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Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Karen Cyrus
Dr. Karen Cyrus

Please help Dr. Cheryl Thompson welcome Dr. Karen Cyrus to the School of Creative Industries as a two-year Postdoctoral fellow. Working under Dr. Thompson’s supervision, Dr. Cyrus will lead a five-year project, titled “Mapping Ontario’s Black Archive: Building an Inventory Through Storytelling.” This study, which aims to create an inventory of Ontario’s Black archives, has three objectives: 

  1. To create a comprehensive inventory of Black Ontarian photographs and documents in publicly held archival collections. 
  2. To examine, using oral histories, the current state and curatorial use of existing archival collections.
  3. To bridge the knowledge gap between Black Ontarian archival collections and Black Ontarian history through the development of a comprehensive inventory, and the curation of an exhibition. 

Dr. Cyrus’ work over the next two years will lay the foundation for the project’s second phase (years 3-4), which will involve interviewing archivists, public historians, heritage and museum librarians, Black Ontarian community-members, and artists (visual and performance) who have worked with Black Ontarian collections. The capstone outcome of this five-year project will be an inventory document, and a public exhibition curated by Dr. Thompson and the project’s research team.