Mirra-Margarita Ianeva

Mirra-Margarita Ianeva (she/her) completed a Master’s degree in Art History at McGill University (2020). Her SSHRC-funded thesis borrows from political philosophy and contemporary art to critically revisit posthumanism’s political figurations and its framing of the ‘hard question’ posed by the ecological crisis (supervisor: Dr. Christine Ross). She co-organized the Art History and Communication Studies Graduate Symposium Potentials of Ecocriticism in 2018 and has been an occasional member of the Anti-Colonial Environmental Studies Reading Group. 

Contact: mirra-margarita.ianeva@mail.mcgill.ca 

Project  

Her Master’s thesis suggests that, in the hands of many posthumanists, the project of carving a politics out of a posthumanist metaphysics has been mostly oriented towards rethinking the nature of agency and the constitution of the public in an effort to extend political participation to nonhumans. The thesis proposes a shift to this emphasis, not to show that the effort has been misplaced but to point to the fact that it has overlooked the human subject as a crucial site of transformation. Borrowing from philosophy (feminist, Foucauldian and Arendtian) as well as works of contemporary art, it provides reflections towards a possible re-framing of the challenge posed to politics by our current ecological moment.  

Activity 

She has also been involved with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts since 2018, where she has contributed research and grant writing towards various projects, including the future expansion of the Museum’s Inuit art initiatives.