The idea of crisis becomes useful again, if you return to this notion of it as a turning point in the stage of a disease. Etymologically, “crisis” is the change which indicates recovery or death. It is a sign of what is to come: important turning points, openings and opportunities.
—excerpt from a conversation between Marion and Dr Cary Campbell in his forthcoming book (Routledge 2026)
I am an incoming PhD researcher at UBC Geography and a strategic advisor specializing in the legal and spatial frameworks of social continuity. I am completing a master of Urban Studies at Simon Fraser University through a joint collaboration with DRI Canada. Supported by a UBC Four Year Doctoral Fellowship (4YF) and several Mitacs Fellowships, my work bridges a decade of corporate experience at firms such as KPMG and Arc’teryx Equipment with deep scholarly inquiry into the afterlives of infrastructure failure.
Since 2024, I curate the Feral Archive, a collection of Canlit destroyed in the 2024 Valentine’s Day New Westminster water main break. This project is a core component of my forthcoming doctoral work. A pilot is currently supported by the 2025 Robert Lemon Heritage Studies Prize and the European Summer Institute for Digital Humanities. It explores the ways in which jurisdictions negotiate post-disaster responsibilities, economic devaluations, how artists curate spaces for themselves in and outside of formal zoning policies, and the non-human creatures we attempt to hold at bay: mushrooms, molds, rats.