Geography and Planning, FAS | Supervisor: Katharine Rankin
Project Title: ‘Our Bodies Our Voices’: The Feminist Political Geographies of Reproductive Control & Justice in ‘Punjabi Canada’
What are you hoping to learn as a CDHI fellow?
I am looking forward to immersing myself in new knowledge about digital humanities and equipping myself with new/deeper skills in engaging with digital technologies as part of the research process. I am also looking forward to meeting a community of like-minded peers!
How did you first learn about digital methods and what attracts you to this kind of research?
I first learned about digital methods through some work I did using photovoice as a community mobilization tool in the community of Malton, Ontario about 16 years ago! I’ve recently gotten very interested in multimedia knowledge production (film/video curation, visual art galleries, digital renditions of poetry/performance) as analytic tools, as vehicles of research-creation, and as ways of disseminating knowledge to a wider audience.
What digital technologies or research methods do you use in your research?
I am currently using a combination of photographs either taken by me and my research participants, or from my participants’ personal archives, and photographs or digital renditions of participant writing and personal body maps.
What is one of your hobbies or something you like to do to unwind?
I enjoy poetry and performance — creating it, curating it, building community around it — and I also love to dance Brazilian Zouk and kickbox!
Amrita Kumar-Ratta is a researcher, storyteller, curator, educator and founder of Shades of Brown Girl – a global creative storytelling and community healing initiative. She works at the intersection of poetic/performance arts, academia, and transformative justice activism. She is currently a PhD Candidate in Human Geography at the University of Toronto where she looks at the sexual & reproductive lives, experiences, and community organizing work of Punjabi women in/across Canada.