Dr. Heather McLean

Heather McLean (she/her) is a comedic performance artist and Associate Professor of Human Geography and Environmental Studies at Athabasca University. Working at the intersections of feminist, queer, decolonial, arts-based research creation, her scholarship and practice focus on culture-led regeneration, precarity, arts interventions, and the everyday geographies of agency, resistance, and mutual aid. She is committed to decentering dominant discourses and engaging participants in the co-production of knowledge.

From 2017 to 2019, Heather was an Economic and Social Research Council Future Researcher at the University of Glasgow, where she examined how feminist arts collectives and artist-run centres supported marginalized communities across the UK.

Discover my research

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Research interests

Currently, her research explores the role of the arts in fostering mutual aid and community resilience in colonially named rural British Columbia and Alberta.

Heather’s creative practice is deeply entwined with her research. As a clown and comedian, she has collaborated with Dirty Plotz, a queer/feminist cabaret collective, and co-created drag king walking tours for the Workers’ Theatre, the People’s Bank of Govanhill, the Glasgow School of Art, the Edinburgh College of Art, the Western Canada Theatre Company (Kamloops) and the Gutterclown Cabaret (Vancouver).

In addition to her teaching, research, and performance practice, Heather is an active member of the Community Economies Research Network, a global collective of artists, scholars, and practitioners committed to fostering ways of living and thriving Together.

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Educational credentials

• BA, Human Geography, University of British Columbia
• MsPL, Social policy and planning, University of Toronto
• PhD, Environmental Studies, York University
• Post-Doctoral Fellowship, University of Glasgow

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Professional affiliations

• Community Economies Research Network
• Community Economies Institute
• Association of American Geographers

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