ECU students Kelsey, Payton and Katelyn with Dr. Robert Eggleston at the FCCS Dean’s Pancake Breakfast, fall 2025

Through literature and cultural studies, we engage with some of the most important issues of our time—sustainability, decolonization, the impacts of AI, power, and belonging.

Current UBC Okanagan students, Payton, Kelsey and Katelyn, all say that studying in the English and Cultural Studies programs have given them important critical thinking, reading, writing, and communication skills. Each of these students has discovered something unique and rewarding about studying in English and Cultural Studies.

Katelyn is a fourth-year English major, who says she chose English because she loved how wide-ranging it was, and she felt like she didn’t have to study just within one topic.

“In my English classes, I find there is so much culture and history involved in what we study that it isn’t just about reading books. It’s easy to feel passionate about the humanities because you naturally connect with the material—you’re studying human life, patterns, and the things people have cared about for centuries,” says Katelyn.

Fourth-year student Kelsey always knew she wanted to go into teaching after finishing an undergraduate degree.

“I always liked English in school, and since I knew I wanted to go into teaching and needed a teachable subject area, choosing English felt right—I enjoyed reading, it was a great major, and now I see how it gave me valuable skills in both my personal and academic life,” she says.

She adds that studying in the humanities provides important personal and academic skills such as communication and reading between the lines.  “The programs help you make meaningful connections across time, seeing how texts and characters from centuries ago still resonate today.”

Payton, who is in her fifth year, is completing a combined major in English and Cultural Studies. She always knew she was going to study English at University, and after taking a first-year Cultural Studies course as an elective, she was hooked, deciding to do a combined major.

She explains that there are many connections between these subjects. “Studying in English is more about the historical aspects, how we came to what we consider good literature and why we’ve deemed it that—whereas Cultural Studies looks at similar ideas through a modern lens, but using the same tools.”

In addition to their studies, these three students are also on the executive team for the English Course Union. Kelsey is the President, Katelyn is the VP Finance, Payton is the VP of Events.

The English Course Union (ECU) is a space not only for members of the English program but also for non-majors who want to be part of a community centered around reading, writing, and literary events.

For Payton, the opportunity to meet so many members of the English community and grow closer with faculty members has been one of the highlights of being part of the ECU. “Being part of the ECU has been a great place to build friendships, and strengthen connections with faculty,” she says.

The group has worked to create an inclusive environment that supports students from all disciplines. Events range from book clubs, book exchanges, masquerade balls and film nights, to writing groups and essay workshops.

“We had a lot of people want to join when we were at club days showcasing what the ECU is. They said things like we don’t get any time for reading, and they want to work on writing skills. So, we’ve really taken that into consideration when forming our events to make sure that they’re inclusive to all students on campus,” says Katelyn.

At the first book club meeting, Kelsey says that a group of first-year students who didn’t know each other ended up staying after the meeting just to keep talking and connecting with each other.

“It was great to see those connections forming right in front of us. I see them regularly on campus and we stop and say hello; I just love how we continue to create a meaningful space for these things to happen. I think community is really important at university because right now this is your home away from home.”

Payton also admits that she was very shy coming into university, noting that coming to this campus, which was close to home, was a safe option for her. And she has learned and grown so much during her time here.

When asked what advice she would give to her first-year self, she says: “Push yourself beyond what you think you’re capable of—making connections, talking to professors, joining clubs, and stepping out of your comfort zone can lead to personal growth and opportunities you never imagined.”

Studying in the humanities invites a dive deep into the stories we tell and the ways we tell them, through texts, media, and cultural narratives. With opportunities to engage in everything from literary analysis to digital storytelling and community-based research, these programs offer a rich and varied academic experience. Whether passion lies in literature, culture, or both, students find a place to explore, connect, and broaden horizons—an experience that can shape an academic journey, but personal life.

In this video Payton, Kelsey and Katelyn talk about their time at UBC Okanagan and the value of studying in English and Cultural Studies.

UBC Okanagan wants to help graduate students answer the age-old question: How can I change the world for the better?

The Master of Design program is a professional graduate degree program that will welcome its first intake of students next May. Applications are currently being accepted.

Before stepping into the program to tackle burning questions about the world around them, future students are invited to a virtual Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on November 28 to meet faculty and get their questions about the program answered.

Master of Design AMA Session

November 28

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm PDT

Register Now

“In the era of AI, global uncertainty and other seismic shifts in our economic and social fabric, how can any of us enact real change in the world around us?” asks Dr. Sabine Weyand, Associate Professor of Teaching in UBCO’s School of Engineering and MDes instructor.

“We often ask these big questions, but how can we actually solve them? This is precisely what the Master of Design program will empower students to do.”

“The Master of Design (MDes) is a professional graduate program for people who want to make a difference,” says Shawn Serfas, Creative Studies Department Head

“The program is rooted in critical design thinking, creative practice and design principles. And it’s important to note that students will not be tackling these challenges alone, nor hypothetically. They will be supported to tackle these real-world challenges side-by-side with our faculty and working closely with industry, community and public sector partners,” says Serfas.

The program is taught by faculty from both UBCO’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies and School of Engineering.

To help inspire and set students up for success, they will learn in a cutting-edge, custom-built new media lab.

The space is designed and outfitted to ensure students can make the biggest possible impression through the program and its pillars—design, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.

In a new video, Faculty recently shared their thoughts on what the program will help students achieve and how it fills a critical gap in design-thinking and change-focused professional masters programs in Canada.

Applications for the MDes program will be accepted until January 9 for international students and January 30 for domestic students.

Learn more at masterdesign.ok.ubc.ca.

Jim Kalnin in his studio, photo by Mary Gray

What: Selected works by Jim Kalnin
Opening reception: Saturday, September 27, 2025, 1:00 – 3:00 pm
Exhibition dates: September 27 to October 9, 2025, open weekdays from 10 am to 4 pm
Where: FINA Gallery, Creative and Critical Studies building, 1148 Research Road, UBC Okanagan

Jim Kalnin is an emeritus professor from our fine arts program, where he taught drawing and painting from 1987 to 2009. He was the founding Curator of Lake Country Art Gallery from 2010 – 2011. He has taught art in many community settings eager to convey his belief in the value of art in people’s lives. Jim has published two books on spirituality. He has exhibited widely in British Columbia, and been included in exhibitions in other parts of Canada, California and Sydney, Australia.

This exhibition is organized and curated by Shawn Serfas.

To attend the reception on September 27, please RSVP to fccs.ubco@ubc.ca.

Pulse has been gleaned — mostly — from Jim’s recent work. Taken together this collection offers a glimpse of the diversity of his visual enquiry. The criteria for this show was not a unified theme but rather is meant to express the more enduring and fundamental quality of his 70+ years of commitment to his art practice. Hopefully you’ll glimpse something of the energetic and elemental foundation of his engagement with life, spirit and Mystery.

Jim Kalnin was born in Pine Falls Manitoba in 1942, and spent his early years on a small farm near Lac du Bonnet, followed by several years in a company town (Point de Bois in the Canadian Shield) on the Winnipeg River. The next stop, at the end of a three-day train ride, was in Victoria BC where the population of his high school was double the population of the whole town he and his family had just left.

Once the agony of high school passed, Jim enrolled in the Vancouver School of Art (later to become Emily Carr College of Art and Design.) His five years of art school opened many creative doors including film animation — mostly on inventive projects sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada. These led to teaching animation at the Vancouver School of Art and at Kingait, a.k.a. Cape Dorset NWT in the mid 1970’s.

Travelling to new places soon became an addiction, with extended low-budget expeditions across Canada, to Central and South America and to Southeast Asia. Then wind-blown, he settled first in his old haunt near Nanaimo and then in the Okanagan Valley. After living for several years in a tiny community above Okanagan Lake, Jim went back to teaching art at Okanagan College which ultimately turned into a full-time position at UBCO.

His bachelor life also changed into the joys of family life when he met Lois Huey-Heck and her son Bryan. They became a family and settled in Oyama in 1990. Only after retiring from teaching at UBCO in 2009 did Jim’s ‘travel bug’ return. He and Lois kicked off a freer and easier life with an extended tour of southern Mexico into Guatemala (which they laughingly referred to as their first ‘geezers with back packs adventure’). That led to a number of winter sojourns, mostly staying in the same 500-year-old Casa in the same town, Patzcuaro, in the highlands of Michoacan. These sojourns gave them both the opportunity to focus on their art for extended periods from 2010-2020

In the 16 years since leaving the Creative Studies Department Jim’s life and art have continued the tradition of exploring inner and outer landscapes — only now much closer to home! Meditating for an extended period most every day, Jim continues to have a heart and a deep concern for the planet and all creatures with whom we share the pulse of Earth.

The process of ageing has become an adventure of its own for Jim. At almost 83 the shifts in energy and memory add challenge — but also an invitation to simply let things be as they are. It all makes space to live even more in the moment: to play on hands and knees with a six-year-old grandchild; to ever-more-slowly turn over the garden beds in spring; and still push paint across a bare expanse of canvas and see where it takes him.

Ali Mirzabayati

Ali Mirzabayati completed his MA in English at UBC Okanagan in the spring of 2024, supervised by Dr. Michael Treschow. His thesis explores Tolkien’s concept of “death as a gift” and how it connects with major themes like heroism, mortality, and the afterlife in his legendarium.

We asked Ali to discuss his thesis and what his experience was like at UBC Okanagan as a master’s student.

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

I always wanted to pursue a graduate program where I could research the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. When I discovered one of Dr. Michael Treschow’s articles on Tolkien, I was struck by how closely it aligned with my research interests. Our later Zoom conversation about Tolkien was inspiring, and his willingness to supervise my thesis became the main reason I chose UBC Okanagan. Alongside that, UBC’s outstanding reputation, exceptional academic environment, and the English program’s genuine commitment to diversity made it the perfect place for me to pursue my studies.

Tell us about the road to earning your UBC degree.

My experience at UBCO was excellent, as I had access to a wide range of courses and subjects beyond my own field. I enjoyed attending diverse lectures, and my teaching assistantship courses were especially rewarding. The department’s strong academic support made me feel secure and encouraged throughout my studies. UBCO’s campus may not be large, but it is a truly lovely place where you feel present and connected. Kelowna itself was another highlight—such a beautiful city with a wonderful vibe. I will never forget the afternoons I spent reading by Okanagan Lake.

Tell us about your thesis.  

In my thesis, I investigate how Tolkien drew inspiration from Old English and Scandinavian literary traditions, such as Beowulf and Norse mythology, which deeply influenced his portrayal of death and the heroic ideal. In addition, I analyze the ways Tolkien’s stories depict mourning and melancholia, using psychological theories to understand how his characters process grief and loss. This approach helps reveal the emotional depth of Tolkien’s world and how acceptance or rejection of death affects characters’ journeys and transformations. Through this study, I aim to shed light on the complex relationship between death, courage, and hope in Tolkien’s fiction, showing how his work offers a rich exploration of human mortality and the meaning we find in facing it.

How did your professors support you throughout your degree?

My supervisor, Dr. Michael Treschow, has offered unwavering support from the time I was in Iran through to my graduation and now as I continue my research as an independent scholar. I owe much of my academic growth to his deep knowledge, generosity, and care. His insights on Tolkien greatly inspired my work, and his Old English class—especially when he recited Beowulf—sparked my passion for the language and motivated me to learn it. Dr. Jon Vickery, another key mentor and member of my committee, has also provided invaluable guidance in my Tolkien studies. I was fortunate to serve as his teaching assistant for two semesters, which enriched my academic experience further.

You were recently featured on a podcast talking about your thesis on the works of J.R.R Tolkein. Tell us how being on the podcast came about, and what you shared about your work.

Entmoot Podcast, hosted by Kenny and Sam on Spotify, offers in-depth discussions on Tolkien’s legendarium, exploring not only the stories themselves but also their social, literary, and political dimensions. I was honored to be invited as a guest to discuss my thesis, which was an exciting opportunity to connect with fellow Tolkien enthusiasts. Having always been passionate about digital humanities, I saw this as a wonderful chance to share my research with a broader audience beyond academia. The experience allowed me to engage in meaningful dialogue about Tolkien’s work and its relevance today, reaching listeners worldwide and contributing to ongoing conversations in the field.

Aditri Chatterjee

Aditri Chatterjee completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree with an Honours in English in the spring of 2024, and joined the MA in English program the following fall. After completing her honours thesis, Chatterjee wanted to continue her work looking into morality and science fiction and her views towards AI and its rapid developments that seem like a threat to human survival for many. Aditri is supervised by Dr. Marie Loughlin with committee members Dr. Jon Vickery, Dr. Bryce Traister and Dr. Margaret Reeves.

We asked Aditri to discuss her experience at UBC Okanagan both as an undergraduate and as a master’s student.

Tell us about your time here at UBC Okanagan.

Pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature, complete with an Honours distinction, my love for stories has transcended from mere fiction to communities at large. From exploring the origins of English in my Old English classes to learning about various literary periods and genres – all here at UBC itself – has already put me on a rewarding road to earning another UBC degree.

Working as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) has been very rewarding in the first year of my Master’s degree. As a Hobbit fan from a young age and now getting to experience it in a classroom context as a GTA with Dr. Marie Loughlin, I learnt firsthand the demands of a teaching role and how exciting it can be to discuss cool stuff in an academic manner. As a GTA for Dr. Jon Vickery and explore dystopian literature, which ties in close to my thesis. Apart from talking about cool stuff again – like The Matrix and Terminator – I also had the opportunity to take a lecture on ‘robots and AI’, a topic that was not only significant to the course but also one that directly links to my MA thesis. This experience allowed me to greatly realise my thesis’ significance to the general public and rediscover the joy of literature.

As a UBCO student, the motto ‘tuum est’ is an integral part of my education and I hope to uphold that for the rest of my graduate education as well.

Tell us about your thesis.

My English Honours thesis explored Star Wars’ dealings with the Grey Jedi, Force-users who walk between the Light and Dark sides of the Force. At the time, I was thinking about the ways in which the Grey Jedi as a character type represented a figure of the outsider, a figure that disrupts the conservative. Their challenge to a misplaced philosophy about balance with a narrative invested in the Manichaean concept of good vs. evil made me question the perfunctory heroic narratives that are governed by this binary, particularly in societal dogmas, politics, traditional education, communities, and gender norms.

My Master’s thesis focuses on American science fiction author Isaac Asimov’s ‘Robot Novels,’ examining how Asimov deals with sentience and consciousness in Artificial Intelligence (humanoid robots) that allows his robots to develop volition, judgment, and empathy. Since the four ‘Robot Novels’ (The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn, and Robots and Empire) are interconnected through the robot R. Daneel Olivaw, I will focus on the character development of this particular robot, examining how this development informs the current discourse on AI sentience. Ultimately, the significance of this study lies in addressing the current fear and anxiety around the rapidly developing world of AI. By not deferring to the clichéd robot-apocalypse narrative that pertained both in the 1950s and 1960s and dominates much discussion of AI in today’s world, Asimov’s alternate perspectives on robots provide a less polarised way of harnessing technology to help humanity and can assist us in moving towards a future that caters not just to humans but to every being on this planet, organic or otherwise.

You recently published an article in The Republic. Tell us about this publication and what your article is about.

My publication in The Republic started as an assignment for UBCO professor Dr. Sakiru Adebayo’s class, Black Intellectual Traditions. On his initiative and encouragement, I submitted a book review, titled Black Scholarship in Africanfuturism, to The Republic, hoping it would get published and three months later, it is out in the world for everyone to read.

My article is a book review of Nnedi Okorafor’s novel Death of the Author, a novel that crosses genres—metafiction, literary fiction and science fiction (africanfuturism) all wrapped up in one piece of work. It is about a disabled Nigerian-American woman named Zelu who makes a breakthrough in her writing career, through her novel Rusted Robots, while dealing with several problems in her life that do not make her stardom easy to live up to. The novel is significant in imparting agency to its Black readers who want to explore africanfuturism, redefining Black scholarship through science fiction and proving that scientific development does not exclusively lie outside literature or within Western countries. It attempts at resolving the issues between science and race by incorporating the past (colonialism, slavery, migration) as well as the future (technology, post-racism, post-humanism). To that end, Okorafor’s inspirational form is not limited to Black people and its diaspora. I myself am inspired by her works in imagining a science future for my own home country via Indofuturism or indianfuturism, another one of my research interests from a list that seems never ending.

Joanna Cockerline (left) with UBCO Nursing students at the Heart and Sole event on July 15, 2025

JustUs Street Outreach, co-founded and led by Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies and Faculty of Management Lecturer Joanna Cockerline and Tasha S., has partnered with the UBCO School of Nursing on a Partnership Recognition and Exploration Grant. The registered non-profit organization and students from the Nursing Capstone course, alongside School of Nursing Associate Professor Sheila Epp, worked together to create a community night for women on the streets, featuring foot care, pizza, and community building.

The Hearts and Soles event, held July 15 at a local community centre, was a huge success and welcomed over 20 participants living on the street. The team of nursing students collected donations and provided hands-on, compassionate, and interactive foot care and foot care instruction for those who attended—while giving pedicures.

Cockerline and Tasha founded JustUs Street Outreach in 2024 in response to the situations faced by those living on the street in Kelowna, especially after the dissolution of two other community outreach programs that left many people living unhoused feeling disconnected and hopeless. JustUs Street Outreach is starting small and independent, ready to step up immediately to fill that gap. Cockerline and Tasha, who provided street outreach together for five years prior, are excited about this grassroots initiative, which provides direct, non-judgemental, practical, and compassionate outreach to those on the street who need it most.

“JustUs Street Outreach changes lives,” says Tasha, who brings lived experience and firsthand knowledge of many of the struggles faced by those she cares so deeply about, and is now a Business Administration graduate with a background as an outreach volunteer, Narcan Team Lead, Volunteer Coordinator, and advocate. “We can’t do the work for them, but we can walk alongside them and support them in the change they’re making in their lives.”

“Everyone deserves to live with compassion and connection, and we want to be there for those who need it most,” adds Joanna, who teaches English, Communications, and Creative Writing at UBCO, and whose novel, Still (published by the Porcupine’s Quill, September 2025) provides a compassionate lens into the unhoused and street-level sex work communities of Kelowna, BC—and is ultimately a story of friendship, community, resiliency, healing, and hope.

“We are dedicated to being there for some of the most vulnerable in our community,” Tasha says. “We are very glad to be back out there and do all we can.”

JustUs Street Outreach and the UBCO School of Nursing are continuing to partner together in the future, and look forward to applying for a UBC Community University Engagement (CUES) Grant autumn of 2025 so that they can continue to make a difference to students’ learning, future nurses, and the community.

Sheila Epp (centre) with UBCO Nursing students at the Heart and Sole event on July 15, 2025

Heart and Sole event, July 15, 2025

Heart and Sole event, July 15, 2025

For undergraduate student Katherine Trussler, the decision to study languages at UBC Okanagan was rooted in the desire to gain a strong foundation in both French and Spanish, with the broader goal of pursuing a career in interpretation or translation.

“As a Languages major, I learned the basics in French and Spanish and German, with a little bit of Korean just for fun,” Trussler says. “I wanted to get as wide a range as possible because I’m interested in translation and wanted to serve as many people as possible when I move on to the next step of my studies and career.”

In an international job market, being able to communication in multiple languages makes a person more competitive. French is Canada’s second language, which made it an obvious choice, Trussler explains.

“Before I joined the program, I was already interested in learning languages and about the cultures they come from. Getting a formal education allows you to interact more with those cultures and develop deeper connections.”

Learning languages offers advantages on both a personal and career level. Studying languages in an academic setting, offers a deeper connection to the cultures involved.

“It allows you to interact more with that culture… and have more of a depth with that interaction, and I think that it gives you the opportunity to understand people in a more empathetic way.”

In addition to her studies, Trussler has also had other learning opportunities while at UBC Okanagan, taking advantage of the J’Explore program offered through the Government of Canada through the Ministry of Education.

“I took French immersion courses almost every summer and so I’ve gotten the opportunity to go to different places in Quebec with different dialects, different communities interact with my friends in that way.”

She also participated in a Go Global seminar, travelling to Spain in the summer of 2024. “ I spent six weeks in Santiago and so I had the opportunity to also use Spanish every day, which was such a fun and exciting experience.”

Trussler completed her Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in languages in the spring of 2025, and to anyone starting out in school learning a new language, she says: “You’re going to deal with imposter syndrome, and that’s normal. Don’t discredit the effort you’re putting in. It’s a process. You’re not aiming for perfection because language is always evolving. You have to be humble when learning a language. You make mistakes, you take critique, and you keep working. That mindset—accepting errors and pushing forward—is what makes the biggest difference.”

For Trussler, her journey is a reminder that language is more than a skill—it’s a lifelong process, a cultural bridge, and a deeply human endeavor.

2025 Banner install

Through a partnership with the City of Kelowna and UBCO’s Faculty of Creative & Critical Studies, a series of 13 new original street banners now adorn the lamp posts along the Rotary Centre for the Arts Commons and along the Art Walk in Kelowna’s Cultural District. These original works by UBCO students and alumni will be up for the public to view throughout the rest of the year.

The Outdoor Banner Exhibition program provides a unique and engaging way to showcase emerging artists work in the community. Since launching in 2020, the banner project has showcased the work of 65 students, faculty and alumni.

“These banners add such vibrancy and interest to our community, and we are proud that this partnership continues to provide quality art to our public spaces, while also celebrating local talent,” said Christine McWillis, Cultural Services Manager for the City of Kelowna. “We invite our community to take a stroll down the ArtWalk and discover these incredible pieces for themselves next time they’re in the Cultural District.”

Projects like this help to revitalize the urban landscape while supporting emerging and professional artists, explains Shawn Serfas, Head of the Department of Creative Studies at UBCO.

“We’re excited to share the amazing work of our students and alumni with the community. Showcasing their art in public spaces is one of the ways we support what they do and help them grow as artists,” said Serfas.

Additionally, two larger banners have also been installed along the ArtWalk and use augmented reality (AR) to display three-dimensional animations on top of the printed image. Visual arts professor Myron Campbell worked with two students from the media studies program, Owen Clark and Jessica Williams, to create these works.

“These works bring together sound, drawing, painting, and collage with digital tools to create visually interesting animated pieces, I’m excited for these students to be able to share their work with the public,” says Campbell.

Graduation 2025 procession

June 5^th marked a special milestone for students who completed their degrees at UBC Okanagan.  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 2025.

This year five doctoral students, seven Interdisciplinary Studies Masters students, five Masters of Arts in English students, fourteen Masters of Fine Arts students, forty-nine Bachelor of Arts students, twenty-two Bachelor of Fine Arts students, and twenty-one Bachelor of Media Studies students are graduating with their degrees.

Dean Bryce Traister congratulated all of our graduates: “As new graduates, your voices matter. Take what you learned to question the given and create the new. It’s now time for you, our 2025 UBC Okanagan grads, to show us the way to a better world.”

Our FCCS graduates, their guests, our faculty and staff continued the celebrations of the day at a reception held in the Creative and Critical Studies building after the ceremony. 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 gather together to celebrate our students’ achievements and congratulate them on their graduation. You have worked extremely hard, overcome challenges, and persevered to reach this moment and finally graduate with your undergraduate, masters or doctoral degree. Congratulations to you and to all the important people in your life who have supported 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. As you move forward, we wish you success and happiness.”

Kailee Fawcett, a member of the graduating class of 2025, was the student reader at our ceremony, and shared these words with the graduating class:

“As graduates of the arts, social sciences and creative disciplines we are especially attuned to the state of the world. We’ve spent years learning how to notice, how to question, how to care deeply. During our time here, the world has witnessed war, genocide, wildfires, systemic violence, economic uncertainty, and mass disconnection. So when people ask us, what are you going to do next, the question can feel a little hollow. How do you answer that when the present can feel so uncertain making a future impossible to predict.”

Fawcett offered an alternative question for these graduates to consider.

“What you have gained during your time here – skills, values, friendships, resilience, insights – these will carry you into this world. What will you bring forward not only into your careers but into your communities and the small moments where care and courage matter most? And maybe that is the more important question. What we carry with us will shape how we move through an uncertain world. And to celebrate today is not to ignore the grief of the world, it is to remember that joy too is a form of resistance.”

Student reader, Kailee Fawcett completed her degree in the Bachelor of Media Studies.

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:

• Juan Ablan, Medal in Media Studies
• Mikah Assaly, Faculty Choice Award in Design
• Soha Aftab, Cultural Studies Scholarship; International Student Award
• Slava Bart, Campbell Family Graduate Award in Fine Arts
• Lindsay Baerg, Jessie Ravnsborg Memorial Award
• Sonja Berg, Media Studies Scholarship
• Gemma Cairney, Murray Johnson Memorial Award in Visual Arts
• Finley Cole, Doug Biden Memorial Scholarship in Visual Arts
• Ella Cottier, HSBC Bank of Canada Prize
• Mihai Covaser, French Scholarship; Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Inclusion, Democracy and Reconciliation
• Sarah de Hoog, Kelly Curtis Memorial Scholarship in English
• Rhys DeFehr, Asper Scholarship
• Carson Deis, Okanagan Visual Arts Scholarship
• Charlotte Dowell, English Scholarship
• Kailee Fawcett, Dean’s Award for Artistic Excellence in the Bachelor of Media Studies program, Frances Harris Prize in Fine Arts
• Cady Gau, Medal in Fine Arts
• Hailey Gleboff, Dean’s Award for Artistic Excellence in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program
• Tatum Grundy, Creative Studies Award in Media Studies
• Ivo Guidi, Visual Arts Scholarship
• Elly Hajdu, Faculty Choice Award in Visual Arts
• Stephen Ikesaka, Norma and Jack Aitken Prize in Visual Arts
• Layla Kutschker, Creative Studies Transfer Prize in Creative Writing
• Sierra Loewen, Asper Scholarship
• Nigel Martens, Faculty Choice Award in Sound Art
• Connor McCleary, Creative Studies Award in Fine Arts
• Maren McIntosh, Dr. Shelley Martin Memorial Scholarship
• Alec Merkt-Capriles Languages Scholarship
• Pablo Montero Cabrera, Creative Writing Scholarship
• Lauren Naidoo, Faculty Choice Award in Moving Images
• Stevie Poling, Elinor Yandel Memorial Award in Fine Arts
• John (Jack) Prendas, Craig Hall Memorial Visual Arts Scholarship in Printmaking; International Student Award
• Anna Semenoff, Faculty Choice Award in Visual Arts
• Rebecca Smith, Jack and Lorna Hambleton Memorial Award
• Fredrik Thacker, SOPA Fine Arts Emerging Artist Award
• Katherine Trussler, FCCS French Essay Prize
• Mathew Wanbon, Creative Writing Prize
• Evelyn Wu, Faculty Choice Award in Installation Art
• Kelly Yuste, Art History & Visual Culture Scholarship

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

Digital Arts and Humanities masters graduate Barbara Emefa Kpedekpo

FCCS faculty members waiting for the procession of students

Bachelor of Arts waiting for the procession to start

Bachelor of Fine Arts waiting for the procession to start

Mckenna King (right) with fellow student from the Bachelor of Arts

Student procession

Doctoral student Jon Corbett in the procession

DAHU doctoral student Sephideh Saffari (left), with her partner (centre), and supervisor Hussein Keshani (right) at the FCCS celebration after convocation

Toasting our graduates at the FCCS reception after convocation

Left to right: FCCS faculty members Francis Langevin and Denise Kenney with MFA graduate Miriam Cummings and her partner

Graduating student Lindsay Baerg (left) with Dr. Robert Eggleston at the FCCS reception

Myron Campbell (left) with BFA graduating students Elly and Laura McCarthy

Media studies graduating students Brenna Lam Kennedy (left) and Kailee Fawcett

Bachelor of Arts graduating student Emma Unruh

Brendan Shykora

Brendan Shykora is an alumnus from our Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in English. He grew up in the North Okanagan and says that UBCO was a great place to start his post-secondary studies as it was close to home. “It turned out that the smaller campus was also a great place to learn. It was easier to get to know professors and get bonus insight from them, either by attending their office hours or by politely cornering them at the end of classes. I have no regrets about studying at UBCO — it was one of the happiest times of my life.”

Brendan completed his degree at UBCO in 2017, and went on to complete a Masters in journalism at Carleton University and is now a journalist working at the Vernon Morning Star.

We met with Brendan to discuss his experience at UBCO as an undergraduate student, as a master’s student and what he is doing now.

Why did you choose to come to UBCO and choose English as your major?

I decided to study English fairly early in the game, perhaps in Grade 9 or 10 of high school. English class was always my strong suit, and reading was always a pleasurable escape. Of course, when you commit to an English major, reading is no longer merely fun and games; it becomes a daily grind. But insofar as nothing of value comes without hard work, I think the extensive reading lists were well worth it.

I chose to study English at UBCO in part because I was not yet ready to commit to journalism. I also knew that there was so much within the novels I was reading that I couldn’t understand, and I thought, how nice would it be to learn how to extract more meaning out of whatever books I was reading, both during and after my studies?

I got around to journalism afterwards, but I wouldn’t do anything differently. Studying English helped me learn how to think critically and with creativity, which are skills that have helped me in my career.

Is there a professor that stands out to you while you were at UBCO?

My professors at UBCO were outstanding, and too many of them made an indelible impact on me to name only one. For my English studies, prof. Lisa Grekul helped me believe in myself as a writer and a thinker, while offering guidance on how to critically examine a wide range of texts. Prof. Margaret Reeves exposed me to the works of John Milton and I had a wonderful time studying Paradise Lost in her class. She also taught a phenomenal class on children’s literature that I still think about from time to time. For my minor in political science, Dr. James Rochlin helped me understand postmodernism and how it has permeated though everyday life. It’s been amazing to see how relevant the topics in his courses from a decade ago have become in Canadian and American politics.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

This actually escaped my memory, so I had to ask my mom. She told me as a kid I wanted to be a paleontologist, which tracks because like many young boys I had an obsession with dinosaurs. Beneath that, I like to imagine I was yearning for some process of discovery. It’s unclear when I abandoned that dream, but I can say with certainty that by the time I was in high school my paleontology plans had long been supplanted and I knew I wanted to be a writer. I didn’t know what kind of writer I wanted to be exactly, but I had fallen in love with the process of constructing sentences, of fitting words together with a purpose. In high school I heard my own voice come out in my writing for the first time, better articulated than anything I could ever say orally. Like a paleontologist discovering ancient fossils, I decided I wanted to discover modes of thought, meaning and beauty through the simple yet powerful process of putting words together.

You completed a masters in Journalism at Carleton University after your degree here, tell us about that – why did you choose that field, and what are you doing now?

I knew coming out of high school that I wanted to write for a living. What I needed then was a field in which my writing skills could be applied to something interesting and of real-world consequence. Journalism fit the bill. It combined the writing skills I’d learned in my English major with the understandings about how the world works that I’d picked up while completing my political science minor. I’ve always been interested in the inner workings of society, and a journalist’s job is essentially to investigate the mechanics of modern life, while being able to convey one’s findings in easily digestible language. For those reasons, journalism was an ideal fit for me.

And I’m happy to report that I’ve been working as a journalist for almost six years now. After finishing my studies I went back home to visit my parents in Enderby, and was preparing to look for jobs in far flung places. But as fortune would have it, a job opening popped up at The Vernon Morning Star in the summer of 2019, just a 30-minute drive from my hometown. I’ve been at the Morning Star ever since and have completely fallen in love with local news. Whereas other journalists have a beat they report on and specialize in, working for the local paper means writing about anything and everything, and I’ve been thrilled with the vast range of topics I’ve been able to report on in the first five-plus years of my career.

How do you think your undergraduate degree helped you with your graduate degree?

My experiences as an undergraduate at UBCO helped me tremendously during my graduate studies. My fourth undergraduate year in particular prepared me for the very heavy workload I encountered in the Master of Journalism program at Carleton University. The five courses I had in each semester that year were each pulling my attention in different directions, and I had to learn how prioritize tasks, a skill that’s come in handy as a working journalist.

I think the biggest thing came out of my undergraduate studies which helped me in my graduate pursuits was the simple realization that hard work pays off in the end. My grades steadily improved over the four years of my Bachelor of Arts degree. When I first entered my graduate program, I again found myself at the bottom of a ladder; my classmates were all so smart! They seemed to already know what it meant to be a journalist before ever having worked as one, whereas I felt as though I didn’t have what it takes to ever become a journalist. I felt inadequate, and in truth I was near the bottom of my cohort academically at the start of the program. But my undergraduate studies had taught me to persevere, and I again improved relative to my cohort over the course of those two years. By the end of the program, I felt as though I could succeed in the field I had committed to, which was a feeling beyond words.

In short, I am grateful for the challenges that were put in front of me during my UBCO days. Each of those challenges was a stepping stone on the way to where I am now. You can’t ask for more out of your education than for the chance to grow, and I was offered that in spades at UBCO.