From Left to Right: Astri Jack, Lauren Richardson, David Jefferess, Francine Lingad, and Samantha Steenwyk

Students in a 4th year Cultural Studies and English seminar have produced a Study of the Global Citizen Kelowna initiative.

Shaped by course readings on humanitarianism, the students analyzed specific components of the local global education initiative, as well as the way the initiative conceives of global citizenship education. The students characterize the Global Citizen Kelowna initiative as a form of ‘soft’ global citizenship, as it focuses only on global citizenship as a form of providing aid to the so-called ‘developing’ world.

The initiative does not provide opportunities for participants to explore the complex inter-connections among people in the world. Instead, it focuses on ‘empowering’ Kelowna children and youth to ‘make a difference’ by providing support for development NGOs working in the Global South.

Specific aspects of the initiative, such as the simulated ‘slum’ activity and the Global School House, present people in the Global South in simplistic and degrading ways, reinforcing long-established stereotypes of the Canadian ‘saviour” and the ‘helpless’ African ‘in need’.

The Study analyzes the Global Citizen Kelowna initiative in the context of global citizenship education and debates regarding the best ways to alleviate poverty. The students provide a variety of recommendations that they hope will make the initiative more ‘critical’.

The Study was launched in January at an AlterKnowledge Discussion event at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art which was attended by nearly fifty people. Students Astri Jack, Francine Lingad, Lauren Richardson, and Samantha Steenwyk presented key elements of the Study.

The project is the product of course-work in CULT/ENGL 437A Postcolonial Studies (Topic: Humanitarian narrative), taught by David Jefferess, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies and English.

A copy of the Global Citizen Study can be found on our web site.

Click here for more information about the Cultural Studies program.

WHAT: Future Delta – Gaming Technology and Climate Change
WHEN: Wednesday, January 15, 2 to 3:30 p.m.
WHERE: CCS 142, UBC Okanagan Campus
ADMISSION: Free

As part of the FCCS Research Series, Emerging Visions: Digital Media and Culture,  Dr. Aleksandra Dulic and Dr. Stephen R. J. Sheppard, will discuss Future Delta, an educational virtual environment where players can learn more about climate change solutions by interacting with the space.

Future Delta is an immersive and interactive virtual environment that acts as a tool for communication between researchers and the public.  Combining climate change modeling, socioeconomic scenario analysis and 3D image modeling of real places, we aim to make climate change science and solutions more salient and understandable.

Dr. Aleksandra Dulic is media artist working at the intersections of interactive multimedia and live performance with research foci in cross-cultural media, interactive animation and computational poetics. Her artistic work is presented in exhibitions, festivals, and television broadcasts across Europe, Asia and North America. These works include films, animated media performances, interactive computer installations as well as instruments and tools for live animation.

Dr. Stephen R. J. Sheppard teaches in sustainable landscape planning, aesthetics, and visualization in the Faculty of Forestry and Landscape Architecture programme at UBC. He received a BA/MA in Agricultural and Forest Sciences at Oxford, a MSc. in Forestry at UBC, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Planning at UC. Berkeley. He directs the Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning (CALP), an interdisciplinary research group using perception-testing and immersive/interactive visualization to support public awareness and collaborative planning on sustainability issues. He has over 30 years’ experience in environmental assessment and public participation internationally. He has written or co-written two books on visual simulation, and co-edited “Forests and Landscapes: Linking Ecology, Sustainability, and Aesthetics”, Volume 6 in the IUFRO Research series. Current research interests lie in perceptions of climate change, the aesthetics of sustainability, and visualization theory and ethics.

Emerging Visions: Digital Media and Culture is sponsored by Green College UBC and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, UBC Okanagan. For more information on the research series, visit www.ubc.ca/okanagan/fccs/research/areas-of-expertise/media/emergingvisions.html

WHAT: What does it mean to be a global citizen?
WHEN: Friday, January 10, 7-8:30pm
WHERE: Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, 421 Cawston Ave.

Undergraduate students from UBC’s Okanagan campus will present the primary findings of a collaborative research project analyzing the events associated with Global Citizen Kelowna’s “Global Citizen Week.”  How is the Global South represented in these events? Who can be a global citizen?

Discussion of the research report, as well as the larger issue of global citizenship, will be facilitated by David Jefferess.

The AlterKnowledge discussion series brings together faculty and/or students affiliated with the Cultural Studies Program at UBC’s Okanagan campus and members of the Kelowna community to foster discussions about topics related to Culture, Power, and Identity. The series is organized by Allison Hargreaves and David Jefferess, and is held at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, downtown Kelowna in the RCA, 421 Cawston Ave.

For more information on the Alterknowledge Discussion series, visit our web site www.ubc.ca/okanagan/fccs/news-events/ongoing/alterknowledge.html

Emerging Visions: Digital Media and Culture is a research series jointly sponsored by UBC Vancouver’s Green College and FCCS.  This series presents innovative artists and scholars who are pushing the boundaries of contemporary creative and critical practice.

This fall we had three excellent presentations from artist-researchers and scholars from all over North America.  Their talks have been inspiring and relevant to a number of faculty member’s work in FCCS, and has been a great opportunity to be introduced to faculty members’ research in FCCS as well. The topics included the use of new technology in performance, interactive art, art history, narrative, and interdisciplinary practice and study, and curriculum development.

The series will continue into 2014:

Wednesday, January 15, 2014  | Future Delta- Gaming Technology and Climate Change
Dr. Stephen Sheppard, UBC Vancouver and Dr. Aleksandra Dulic, UBC Okanagan

Wednesday, March 19, 2014 | Indigenous Digital Media and the Post-Colonial Imagination
Jason Edward Lewis, Concordia, and Stephen Foster, UBC Okanagan

Wednesday, April 16, 2014 | Archive, Edition, or Research Environment? The Perils and Pleasures of Digital Scholarship
Dr. Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Ryerson University, and Dr. Constance Crompton, UBC Okanagan

Each session is held on campus at 2:00pm in the Creative and Critical Studies building, room CCS 142.

For more information, visit www.ubc.ca/okanagan/fccs/research/areas-of-expertise/media/emergingvisions.html

WHAT: Do They Know it’s Christmas? The Question of Global Poverty
WHEN: Friday, December 13, 7-8:30pm
WHERE: Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, 421 Cawston Ave.

Every year at this time, the 1985 Band Aid fundraising song, “Do They Know it’s Christmas,” returns to the airwaves, despite the nearly 20 years of criticism of the initiatives simplistic representation of the Ethiopian famine, and the insensitivity, if not racism, of the song’s lyrics.

The next Alterknowledge Discussion Series, which will be held on Dec. 13 will be facilitated by David Jefferess. This discussion will explore the way global poverty and inequality are represented, the politics of development aid and the charity model (especially at this time of year), and how we might seek different answers to the problems of suffering, oppression, and injustice.  This discussion will also respond to screenings of the 2012 spoof fundraising song, “Africa for Norway,” as well as other short videos on the representation of poverty and development aid.

The AlterKnowledge discussion series brings together faculty and/or students affiliated with the Cultural Studies Program at UBC’s Okanagan campus and members of the Kelowna community to foster discussions about topics related to Culture, Power, and Identity. The series is organized by Allison Hargreaves and David Jefferess, and is held at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, downtown Kelowna in the RCA, 421 Cawston Ave.

For more information on the Alterknowledge Discussion series, visit our web site www.ubc.ca/okanagan/fccs/news-events/ongoing/alterknowledge.html

What:  UBCO Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies & Theatre26 presents
Who: Wonderheads
When: Nov. 29 and 30, 8pm
Where: Rotary Centre for the Arts, Mary Irwin Theatre, 421 Cawston Ave.
Tickets: can be purchased at the UBC bookstore or at The Rotary Centre for the Arts
$15 for students $20 for Adults and $25 at the door

A man. The moon. A most peculiar love story. Acclaimed physical theatre duo Wonderheads present a love story that whisks a man to the moon and back! LOON features larger than life masks, fantastical puppetry and a style that has been described
as ‘live-action Pixar’. Directed by Andrew Phoenix and performed by Kate Braidwood, LOON was awarded three Best of Fest awards in 2012 as well as the 2012 Edmonton Critics Choice Award. Most recently, the WONDERHEADS were selected as one of ten Scion Motivate finalists, a national contest recognizing young entrepreneurs in the creative arts.

Wonderheads is a multi-award winning physical theatre company specializing in mask performance and exquisite visual storytelling. Their work is performed in full-face mask, a wordless form that mixes European larval mask traditions with character mask styles, resulting in a craft rarely seen on North American stages. The Heads are Kate Braidwood and Andrew Phoenix, who came together in 2009 resolved to do their part in conjuring a little magic and wonder into the world, and in 2011 created their second show: LOON, the story of a man who falls in love with the moon.

Media Contacts:
Melissa McHugh
Dept of Creative Studies
Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies
UBC’s Okanagan campus
Tel: 250-807-9648
Email: melissa.mchugh@ubc.ca

Emily MacMillen
Dept of Creative Studies
Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies
UBC’s Okanagan Campus
Tel: 778-214-8697
Email: emily.macmillen@live.ca

Cale Shannon, one of the BFA students who will be in the exhibition.

What: UBC Okanagan Visual Arts Exhibition Showcase
Who: Visual Arts students in UBC’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies; curated by Byron Johnston and Katie Brennan
Where: #135 – 1295 Cannery Lane (across the street from the Laurel Packing House, adjacent to Prospera Place)
When: Nov. 15-30, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (every day); opening night is Friday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m.
Admission: Free and open to the public

This November in downtown Kelowna, the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS) at UBC’s Okanagan campus presents an exhibition of work by its visual arts students.

Curated by local artists—FCCS teaching alumnus Byron Johnston and curator Katie Brennan—the UBC Okanagan Visual Arts Exhibition Showcase includes the year’s best student work in mediums such as painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking and more.

Byron Johnston

The exhibition is the brain child of Johnston, who has mounted several community exhibitions and installations over the last 10 years, including the inaugural Mad Hatter event on Harvey Avenue (2011). Mad Hatter is now an annual exhibition event hosted by the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan.

“I’ve always believed it’s really important for students to take their work off campus and to bring it into the public realm,” says Johnston. “It’s a much different experience from presenting work in school.”

In preparation for the Visual Arts Exhibition, it was natural for Johnston to reach out to Brennan to help curate the show. Brennan, curator of the Lake Country Art Gallery, recently launched a new pop-up gallery/curatorial project, the

Katie Brennan

“Good Times Gallery,” which presented two short exhibitions since this September.

“It has been such a pleasure to work with the students,” says Brennan of the Visual Arts Exhibition. “It’s so fun to introduce them to the ins and outs of exhibiting their work: working with curators, doing studio visits, readying images and statements and installing the work in the final configuration, etc.”

It’s a new role for Brennan, who’s taught at UBC Okanagan on and off for the last three years, but one that fits easily.

“With Good Times Gallery, I’ve already been working with a number of current and recent graduates from the BFA program, including Jeda Connor, Tony Wang, Cale Shannon, Jena Stillwell and Malcolm McCormick. They make such great work and people need to see it.”

The UBC Okanagan Visual Arts Exhibition Showcase runs Nov. 15-30 at #135 -1295 Cannery Lane, across the street from the Laurel Packing House, adjacent to Prospera Place.

The opening reception is Friday, Nov. 15 starting at 7 p.m. The exhibition is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. UBC student artists are hosting the show; guests are encouraged to meet the young artists in person. Entry is free and open to the public.

The exhibition is sponsored by FCCS and the Visual Arts Course Union.

Good Times Gallery collaborative project: facebook.com/goodtimesgallery

FCCS: ubc.ca/okanagan/fccs

Small central lake and bridge in the Japanese Garden section of the Devonian Botanical Garden, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

WHAT: The Digital Botanical Garden, FCCS Research Series
WHEN: Wednesday, November 13, 2 to 3:30 p.m.
WHERE: CCS 142, UBC Okanagan Campus
ADMISSION: Free

As part of the FCCS Research Series, Emerging Visions: Digital Media and Culture,  Dr. Dene Grigar, Dr. Lee Foote, and Dr. Hussein Keshani, will discuss the work of the Back to the Garden research team on Wednesday, November 13 from 2-3:30 in CCS 142.

They will discuss their  work on how botanic gardens, which are increasingly asked to take on greater social roles, can be reimagined in the 21st century. Using the case of the forthcoming Islamic garden at the Devonian Botanic garden at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, the ways digital interpretive technologies can help botanic gardens promote social cohesion and intercultural understanding through the enhancement of public knowledge of the cultural and environmental heritage of the Islamic world will be discussed.

Dr. Hussein Keshani, is an Assistant Professor in Art History and Visual Culture who researches architectural and garden histories of Islamic India.

Dr. Dene Grigar is Director of and Associate Professor in the Digital Technology and Culture Program at Washington State University Vancouver who works in the area of electronic literature, emergent technology and cognition, and ephemera.

Dr. Lee Foote is Associate Professor and Director of the Devonian Botanic Gardens at the University of Alberta. Foote’s research focuses on waterfowl habitat creation, disturbance and reclamation using adaptive management, wildlife habitat manipulation and using natural processes, and sustainable use of renewable resources. Secondary interests include sustainable use of northern wildlife, social sustainability in African savannah ecosystems and trophic dynamics in wetlands.

Emerging Visions: Digital Media and Culture is sponsored by Green College UBC and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, UBC Okanagan. For more information on the research series, visit www.ubc.ca/okanagan/fccs/research/areas-of-expertise/media/emergingvisions.html

On Thursday, November 14th, Dr. Grigar will host another lecture, Leading by Practice: Creative Approaches to the Digital Humanities and Media Arts from 10am to noon in ART 203.  

Initially trained in Classics, Dr. Grigar is an innovative researcher, teacher, new media artist and administrator whose work crosses the boundaries of literary studies, media arts, media studies, and digital humanities. Drawing on her experiences, Grigar will speak on the importance of practice-led research and her successes in building research and teaching programs that both enhance the humanities and arts while preparing students for the digital workplace. The session will be followed by an open discussion on how to integrate teaching and research in digital humanities, computer science and new media art at UBC’s Okanagan campus.
Grigar is currently the President of the Electronic Literature Organization and also runs two labs: Motion-Tracking Virtual Environment lab (MOVE) and Elit Lab.

Greg Younging, Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies facilitates symposium on Misrepresentations of Indigenous Peoples

Last Saturday’s symposium on the Misrepresentation of Indigenous Peoples was attended by a diverse crowd of over 40 people, including Kelowna community members as well as UBCO students and faculty.

The event, facilitated by Greg Younging (Indigenous Studies, UBC Okanagan) and Kelly Mitton (English MA student in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies), was the second in this year’s AlterKnowledge Series—a discussion series co-organized by Allison Hargreaves and David Jefferess of Critical Studies. The series is designed to foster critical public dialogue about the way colonialism shapes relationships in both local and global contexts.

The symposium explored the role played by harmful and inaccurate representations of Indigenous peoples in perpetuating colonization–whether through film, television, literature, or even in Halloween costumes.

“The violence of colonization that takes place in policy and legislation would not be possible without the colonization of minds, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and negative representations of Indigenous peoples play a crucial part in this process” says Hargreaves.

The symposium was an important opportunity to explore the very real and lived effects of harmful representations, and to imagine solutions. As one participant remarked, the event was “empowering and inspirational.”

The day included a film screening of the documentary Reel Injun, as well as presentations by visiting scholars Lisa Monchalin and Jena McLaurin, and Critical Studies professor Allison Hargreaves.

McLaurin, a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, researches how Indigenous peoples are portrayed in modern popular media, and has developed a Native film course at her institution.

Monchalin, the first Aboriginal woman in Canada to hold a PhD in Criminology, teaches criminology at Kwantlen University. Her research on Aboriginal peoples and justice in Canada analyzes misrepresentations as contributing to the alarmingly high rates of violence against Indigenous women.

The next event in the series which will focus on the issue of Aboriginal Health in the Okanagan, is scheduled to take place on Friday, November 22nd – 7-8:30 pm at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, 421 Cawston Ave.

Visit the Alterknowledge series website for more information.