. North Vancouver School District.
Over the fifteen years of employment with this democratic experiential education program my teaching responsibilities included: Drama, English and Planning (Gr. 8-12); Social Studies (Gr. 7-9); Language Arts (Gr. 5-8) and Elementary Core French. In addition to these teaching responsibilities I was responsible for the production, design and co-direction of numerous school plays and devised works. I organized extended experiential learning field trips with multi-age groups and created an evaluation model for self-determined student learning. I was also the staff advisor for the Peer Judicial Council, Library Council and the school magazine.
1992-96 Teacher and Principal. Eastside Wondertree Independent School, Vancouver BC.
A Class 1 Independent School, funded by the BC Ministry of Education for students aged 5-12. Responsibilities included: management of independent project-based learning; supervision of weekly outdoor experiential field trips; school finance and administration.
ACADEMIC SERVICE OUTSIDE OF UNIVERSITY
2021-present Theatre Research in Canada, University of Toronto Press Journals, Associate Editor (Outreach)
2021-present Canadian Association for Theatre Research, Committee on Conduct member
2019-2022 Canadian Association for Theatre Research, Membership Coordinator
2018-2019 Robert G. Lawrence Prize for outstanding paper at the Canadian Association for Theatre Research annual conference. Adjudication committee member.
2017-2021 Theatre Research in Canada, Book Review editor
2017-2019 Canadian Association for Theatre Research, Annual Conference Programming Committee member
COMMUNITY SERVICE
2022-present PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Vancouver BC. Board of Directors.
Produced each January, the Festival expands the horizons of Vancouver artists and audiences with work that is visionary, genre-bending, multi-disciplined, startling and original. Since 2021 the festival board and leadership has been undergoing an organizational review and restructuring process to create a collaborative leadership team.
2015-present Solid State Community Society. Board of Directors.
Solid State Industries is building a creative production enterprise and youth community space with refugee and recently-immigrated youth in Surrey, BC. With the support of mentors, advisers and community partners we are building a hub for social innovation and creative production: a worker-owned co-operative business. Through the development, launch and establishing of this project, vulnerable refugee and recently-immigrated youth will gain multi-layered training and educational opportunities towards long-term economic self-reliance, as well as social, cultural and creative opportunities and exposure.
2007-2022 Arts in Action Non-Profit Society and Charity. Board of Directors, Chair.
Addresses issues of public interest through the use of the arts as an educational tool. Current projects include: Kwi Awt Stelmexw, a Squamish language and culture rebuild and grow the artistic, cultural, and linguistic dreams of the Squamish people; Joyful Threads Multimedia Projects and Solidarity Housing. Past projects: Purple Thistle Youth Arts and Activist Centre based in east Vancouver and the “In the House” festival. Events and projects are designed to allow easier access for the general public to a large variety of expressions and cultures.
2000-2010 East Vancouver/Fort Good Hope Youth Exchange. Co-organizer.
This was a project with youth from East Vancouver and the Sahtu Dene sub-arctic community of Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories. The intention was to move past simple tolerance and towards comprehension of each other’s lives and communities, ultimately building ongoing relationships.
LANGUAGES
English – native speaker
French – conversational
hən̓ q̓ əmin̓ əm̓ - basic