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Debbie McDougall is a PhD student in Cultural Studies. For decades, she has had a rewarding professional career as both a ballet dancer [soloist and corps de ballet], and modern/contemporary dancer and choreographer across Canada, while concurrently teaching as both a faculty member and a sessional at universities, colleges, and professional institutes, lecturing and giving experiential training to teachers and students in dance, composition, pedagogy, anatomy and kinesiology, history, and yogic practices and philosophies. She holds a BA (2017), major in Dance, minors in Religious Studies and English; a BEd (2019), major in Secondary Social Studies; and a MEd (2021) in Interdisciplinary Studies, with two research streams: Neuroscience and Education, and Psychology–Enhancing Mental Health (University of Calgary). 

Through autoethnography’s rich narrative methodology, Debbie’s Master of Education allowed her to contemplate, interpret, and offer up a movement-based lens for positive affective outcomes as a means to fill a gap in our societal directives towards mental wellness; so that dance educators can understand how to develop somatic knowledge to shift emotional awareness. Her current doctoral research will creatively entwine the art of language, the rigour of academia, and the inspiration of artistry into a robust approach  that will explore the positionality of women, to explore the formation of self within dance culture, and to ponder their interconnectivity. Further, to locate the societal shifts that have caused the loss or lacking of specific practices for emotional literacy; professional wellbeing and longevity; and to better understand the power of women in dance.

Debbie’s research interests include: performing arts; dance, cultural studies, religious studies within Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity; yogic philosophy and practices; Sanskrit language studies; English literature and writing poetry; Indigenous studies; and, the investigation of women’s presence and contribution within all of these areas. 

The Queen’s University PhD program in Cultural Studies encourages and supports interdisciplinarity and creative directions, and provides Debbie freedom and access to disciplinary knowledge, literature, and approaches across disciplines.