Andrea Medovarski
Associate Professor
Office: 250 Vanier College
Phone: 416-736-2100 Ext: 70414
Email: medov@yorku.ca
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
Andrea Medovarski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities at York University, specializing in Black diaspora cultural studies. An interdisciplinary scholar, her research focuses on situating Canada within the context of the Americas and exploring histories of transatlantic slavery and colonization. She has published extensively on black diasporic cultural productions with a particular focus on black Canadian literature and film, in book chapters and in journals such as TOPIA, Canadian Literature, Studies in Canadian Literature and The Journal of Postcolonial Writing. She has also published a book on the second-generation children of immigrants in black Canadian and black British women’s writing. Deeply committed to access issues in postsecondary education, Dr. Medovarski has taught in various access/bridging programs at York and has also received HEQCO funding for her research on ‘nontraditional’ students. In addition, she serves on the editorial boards of the journal Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme, and Inanna Publications, a feminist press.
Degrees
PhD, York UniversityMA, York University
BEd, Queen's University
BA, Queen's University
Professional Leadership
Community Contributions
- Nominated for the LAPS Dean’s Award in Teaching Excellence - 2021
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant - 2016
- Nominated for the Ian Greene Award, Sponsored by the Students’ Council of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University - 2011
- Nominated for a York University-wide Teaching Award - 2010
- Winner of the York University English Department Teaching Assistant Award - 2004
Settling Down and Settling Up: The Second Generation in Black Canadian and Black British Women’s Writing. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019.
“‘I want you to live by the justice code’: Prisonization and Carceral Regimes in the films of Clement Virgo.” Screening Justice: Canadian Crime Films, Culture and Society, Ed. Steven Kohm, Sonia Bookman and Pauline Greenhill. Winnipeg: Fernwood, 2016. 242-58.
“Preface.” Canadian Woman Studies: An Introductory Reader. 2nd Ed. Eds. Andrea Medovarski and Brenda Cranney. Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2006. Pp. ix-xiv.
Rev. of Scars by Cheryl Rainfield. Canadian Woman Studies. 28.1 (2010): 147-8.
“Transformative Geographies.” Rev. article of Black Geographies and the Politics of Place, Ed. Katherine McKittrick and Clyde Woods, and Claiming Space: Racialization in Canadian Cities, Ed. Cheryl Teelucksingh. TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. 21 (2009): 210-15.
“The Literary Legacies of Black Britain and Black Canada: A Comparative Reading of the Early Works of Andrea Levy and Austin Clarke.” ARIEL: An International Review of English Literature. Special In Memoriam issue on Andrea Levy. 53. 1-2 (2022). 47-75.
“What Reading Austin Clarke Can Teach Us About Black Lives Matter.” TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. A Special Issue on Austin Clarke – the Man and the Body of his Work. Eds. Andrea Davis and Leslie Sanders 42 (2021): 21-39.
“Dionne Brand and Corporeal Commemorations.” TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. No Language is Neutral: A Special Issue on Dionne Brand. Eds. Dina Georgis, Katherine McKittrick, and Rinaldo Walcott. 34 (2015): 119-40.
“Roughing it in Bermuda: Susanna Strickland Moodie, Mary Prince, Dionne Brand and the Black Diaspora.” Canadian Literature. 220 (2014): 94-114.
“Currency and Cultural Consumption: Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes.” Studies in Canadian Literature. 38.2 (2013): 9-30.
“‘Boxing Ain’t No Game’: Clement Virgo’s Poor Boy’s Game as Canadian Racial Counter-Narrative.” TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. 22 (2009): 117-37.
“‘I knew this was England’: Myths of Return in Andrea Levy’s Fruit of the Lemon.” MaComere. 8 (2006): 35-66.
“Tessa McWatt’s Out of My Skin: ‘Belonging is what you give yourself’.” The Arts Journal. 2.1 (2005): 49-65.
“Unstable Post(-)Colonialities: Speculations Through Punctuation.” World Literature Written in English. 39.2 (2003): 84-100.
“Ruttier for An Athlete: A Reflection on Dionne Brand’s A Map to the Door of No Return.” York University. “Map to the Door of No Return At 20: A Gathering.” November 3-6, 2021, Virtual Conference, York University, Toronto, Canada
“Pedagogic Paradoxes of the Sea: The Middle Passage.” “Pedagogies of the Sea: A Symposium.” November 20, 2019, York University, Toronto, Canada
“Curating Transatlantic Slavery: The Space of the Museum” American Association of Geographers Annual Convention. April 10-14, 2018, New Orleans, LA, USA
“Touring the Middle Passage: The Exhibition of Enslavement in Liverpool UK.” American Studies Association Annual Convention. November 9-12, 2017, Chicago IL, USA
“The Black Diaspora and the Legacies of Thinglessness” Universities Art Association of Canada Annual Conference October 27-30, 2016, University of Quebec at Montreal, Montreal QC
“Women and the Middle Passage: Rupturing the Epistemologies of Modernity” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Convention November 10-13, 2016, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
“Art and Unmanageability: The Middle Passage and Contemporary Carceral Logics” Association of American Geographers Annual Convention April 21-25, 2015, Chicago IL, USA
“‘I want you to live by the justice code’: Prisonization and Carceral Regimes in the films of Clement Virgo” (Roundtable Presentation) “Law and the Curated Body” March 26-28, 2015, Osgoode Hall Law School and School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design, York University, Toronto, ON
“Longings for Remembrance: Textual Commemorations of the Middle Passage” Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Convention April 30-May 5, 2015, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
“NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!: Middle Passages and Unmanageable Memory Work” American Studies Association Annual Convention October 8 to 11, 2015, Toronto, Canada
“Visual/Textual Superimpositions: Photographic Representations of Susanna Strickland Moodie and Mary Prince” Universities Art Association of Canada Annual Conference November 5-7, 2015, NSCAD University, Halifax NS
“Reducing Barriers, Fostering Access, Developing Learner Identities: York’s Transition Year Program” Roundtable participant: “Rethinking Flexibility in Higher Education” Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Convention April 30-May 5, 2015, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
“Genres Without Boundaries: Transatlantic Slavery and Cultural Representations of The Zong Massacre” Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies Annual Conference, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences May 24-30, 2014, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON
“Currency and the Practices of Cultural Consumption: Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes” Triennial Conference of the Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies: “‘The Current Unbroken/The Circuits Kept Open’: Connecting Cultures and the Commonwealth” August 5-9, 2013, Rodney Bay, St. Lucia
“Erasures of Blackness in Early Canadian Letters” “The House that Isaac Built: The Architectures of Cultures and Identities in Canada; An Interdisciplinary Conference” May 14-15, 2013, Huron University College, University of Western Ontario, London, ON
“Lawrence Hill and the Alternate Economies of Black Canadian Literature” Canadian Association of American Studies Annual Conference: “Total Money Makeover: Culture and the Economization of Everything” October, 24-27, 2013, University of Waterloo, Kitchener-Waterloo, ON
“Geographies of Desire: Blackness in Dominant Narratives of Canadianness” Inaugural Conference of the Black Canadian Studies Association: “Where are you from?” May 24-26, 2013, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON
“The Politics of Misrecognition: African Diaspora Theatrical Productions in Toronto” Canadian Association of African Studies Annual Conference: “Africa Matters” May 5-7, 2010, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON
“Roughing it in Bermuda: Susanna Strickland Moodie and the Black Diaspora” Association of American Geographers Annual Convention April 14-18, 2010, Washington, D.C., USA
“Clement Virgo’s Poor Boy’s Game as Canadian Racial Counter-narrative” “Contested Spaces: Conflict, Counter-narrative and Culture from Below in Canadian and Quebecois Literatures” May 1-2, 2009, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC
“Afri-Can’t? The AfriCan Theatre Ensemble and the Limits of Canadian State Multiculturalism” “TransCanada II: Literatures, Institutions, Citizenship” October 11-14, 2007, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON
“A City of the Second Generation: Dionne Brand’s (Re)mapping of Toronto in What We All Long For” Invited By Professors Dina Georgis, Katherine McKittrick and Rinaldo Walcott (Canada Research Chair in Social Justice and Cultural Studies, OISE). “No Language is Neutral: A Conference on Dionne Brand” October 13-14, 2006, Toronto, Canada
“A City of the Second Generation: Dionne Brand’s (Re)mapping of Toronto in What We All Long For” Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies Annual Conference, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences May 26-June 3, 2006, York University, Toronto, ON
“(Im)Proper Hyphenations in Tessa McWatt’s Out of My Skin” “Caribbean Migrations: Negotiating Borders” July 18-22, 2005, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON
“Un/Settling Migrations: Citizenship, Kinship and the Second Generation in Post-immigrant Black Canadian and Black British Women’s Texts” “TransCanada: Literatures, Institutions, Citizenship” June 23-26, 2005, Wosk Centre For Dialogue, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC
“Confusions of Consanguinity: Questions of Legitimacy in Black Diasporic Cultural Production” Centre for the Study of Black Cultures in Canada: “Examinations of Black Canada in a Changing National Context” March 19-20, 2004, York University, Toronto, ON Opening keynote panel
“Bodies of Resistance in Dionne Brand’s At the Full and Change of the Moon” Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars Ninth International Conference: “Liberatory Poetics in Caribbean Writing: Gender and Nation Reconfigurations” April 26-30, 2004, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
“Dionne Brand and Corporeal Commemorations” York University Centre for Feminist Research: “Diaspora, Memory, Silence” October 24-25, 2003, York University, Toronto, ON
“Performing Post(-)Coloniality: Speculations on Punctuation” The University of Northampton/World Literature Written in English: “‘Inside the Whale’: The Postcolonial and Globalization” July 11-13, 2003, Northampton, England
“The Nervous Conditions of Angela Weld Grimke’s Rachel” Canadian Association of American Studies Annual Conference: “American Empires” October 18-20, 2001, York University, Toronto, ON
“National Spaces, Diasporic Movements: Paul Gilroy’s use of the Slave Ship Chronotope in The Black Atlantic” Canadian Association of American Studies Annual Conference: “Discourses of Diaspora” November 2-5, 2000, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON
Medovarski, A., Sanders, L. and Spotton Visano, B. (2015) . Is there a Best Fit? Assessing Alternative Entrance Pathways Into an Undergraduate Degree for Non-Traditional Students at York University. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.
Canadian Woman Studies: An Introductory Reader. 2nd Ed. Eds. Andrea Medovarski and Brenda Cranney. Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2006. 663 pp.
Canadian Woman Studies: An Introductory Reader. Eds. Nuzhat Amin, Frances Beer, Kathryn McPherson, Andrea Medovarski, Angela Miles and Goli Rezai-Rashti. Toronto: Inanna Publications, 1999. 543 pp.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | AP/HUMA4310 3.0 | A | Black Athletes and Sporting Resistance | SEMR |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | AP/HUMA3300 3.0 | M | Black Canadian Film | SEMR |
| Winter 2025 | AP/HUMA3315 3.0 | M | Black Literatures and Cultures in Canada | SEMR |
Andrea Medovarski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities at York University, specializing in Black diaspora cultural studies. An interdisciplinary scholar, her research focuses on situating Canada within the context of the Americas and exploring histories of transatlantic slavery and colonization. She has published extensively on black diasporic cultural productions with a particular focus on black Canadian literature and film, in book chapters and in journals such as TOPIA, Canadian Literature, Studies in Canadian Literature and The Journal of Postcolonial Writing. She has also published a book on the second-generation children of immigrants in black Canadian and black British women’s writing. Deeply committed to access issues in postsecondary education, Dr. Medovarski has taught in various access/bridging programs at York and has also received HEQCO funding for her research on ‘nontraditional’ students. In addition, she serves on the editorial boards of the journal Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme, and Inanna Publications, a feminist press.
Degrees
PhD, York UniversityMA, York University
BEd, Queen's University
BA, Queen's University
Professional Leadership
Community Contributions
Awards
- Nominated for the LAPS Dean’s Award in Teaching Excellence - 2021
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant - 2016
- Nominated for the Ian Greene Award, Sponsored by the Students’ Council of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University - 2011
- Nominated for a York University-wide Teaching Award - 2010
- Winner of the York University English Department Teaching Assistant Award - 2004
All Publications
“‘I want you to live by the justice code’: Prisonization and Carceral Regimes in the films of Clement Virgo.” Screening Justice: Canadian Crime Films, Culture and Society, Ed. Steven Kohm, Sonia Bookman and Pauline Greenhill. Winnipeg: Fernwood, 2016. 242-58.
“Preface.” Canadian Woman Studies: An Introductory Reader. 2nd Ed. Eds. Andrea Medovarski and Brenda Cranney. Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2006. Pp. ix-xiv.
Rev. of Scars by Cheryl Rainfield. Canadian Woman Studies. 28.1 (2010): 147-8.
“Transformative Geographies.” Rev. article of Black Geographies and the Politics of Place, Ed. Katherine McKittrick and Clyde Woods, and Claiming Space: Racialization in Canadian Cities, Ed. Cheryl Teelucksingh. TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. 21 (2009): 210-15.
Settling Down and Settling Up: The Second Generation in Black Canadian and Black British Women’s Writing. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019.
“The Literary Legacies of Black Britain and Black Canada: A Comparative Reading of the Early Works of Andrea Levy and Austin Clarke.” ARIEL: An International Review of English Literature. Special In Memoriam issue on Andrea Levy. 53. 1-2 (2022). 47-75.
“What Reading Austin Clarke Can Teach Us About Black Lives Matter.” TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. A Special Issue on Austin Clarke – the Man and the Body of his Work. Eds. Andrea Davis and Leslie Sanders 42 (2021): 21-39.
“Dionne Brand and Corporeal Commemorations.” TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. No Language is Neutral: A Special Issue on Dionne Brand. Eds. Dina Georgis, Katherine McKittrick, and Rinaldo Walcott. 34 (2015): 119-40.
“Roughing it in Bermuda: Susanna Strickland Moodie, Mary Prince, Dionne Brand and the Black Diaspora.” Canadian Literature. 220 (2014): 94-114.
“Currency and Cultural Consumption: Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes.” Studies in Canadian Literature. 38.2 (2013): 9-30.
“‘Boxing Ain’t No Game’: Clement Virgo’s Poor Boy’s Game as Canadian Racial Counter-Narrative.” TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. 22 (2009): 117-37.
“‘I knew this was England’: Myths of Return in Andrea Levy’s Fruit of the Lemon.” MaComere. 8 (2006): 35-66.
“Tessa McWatt’s Out of My Skin: ‘Belonging is what you give yourself’.” The Arts Journal. 2.1 (2005): 49-65.
“Unstable Post(-)Colonialities: Speculations Through Punctuation.” World Literature Written in English. 39.2 (2003): 84-100.
“Ruttier for An Athlete: A Reflection on Dionne Brand’s A Map to the Door of No Return.” York University. “Map to the Door of No Return At 20: A Gathering.” November 3-6, 2021, Virtual Conference, York University, Toronto, Canada
“Pedagogic Paradoxes of the Sea: The Middle Passage.” “Pedagogies of the Sea: A Symposium.” November 20, 2019, York University, Toronto, Canada
“Curating Transatlantic Slavery: The Space of the Museum” American Association of Geographers Annual Convention. April 10-14, 2018, New Orleans, LA, USA
“Touring the Middle Passage: The Exhibition of Enslavement in Liverpool UK.” American Studies Association Annual Convention. November 9-12, 2017, Chicago IL, USA
“The Black Diaspora and the Legacies of Thinglessness” Universities Art Association of Canada Annual Conference October 27-30, 2016, University of Quebec at Montreal, Montreal QC
“Women and the Middle Passage: Rupturing the Epistemologies of Modernity” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Convention November 10-13, 2016, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
“Art and Unmanageability: The Middle Passage and Contemporary Carceral Logics” Association of American Geographers Annual Convention April 21-25, 2015, Chicago IL, USA
“‘I want you to live by the justice code’: Prisonization and Carceral Regimes in the films of Clement Virgo” (Roundtable Presentation) “Law and the Curated Body” March 26-28, 2015, Osgoode Hall Law School and School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design, York University, Toronto, ON
“Longings for Remembrance: Textual Commemorations of the Middle Passage” Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Convention April 30-May 5, 2015, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
“NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!: Middle Passages and Unmanageable Memory Work” American Studies Association Annual Convention October 8 to 11, 2015, Toronto, Canada
“Visual/Textual Superimpositions: Photographic Representations of Susanna Strickland Moodie and Mary Prince” Universities Art Association of Canada Annual Conference November 5-7, 2015, NSCAD University, Halifax NS
“Reducing Barriers, Fostering Access, Developing Learner Identities: York’s Transition Year Program” Roundtable participant: “Rethinking Flexibility in Higher Education” Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Convention April 30-May 5, 2015, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
“Genres Without Boundaries: Transatlantic Slavery and Cultural Representations of The Zong Massacre” Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies Annual Conference, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences May 24-30, 2014, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON
“Currency and the Practices of Cultural Consumption: Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes” Triennial Conference of the Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies: “‘The Current Unbroken/The Circuits Kept Open’: Connecting Cultures and the Commonwealth” August 5-9, 2013, Rodney Bay, St. Lucia
“Erasures of Blackness in Early Canadian Letters” “The House that Isaac Built: The Architectures of Cultures and Identities in Canada; An Interdisciplinary Conference” May 14-15, 2013, Huron University College, University of Western Ontario, London, ON
“Lawrence Hill and the Alternate Economies of Black Canadian Literature” Canadian Association of American Studies Annual Conference: “Total Money Makeover: Culture and the Economization of Everything” October, 24-27, 2013, University of Waterloo, Kitchener-Waterloo, ON
“Geographies of Desire: Blackness in Dominant Narratives of Canadianness” Inaugural Conference of the Black Canadian Studies Association: “Where are you from?” May 24-26, 2013, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON
“The Politics of Misrecognition: African Diaspora Theatrical Productions in Toronto” Canadian Association of African Studies Annual Conference: “Africa Matters” May 5-7, 2010, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON
“Roughing it in Bermuda: Susanna Strickland Moodie and the Black Diaspora” Association of American Geographers Annual Convention April 14-18, 2010, Washington, D.C., USA
“Clement Virgo’s Poor Boy’s Game as Canadian Racial Counter-narrative” “Contested Spaces: Conflict, Counter-narrative and Culture from Below in Canadian and Quebecois Literatures” May 1-2, 2009, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC
“Afri-Can’t? The AfriCan Theatre Ensemble and the Limits of Canadian State Multiculturalism” “TransCanada II: Literatures, Institutions, Citizenship” October 11-14, 2007, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON
“A City of the Second Generation: Dionne Brand’s (Re)mapping of Toronto in What We All Long For” Invited By Professors Dina Georgis, Katherine McKittrick and Rinaldo Walcott (Canada Research Chair in Social Justice and Cultural Studies, OISE). “No Language is Neutral: A Conference on Dionne Brand” October 13-14, 2006, Toronto, Canada
“A City of the Second Generation: Dionne Brand’s (Re)mapping of Toronto in What We All Long For” Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies Annual Conference, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences May 26-June 3, 2006, York University, Toronto, ON
“(Im)Proper Hyphenations in Tessa McWatt’s Out of My Skin” “Caribbean Migrations: Negotiating Borders” July 18-22, 2005, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON
“Un/Settling Migrations: Citizenship, Kinship and the Second Generation in Post-immigrant Black Canadian and Black British Women’s Texts” “TransCanada: Literatures, Institutions, Citizenship” June 23-26, 2005, Wosk Centre For Dialogue, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC
“Confusions of Consanguinity: Questions of Legitimacy in Black Diasporic Cultural Production” Centre for the Study of Black Cultures in Canada: “Examinations of Black Canada in a Changing National Context” March 19-20, 2004, York University, Toronto, ON Opening keynote panel
“Bodies of Resistance in Dionne Brand’s At the Full and Change of the Moon” Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars Ninth International Conference: “Liberatory Poetics in Caribbean Writing: Gender and Nation Reconfigurations” April 26-30, 2004, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
“Dionne Brand and Corporeal Commemorations” York University Centre for Feminist Research: “Diaspora, Memory, Silence” October 24-25, 2003, York University, Toronto, ON
“Performing Post(-)Coloniality: Speculations on Punctuation” The University of Northampton/World Literature Written in English: “‘Inside the Whale’: The Postcolonial and Globalization” July 11-13, 2003, Northampton, England
“The Nervous Conditions of Angela Weld Grimke’s Rachel” Canadian Association of American Studies Annual Conference: “American Empires” October 18-20, 2001, York University, Toronto, ON
“National Spaces, Diasporic Movements: Paul Gilroy’s use of the Slave Ship Chronotope in The Black Atlantic” Canadian Association of American Studies Annual Conference: “Discourses of Diaspora” November 2-5, 2000, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON
Medovarski, A., Sanders, L. and Spotton Visano, B. (2015) . Is there a Best Fit? Assessing Alternative Entrance Pathways Into an Undergraduate Degree for Non-Traditional Students at York University. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.
Canadian Woman Studies: An Introductory Reader. 2nd Ed. Eds. Andrea Medovarski and Brenda Cranney. Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2006. 663 pp.
Canadian Woman Studies: An Introductory Reader. Eds. Nuzhat Amin, Frances Beer, Kathryn McPherson, Andrea Medovarski, Angela Miles and Goli Rezai-Rashti. Toronto: Inanna Publications, 1999. 543 pp.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | AP/HUMA4310 3.0 | A | Black Athletes and Sporting Resistance | SEMR |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | AP/HUMA3300 3.0 | M | Black Canadian Film | SEMR |
| Winter 2025 | AP/HUMA3315 3.0 | M | Black Literatures and Cultures in Canada | SEMR |
