Cultural Theorist, Author, Speaker, Agitator

Julian R. Munds

Julian R. Munds, Hon. B.A. (Theatre and Drama Studies, University of Toronto)
Composer | Playwright | Theological Aesthetics Consultant | Research Educator

Julian R. Munds is a scholar-practitioner working at the intersection of theology, aesthetics, and performance. Holding an Honours Bachelor of Theatre and Drama Studies from the University of Toronto and professional training from Sheridan College, Munds has built an interdisciplinary career that bridges the performing arts and critical religious thought.

Currently completing a Master of Theological Studies at Huron University College (University of Western Ontario), Munds’ academic work investigates how theological, postcolonial, and Marxist ideas inform artistic expression and cultural imagination. His research foregrounds the aesthetic as a mode of knowing — a way to interpret history, ideology, and identity through creative form.

Munds is the originator of Staged Hermeneutics, a critical-aesthetic framework for interpretation grounded in five principles: historical embeddedness, aesthetic consciousness, polyphony and postcolonial reclamation, performative reading, and compassionate deconstruction. This method guides both his scholarship and his pedagogy, helping students and clients to develop interpretive insight that bridges art, ethics, and analysis.

He offers seminars, workshops, and private consultation in areas including:

• Theology and the Arts — reading scripture, ritual, and performance through aesthetic theory

• Hermeneutics and Critical Interpretation — developing tools for ideological and textual analysis

• Creative Research Design — building conceptual and philosophical depth in artistic or academic projects

• Postmodern and Marxist Aesthetics — understanding the social function of art and narrative in modernity

Through his teaching and consulting practice, Julian equips emerging scholars, artists, and institutions to think critically, write powerfully, and create meaningfully at the crossroads of philosophy and performance. He was trained through the University of Toronto and Sheridan Institute of Technology. He is a professional actor who has been featured on Opera, Musical, and Theatre stages. He specialises in Meyerhold Biomechanics and has a background in Grotowski movement studies. He has also directed many plays and written some as well. You can purchase his work off Amazon: Changeling: A Grand Guignol for Murderous Times (featured in University syllabi as a Canadian play of note), and The Good Doctor Holmes and His Children of God, which was hailed as a ‘Canadian Classic.’

Julian believes that every person has within them the ability to be an artist on the level of the greats no matter their experience. He believes they only need the right set of rules and nurturing to embrace their inner creative soul.