Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta
Founder, Organizer
Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta is an Associate Professor in the Theatre Department at the University of Victoria, where she brings her love of storytelling, community, and performance into both the classroom and her research. Her teaching journey has taken her from lecture halls in London and classrooms in Manchester and now to the lands and waters of the West Coast.
As a theatre maker and researcher, Kirsten has had the privilege of working with communities around the world. Her path has led her into shared spaces with the Hul’q’umi’num’ community on Vancouver Island, children in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, young people in the favelas of Brazil, young women in rural Cambodia, adolescents in Nicaragua, and students with special needs in schools in the Netherlands.
She is currently immersed in two SSHRC-funded research projects that explore how theatre can support the revitalization of Coast Salish languages: work that invites listening, collaboration, and care. Through these projects, she continues to learn from the communities she works alongside, discovering how performance can become a living space for language, resilience and cultural renewal.
As the producer of this festival, Kirsten is honoured to be part of this gathering of voices, stories, and shared intentions. She looks forward to meeting everyone and is deeply grateful for the opportunity to perform alongside her dear colleagues and friends, Hazel Fairbairn and Tara Morris, in a space held with care and collaboration.