Student profile

Victoria MacBeath

Faculty

Program

Victoria (Tori) MacBeath is a PhD student in the Art History department at Concordia University. She holds an MA in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory from McMaster University. Victoria's SSHRC-funded doctoral research considers how crafted objects act as materializations of a feminist ethics of care in rural New Brunswick. In doing so, her project tackles themes of decolonization, labour history, language politics, marginalized communities and histories of making, and place- and identity-making. Victoria is actively involved in the arts community in Montreal, serving as a PhD Representative on the Art History Graduate Student Association, and a student representative on the Doc-Inter Student Committee. She is a member of the Textiles & Materiality Research Cluster and co-organizes a mending-related monthly speaker series. Victoria’s research interest in labour histories has also manifested in community work, serving on the bargaining committee for the Concordia Research and Education Worker’s Union.

Thesis Title: Working Thesis Title: "Care Ethics in Rural New Brunswick Craftmaking"

Supervisor: Dr. Elaine Cheasley Paterson

Research Interests:

Material culture
Craft
Atlantic Canadian history
Gender studies
Care Ethics
Place

Teaching:

ARTH 380 Histories of Art History: Craft Theory and Discourse
ARTH 266 Aspects of the History of Fibre Arts: Global Textiles

Teaching Assistantships:

ARTH 200 Perspectives in Art History (2022-23) - Professor Steven Stowell
FFAR 250 Interdisciplinarity Across the Fine Arts (2023-24) - Professors Sandra Huber and Molly-Claire Gillet

Research Assistantships:

The Home/Making Project - Elaine Paterson (2022-24)

Publications, conferences and exhibitions:

Guest lecture in ARTH 388: Art and Biography, “Material Culture and Object Biographies,” October 31, 2025.
Guest lecture in ARTH 271: Introduction to Canadian Art, “Black Craft Practices in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, 1900-1950,” September 17, 2025.
Panel Moderator. “Class Possibilities and Constraints: From Municipalism to the Appeal of the Far-Right,” The Great Transition Conference, June 2, 2025.
“Towards a Methodology of Care in Material Culture Studies,” Material Culture of the Atlantic Conference, May 16, 2025.
“From Solitude to Solidarity: Language Politics in Montreal’s Art History Community,” presented with Raphael Oulette, 30 ans du Doc-Inter Symposium, April 30 2025.
“The Object before the Object: Activating Care Ethics in Craft Research,” Association for Art History Conference, April 10, 2025.
Guest lecture in ARTH 392: Gender Issues in Art and Art History, “Countering Misogyny: Craft and Gender,” March 31, 2025.
Guest lecture in ARTH 271: Introduction to Canadian Art, “Black Craft Practices in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, 1900-1950,” January 27, 2025.
“Activating Care Ethics in Black New Brunswick Archives,” University Art Associations of Canada Annual Conference, October 28, 2024.
“Writing as a Practice of Care: Implications for Cultural Work,” Expanded Practices Symposium, March 14, 2024.
“Hooked with Love: Feminist Care Ethics in 20th-Century Craft Practices,” Craft History Workshop, April 4, 2024.
“Care, Community, and Rug Hooking at the Centre de la Survivance Acadienne,” Reclaim, Reframe Resist Conference, February 24, 2024.
“Crafted Care: Materiality and Labour in a New Brunswick Quilt,” Regards Entrecroisés des Approaches Critique en Histoire de L’Art et en Recherches Cinématographiques: Quilting Ideas Together, December 17, 2022.
“New Art Writing by Victoria MacBeath, on the work of Marcia Huyer,” Eastern Edge, 2022.
“Collaborative Approaches in the Upper Bay of Fundy Rural Region Destination Project,” The Rural Fundy Region Development Project, 2022.
Jamal, Shaila, Rachel Warren, Pierce Razzarque, Victoria MacBeath. “Review and Scan of Core Municipal Engagement Principles.” (2022) McMaster Office of Community Engagement
MacBeath, Victoria. “Memory and Mourning in Late 19th -Century New Brunswick.” The Journal of New Brunswick Studies Vol. 13, No. 2. (2021). Research Note.
“Art Elevates: Fundy National Park” CreatedHere Magazine, 2021.