Steven Rita-Procter

Photo of Steven Rita-Procter

Instructor Faculty of Arts English and Film Studies Waterloo, Ontario sritaprocter@wlu.ca

Media Relations

Aonghus Kealy
Communications and Media Relations Officer
akealy@wlu.ca
(548) 889-4855

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Media Relations

Aonghus Kealy
Communications and Media Relations Officer
akealy@wlu.ca
(548) 889-4855

Lori Chalmers Morrison
Director: Integrated Communications
lchalmersmorrison@wlu.ca
(548) 889-4857

Vaness Barrasa
Director: Communications & Issues Management
vbarrasa@wlu.ca
(548) 889-3812

Brantford Campus:

Beth Gurney
Interim Senior Executive Officer
bgurney@wlu.ca
(548) 889-4199

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Bio/Research

Growing up in Brantford, I have long lived as a guest on the traditional lands of the Huron-Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations, which are governed by the Dish with one spoon covenant between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Confederacy ...

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Bio/Research

Growing up in Brantford, I have long lived as a guest on the traditional lands of the Huron-Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations, which are governed by the Dish with one spoon covenant between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Confederacy of Ojibway and Allied Nations. As a guest, I am committed to upholding this covenant and am grateful to have the opportunity to work, live, and raise my two young children on this land.

I received a PhD in English Literature from York University in 2018, where my dissertation considered the history-writing aspect of transitional justice reports and the complex ways in which truth commissions and human rights tribunals attend to the political and cultural vicissitudes of shared traumas. As part of my doctoral work, I had the privilege of attending several human rights tribunals as both an honourary witness and as a trial monitor, and of participating in the process of bearing testimony alongside many inspirational and courageous survivors of both state and imperial violence. These experiences continue to inform my research and teaching practices, primarily through an emphasis on mindful and responsible listening.

After completing my first PhD, I embarked on a second doctoral degree at Osgoode Hall Law School, where my research focuses on the promotion of artist's resale rights (droit de suite); copyright law and the moral rights claims of artists and authors; legislative and policy solutions to 'art flipping'; the philosophy and politics of appropriation, copying, and plagiarism; and the intersection of literature, visual arts and the law, more broadly.

My research generally operates at the intersection of a) literature and visual art, and b) the law. I have published on a wide and interdisciplinary range of topics, including: 20th century Argentine satire; postwar German "Trümmerliteratur" and "Trümmerfilm"; the history of the Canadian Federal and Exchequer Courts; the architecture of genocide memorials; the protest art of León Ferrari; the poetry of Juan Gelman; Millennial art collectors and the exploitation of BIPOC artists; and the moral rights claims of Michael Snow and Richard Serra.


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