To the MSVU community,
I am thrilled to introduce Dr. Jude Abu Zaineh as the next Nancy’s Chair (2026-2028).
Dr. Abu Zaineh is a Palestinian-Canadian interdisciplinary artist-curator working across art, food, science, and technology studies. Her work investigates ideas of culture, displacement, diaspora, and belonging through de-colonial and feminist perspectives. Her examination of ideas of home and community is influenced by her upbringing in Southwest Asia.
Some of you will already have had a chance to meet Dr. Abu Zaineh, as she did a residency with the MSVU Art Gallery in March 2025 and had a solo show here last Fall.
She is the recipient of several awards including, the 2020 William and Meredith Saunderson Prizes for Emerging Artists, and was one of the first selected artists to participate in a collaborative residency with the Ontario Science Centre and MOCA Toronto (Canada). She has presented her works at Ireland Glass Biennale; Malta Society of Arts, Valletta, Malta; Cultivamos Cultura, São Luis, Portugal; Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia, Lisbon, Portugal; Centro de Cultura Digital, Mexico City, Mexico; SVA, NYC, USA; Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, USA; Forest City Gallery, London, Canada; Art Gallery of Windsor, Canada; Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris, France; Museum London, Canada; Museum of Glass, Washington, USA, and more.
Dr. Abu Zaineh’s works can be found in the permanent collections of The Museum of Glass (USA), Art Windsor-Essex, the City of Windsor’s Public Art Commission, as well as private collections internationally. Her work has been featured in VICE Arabia, PBS, NPR, across CBC platforms, Canadian Art magazine, NEUES GLAS-NEW GLASS: art & architecture magazines, and on the cover of fuse: the Museum of Glass Magazine.
She received an MFA from the University of Windsor and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY, USA), where she was an RPI Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences Fellow and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellow.
Dr. Abu Zaineh begins in her role as Nancy’s Chair in July 2026.
The Nancy’s Chair at MSVU was established in the mid-1980s by feminist and philanthropist Nancy Ruth to raise awareness of women’s issues. The Chair enables MSVU to host distinguished scholars and activists who have contributed to the advancement of women, adding substantially to the intellectual strength of women’s studies at MSVU and in the Atlantic region. Duties associated with the Chair include teaching, research, and public presentations on campus and around the Atlantic provinces.
Thank you to the members of the search committee and to all who attended the candidate presentations. I was honoured to serve alongside committee members Dr. Maya Eichler, Dr. El Jones, Tammy Mercer, Dr. Meredith Ralston, Dr. Susan Trenholm, and Dr. Tegan Zimmerman.
Sincerely,
Carrie
Dr. Carrie Dawson
Dean of Arts and Science
Mount Saint Vincent University