Kaitlyn Regehr

Kaitlyn Regehr is a Toronto-born ethnographer and broadcaster whose work has focused on gender and sexuality. Her work has been published internationally across academic and popular media outlets including the BBC, Variety Magazine and the LA Times. After gaining notoriety on Re-Vamped (Entertainment One) as a co-host and burlesque choreographer from 2009 to 2010, she has gone on to direct large performance art installations that incorporate dance and film for organizations such as the Toronto International Film Festival and the Canadian Stage Company.

After receiving a bachelor's degree in theatre at the University of Victoria in 2007, Kaitlyn went on to train with the Moscow Art Theatre and study Russian Physical Theatre at the Stanislavsky Summer School Harvard University.

Around this time she was also working as one of the original fitness instructors at the groundbreaking Flirty Girl Fitness Studio in Toronto, where she first began teaching workshops that focus on women's empowerment through dance. These workshops allowed her to form new philosophies on modern feminism. Her interests drove her to pursue a joint master's degree from Britain's esteemed King's College London and the world-renowned Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Completed in 2010, her thesis, which was published in the journal Sexuality & Culture in 2012, explores the rise of recreational burlesque and questions the connection and distinctions between objectification and empowerment.

Sandwiching her time as a master's degree student, Regehr starred as a co-host and burlesque choreographer on the popular Slice Network (Canada) and Bio Network (UK) television series Re-Vamped. Re-Vamped was a reality television program in which women who had been through difficult break-ups regained their confidence through fitness programs and burlesque dance.

Regehr is also the creator, producer and director of a pin-up calendar featuring women who live with or who have survived breast cancer: "Pink Ribbon Pin-Ups: A Celebration of Fabulous Women for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation." All proceeds from the sale of the calendars benefit the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, but the main goal of the calendar is to empower and celebrate women who live with or have survived breast cancer. Her observations from this project were published in her paper "Pink Ribbon Pin-Ups: Photographing Femininity after Breast Cancer" in the journal Culture, Health and Sexuality.

Regehr returned to King's College London to work on a doctorate in performance studies and graduated in 2016. Her thesis, entitled ""Legends" of the American Burlesque House: Re-Telling Twentieth Century Exotic Dance" examined a group of mid-twentieth century burlesque dancers, The League of Exotic Dancers (who unionized in 1955) as they continue to meet and perform today as an aging community in Vegas. The findings from her thesis will culminate in her first publication with the Oxford University Press. The book, published with photographer Matilda Temperley, is scheduled for release in late 2016. Concurrent with her thesis, Regehr also produced the feature documentary "Tempest Storm”, which was the final selection for TIFF’s Pitch This, won first prize at LA’s reality and doc conference WestDoc and premiered at the Hot Docs International Documentary festival in 2016.

Regehr continues to contribute to both academic and mainstream media. Her current work includes a new documentary series with Light Box Entertainment that surrounds a famous Canadian court case on which her father served as forensic psychiatrist. The series has sparked an ethnographic project, "Murder at the Dinner Table: Narratives From the Children of Forensic Professionals", on the familial impact of forensic work. This work in progress will be presented at the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law in 2016.

Additionally, building off previous work on the survivors of sexual violence- such as her paper, "Let Them Satisfy Their Lust on Thee: Titus Andronicus as a Window into Societal Understanding of PTSD" for Traumatology - Kailyn is currently working on a variety of projects in this area. Included is a study, conducted with her mother, Dr. Cheryl Regehr, on fame and sexual violence, as well as developing a project based off narrative research and storytelling around the definition of consent.

Regehr is also presently exploring the concept of going "viral" and those who lose their own voice as a result of virality. This project stems from the massive online tumult that ensued in response to a post on social media in which she thanked a Good Samaritan who intervened when she was assaulted on the London 207 bus.