Dr. Rachel Harris

Teaching & Research Librarian, Humanities & Social Sciences, (LTA), Concordia University Library

Biography    Teaching activities    Research support    Publications    Service to the community   

Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Inter-University Program in Art History, Concordia University

Thesis: “Picturing Fairyland: Illustrated Fairy Tale Books and the Rise of the Child Reader-Viewer in the Victorian Era”

Masters of Information Studies, McGill University

Masters project: “Browsing in a Humanity’s Context: Difficulties of Retrieving Book Illustrations in the Digital age”

Masters of Arts in Art History, York University

M.R.P.: “Mapping the Multicoloured Inukshuk in Canada’s Multicultural Landscape”

Bachelors of Arts with Honours Art History, Minor Classical Studies, Thomlinson Curatorial Internship, Bishop’s University

Research interests

> Print history: illustrations, artists’ books, children’s books, fairy tales, political press

> Images: browsing, interfaces, retrieval, information behaviour, research data management

> Primary source literacy

> Issues of age, gender, race, animality, Orientalism, multiculturalism, and Indigeneity

Select librarian-led workshops

I offer subject-specific librarian-led instructional support for Women's Studies, Political Science, and for the use of Government Docs (itself a type of primary source) as well as for Cinema, Music, and Dance. 

I teach the occasional general workshop: The Way of APA, Using Zotero, Researching in the Library. 

Courses taught

ARTH 396: Art and Culture: Artists’ Books, Art History Dep., Concordia University, Summer term 2019 

GPTK 704: Seminar in University Teaching for Graduate Students – Fine Arts Section, CTL, Concordia University, Winter terms 2016-2020

ARTH 388: Narration in Art: Visual Evolution of Fairy Tales, Art History Dep., Concordia University, Summer term 2015   

Political Science - Women's Studies - Cinema - Music - Dance

Select Publications

“Image Browsing for Fairies, Saints and Other Book Illustrations: An Interview with Rachel Harris.” MOQDOC (blog), 2019. http://moqdoc.arlismoq.ca/2019_harris/.

Discovering the Rare Books and Special Collections That Allie Built. Ottawa, ON: Saint Paul University, 2019.

Select Conference Papers

“The Human and Animal Imprint in Walt Disney’s Fairy-Tale Films.” Fairy Tales and Folk Narratives Division, IAFA (International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts). Annual Conference, Orlando, FL. Mar. 18-21, 2020. Accepted. (Conference cancelled because of COVID-19)

“Book Illustrations and their Contextual Difficulties in the Era of Mass Digitization.” UAAC (Universities Art Association of Canada). Annual Conference, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Oct. 25-27, 2018.

“Minding the Gap for Online Book Illustrations.” ELO (Electronic Literature Organization), Annual Conference, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, QC, Aug. 13-17, 2018.

“Not so Black and White: Picturing Western Civilization’s Animality in Andrew Lang’s Coloured Fairy Books.” UAAC (Universities Art Association of Canada). Annual Conference, NSCAD U., Halifax, NS, Nov. 5-7, 2015.

“White Snow in the Mirror: An Inversion of the Innocent Childhood Paradigm.” Conference paper, Childhood: A Person’s Project, Inter-Disciplinary.net, 4th Global Conference, Mansfield College, Oxford, U.K., Jul. 17, 2014.

“A Story of Heroic Empathy Taken from the 19th-Century Bookshelf: An Art Historical Analysis of Orientalism in Walter Crane and Andrew Lang’s Fairy tale Picture Books.” Canadian Comparative Literature Association, Transnational Canons Conference, University of Alberta, AB, March 13, 2013.

“Of God, Guns and Government: Reforming the non-Inuit Subject Position in the work of Annie Pootoogook and the Kinngait Avant-Garde.” National Museum of the American Indian, Critical Aesthetics: Essentialism and Contemporary Native Art Symposium, New York, NY, May 5-6, 2011.

Select Guest Lectures

“Visual Crossovers: Victorian-era Children’s Picture Books and the Satirical Press,” Guest lecture for undergraduate course. Course led by Molly-Claire Gillett, Art History, Concordia University, QC, Nov. 11, 2019.

“Out of Hiding: Discovering Rare Books and Special Collections at Saint Paul University,” an interactive guest lecture in collaboration with the School of Social Communication, Indigenous Initiative Services, and the Jean-Léon Allie Library and Archives, Saint Paul University, ON, Mar. 27, 2019.  

“Utopian Glimmers: Intersections in the Nineteenth-Century Publications by William Morris and Walter Crane,” Guest lecture for graduate seminar. Course led by Dr. Nicola Pezolet, Art History, Concordia University, QC, Oct. 13, 2017.

“Fairy Tales and Contemporary Art,” Guest lecture for undergraduate seminar. Course led by Dr. Loren Lerner, Art History, Concordia University, QC, Sept. 20, 2016.

Editorial Service

Editorial Committee Member, MOQDOC, Montreal Ottawa Quebec Chapter of the Art Libraries Society of North America' publication, 2016-present

Book Review Editor, Papers/Cahiers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada, 2020-present

Profesional Associations

President, Montreal Ottawa Quebec chapter of the Art Libraries Society of North America, 2019-present

Vice-President, Montreal Ottawa Quebec chapter of the Art Libraries Society of North America, 2018-2020