Bachelor of Fine Art: Intermedia Major, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, 1999
Community Mental Health Worker Citation, Douglas University, 2007
Masters of Applied Art: Media Studies Major, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, 2011
Del Pieve Gobbi is passionate about mental health and work as a peer support facilitator for students with mental health disabilities. Del Pieve Gobbi has since her bachelor’s degree made four 35mm films about sexual assault and PTSD. These films are abstract and experiential rather than plot driven. They played internationally in 14 countries. Del Pieve Gobbi has received multiple grants for art production and travel. These resources were essential as the rewards of filmmaking are esoteric rather than practical. Her films have played in film festivals in 15 countries.
The opportunity to research mental health disability in higher education using autoethnographic and art-based methodology in the ISGP program is exactly the right thing. She enjoyed the opportunity to create her own course of study at UBC.
In my research I primarily use the methodologies of artography and autoethnography. A/r/tography is reflexive research through artistic practice. I am throughout my research involved in making, construing meaning through art and metaphor. A/r/tographic researchers keep in mind their reflexive positionality as artist-researcher-teachers. Autoethnography is the practice in research of writing about your community through the lens of your own experiences. Living inquiry, poetic inquiry, mad studies, and disability studies intersect with my work. I am exploring mental health disability in higher education through the lens of my own experiences. My primary research centres around the concepts of stigma and resilience, and perhaps coping mechanisms towards academic success.
Awards
Exhibition Travel Grant, Telefilm Canada, 2000
Third Prize Directors Choice Award, Black Maria Film Fest, 2001
Juried Production Grant, Cineworks, 2001
Juried Production Grant, BC Arts Council, 2003
Exhibition Travel Grant, Canada Council, 2004
Winsor Gallery First Place Graduate Student Award, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, 2009
Interdisciplinary Studies Fellowship, University of British Columbia, 2017
Syd Vernon Graduate Student Award, University of British Columbia, 2018
Michael Stahl Memorial Graduate Scholarship, University of British Columbia, 2018
President’s Award for Academic Excellence, University of British Columbia, 2020-24
a/r/tography; autoethnography; mental health disability; stigma; resilience;
Rippling excesses, 2nd Author: A/r/tography becoming dis/a/r/tography. 2020.
The physical manifestation of my invisible purple jumpsuit. 2023.
The Great Tardigrade Hunter: Photographs and Text by Rena Del Pieve Gobbi (in Press)