The Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies is committed to supporting and encouraging our students to reach their full potential while at UBC Okanagan. Each year, FCCS has a competition for research awards for domestic and international undergraduate students who are completing a major in an FCCS program in the BA or BFA degrees.

These awards for undergraduate students provide an opportunity for students to pursue innovative and original research as part of their learning experience over the summer months. This year, the faculty offered the awards a domestic students and an international undergraduate student.

Sheri Ptolemy, a Creative Writing major in her third year, is going to be working on a documentary showing the process of making bannock with voice over from her about how learning to make bannock made her feel connected to her culture. This footage will be spliced with other interviews from various members of the Stl’atl’imx Nation and how they reconnect and preserve their culture.

Laavanya Prakash, a second year student pursuing her Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Art History and Visual Culture, and a minor in Visual Arts, is this year’s recipient of the International award. With this funding, she is still able to work on her project this summer of exploring the British colonization in Lucknow, near her hometown of Bangalore, India. Prakash traveled back to India a few days after receiving confirmation that UBCO would hold online classes.

“Growing up in India, I came to the realization that we’re often made subject to ideals of colonialism and neo-colonialism without realizing the extent to which we are.” Says Prakash, “The funding allows me to fully and justifiably explore an aspect of history that has affected societies globally.”

The research awards are available to  Domestic and International students who are enrolled in a major, or combined major, in FCCS B.A. or B.F.A. program (English, Cultural Studies, Art History and Visual Culture, French, Creative Writing, Visual Arts. More information on these awards and other funding opportunities can be found here: https://fccs.ok.ubc.ca/student-resources/funding-awards/

As with many events this spring, UBC Okanagan’s short story contest winners will be announced at a virtual venue.

The annual contest, organized by the Creative Writing program in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, 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.

John Lent, This year’s UBCO Writer-in-Residence John Lent was tasked with selecting the top short stories for this year’s contest. One of the winning authors, Carol Zuckerman, will share her story through the Virtual Reading Series organized by Read Local Okanagan on April 2.

Carol Zuckerman, a recent graduate from the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program at UBCO, took the top prize this year with her story, Trout. Lent says the delivery of the story, the rhythm and the imagery is handled superbly.

“This is a strong, beautifully written story, a portrait of a friendship that is so subtle and complex and the landscape of the story—the wilderness and all the wild things in that wilderness—begins to illuminate the closeness and love the two characters share,” says John. “The end result is a story that is full of life and the staggering limits of life.”

Second place went to Kelowna based writer, Jorie Soames with her story, One on Each Side.

“This is a wonderful story that from the outset risks the sentimentality that stories running in strong dialect often gamble with,” says Lent. “But this writer completes the risk beautifully and ends up writing a story that kept shouting back at me: look at this world here, look at this life and listen to these voices! Pay attention to this music,” he explains.

This year, there were two writers for third place. Alexandra Davison, who is a current Bachelor of Arts student completing her degree with a major in creative writing, and Heidi Garnett, an MFA alumni and previous sessional instructor for creative writing.

Lent describes Davison’s story, Weekdays at the Magic City, is a “staggeringly perfect little gem”, so compressed, so confident.

“I kept returning to this piece. It is one deft tiny scene that captures a huge, detailed, loving world sideways in a tour-de-force writer’s grab. Right down to its last word. I loved this story and wanted to know more, be drawn into more.”

Paul’s Tomb by Heidi Garnett, he adds, is a powerful short story that captures a vision of our society that needs to be captured.

“This is a very quiet, strong story. It risked a certain kind of sentimentality and predictability in its material, but it sidestepped those risks beautifully and did what it needed to do.”

George Elliot Secondary School student Chanel Sergeant wrote the top story in the high school category.

“There was no doubt about ‘Slipcover’ being the first prize winner. There is something about it, a confidence and an agility with the magic realist effects the writer employs—an openness and daring that really struck me and surprised me.”

Honorable mention goes to Bethany Pardoe of Nelson (L V Rogers Secondary School ) for her story Rat King and Sarah Prentice of Kelowna (Rutland Secondary School) for World Alone. Pardoe was also the recipient of the top story for 2018.

The virtual readings will take place on April 2, 2020. People can register for the reading here: www.readheadcopywriting.com/readlocalokanagan.

To view the full list of the shortlisted authors, visit: fccs.ok.ubc.ca/2020/03/16/okanagan-short-story-contest-shortlist-announced/

The first-place author received $1,000 and a residency at the Woodhaven Eco-Culture Centre; second-place winner received $400 and third place received $200. Top high school student also won a $200 prize. Co-sponsors for the contest are FCCS, Amber Webb-Bowerman Memorial Foundation, and the Central Okanagan Foundation.

Carol Zuckerman

Jorie Soames

Heidi Garnett

Chanel Sergeant

Nancy Holmes, Creative Writing professor

by Nancy Holmes

In this unprecedented time of fear, bewilderment, and isolation, poetry is a beacon. It speaks to the complex emotions that are unleashed at times like this, says Nancy Holmes, poet and associate professor in UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies.

“It is hard to express our deepest anxieties and longings, so we turn to poetry especially in times of intense disruption,” she explains.  “Poetry’s job is to try to say what cannot be said.”  This is why, she notes, we want poetry for special occasion cards, why we recite poems at funerals, and why we listen to songs when we are in love.  In World War One, she says, The Oxford Book of English Verse was one of the most well-read books in the trenches.  Poetry is our go-to art in times of upheaval and catastrophe.

Right now, we are reeling with massive cultural and personal shifts as the pandemic affects everything we do.  These changes are disturbing and incomprehensible at some level.  Finding poetry that speaks to us might help get us through the next few weeks, Holmes says.

“These days, certain lines of poetry are coming unbidden into my head, like Irish poet W. B. Yeats’ ‘Things fall apart/ The centre cannot hold” and the American poet Carmen Tafolla’s update on this phrase: ‘Things falls apart/ sometimes people too.’  These two phrases show that poetry addresses the big picture (mass social concerns)as well as the most intimate personal experiences.”   Most of us are in the midst of both social and personal confusion this month.

Holmes, who has been reading and writing poetry since she was 10 or 11 years old, says poetry is a way of knowing how we feel and experience the world.  When she was very young, she wrote poems about spring flowers and horses, and as a teenager she wrote about fears of nuclear war and religious hypocrisy.  “In my faltering way, I was participating in the work of poetry: to celebrate the sheer joy of being alive and to try to speak about our deepest fears.”

As we move through the many uncertainties and alarms of this pandemic, poetry gives us a way to live with our inner turmoil.  “Most of us are experiencing a shock to our daily lives, but there are also people who are sick or who have lost people they love,” Holmes says.  For millennia, poetry has been an art that people turn to in order to cope with these traumatic experiences.

Art is an essential way human beings learn about, explore and express their understanding of the world, with its final form only limited by the extent of human creativity. From paintings, sculptures and mosaics to literature, theatrical performances and architecture, art has helped humanity learn about ourselves and our relationship to other people and the universe.  Poetry, along with music, seems to be the art we are drawn to times of intense personal and social transformations.

Holmes says that there is a poem for nearly every feeling and situation human beings have encountered, and new poems are being written to explore what it is like to be alive now.  She says that reading poetry offers benefits of consolation, release and enlightenment. But she also encourages people to write their own poetry.  If you’re in self-isolation, writing a few poems is a nourishing way to spend a few hours. Sometimes just sitting down and expressing your terrors or your love for people and the planet or even your anger can be genuinely therapeutic.

Several great writing prompts exist online if people are not sure where to start. This is one Holmes’ favorites: “30 Writing Prompts for National Poetry Month”  by Kelli Russell Agodon.

Selection of Poems

On World Poetry Day, Holmes offers a selection of poems worth reading to feel hope or cope with worry.

“The Heart is A Thousand- Stringed Instrument” by Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky

“For a Friend on the Arrival of Illness” by John O’Donohue

“After great pain, a formal feeling comes”  by Emily Dickinson

“blessing the boats” by Lucille Clifton

“Small Kindnesses” by Danusha Laméris

“Morning Poem” by Mary Oliver

“Try to Praise the Mutilated World” by Adam Zagajewski, translated by Clare Cavanagh

UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS) is pleased to share the finalists of the 2020 Okanagan Short Story Contest.

The Okanagan Short Story Contest awards the best new short stories by writers in the Southern Interior of British Columbia: east of Hope, west of the Alberta border, north of the US border and south of Williams Lake. Past winners have gone on to publish with Penguin Random House, Arsenal Pulp Press, and NeWest Press, as well as numerous magazines and journals nationally and internationally.

A total of 87 stories were submitted to the adult category, and 36 stories were submitted from all over the region for the high school category, with six of those shortlisted.

“The high school stories were outstanding and I am so glad I don’t have to decide who is going to take home the prize!” says Creative Writing professor, Nancy Holmes.

Shortlisted authors: adult category

• Michelle Alfaro, All of It
• Faye Arcand, Bird in the Rafters
• Shawn Bird, Dead Man on the Porch
• Harlee Code, The Drowning
• Carlo Da Ros, For You, Annette
• Alexandra Davison, Weekday at the Magic City
• Nils Donnelly, Hotplate
• Heide Rose Garnett, Paul’s Tomb
• MacKenzie Smyth, Artificial Sweetener
• Jorie Soames, One on Each Side
• Carol Zuckerman, Trout

Shortlisted entries: high school category

• Trinity Blacklock, Beneath the Waves
• Carla Deetlefs, A Weed Among Blossoms
• Bethany Pardoe, Rat King (2018 winner)
• Sarah Prentice, World Alone
• Sonia Rosenberger, Girlish
• Chanel Sergeant, Slipcover

FCCS is offering cash prizes to the top three stories—$1,000, $400 and $200; the first prize winner also wins a one-week retreat at The Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre in Kelowna.  For the third year in a row, the top short story by a high-school student in the region receives $200 prize.  Co-sponsors are FCCS, Amber Webb-Bowerman Memorial Foundation, and the Central Okanagan Foundation.

Due to current conditions with the COVID-19 outbreak, we are cancelling this workshop on March 17.

Transnational and Diasporic Asia: Research and Pedagogy

 This project aims to facilitate collaborative research between the Cultural Studies program (UBCO) and the Department of Asian Studies (UBVC). Focusing on transnational and diasporic Asian media and culture, the project will comprise two workshops at UBCO and UBCV.

The first workshop at UBCO (March 17, 2020) will focus on the history, method, and context of transnational Asian media and cultural studies, while the second workshop at UBCV (April 24, 2020) will focus on specific empirical case studies of transnational Asian media and culture, such as the global flows of Japanese animation (anime) and Korean pop music. At the UBCV workshop, researchers from other universities (e.g., SFU, U of Victoria, and Okanagan College) may also join to share their research outcomes.

Each workshop will consist of research presentation sessions and discussions in the morning, which will be followed by a roundtable discussion about Asian Studies pedagogy and curriculum development in the afternoon. In the roundtable discussion at the UBCO workshop, participants will also discuss the potential development of the Asian Studies minor program at UBCO, as well as further research collaboration between two UBC campuses.

The inter-UBC workshops will encourage scholars and students whose research interest concerns Asia to showcase and share their research outcomes, while exploring a long-term research network for Asian media and cultural studies. These workshops will help fuel the development of research and teaching collaboration including the establishment of an Asian media and culture research cluster across the two campuses in near future.

The workshop takes place on Tuesday, March 17, in EME 2202, at UBC Okanagan.

Contact: Dr. Kyong Yoon (kyong.yoon@ubc.ca)

Program

8:45-9:00 – Reception

9:00-9:10

• • Introduction (Dr. Yoon)
  • Welcome (Dean Bryce Traister)

9:10-9:50 – Keynote Speech

• • Prof. Hyung-Gu Lynn, UBCV
    Seven Flags: Common Issues in Articles in Transnational Media Studies

9:50-10:10

• • Dr. Alwyn Spies, UBCO
    Approaches to Transnational Migration Memoirs

10:10-10:30

• • Dr. Alifa Bandali, UBCO
    Faulty Lines: Tracing Contemporary Women’s Organizations and Feminist Activism in Malaysia

10:30-10:45 – Discussion

10:45-11:00 – Break

11:00-11:20

• • Dr. Ruthann Lee, UBCO
    Divided Nations, Fractured Selves: Reconciling Diasporic Korean-ness in Min Sook Lee’s Tiger Spirit

11:20-11:40

• • Dr. Hussein Keshani, UBCO
    Defining Muslim Asia through Architecture on archnet.org

11:40-12:00

• • Ms. Mehnaz Tabassum, UBCO
    Loving the Brown Body: A Study of the Portrayal of Intimacy in the South Asian Characters in Contemporary Popular North American Sitcom

12:00-12:15 – Discussion

12:15-1:00 – Lunch

1:00-2:20 – Roundtable discussion on Asian Studies pedagogy and curriculum at UBCO
(5-10 min presentation per presenter, followed by an open discussion)

• • Prof Hyung-Gu Lynn
  • Dr. Kyong Yoon
  • Dr. Jordan Stouck
  • Dr. Alwyn Spies
  • Dr. Manfred Elfstrom
  • Ms. Melissa Plisic
  • Mr. Shao Yuan Chong

2:20-2:30 – Closing

Sponsored by UBC Collaborative Research Mobility Awards (Office of the Vice-President Research + Innovation), Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, and UBCO Equity and Inclusion Office.

Dr. Peña Fernandez (centre) with faculty members at the University of Exeter

Between Feb. 12 and Feb. 19, 2020, Francisco Peña Fernandez, Associate Professor in the Department of Languages and World Literatures at UBC Okanagan, visited the University of Exeter to discuss a collaboration with the Exeter Digital Humanities Lab.

The visit was hosted by the Exeter Digital Humanities Lab and was focused on developing stronger bridges in research and collaboration between the two institutions. The research priorities and synergies between faculty members at both institutions are in the fields of medieval religious cultures, digital humanities and interdisciplinary studies.

Francisco Peña Fernandez is leading a group of scholars working in the SSHRC funded project “Confluence of Religions in Medieval Spanish Historiography’’. One of the main goals of this project is to produce a scholarly, critical, and annotated digital edition of the first volume of the General e Grand Estoria (General Estoria), the most expansive 13th-century book written in Spanish and the largest universal history written in Medieval Europe.

The University of Exeter has a number of scholars whose expertise make them perfect partners to collaborate with the project. Dr. Peña Fernandez will work with scholars and students from Exeter to create the first translation of the GGE into English in print. An accurate first translation into English of the first volume will create innumerable research possibilities for historians, philosophers of history and religion, linguists, traductologists, and specialists in literary studies and the history of narratology.

The visit to Exeter has allowed for further international collaboration and dissemination of research in the area of Digital Humanities, Medieval Studies, Religious Studies and Translation Studies, explains Dr. Peña Fernandez.

“We are creating a new methodology of study, involving digital media, creating new tools for innovative interdisciplinary study of the Middle Ages,” Peña says.

“The idea of people who specialize in different fields communicating and working together is also an important part of the project—it mirrors the way this book was originally written.”

During his visit, Dr. Peña Fernandez was engaged in a number of activities related to his research, and was offered opportunities to connect with others in the field at the University of Exeter. He conducted a workshop that addressed digital humanities; he participated in lectures, meetings with dignitaries and academicians from different fields, as well as meetings with students.

ABOUT THE EXETER UBC PARTNERSHIP

The University of British Columbia, Okanagan, entered into a Statement of Cooperation with the Exeter College of Humanities in the spring of 2018, with the aim to strengthen the relationship between the universities, and nurture a collaborative approach to education, research and academic exchanges.

Faculty members and students from both institutions have had opportunities to travel back and forth over the last year two years. This past year the creation of an Exeter/UBC Humanities Collaboration Fund has increased the opportunities to both build on existing collaborations and to develop new links.

Francis Langevin, professor of French, has organized two film screenings on campus this March, The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, and Rendez-vous de la Francophonie.

“Most “festival” films presented in Kelowna are in movie theatres. These screenings remove access barriers for students as they are free and presented on campus.” Explains Langevin.

On March 5 2020, we will screen the acclaimed Canadian film The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, followed by a Q&A by one of its directors, Kathleen Hepburn.

“In an audacious act of heroism and kindness, Áila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) chooses to console a young woman she finds barefoot and sobbing in the streets. She soon discovers that Rosie (Violet Nelson) has just escaped an assault by her boyfriend. Compelled to take action, Áila chooses to bring Rosie into her home and, over the course of the evening, the two women explore the after-effect of this traumatic event.”

Toronto International Film Festival: www.tiff.net/events/the-body-remembers-when-the-world-broke-open

When: Thursday, March 5, from 6 to 9 pm
What: The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open
Where: UNC 106, Student Union Theatre, UBC Okanagan Campus

This film is presented by the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, Aboriginal Services and Programs, UBC Okanagan, and Kelowna Film Society.

On March 10, Rendez-vous de la Francophonie will screen three thought-provoking films on language and politics. La sentinelle by Claude Guilmain, 2010; Les terribles vivantes – 1re partie by Louky Bersianik and Dorothy Todd Hénaut, 1986; and Les mots qui dansent by Yves Étienne Massicotte,  2014

The films will be presented in French, with English subtitles.

When: Tuesday, March 10, from 6 to 9 pm
What: Rendez-vous de la Francophonie
Where: UNC 106, Student Union Theatre, UBC Okanagan Campus

The Department of Creative Studies is piloting a new program titled Public Theatre Project, facilitated by theatre instructor, Tracy Ross.

The Public Theatre project (PTP) provides theatre space on the UBC Okanagan campus for community groups to create experimental performances and open rehearsals. The aim of this project is to build a cohesive community and animate campus life by providing a gathering space on campus, and generate an environment for dialogue, sharing, and learning.

After working in the theatre community for a number of years, Tracy Ross explains that she saw a need to have an open space where people can come together to share ideas and resources.

“I created the Public Theatre Project to help create awareness and synergies about and between student projects, community groups, artists, and local programming.” She notes.

“There are a number of theatre and performance groups in the community do not have spaces that are large enough or even in the public to be able to experiment or to share what they are working on. This is a way that we can help facilitate meaningful exchanges between University learners, emerging artists and professionals ‘in the field’.”

Community groups are invited to hold their rehearsals or studio times in the University Theatre (ADM 026) on Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., and are required to open up the space for other community members or students on campus to view what they are doing.

Tracy held an open house in early January, and the bookings to use the space came flooding in. Almost every weekend from January to March has been booked with community dance and theatre groups to rehearse as well as organizations that invite the public to participate in open workshops.

Schedule of Events

February 9 | Body Project

• 1 p.m.- 2 p.m. Body Project welcomes participants to a contemporary dance class- open.
• 2 pm.- 4p.m. The public can observe the artists creating work.

Body Project is a Post Secondary Contemporary Dance Education Program that is holistically based. www.thebodyprojectdance.com

February 23, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. | Miles Kroeker 

Open Workshop- Miles will lead a workshop around getting participants to discover their own true potential through movement and express that helps benefit their overall health and wellness. Miles helps participants tap into their own unique skills and move towards the things that feel intrinsically good/right for each person. Miles Kroeker has always been intrigued by movement and the expressive potential of the human construct. He has spent time investigating dance, contact improv, yoga, tai chi, theatre, and more.

March 1, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. | ACTS29 THEATRE 

Open Rehearsal – Production of USERNAME by Brian Hampton

ACTS 29 Theatre is a faith- based drama program for Okanagan Youth in Grades 7-12. They will be preparing for their upcoming tour.

March 8, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. | Company B- Canadian School of Ballet 

Company B prepares for upcoming competition season. Come and watch large group numbers as well as small group and solos. Company B and Junior B are audition based performance groups under the Artistic Direction of Carley Bailey. Our goal is to provide exceptional pre-professional performances that will enrich our local dance community. Both companies provide committed, deserving dance students with an opportunity to achieve a higher level of education in the performing arts through additional training and expanded performance opportunities.

For more information or to book the space, contact tracy.ross@ubc.ca. Subject title: PTP booking.

How it works

• Public Theatre Project will take place at the UBCO Theatre (Admin 026) space Sundays from 1 p.m.- 4 p.m.
• Organizations and artists book the space with the UBCO project Coordinator, Tracy Ross, by filling in a request form. Bookings are done on a first come- first serve basis and sequential bookings are discouraged.
• The intention of the Public Theatre Project is to create a space for experimentation and open rehearsal. If artists or organizations wish to use this particular space as a performance venue, they would have to book it through campus bookings.
• Your event day will be published throughout campus and on social media.
• You agree to the basic terms of use, you will not be charged for the space, and you cannot charge for your event.
• Your event must be open to the student body and public to observe or participate.

SPACE GUIDELINES

• The space will be open promptly at 1:00 p.m. for entry and close at 4 p.m.
• Nothing can be affixed to the floor, and the space cannot be permanently altered in any way.
• The space must be restored to its original state. Garbage must be collected and properly disposed of.
• Students and public are free to watch the process, with the understanding that they are to be respectful and supportive.

The space will remain inclusive, open, and welcoming. We encourage diverse perspectives and voices.

(Photos: Canadian School of Ballet- Pre-Professional Program)

The Department of Languages and World Literatures is pleased to welcome Visiting Authors Marie-Andrée Gill and Samuel Archibald to UBC Okanagan for a series of public talks from January 22 to 24, 2020. These talks are presented as part of the FCCS Visiting Author series in partnership with the Inspired Word  Café. All events are free and open to the public.

Public Talks

When: Wednesday January 22 2020, 2-3pm
Where: UNC212, UBC Okanagan Campus

A Reading a Conversation with Samuel Archibald and Marie-Andrée Gill. This talk is part of Dr. Francis Langevin’s course Techniques of Oral Expression (FREN345).

When: Thursday January 23 2020, 7-9pm
Where: 702 Bernard Avenue

This event is presented as a collaboration between the IWC Public Reading Series and UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies. The bilingual event features three writers from out east: Ian Ferrier, Samuel Archibald and Marie-Andrée Gill.

When: Friday January 24 2020, 7-9pm
Where: 702 Bernard Avenue

Hitoires au coin du feu: a storytelling night.

About the authors

Samuel Archibald is a writer and screenwriter original from Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (QC). He is a professor of creative writing and genre literature (sci-fi, horror, pop culture) at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). His first fiction book, the best-seller Arvida (25 000 copies sold in Quebec only), translated by Donald Winkler, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize (2015). The webseries Terreur 404 (2017-2018) he co-wrote with William S. Messier won 2 Gemini Awards and many juried prizes in international Webfests (Germany, South Korea, Russia, Canada).

Marie-Andrée Gill is an Ilnu poet born in Mashteuiatsh (QC). She is the author of three celebrated poetry collections with La Peuplade: Béante (2012), Frayer (2015), and Chauffer le dehors (2019). Her first collection of poetry (Béante) was nominated for a Governor General Award. Her work appears in French and in English in anthologies and magazines such as Estuaire, Le Sabord, Poème Sale, Sirale, Guernica Magazine, and Tupelo Quarterly.

Ian Ferrier is one of the core writer/performers in the North American performance literature scene. His work is well-known across Canada, New York and Europe. Rooted in poetry, his live performances are a haunting blend of acoustic guitar, choir; whispered voice, and the trancelike music of a band called Pharmakon. His signature is the quiet, compelling voice at the centre of every piece.

These events are sponsored by the City of Kelowna, Secrétariat du Québec aux relations canadiennes (Bureau du Québec à Toronto, l’Union des écrivaines et des écrivains du Québec (UNEQ), le Centre culturel francophone de l’Okanagan, The League of Canadian Poets, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies.

Francis Langevin, photo credit: Emilie Hautier

Francis Langevin is an educator, cultural activist and event organizer, and film buff. He has been a faculty member at UBC Okanagan since 2015 teaching French language and literature in the Educational Leadership Stream in the Department of Languages and World Literatures.

Francis shared some insights on his teaching and research practices here at UBC Okanagan.

Give us some insight on your teaching and research.

My best friend Nadia, who has always been a role-model for my teaching, calls me Docteur Lecteur. She implies that I teach people how to read (a lecteur is a reader, in French). It’s true that I do that when I teach Literature and Film, and Culture: that’s also what my graduate degrees and research publications are about.

Those research baby steps are not meant to “improve quality of life” as ostensibly as, say, pasteurization or vaccines do, but they leave traces and they make visible and legible the work of humans who we are talking about, recording, reading, translating what it means to live in our times (or in their times). Those reading skills come in handy to understand the world we live in, and it can orient the decisions and the actions we make as citizens. Reading other people’s stories is a great way to develop empathy, which I think we all need more of.

What most excites and challenges you about your field of work?

I get to teach students who are learning a language almost from scratch and I sometimes see them only a few year later majoring in French, speaking to me in the language I grew up hearing. That’s exciting! But also, I get to hang out with multilingual individuals: other profs in my department (Languages & World Literature), and of course students who come from everywhere. In a group of 35 students, I can usually count as many as twelve other languages spoken! I’ve lived in a linguistic minority for ten years now, not always being able to express myself in French as often as I would like. It’s a challenge that I share with a lot of students. So I am thrilled to be given so many hours a week to speak it! Teaching languages and literature allows me to read texts and watch movies as a group, which really feels like a treat.

What kind of learning experiences do you lead outside of the classroom?

I’m really interested in facilitating connections between communities. I do that in my personal life a lot, as a citizen, a volunteer or an activist I guess. I make it a point to bring that to the university, and I invite students to do so too! This can mean organizing events, such as film screenings (Petit French Film Festival) or cabarets (Pony, with Michael V. Smith), or meetings with artists. But more generally, it means breaking the walls of the classroom to make the learning experience as meaningful for students as for their communities. They take something to my classroom; they take something back to where they continue on their journey.

I program or help organize cultural events. Mostly films and literary events. I work with the Kelowna Film Society and the Centre culturel francophone de l’Okanagan, and together I’d say we program about 45 films per year. When I moved here from Toronto, people were worried that I would miss the cultural offer of the metropolis. That is sometimes true, but that just means you have to make the effort of creating those opportunities.

As a teacher, I try to integrate what is happening in town and within FCCS, such as the Living Things Festival, the reading series, and visiting speakers, to classroom as much as possible. I think that making room for those events to my students in assignments or lectures really helps to break the walls of the classroom, and in return, it makes those events open to new people. It all comes down to community building, really.

How did you know you wanted to be a professor?

I had the chance to teach two lectures on Quebec Culture for students of University in the Community, a “humanities-based program for low-income residents in the city of Toronto” hosted at Innis College, University of Toronto. After one hour during the first lecture, we took a break and I was overwhelmed by the joy of teaching without a curriculum. I went outside and wept for the whole break. It has transformed my approach to teaching completely: I was awarded the privilege to teach personally; it had not occurred to me before that I could decide what mattered for a course, and adapt it for different audiences or purposes. That’s a great gift. That is a responsibility, of course, but also that is a wonderful freedom to share your passion, your knowledge – and also to witness students figure out what is making them vibrate with enthusiasm.

What do you enjoy about living in the Okanagan?

People. Apricots in my yard. Peaches. Openness. Lake down the street. My friends. Powder snow. Four seasons. Kindness. Okanagan nations. “Let’s make it happen” attitude. My husband. Clothes that dry in a day inside. Views. Opportunity. Artists and crafters. Cherries. Newcomers and expats.