Andi Gilker

Andi Gilker

First Name: 
Andi
Last Name: 
Gilker
Title: 
PhD Student
Biography : 

Andi Gilker is a fourth-year Ph.D. at the Cinema Studies Institute of the University of Toronto. Her dissertation project begins at the encounter between experimental sound, technology, and critical disability studies. Her doctoral research also highlights how institutional critique is crucial to disabled and otherwise marginalized practitioners of the experimental avant-garde. Andi’s other research interests include psychedelic cinema, addiction and trauma studies, mental health issues, and the trajectories of nightlife and underground subcultures.

Andi is neurodivergent and is happy to share resources on neurodiversity in academia. She is currently serving as the co-chair of the recently established SCMS Disability Caucus and is a new member of the Core Lab of the Center for Global Disability Studies (CGDS).

Additionally, Andi is a practicing visual artist and amateur filmmaker. Previously, she completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio arts at Concordia University in Montréal, followed by a summer painting residency at The School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her artwork encompasses excavations of trauma, mourning, and other charged subjectivities. Currently, she is planning an experimental documentary about the perilousness of post-mortem taxation.

Published Work

  • “Sounding Silence.” Journal for Media History, vol. 27, no. 1, Autumn 2024. (Forthcoming)
  • “Dismediated Bodyminds.” Spotlight feature with pieces by Genevieve Newman and James Deaville for Journal for Cinema and Media Studies, vol. 64, no. 1, Fall 2024. (Forthcoming)
  • “Stephen Lee Naish. Screen Captures: Film in the Age of Emergency” University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 92, no. 3, 2023. Book Review.

Interviews

• Crip Time, Sound Affects, and Film. Video interview for Disability Studies 2025, SAGE Publications, 2025. (Forthcoming)

Short Experimental Films

  • I Don’t Care if Monday’s Blue, Super 8 mm, 2021 (2:34)
  • Ritual (Sick), 2019 (14:46)

Other

  • “Amidst the Clutter,” The Worn Archive, Drawn & Quarterly, 2014, pp. 388-391.
  • “Sous une aile bienveillante. Andi Gilker: énergique, résiliente, ambitieuse créatrice.” Journal Le Tour, vol. 30, no.1, 2012.
Education: 
MA, McGill University
BA, McGill University
BFA, Concordia University
Personal Website: 
https://www.andigilker.com/

People Type:

Program:

Cohort:

Dissertation Title: 
“Sounding Silence”: Temporal Elisions & Technological Encounters in the Sonic Ecology
Dissertation Supervisors: 
Scott Richmond