PhD Student

Mehvish is pursuing research in the field of documentary filmmaking. Being a documentary filmmaker herself, with her films being showcased in different film festivals across the globe, she continues to question the methodology and ethics in her field. Her particular interest concerns with the representation of subjects in documentaries based in protracted political conflict zones, trying to envision them beyond the scope of victimhood. She questions the patterns of absences within such documentaries, such as that of humour and transcendentality. Her research is a combination of critique of existing documentary work in and about Kashmir as well as an exploration of alternative and experimental modes for responsible representation of documentary subjects. The cornerstone of this research is understanding, learning, and finding ways to represent documentary subjects of this long-term conflict zone without victimizing them. Currently her work is focusing on the impact of digital surveillance on communication channels at interpersonal and community levels – and the viability of old media technology in circumventing the issues.

Edem is a PhD student in the Film and Media Department. She holds a first-class undergraduate degree in Communications and recently completed her Master’s degree researching feminist documentary filmmaking in Ghana. She is a journalist turned documentary filmmaker/photographer, feminist and queer activist from Ghana and has almost a decade of working experience. Edem mostly volunteers/ works in activist spaces providing intersectional multimedia and communications support to activist courses and groups. She comes to film as an activist and is interested in ways in which marginalized populations can use documentary filmmaking to self-represent, and trigger social change. She is a cofounder of, and the Director of the African Grad Students’ at Queen’s Club.

Steve Bates is an artist and musician. Through his work he listens to thresholds, boundaries and borders, points of contact and conflict. The history of ideas, experiences, and materials are an influence on his work and often lead to a research-heavy path resulting in a suite of works around a theme. Recent topics have included the history of barbed wire as colonizing device, the night as a space of freedom and libidinal desire, feedback as it occurs in sound and video art, politics, economics, and biology, historical and contemporary instances of pathological and non-pathological auditory hallucination and most recently, a speculative project around the sound of Hell. His work has been exhibited and performed in Canada, the United States of America, Europe, Chile and Senegal. He works in the field, on the air, in museological/gallery and performance contexts. These shifting territories reflect the content of his practice. 

Darshana Chakrabarty is a doctoral candidate in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies under Prof. Ali Na. She completed her second Masters in English, specializing in Film and Media Studies, from Arizona State University in Spring 2021. Her research investigates the formation and evolution of virtual social identities, politics, and cultures, of Indian queer individuals and communities within the domains of Indian digital media and contemporary Indian Indie cinema.

Adam Cook is a film critic, curator, and scholar. Outside of the academy, his experience as a writer and film programmer spans over a decade. Within the academy, Cook’s research seeks to find connective tissue between reductive strands of theory and a revitalized aesthetics centred on formalism.

Drayden DeCosta is a filmmaker and scholar currently pursuing a PhD in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies at Queen's University. Prior to attending Queen's, he earned his BFA (2018) and MFA (2020) in Film, Fine and Media Arts at NSCAD University.

Eman is a documentary filmmaker and film scholar. She studied at the University of Sussex in the UK, where she was awarded the prestigious Cate Haste scholarship, and where she gained her MA in Documentary Filmmaking (with Distinction). Currently, she is studying for a PhD in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies at Queen’s University. Her research focuses on Egyptian first-person documentary films. She has also an ongoing interest in interactive documentary, digital media, film curation and feminist cinema.

Peggy is an animator, illustrator, and teaching artist.  After studying digital design at Pratt Institute, she gained professional experience in post-production, creating animation and special effects for film and television. An interest in film and video festivals led to a position in the education department at The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. She has training in a variety of museum pedagogies and has created accessible experiences with art & media for all ages and abilities.

Vince Ha is a PhD candidate in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies at Queen’s University. His research centers on two core themes: diasporic identities and queer archival methods. Currently, he is investigating transnational media and its impact on queer diasporic sociality, with special attention to homoerotic representation in Asian cinema.

Brandon Hocura is a sound artist, filmmaker, writer, and archivist. He is the founder and creative director of the record label and publisher Séance Centre. His research intersects with experimental poetics and ethnography, exploring the complex relationships between music, language, technology, geography, and culture. His recent research areas include iterative sound, autonomous distribution networks, visual & sound poetry, material histories, rogue archives, archipelagic theory, and diasporic traditions. 

Ahmed is an award-winning filmmaker, film scholar, and film programmer. His career spans over 19 years where he has made numerous shorts and features that played myriad international film festivals and picked several prestigious awards. Nour’s area of expertise comprises screenwriting, producing, video-editing, and directing. His work varies between experimental, documentary, and fiction films. However, his particular interest is in hybrid nonfiction filmmaking.

Hilary Jay is a PhD student in the Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies program. Prior to this, she completed her B.A. in Philosophy and Art History at McGill and her M.A. in SCCS at Queen’s in 2022. Her research is engaged with the contemporary relevance of archives, time-based media, and curation. Hilary is also currently a Research Assistant in the Vulnerable Media Lab.