Fine Arts Research & Creative Initiatives
Our faculty, staff and students are continuously engaged in a vast number of research and creative initiatives on a local, national and global scale.
Teaching Profiles
Dr. Devon Smither | 2023 Excellence in Teaching Award

Known for being a risk-taker in the classroom, Dr. Devon Smither encourages her students to do the same. It has garnered her a reputation as an innovative and empowering educator as well as the University of Lethbridge’s 2023 Excellence in Teaching Award.
Leanne Elias | Board of Governors Teaching Chair

An inspiring educator who finds ways to challenge her students while complementing their knowledge, new media professor Leanne Elias is the recipient of the Board of Governors Teaching Chair.
Research Profile
Mary Kavanagh | Board of Governors Research Chair, Tier I
Aligning with the 75th Anniversary of the birth of the atomic age, University of Lethbridge Professor Mary Kavanagh explores the Bomb and its legacies in a series of art exhibitions presented across Canada and the US: the multi-faceted Daughters of Uranium and Trinity3, a two-channel video work extracted from the larger project. The exhibitions reach across the nuclear Anthropocene to build connections between nuclear technologies and their lived effects, the nuclear site and irradiated bodies, nuclear fallout, waste, and material evidence.
Research Chairs
Research Chairs are prestigious academic distinctions bestowed upon faculty members recognized by their peers as having distinguished and renowned records of research or other scholarly or creative activity. Meet the Research Chairs who are in the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Dr. Monique Giroux
Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Music, Culture, and Politics

Dr. Jackson Leween, 2bears
Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts Research and Technology

Mary Kavanagh
Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair in Fine Arts

Dr. Aaron Taylor
Tier II Board of Governors Research Chair in Film and New Media Studies
The Waking Death Collective: Fine Arts event series explores death through artistic practice
Artist and associate professor Mia van Leeuwen (Drama) is pursuing a multi-pronged research project that explores art-making that is death-facing, participating in a wider cultural movement to contemplate themes of death, dying and grief. …
Student-curated exhibition focusing on the body in art opens in the uLethbridge Art Gallery
For art history student Kelsey Black, curating the uLethbridge Art Gallery’s latest exhibition has been the highlight of her undergraduate program.
Dr. Gabrielle Houle to study international mask and puppetry arts practice with support of SSHRC grant
Dr. Gabrielle Houle is at the forefront of researching the growing global movement of mask and puppetry arts in artistic productions after receiving a SSHRC Insight Development grant to study the art forms …