Faculty Research

Most full-time faculty at Emily Carr, and many sessional faculty members, are pursuing their own creative practices in art and design and in research projects, in addition to careers as educators and leaders. Some of the research programs currently underway are highlighted below.

Rita Wong
Downstream: A Poetics of Water

Collaborators: Dorothy Christian, Peter Cole, Pat O’Riley, Larissa Lai, Karolle Wall, Kelly Phillips, and Walter K. Lew

Downstream is a research project that acknowledges the living, relational, and transformative qualities of water. Starting with respectful listening to indigenous and intercultural perspectives on water, the project explores how creative and critical practices can help foster a participatory water ethic and a deeper relationship with our watersheds in a time of environmental urgency.

Julie Andreyev
Animal Lover

Animal Lover is a research area that examines animals and their methods of communication as creative beings uniquely distinct from humans. According to Julie Andreyev, “Animal Lover looks at questions and critiques addressing modern relationships with animals; how animals are regarded by humans”.  In television and film, animals are usually depicted anthropomorphically by attributing human characteristics to them. These types of representations do not contribute to knowledge about the animal as a distinct being, but are inevitably human-centred metaphors. The way animals are portrayed in image and text has a crucial influence on how animals in human cultures are treated. More importantly, ways of representing animals influence what form future trajectories of treatment will take.