T.L. Cowan

Associate Professor

T.L. Cowan (she/they) is an Associate Professor of Media Studies in the Department of Arts Culture and Media (UTSC) and the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, as well as a cabaret and video artist. Her creative-research practice moves between page, stage, and screen, including the work of her alter-ego, Mrs. Trixie Cane and the “I Disown You Right Back” campaign, as well as the “GLITTERfesto: An Open Call in Trinity Formation for a Revolutionary Movement of Activist Performance Based on the Premise That Social Justice is Fabulous,” which will be featured in the exhibition GLITTER, at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Germany (February 28 to October 26, 2025) and Gewerbemuseum Winterthur Switzerland (November 27, 2025  to May 17, 2026).

T.L.’s research focuses on cultural and intellectual economies and networks of minoritized digital media and performance practices. Notable commissions for their creative-critical work include the PlugIn Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg, Queens Museum in New York City, and Nuit Blanche in Toronto. She is currently completing two monographs, Transmedial Drag and Other Cross-Platform Cabaret Methods, and The Needs of Others: Trauma, Media & Disorder. Cowan was a 2022-23 faculty fellow of the Queer & Trans Research Lab (QTRL) at the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto, initiating a new research project, “Assisted Living in the Life of the Mind: Building Trans- Feminist & Queer Neurodiversity Networks in the University.”

T.L.’s recent essays include “Abortion for Beginners” in Representing Abortion, “Don’t you know that digitization is not enough? Digitization is not enough!” in Moving Archives, “X-Reception: Re-mediating Trans- Feminist and Queer Performance Art” in The Routledge Companion to Digital Humanities & Art History, “Holding for Applause: On Queer Cabaret in Pandemic Times” in Avidly, and “Run with Whatever You Can Carry”: Cross-Platform Materials and Methods in Performance Studies–Meets–Digital Humanities” in American Quarterly. T.L. is also a co-author of the Feminist Data Manifest-NO and creator of the Manifest-No Playlist.

T.L. frequently collaborates with Jas Rault. Together they have co-authored a book entitled Heavy Processing, about trans- feminist and queer digital research methods and ethics (open access, punctum books, 2024). They are the co-editors of a “Metaphors as Meaning and Method in Technoculture,” a special section of Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience (Fall 2022) and co-authors of numerous essays together. Cowan & Rault co-direct two online research environments: the Cabaret Commons, the Digital Research Ethics Collaboratory (DREC) and are founding directors of the Critical Digital Methods Institute (CDMI).

T.L. Cowan poses for a selfie in a bathroom mirror. The bathroom is in the Helsinki Art Museum, and features the mosaic “You don’t know how beautiful you are” by the artist Tuula Lehtinen. The mosaic is made of ceramic plates that are painted and fired with porcelain colours (https://www.tuulalehtinen.fi/art-architecture/ ). The mosaic features swirls of a colour pallet including pink, orange and white tiles, creating a design that surrounds the walls of the bathroom. The mirror is on a diagonal. T.L. is a tall white queer femme with dark curly hair with bangs and large-framed eye glasses. She is wearing dark pants, a navy-blue fishing vest and a long dark shirt. She is taking the selfie with a phone in a blue case with a blue popsocket. She has line-drawn tattoos on her fingers.

Links

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Blog Posts by T.L. Cowan