Maegan E. Gaudette (she / her) is a queer writer and artist residing in Montréal / Tiohtiá:ke, Québec, Canada. She graduated with Distinction from the University of Ottawa in 2019 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, specialising in oil painting, film photography, and textiles; at this time, she simultaneously began cultivating a strong interest in writing and art criticism.
As a current Masters student in the Department of Art History at Concordia University, she is soon to complete her thesis tentatively titled Transcending Beyond the ‘Detectable’: Mourning, Memory, and ARVs in Contemporary HIV/AIDS Activism, supervised by Dr. John Potvin. She is interested in the intersections of memory, grief, and the introduction of antiretroviral medications that, for many with access, have helped rupture the expected trajectory of the HIV virus. She additionally intends to investigate how contemporary artists, activists, and long-term survivors are working to honour the legacy of the artistic generation lost to AIDS-related complications — and how these chosen communities may promote regeneration in the form of an expansively imagined queer future, highlighting both the realities and histories of queer tenderness, love, and resilience.