Academics
I work at the intersection of media, performing arts and archival practice in the Northwest Atlantic and Circumpolar North. In practical terms, I think, write, teach and communicate on things like arctic (especially Inuit) film, Newfoundland and Labrador film, Northern documentary heritage, Newfoundland and Labrador music (especially Labrador Inuit brass playing). I have academic affiliations at institutions in Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario. At Memorial University, I am an Adjunct Professor at the School of Music and a Research Associate at the Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media, and Place. At Toronto Metropolitan University, I am an Associate Member of the Yeates School of Graduate Studies.
My research work is practical. Between 2016 and 2024 I worked for the Nunatsiavut Government and OKâlaKatiget Society as Manager of Audio-Visual Archives and Media Literacy and would use my academic affiliations in the service of digital return of relevant archival records, developing regional documentary heritage capacity and supporting community music. My various research projects are listed on my ORCiD profile, but the key projects include:
Gatherings: Archival and Oral Histories is a a SSHRC-funded research partnership which began in 2024. Its purpose is to preserve and study of performance histories in the lands and territories referred to as Canada. I am a co-investigator.
Uncommon Bonds: Labrador Inuit and Moravian Missionaries is a partnership between the Nunatsiavut Government, Moravian Archives (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania), Moravian Church in Newfoundland and Labrador, Memorial University Libraries and the National Heritage Digitization Strategy that ran from 2020-2024 and is currently on hiatus. Its focus is on the digitization and digital return of nearly 60,000 pages of archival resources concerning Labrador Inuit. I am co-principal investigator.
Brass Band Workshop | Tittulausijattet Ilinniatitsi Katigenningit is a workshop that involves brass bands in the communities of Nain, Hopedale, and Makkovik, Nunatsiavut. Beginning in 2013 as Tittulautet Nunatsiavuttini | Nunatsiavut Brass Bands, I provide instruction, write grants, travel with them for international performances, and help produce their albums.
Tradition and Transition Among the Labrador Inuit was a SSHRC-funded research partnership between the Nunatsiavut Government and Memorial University that ran from 2015-2020. Its objective was to strengthen both traditional Inuit knowledge and the research being conducted in Nunatsiavut to ensure the continuing vitality of Labrador Inuit culture. I was a co-investigator.