Ash McAskill

Postdoctoral Researcher

Ash is an ally and academic in the disability arts and theatre community, and a slow theatre practitioner. Ash has worked with disabled artists across Canada to mobilize against the current ableism that exists in the performing arts. Her dissertation entitled, “The Atypique Approach: Disability Aesthetics and Theatre-Making in Montréal, Québec and Vancouver, British Columbia” explored how neurodiverse artists are changing understandings of disability and theatre practises in Canada. Some of the groups that Ash continues to partner with for research projects includes Les Muses (Montréal, Québec), Les Productions des pieds des mains (Montréal, Québec), and Theatre Terrific (Vancouver, British Columbia). As a community-led researcher, Ash is invested in collaborating and leading projects that emphasize  what Mia Mingus calls “access intimacy,” whereby people can walk in spaces knowing their needs have been meaningfully met and loved.
 
Currently Ash is living between Guelph, Ontario and Montréal, Québec for a 2-year postdoc funded by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec. Her project, “Slow Journeys,” explores slowness as a method to challenge ableism and ageism caused by turbo-capitalism. The central question to her project, which is also affiliated with the SSHRC-funded Bodies in Translation project, is, if speed is the problem, then in what ways is the modulation of this speed or acts of “slowness” a possible solution? Slow Journeys examines whether slowness can be generative for creating a meaningful rhythm in which many human communities can feel welcome. Ash believes in creative and academic pedagogies that honour slowness and tenderness between all human beings.