Dr. Mandrona received her doctorate in Art Education from Concordia and was a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow at McGill. She has published articles and book chapters on young people’s visual culture, rurality, ethics, and participatory visual research. She recently guest edited a Special Issue of Girlhood Studies. Her co-edited volume, Visual Encounters in the Study of Rural Childhoods (Rutgers) will be released in Spring 2018. Mandrona's research with young people focuses on the social roles of artistic production, rurality, ethical practice, and youth participation. She recently received a SSHRC Insight Development Grant to explore the creation of picturebooks with refugee children living in Halifax and England. This work aims to address ongoing issues of racism and xenophobia directed at newcomers in Atlantic Canada and beyond.