School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design welcomes five new full-time, permanent members.
"We're thrilled to be welcoming such an accomplished and talented group of colleagues to the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) this year," says Dean Brandon Vickerd. "Their passion and depth of experience will enrich our community, expanding opportunities for creative collaboration, hands-on learning and research. I'm looking forward to seeing their contributions."
Susan Blight
Blight (Anishinaabe, Couchiching First Nation) is an interdisciplinary artist and assistant professor in AMPD. Her work spans public art, film, wearable media and site-specific interventions, often exploring the relationship between identity and space.
She is co-founder of Ogimaa Mikana, a collective that reclaims and renames roads and landmarks in Anishinaabeg territory using Anishinaabemowin language. Blight holds degrees in photography and film studies from the University of Manitoba, and an MFA in integrated media from the University of Windsor. She is currently completing a PhD in social justice education at the University of Toronto, where her research focuses on visual and spatial expressions of Anishinaabeg resistance.
Blight previously served as Chair of Indigenous Visual Culture at OCAD University and associate editor for the Indigenous Places and Names series at The Capilano Review. In 2025, she received a Governor General's Meritorious Service Award for her work with Ogimaa Mikana.
Chris Ironside
Ironside is an assistant professor in the teaching stream at AMPD, where he teaches drawing and photography.
His creative practice blends photography, drawing and text, often using pop culture and queer iconography to explore identity and visibility.
His work has been exhibited across North America and featured in publications such as the Globe and Mail, C Magazine and Headmaster Magazine. Recent exhibitions include the Art Gallery of Peterborough, Angell Gallery, Daniel Faria Gallery, the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, as well as international venues in Provincetown, Miami and New York.
Kiera Loughran
Loughran is an assistant professor in the professorial stream at York University's AMPD, where she teaches acting and directing. A theatre artist, performer and martial artist, she brings more than 25 years of experience as an actor, director, playwright, dramaturg and producer.
Loughran has played a key role in advancing equity and inclusion in Canadian theatre. At the Stratford Festival, she directed four productions and served as the inaugural associate producer for the Forum and the Laboratory, leading organizational change to support new work and embed EDI practices. She previously held the role of artistic producer at the SummerWorks Festival and performed in leading roles at major theatres across Canada, including Theatre Passe Muraille, Young People's Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects and Persephone Theatre.
Her creative work explores how performance can build community and foster shared identity across diverse lived experiences. She uses interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approaches to shape contemporary performance. Her feature documentary Exclusion: Beyond the Silence premiered at the Reel Asian Film Festival in 2024, was selected for the Maritime Silk Road Film Festival in Fuzhou, China and is available on Telus and Knowledge Network.
Alyson Richards
Richards is an assistant professor in the teaching stream at York University's AMPD, where she teaches showrunning and screenwriting for media industries. She is an award-winning filmmaker and educator known for bold, inclusive storytelling across genres and platforms.
In 2024, Richards received the Director's Guild of Canada Award for Best Short Film for her documentary I Was Here. She also directed a horror-themed episode of Children Ruin Everything (CTV, The CW, Netflix), featuring filmmaker David Cronenberg in a guest role. Her screenwriting credits include The Retreat, a queer slasher that premiered on Showtime, reached the number seven most-watched spot on Hulu and was named a Globe and Mail Critics' Pick. Her upcoming feature Mombies was selected for the TIFF Finance Forum, and she has series in development with Crave and New Metric Media.
As a producer, Richards has contributed to projects that premiered at Sundance, TIFF, Sitges, American Film Institute and Locarno. Her television credits include Children Ruin Everything, Home Sweet Rome (HBO Max), Small Achievable Goals (CBC) and Queer for Fear (Hulu/Shudder). She has taught screenwriting and producing at the University of Guelph-Humber, the Canadian Film Centre and has been a guest speaker at institutions including the University of Toronto, MIT and the University of Miami.
Michael Wheeler
Starting January 2026, Wheeler will join AMPD as assistant professor in the professorial stream, where he will teach acting and directing. His research and creative practice explore the intersection of live performance and emerging technologies.
Wheeler is co-principal investigator on several interdisciplinary research creation projects, including Creative Collectivities (with Associate Professor Laura Levin), Meta Physical Theatre (a Connected Minds project Queen's University's Matthew Pan) and Neuro Robotic Performance (with Pan and fellow Queen's professor Gunnar Blohm). He is director of artistic research at SpiderWebShow Performance, Canada's first live digital performance company and producer of the Festival of Live Digital Art.
His previous roles include intern director at the Shaw Festival and curator at The Theatre Centre and Harbourfront Centre. Before joining York, Wheeler taught directing at Canada's National Theatre School and was assistant professor at Queen's University.
This story was originally featured in YFile, York University's community newsletter.
