Alberta University of the Arts (AUArts) begins the fall 2023 term with the addition of six new full-time faculty positions.
The university warmly welcomes faculty members Alana Bartol, Megan Dyck, Xahra Hafeez, Nick Johnson, Corwyn Lund, and Anahita Mosayebi. This diverse group of academic talent join recently announced faculty member Tak Pham, curator of Illingworth Kerr Gallery.
“As part of AUArt’s strategic commitment to attract the very best academic talent to this university, I am pleased to welcome six amazing academic leaders to AUArts this fall,” said Dr. Daniel Doz, President and CEO. “They each come to us with exciting diverse backgrounds in liberal arts, in art, craft and design research, and these new academics will wonderfully complement our institution’s most accomplished faculty.”
Alana Bartol
Assistant Professor, School of Visual Art
Alana Bartol comes from a long line of water witches. Their site-responsive artworks explore divination, walking, drawing, and dreaming as ways of understanding across places, species, and bodies. Bartol has taught at Alberta University of the Arts since 2015 and holds a BFA from the University of Windsor and an MFA from Wayne State University. In 2019 and 2021, they were long listed for Canada’s Sobey Art Award representing Prairies and North.
Megan Dyck
LTA Faculty, Painting, School of Visual Art
Megan Dyck's multidisciplinary artistic research investigates the ubiquity of photography and aesthetic qualities of glitch that occur in digital and analogue communication as metaphors for psychological isolation, loneliness, and desire. Since 2015, she has taught studio classes at AUArts. Megan believes in the magic of art school and finds joy in mentoring students at all levels of study.
Xahra Hafeez
Assistant Professor, School of Communication Design
Xahra Hafeez holds a BFA from the National College of Arts Pakistan and a Masters in Design from the University of the Creative Arts London. Hafeez has previously held positions as Director Studies and Assistant Professor at leading Universities in Pakistan. She has been teaching at a higher education level for ten years and has been serving as a sessional faculty member at AUArts for the past year.
Nicholas Johnson
Assistant Professor, School of Communication Design
An Illustration graduate from Alberta University of the Arts, Nick Johnson was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta where the craft of storytelling has led him to work in e-learning, children's books, film, animation, and comic books. While living in Edinburgh, Scotland, he spent time exploring castles, graveyards, and natural wonders, and completed a Masters in Comics and Graphic Novels at the University of Dundee.
Corwyn Lund
LTA Faculty, Visiting Artist, Ceramics, School of Craft and Emerging Media
Corwyn Lund holds an MFA in Ceramic Art from Alfred University and studied Sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design with the support of a Canada-US Fulbright Scholarship. After a decade of practice focused on site-specific installation, Lund began working with clay at the European Ceramic Work Centre in 2012. Over subsequent residencies in the Netherlands, Israel, China, Canada, and the United States he developed his sculptural, architectural, and experimental ceramic practice.
Anahita Mosayebi
LTA Faculty, Object Design and Fabrication / School of Craft and Emerging Media
Mosayebi's artistic research currently revolves around the relationship between sensorial bodily experiences and the tangible elements of objects, textures, sounds, and spaces. Having studied architecture at the Art University of Tehran and pursued a Masters in Industrial Design at the Iran University of Science and Technology, she has enriched her extensive industry experience as an architect and product designer through her craft practice by pursuing an MFA at Alberta University of the Arts.
The six new faculty positions start August 21, 2023.
Photos: Nicholas Johnson (Photo credit: Natasha Jensen), Xahra Hafeez, Anahita Mosayebi (Photo credit: Vadim Daniel), Alana Bartol (Photo credit: Karin McGinn), Corwyn Lund (Photo credit: Jolie Ngo), Megan Dyck
