Professor Jill Carter joined the Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies in 2016 and is cross-appointed to the Transitional Year Programme and the Centre for Indigenous Studies. An Anishinaabe-Ashkenazi researcher and theatre-worker, she works with many Indigenous artists to support the development of new works and to disseminate artistic objectives, process, and outcomes through community-driven research projects. Her scholarly research, creative projects, and activism are built upon ongoing relationships with Indigenous Elders, scholars, youth, artists and activists.  The research questions she pursues revolve around the mechanics of story creation, the processes of delivery and the manufacture of affect.  

As an educator, she views herself as a fellow sojourner on the learning path. As one who may have a little more familiarity with the subject-topography than do her students, she takes seriously the responsibility to guide their steps away from dangerous precipices and dead ends and towards doorways that open out onto safe learning spaces where they can discover and exercise their own unique gifts and know their own power. Many of the courses, we are called upon to facilitate are laden with “difficult” content—painful histories, the consequences of which are embodied by many of the young scholars who pass through our lecture halls, labs, and rehearsal studios. Hence, she works to be proactive in adopting, adapting and creating models for curriculum delivery that facilitate positive transformation and empowerment. 

Apart from her teaching and academic writing, Jill is a performer with the Talking Treaties Collective; a researcher and tour guide with First Story Toronto; and a facilitator of Land Acknowledgement Workshops for theatre makers in this city.