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Kirsten McAllister

Professor

E: kmcallis@sfu.ca
Room: K9660

Kirsten E. McAllister is a Professor in the School of Communication at 51社区黑料. Her research and teaching focus on political violence, racism, migration and diaspora and settler-colonialism. Her approach is interdisciplinary, drawing on Memory Studies, Visual Studies, Ethnography, Critical Race Studies and Indigenous Studies. She draws on methodologies from Art History and Ethnography, as well as creative practices from Literary Studies and Autoethnography. She has conducted community-based research projects in national and transnational contexts. In Canada she has examined WWII Japanese Canadian internment camps, focusing on memorials, photographic records, oral accounts, archival documents and other media of memory produced by members of the community. In a transnational context she has researched community-based art and asylum seekers as well as contemporary Asian Canadian artists who explore different sites of memory regarding war, military occupation, colonialism and environmental disasters. Her current SSHRC research project examines settler stories of climate change in towns in the social and economic margins of the colonial jurisdiction of British Columbia. Her publications include The Geography of Asylum: Art Activism and the City of Glasgow (forthcoming, Palgrave-MacMillan); After Redress: Indigenous and Japanese Canadian Struggles for Justice (2025, UBC Press, co-editor Mona Oikawa with Roy Miki); Migration and the Politics of Methodology: Doing Fieldwork, Decentring Power, and Foregrounding Migrants鈥� Perspectives (2025, Routledge, with co-editors Ayaka Yoshimizu and Daniel Ahadi); Terrain of Memory: a Japanese Canadian Memorial Project (2010, UBC Press); and Photographic Acts: Locating Memory (2006, Berghahn, with co-editor Annette Kuhn).

education

  • S.S.H.R.C. Postdoctoral Fellowship, Lancaster University, England
  • Ph.D. (Sociology) Carleton University, Canada
  • M.A. (Communication) 51社区黑料, Canada
  • B.A. (Geography) 51社区黑料, Canada

recent courses

Courses

  • CMNS 801 Methodology: Questions of Power and the Discipline of Communication Studies
  • CMNS 855 The Media of Memory: Political Violence
  • CMNS 848 Global Justice and Communication
  • CMNS 486 Asian / Canadian Diasporas: the Politics of Identity
  • CMNS 424 Colonialism, Culture and Identity
  • CMNS 423 Globalization and Cultural Issues: from Diaspora to Refugees
  • CMNS 386 Photography and Reality
  • CMNS 202 Introduction to Qualitative Methodology
 
 

PUBLICATIONS

Books

  • McAllister, Kirsten Emiko (forthcoming Palgrave-MacMillan) The Geography of Asylum: Art Activism and the City of Glasgow (300 pages).
  • McAllister, Kirsten Emiko and Mona Oikawa with Roy Miki, eds. 2025. After Redress: Japanese Canadian and Indigenous Struggles for Justice. Vancouver: UBC Press.
  • McAllister, Kirsten Emiko, Daniel Ahadi and Ayaka Yoshimizu, eds. 2025. Migration and the Politics of Methodology: Doing Fieldwork, Decentring Power, and Foregrounding Migrants鈥� Perspectives. London: Routledge.
  • McAllister, Kirsten Emiko. 2010. Terrain of Memory: A Japanese Canadian Memorial Project: Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
  • Kuhn, Annette and Kirsten Emiko McAllister, eds. 2006. Locating Memory: Photographic Acts. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books.

A Selection of Articles, Book Chapters and Creative Essays

  • McAllister, Kirsten Emiko, Ayaka Yoshimizu and Daniel Ahadi. 2025. 鈥淚ntroduction: Migration and the Politics of Methodology: Doing Fieldwork, Decentring Power, and Foregrounding Migrants鈥� Perspectives.鈥� In Migration and the Politics of Methodology: Doing Fieldwork, Decentring Power, and Foregrounding Migrants鈥� Perspectives, edited by Kirsten Emiko McAllister, Ayaka Yoshimizu and Daniel Ahadi, 1-24.  London: Routledge.
  • McAllister, Kirsten Emiko. 2025. 鈥淩esearching Asylum Seekers and Community-based Art as an 鈥楨thnographic Outsider鈥�.鈥� Migration and the Politics of Methodology: Doing Fieldwork, Decentring Power, and Foregrounding Migrants鈥� Perspectives, edited by in Kirsten Emiko McAllister, Ayaka Yoshimizu and Daniel Ahadi, 162-192. London: Routledge.
  • McAllister, Kirsten Emiko and Mona Oikawa. 2025. 鈥淚ntroduction: Japanese Canadian and Indigenous Writings on Justice 鈥楢fter Redress鈥�.鈥� In After Redress: Japanese Canadian  and Indigenous Struggles for Justice, edited by Kirsten Emiko McAllister and Mona Oikawa with Roy Miki, 3-27.  Vancouver: UBC Press.
  • McAllister, Kirsten Emiko. 2025. 鈥淭he Political Act of Defining Ourselves After Redress: Japanese Canadian Activism, Identity, and What Can Be Learned from the Principles of Indigenous Storytelling.鈥� In After Redress: Japanese Canadian  and Indigenous Struggles for Justice, edited by Kirsten Emiko McAllister and Mona Oikawa with Roy Miki, 199-244. Vancouver: UBC Press.
  • Hiri, Faiza, Yasmin Jiwani and Kirsten Emiko McAllister, eds. 2022. 鈥淪pecial Issue:  Out of the Margins? Race, Racism, and Colonialism in Canadian Communication Studies.鈥� Canadian Journal of Communication 43 (3), 99 pages.
  • Hiri, Faiza, Yasmin Jiwani and Kirsten Emiko McAllister. 2022. 鈥淓ditorial: Out of the Margins? Race, Racism, and Colonialism in Canadian Communication Studies.鈥� Canadian Journal of Communication 43 (4): 404-419.
  • Hirji, Faiza, Yasmin Jiwani and Kirsten Emiko McAllister, Chris Russil. 2021. 鈥淐onversation: Putting Race at the Forefront of Communication Studies.鈥�Canadian Journal of Communication 46 (3): 689鈥�710.
  • Hirji, Faiza, Yasmin Jiwani and Kirsten McAllister. 2020. 鈥淥n the Margins of the Margins: #CommunicationSoWhite in Canada.鈥� Communication, Culture and Critique 13 (2): 168-184.
  • McAllister, Kirsten. 2019. 鈥淭ranspacific Worlds: Spirit, Progress, Annihilation鈥� K is for Kayashima, edited by Makiko Hara and Cindy Mochizuki, 15-26. Vancouver: Artspeak Gallery.
  • McAllister, Kirsten. 2018. 鈥淔amily Photography and Persecuted Communities: Methodological Challenges.鈥� Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue Canadienne de Sociologie, 55 (2): 166-185.
  • McAllister, Kirsten. 2017. 鈥淪cience, Race and the Alchemy of Love in Postwar British Columbia鈥�, BC Studies 195: 109-112.
  • McAllister, Kirsten. 2015. 鈥淓xtraterritorial Spaces of Exclusion: Art, Asylum Seekers and Spatial Practices in the City of Glasgow.鈥� Visual Studies 30 (3): 244鈥�263.
  • McAllister, Kirsten. 2013. 鈥淒u t茅moignage oculaire au t茅moignage comme acte: La photographie, les demandeurs d鈥檃sile et l鈥檈xposition 鈥楲ife After Iraq鈥欌��/ 鈥淔rom Eyewitness to Bearing Witness: Photography, Asylum Seekers and 鈥楲ife After Iraq鈥�.鈥� In Errances photographiques: Mobilit茅s et Interm茅dialit茅, edited by Suzanne Paquet, 101-140. Montr茅al: Les Presse de L鈥� Universit茅 de Montr茅al.
  • McAllister, Kirsten Emiko. 2011. 鈥淢emoryscapes of Postwar British Columbia: A Look of Recognition.鈥� In Cultivating Canada: Cultivating Canada Through the Lens of Cultural Diversity, Aboriginal Healing Foundation, Volume III, edited by Ashok Mathur, Jonathan Dewar, and Mike DeGagn茅, 419-444. Ottawa. Aboriginal Healing Foundation.
  • McAllister, Kirsten. 2011. 鈥淎sylum in the Home Territories: Crossing the Zones of Desire.鈥� Space and Culture 14 (2): 165-182.
  • McAllister, Kirsten, ed. 2011. Special Issue: Transnational Publics: Asylum and the Arts In Glasgow, West Coast Line 68.
  • McAllister, Kirsten Emiko. 2010. 鈥淎rchival Memories.鈥� In Remembering Place, edited by James Opp and John Walsh, 214-246. Vancouver: UBC Press
  • McAllister, Kirsten and Roy Miki. 2008. 鈥溾�楢lways Slippage鈥�: an Interview on a Collage/Poem in Process.鈥� Special Issue, 鈥淩oy Miki鈥�,  West Coast Line 57: 149-160.

conferences and public lectures

  • McAllister, Kirsten. Co-organized a roundtable on Migration, the Politics of Fieldwork and Questioning Communication Studies with Daniel Ahadi (SFU) and Ayaka Yoshimizu. The roundtable is part of a book project on migration and communication studies and fieldwork methodologies.
  • McAllister, Kirsten, Canadian Communication Association conference. Co-organized three panels on the theme of #CommunicationSoWhite: Canadian Style with Yasmin Jiwani (Concordia) and Faiza Hirji (McMaster) with BIPOC colleagues across Canada. Conference. The panel papers are the basis for a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Communication. June 2021.
  • McAllister, Kirsten. Presented on a panel for the nation-wide 2-day symposium. Conference. May 2021.
  • McAllister, Kirsten, 鈥淲estern Photojournalism, Refugees: A Critique of Empathy and Hyperrealism鈥�, Invited Paper, 鈥淎 Roundtable on Transcultural Solidarities across Global Divides: Histories, Institutions and Agencies鈥�, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China October 2019.
  • McAllister, Kirsten, 鈥淢emoryscapes and the Politics of Remembering Across Borders of Time and Territory鈥�, Invited Lecture for Brandon Shimoda鈥檚 Artist Residency at the Bruna Archives, Bellingham, USA, August 4, 2019.
  • McAllister, Kirsten, 鈥淲riting Against the Structures of Whiteness in Communication Studies: the Silencing of Racialized Subjectivities in the Disciplinary Space of Academic Texts鈥� #CommunicationsoWhite Preconference (co-organized the panel with Yasmin Jiwani and Faiza Hirji) International Association of Communication, Washington, D.C., USA, May 24, 2019.
  • McAllister, Kirsten, 鈥淭ranspacific Memories of Post-war Yokohama: the Japanese Canadian Experimental Art of Cindy Mochizuki鈥�, Invited Lecture, School of Intercultural Communication, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, April 2016.
  • McAllister, Kirsten, 鈥淔rom National To Transpacific Memoryscape: The Experimental Art of Jin-me Yoon鈥�, Invited Lecture for The Research Unit on Public Culture, University of Melbourne, March 16, 2016.
  • McAllister, Kirsten, 鈥淢oving Beyond the Extraterritorial Spaces of WWII Internment Camps: Searching the Archive for Trans-pacific Voices of Longing and Belonging鈥�, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Surabaya, Indonesia, August 2015.

 

SELECTED grants

  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Grant, Principal Investigator (PI), 鈥淒ecolonizing Settlers' Stories of Climate Change: Changing Our Relations to Indigenous Nations and Territories in a Time of Crisis鈥�, 2024-2029.
  • Japanese Canadian Legacies Society Community Award, Applicant with Cindy Mochizuki and Naomi Sawada. 鈥淛apanese Canadian Legacy Artists and Intergenerational Knowledge Mobilization, Series II鈥�, 2025-2027.
  • City of Vancouver鈥檚 Communities and Artists Shifting Cultures Grant, Applicant with Cindy Mochizuki, Naomi Sawada and Midi Onodera, 鈥淧ilot Project for Japanese Canadian Legacy Artists: Public Talk and Intergenerational Workshops with Louise Noguchi and Midi Onodera鈥� 2024.  On-line Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ar_acHnpmc
  • David Lam Centre, 51社区黑料, Funding for Roundtable Discussion, 鈥淏eyond the Disciplinary Narratives of the Colonial Settler State And Empire with Critical Japanese Canadian / American / Transnational Scholars鈥�, 2023.
  • SSHRC, Race, Gender and Diversity Initiative, Co-applicant, (Principal Investigator Sandra Jeppesen with Yasmin Jiwani), 鈥淚ntersectional Community Communications as Critical EDI Work鈥�, 2022-2025.
  • SSHRC Connections Grant, Co-applicant, (Principal Investigator Davina Bhandar), 鈥淐arceral Cultures Conference鈥�, 2018-2019.
  • SSHRC Connections Grant, Co-applicant, (Principal Investigator Helen Leung), 鈥淭ranspacific Inter-Asia Cultural Studies In Canada Symposium鈥�, 2016-2017.
  • SSHRC Insight Grant, PI, 鈥淭ranspacific Memories: Moving from the Trauma of Canada鈥檚 National Past to the Transnational Present, 2013-2016.
  • National Association of Japanese Canadians, Winnipeg, Funding for 鈥淭racing the Lines: A Symposium on Contemporary Poetics and Cultural Politics to Honour Roy Miki鈥�, 2008.
  • SSHRC Standard Grant, PI, 鈥淧ublic Discourses of Fear and Containment: Refugees in Canada and Scotland鈥�, 2006-2010.
  • SSHRC Post-doctoral Fellowship, Institute for Cultural Research, Lancaster University, United Kingdom, 鈥淩e-presentations of Everyday Life in Internment Camps:  Hostile Environments or Familiar Landscapes?鈥�, 2000-2002.

research

  • Visual Studies 
  • Cultural Memory
  • Political violence and Racism
  • Photography, memorials, community-based art, contemporary art
  • Community-based research, ethnographic fieldwork, visual analysis
  • Asylum Seekers, Refugees, Diaspora and Migration
  • Settler-Indigenous Relations
  • Japanese Canadian and Asian Canadian Cultural Politics
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