Project Description
Home / Members / Graduate Students / Junyu Ke
RESEARCH AREAS:
Embodied Perception
Environment and Sustainability
Digital Aesthetics
CONTACT:
Rotman Institute of Philosophy
Western University
Western Interdisciplinary Research Building
London, Ontario, Canada
N6A 3K7jke23@uwo.ca
JUNYU KE
Doctoral Student
Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism, Western University
Junyu Ke is a PhD candidate in Theory and Criticism, with a collaborative specialization in Environment and Sustainability, at Western University. Her dissertation explores the intersections between Daoist body cultivation and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, particularly in relation to how these frameworks inform human perception of the environment in urban settings. She currently leads “Mapping Digital Environmentalism through AI-Based Arts,” an interdisciplinary initiative investigating how emerging technologies—particularly AI and VR—reshape sensory engagement, narrative form, and aesthetic practice. She is particularly interested in how technologically mediated cinematic experiences can cultivate ecological consciousness and reframe human–environment relations. Junyu is also an independent filmmaker who has produced several short and feature-length films, including documentaries, and is now exploring VR filmmaking as a vehicle for examining how sensory engagement is configured in immersive environments.
My current research explores the intersections between Daoist body cultivation and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, focusing particularly on how these frameworks pertain to human perceptions of the environment. My interest in how media technologies have transformed human experience opens avenues to examine how digital tools —such as AI and VR— reshape our interaction with spaces, creating new forms of storytelling and sensory engagement. I aim to advance creative methodologies that highlight the relationship between art, environment, and technology in my research and in the classroom. I am particularly excited to explore how these technologies not only enhance narrative capabilities but also reshape aesthetic practices in film. As I explore how narrative and visual art can activate awareness and inspire action, I aim to create works that demonstrate the critical role of art in shaping environmental understanding and actions. This exploration is situated in a broader inquiry: if today’s ecological crisis is, at its core, a crisis of imagination and perception, how might we harness emerging technologies such as AI and VR not merely as a frontier of innovation, but as an ethical–aesthetic practice—where tools join means and worthy ends in ways that honor both Earth’s physical order and the moral order we are called to inhabit?
Articles
Junyu Ke. “The Senses of Freeman Alley.” APRIL, August 25, 2025. https://www.aprilonline.org/the-senses-of-freeman-alley/
Junyu Ke. “A Family Caregiver Perspective: Rethinking recovery with Phenomenology.” Frontiers in Sociology, Volume 10, 2025. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1509351
Junyu Ke, Rhiannon Kirton and Narda Nelson. “Wolf Culls: Public Trust or Failed Policy?” Alternative Journal, 12 Apr. 2021, https://www.alternativesjournal.ca/science-research/conservation/wolf-culls-public-trust-failed-policy/
Junyu Ke. “A Brief Discussion on Popular Science Picture Books for children 儿童科普绘本小论.” Youth Literator, vol. 4, no. 29, 2013, p.7.
Theses
Junyu Ke, Towards an Ecological Pedagogy: Body Movement for Ecological Consciousness. Master’s research paper, Queen’s University. QSpace.https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/items/512b5716-9ff7-40a1-8af4-0c787f7c54c0
Fall/Winter 2022–2023 – Anthropology of Tourism (ANTHRO 2272), Western University (Teaching Assistant)
Fall/Winter 2021–2022 – Gender, Justice, Change (WOMENST/GSWS 1022), Western University (Teaching Assistant)
Fall 2020 – Introduction to Equity, Diversity and Human Rights (WOMENST 1024), Western University (Teaching Assistant)
Talks
2025
Exploring GenAI in Environment: From Footprint to Stewardship. Exploring Gen AI Spark Series at Western University. Online.
Shared Screen, Digital World, and Other Wild Things. 2025 APRIL-Judson Summer Colloquium on “The Varieties of Cinematic Experience”, June 20-27, 2025, New York City, USA.
2022
Carbon Accounting GHG Protocol. Group presentation to City of London, Canada
Presentations
2024
The Role of Art in Enhancing China-Canada Environmental Collaboration on Sustainable Urbanization: Phenomenological and Daoist Perspectives. The 65th International Studies Association Annual Convention, April 3-6, 2024, San Francisco, California, USA.
2023
Exploring Rhetoric and Discourses of Sustainability: A Discussion on Theories of Environmental Limits. The 5th the International Conference on Canadian, Chinese and African Sustainable Development, December 10-17, 2023, Nairobi, Kenya.
A Gender Perspective on the Regulation of Time: Discussion on the Legislation of Permanent Daylight-Saving Time as a case. En-Gender 2023 Online Conference
2017
Move to Think: The Daoist Body Consciousness. Unravelling Religion 4: Bodies and Objects, Queen’s University, Canada
2016
Towards an Ecological Pedagogy: Body Movement for Ecological Consciousness. CrossCurrents/Auburn Research Colloquium on “Climate Change, Food, and Human Sustainability”, Columbia University, United States
The Big is the Small: Knowing the Cosmos from the Body. McGill-CREOR conference, McGill University, Canada
Move to Think: The Daoist Body Consciousness. Unravelling Religion 4: Bodies and Objects, Queen’s University, Canada