Meet the outstanding students of Creating Space 2025!
Two exceptional students were awarded The Peterkin Brett-MacLean Student Prize for best presentation, each in a distinct category, at Creating Space 15, held March 29-30, 2025, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. From an innovative presentation to an engaging workshop, the students illuminated the conference with their thoughtful and creative perspectives.
This year’s recipients are Mallory Minerson (U. of Alberta) and Olivia-Autumn Rennie (U. of Toronto).
Mallory Minerson
Mallory Minerson
Mallory is a PhD student in psychiatry at the University of Alberta whose research in the Northwest Territories corrections system is exploring how identifying Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and developing empowered relationship to an offender’s story can influence rehabilitation and recidivism. She is a Registered Drama Therapist (MA New York University), Certified Canadian Counsellor, Certified Daring Way™ Facilitator-Clinician (Brené Brown Research and Education Group), Clinical Traumatologist (Traumatology Institute) and Licensed Practical Nurse. Mallory’s work is multimodal, trauma-focused and is guided by embodied arts-based research. With a background working in Forensic mental health, community outreach, grief, trauma and loss, with an all-ages population in community-based, individual and school-based sessions, Mallory has been both a clinician (Adult and Child & Youth) and Regional Clinical Supervisor in the NWT. She is currently practicing clinically for the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Justice, Department of Corrections, Fort Smith Correctional Complex. Ms. Minerson is passionate about moving drama therapy and performance into the quantitative research domain and is curious about the ways the inherent benefits of embodiment and art-based healing engagement intersect. Mallory has also completed the first level training in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University and is interested in the overlap of medical humanities, arts-based research, drama therapy and narrative medicine. Mallory is very grateful to CAHH for the recognition of this work, and being awarded the Peterkin Brett-MacLean prize is especially meaningful as it is named in honour of her PhD supervisor, Dr. Pamela Brett-MacLean.
Olivia-Autumn Rennie
Olivia-Autumn Rennie
Olivia-Autumn Rennie (she/her) is an independent filmmaker and fourth-year MD/PhD student at the University of Toronto, completing her doctoral studies through the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST). With a background in neuroscience and a deep interest in philosophies of medicine, her interdisciplinary work bridges academic research, clinical training, and creative practice. Her PhD is a research-creation project that uses collaborative filmmaking to explore how cinematic technologies can challenge dominant narratives within medicine—particularly those surrounding disability.
Autumn’s work is grounded in health humanities and driven by a commitment to equity, ethics, and representation. She is particularly interested in how the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities are shaped—and often silenced—by systemic inequities within healthcare. Her filmmaking practice centers on co-creation, positioning patients not just as subjects, but as storytellers, collaborators, and critical agents in the production of knowledge.
Her workshop, “Decolonizing Disability Narratives: Collaborative Filmmaking in Healthcare,” engaged participants in a hands-on, participatory process that reimagined how healthcare stories are told. Drawing from her collaborative work with brain injury survivors and fellow artists with disabilities, the workshop explored how collaborative filmmaking can reveal emotional, psychosocial, and cultural dimensions of illness that traditional medical practices often overlook. By situating these narratives within broader colonial and social contexts, her work invites healthcare professionals and scholars to rethink the structures that shape care—and to imagine new, more inclusive ways of seeing, listening, and responding.