Ruth Skinner

I am a faculty member and community engagement specialist who assists university researchers and students in presenting their work through accessible public programming (exhibitions, presentations and performances, videos, conferences, publications, and social media).

I have a PhD in visual culture. My doctoral research considers innovations of independent artists' publishing over the last five decades, as well as challenges artists and artist publishers experience related to funding and distribution. I've also managed an art book store and was Executive Director of one of the oldest artist-run centres in Canada, Forest City Gallery, which supports emerging arts practices in all media while advocating for the rights of artists and arts professionals.

I teach in the area of media literacy, artist-run advocacy, interdisciplinary pedagogies and community-based learning in the School for Advanced Studies in the Arts and Humanities (SASAH) at Western University. My signature course for this program considers what it means to pursue "literacy" in an era of endless information. We explore the past, present, and future trajectories of information systems: surveying how digital researchers and historians, web and software developers, artists, authors, activists, and theorists engage our digital landscapes—posing critical questions of social, political, economic, and creative significance. Our class labs workshop topics like debunking misinformation and disinformation, understanding privacy online, navigating impossible terms and agreements and community guidelines, developing effective research and communication methods with open access software, ethical uses for AI, and more.