Dr. Julie Burelle, PhD

Biography

As a Theatre and Performance Studies scholar and a dramaturg of settler descent, Julie Burelle’s research articulates a critique of settler coloniality’s long duration and pays close attention to Indigenous performance practices (theatre, film, dance, music, installations, quotidian acts), their aesthetic and formal interventions, and the role they play in activating political resurgence, decolonization and new forms of co-habitation in the particular contexts of Québec and Canada. This research translates into book and articles published in French and English as well as in artistic collaborations.

Research Interests

Performance writ large (theatre, dance, cinema, performance art) in Québec and Canada; dramaturgy; Indigenous theatre and cinema; settler coloniality and the politics of Indigenous-Settler relations in Québec and Canada; Political performance.

Education

BA (Honours), University of Toronto, 2009
PhD (Theatre and Drama), University of California San Diego/Irvine, 2014

Books

Sioui Durand, Yves, Catherine Joncas, Julie Burelle and Jean-François Côté, Xajoj Tun, le Rabinal Achi d’Ondinnok : Réflexions, Analyses, Entretiens, Quebec : Presses de l’Université Laval, 2021 

Burelle, Julie, Encounters on Contested Lands: Indigenous Performances of Sovereignty and Nationhood in Quebec, Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 2019

Rencontres en territoires contestés: Performances autochtones d’appartenance nationale et de souveraineté au Québec. trad. Julie Loncin. Montréal: Varia Prose de Combat, 2022.

Co-edited journal

Burelle, Julie and Jill Carter, “Théâtre et Performance des Premiers Peuples; Protocoles d’Engagement” Percées: Explorations en Arts Vivants, No.9, 2023.

Articles and Chapters

Julie Burelle (2025). “I Will Answer by the Mouth of (Your) Can(n)on(s)! Indigenous Theatre’s Riposte to Quebec’s Literary Canon”, Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne, vol. 49, no.2. pp.123-150.

Julie Burelle (2025). “Prendre le thé ensemble à Muliats (Montréal): la ville comme lieu de dialogue dans le théâtre de Menuentakuan,” in Bradette, M.-E. Graff, et al (eds.), Urbanités autochtones (Montréal:  Presses de l’Université de Montréal), pp.113-129.

Julie Burelle and Beth Piatote (2024). “Antikoni in a Settler Classroom on Kumeyaay Land: Storytelling “in the Meantime” to Imagine “Beyond” It”, Performance Matters, vol.10, no.2. pp. 27-49.

Julie Burelle (2024). “All That Moves Us: The Semantic Density of Clothing and Objects in El Buen Vestir-Tlakentli’s Choreographies of Indigenous Movements,” Theatre Research in Canada- Recherches Théâtrales au Canada, vol.45, no.1, pp.30-55.

Julie Burelle (2023).“Ktahkomiq: La langue comme territoire en soi(t),” Percées: Explorations en Arts Vivants, no.9.

Julie Burelle (2022).“Critical Distance: Unsettling Canada from Abroad,” in Christopher Kirkey and Richard Nimjean (eds.) The Construction of Canadian Identity from Abroad. (London: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 263-278.  

Julie Burelle (2020). “Inuit Visual Sovereignty in Alethea Arnaquq-Baril’s Angry Inuk.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies, vol. 29, no.1, pp.145-162.

Julie Burelle (2019). “‘Dévoiler le désir secret de l’âme’ : théâtre autochtone, guérison et rapatriement,” in Jean-François Côté, Claudine Cyr (eds.) La renaissance des cultures autochtones: enjeux et défis de la reconnaissance, (Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval), pp. 179-194.

Julie Burelle (2017). “Endurance/ Enduring Performance: Nadia Myre, La Marche Amun, and the Indian Act’s Tumultuous Geographies,” in Helen Gilbert, J.D. Philipson, Michelle Raheja (eds.) In the Balance: Indigeneity, Performance, Globalization, (Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press), pp. 273-290. 

Julie Burelle (2016). “Off the Rails at the Autry: What Can Shakespeare tell us about Indian Boarding Schools?”, Theatre Annual: A Journal of Performance Studies, vol. 69, pp.1-24.

Julie Burelle and Sam Mitchell (2016). “Dee(a)r Spine: Dance, Dramaturgy, and the Repatriation of Indigenous knowledge”, Dance Research Journal vol. 48, no.1, pp. 39-54.

Julie Burelle (2015). “Theatre in Contested Lands: Repatriating Indigenous Remains.” TDR: The Drama Review, vol. 59, no.1 Spring, pp. 97-118.

Julie Burelle (2014) “Staging empathy’s limit point: First Nations Theatre and the Challenges of Self-Representation on a Settler-State Stage,” in Erin Hurley (ed.) Theatres of Affect; New Essays on Canadian Theatre, Vol. 4, (Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press), pp. 246-262.

Julie Burelle (2011). “Ondinnok's Xajoj Tun Rabinal Achi: Re-membering Fragmented Lineages,” TheatreForum, vol. 39, pp.13-23.

Awards

Herb Wyile Prize in Canadian Literature for “I Will Answer by the Mouth of (Your) Can(n)on(s)! Indigenous Theatre’s Riposte to Quebec’s Literary Canon” (SCL/ÉLC), 2026.

Honorable Mention, Outstanding Article award for “All That Moves Us: The Semantic Density of Clothing and Objects in El Buen Vestir-Tlakentli’s Choreographies of Indigenous Movements,” Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), 2025.

“Mention Spéciale” Prix Jean Cléo Godin, for “Xajoj Tun Rabinal Achí: Interculturalité, Rapatriement et Dramaturgie de la relation”, Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR), 2022.

“Mention spéciale” for Encounters on Contested Lands: Indigenous Performances of Sovereignty and Nationhood in Quebec, Société québécoise d’études théâtrales (SQET), 2020.

Ann Saddlemyer Book Award, for Encounters on Contested Lands: Indigenous Performances of Sovereignty and Nationhood in Quebec, Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR), 2020

Finalist for Outstanding Book Award for Encounters on Contested Lands: Indigenous Performances of Sovereignty and Nationhood in Quebec, Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), 2020

John W. Frick Book Award for Encounters on Contested Lands: Indigenous Performances of Sovereignty and Nationhood in Quebec, American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS), 2019

Membership

Associate member, Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Montreal - Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires en études montréalaises.

Editorial Board Member, Theatre Research in Canada - Recherches théârales au Canada.

Membre du Comité de rédaction, Percées: Explorations en arts vivants.