ABOUT MARBELLA

I am a queer, first-generation immigrant born in the Philippines, raised in Alberta, and now based in Montreal. I am a PhD student at Concordia University in the Individualized Program in Fine Arts where my research looks at the healing and liberatory properties of neo-burlesque for queer and racialized communities in Canada and I use an interdisciplinary approach that merges creative arts therapies, performance, and social justice.

I hold multiple doctoral research assistant positions including working with Dr. Casey Burkholder in the JOYLab, using arts-based, social justice-informed, research methods with 2SLGBTQIA+ participants to engage in research for social change; as a Research Fellow in the Research and Advocacy Program at the SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation, where I collaborate with community partner Centre KAPWA to produce research outputs that advance their goal of improving mental health access for Filipino youth in Quebec; and as a research assistant and student actor in Dr. Jessica Bleuer’s Teaching Lab: When the Polycrisis Enters Your Classroom, a collaboration with Concordia’s Centre for Teaching and Learning focused on building educators’ capacity to respond when microaggressions, genocide, war, and other global and local crises emerge in the classroom.

My academic background is in Visual Arts (BFA), Social Justice Focused Arts Education(BEd), and Creative Arts Therapies (MA), and I previously researched the experiences of racialized clients in art therapy spaces. Since 2020, I have been in private practice as an art therapist and mental health counsellor with a therapeutic approach grounded in anti-oppressive, sex-positive, and decolonial values.

As an artist, I perform as my neo-burlesque alter ego, Joy Rider, using performance to challenge stereotypes, reclaim sensuality, and explore cultural identity. My work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, LA SERRE Arts vivants, the Burlesque Hall of Fame, MAI – Montréal Arts Interculturels, Tangente, CanAsian Dance, and Festival AccesAsie.