I am a scholar and an artist and have worked at universities in Canada and Britain. My BA and MA degrees are from Canadian universities and I did my PhD in Britain at the University of Leeds, where I taught and then later worked as Research Fellow between 2017 and 2020.
My appointment at Western began in July 2020 and situates me in between FIMS's new Creative Arts and Production program (CAP), Media, Information, and Technoculture (MIT), and the Digital Certificate. This academic year (2022-23) I am teaching Introduction to Creative Arts; Image, Sound, Text I (with Sally Kewayosh and Joanna Devereux); and Creativity in the 21st Century as well as First Year Foundations in MIT and Writing across Digital Media Platforms.
My principal research expertise and publications have focused on the late British playwright Harold Pinter, with special emphasis on his political drama and activism and the affective dimension of his work in those two arenas. More recently my research and publications have considered the politics of memory, the stakes for citizen subjectivity under contemporary capitalism, and the relationship between artistic influence and originality. My work in these areas informs my teaching and research at Western.
I am steadily evolving a research project entitled Forest City Memories. This project, supported by the FIMS USRI and Initiatives funding schemes, examines how the past and collective memories are, and are not, constructed across the civic landscape and, relatedly, how a city's memorial culture enables us to apprehend the way Canada is contending with its colonial history. Forest City Memories employs student research interns and features geospatial mapping technology that plots and and offers a critical re-narration of numerous memorials and commemorative sites around London. The project is heading in new directions as it focuses on working collaboratively with community partners who are invested in the production and politics of memorial culture around London.
My approaches to both teaching and research are informed by my diverse background in the arts. I have worked as a professional musician, performing; recording; composing; and teaching, and continue to perform with bands and compose original music. I have also worked in show production as a carpenter and audio technician and I have experience as an actor, creative writer, and dramaturg.
Chiasson, B. (2022), "Subjectivity in Dennis Kelly's Drama: Slouching towards Neoliberalism." In The Plays of Dennis Kelly. Manchester: Manchester UP, forthcoming summer 2022.
Chiasson, B., and C. Fallow, eds (2021), Harold Pinter: Stages, Networks, Collaborations, London: Bloomsbury.
Chiasson, B. (2021), "Pinter’s Modernism(s) Revisited: A Drama Reliant upon Prose." In Harold Pinter: Stages, Networks, Collaborations, B. Chiasson and C. Fallow, eds, 15-41, London: Bloomsbury.
___ (2020), "Harold Pinter's Remembrance of Things Political: What Memory Meant for the Citizen." The Harold Pinter Review: Essays on Contemporary Drama 4.1 (May): 1-19.
___ (2019), Review of W. Baker Pinter’s World: Relationships, Obsessions, and Artistic Endeavors, Modern Drama 62(3): 366-68. DOI: 10.3138/md.62.3.br3.
___ (2018), "Simon Stephens, Birdland, and a Few Affects of Neoliberalization." Journal of Contemporary Drama in English 6.2: 331-57. DOI: 10.1515/jcde-2018-0029.
___ (2017), The Late Harold Pinter: Political Dramatist, Poet and Activist, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
___ (2017), Review of M. Wickstrom Performance in the Blockades of Neoliberalism: Thinking the Political Anew, Performing Ethos: International Journal of Ethics in Theatre & Performance 7.1 (Oct.): 48-50.
___ (2014), "Pinter's Political Dramas: Staging Neoliberal Discourse and Authoritarianism." In M. Taylor-Batty's The Theatre of Harold Pinter, 249-67, London: Bloomsbury. DOI: 10.5040/9781408175293.
___ (2013), "Harold Pinter's 'More Precisely Political' Dramas, or a Post-1983 Economy of Affect." Modern Drama 56.1: 80-101. DOI: 10.1353/mdr.2013.0007.
___ (2009), "(Re)Thinking Harold Pinter’s Comedy of Menace." In M. Brewer, ed, Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter, 31-54, Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. DOI: 10.1163/9789042028920_004.
