This story is published in YFile’s New Faces feature issue 2026. Every September, YFile introduces and welcomes those joining the 91ɫ community.
Five new full-time, permanent members join 91ɫ's .
“We’re thrilled to be welcoming such an accomplished and talented group of colleagues to the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) this year," says Dean Brandon Vickerd. “Their passion and depth of experience will enrich our community, expanding opportunities for creative collaboration, hands-on learning and research. I’m looking forward to seeing their contributions."
Lyndon Barrois, Jr.
An artist and educator based in Toronto, Barrois Jr. joins 91ɫ as an assistant professor. Working across a range of media, he draws on references from film, literature and art history to produce translations and transformations that examine the politics of display and colonial extraction resonant in visual and material cultures. His practice navigates questions of colour, control, taste, waste and the layering of information.
Barrois Jr. is also one half of LAB-D, a collaborative practice with artist Addoley Dzegede. Together, they have staged four exhibitions and co-authored a book of essays, Elleboog (Jan van Eyck Academie, 2019).
He received an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and a BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, and completed residencies at LATITUDE (U.S.); Loghaven (U.S.); the Jan van Eyck Academie (the Netherlands); Fogo Island Arts (Canada); and the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) (Ireland).
Most recently, he was the 2025 Starr Fellow at the Royal Academy Schools, London, and held a previous role with Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, as assistant professor and MFA program director.
Tanya Berg
Berg is a Toronto-based ballet teacher, dance educator and researcher. A graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School Teacher Training Program, her PhD research explored kinesthetic dialogue and embodied communication in advanced ballet pedagogy, reflecting her ongoing commitment to innovative approaches to dance education.
Prior to joining the Department of Dance, Theatre & Performance Studies at 91ɫ as assistant professor, Berg was a sessional lecturer for more than two decades in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto. She has also spent time teaching in the Faculty of Education at 91ɫ.
Her research examines dance pedagogy, embodied learning, arts-based education and global perspectives on dance. She serves as chair of the not-for-profit chapter of Dance and the Child international (daCi), contributing to international conferences and collaborations that advance dance education worldwide.
In addition to her research and teaching, Berg regularly serves on MA and PhD supervisory and examination committees across multiple faculties and institutions, including 91ɫ and the University of Toronto, supporting graduate research in dance, education, sociology and kinesiology.
Daphne Rena Idiz
Idiz joins 91ɫ as assistant professor in film and media industries. Her research investigates how media industries, cultural policy frameworks and production cultures respond to and shape technological change, with a focus on streaming and generative AI. She holds a PhD in media studies from the University of Amsterdam and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto.
Idiz currently serves as co-director of the Creative Labour and Critical Futures project and is also co-investigator on the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada-funded research project “Worker-led AI Governance: Power Resources and Shared Learnings of Cultural Workers in Canada and Brazil.”
Other notable contributions include her role as co-editor of the special issues "Streaming Production Cultures" (Television & New Media, 2026) and “Cultural Workers and Generative AI” (AI & Society, 2026). She has also contributed to public policy development through commissioned research for the European Union and is the recipient of the 2025 CRTC–CCA Prize for Excellence in Policy Research (Research Category).
Moynan King
Joining 91ɫ as an assistant professor in 91ɫ's Department of Theatre, Dance & Performance, King is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist. She holds a PhD in theatre and performance studies from 91ɫ and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Western University.
King's research interests include feminist performance, theory and history; the effects of queer performance on the lives and communities with which it intersects; innovative performance creation and play/screen writing; improvisation, performativity and embodiment in life and art; sound studies; and alternative comedic strategies.
King's critical writing on theatre and performance is widely published. She was the editor of Queer Performance: Women and Trans Artists (CTR 149), the book Queer/Play: An Anthology of Queer Women’s Performance and Plays and co-editor of Sound & Performance (CTR 184) with Megan Johnson. She is the recipient of a Canadian Screen Award for her writing on CBC’s Baroness von Sketch Show on which she also made regular appearances as an actor. Additionally, King was co-founder and director of Hysteria: A Festival of Women in Toronto, and was co-director of Toronto's Rhubarb! Festival.
She has held artistic residencies across Canada including at Nakai Theatre in Whitehorse and Studio 303 in Montreal. She recently co-directed the film Club Concussion.
Emilia White
White joins 91ɫ as an assistant professor of integrative arts at 91ɫ. She is a Toronto-based performer and object maker who works within a DIY aesthetic that values imperfection and resists elitism. Through this approach, she creates absurd, playful and participatory performances grounded in feminist perspectives. Influenced by anti-theatre traditions such as Dada, Fluxus and Happenings, her projects disrupt conventional performance spaces, transforming everyday environments into sites of collective creation.
White draws on her background in theatre and puppetry, as well as four years living and working with the political art collective Taring Padi in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to create “art for the people” as well as immersive, shared experiences. For the past five years, she has primarily used her sewing machine to create objects for performance. Her visual art draws from craft traditions and recently has focused on producing multiples to reveal the labour of the artist and the therapeutic value of making.
Her work has been presented throughout Canada, the U.S. and Indonesia. She holds a BFA in theatre and original works from Cornish College of the Arts and an MFA in studio arts from the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design.