Celia Vara
Performance art; corporeal agency; kinesthesia; research-creation; feminism
With a background and professional practice in psychology, Celia Vara is an artist, educator, curator, and postdoctoral fellow at McGill University. Her work bridges feminist theory, research-creation, and embodied methodologies. She explores kinesthesia, movement, and how agency and feminist resistance emerge through the body, drawing on 1970s feminist performance and contemporary embodied research-creation methodologies. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from Concordia University (2019), where her thesis, Kinesthetic Knowledge and Corporal Agency, received an “excellent” ranking in the oral defense. Her master’s thesis, Feminist Video Art in the 70s in Spain, won the 1st Prize in Gender and Research from Jaume I University in 2013.
She has served as Principal Investigator on several research, knowledge mobilization, and public scholarship initiatives funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC), the Réseau d’études féministes du Québec (RéQEF), and the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies (IGSF, McGill University). Her leadership in these projects demonstrates a sustained commitment to connecting academic research with broader communities and to advancing feminist and publicly engaged scholarship.
Her research and media work have appeared in publications including Journal Feral Feminisms, Institute for Research on Women (Rutgers University), McGraw Hill Editorial, Arte y Políticas de Identidad, Humanities and Entropy (MDPI, Switzerland), Journal of Embodied Research (University of Huddersfield, UK), Asparkia Investigació Feminista, and Feminism and Psychology.
Her pedagogical approach has been recognized with the 2024 Teaching Excellence Award at McGill University. She has been appointed to co-supervise doctoral theses in the PhD program in Art Studies and Practices - Doctorat en études et pratiques des arts (DÉPA) at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).
Her research interests include kinesthesia, movement, kinesthetic empathy, corporeal processes of consciousness, perception, corporeal agency, feminist pedagogies, and embodied research-creation methodologies. Her working languages are Spanish (mother tongue), English, and French.
Ph.D. Communication, Concordia University (2019)
M.A. Gender and Equality, Jaume I University, Spain (2009)
B.A. Psychology, University of Murcia, Spain (1997)
- Publications
- Video and Performance
- Curatorial Projects
- Workshops and Embodied Methodologies
- Video Guest Speaker
Publications
Footprints, silhouettes and maps: Feminist somatic traces. Asparkia. Investigació Feminista (48). ISSN: 1132- 8231/ e-ISSN: 2340-4795. 2026.
Somatic Threads: Body, Gesture and Memory in dialogue with the landscape in Performance and Nature Embodiment (ed. Valerie de la Dehesa). Servicio de publicaciones Piscis and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM). 2025.
“Embodied and Sensorial Methodologies for Researching Performance: Kinesthetic Empathy” video-article in vol.7.2 Special Issue on “Ecologies of Embodiment”. Journal of Embodied Research. Freely online via Open Library of Humanities. 2024.
Unfolding Sensorial Unknowns. hexagram. réseau de recherche-création en arts, cultures et technologies. 2023.
"Kinesthetic Experience: Emancipatory Corporeal Scores" (Humanities MDPI Special Issue 12(6) “With-In Bodies: Research Assemblages of the Sensory and the Embodied”) Freely online (open Access). 2023.
“Psychological Implicit Motives Construct as an Emergent Fractal Attractor from Intermittent Neurophysiological Responses: Simulation and Entropy-like Characterization”. Martín, M.Á.; Vara, C.; García-Gutiérrez, C. Entropy 2023, 25, 711.
“El cuerpo sensorial en la performance en los años 70: Kinesthesia y Agencia Corporal” in Arte y educación en contextos multidisciplinares (p. 854-869) Freely online (open Access). 2023.
"Tripas de Corazón" [Heart Guts]. REJOINDER. Issue 7, Spring 2022.
"Somatic Ways of Knowing". Performance Research. Volume 26, Issue 1 – On perception, 2021.
"Kinesthetic Empathy as Embodied Research". Performance Research. Volume 26, Issue 2 – On (Un)Knowns, 2021.
"Las partituras corporales de Fina Miralles" [Fina Miralles’ Body Scores] in Faxedas, Ll. Germinal. Sobre l’obra de Fina Miralles. Documenta Universitaria (Girona). 2020.
Co-author (Gámez Fuentes, M.J. and Vara, C.) “Lenguajes y sexismo (SRM007)” in Senent-Vidal, M.J & Téllez Infantes, A. (eds.) Manual de Igualdad Efectiva de Mujeres y Hombres en el Ámbito Público y Privado. Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I. 2021.
"Gleaning Corporeal Knowledge". Art and Identity Policies, 21, 96–119, 2019.
Video and Performance
Somatic Threads. Rencontres Interdisciplinaires. Agora du Coeur des Sciences. Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and hexagram. réseau de recherche-création en arts, cultures et technologies. 2024.
“Pecha Kucha”. Pilot video for a (coming soon) documentary with filmmaker Ivó Vinuesa. 2023.
“Fina Miralles: Embodied Stories” at Poetics+Politics 4 University of California, Santa Cruz. 2019.
"Bridges" (Collaboration in Performance with Alexandra Rodes) at Museo Universitario de Alicante (MUA) (pages 36-39). 2019.
“Tripas de Corazón” at RUTGERS – Institute for Research on Women. 2016.
“Atrezzo Tripas de Corazón by Agustina Martín de la Iglesia”. 2016.
"Bridges" (Collaboration in Performance with Alexandra Rodes). 2013.
"Violeta Esperanza" at feral feminisms and RUTGERS-Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities. 2013.
Curatorial Projects
Empreintes qui generent des cartes – Vidéo Performance: Espagne, Pays Basque, Québec. Screening and workshop. Cinéma Beaumont. Méduse (Coopérative d'organismes culturels et de centres d'artistes). 2025.
Empreintes qui generent des cartes – Vidéo Performance: Espagne, Pays Basque, Québec. Screening and workshop. Centre culturel Georges-Vanier. Montreal. 2025.
Dar Cuerpo al Cuerpo: Sensorial instructions for feminist political declarations: Spain and Caribe. Casa Mella Russo (Santo Domingo) Dominican Republic. 2025.
"Donner corps au corps." Instructions sensorielles pour des déclarations politiques féministes. Groupe Intervention Video (GIV) (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). 2024.
"Créer de l’espace: experiences kinesthésiques," MO(U)VEMENT(S) – HTMlles 2024 feminist festival of media arts and digital culture organized by Ada X - feminist artist-run centre (Montreal, Quebec, Canada).
“Dar Cuerpo al Cuerpo: Sensorial instructions for feminist political declarations. Catalonia and the Basque Country” Centre d’arts Santa Mònica – Barcelona (Catalonia). 2024.
“Dar Cuerpo al Cuerpo: Sensorial instructions for feminist political declarations. Quebec” Centre d’arts Santa Mònica – Barcelona (Catalonia). 2024.
“Les recerques de Fina Miralles” Super-8 Film (1973-1976) – Centro Cultural de España en Santo Domingo CCESD (Dominican Republic). 2018. [Youtube]
"I create new spaces. I build paths. I walk through them”. Feminist Media Studio – Communication Studies – Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). 2017.
Workshops and Embodied Methodologies
Empreintes qui generent des cartes – Vidéo Performance: Espagne, Pays Basque, Québec. Screening and workshop. Cinéma Beaumont. Méduse (Coopérative d'organismes culturels et de centres d'artistes). 2025.
Empreintes qui generent des cartes – Vidéo Performance: Espagne, Pays Basque, Québec. Screening and workshop. Centre culturel Georges-Vanier. Montreal. 2025.
Embodied methodologies: Kinesthetic Empathy: Dar Cuerpo al Cuerpo. Casa Mella Russo (Santo Domingo) Dominican Republic. 2025.
“Dar Cuerpo al Cuerpo: Sensorial instructions for feminist political declarations. Catalonia and the Basque Country” Centre d’arts Santa Mònica – Barcelona (Catalonia). 2024.
“Re-orienting gestures, sensing relationally: a workshop to cultivate kinesthetic empathy”. Uncommon Senses IV: Sensory Ecologies, Economies, and Aesthetics. Centre for Sensory Studies. Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). 2023.
“Re-orienting Bodies: Unfolding Sensorial Unknowns”. ISEA2022 – International Synmposium on Electronic Art. Barcelona (Catalonia). 2022.
“The body and the researcher”. Uncommon Senses III Conference: Back to the future of the senses. Centre for Sensory Studies. Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). 2021.
“Arte y feminismo en España y Latinoamérica en los años 70”. Centro Cultural de España en Santo Domingo. Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional al Desarrollo. 2018.
Video Guest Speaker
2025 “Cuerpo, tierra y silencio: una resistencia sensorial” III Congreso Internacional GAIA. Sculpture between body and territory.
2020 “Conocimiento Kinestésico”. Cátedra Anneta Nicoli: Cátedra Institucional de Estudios Artísticos. Facultad de Bellas Artes. Universidad Miguel Hernández.
2019 “Partituras corporales” Cátedra d’art i cultura contemporanis. Departament d’Història i Història de l’Art. Universitat de Girona.
2018. Cita Cultural. Centro Cultural de España en Santo Domingo (CCESD). Dominican Republic.
- FRQSC Postdoctoral Fellowship – Knowledge Mobilization Plan 2025
- Teaching Excellence Award (APF, McGill University) 2024
- Associate Professor Accreditation (ANECA and Ministerio de Universidades, Spain) 2024
- FRQSC Postdoctoral Research-Creation Fellowship, 2022-2024
- IVLA Deborah Curtis Artist Fellowship, 2024
- RéQEF Appui Projets Scientifics, 2023-2024
- ThinkSwiss Research Scholarship, Fonds National Suisse (FNS), Université de Lausanne (UNIL), 2017
- Hexagram Research Creation Fellowship, 2016
- Rona and Robert Davis Fellowship, 2016
- Concordia University Merit Scholarship, 2014
- UJI Prize Award Gender and Research - Universitat Jaume I, 2014