Brianna Ferguson

Brianna Ferguson completed her BA in Creative Writing in 2026, and her MFA in Creative Writing in 2022, both at UBC Okanagan. In 2021, Mansfield Press published her first book of poetry, A Nihilist Walks into a Bar. Her second book of poetry, Poor Substitute, was published by Acid Bath in 2024.

She is a writer and educator from the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. She holds a Master of Fine Arts, a Bachelor of Education, and a Bachelor of Arts from UBC. Her poems and stories have appeared in various publications across North America and the U.K.

We met with Brianna to discuss her first book and to get some insight on her writing process.

Tell us about your collection of poetry.

Several of the poems did come from a creative partnership with one of my colleagues in the MFA program, Andisha Sabri Carey. During the program, we started up a Twitter hashtag, PoToGo (Poetry to go) and challenged each other to tweet a new poem every alternating day for a month. Several of the poems I wrote during that time made it into the book. Another poem in the collection even came from a writing prompt created by a few of my colleagues in one of their classroom presentations. They had this beautiful presentation about water and how it factors into various works they were interested in. They prompted us to write about water, so of course I wrote about the playground conversations my friends and I used to have about how water is only ever recycled, so at one point all the water in our bodies was probably dinosaur urine.

What was your process in writing the book?

This collection, like so many other first collections, took shape over nearly a decade of writing and publishing and struggling along. Eventually, after years of writing, I realized a lot of my work tended to meditate on mortality and beer. There’s a book, I thought to myself, and here we are.

What was your experience working with an editor and publisher?

Working with Stuart Ross was a dream. As an editor, he who wasn’t afraid to tell me if he hated something or to cut whole sequences, and it was exactly the experience I always craved as a writer. Honestly, it was probably the most rewarding creative experience I’ve ever had. Nothing motivates me like tough love.

In terms of publication, I got really lucky. I sent my manuscript out to several publishers in January 2021, as part of my New Year’s resolutions, and by late February I had an acceptance from Mansfield. I only found Mansfield after seeing Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things and falling in love with the poem “Bonedog” which featured in it. I looked up the poem, found the author, found her publisher, and the rest is history.

Tell us about your time at UBCO as a student.

Being an undergrad at UBCO was easily one of the happiest times of my life. I spent six years after high school desperately wanting to go to school and worrying my high school grades wouldn’t allow me to without a bunch of upgrading. High school was the worst time of my life, and it showed in my grades. I finally applied, though, and managed to squeak in.

Right off the bat, I had Creative Writing 160 with Michael V. Smith, who immediately gave me the perfect blend of academia and friendship. I’m indebted to him for really honing my writing and cheering me on from day one. He’s a rare gem among human beings. Anderson Araujo was another prof whose classes I’d have given an arm to attend. He knows his stuff so completely, and he’s got so much passion for his material; I could listen to him for hours, probably even without a coffee on hand. Jennifer Gustar, Lisa Grekul, Matt Rader, I mean good lord – there are so many amazing people here.

You are teaching a first-year creative writing class here at UBCO this fall. How did you know you wanted to teach?

Loving UBCO as much as I do, professor-poet is the only job I’ve ever really wanted. I got my Bachelor of Education when I was living in Vancouver a few years back, so I could start to understand the profession – and of course, so I’d always have something to fall back on. I never dreamed I’d actually get to teach at UBCO, because why should I get exactly what I want? But then Matt Rader called me up one day and asked me to teach CRWR 160. If it weren’t for that call, I’d still be fretting away like I did before I applied to my BA. I only hope, now that I’m here, that I can do for my students what Michael and so many other profs did for me. Michael always let me write what I wanted while showing me how I could tweak it to appeal to a larger audience, or to hone the language. Never more than that. He let me splash around and learn things for myself, and it’s that teaching style that I want to bring to my own students. I don’t want to stifle anyone or try to make them into versions of my own creative self. I just want to create a space where people can be comfortable sharing ideas and having fun with writing. Writing is life, of course, but it’s also just writing. Nothing good ever came from taking things too seriously.

Brianna Ferguson at her book launch, April 2022, at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art

Bachelor of Media Studies students (left to right): Sarah McNeil, Matthew Kenney, Bethany Hiebert, Jaine Hillier, Xavier Charbonneau, Kai Hagen

At the convocation ceremony held on June 6^th, a number of faculty and staff in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies attended the ceremony, proud to congratulate all of the students who completed their degrees in 2024.

This year we have eighteen masters students, two doctoral students, fifty-five Bachelor of Arts students, twenty-five Bachelor of Fine Arts students, and eleven Bachelor of Media Studies students who are graduating with their degrees.

Dean Bryce Traister congratulated all of our graduates: “As new graduates, your endeavors will enrich our communities by sparking new conversations, challenging existing norms, and inspiring change.”

After the ceremony, a reception was held in the Creative and Critical Studies building for all of the FCCS graduates and their guests to continue the celebrations of the day. Diana Carter, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies in FCCS raised a glass to toast this year’s graduating class and their families:

“Today is a very special day when we get to celebrate our students’ achievements and congratulate them on their graduation. You have persevered and worked extremely hard to get to this day and finally graduate with your undergraduate, masters or doctoral degree. Congratulations to you and to all the important people in your life for the support they have shown you over the years. We are proud of you all and are excited to see what you go on to accomplish in your lives after university.”

FCCS is also pleased to recognize the achievements of the following graduating or continuing students who received awards for their outstanding academic performance this year:

• Bibek Adhikari, Cambell Family Graduate Award in Fine Arts
• Lindsay Baerg, Jessie Ravnsborg Memorial Award
• Maddy Bohnet, Asper Scholarship
• Maritza Botha, Art History and Visual Culture Scholarship
• Carmen Bouvier, Visual Arts Prize
• Chandler Burnett, Dean’s Award in Artistic Excellence
• Taylor Carpenter, Visual Art Scholarship; Visual Arts Prize; SOPA Fine Arts Emerging Artist Award
• Xavier Charbonneau, Dean’s Award in Artistic Excellence
• Aditri Chatterjee, International Award
• Ronnie Cheng, Media Studies Award
• Ella Cottier, Elinor Yandel Memorial Award in Fine Arts
• Mihai Covaser, French Scholarship
• Liam Davidson, Media Studies Award
• Katja Ewart, Visual Arts Prize
• Kailee Fawcett, Vernon Film Society Media Prize
• Cole Finley, Jack and Lorna Hambleton Memorial Award
• Talia Gagnon, Murray Johnson Memorial Award in Visual Arts
• Cady Gau, Craig Hall Memorial Visual Arts Scholarship in Printmaking
• Madeline Grove, International Award
• Mason Harrison, Languages Scholarship
• Bethany Hiebert, Media Studies Award
• Jacob Hill, English Scholarship
• Jaine Hillier, Medal in Media Studies
• Samantha Hodge, Creative Writing Scholarship
• Tamara Hudson, Creative Studies Transfer Prize in Creative Writing
• Asana Hughes, Doug Biden Memorial Scholarship in Visual Arts
• Kaito Hyde, Cultural Studies Scholarship
• Arthur Pielecki, Okanagan Visual Arts Scholarship; Medal in Fine Arts
• John Prendas, Asper Scholarship
• Maren McIntosh, Kelly Curtis Memorial Scholarship in English
• Ainslie Spence, Dr. Shelley Martin Memorial Scholarship
• Jaclyn Stuart, French Essay Prize
• Fredrik Thacker, Frances Harris Prize in Fine Arts
• Helena Theben, Dean’s Award in Artistic Excellence
• Victoria Verge, Audain Travel Prize
• Ziv Wei, Norma and Jack Aitken Prize in Visual Arts

The FCCS Dean’s Honour list recognizes students in all years of the BA, BMS, and BFA degrees, who are at the top of their class with a GPA of 85% or better.

BACHELOR OF ARTS STUDENTS

BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS STUDENTS

BACHELOR OF MEDIA STUDIES STUDENTS

MFA Students Miracle Adebayo, Bibek Adhikari, and Thomas Leveen

FCCS Faculty members congratulating our students

FCCS Faculty members congratulating our students

Nancy Holmes as Macebearer for our ceremony

BFA students Ziyang Wei and Wayne Xie

Graduation ceremony

FCCS celebration after convocation

Raising our glasses to the class of 2024

Dr. Marianne Legault with BA graduate, Elizabeth MacDonald

Dr. Jennifer Gustar (centre) with MA English graduating students Tafannum Karim, Brianne Christensen and Dravida Huda

Dr. George Grinnell with MA English graduate, Brian Kerr-Bassett

Dr. Megan Smith (left) with Yujie Gao, PhD graduate form the Digital Arts & Humanities theme

Dr. Annie Wan with BMS graduate Tsz Lo Ronnie Cheng

MFA candidates Jessie Emilie Schmode and Troy Teichrib presented their final year thesis exhibitions at Lake Country Art Gallery from May 18 to July 14, 2024.

Jessie Emilie Schmode’s exhibition is titled, Spiritual Growth: The Unapologetic Nude: A compelling exploration of introspection through large-scale portraiture. Exploring the impact of religious teachings on women’s bodies, embarking on a journey towards empowerment through painting. This exhibition challenges conventional perceptions of the female nude, reimagining it through a feminist perspective influenced by the healing essence of nature (Biophilia) and the acceptance of imperfection (Wabi-sabi). Historically, depictions of nudity in art have been dominated by male perspectives, relegating women to mere muses and objects for male expression. Over the past two years, a dedication to a series of paintings confronts and redefines the portrayal of the female nude, aiming to ignite conversations about breaking free from societal and religious constraints on female representation.

Students viewing Jessie’s work in the exhibition, Lake Country Art Gallery

Departures: Bridging the Gap by Troy Teichrib was an exhibition of boldly painted urban graphic abstraction that bridges artistic boundaries. This new work highlights the spontaneous and raw nature of graffiti art, this body of work includes small to large mixed-media paintings, each a testament to Teichrib’s efforts in translating graffiti’s fleeting beauty and raw energy within the gallery’s structured confines. This methodical yet chaotic process of uncovering and reviving elements from dense chunks of accumulated graffiti is a meditation on ego, ownership, and the impermanence of art. By overlaying and then meticulously removing layers of his own work, he confronts the challenge of disassociating from the personal motifs and styles that have defined his artistic identity. This practice of revisiting buried history becomes a dialogue between creation and destruction.

Troy’s work in the exhibition, Lake Country Art Gallery

During the course of the exhibition, both artists hosted artists talks and workshops.

On Friday May 24th, Jessie and Troy did a hands-on workshop with 34 fine arts students from George Elliot Secondary School (GESS). The morning started off with artist talks by both Jessie and Troy, then stencil making in the gallery and outside painting the Town Wall with Troy, followed by lunch.

“The students really enjoyed it, especially the spray painting. It is always great to connect the high school with the university,” says Wanda Lock, Lake Country Art Gallery Curator.

Jessie Emilie Schmode giving her talk to GESS students

Jessie Emilie Schmode giving her talk to GESS students

GESS students painting the Town Wall with Troy Teichrib

GESS students painting the Town Wall with Troy Teichrib

On June 8th, Troy, under the name Eyefactory, hosted fish:BOWL at the Lake Country Skateboard Park, which was a community celebration that bridges generations through the power of graffiti.

We are greatful to the Lake Country Art Gallery for showcasing the work of these two MFA students.

Troy at the fish:BOWL event at the Lake Country Skatepark

Troy at the fish:BOWL event at the Lake Country Skatepark

Troy at the fish:BOWL event at the Lake Country Skatepark

Dr. Alex Berry

Dr. Alex Berry is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at UBCO’s FEELed Lab, where she is supervised by Dr. Astrida Neimanis. Alex’s research is titled, ‘Uncommoning sense: Feeling a changed climate in early childhood teacher education’.

Alex’s postdoctoral research seeks to knot early childhood pedagogies with the feminist environmental humanities, toward new ways of ‘sensing’ uneven, everyday climate realities in the early years. Centering the FEELed Lab’s commitment to climate and social justice as deeply entangled pursuits, her project engages early childhood education students in attuning to how particular bodies sense and feel climate change in particular places. In response to the expansive overwhelm of climate catastrophe discourse in BC, Alex’s project uses small, artistic experiments to question the ‘common sense’ ways we think children experience nature.

“As many early years scholars have argued before me, early childhood education has been characterized by colonial and neoliberal ideas of humans as bodies that sense the world in rational and autonomous ways. Early childhood’s persistent pedagogical reliance on visual ways of knowing, and a dependency on developmental psychology’s ‘5 senses’ (as individual, intrinsic, and divided) are a few examples of this. Children with magnifying glasses in hand setting out to discover the wild unknown, and the ‘freedom’ of children’s sensorial fun getting messy outdoors are all-too-familiar images that reinscribe a settler colonial view of the world.”

Alex suggests that these prevailing understandings of the senses in early childhood produce educational practices that separate children from the damaged worlds they inherit. She hopes that her research might make a modest contribution to the ongoing efforts of early childhood scholars who are trying to shift these conditions – specifically, Alex’s work is interested in thinking alongside early childhood education students in re-imagining the senses for times of pressing environmental precarity. Through artistic and embodied methods, she is exploring how early childhood pedagogies might approach human sensoria as intercorporeal, and embedded with non-human networks.

A central focus of Alex’s project has been the creation of an experimental, online and place-based course for pre- and in-service educators across BC, titled ‘Sensing a changed climate in early childhood’. The course is curated around a series of ‘micro’-workshops, invited speakers, and on-the-ground experiments for ‘uncommoning’ the senses. Alex shares how curation of the course experiences has involved many rich ‘behind the scenes’ collaborations; “The course itself has emerged from a deeply collective and cross-disciplinary labour with researchers, community-members, and artists at UBCO’s FEELed Lab, the Faculty of Critical and Creative Studies, the Faculty of English and Cultural Studies, and Capilano University’s Centre for Research in Childhood Studies. Envisioning and creating the course alongside people from fields beyond my own has generated an incredibly hospitable ground for pushing early childhood’s disciplinary framings beyond its status quo. I am extremely inspired by (and grateful for!) the generous intellectual spaces these dialogues have afforded.”

The course launches this May, and will be followed by a virtual exhibition of student processes and an open-access archive of anti-colonial, arts- and place-based teaching resources.

About Alex Berry

Alex obtained her Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies with the Faculty of Education at Western University on Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak and Chonnonton Nations lands. Within postqualitative framings, Alex’s research puts into conversation research-creation and pedagogical inquiry toward anti-colonial early childhood pedagogies that respond to 21^st century ecological crises. This orientation has energized her pedagogical work in early childhood spaces in North and Latin American contexts, as well as her curatorial work in two international exhibits, Disorientating the early childhood sensorium: Micro-interruptions for alternative climate futures and Plastic childhoods: Noticing toxic intra-dependencies in Andean early childhood.

Left to right: Maylyn Tarves, Tyler Finley, Elenna Hope, Debbra Mikaelsen, Dania Wilson, and Shelley Wood.

The finalists of the 26th annual Okanagan Short Story Contest were announced at a public event by local author Shelley Wood. The event was held on March 27th at the Alternator for Contemporary Art with each of the writers reading a part of their story.

“Each of the shortlisted stories had something special about them and I had a very difficult time whittling my choices down to three. Many submerged me in new predicaments or uncomfortable scenarios and made me feel them deeply, which is what the best fiction does for us—makes us connect,” shays Wood. “I hope every single writer who made this list will keep writing, and keep honing their work.”

The winning author, Debbra Mikaelsen of Penticton, took first place for her short story “Saving Bees from Drowning”.

“I loved the story-ness of this story—it took me somewhere, with someone believable, and did so using all of the options open to the form: simple, striking images, real—and often funny—dialogue, characters that came off the page with just the right, precise details, and deft use of an intimate and self-deprecating third-person point of view. I turn to fiction to be startled and moved and jolted into other lives and perspectives, but I realize I must also turn to it for hope. This story was sweet and sad but ultimately hopeful: I fell for its characters and was rooting for them,” explains Wood.

Tyler Finley placed second with “The Trick to Holding Your Breath for Years”.

Wood says about Finley’s story, “The Trick to Holding Your Breath for Years pulls off several tricks, chief among them its mastery of second-person format that manages to invite readers into the deepest folds of a relationship, while still holding them at a distance. The repetition of the ‘you’ which launches almost every paragraph creates an intimacy that becomes the story’s heartbeat. The glimpse the reader is given here serves as a reminder that loving anyone deeply is its own airless dive, carrying the near constant risk of pain and drowning.

Third place went to Elenna Hope from Nelson for her story, “My Date With a Cowboy”.

“My Date With a Cowboy won me over with the confidence of the voice, so increasingly at odds with the narrator’s own flagging sense of self. I laughed and I cringed. We can feel the hot pulse of desire in this writing even as the night starts to turn from bling to blurry. The writing is sharp and funny and visceral, with a tender underbelly. I left this story sweaty and aching with blisters on my heels, and my heart,” says Wood.

Wood noted that she really struggled with choosing among the high school submissions decisions because so many have a powerful story working on multiple levels, “And I love plot, I love motion, even in a short story. Many of the stories, to me, had the makings of novels and my hope is that all of the writers who submitted here will give some thought to spinning some of these action-packed stories into longer pieces, even novel-length works.”

Honourable mention went to Dania Wilson from West Kelowna for her story, “Bradford”.

“This story resonated with me on the level of keen observation and plotting. I enjoyed the scene breaks and the subject matter was close to my eco-cynical heart. What stood out for me here was the great ending, which is hard to pull off–this elevated this story above the other great contenders.”

And finally, the winner of the high school category went to Maylyn Tarves from Nelson BC for her story, “Philosopher King of Clusterf**k Mountain”.

“Ultimately, for the winning story, I went against a lot of what I just said and story, motion, and plot. This was the story that, to me, had the most original images, that painted a mood and an emotion so forcefully that while part of me wanted more to ‘happen’ I also felt I was in the hands of someone who knew how to use words to travel while holding completely still.”

The annual contest, organized by the Creative Writing program in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS), is a writing competition open to fiction writers in British Columbia’s Southern Interior. Writers submit their stories, which are then read, anonymously, by faculty, and the shortlisted stories are sent to a guest judge to choose the winners in the adult and high school categories.

The first-place writer received $1,000 plus a one-week retreat at The Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre in Kelowna; second-place winner received $400 and third-place received $200. The top high school student received a $200 prize. Co-sponsors of the contest are FCCS and the Central Okanagan Foundation.

View the full short list for this year’s contest.

Samantha Carron receiving her PhD , University of Calgary

Samantha Carron is a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. Marianne Legault, Department of Languages and World Literatures, here at UBC Okanagan. She is an alumna from UBC Okanagan with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in French and Spanish (2014), she has a Master of Arts (MA) in 17^th century French Literature from the University of Calgary (2017) and a PhD in 17^th century Women’s Literature from the University of Calgary (2023).

Her research is titled « L’Autre, c’est moi » : la fluidité du je travesti dans le discours romanesque du XVIIe siècle

Samantha shared with us some information about her research and affiliation with UBC Okanagan.

How is your postdoc connected to UBCO?

The Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies is home to many talented and motivated researchers and students who are committed toward greater inclusion, diversity and equity, and who support the growth of quality research in Gender, Queer and Feminist Studies. It is a humbling opportunity for me to play a role in the work currently done by FCCS’ students, professors and researchers in the real world – challenging conventions, questioning heteronormativity, redefining our visions and our ways of living in community. With the support of Dr. Legault, I hope to be able to participate alongside these numerous researchers, who make up the strength of UBCO, in the advancement of innovations and research, and to contribute to the literary and inclusive understanding of the diversity of personal identities in our communities today.

Most importantly, my postdoctoral research is connected to Dr. Legault directly, as she is the only specialist in Early Modern Feminist and Queer Studies in Canada. When I first met her during my BA in 2010-2014, little did I know that she would not only become my mentor but she would also become a solid example of what it means to be a woman in Academia and that our daily fight for greater inclusion, diversity and equity is deeply rooted in the work that we do. I hope that someday I can be an example like her.

Explain your research and how will you be able to conduct this research at UBCO.

My research project carries out a comparative study of the characteristics attributed to man-woman vs. woman-man cross-dressing in two 17^th century novels, L’Astrée by Honoré d’Urfé (1607-1627) and Mémoires de la vie de Henriette-Sylvie de Molière by Madame de Villedieu (1672-1674), in order to bring out the discursive construction of the subject in relation to his or her other self, the “travesti”.  The main objective of my research is to observe cross-dressing as a privileged place of identity reflection in relation to cultural perceptions of identities, especially the discursive role of gender in the formation of identificatory practices. With this project, I hope to show that “travestissement” is a phenomenon of reflection, fluidity and authority that crosses and redefines the gendered boundaries institutionally codified in the 17^th century.

Literary studies in 17^th century France have always been separated from other disciplines, confined within the integrity of literary history. Barthes once wrote that the 17^th century is “autre et nôtre” (“others and ours”). However, many 17^th century experts still believe that it is more “autre” rather than “nôtre” and that a modern gendered and political approach is simply anachronistic and would make this “great” century loose its particular mentality, its perception of the world and its understanding of hierarchies in its nuances.

One day, while discussing my research project with Dr. Legault, I admitted having an impostor feeling, which came from the many comments I received throughout my doctoral journey from other 17^th century experts who denied publication of some of my work, because it was “anachronistic”. Dr. Legault then told me that challenging the norms is a pretty scary ride, but if it bothers some people, it means that we are going in the right direction. And she was right. My passion for 17^th century literature was born on the wish to challenge this conservative thinking, and I am proud to make my project part of the contemporary movement in Gender and Queer Studies.

Why did you choose that topic, and what difference do you hope your research will make?

I first chose this topic of research because “travestissement” is a subject that is still very new in the context of 17^th century France, and I eagerly want to be part of this new evolution of research in my field. Also, my postdoctoral research follows my doctoral dissertation in some ways. Indeed, while my dissertation focused on the representation of the religious woman in her autobiographical and epistolary discourse, I am now interested in knowing what we can learn from the representation of the “travesti” subject in the context of the 17^th century. I chose two novels, one written by a man and one written by a woman, in order to conduct a more inclusive research that reflects the identity diversity of yesterday and today.

I hope that my research will make a difference on two different levels:

First, I hope that it will contribute to raising two major historical issues: the role of literary discourse in understanding the realities of gender diversity, and the self-determination of the “travesti” subject which calls into question the cultural practices as well as the preconceptions that “travesti” subject gives rise to.

Second, the current research has studied “travestissement” as a marginal phenomenon that expressed class and gender irregularity in the 17^th century, primarily associated with the popular baroque rhetoric and aesthetics of the “world upside down”. Therefore, I hope that my research will contribute to demonstrating that “travestissement”, in the context of 17^th century literature, is a problem of mentality on the part of society which refuses the idea of gender diversity in favor of conformity. At this level, I hope that my research will help us better understand the historical ramifications of this gendered violence that we still witness today.

What are your plans after you complete the postdoc?

I hope to stay in Academia and have the opportunity to continue challenging the norms, making a difference, and above all, continuing to “make noise”! I once read that “écrire c’est révéler, révéler c’est faire connaître, et faire connaître, c’est engager” (to write is to reveal, to reveal is to let others know, and to let others know is to engage them as well). If I had to define what I love most about being a researcher, this would be it, and I hope to continue doing just that, wherever the next chapter will take me. And of course, I will be bringing my cats along!

About Samantha Carron

I am a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at UBC-Okanagan. My research focuses mainly on Early Modern French literature, with a particular interest in discursive representations of the female and “travesti” subject (le sujet travesti), in the critical and political scope of this image of the subject, and in the way in which these representations negotiate the logic of the sex/gender system which maintains the hierarchical attributes and power dynamics in place in 17^th century France.

I have published several works, including an article in the Journal of Canadian Studies entitled “Marie Guyart de l’Incarnation: Une femme d’action en Nouvelle-France” (2020), an article published in the Cahiers du dix-septième entitled “Se taire pour mieux plaire? Le paradoxe genré du silence dans la Correspondance de Marie Guyart de l’Incarnation” (2023) and an upcoming chapter contributing to a collective work at McGill-Queen’s University Press entitled “Marie avant l’Incarnation (1621-1631) : une sainte « en devenir » dans la Relation de 1633” (2024).

Victoria Verge (centre) with Karen Fry, Fire Chief of Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (left) and Lieutenant Governor of BC, Janet Austin (right), who presented the awards on behalf of the Audain Foundation

Victoria Verge, a second year Masters of Fine Arts student, was awarded the Audain Foundation Travel Award in the fall of 2023. The Audain Foundation supports the visual arts in British Columbia, offering awards to arts organizations, galleries and to individual artists.

Verge’s art practice is centred around the emotional impact of relocation on military dependents.

“As someone who has moved frequently throughout my childhood due to my father’s military service, I am intimately familiar with the feelings of displacement and longing for stability that can arise from such experiences, she explains.

With this funding, Verge travelled to Southern Ontario to explore military housing by taking source images of the houses, meeting with current military families, and sourcing housing blueprints and historical documentation from the archives at the Canadian Forces Housing Agency. The findings will be used to inform the creation of her thesis project.

During her trip, she worked to gather insights into the emotional experiences of military dependants and their relationship with housing and community in this often-transient lifestyle.

“I plan to use the research I gathered during my trip to fuel my current research-creation project which is the development of a series of mixed-media kinetic sculptures that will be scaled-down replicas of military housing units that will perpetually collapse and rebuild themselves in unison.”

Verge will offer a public talk on March 5 about this project and her findings, giving her the opportunity to share her research and artistic practice with the academic and artistic community, inviting them to connect with their own experiences of displacement, longing, and the search for stability and belonging.

“Overall, I hope to contribute to a deeper understanding of the experiences of military families through work that will be both engaging and emotionally resonant,” says Verge.

The Audain Foundation Travel Award was established in 2019 for BFA or MFA students at five major institutions in the province, University of British Columbia Okanagan, University of British Columbia Vancouver, Emily Carr University or Art and Design, Simon Fraser University, and the University of Victoria.

The award is for $7500 to one student per university to allow them to travel to destinations of their choice to view artworks and projects that will foster their practice and research.

Public Talk

Date:: Tuesday March 5, 2024
Time: 2:30 pm
Where: CCS 123 (Creative and Critical Studies building, UBC Okanagan)

These weekly writing sessions are an opportunity for FCCS and FASS early-stage faculty to sign up for weekly writing sessions. The idea is, quite simply, to get together and write! Good company, coffee and snacks will be provided. A maximum of 10 participants will be welcomed, given space constraints + so as to keep the atmosphere relaxed and intimate.

Dates: Fridays, 1-4 pm from Feb. 2 to April 19
Location: CCS 322 (boardroom)

If you are interested in signing up for this weekly writing session, please fill out the following form:

Weekly Writing Session Sign-up 

Applications from historically under-represented groups in academia (e.g. indigenous, racialized, LGBTQ+ etc) will be prioritized.

This event is organized by faculty members Sakiru Adebayo, Anita Girvan and Nikhita Obeegadoo, with funding from the Public Humanities Hub-Okanagan and support from the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies.

John LeBlanc at his retirement party saying his farewell

John LeBlanc, associate professor emeritus of English and Cultural Studies, died suddenly on October 30, 2023 at his home in Vancouver, a city he adored.

Born Armand John LeBlanc in 1952 in North Sydney, NS, he was educated at St. Francis Xavier and U Calgary where he completed a PhD in English in 1990. He came “down the road” to Alberta in 1977. He worked in postcolonial studies, on writers from the Caribbean (Jean Rhys, Derek Walcott). He was hired at OUC (now UBCO) in 1990 and retired in 2014. He was a dedicated colleague and teacher, and was one of the founders of UBCO’s Cultural Studies program. He had a wonderful retirement, creating a film discussion group for the UBCO Emeritus College over Covid, contributing to Vancouver’s International Film Society, leading walks for the Canadian Company of Pilgrims on the southern Gulf Islands. He had just returned from an 800 km trek on the Camino at the end of September, his third Camino, and was planning Mount Blanc in France next year.

A Maritimer to the core, where his Scots and French roots are deep, his ashes will be interred next summer back home with his people. A burial service will take place next summer in North Sydney, Nova Scotia at the family graveyard plot.

Brianne Christensen at UBC Okanagan after he thesis defiance, November 2023

Brianne Christensen completed her BA in English (Hons) at UBCO before joining the MA in English graduate program in 2021. She defended her thesis in November 2023, “Hospitality in Crisis: New Sincerity and Receiving the Stranger in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet.” She was supervised by Dr. Jennifer Gustar, with committee members, Dr. George Grinnell and Dr. Margaret Reeves.

We asked Brianne to discuss her experience at UBCO as a master’s student.

Why did you choose to apply to the MA in English program here at UBCO?

When I applied to the MA in English program, I was in the final stages of writing my Honour’s thesis, which explored Ali Smith’s disruptive narrative style in Spring (2019) and There but for the (2011). At the time, I was thinking about the ways in which Smith’s modes of writing engage with experiences of hospitality, especially in the context of unexpected arrivals, and I was beginning to develop an understanding of the intersections in her work between socio-political and literary concerns. Yet I felt that I wasn’t quite finished with Smith––more accurately, she wasn’t finished with me!

As I became increasingly invested in the discourses surrounding Brexit and immigration in the UK­––issues central to Smith’s thinking on hospitality in the Seasonal Quartet––it felt urgent that I pursue further research on what her novels, modes of writing, and particular ethics as an author might offer for thinking about the social role and responsibility of the novel form in times of multiple crises related to hospitality and its refusal.

I decided to undertake this research at UBCO because I learned so much from working with Dr. Jennifer Gustar––my Honour’s thesis supervisor––and I knew that I wanted to keep thinking with her while writing my Master’s thesis. I had the excellent luck to meet Dr. Gustar as a second-year undergraduate student and, from then on, I took every one of her courses that I could. In fact, it was in one of these courses that I first encountered Ali Smith’s fiction. Over the years, working with Dr. Gustar has itself been a study in hospitality; her constant encouragement, generosity, and sheer brilliance will continue to inspire me both in life and in my future academic endeavours.

Tell us about the road to earning your UBC degree.

The road to earning my Master’s degree was full of unexpected opportunities that enabled me to grow as a student, researcher, and thinker. I’m incredibly thankful to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for their generosity in the form of a CGS-M award as well as the Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement, which allowed me to undertake site research abroad in the UK hosted by the University of Exeter. While in England, I studied post-Brexit UK migration narratives in multiple forms, including museum exhibitions, art installations, and hybrid literary genres combining prose, poetry, and creative non-fiction. This interdisciplinary research enriched my work immensely and provided me with valuable context with which to theorize Smith’s rhetoric of hospitality.

I’m incredibly fortunate to be a part of the supportive and motivating community that is the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBCO. I particularly enjoyed participating in the FCCS Research Series, both as a presenter and a listener. My own presentations in 2022 and 2023 helped me to clarify my thinking and facilitated connections with peers and professors whose scholarly interests productively overlap with my own. As a result of my first Research Series presentation, I was invited to contribute to the inaugural issue of RESPECT: UBC’s Equity Magazine––an opportunity I’m especially grateful for! I also presented a work-in-progress paper alongside other graduate students at the Critical Relations Symposium in April 2023, a truly special event organized by members of my fantastic cohort.

Tell us about your thesis.

My thesis is an effort to theorize Ali Smith’s particular rhetoric of hospitality––as she expresses it in the four novels of the Seasonal Quartet and in public paratexts––as well as to explore the potential of her modes of writing for thinking about hospitality and sincere welcome, two urgent geopolitical concerns that we must understand better as we move forward. I argue that, while Smith’s Quartet draws always on the context of immigration and post-Brexit Britain to address the pressing need of hospitality in social life as well as in art and literature, she is also developing sincere modes of writing that are themselves attuned to hospitality.

How did your professors support you throughout your degree?

My professors supported me with dedication and enthusiasm that exceeded all possible expectations. Working and thinking with my supervisor Dr. Jennifer Gustar was a major highlight of my experience at UBCO. Dr. Gustar went above and beyond to support me; she flew across the country to watch me present at my first conference in Montreal, spent hours reading my work, and always knew exactly what to say when I hit a wall in my thinking. Put simply, Dr. Gustar was the best supervisor any student could hope to work with.

I cannot put into words how thankful I am for the support of my committee members, the “dream team”: Dr. George Grinnell and Dr. Margaret Reeves. Their careful and attentive close reading, intellectual rigour, and generous feedback helped shape my thesis project into all that I hoped it might become. Dr. Grinnell and Dr. Reeves each challenged me to think deeply and to strive for excellence, while always encouraging me to pursue my passions, interests, and instincts.

Dr. Emily Murphy was also a wonderful and supportive professor whom I was lucky to meet. Her encouragement, keen editorial eye, and invaluable suggestions significantly contributed to my successful SSHRC application and helped frame my thinking for the project.

Throughout my years as both an undergraduate and graduate student at UBCO, I’ve had the distinct pleasure of also encountering Dr. Gustar, Dr. Grinnell, Dr. Reeves, and Dr. Murphy as a student in their courses. Their dedication to their students, passion for the material, and thoughtfulness are qualities I will aspire to in my own teaching in the future.

What are your plans now that you have completed your master’s degree?

My plan for the immediate future is to work, read widely, and prepare applications for PhD programs. I also have a substantial archive of research that didn’t quite make it into my thesis; I plan to produce at least one scholarly article with this material. In the long term, I aspire to teach at the university level, and I’m passionate about continuing to pursue my research interests, which are increasingly concerned with the relationships between politics and aesthetics, law and literature, and hospitality and authorship.