Ashok Mathur is a South Asian (Indo-Canadian) cultural organizer, writer and visual artist. Prior to this he was the head of Creative Studies and a professor in the Department of Creative Studies at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan campus. As a Canada Research Chair in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry, he also directed the Centre for Innovation in Culture and the Arts in Canada (CiCAC).[1]
Mathur was born in Bhopal, India; in 1962, at the age of one, he emigrated with his family to Canada. He worked as a journalist from 1981 to 1985, and then completed his studies at the University of Calgary, earning a bachelor's degree, master of arts, and Ph.D.[2] Prior to joining Thompson Rivers in 2005, he taught at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.[1]
Mathur is the author of a volume of poetic prose (Loveruage; a dance in three parts, Wolsak and Wynn, 1994), a long poem ("The First White Black Man", monograph press, 2017) and three novels:
Additionally, Mathur's artwork "one hundred thirty-three thousand five hundred twenty-eight words and a super-8 grab" was part of a 2009 acquisition by the Canada Council Art Bank.[4]