Department Researcher honoured by the Royal Society of Canada

Every year, the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) elects new cohorts for outstanding artistic, scientific and scholarly achievements. Waterloo is hosting this year's RSC 2023 Celebration of Excellence and Engagement conference in November.

Several Waterloo researchers have been nominated this year and will be joining the incoming cohorts of the RSC fellows and the new members of the RSC College. One of which is from the Communication Arts department! Professor Naila Keleta-Mae.

Naila Keleta-Mae is a Dorothy Killam fellow and a Tier 2 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada Research Chair in Race, Gender and Performance. Keleta-Mae is also a visionary researcher and principal investigator of the Black and Free research-creation project, which explores Black expressive culture through various mediums and engages with the public through a series of events, classes and exhibits that showcase Ontario-based Black artists. 

As the principal investigator of the Black and Free, Keleta-Mae currently leads multi-year research partnerships with Citizen Brand, Ken Seiling Waterloo Region Museum, NOR: The design commons for Canada, Studio Otherness, TheEDGE, THEMUSEUM, Wilfred Laurier University Press and the Young People’s Theatre.  

In 2022, Keleta-Mae was the recipient of Waterloo’s Arts Award for Excellence in Research. Her main research and artistic contributions have been particularly notable in two related fields: Black Expressive Culture and Black Feminisms.

Further information can be found within the original full article by Angelica Marie Sanchez on Waterloo News.