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I received my PhD in Language, Culture and Teaching from York University in 2009 and my MA in Sociology and Equity Studies from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto in 1998. My areas of study during my graduate training were critical anti-racism practices in higher education, and studies of learning from histories of racialized conflict.
My research and teaching are interdisciplinary and consider the dynamics of conflict and social change. Working primarily in the field of research-creation, my projects explore the relations between visual culture and martial politics as well as how communities craft creative modes of relationality and survival in response to practices of state securitization. I have several ongoing research projects in the field of critical security studies.
I am currently engaged in a research project that explores discourses of preparedness and public safety in the context of the history of emergency measures in Canada. In collaboration with the Region of Waterloo and the Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada, we will be launching (Fall 2023) a digital exhibition exploring the history of the Freeport MEGHQ located in Kitchener. My previous research in collaboration with the Diefenbunker: Canada's Cold War Museum (SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant 2019) aimed to preserve and analyze historic civil defence materials. Our research outputs include a digital exhibition examining Canadian Cold War propaganda posters which you can view here. We also co-hosted a workshop (SSHRC Connections Grant 2022) exploring the spatialization of preparedness in Canada, which you can read about here.
In addition to my academic work, I curate aesthetic projects that archive the ways in which visual encounters with conflict and loss and emerge as new forms of futurity, materiality and placemaking. You can read more about my research-creation projects and art writing on my personal website.
- Faculty of Arts Teaching Scholar Award 2013.
- Faculty Merit Award 2015 and 2019.
I am Graduate Faculty in the MA in Communication Studies and the PhD in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. I accept students in the areas of: cultural studies; critical security studies; platform studies (autonomous weapons, drones, artificial intelligence); museum studies; and visual culture and memory.
Research and Art Criticism
- 2023. Matthews, S. Visualizing Drone Ethnography in the Shadows of Distributive War. In Cree, A. (Ed). Creative Methods in Military Studies. London: Rowman and Littlefield. p. 25-40.
- 2022. Abu Hatoum, N., S. Matthews, B. Story and A. Visan. Visualizing Security Studies Research. Surveillance and Society Vol 20(1):115-124.
- 2021. D. Georgis and S. Matthews. The Trouble With Research Creation: Failure, Play and Possibility in Aesthetic Encounters. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.
- 2020. The Emergence of Emergency. TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies Vol 4: 61-69.
- 2020. Poetics at the Perimeter of Vison. They are lost as soon as they are made, Karen Zalamea. Vancouver, BC: 175-181.
- 2019. Watching the Watchers. Philip Cheung: Arctic Front. Circuit Gallery/Prefix ICA, January 10 – February 2, 2019.
- 2018. Matthews, S., I. I. Diaz and M. Faraj. Prepper Pedagogy: Civil Defense, Emergency Preparedness and Nation Building. October 18, 2018. Antipode Foundation.
Curatorial Work
- 2019. Variations on Black, Queer and Otherwise: Works by Abdi Osman. June 5-July 27, The Art Museum, University of Toronto.
- 2019. How to notice what cannot be seen/að sjá það sem hulið er. September 14-28, Herhúsid and The Herring Museum, Siglufjörður, Iceland.