Andi Gilker

PhD Student

Working Dissertation

Title

“Sounding Silence”: Considering Crip Time, Sonic Affect, & Altered Sound States After John Cage

Supervisors

Scott Richmond

Biography

Andi Gilker is a fourth-year Ph.D. student at the Cinema Studies Institute of the University of Toronto. Her dissertation project aims to analyze altered states through the prism of affect theory, experimental sound, and critical disability studies. Her doctoral research also highlights how institutional critique is crucial to 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 will be serving as co-chair for the recently established disability caucus that will be launching at the SCMS Annual Conference in Boston (2024). Please get in touch for more info on this initiative, or if you'd like to get involved.

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 motifs germane to her doctoral research, including excavations of trauma, mourning, and other charged subjectivities.

Published Work

“Stephen Lee Naish. Screen Captures: Film in the Age of Emergency University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 92, no. 3, 2023. Book Review.

Education

MA, McGill University
BA, McGill University
BFA, Concordia University

Cohort