Barbara Emefa Kpedekpo

Barbara Emefa Kpedekpo completed her masters degree in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies program in the Digital Arts and Humanities theme in the fall of 2024, supervised by Dr. Suzanne Gott, along with committee members, Dr. Neha Gupta and Dr. Hussein Keshani. Her thesis titled, Heritage Through Pixels: Digitization of Ghana’s Cultural Heritage with the Aim of Increasing Engagement and Participation Amongst the Youth, combines her passion for cultural heritage transmission, preservation and engagement.

‘My thesis, is where Ghanaian culture meets the digital age. It’s all about using digital tools to preserve and share our cultural heritage among the younger generation. In simpler terms, it’s about making sure our traditions don’t get left behind in the rush to tap, swipe and scroll on our screens.’

We asked Barbara to discuss her experience at UBCO as a master’s student and to give us more information about her thesis project.

Why did you choose to apply to the IGS master’s program in the DAHU theme?

I chose the IGS master’s program in the DAHU theme to turn a personal challenge into a purposeful mission. Growing up, my limited fluency in Ewe left me feeling disconnected from my heritage. But being immersed in a multicultural or ethnic environment like Ghana taught me something powerful: culture is more than language —it’s identity, memory, skills, and legacy. This realization fueled my curiosity about how I could bridge some of the cultural gaps in Ghana. My thesis Heritage Through Pixels, focuses on engaging Ghanaian youth with their heritage through accessible and inclusive digital tools, especially in resource-constrained contexts such as Ghana. The DAHU theme offered the perfect blend of creativity, technology, and cultural exploration, giving me the tools to reimagine tradition in the digital age. For me this research was not only a way to craft sustainable solutions that preserve our past but also inspire a culturally rich future.

Tell us about the road to earning your UBC degree.

The road to earning my degree has been a mix of adventure, self-discovery, and, let’s be honest, a fair share of late night-calls – thanks to geographical divides – and moments of self-doubt. Coming from Ghana, I arrived with a suitcase full of dreams, a passion for cultural heritage, and just enough knowledge about Canadian winters to pack a warm jacket. The feeling of being an “outsider” among my Ewe ethnic community led me to question what it really means to belong. UBCO seemed like the perfect place to figure it out—an international hub where everyone’s a little lost but pretending not to be. It provided a welcoming space that embraced my cultural differences and allowed me to share my cultural insecurities openly. UBCO wasn’t just about academics to me—it was about figuring out life. I learned that “networking” sometimes just means finding someone who did not understand the article that was shared in class or sharing your experience as a teaching assistant. I discovered that being far from home teaches you not just independence but also how to survive and embrace opportunities and challenges that come your way. One of my greatest opportunities was having a supportive community that truly had my best interests at heart (my roommate—Donna, supervisor­—Dr. Suzanne Gott, and faith community—Trinity Church Kelowna). In all, it has been an interesting and transformative journey!

My sincerest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Dr. Suzanne Gott, who was always ready to listen, share sharp insights, and nudge me when I needed it. Her genuine investment in helping me carve my career path was so evident in every meeting. She has been one of my greatest motivations for wanting to pursue a career in this field. My class with Dr. Neha Gupta, a small but mighty group of three students, remains unforgettable for its inspiration and teamwork. Professors I TAed for at FCCS championed my research like it was their own, especially Dr. Nathalie Hager who always shared invaluable insights, encouraged and cheered me on. Everywhere I turned on campus, I found a community of professors, from different faculties and departments (Dr. Christine Schreyer, Dr. Hussein Keshani, Dr. Catherine Higgs) who truly had my back. It wasn’t just support; it was a powerhouse of encouragement and belief in my potential.

Tell us about your thesis, why did you choose this subject?

I always felt like I was caught between two worlds in my youth—an Ewe who couldn’t speak Ewe fluently. Imagine trying to explain to your relatives why you sound more like Google Translate than a proud member of your community. My shaky Ewe language always made me feel like an outsider in my own community. I realized I wasn’t alone—many others felt the same disconnect. That’s when the idea hit me: What if technology could be used as a bridge? What if we could take our rich oral traditions—stories, skills, and wisdom—and reimagine them in a way that resonates with the tech-savvy generation? This thesis became my way of answering those questions and creating a path (a first step) where tradition and innovation can walk hand in hand. It’s not just research to me but I see this as a mission to celebrate where we come from while inspiring where we’re headed.

Now that I’ve completed my master’s degree, my plan is to continue on this mission to merge the gap between tradition and technology. I am determined to learn from experts and communities involved in heritage revitalisation projects, drawing inspiration from their success stories while exploring creative ways to reconnect with my roots and the broader dimensions of heritage.

What advice would you give to a student starting their masters degree?

Start your master’s degree with an open mind and a well-stocked grocery cabinet —you’ll need both. Embrace the chaos: some days, you’ll feel like a genius, and other days, you’ll Google, “How to finish a thesis in three months.” Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if they seem “basic”—it’s how you learn, and your professors have seen worse, trust me. Lastly but most importantly, find your people. Graduate school is really a marathon, not a sprint, and having a support system of fellow stressed-out students and people who can encourage you (for me it was my roommate, faith community and family) makes the journey not only survivable but surprisingly fun and worth it. And remember, the finish line isn’t just about the degree; it’s about the growth, grit, and occasional insights you pick up along the way.

Dr. Alexopoulos receiving her award, pictured with Dr. Diana Carter, FCCS Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies

The 2023-24 recipient of the FCCS Teaching Excellence and Innovation Award is Maria Alexopoulos. Dr. Alexopoulos received this award on the basis of students support and teaching evaluations. She teaches in the English and Cultural Studies programs, offering courses ranging from 1^st year to masters level, such as “Cultural Studies 101,” “Adolescence in Media, Popular Culture, and Cultural Theory,” “Gender, Race and Medicine: The Construction of the Hysteric”, and “Methodologies: Critical Theory”.

This award is designed to recognize faculty members for teaching approaches that develop experiential learning, interdisciplinarity, internationalization, undergraduate research and scholarship.

Alexopoulos’ students note that she teaches in a way that they are motivated to learn and that she shows a genuine interest in supporting her students in her classes.

Alexopoulos says that in her courses students grapple with many complex and sensitive issues with topics that provoke complex emotions, resistances, and unpredictable classroom dynamics.

“Managing these dynamics within the classroom, being vigilant and attentive to individual student reactions, even when unvoiced, and meeting outside of class in order to unpack, process, clarify, and support students requires a great deal of time and sustained focus,” she says.

Her students have commented on the way her lesson plans and classroom design productively make space for important conversations in a way that is generative, respectful, and meaningful.

In 2022, Alexopoulos co-founded the UBCO Zine Fair, with Creative Writing and the support of the UBCO Library Special Collections. The UBCO Zine Fair has become a vibrant and popular annual event where students showcase and celebrate their final projects and chapbooks, offering an opportunity for students to engage with the work of their peers within their individual courses and across courses and disciplines. Example works from the zine projects are collected in the UBCO Special Collections, available to viewing for others on campus.

For the past two years, Alexopoulos has participated in the Feminist Horror Film Festival. The festival is designed to facilitate local public education and encourage efforts to combat gender-based discrimination and violence. In 2023, she was a co-organizer with the “Final Girls Berlin Film Festival” at Okanagan College and gave a public lecture accompanied by a film screening at UBC Okanagan. An in 2024, she offered a public lecture and facilitated a discussion at the Kelowna Public Library, entitled: Frontier Fear: Female Friendship as a Site of Horror in the Settler Colonial Imagination.

These events provided students with additional learning resources and demonstrated how instructors’ research and course concepts are applied in public contexts.

Dr. Alexopoulos in the classroom

UBCO Zine Fair 2023

Image of the banners installed along the Artwalk in downtown Kelowna, 2021

Each year, the Outdoor Banner Exhibition Program showcases 13 original works by UBCO students, staff, faculty and alumni. The banners are installed in the springtime on the light standards at the Rotary Commons—the greenspace between the Kelowna Art Gallery and the Rotary Centre for the Arts—and the Art Walk pathway between the Rotary Centre for the Arts and the Downtown Library. This project is made possible with the partnership and funding from the City of Kelowna.

Have your artwork printed on a banner to be installed in the Artwalk downtown Kelowna (between the RCA and KAG). Banners will be installed in April or May (weather dependent) and up for the full year until they are replaced.

Banners will be printed to 26”wide x 48” high, in colour. (note, your work does not have to be this size, we will size to fit).  The artist’s name and Creative Studies department logo will be added to the lower right corner, visible to viewers.

FCCS alumni, staff, faculty and students in the BFA, BMS, BA with a major in an FCCS program, MFA, MA, or IGS in an FCCS theme, are all eligible to apply.

Deadline for submissions: January 24, 2025

Banner Submission Form

Please note, you are not eligible to apply if you have had your artwork on a banner in a previous year.

Interview with Sophia (left), Nathan (centre), and Tyler (right)

Learning a new language is a powerful way to gain fresh perspectives and deepen your understanding of diverse cultures. In our Department of Languages and World Literatures, we offer a rich selection of programs that go beyond language skills.

Courses in Japanese studies are especially vibrant, combining language courses that build essential speaking, listening, writing, and reading abilities with English-taught courses that explore Japanese culture through pop culture, anime, manga, food culture, film, and more. These courses don’t just teach language—they develop critical thinking and writing skills that prepare you to engage thoughtfully with the world.

To give you a sense of what these courses offer, we spoke with three students currently studying Japanese at UBCO. Here’s what they shared about their experiences and why they believe studying Japanese has been transformative.

Sophia is a fourth-year student in the Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in sociology. She was born and raised in Japan until she was six years old, and was very happy to see that they had Japanese courses offered at UBCO.

“I took both 100 level courses for my language requirement in my first year, and that was really fascinating to learn more about the Japanese language, some of which I had not used growing up in Canada.”

This past summer, Sophia took part in the Go Global seminar to Japan, and in those two weeks of the course, says she learned a lot more about the cultural and historical aspects of Japan.

“It was really interesting to learn specifically about the aspect of food and how that has developed over time and how important it is to people in their day-to-day lives. We actually had the opportunity to take a professional cooking class by chef and that was very interesting seeing first hand and seeing it right in front of you, how they make meals.”

Nathan, a fifth-year Bachelor of Science student majoring in Biochemistry, grew up with a passion for Japanese media like games and anime. In the summer of his third year, he took an introductory Japanese language course as an elective, excited to finally learn Japanese.

“I absolutely loved the course. I just found it so interesting to learn Japanese in a university environment. The classes are such a great environment – you’re in a room where everyone’s interested in learning a new language, and I think it’s great being in smaller classes where you have more connections with your professors and classmates.”

Tyler is a fourth-year Bachelor of Science student working on a major in computer science. He says that one of the main reasons he decided to take Japanese is that he has always had an interest in history and the culture of many different regions of the world.

“I had previously taken Spanish and French in high school, and when I saw that there was Japanese offered at UBCO, I found it super intriguing because I also had an interest in Japanese culture, such as anime. I personally think it’s very important to explore outside of the faculty that you’re getting your degree in. I think that learning another language or just seeing something where you can express yourself in a different way is really important and it shapes how you see the world.”

Tyler has found that really being interested in a subject helps you learn so much quicker, and that learning to study a language also helps you in other aspects.

“Going through the Japanese courses, learning which methods of study work best for me like listening to someone else speak, going through a textbook, or practicing speaking myself has helped me study in other aspects of my degree.”

Each of these students has discovered something unique and rewarding about taking Japanese courses at UBCO. Whether you’re interested in the language, culture, or both, the Japanese program here offers you the chance to explore, connect, and broaden your horizons in ways that can shape your academic journey—and your life—forever.

“I think that learning another language or just seeing something where you can express yourself in a different way is really important and it shapes how you see the world.”

‘Multibeing Rockpool’, Fieldwork series: Multibeing Ocean Relations. Yaegl Country NSW

Susan Reid is a postdoctoral fellow at UBC’s Faculty of Critical and Creative Studies working with Dr. Astrida Neimanis. She researches multibeing ontologies with a focus on human-ocean relationships, extractivism, and justice. Susan holds a PhD from the University of Sydney, an LlM in International Law from the Australian National University and a Master of Design from the University of Technology Sydney.

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

How is your postdoc connected to UBCO?

My postdoc research is transdisciplinary and fits well within the interdisciplinary environment of UBCO’s Faculty of Critical and Creative Studies. This is particularly so given FCCS’s program focus on the critical role of humanities in analysing environmental sustainability issues and their intersections across climate change, and environmental and social justice. I am also excited to be working with the feminist environmental humanities research hub, the FEEeLed Lab–an important hub for interdisciplinary knowledge exchange, including ethical frameworks and approaches for decolonizing environmental humanities research. Given the still emerging nature of critical ocean humanities scholarship, I look forward to exchanging strategies for building scholarly and activist communities of interest and workshopping elements of my research with FEELed colleagues.

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

I research ‘multibeing’ ontologies, drawing on feminist, queer and decolonising theory. ‘Multibeing’ is a term I created to describe the relational conditions of materiality, phenomenology, sociality, and temporality which constitute embodied being. To date, I’ve concentrated on how this plays out across human-ocean relationships, extractivism, and justice.

The broad framework of multibeing agency encompasses marine phenomena, other-than human marine constituencies, and human agents such as advocates, Indigenous custodians, rescuers, and artists. Specifically though, I am interested in how ocean agency functions in the context of extractive sites and events, and its potential (or not) for extending relational concepts of justice. How might the ocean’s responses to extractive violences be re-imagined as creative acts of resistance, refusal, and re-generation? How too might the work of ocean advocates, defenders, community responders, Indigenous stewards, and artists be understood as modes of ocean agency.

Place-based ocean research is difficult beyond shorelines and near waters. Exploring modes of ocean agency relies on scientific mediations. For this project, I am also working with contemporary art foundation TBA21 to investigate how artists conceptualise ocean agency. Relatedly, I am collaborating with an international coalition of scholars, artists and community activists to re-imagine ocean relations and agency in the context of deep seabed mining. We’ve recently co-founded the Deep Current Collective and will present panel discussions and curated events at the International Seabed Authority’s 2025 session. This exciting international collaboration connects UBCO’s environmental humanities research with University of Southampton, University of Vienna, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Harvard.

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

Like so many others, I’m concerned about state and corporate investments in the extractive activities harming our biospheric relations. Through previous research I became aware of just how much governments and corporations depend on the ocean’s agentic, relational qualities to somehow rebound, repopulate, recover and repair from the extractive harms that they cause. Yet, as a tactic, extractive regimes deploy legal and policy frameworks which represent the ocean through passive, reductive terms that deny this very agency.  I have been struck too by how much governments and corporations responsible for ecological devastations, rely on the labors and commitments of human volunteers, Indigenous rangers, conservation and research organisations to perform clean up or rescue work–whether cleaning up after oil spills, retrieving ghost nets from the ocean, or rescuing entangled or injured marine animals. My research reveals these paradoxes and denials in ways that can unsettle dominating extractive representations. It will extend multibeing ontological insights and offer new approaches for imagining concepts of, or adjacent to, ocean agency.

What are your plans after you complete the postdoc?

To secure ongoing research opportunities and funding so that I can continue building and contributing to environmental philosophy, ocean humanities, ocean (legal) humanities and ecological justice fields. To continue working with others in building scholarly and creative communities working to imagine less violent relations with multibeing worlds.

Susan Reid

About Susan Reid

Susan Reid’s transdisciplinary practice draws on expertise across cultural studies, environmental humanities, environmental activism, international ocean law, writing, and contemporary arts. Prior to joining UBCO, Susan was a key researcher within the ARC funded ‘Extracting the Ocean’ project, at the University of Sydney. Their professional experiences also encompass senior roles across arts management, curation, cultural development, and intellectual property law.

Susan’s ancestry includes Anglo-Celtic and mixed European settler heritage. She was born between the Solomon Sea and Pacific Ocean, on the main island of what is now known as the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. In Canada, she lives and works nomadically on unceded territories of the Syilx/Okanagan nation (Kelowna), and the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam nations (Vancouver).

A new exhibition in the FINA Gallery, organized as part of the Art History and Visual Culture program’s fourth-year experiential learning Curating Contemporary Art course, opens on Friday October 25 at 6pm with a reception welcoming the friends and family of the twelve student curators responsible for organizing the show, and printmaking lovers from across the UBC Okanagan campus and beyond.

Drawn from the UBCO Printmaking Teaching Collection, PR/₁₂NT features the work of twenty-two former—and one current—printmaking students, many of whom are graduates of the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies’ Bachelor of Fine Arts program. But also included are screen prints, lithographs, and works in intaglio and relief techniques produced by students from across the campus’ many degree programs, and also visiting printmakers.

Artists as recent as UBCO MFA graduate Natasha Harvey (2023), and also BFA graduates Lacia Vogel (2012) and Laura Widmer (2011), lead the creative and accomplished fine arts alumni whose works were selected by the curators for their unique mark-making and layering. These skills are owed to the deft instruction of veteran printmaker and UBCO professor, Briar Craig, and his decades-long commitment to collecting and safeguarding student print works:

“The UBCO Printmaking Teaching Collection now holds in the vicinity of 800 prints and we are able to host exhibitions from that collection, but primarily those prints are taken into classes so that students new to the various print media can learn from and see the possibilities inherent in these unique forms of art making.”

As Craig notes, one of the benefits of making prints is that they tend to be created in multiples—multiple originals—rather than copies of an already-existing art work: “within the context of a university art program, the creation of works as multiple originals allows the program to collect examples of print-based work to use as teaching aids for future classes.”

 But PR/₁₂NT is not only about students learning printmaking. It is also about a new cohort of students learning the art of curation.

Over the past eight weeks, the twelve nascent curators enrolled in the learning-by-doing course have been navigating both the theory and practice of contemporary art curating, asking themselves what it means to curate hands-on and from the ground up beginning with an original collection of works conveniently located just down the hall.

Left to right: ARTH 420 student curators Sam Rennie (back), Paul Bryden (front), Megan Pahl, Kelly Yuste, Hannah Head-Rapson, Kiera Dorner, Ains Reid, Mariia Kondaurova, Maritza Botha, Amy Lucich, Hannah Palomera, and India Barnett.

From learning how to handle paper—you need to two-hand ‘float’ each sheet, lest you crease the paper and permanently damage the work—to learning how to spot the various printmaking techniques, students began by organizing themselves into four groups divided by media, and narrowing an initial selection. Next, the full class came back together to ‘negotiate’ a final body of work. And then came the task of learning how to take high-quality photographs of each print for the accompanying exhibition catalogue, and the arduous mission of registering each work with full and complete artwork identifications—not an easy ask for a collection that dates back to the eighties, and when not all artists sign their work. The result of this collaborative creative and critical process will be on view beginning Friday: twenty-six works by twenty-two printmakers ranging from UV screen printing, to lithography, to etching and aquatint, and also linocut. This is printmaking at its very best, and it is all UBCO’s own.

Final artwork selection process.

Among the longest-standing works from the UBCO Printmaking Teaching Collection on display is the work of Tim Nash, a graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA program—his For Victory Over the Sun was collected by Craig when he was a graduate student in the 1980s. Nash’s textured grid was selected as the lead image for the show: the striking black-and-white etching/aquatint that Craig uses to demonstrate the possibilities of the medium to incoming students immediately caught the eye—and imagination—of the twelve budding curators. “It was always Tim Nash that students wanted to preface the show, even before they knew the artist’s name,” says Nathalie Hager, and Art History and Visual Culture lecturer who has been guiding these curators-in-training through the course.

With the selection and cataloguing of works complete, next came the process of making meaning of the selection by planning the physical hanging and display. To the rescue came a 3D mock-up model of the FINA Gallery space by fellow student curator Paul Bryden, himself a UBC Vancouver MFA graduate. Rejecting technology in favour of an old-school tactile approach, Bryden painstakingly miniaturized the gallery’s four walls into a curatorial planning ‘white cube’. Come see how Bryden and his fellow curators planned and plotted the show’s hanging within the scale model of the FINA Gallery, complete with miniature versions of each artwork.

For Ains Reid, a visual arts minor—and both a curator and one of the printmakers featured in the exhibition—PR/₁₂NT marks his first experience balancing the dual roles of curator and creator. Reflecting on the unique opportunity of curating a show for a university gallery:

“As an artist, I had been unacquainted with the process of putting together an exhibition—my focus has been on producing artwork rather than collating it to display in a gallery setting. Co-curating PR/₁₂NT has given me a new lens through which I have been considering the roles of artists, curators, and visitors within the gallery and in the art world. My experience as an artist has been integral to my curatorial decision-making and going forward my new experience as a curator will inform my art making because I now have a more interdisciplinary and holistic approach to both.”

Supporting students throughout the curatorial process is a talented team of gallery exhibition and installation experts: Technical Director Philip Wyness trained students on the art of the gallery hang, using a level and a measuring tape as well as good measure of common sense; Media Technician Sam Neal worked with Maritza Botha, who designed so much of the exhibition’s marketing, offering tips and tricks on designing, scaling, and adhering vinyl lettering for title wall; and Marketing and Communications Strategist Shauna Oddleifson, a UBC Okanagan BFA graduate, coached the events team on the finer nuances of planning and executing a flawless opening night reception.

And then there is Briar Craig, drawing on his long and colourful institutional memory to bring to bear the weight of a collection gathered from teaching, for teaching:

“Within the digital age we have become accustomed to looking at art on the screens of our computers or phones but there is no real substitute for viewing art in the flesh. Students can dive into a close study of the textures, layers, and subtleties on a real piece of art rather than seeing that work in a less than ideal resolution on a screen.”

Under development is an in-gallery brochure, and also a full-colour catalogue of works that will be gifted to all artists featured in PR/₁₂NT.

PR/₁₂NT: One Exhibition/Twelve Curators is on view in FINA Gallery until November 8, 2024.

Art History curatorial class at the opening reception Oct. 25, 2024

Photo of Josh Fender taken at the Palace of Versailles in France

Josh Fender started his academic journey with a year at the University of Alberta (U of A), initially pursuing a degree in engineering. However, he soon realized that the rigid curriculum didn’t allow for self-discovery and creative expression, something he knew he needed in his life. He switched to arts, and considered industrial design, but ultimately decided to return home and explore the diverse and open-ended opportunities at UBC Okanagan.

The flexibility of UBC Okanagan’s fine arts degree allowed Fender to explore various interests, including sculpture and digital media.

“I was able to take classes where I could combine technology and creativity, and by my fourth year, I gravitated towards installation art, blending digital media and traditional sculpture techniques,” he says.

One of things he notes as being exciting and memorable for him as a fine arts student is all the collaborative work with fellow students with committees and setting up exhibitions. Fender was the vice-president of the Visual Arts Course union while an undergraduate student, helping to keep the students working together, and sharing information.

He admits that he doesn’t see himself as a boisterous or talkative leader, he prefers to be behind the scenes. “I just have an urge to get involved, and support people and feel supported.”

Working together to set up an exhibition offers a unique opportunity for students to decide on placement of artwork – making sure the pieces communicate and resonate with one another within the space.

“It was a great experience to work collectively in painting the walls, hanging the artwork, and supporting each other through every step. For me, this really fostered a sense of camaraderie and mutual support, something that I look for and work towards in many things that I do,” he says.

In his third year of the visual arts program, Fender applied to the landscape architecture program at UBC Vancouver.

“The rigorous portfolio submission process required me to compile my undergraduate art projects, and I feel that my background in art provided a strong foundation in creative and critical thinking, setting me apart from peers with more rigid academic backgrounds.”

After completing his BFA in 2018, Fender moved to the lower-mainland to start his master’s degree. He says that the skills he developed in art school, such as using Adobe Creative Suite and embracing the critique process from the visual arts classes, proved invaluable in the architecture program.

“My first-year projects, reminiscent of my sculpture classes, reinforced the importance of creative problem-solving.”

As the pandemic began, he moved back to Kelowna, continuing his studies online and securing an internship in the area. Fender’s passion for collaboration extended into his professional career as a landscape designer, working on projects such as the park along Mill Creek in Kelowna, engaging with various stakeholders, including the Okanagan Nation Alliance and local government departments.

“This collaborative approach was a natural extension of my experiences in art and architecture school, where teamwork and public engagement were integral.”

Returning to the Okanagan and making a difference in the local community has been incredibly rewarding. Working for a landscape architecture firm, he is proud of his contributions to significant projects like the rail trail, focusing on creating meaningful public spaces. He has also been able to utilize some of his skills in digital media that he learned during his undergrad to create videos for the firm to show clients what spaces could look like – a great way to be able to share designs.

Through these experiences in his undergraduate and graduate degrees, Fender says he has learned that art is not just about individual expression but also about collaboration, public engagement, and the thoughtful integration of our work into the world around us.

“My path from engineering to art, and ultimately to landscape architecture, has been shaped by a desire for creative freedom and meaningful collaboration. Each step of the way, I’ve sought to blend technical skills with artistic expression, always aiming to create spaces that resonate with and inspire those who experience them.”

This international conference held at SFU on Oct. 4th and 5th, and at UBCO on Oct. 7th will explore how digital platformization has been shifting the ways in which media and popular culture evolve in the East Asian and Asia-Pacific contexts. The empirical and theoretical studies presented by leading scholars across media/communication studies, cultural studies, sociology, and Asian studies, will address various aspects of digital platform-driven media industries, texts, and audiences while questioning the Western-centric discourse of digital platforms.

The conference is organized by Kyong Yoon (Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, UBC Okanagan) and Dal Yong Jin (School of Communication, Simon Fraser University), and is sponsored by the Public Humanities Hub Okanagan, UBCO Principal’s Research Chair Program, the Academy of Korean Studies, and the SFU’s David Lam Centre.

The conference is open to the public and takes place at the UBCO campus and at the Kelowna Innovation Centre in downtown Kelowna. See below for session details and location information.

Vancouver Conference Program (printable)

Kelowna CONFERENCE PROGRAM (printable)

Conference Poster (printable)

UBCO Sessions | Location: UBCO Ballroom, UNC 200

For the UBCO sessions, NO registration is required. Please feel free to come for any session.
A limited number of sandwich lunches are available for general attendees. Please RSVP to kyong.yoon@ubc.ca if you would like to join the lunch at 12:15 at UNC 200.

9:00-9:20 Welcome Reception

9:20-9:30 Welcome Remarks

9:30-10:45 Session 1 Digital Platformization of Korean Media Practices

Chair: John Cho
Assistant Professor
Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies, UBC Okanagan

• Dal Yong Jin
  SFU Distinguished Professor
  School of Communication, Simon Fraser University

“The Platformization of Distribution Channels: Korean Perspectives”

• Hyung-Gu Lynn
  AECL/KEPCO Chair in Korean Research
  Department of Asian Studies, UBC Vancouver

“Platformization’s Impacts on TV/Web Serial Storytelling”

• Benjamin M. Han
  Associate Professor
  Department of Entertainment and Media Studies, University of Georgia

“The ‘Global’ in Original Korean Series on Netflix and Disney+”

10:45-11:00 Coffee/Tea break

11:00-12:15 Session 2: Sinoscapes of Digital Platforms

Chair: Ying Zhu
Associate Professor
Faculty of Management, UBC Okanagan

• Guobin Yang
  Grace Lee Boggs Professor of Communication and Sociology
  Annenberg School for Communication and Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania

“Chinese Social Media in Times of Crises”

• Micky Lee
  Professor of Media Studies
  Communication, Journalism & Media Program, Suffolk University

“Experiencing Hong Kong Urban Culture through Platforms and Cinema Screens”

• Kyong Yoon
  Professor of Cultural Studies
  Department of English and Cultural Studies, UBC Okanagan

“Transnational Audiences in the Age of Platforms: Detouring the Order of Restriction on Hallyu in China”

12:15 – 13:00 Lunch

13:00 – 14:15 Session 3: Playful yet Contentious Asia-Pacific Digital Mediascapes

Chair: Annie Wan
Associate Professor
Department of Creative Studies, UBC Okanagan

• David Humphrey
  Associate Professor of Japanese and Global Studies
  Department of Linguistics, Languages and Cultures, Michigan State University

“AVOD in Japan: Streaming and the Afterlife of Televisual Attention”

• Sarah Ganzon
  Assistant Professor
  School of Communication, Simon Fraser University

“The Buggy, Less Sexy Version of the Game: Censorship, Nintendo’s e-shop and Yuri Games in the Nintendo Switch”

• Taeyoung Kim
  Lecturer in Communication and Media
  School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Loughborough University

“Streaming Platforms as a Playground for New Genres: An Ambivalent Nature”

14:15– 14:20 Closing Remarks

Public Roundtable | Location: Kelowna Innovation Centre (460 Doyle Ave)

16:00 – 16:30 Reception: The Kelowna Innovation Centre Rooftop (Perch Sky Lounge)

16:30 – 17:45 Public Roundtable: The Kelowna Innovation Centre Theatre (1^st floor)
Digital Media Culture in East Asia during/after the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the media landscape in East Asia. Digital media became essential to cope with life during COVID-19 and is now widely integrated into people’s daily lives.

Join us as three leading experts on East Asian digital media and culture share their thoughts on how digital platforms generate (or restrict) new experiences through various services and technological infrastructure (e.g., subscription-based streaming services, social media, and user-generated content).

Through vivid case studies of China, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan, the three scholars will highlight the potential power, creativity, and risks found in the rapidly changing digital media experiences in East Asia.

This engaging roundtable promises a timely and cross-cultural dialogue. This event is open to the public. No registration is required for the roundtable. RSVP is recommended for the reception (16:00 – 16:30) (to Kyong Yoon kyong.yoon@ubc.ca).

• Presenters:
  • Guobin Yang
    Grace Lee Boggs Professor of Communication and Sociology
    University of Pennsylvania
  • Micky Lee
    Professor of Media Studies
    Suffolk University
  • Dal Yong Jin
    SFU Distinguished Professor
    Simon Fraser University
• Moderator: Kyong Yoon (UBC Okanagan)

Klara du Plessis

Dr. Klara du Plessis is the postdoctoral fellow on the SpokenWeb SSHRC Partnership Grant at UBC Okanagan, supervised by Dr. Karis Shearer. Klara’s current research project is titled “Curatorial Listening: Politics of Relational Attention in Sounded Poetry.”

Klara’s doctoral research took literary studies off of the page to incorporate insights from a sound and curatorial studies perspective too. It focused on curatorial structures in the context of twentieth century and contemporary Canadian poetry in performance. Thinking critically about the poets’ and curator’s often neglected labour, it considered how that labour shapes poetry reading events, whether live or in the audio archive. Her postdoctoral project marks a significant new phase, departing from the doctoral work by connecting the practical and conceptual labour of organizing literary events to the subjective act of listening relationally to that curation. This listening includes that of performing poets and of event curators, but now significantly ropes in the audience’s attention too.

“Even in its most basic formulation as attention through the ears, listening is itself a radical act that works to unbalance and rebalance dominant strands of agency and subjecthood. As coupled with the curatorial’s dynamic potential and sound’s open network, listening meditates on and mediates the political conditions of poetry in performance,” Klara suggests.

While at UBC Okanagan, Klara will be engaging this practice of critical listening in relation to the SoundBox Collection of poetry audio recordings housed at Dr. Shearer’s Audio Media Poetry (AMP) Lab. Working with a team of SpokenWeb graduate and undergraduate research assistants, she will offer curated close listening sessions of archival materials, collaborate on exhibitions, script curatorial performances, and compile creative publications—aiming to showcase and activate the audio archive as relevant and embodied knowledge in the present.

All of these projects fold back into Klara’s ongoing research creation expertise. Since 2018, she has developed a practice of literary event organization called Deep Curation. This approach places poets’ work in deliberate dialogue with each other and heightens the curator’s agency toward the poetic event. In this capacity, she has worked with an amazing array of contemporary poets, including Liz Howard, Kaie Kellough, and Kama La Mackerel, among many others.

Karis Shearer says “We’re so lucky to have Dr. Du Plessis joining the AMP Lab and SpokenWeb research team as a postdoctoral fellow. Klara will be a member of a dynamic and interdisciplinary research team that includes Marjorie Mitchell, Myron Campbell, and Paige Hohmann. As a poet and literary scholar, Klara embodies the creative-critical ethos of the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies and her work across media is a wonderful match for the SpokenWeb project here at UBC Okanagan.”

Beyond the monograph manuscript that Klara is working on, much of her postdoctoral work will be public-facing. In collaboration with Dr. Shearer, she will, for example, be co-organizing the SpokenWeb summer Sound Institute taking place at UBC Okanagan from 14-17 May 2025. Certain of these plenaries and performances will be open to the wider public. Please feel welcome to attend these events that will be advertised over the span of the coming year.

About Klara du Plessis

Klara du Plessis holds a PhD in English Literature from Concordia University. She is also a critically acclaimed writer known for her contributions to long-form and translingual poetics (mainly between English and Afrikaans). Her debut poetry collection, Ekke, won the 2019 Pat Lowther Memorial Award. The book-length narrative poem, Hell Light Flesh, was adapted and produced as a mono-opera film, composed by Jimmie LeBlanc, and premiered at the International Festival of Films on Art in 2023. She is the author of three more books of poetry and literary criticism, most recently Post-Mortem of the Event (2024). This collection encompasses creative work mobilizing audiovisual media, transcription, waveform visualization, and digital humanities and interdisciplinary methods. Klara develops her writing practice to include visual, sound, and moving installations, and has exhibited work at Artexte, Centre Clark, and the Johannes Stegmann Gallery, among other venues.

Dr. Emily Murphy (photo credit: Marion Voysey)

Dr. Emily Murphy is one of the recent recipients awarded funding through the SSHRC 2024-2025 Partnership Engage Grants. Dr. Murphy has partnered with Dance Collection Danse (DCD), the largest dance heritage organization in the country – a national arts organization that preserves Canada’s “living history” in dance performance.

The origins of their partnership start with a Rubbermaid tub full of photos. While collaborating with flamenco artists on a Canada Council for the Arts-funded digital film project, an artist requested that Murphy and DCD find a permanent archival home for historical materials. These materials are the records of an Argentinian-Canadian flamenco dancer, Angel Cansino Monson (1916-2004), which have been passed between artists and cultural organizations since his death.

“I wasn’t sure if DCD would be interested or able to take the collection,” explains Murphy. “But I had met [Executive and Curatorial Director] Amy Bowring before while doing archival research, and Monson appears all over the footnotes of other prominent artists, so I thought I would see.” When Murphy contacted Bowring, she wrote, “Short and enthusiastic answer is ‘Oh my god, yes!’”

The result is their project, ‘Preserving Canada’s Multimedia Dance Histories: A Case Study in Partnership with Dance Collection Danse.’ The project will respond to two problems faced by the DCD. First, arts organizations are experiencing a sharp increase in the needs for preservation as the artists of the “70s dance boom” age and consider their legacies. Second, while performance records have always been multimedia, the current digital age intensifies this quality, and artists and arts organizations need new, practical approaches to preservation that respond to these new technological circumstances.

At UBC Okanagan, Dr. Murphy is the director of the ReMedia Infrastructure for Research and Creation, supported by Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). In ReMedia, Murphy studies cultural history using a combination of humanities, embodied, and computational methods.

Together, DCD and the ReMedia team will pilot a new approach to research and archival management of dance archives, including the cataloguing, multimedia preservation, community knowledge, and research data management (RDM) needs for dance history today.

“Through this project, the DCD will benefit with updated grassroots preserving practices for multimedia dance history, an expanded network in Vancouver, and a broadened impact on the multimedia history of performance in Canada,” explains Dr. Murphy.

Producing the RDM Guidelines will build a foundation to support future public campaigns, and contribute to future multimedia arts and heritage policy at a national scale.

Murphy adds: “Our goal is to enrich public discourse on the history of the flamenco community in Canada and bridge this case study to multiple other dance communities.”