Lab Spotlight: Dr. Mary Pinkowski
Energy Stories Lab’s associates are constantly pursuing interesting and essential research. Once a month, we want to give the opportunity to one of our talented lab associates to speak on what interests them most! This month features Ingenium Postdoctoral Associate associate Dr. Mary Pinkowski.
Dr. Pinkowski looking at Abasand materials.
Tell us a bit about your research, including any creative approaches you may incorporate.
My research currently explores the Abasand neighbourhood in Fort McMurray, Alberta. I am working with community members and neighbourhood residents, as well as archival materials, to create a virtual museum exhibit. The exhibit will feature current voices of Fort McMurray and Abasand residents, images of archival materials, objects belonging to residents, and some of my poetry.
Why do you think your research matters now?
I think research is, and has always been, about the expansion of knowledge. For me, and this project specifically, this research is about providing spaces for community voice to enter into scholarship in novel ways. Whether it is through an oral history, an artistic representation, or a museum exhibit, my research aims to provide a means to generate understandings of the complexities of our world - something I think is needed beyond just academia - in ways that are accessible, approachable, and community-centered.
What is an energy issue, topic, or finding that you wish more people knew about?
As my own understandings of energy issues continue evolve, I am particularly interested in continuing to explore the role of museums at industrial heritage sites, exploring questions of how museological practices at these sites might be conceptualized as part of decommissioning and remediation processes. And, how can these industrial practices perhaps shift museological practices towards relational practices with the land, especially in areas of Western Canada where many of these sites sit at numbered treaty signing locations.
Do you have anything exciting coming up that you would like to include?
I am excited present some of my early work in the Exhibiting Abasand project at the Canadian Society for the Study of Education and the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education conferences in May 2026.
