Dr. Katie Hemsworth is a cultural geographer and research associate with the Dr. Gilles Arcand Centre for Health Equity, where she contributes to critical health research on social accountability, place, and community-campus engagement. Katie gravitates toward creative, community-driven projects rooted in relationship, care, and social justice. Her PhD research (Queen’s University) focused on the sonic geographies of incarceration. Prior to joining the Arcand Centre, Katie was a postdoctoral research fellow with the Centre for Understanding Semi-Peripheries (CUSP) at Nipissing University, on traditional Nbisiing Nishnaabeg lands. There, she had the honour of working in relationship with members of Nipissing First Nation and Dokis First Nation on Sharing Old Stories, a community-academic partnership that led to co-travelling exhibits: the Lake Nipissing Beading Project and Our Guides Were Really Going Places.

Katie grew up in Thunder Bay on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe of Fort William First Nation, signatory to the Robinson-Superior Treaty of 1850 and home to the Métis. She continuously works to understand her relationship to the land as a settler, including honouring treaty responsibilities and engaging in reparative action. Katie is currently working remotely from the Niagara region but still considers Thunder Bay home and returns often. When not at work, she can often be found enjoying the local music scene with her partner or visiting the neighbourhood dogs. 

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