Dr. Kristine Thoreson

Biography

Dr. Thoreson is a multi-disciplnary artist, writer and educator originally from Calgary, Alberta. She is currently researching woodland and mountain caribou populations in Alberta and BC, (and woodland reindeer in Scandinavia) including specific threats, local and federal management policies, habitat restoration, unique species adaptations and public art and science communication strategies.

Her SSHRC funded PhD (2016) in Research Creation problematized sublime aesthetics popular within representations of space and place in the Atlantic coast of Canada and Western Greenland. Kristine's research and selected artworks have been presented locally and internationally in Calgary, Ontario, Minnesota (USA), Falmouth (England), on BBC TV (UK), and in the Shetland Islands (UK). 

Thoreson's work is informed by landscape studies, cultural geography, performance studies, and the social and technological histories of photography. Topics of interest include the circumpolar North (especially photography of Greenland), the politics of representation, climate change and biodiversity / species conservation (especially caribou and reindeer). Her artwork is multi-disciplinary including drawing, gallery installation, and silver-based / digital photography. She is the founder and director of the registered non-profit organization Junction North Stewardship Foundation, and has been a freelance writer for Galleries West magazine. 

Since 2007, Kristine has taught students in art, design and theory at The Banff Centre, AUARTS (formerly ACAD), The City of Calgary, the Calgary Board of Education and the University of Calgary.

She currently teaches in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Calgary in public art, 2D and 3D art foundations, 2D design, Photoshop, advanced studio practice, histories of photography, and art theory. She holds a BFA (AUARTS / Falmouth College of Arts UK) as well as a BEd,  MFA and a PhD (University of Calgary).