Karen Ren

Karen Ren is a Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies Institute. She holds a BA in Psychology and an MA in East Asian Studies, both from McGill University. Her research interests include Taiwanese cinema and media, slow cinema, queer theory, non-fiction film, and youth culture. For her doctoral work, she aims to examine inter-Asian queer documentaries as vehicles for critical queer regionalism and queer modernity. In addition to her academic pursuits, Karen works with the Hot Docs Documentary Festival, Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival, and Mulan International Film Festival.

Selected Work

"Forest as Medium: Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cinematic Liberation.” Stream: Interdisciplinary Journal of Communication. 14(2): 13-28.

Awards

• Jackman Junior Fellowships (2024-2029, University of Toronto)
• Paul T K Lin Fellowship (2021-2023, McGill University)
• Ping Kwan Lau Prize (2021-2022, McGill University)