Researcher Spotlight No. 11: Kate McSweeney

The CEMVC is back at it again with another exciting researcher spotlight!

Kate McSweeney obtained her Master of Letters from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland in 2024 after graduating from Mount Allison as one of the first two honours students in VMCS in 2023. In 2021, she started working for CEMVC on the Aesop's Fables project through a placement in her first ever VMCS course. This was one of the pivotal moments that cemented her love of VMCS and convinced her to switch her major from biology to VMCS. Her honours thesis discussed the benefits of teaching visual literacy in medical school, an attempt to bridge her love of science (specifically biology), arts, and humanities. Since then, she has worked with Dr. Lauren Beck and Dr. Christina Ionescu on various research projects relating to place names, book illustrations, gender representation in film, and most recently medieval and early modern symbolism used by far-right groups in North America. This led her to complete her master's degree in Scotland where she authored her thesis on the topic of gendered portrayal of women in contemporary thriller films. Her interests span across multiple fields and disciplines which is why a love of VMCS, an incredibly interdisciplinary field of study, makes perfect sense for her. She hopes to continue researching in the field of visual culture and complete her MLIS degree to work in arts-based data and metadata management. She is currently a graduate intern at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles in the Collections, Information, and Access Department where she helps keep the back end of the museum’s collections pages and databases running smoothly.

Question 1: How have visual and material culture studies changed your outlook on life?

Studying VMCS at Mount Allison University completely changed the way that I looked at the world and the outputs of human culture and creativity. Prior to taking VMCS classes, I never thought much about the visual and material world around me. Today I have a much deeper understanding of the intention that goes into creating and how messages are conveyed through non-textual sources. I now know that learning to decode implicit messages and taking the time to understand personal biases can have such a profound impact on your outlook on life. 

Question 2: What are your plans moving forward?

My career plans for the future first involve me obtaining my MLIS degree which would allow me to work as an academic librarian (specifically in the arts). This is currently my dream career because it would place me in a position where I could make full use of all my various degrees and past work experience. I would love to take some time to teach students about the value of learning through visual and material sources and how to properly and effectively conduct research on these subjects. A position such as this would also allow me to conduct research of my own which is something I have loved doing over the past 2 years both independently and under the guidance of Dr. Beck. 

Question 3: If you had a superpower, what would you want it to be and why?

If I could have any superpower, it would be the ability to speak every language in the world (including talking to animals and dead languages). This may initially seem contradictory to my previous statements about the crucial value of non-textual or verbal communication, but I do feel as though there is so much I could learn from being able to communicate with people across the globe. Additionally, I would be able to understand old written texts in languages that no longer exist and imagine how amazing that would be!