Luke Kernan
Email: info@luke-kernan.com
Born: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Lives and works: Victoria, British Columbia
About: I am a Canadian SSHRC scholar, literary anthropologist, graphic novelist, and published poet. Currently, I am researching psychosis narratives for my interdisciplinary Ph.D. in anthropology, wherein I will conduct ethnographic fieldwork and publish an innovative, multimedia volume of comics-poetry on the subject to accompany my dissertation.
EDUCATION
2017-Present University of Victoria (UVic) – Victoria, British Columbia.
- Ph.D., Anthropology Department, University of Victoria (UVic).
- Ph.D. Thesis: “Madness and Myth in Graphic Narratives—A Case Study of Sensorial, Beyond-Text Literacies of Psychosis.”
- Supervised by Dr. Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier (main supervisor), Dr. Lisa Mitchell (committee member), and Dr. Suze Berkhout (committee member).
2012-2014 University of British Columbia (UBC) – Kelowna, British Columbia.
- MA in Interdisciplinary Studies; Community, Culture, and Global Studies (CCGS) Department; University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO).
- MA Thesis: “Narrative, Myth and Cultural Resource Management in Wadeye, Northern Territory, Australia: A Preliminary Study.”
- Supervised by Dr. Naomi McPherson (main supervisor), Dr. Roberta Dods (committee member), and Dr. Liane Gabora (committee member).
2005-2011 Thompson Rivers University (TRU) – Kamloops, British Columbia.
- BA, English and Modern Languages Department, Rhetoric and Professional Writing Option, Thompson Rivers University (TRU).
- “Engaging the Gift, Volunteering, and Theology at Saint Vincent de Paul Society of Kamloops.” Thesis supervised by Dr. Lisa Cooke (Anthropology).
- “Gifting Rites in Western Epics—An Analysis of the Gift within Medieval to Early Modern Literatures.” Thesis supervised by Dr. Ken Simpson (Literature).
ACADEMIC AWARDS AND HONOURS
2020 CIHR, BC Support Unit, and VIHA – Island Centre Patient-Oriented Research Graduate Fellowship.
2020 UVic – President’s Research Scholarship.
2019-2020 City of Victoria – Participatory Budgeting Award.
2019 UVic – President’s Research Scholarship.
2019 UVic – Freya Milne Memorial Award. Centre for Youth and Society.
2019-2022 SSHRC – Doctoral Fellowship.
2018 UVic – UVic Graduate Award.
2017-2021 UVic – Graduate Award, Fellowship, and TAship.
2013-2014 UBC – University Graduate Fellowship.
2013 SSHRC – Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement.
2011-2013 SSHRC – MA Joseph-Armand Bombardier Scholarship.
2012-2013 OSAP – Ontario Graduate Scholarship (Awarded and Declined).
2009 TRU – English and Modern Languages Book Award.
2008 TRU – U-REAP Scholarship.
2005-2011 TRU – Thompson Rivers Foundation Scholarship.
PUBLICATIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS
Peer-Reviewed Articles
2020 “Being Psychotically Adept—Placing Change, the Poetic Self, and Community Arts Together.” Somatosphere. [http://somatosphere.net/2020/psychotically-adept-community-arts.html/]
2020 “Introduction: Amplifying the Abject.” PlatForum. Vol. 17: 1-4. Co-authored with Rebecca Duerksen and Jenna Hendrick.
2020 “‘Psychotic Bodies/Embodiment of Bipolar Suicidal Poets’—Navigating through the Sensorium of Immersive Worlds and Psychoscapes.” Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies. 16(1): 1-31. [liminalities.net/16-1/psychoticbodies.pdf]
2019 “Somatic Shockings across Ailment Narratives: Lessons from the Sacred Geographies of an Indigenous Spirit-world.” PlatForum. Vol. 16: 52-83.
2011 “The Mythopoetic Mind of Plato: The Kingdom-Sage’s Muthos in Timaeus, The Republic, and The Symposium.” Metapsychosis. [www.metapsychosis.com/mythopoetic-mind-of-plato-overview/]
Conferences
2021 “Madness Speaks: Exploring Poetic Voicing and Polyphony in Participant-led Comics,” SPA Biennial 2021: Interrogating Inequalities. Online.
2019 “Psychosis and Catastrophic Ontological Precedence—A Case for (Re)Futuring Co-Transformations in Community Arts Practices,” AAA-CASCA 2019 Conference. Vancouver, BC.
2019 “‘Minding Myth-Scapes’—Sensorial, Theoretical, and Psychotic Engagements with Ethnographic Hauntologies. Conference on ‘Folk Belief’ & ‘The Supernatural in Literature and Film.’ Svaneti and Tbilisi, Georgia.
2019 “Dictionary of the Lost.” Summer of Theory CSPT Symposium. Cultural, Social, and Political Thought Program. University of Victoria, Victoria, BC.
2019 “Storytracking SAMÆL: Synesthetic Trance, Entoptic Storytelling, and Comics as a Creative Process.” Anthropology of Consciousness 38th Annual Conference. Portland, Oregon.
2019 “Of Violent Ends, Of Virtue Erased: Dæmonic Echoes in a Time of Atrocities.” Worlds Without Us – Cultural, Social, and Political Thought Conference. University of Victoria, Victoria, BC.
2018 “Co-Assembling Contrapuntal Realities in the Field—An Ethnographic Exodus into Creative Liminalities, Spirited Innovation, and the Mythscapes of the Comics Mediums,” CASCA-Cuba 2018 Conference. Universidad de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.
Creative Outputs
2020 “Dictionary of the Lost.” Published in Déraciné. Volume VII (7): 20-21. [https://deracinemagazine.com/]
2020 “Skylarks Swallowing Stars.” In “‘Psychotic Bodies/Embodiment of Bipolar Suicidal Poets’—Navigating through the Sensorium of Immersive Worlds and Psychoscapes.” Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies. 16(1): 1-31. Pp. 26-27. [liminalities.net/16-1/psychoticbodies.pdf]
2020 “The Hanged Man’s Nous; A Note-taker’s Needle.” In “‘Psychotic Bodies/Embodiment of Bipolar Suicidal Poets’—Navigating through the Sensorium of Immersive Worlds and Psychoscapes.” Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies. 16(1): 1-31. Pp. 11-13. [liminalities.net/16-1/psychoticbodies.pdf]
2019 “abandon.” Published in poetry audio collections: Soundbite, vol. 2. [antilang.ca/2019/01/09/soundbite-preview-luke-kernans-abandon/].
2017 “Inspired Word Café: Season 2, Episode 22.” Featured poet for recorded TV broadcast. Shaw TV (Channel 11). Kelowna, BC. April 20, 2017.
2016 “Meridians of Melolight.” Published in poetry anthology: Reinventing Myths (Mytho-मंथन), Authorspress. December 11, 2016.
2016 “A Highlander, a Whitebeam.” Invited for poetry reading and performance, poetry workshop, and chapbook printing: Beginnings and Endings: The Creation of Meaning, Central Okanagan Hospice Association (COHA), Kelowna, BC. November 18 – December 2, 2016.
Selected Performances
2019 “Elegy” and “Skylarks Swallowing Stars.” Invited for poetry reading and performance: Public Reading with Local Contributors of The Anti-Languorous Project. Victoria, BC. June 5, 2019.
2019 “Sketches of Adnan Selimović; Heteroglossic Hearts.” Invited for poetry reading and performance: HREV Presents: UVIC Spoken Word ‘Injustice.’ Victoria, BC. February 27, 2019.
2018 “Sonnet 01: Lala Ragimova,” “Sketches of Adnan Selimović; Heteroglossic Hearts,” “The Hanged Man’s Nous; The Note-Taker’s Needle,” “Rilke Soaring,” “Dark Phoenix,” “Skylarks Swallowing Stars.” Featured poet. August Château Dome Soirée. Victoria, BC. August 18, 2018.
2017 “Serenade for Ika Chigogidze; the Starless Seas of the Storm.” Accepted for poetry reading and performance: Tonight It’s Poetry. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. August 20, 2017.
VOLUNTEERING
2017-Present Foundry BC – Kelowna and Victoria, BC.
2018-Present Mental Health Recovery Partners. Victoria, BC.
2017 BC Schizophrenic Society (BCSS) – Kelowna, BC.
2017-Present Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) – Victoria, BC.
2016-2017 Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) – Kelowna, BC.
2013 Kanamkek-Yile Ngala Museum, Wadeye Aboriginal Languages Centre (WALC), and Thamarrurr Catholic School – Wadeye, Northern Territory, Australia.
2010-2011 Saint Vincent de Paul Society (SSVP) – Kamloops, BC.