culture/nature/structure

Meghan Moe Beitiks

Research.

Now available via paperback from Routledge!

MY WORK.

My artistic research explores perceptions of ecologies, and what it means to perform with the non-human. I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Theater & Performance department at Concordia University, with a focus on Ecology & Performance Design. Please see my Artist Statement for an overview. 

My work has been published in the Journal for Artistic Research, Performance Philosophy, World Futures, and the Unlikely Journal for the Creative Arts. I created books on past artistic projects for Candor Arts and Routledge. I have previously been a writer for inhabitat.com and culturebot.org, and was formerly a convener for Performance Philosophy, where I acted as an occasional peer reviewer. I was the lead editor of the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts Quarterly for almost 10 years, and am currently a member of the CSPA Board.

I am currently the Creative Works editor for interconnections journal of posthumanism, and am leading a Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada – funded project entitled Angles of Consequence.

Below are a smattering of posts related to my research and teaching: for an updated list of publications, a bibliography of reviewed works, or a current Statement of Teaching Philosophy, please contact me .

Here’s what I’m reading lately.

STUDENT WORK.

Universities are part of the legacy of colonialism. This legacy includes violent patriarchal, speciesist, misogynist and homophobic research traditions and cultures. I strive for rigor in both my teaching and research while pushing disciplinary boundaries and norms, in part to disrupt these legacies.

In all aspects of my work, I personally strive to unlearn white supremacy and internalized hegemonies. That is: I try not to be an asshole to others and myself. I hold my colleagues and students humanely accountable, and expect to be held accountable in turn. I say this explicitly because academia enables a cruel hypocrisy that believes itself to be rigor:  an ability to isolate our values to that which is codified by the institution. My research parameters require I continually examine my own behavior in their context, and facilitate difficult conversations amongst my students when our collective prejudices emerge.

Pedagogically, I specialize in contemporary foundations and time-based media (including performance, video, sound etc) as well as explorations of technology, site, sustainability, bodies, identities, ecologies and the non-human. I thrive on supporting students in pushing their work conceptually, regardless of medium, process or context. I have taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Grand Valley State University, the University of Florida, and Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.