Tesni Ellis is an educator & researcher living in Trent Hills, Ontario. In post-secondary education and community settings, Tesni creates learning spaces where people come together to think and make sense of the world and their experiences in artistic practice and dialogue.

Tesni is presently a PhD Candidate in language, culture, and teaching at York University’s Faculty of Education. She holds a doctoral fellowship award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for her project, “Drawing Towards Each Other”. Blending curriculum theorizing, non-representational inquiry, and artistic practice, Tesni is bringing post-secondary students together to form drawing groups that explore collective drawing practice as a way to relate to each other, our studies, and the world.

Tesni also presently teaches Professional Communication to students online at Northern Lakes College in Slave Lake, Alberta. Students from across Alberta and especially in rural areas gain access to post-secondary education through Northern Lakes College’s online courses.

Tesni completed her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Communication Studies while living at home in suburban Ottawa. Then, she moved to Toronto where she completed a Master of Arts in Communication and Culture at York University. For her SSHRC-awarded master’s project “Media-Making at Youville Centre”, Tesni taught digital storytelling to a group of students at a non-profit, alternative education centre for teenage mothers. The artful counter-narratives that emerged from participants voiced their ongoing concerns and experiences and highlighted storytelling’s power as a critical pedagogical form for better understanding oneself in relation to the world.

Between her Master’s and present doctoral studies, Tesni worked as a communications/marketing professional at Toronto Metropolitan University in the division of student affairs. She led teams of staff and students creating multimedia works to share the range of resources and opportunities available to students. Some of her most memorable projects include co-creating the Student Experience Research Team and mentoring the RU Student Life team of student creators.