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Celia Vara

Celia Vara
Contact Information
Email address: 
celia.vara [at] mcgill.ca
Address: 

McCall MacBain Arts Building
853 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, QC H3A 0G5
Canada

Group: 
Postdoctoral Fellows
Position: 
FQRSC Postdoctoral Fellow
Stream: 
Cultural Studies
Specialization by geographical area: 
Canada
Europe
Caribbean & Latin America
Specialization by time period: 
20th-Century
Contemporary
Area(s): 
Creative Practice & Performance Studies
Embodied Practice & Ethnographic Approaches
Film & Television
Areas of interest: 

Performance art; corporeal agency; kinesthesia; research-creation; feminism

Biography: 

Celia Vara is a postdoctoral fellow at the Moving Image Research Lab at Â鶹AV. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication (2019) at Concordia University (QC, Canada) and an MA in Gender Studies (2009). Her master thesis (“Feminist Video Art in the 70’s in Spainâ€) won in 2013 the 1st Prize-Award in Gender and Research (Universitat Jaume I, Spain). She is a psychologist (Bachelor in Psychology, Universidad de Murcia, Spain, 1997), and a visual artist and curator. Her writings and media work have appeared in Journal feral feminisms, Institute for Research on Women (Rutgers University), McGraw Hill Editorial, Art and Identity Policies, Performance Research (Routledge Journal, Taylor and Francis) and Journal of Embodied Research (University of Huddersfield, UK). Her PhD Thesis “Kinesthetic Knowledge and Corporal Agency†was ranked excellent in her oral defense (2018). She explores kinesthesia, movement, kinesthetic empathy and the use of sensorial body in 1970s feminist performance art and its relations with corporeal agency and feminist resistance in the current cultural and political context. Her research interests include corporeal processes of consciousness, perception and agency, and embodied research-creation methodologies.

Degree(s): 

Ph.D. Communication, Concordia University (2019)
M.A. Gender and Equality, Jaume I University, Spain (2009)
B.A. Psychology, University of Murcia, Spain (1997)

Link(s): 
Selected publications: 

Publications

Verificar la Existencia del Cuerpo: Conocimiento Kinestésico in Dickynson (ed.) Q1 Fine Arts. 2024.

“Embodied and Sensorial Methodologies Researching Performance: Kinesthetic Empathy†in vol.7.2 (forthcoming) Special Issue on “Ecologies of Embodimentâ€. Journal of Embodied Research. Freely online via Open Library of Humanities. 2024.

. hexagram. reseau de recherche-création en arts, cultures et technologies. 2023.

"" (Humanities MDPI Special Issue 12(6) “With-In Bodies: Research Assemblages of the Sensory and the Embodiedâ€) Freely online (open Access). 2023.

“â€. Martín, M.Ã.; Vara, C.; García-Gutiérrez, C. Entropy 2023, 25, 711.

“†in Arte y educación en contextos multidisciplinares (p. 854-869) Freely online (open Access). 2023.

"" [Heart Guts]. REJOINDER. Issue 7, Spring 2022.

"". Performance Research. Volume 26, Issue 1 – On perception, 2021.

"". Performance Research. Volume 26, Issue 2 – On (Un)Knowns, 2021.

". Germinal. Sobre l’obra de Fina Miralles. Documenta Universitaria (Girona). 2020.

Co-author (Gámez Fuentes, M.J. and Vara, C.) “Lenguajes y sexismo (SRM007)†in Senent-Vidal, M.J & Téllez Infantes, A. (eds.) Manual de Igualdad Efectiva de Mujeres y Hombres en el Ãmbito Público y Privado. Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I. 2021.

"". Art and Identity Policies, 21, 96–119, 2019.

Video and Performance

. Reencontres Interdisciplinaires. Agora du Coeur des Sciences. Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and hexagram. réseau de recherche-création en arts, cultures et technologies. 2024.

“â€. Pilot video for a (coming soon) documentary with filmmaker Ivó Vinuesa. 2023.

Ҡat Poetics+Politics 4 University of California, Santa Cruz. 2019.

"" (Collaboration in Performance with Alexandra Rodes) at Museo Universitario de Alicante (MUA) (pages 36-39). 2019.

Ҡat RUTGERS РInstitute for Research on Women. 2016.

“â€. 2016.

"(Collaboration in Performance with Alexandra Rodes). 2013.

"" at feral feminisms and RUTGERS-Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities. 2013.

Curatorial Projects

". Groupe Intervention Video (GIV) (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). 2024.

"," MO(U)VEMENT(S) – HTMlles 2024 feminist festival of media arts and digital culture organized by Ada X - feminist artist-run centre (Montreal, Quebec, Canada).

“†Centre d’arts Santa Mònica – Barcelona (Catalonia). 2024.

“†Centre d’arts Santa Mònica – Barcelona (Catalonia). 2024.

– Centro Cultural de España en Santo Domingo CCESD (Dominican Republic). 2018. []

"â€. Feminist Media Studio – Communication Studies – Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). 2017.

Workshops and Embodied Methodologies

“†Centre d’arts Santa Mònica – Barcelona (Catalonia). 2024.

“Re-orienting gestures, sensing relationally: a workshop to cultivate kinesthetic empathyâ€. Uncommon Senses IV: Sensory Ecologies, Economies, and Aesthetics. Centre for Sensory Studies. Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). 2023.

“â€. ISEA2022 – International Synmposium on Electronic Art. Barcelona (Catalonia). 2022.

“â€. Uncommon Senses III Conference: Back to the future of the senses. Centre for Sensory Studies. Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). 2021.

“â€. Centro Cultural de España en Santo Domingo. Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional al Desarrollo. 2018.

Awards, honours, and fellowships: 
  • FRQSC Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2022-2024
  • IVLA Deborah Curtis Artist Fellowship, 2024
  • RéQEF Appui Projets Scientifics, 2023-2024
  • ThinkSwiss Research Scholarship, Fonds National Suisse (FNS), Université de Lausanne (UNIL), 2017
  • Hexagram Research Creation Fellowship, 2016
  • Rona and Robert Davis Fellowship, 2016
  • Concordia University Merit Scholarship, 2014
  • UJI Prize Award Gender and Research - Universitat Jaume I, 2014
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