Our Faculty

I am an Assistant Teaching Professor cross-appointed to the Department of Philosophy, History and Politics and the Department of Literatures, Languages, and Performing Arts. My research and teaching stem primarily from the traditions of critique (especially German idealism and Hegel) in nineteenth and twentieth-century continental philosophy.

My current work addresses questions of marginalization and domination within modern society. My book, The Problem of Nature in Hegel's Final System (2018), explores these problems in the philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel and critically evaluates the status of nature, mental illness, crime and the institution of punishment in his conception of modern social life. I have also published on the significance of Hegel's political philosophy for the Frankfurt school of critical theory. Prioritizing an interdisciplinary approach, I teach in a variety of contexts: explorations of nineteenth-century philosophy, critical theory, existentialism; critiques of social contract theory (Goldman, Fanon, Tuck and Yang); analyses of morality, ideology, and the unconscious (Nietzsche, Marx, Freud); examinations of race and gender in the history of literature (David Walker, William Apess, Mary Wollstonecraft).

My research also draws from early German romanticism (and critical theory) to conceptualize art as an expression of alternative (liberating) human possibilities. I have published on Friedrich Schiller's concept of the emancipatory quality of art. I also teach courses that explore the interconnections of philosophy, social theory and literature in the history of utopianism: visions of progressive (and/or regressive) social change from the early modern period to the 21st-century.

Dr. Tara Chambers is a Teacher-Scholar Doctoral Fellow, SSHRC Doctoral Fellow specializing in Renaissance literature. She is a Sessional Instructor at Thompson Rivers University and an Open Learning Faculty Member for ENGL 2111: English Literature from Chaucer to Milton, ENGL 3841: The English Novel in the 18th Century, and ENGL 3651: Shakespeare and Contemporary Film. Tara's PhD Dissertation is on John Milton's Republican Poetics and the Politics of Paradise Lost.

Wesley performed in New York and Europe before studying theatre at TRU. He co-founded 3 Men of Sin Theatre Productions in 1997 yielding over 30 productions, and concluded post-graduate studies at the University of Alberta in 2001. He served as Artist in Residence for the BC Arts Smarts program, and actively engages with regional and provincial arts organizations, notably with Western Canada Theatre, TheatreBC, Kamloops Symphony Orchestra and The BC Living Arts Society.

Wesley presently instructs several acting courses, lectures theatre history, and seasonally directs a production for the TRU Actors Workshop Theatre. Memorable productions include The Shadow Box (AWT), Newhouse (3MOS), Little Shop of Horrors (WCT), After the Fall (AWT), September Songs (BCLA), and Curse of the Starving Class (AWT).

Catriona has worked across Canada as a professional actor, director, movement coach, producer and creator for over twenty years. She has also served as Artistic Director of a Company of Fools - Ottawa's original professional Shakespeare company; is co-founder and associate producer of subDevision - a celebration of site-specific devised theatre; is former co-Artistic Director of Skeleton Key Theatre, and has served on various arts juries and boards.

Catriona holds an MFA in Directing and BFA in Acting (UBC) and is graduate of École Philippe Gaulier (Paris, France). She is a recipient of the JBC Watkins Award for Theatre from the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Sydney J. Risk Award for Directing. Her work has garnered attention from the Jessie Richardson Awards, Prix Rideau Awards, Capital Critics Circle Awards, and Broadway World Awards. She has taught in the theatre departments of the University of British Columbia (Vancouver Campus), University of Ottawa, St. Lawrence College, and Algonquin College, and is delighted to now be a part of the TRU faculty.

Robin has worked professionally as a stage-manager, lighting designer, dramaturge, actor, director and playwright and has worked for companies across Canada. She received her BFA in theatre from UVic and her MFA in directing from UBC and has been a faculty member in the theatre program at TRU since 2004. In 1995 She, along with 5 other actors in Vancouver who had all recently become mothers, created a show about motherhood called Mom’s the Word which has been produced in over a dozen other countries, translated into as many other languages, is still touring and has played to over 2 million people across Canada and internationally. It was followed in 2005 by Mom’s the Word 2: Unhinged and in 2009 by Mom’s the Word: Remixed, and 2016 by Mom’s the Word: Nest Half Empty which has played in Vancouver, Victoria, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and Kamloops.