About
Dr. Marissa Largo (she/her) is an assistant professor of Creative Technologies in the School of Art, Media, Performance & Design of York University. Her research/research-creation focuses on the intersections of community engagement, race, gender and Asian diasporic cultural production. She earned her PhD in Social Justice Education from OISE, University of Toronto (2018) and holds a Master’s degree in Art Education from Concordia University, and undergraduate degrees in Visual Arts and Education from York University.
From 2006 to 2020, Dr. Largo honed her love for teaching as a secondary visual arts educator. She has previously taught at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) University, where she was awarded the OCAD University Teaching Award for Continuing Studies and Non-Tenured Faculty in 2020. From 2020 to 2021, Dr. Largo was anassistant professor in Art Education, in the Division of Art History and Contemporary Culture at NSCAD University.
Her forthcoming book, Unsettling Imaginaries: Filipinx Contemporary Artists in Canada (University of Washington Press) examines the work and oral histories of artists who imagine Filipinx subjectivity beyond colonial logics. She is co-editor of Diasporic Intimacies: Queer Filipinos and Canadian Imaginaries (Northwestern University Press, 2017) and a guest co-editor of the Beyond Canada 150: Asian Canadian Visual Cultures, a special issue of the Journal of Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas (Brill Press, 2018). Since 2018, she has served as the Canada Area Editor of the Journal of Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas (ADVA).
Dr. Largo is the recipient of numerous awards and grants for her research and creative practice. In 2013, she was awarded the prestigious Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and is a recipient of the 2019 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Research on the Education of Asian and Pacific Americans (REAPA) special interest group of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). In 2021, she was awarded an Ontario Arts Council Grant for Curatorial Projects: Indigenous and Culturally Diverse and a Canada Council for the Arts grant: Arts Across Canada Program for her curatorial project Elusive Desires: Ness Lee & Florence Yee at the Varley Art Gallery of Markham (September 2021 to January 2022). Elusive Desires was recognized by the 2022 Galeries Ontario/Ontario Galleries (GOG) Awards for best exhibition design and installation and best curatorial writing. At present, Dr. Largo is part of a team developing the new Creative Technologies BFA program at the York University Markham Campus, which will open its doors in Summer 2024.
Her projects have been presented in venues and events across Canada, such as the A Space Gallery (2017 & 2012), Open Gallery of OCAD University (2015), Royal Ontario Museum (2015), WorldPride Toronto (2014), The Robert Langen Art Gallery (2013), Nuit Blanche in Toronto (2019, 2018, 2012 and 2009), and MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) (2007). She also collaborates with community organizations that connect policy engagement with creative and social practice.
Dr. Largo welcomes graduate students whose research falls within Asian diasporic cultural production, Filipinx studies, particularly in the visual art, decolonial aesthetics, radical curation, virtual curation, queer studies, community-based art education, and research-creation.
Awards / Grants
2023
York University Research Award for Artistic & Creative Accomplishments. From the President and the Vice-President of Research & Innovation of York University.
2022
45th Annual Galeries Ontario/Ontario Galleries (GOG) Award Winner for Curatorial Writing Text between 2000 – 5000 Words: Marissa Largo, “Elusive Desires: Queer Feminist Asian Diaspora and Suburban Possibilities”, Varley Art Gallery of Markham.
45th Annual Galeries Ontario/Ontario Galleries (GOG) Award Winner for Best Exhibition Design and Installation: Elusive Desires: Ness Lee + Florence Yee, Marissa Largo, Curator, Varley Art Gallery of Markham.
45th Annual Galeries Ontario/Ontario Galleries (GOG) Award Shortlist for Exhibition of the Year Budget over $20,000 Thematic: Elusive Desires: Ness Lee + Florence Yee, Marissa Largo, Curator, Varley Art Gallery of Markham.
2021
Ontario Arts Council Grant for Curatorial Projects: Indigenous and Culturally Diverse, Elusive Desires: Ness Lee & Florence Yee curated by Marissa Largo at the Varley Art Gallery of Markham, $25,000
Canada Council for the Arts Grant, Public Outreach component of the Arts Across Canada Program for Elusive Desires: Ness Lee & Florence Yee curated by Marissa Largo at the Varley Art Gallery of Markham, $27,000
2020
SSHRC Research Development Fund Grant, NSCAD University, $3500
Ontario College of Art and Design University Teaching Award For Continuing Studies and Non-Tenured Faculty.
2019
Certificate of Excellence for advancing student success and engagement of the Filipino community in the field of culturally relevant curriculum development. Presented at the Filipino Heritage Month celebration at the Toronto Catholic District School Board. June 12, 2019.
Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Research on the Education of Asian and Pacific Americans (REAPA) special interest group of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). This award recognizes a scholar whose dissertation has had a significant impact on our understanding of Asian American and/or Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in education
2018
Filipino Centre Toronto’s Rosalinda C. Javier Outstanding Student Award, Post-Secondary Graduate Category
Exhibition Assistance Grant, Ontario Arts Council
Award for Best Article (Graduate) from the Filipino Section of the Association for Asian American Studies for “A Country That Does Not Exist,” Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas 1, no. 1-2 (2015): 108-130.
2017
OISE Academic Excellence Award
2016
University of Toronto, School of Graduate Studies Travel Grant
OISE Academic Excellence Award
2013
Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship
OISE Academic Excellence Award
OECTA Reverend J.H. Conway Memorial Scholarship for Post-Graduate Studies
The University of Toronto Student Engagement in the Arts Award
Exhibition Assistance Grant, Ontario Arts Council
2012
Exhibition Assistance Grant, Ontario Arts Council
2011
Exhibition Assistance Grant, Ontario Arts Council
2009
Exhibition Assistance Grant, Ontario Arts Council
2004
J.A. de Sève Graduate Fellowship, Concordia University