Our Team

Dr. Heather Igloliorte, an Inuk and Newfoundlander from Nunatsiavut, is the Co-director of the Indigenous Futures Research Centre, holds the Tier 1 University Research Chair in Circumpolar Indigenous Arts, and is an associate professor in the Department of Art History at Concordia University. Heather directs the nation-wide Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq / Pijariuqsarniq Project (2018-2025), an initiative that supports Inuit postsecondary students to explore professional career paths in all aspects of the arts.

Heather has been an independent curator since 2005 and has worked on more than thirty curatorial projects including nationally and internationally touring exhibitions, permanent collection exhibits, festivals, and public art installations. Her curatorial work was recently recognized by The Hnatyshyn Foundation with the Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art (2021). Most recently, she was the lead guest curator of the inaugural exhibition of the new Inuit art centre, Qaumajuq, alongside three multitalented curators representing all regions of Inuit Nunangat, which opened in March 2021 at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Heather publishes frequently; she has co-edited special issues of journals PUBLIC 54: Indigenous Art: New Media and the Digital (2016) and RACAR: Continuities Between Eras: Indigenous Arts (2017), and her essay “Curating Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit: Inuit Knowledge in the Qallunaat Art Museum,” was awarded the 2017 Distinguished Article of the Year from Art Journal.

Currently the President of the Board of Directors of the Inuit Art Foundation (2019-), Igloliorte has served on numerous advisories, juries and councils. For her service to the arts, she was recently awarded a Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Medal (2021).

Linda Grussani (Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg/Italian ancestry) is a curator, art historian and former arts administrator born, raised, and living on Anishinàbe Akì in the Ottawa area. Grussani has spent over two decades working to advance Indigenous arts and culture, promote positive structural change and advance Indigenous cultural diplomacy as a curator, arts administrator, academic and mentor. Grussani most recently held the positions of Curator of Aboriginal Art at the Canadian Museum of History, Director of the Indigenous Art Centre for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and has held several curatorial positions at the National Gallery of Canada. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the Cultural Studies program at Queen’s University. Her research examines the recommendations, policies, and methodologies that have influenced Indigenous and institutional relationships in museums and galleries on Anishinàbe Akì over the last 50 years.

Hanss Lujan Torres is a researcher and curator from Cusco, Peru, living and working Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Minor in Art History and Visual Culture from the University of British Columbia Okanagan and an MA in Art History from Concordia University. His research and curatorial practice consider subjugated archives, queer temporalities, and alternative futures in contemporary art. Hanss is the research coordinator for the Indigenous Futures Research Centre. In addition, he has held positions with several arts organizations, including curatorial intern at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, past president of the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, and a curatorial assistant at the Kelowna Art Gallery.

Joëlle Dubé (she/her) is a white-settler from Huron-Wendat people’s Nionwentsïo territory, of Wabanaki people’s Ndakina territory, of Innu people’s Nitassinan territory and of Wolastoqey people’s Wolastokuk’s territory, today referred to as Quebec City. Currently pursuing a PhD in humanities at Concordia University and supported by a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, she is researching the intersectional temporalities of intergenerational (in)justices and Indigenous contemporary art. She investigates ways of rearticulating the relationship between the currently living and life-to-come.

Charissa von Harringa is a Doctoral Candidate (ABD, 2023) in Art History at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. Her research focuses on Contemporary Circumpolar Indigenous Art, Institutions, and Exhibition Practices. She co-curated the internationally acclaimed exhibition Among All These Tundras (2018) and served as an Associate Curator for Tusarnitut! Music Born of the Cold (2022) at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. With a Master’s degree in Art History from Concordia University and a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from New York University, Charissa has a diverse academic background. She has authored articles, reviews, and chapters published in various respected publications, including Routledge, CanARThistories, Inuit Art Quarterly, and C Magazine.

Neko Wong-Houle (she/they) is a member of the Blackfoot Kainai Nation with mixed Chinese Canadian ancestry and is currently working towards an undergraduate degree in film animation. Their interests reside primarily in Indigenous-informed storytelling on the themes of family, queerness, intersectionality and mixed-race/cultural identity.