Meet our Team

Dr. Elspeth H. Brown is Professor of History at the University of Toronto, where she teaches queer and trans history; the history of US capitalism; oral history; and the history and theory of photography. Her digital humanities research has focused on queer and trans archives and oral history. She received her PhD from Yale University in 2000 and is the author of (most recently) WORK! A Queer History of Modeling (Duke University Press, 2019) and co-editor of Feeling Photography (2014, Duke University Press with Thy Phu). She is the principal investigator for the LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory, a team-based project and virtual working space where members come together to share work, ideas, and new knowledge about the creation of LGBTQ oral histories in the digital age. She is an active volunteer and former Co-President of the Board at The ArQuives, Canada’s Lesbian and Gay Archives, the world’s largest LGBTQ+ community archive.

You can learn more about her work at https://www.elspethbrown.org and sometimes find her on Twitter at @ElspethHBrown. For email please use: dhn.director@utoronto.ca.

Jennifer Wemigwans, PhD, is from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. She takes pride in working to invert the conventional use of media by revealing the potential for Indigenous cultural expression and Indigenous knowledge through new technologies, education, and the arts. Her book A Digital Bundle: Protecting and Promoting Indigenous Knowledge Online (2018) explores the prospects of Indigenous Knowledge education and digital projects in a networked world. Through Digital Bundles, she challenges non-Indigenous audiences to adopt a new way of perceiving and engaging with Indigenous Knowledge. Recently, Dr. Wemigwans completed an Augmented Reality Teaching shared by Dr. Gokoomis (Grandmother) Jacque Lavallee on the meaning of Wendigo. In this 5-minute AR experience, launched through ceremony at the Toronto Biennial of Art 2022, users learn about the history of this territory and how kindness is our connection to land and each other. She is an Assistant Professor in the Adult Education and Community Development Program at OISE University of Toronto where she won the Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership in 2023.

You can learn more about the Indigenous Digital Practice at https://dhn.utoronto.ca/indigenous-digital-practice/. For email please use: jennifer.wemigwans@utoronto.ca.

Claire Battershill, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, specializes in book history, digital archives, and Modernist Literature. In 2023–24, she holds the Wendy M. Cecil Professorship at Victoria College and is a Faculty Fellow with the CDHI. Battershill co-directs The Modernist Archives Publishing Project (MAPP), a critical digital archive of 20th-century publishers’ records. Her work encompasses feminist perspectives on digital humanities, affect, collaboration, student labor, and the interplay between digital and material archives, and she has authored numerous articles and books on these subjects. She’s also the author of Circus (McClelland & Stewart 2014); Modernist Lives (Bloomsbury 2018); and, most recently, Women and Letterpress Printing 1920-2020: Gendered Impressions (Cambridge University Press 2022). 

You can reach Claire at claire.battershill@utoronto.ca.  

Tanya Rohrmoser is a writer and the Communications Officer for CDHI. She received her M.A. in English Literature from Brock University in 2010 and is a graduate of the Professional Writing & Communications program at Humber College. She has done consulting for local businesses, and worked in communications roles for House & Home Media, TIFF, University of Toronto Press, and Ridley College.

You can learn more about Tanya’s work at www.tanyarohrmoser.com and find her on Twitter at @TanyaRohrmoser. Reach her via email at tanya.rohrmoser@utoronto.ca.

Matthew Lefaive graduated from UTSC in 2019 with a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Linguistics. He serves as the Digital Humanities Developer in the CDHI, aiding DH researchers in creating project websites and digital exhibitions. He is also the Project Manager for Bioline International – the longest running project currently housed in UTSC’s Knowledge Equity Lab – managing the platform content and day-to-day workflow. Matthew is interested in open access research and developing web applications to assist in language preservation and learning.

You can reach Matt at matthew.lefaive@utoronto.ca.

Rachel Corbman received a PhD in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Stony Brook University in 2019. Her research and teaching interests span feminist studies, queer studies, disability studies, transgender studies, the public and digital humanities, and the history of gender and sexuality. Her current book project, “Conferencing on the Edge: A Queer History of Feminist Field Formation, 1969-89,” offers a history of the conflicts that shaped U.S. women’s studies and gay and lesbian studies in the 1970s and 1980s.

Chloe Bordewich is Digital Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jackman Humanities Institute and CDHI. She writes about the history of information and the politics of historical narrative in West Asia and North Africa. Her current book explores citizens’ fight for freer access to information in Egypt in both the past and the present. Chloe received her PhD in history and Middle Eastern studies from Harvard University (2022) and was a postdoctoral fellow in public history at Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research (2022–23). Interested in multilingual DH and spatial storytelling, Chloe is also co-leader of the Boston Little Syria Project, a public/digital history initiative that documents the history of Boston’s first Arabic-speaking neighborhood.

You can learn more about Chloe’s work at www.chloebordewich.com. Reach her via email at chloe.bordewich@utoronto.ca.