Visiting Speaker -- Susan Cahill: "States of Observance: Contemporary Art and Surveillance Logic in Canada"
Date: October 19, 2026 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Location: The Law Building - 2
Queen's Art History alum, Dr. Susan Cahill, will be giving a talk on her recent book "States of Observance: Contemporary Art and Surveillance Logic in Canada," on Monday, October 19. The talk is from 5:30-7:00pm in the Law building room 2. https://www.mqup.ca/Books/S/States-of-ObservanceThe event is co-organized by the Department of Art History and Art Conservation, and the Department of Sociology.Light refreshments to follow.Abstract: In this presentation, Dr. Susan Cahill will discuss material from her recent book, States of Observance: Contemporary Art and Surveillance Logic in Canada (MQUP, 2026), which considers how contemporary art can illuminate the social, political, and cultural operations of surveillance. In her talk, Cahill will examine how creative practice can reveal the connections between settler colonialism and surveillance, including how surveillance has been used to monitor, manage, and control communities as part of the settler colonial project. The talk will focus on several community-engaged creative practices that expose these systems while fostering interconnections and communities of care, and imagining possibilities for resistance and change. Bio: Dr. Susan Cahill (she/her) is a white settler scholar who lives and works in Moh’kinsstis | Calgary on the traditional territories of the peoples of the Treaty 7 region. She is an Associate Professor in Art History and Head of the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Calgary. Her research has been published widely, and broadly explores art in its intersections with surveillance, belonging, and colonial statemaking in Canada. She is lead researcher of The Art & Surveillance Project (2015-ongoing), and wrote and directed an award-winning documentary, Almost Home (2018).https://profiles.ucalgary.ca/susan-cahill
Location: The Law Building - 2
Queen's Art History alum, Dr. Susan Cahill, will be giving a talk on her recent book "States of Observance: Contemporary Art and Surveillance Logic in Canada," on Monday, October 19. The talk is from 5:30-7:00pm in the Law building room 2. https://www.mqup.ca/Books/S/States-of-ObservanceThe event is co-organized by the Department of Art History and Art Conservation, and the Department of Sociology.Light refreshments to follow.Abstract: In this presentation, Dr. Susan Cahill will discuss material from her recent book, States of Observance: Contemporary Art and Surveillance Logic in Canada (MQUP, 2026), which considers how contemporary art can illuminate the social, political, and cultural operations of surveillance. In her talk, Cahill will examine how creative practice can reveal the connections between settler colonialism and surveillance, including how surveillance has been used to monitor, manage, and control communities as part of the settler colonial project. The talk will focus on several community-engaged creative practices that expose these systems while fostering interconnections and communities of care, and imagining possibilities for resistance and change. Bio: Dr. Susan Cahill (she/her) is a white settler scholar who lives and works in Moh’kinsstis | Calgary on the traditional territories of the peoples of the Treaty 7 region. She is an Associate Professor in Art History and Head of the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Calgary. Her research has been published widely, and broadly explores art in its intersections with surveillance, belonging, and colonial statemaking in Canada. She is lead researcher of The Art & Surveillance Project (2015-ongoing), and wrote and directed an award-winning documentary, Almost Home (2018).https://profiles.ucalgary.ca/susan-cahill