Ashley K. Raghubir

PhD Candidate (she/her)
ashley.raghubir@mail.utoronto.ca

Campus

  • Downtown Toronto (St. George)

Fields of Study

  • Caribbean
  • Diaspora
  • Modern/Contemporary
  • North American
  • Post-colonialism/Decolonization

Areas of Interest

  • Contemporary Caribbean Art and Visual Culture
  • Contemporary Black Diasporic Art and Visual Culture
  • Materiality

Working Dissertation

Supervisors

Elizabeth Harney

Biography

I am a researcher, writer, and PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at the University of Toronto. My research considers late twentieth and twenty-first century art of the Caribbean and its diasporas with particular interest in sculptural installation, works on paper, and performance art. My dissertation takes up questions of material and medium in relation to histories of empire, colonialism, and migration. Curatorial experience includes the 2025 Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL)/Mellon Foundation Seminar in Curatorial Practice and Curatorial Research Assistant positions at The Goldfarb Gallery at York University and the Gardiner Museum (both in Toronto, Canada). I was a visiting student researcher at the University of the Arts London’s Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity, and Nation (TrAIN) (London, United Kingdom). I am also active as an art writer. My writing has been published in The Journal of Modern Craft, C Magazine, Texte zur Kunst, O BOD, and Momus.

Selected Publications

  • “Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers; New Women’s Work: Reimagining ‘Feminine’ Craft in Contemporary Art.” The Journal of Modern Craft 17 (3): 303-6. doi:10.1080/17496772.2024.2446076.

Honours, Awards and Grants

  • 2023–Present Massey College Junior Fellow
  • 2023–2024 SSHRC Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement (CGS–MSFSS)
  • 2021–2023 SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS) Doctoral
  • 2020 Canadian Art Writing Prize, Canadian Art

Professional Affiliations

  • Universities Art Association of Canada
  • College Art Association
  • British Art Network

Education

MA, Art History, Concordia University
BA, Art History, University of Toronto

Presentations

“The Empire of Oil: Christopher Cozier’s “Entanglements” series (2014-2015) and turbulence (2019-2021).” 2025 College Art Association 113th Annual Conference. New York, New York, February 12, 2025.
“Embedded and Embodied Performance: Shannon Alonzo’s Subterranean Sentiments of Belonging.” 2024 Universities Art Association Canada (UAAC-AAUC) Conference, Western University, London, Canada, October 26, 2024.
“Black Interiority and Contemporary Pantomime in Steffani Jemison’s Sensus Plenior, Similitude, and On Similitude.” Conférences Hypothèses, Montreal, Canada, February 10, 2021.
“Conversations in Contemporary Art: Michèle Pearson Clarke, Michaëlle Sergile, and Ashley Raghubir.” 2020-2021 Conversations in Contemporary Art (CiCA) series, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, October 15, 2020.

Administrative Service

2025-2026 Convener, Equity & Inclusivity Secretariat, Massey College
2024-2025 Co-Chair, Junior Fellow Lecture Series, Massey College

Cohort

  • 2021-2022