MJW_ArtistStatement2018

Conferences and Invited Talks 

August 2023. “From the Sky as a Moko Jumbie to Across the Pond: Queer Migrations on Pointe in “The Dying Swan” from Trinidad and Tobago.” Paper presentation at the 28th annual Performance Studies International Conference, Uhambo Luyazilawula: Embodied Wandering Practices at the Wits School of Arts in Johannesburg, South Africa from 2 – 5 August 2023.

October 2022. “Ballet in the Caribbean Context: Turning the Tutu On Its Head.” Paper presentation at the Dance Studies Association Conference: Dancing Resilience: Dance Studies and Activism in a Global Age. October 13-16, 2022. Simon Fraser University: School for the Contemporary Arts, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and virtual.

September 30, 2022. “European Science Café: Resilience in a Chaotic World.” Invited speaker in conversation with Dr. Beate Schirrmacher and Connor McGookin. Available: https://forskarfredag.se/program/european-science-cafe/

October 2021. “Mobilizing the Magic: (Re)capturing the spirit of dance in Lavway: Our Story for Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival 2021.” Paper presentation at the Dance Studies Association Conference: Galvanizing Dance Studies: Building Anti-Racist Praxis, Transformative Connections, and Movement(s) of Radical Care, October 14-17 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick NY (USA) and virtually.

March 2020. “Dancing to a New Beat: Shifting the Dialogue in Mentoring.” Paper presentation at the Academic Advising and Mentoring in Higher Education: The Caribbean Context. Universiy of West Indies: School of Education, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.

​Summer 2018. “Sensing a Constellation: Dancing Forward A Desirable Future.” Paper presentation at EASST2018 – Meetings – Making Science, Technology and Society Together. 25-28th July 2018, Lancaster University, UK.

Spring 2018. “Empowering the Female Machine: Addressing Accountability and Accessibility in Dance and Technology, Allied Media, and Virtual Reality.” Part of the Art of Relevance: Participatory Performance, Design Fictions and Virtual Worlds for Meaningful Public Dialog” Invited artist and participant from Norah Zuniga-Shaw for HUMANE TECHNOLOGIES: WELL-BEING: Pop-Up Event. March 4-9, Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. ​http://www.humanetechosu.org/

Fall 2017. “From Weaving Rope to Dancing Objects: Yvonne Rainer’s Carriage Discreteness from 9 Evenings,” Paper presentation at the Congress on Research in Dance and Society of Dance History Scholars annual conference entitled Transmissions and Traces: Rendering Dance. Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

Spring 2017. “Remixing Knowledge in Dialogue: Navigating Interdisciplinarity Panel.” Organizer and Participant of Research-Creation Panel, a round table discussion between Sofian Audry, Mélanie Binette, Joanna Donehower, Taien Ng-Chan, Annie Katsura Rollins, and Margaret Jean Westby (research-creation scholars) that addresses performative methodologies outside the boundaries of disciplinary and academic frameworks within a research-creation framework.

Fall 2016. “Making a Mess of Dance through Feminist STS.” Paper presentation at the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S/EASST) Conference: Science and Technology by other means: Exploring collectives, spaces, and futures. Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona (CCIB), Barcelona, Spain.

Fall 2015. “Performativity Frameworks: Dancing agents in STS scholarship.” Paper presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Conference. Sheraton Downtown in Denver, Colorado.

Fall 2015. “The Now(here) Project.” Co-author to Ardath Whynacht’s Making and Doing project, interactive website presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Conference. Sheraton Downtown in Denver, Colorado.

Spring 2015. “Dancing Agents.” Lightening Talk presentation at AdaCamp: Conferences for Woman in Open Technology and Culture in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Summer 2014. “Choreographing Computational Materiality: Interventions in Technologically Augmented Dance Performance.” Paper presentation with Nikolaos Chandolias at ATINER: the 5th International Conference of Visual and Performing Arts Conference in Athens, Greece.

Fall 2013. “Making a Method: Mess, Mutualism, Performance, Feminism.” Paper presentation with Ardath Whynacht at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Conference. Town and Country Resort and Convention Center, San Diego, California.

Fall 2013. “Forum 2: Digital Feminism: Choreographing Digital Computing: A Case Study of Black Magic/White Magic.” Paper Presentation at the Corporeal Computing: A Performative Archaeology of Digital Gesture. University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom.

Spring 2013. “Making a mess: performance, agency and mutualism in feminist collaborative artistic process.” Paper presentation in collaboration with Ardath Whynacht at the Pressing [Against] Methods- An Interdisciplinary Conference. Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, CAN.

Spring 2013. “Dance of Entanglements: Human and Non-Human Phenomena in Computational Performance.” Paper presentation at the Congress of Dance: Special Topics Conference, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

Fall 2012. “Body as an Interface” Invited Guest for Class Lecture of instructor Mouna Andraos (Concordia University, Computation Arts Department: Tangible Media and Physical Computing).

Fall 2010. “Feminist Approaches to Text in Live Performance and Installations including Palabras Aladas, Ricochet, and Thirty-One-Point-Ten.” Paper presentation at Futures of Feminism Conference, Brunel University, West London, UK.

Fall 2010. Ricochet. Performance presentation in collaboration with Anne-Laure Misme and Jennifer McColl. At the Digital Resources for the Humanities and Arts, Brunel University, West London, UK.