Naila Keleta-Mae

Dr. Naila Keleta-Mae is a Dorothy Killam Fellow, Canada Research Chair (Tier II SSHRC), Royal Society of Canada College Member, Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo and multi-disciplinary artist. She is the Principal Investigator of Black And Free, a research-creation project started in 2017 that brings together artists, academics, students and the general public through multi-year research partnerships with private and public sector organizations. Keleta-Mae has authored the books Beyoncé and Beyond: 2013-2016 (Routledge UK, 2023) and Performing Female Blackness (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2023) and she is Co-Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Theatre Research In Canada/Recherches théâtrales au Canada. Recipient of a UWaterloo Arts Award for Excellence in Research (2022), Keleta-Mae’s research and artistic contributions have been particularly salient in two related fields: Black Expressive Culture and Black Feminisms. Her music albums are Fire Woman, Bloom and Free Dome: South Africa; her plays are What We Deserve, No Knowledge College and stuck and she has performed in Canada, France, Jamaica and South Africa. Keleta-Mae has also commentated for media outlets including the Canadian Broadcast Corporation, Business News Network, CTV, The Canadian Press, The National Post, The Fader, Today’s Parent and the British Broadcast Corporation.