I am looking forward to participating in the panel for the Universities Art Association of Canada Conference 2025, Intersections in Art and Socially Reproductive Labour. Chaired by Tatiana Mellema, with panelists Joshua Schwebel, Brubey (WanZhi) Hu, and Connor Crable. The 3-day conference is hosted by the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) at York University this year, and convenes over 200 speakers and 60+ sessions, offering a national forum to engage with urgent questions in art, culture, and society. See the PDF for the conference schedule-at-a-glance and detailed information about sessions and events running October 16–19, 2025.
The following panel description is written by Dr. Tatiana Mellema:
With the rise of neoliberal political economic practices globally since the 1970s, there has been an emphatic disinvestment in the lives of people and their daily reproduction—despite human labour being at the heart of society’s reproduction. Movements such as the Combahee River Collective (1974-80) and Wages for Housework (1972-1977) have long placed a spotlight on capitalism’s mechanisms of structuring the relations between productive and reproductive work through social oppressions. Today capitalist development persists in its impoverishment of populations around the world through the defunding of social programs, financialization of housing, environmental extractivism, etc. Meanwhile, contemporary social movements for environmental justice, public education, labour rights, social housing, et al. continue the fight for a return of resources needed for reproduction. This panel will examine how both historical and contemporary artists have engaged reproductive politics in their works in order to place the valorization of lives back at the center of society.
Universities Art Association of Canada Conference 2025
October 16–19, 2025
York University, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario
Panel chaired by Dr. Tatiana Mellema | View Panel Description
Panel Session: Saturday, October 18, 2025 | 2:00–3:30PM, E7, ACW 302
Susan Campbell 