Jordan Stouck

Dr. Jordan Stouck is currently the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies. She is an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Department of English and Cultural Studies, teaching English and Communications and Rhetoric. Her recent research has been focused on multilingual learning and graduate writing.

Dr. Stouck shared some insights on her research and teaching practices here at UBC Okanagan.

What brought you to UBCO?  

I came to UBCO in 2009, excited both to return to British Columbia where I’m from and to participate in the rapid development of the Okanagan campus. For me, the move has brought so many opportunities to work with great people and shape innovative programming.

Tell us about your research interests.

My area is writing and composition studies, and most recently the development of programming in Communications and Rhetoric. In teaching, my primary objective centres around giving students a voice to participate in research through better understandings of professional audiences, purposes, and knowledge-making conventions. I’m also in the Educational Leadership stream so my research focuses on scholarship of teaching and learning related to blended delivery, graduate writing, and, most recently, culturally and linguistically inclusive approaches.

How did you know you wanted to be a professor? 

I wasn’t sure I did want to be a professor until after my Master’s degree. At that point, I took a year away from studying and realized that I missed teaching and research. It wasn’t always a smooth path, but I am grateful for that “gap” year which gave me perspective and a renewed focus going into my PhD. In fact, as Associate Dean Undergraduate, I’ve seen how students – like I did – can really benefit from time away to identify priorities and assess where they want to be.

What kind of learning experiences do offer your students? 

I regularly teach English 109, 112 and now Communication (CORH) courses. All of my courses are workshop-based, encouraging students to develop their research writing skills in a hands-on way. While I have taught first year composition many times, I never find it repetitive because of the practice-based classes and student interaction. I sincerely want every student to leave my course with an appreciation for the language and writing styles that they have encountered there.

Tell us about a recent project that you are excited about.

I am currently a team-member on two projects that question the values embedded in university-level writing instruction. One project is looking at culturally and linguistically inclusive approaches to writing and composition, considering what we value when we create or assess a piece of writing and how academic communication can become more inclusive. A lot of this work is embedded in the Communications and Rhetoric certificate and now minor that we are developing. Connected to this, I am a team member on a second project, led by Dr. Kerrie Charnley, developing a land-based Indigenous writing guide. This resource, intended for Indigenous post-secondary students, links writing practice to Indigenous methodologies and both fills a gap in existing resources as well as contributing to the rethinking of current approaches. Both the Communications programming and Indigenous writing guide are supported by ALT funding.

Kohlbey Ozipko with her masters degree

Kohlbey Ozipko received her Master of Arts in English from the University of British Columbia – Okanagan (UBCO) in early 2021. Her thesis, “No eclipse lasts forever”: Confronting Gendered Violence in Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game and Dolores Claiborne, sparked her interest in contemporary feminism, which she continues to explore in her blog titled Little Feminist Movement.

We met up with Kohlbey to talk to her about her time here at UBC Okanagan.

Give us some insight into your thesis project.

In my thesis, I analyze representations of gendered violence in two works by American author Stephen King: Gerald’s Game (1992) and Dolores Claiborne (1993). King’s works are part of the Gothic literary tradition which oftentimes receives criticism for representing women as stereotypical “damsels in distress” and glorifying acts of violence against women. However, I argue that King’s works, and the Gothic genre do not glorify violence against women in any way. Rather, King’s works and the genre expose the flawed and violent treatment of women within our society and act as a call to action in order to invoke change.

Tell us a bit more about your research.

While I was in graduate school, my research spanned all the way from representations of women in Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764) to Stephen King’s Dolores Claiborne (1993). I break down some of the archetypal representations we see in the Gothic and use the #MeToo Movement as a framework to discuss their significance in relation to contemporary North American society using a feminist lens.

Why did you choose UBC’s Okanagan campus? How did you change or overcome challenges along the way?

I chose to attend UBCO because I found a professor, Dr. Jodey Castricano, who shared my love for Stephen King’s works. It’s rare to find other academics who can appreciate King’s works. So, when I managed to find that person there was no question as to where I would be completing my degree. However, completing my Master of Arts in English proved to be a challenge. There were points throughout my journey where I seriously considered quitting or taking a break. I managed to battle my way through graduate school with the help of a few very good friends (also in the same program) and a committee that was determined to get me to the finish line. While writing my thesis, I came to realize that completing a degree and writing a thesis are not individual efforts. It really does take an army. It’s an army worth building.

You graduated in 2021. Can you tell us a bit about what you are doing now, your future plans, and how your graduate studies may have helped you with your career goals?

I’m currently doing quality assurance work full-time for a cannabis company in the Kootenays, working part-time as a yoga instructor at a local studio, and writing for my blog – Little Feminist Movement—on the weekends. My partner and I are also expecting a little one in the new year, so I guess I can add “mother” to that list, as well. My plan for the future is to find a way to work more closely with women, whether that be offering yoga workshops or women’s circles for self-empowerment, expanding the scope of my blog to reach more women world-wide, offering mentoring or personal support services for women, becoming a womb-worker or doula, or writing short stories or novels that focus upon women’s struggles and overcoming those struggles. I’d like to do all of those things, actually.

Lastly, what advice would you have for a student who is contemplating currently pursuing their graduate degree at UBCO?

I would advise a student to pick a topic that they’re passionate about because there’s nothing worse than writing a 15,000-20,000-word thesis on a topic that you don’t care about or that doesn’t interest you. I’ve written enough essays on Shakespeare to know that. I would also advise a student to start building their army as early as they possibly can. Make sure you have friends, family, and a committee with whom you feel comfortable enough that you can reach out for help and advice when you need.

Kholbey in her yoga studio

Marie Loughlin

Marie Loughlin is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies. Marie Loughlin was born in Hamilton, Ontario and attended McMaster University (BA, ENGL Hons.) before doing her graduate degrees in English, with a specialization in early modern drama, at Queen’s University, Kingston. She taught briefly at the University of Calgary before returning to the Okanagan; she has taught at UBCO since its inception in 2005.

What brought you to UBCO? 

After graduating with my PhD’s in the early 1990s, I was lucky enough to land a sessional position at Okanagan University College (OUC), the precursor of the Okanagan campus of UBC. After 2 years of working with exceptional colleagues, I left for the University of Calgary. Returning to Kelowna in 1998, I took up a permanent position as a college professor at OUC. I was privileged to be here when OUC became UBCO, and I have watched our campus grow and develop in ways that I would never have imagined possible.

Tell us about your research interests.

My research interests have tended to remain, until fairly recently, in the area of early modern English literature. Both of the anthologies I have edited deal with literature between 1550 and 1735. My two monographs are also on early modern literature. My most recent monograph,  Early Modern Women Writers Engendering Descent: Mary Sidney Herbert, Mary Sidney Wroth and their Genealogical Communities (Routledge, 2022), concerns how two central women writers of the famous Sidney family employed and occasionally subverted the power of family, ancestry, and descent to write original works of poetry and prose at the very beginning of the women’s literary tradition. Recently, however, I have begun to teach and publish in the area of popular literature, focusing particularly on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, and that modern mythic figure: the superhero.

What most excites you about your field of work? 

As I move into studying, teaching, and researching popular literature, I find that I am returning to the genres that were so important to me as a child: fantasy fiction, science fiction, myth, and detective fiction. I find it exciting to share my enthusiasm for these kinds of stories with students who are not English majors, but for whom Frodo Baggins, Iron Man, and Sherlock Holmes are figures that they are often passionately invested in. I developed ENGL 395 Popular Literature in order to allow non-English majors to explore those characters and narratives that have been, and in many cases remain, deeply resonant for them. Teaching this course has been a very rewarding experience, as has supervising Dana Mateline Penney, who will soon be officially awarded her MA ENGL with a titled “The Woman Warrior and Her Bodymind in Action: An Analysis of Bodies, Minds, Gender, and Movement in Wonder Woman, 1941 – 2017.” Working with new scholars like Dana has been a real joy!

Tell us about your work.

I’ve talked a great deal about my research and teaching in the field of English literature, but recently I have become very involved in the faculty’s new communications programming. In January 2023, I will teach CORH 216 Communication and Media for the second time, with a focus on the LEGO® Building System and its multi-media ‘reach.’ In this course, we will examine the LEGO® building system as a material medium of communication and rhetoric that has moved into other popular culture media—audio, visual, textual, and digital. I am very excited to discuss with my students how audience and message are inter-related for the LEGO® building system’s diverse audiences.

What do you enjoy about living here and working at UBC Okanagan?

Having grown up in an older Eastern city with enormous urban sprawl, I have most enjoyed living in such a beautiful place. I remember being driven to my BNB when I arrived first in Kelowna with my host apologizing for the ugliness of Highway 97’s feedlot, pawnshops, and strip malls. I only had eyes for the mountains. I walk here in nature frequently and feel grateful that I have been able to live and work here. UBC Okanagan specifically has been a wonderful place to work, open to innovation and the development of new areas of instruction and focus.

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 to provide an opportunity for them to pursue innovative and original research as part of their learning experience over the summer months.

The research awards are available to domestic and International students who are enrolled in a major, or combined major, in FCCS B.A., B.F.A. or B.M.S. program (English, Cultural Studies, Art History and Visual Culture, French, Creative Writing, Visual Arts, Media Studies).

Summer 2021 Awards

In 2021, awards were given to three students, Camila Labarta-Garcia, Ashleigh Giffen and Maura Tamez. All three recipients have now completed their degrees – Labarta-Garcia completed her BA with a major in Cultural Studies, Giffen completed her degree in Creative Writing and Indigenous Studies, and Tamez completed her BFA.

Labarta-Garcia’s project investigated how Latin pop music tropes are adopted and appropriated in South Korean pop music (K-Pop) and how Latin American fans of K-Pop respond to this process of cultural appropriation and commodification. The project was conducted through a combination of the musicological textual analysis of Latin music tropes of major K-pop songs, and qualitative interviews with young Latin American K-Pop fans.

“My hope is that the project will make a significant contribution to the intercultural understanding of popular music, music industries, and audiences, while enhancing the empirical analysis of transnational cultural flows,” says Labarta-Garcia.

Giffen created a multimedia poetry chapbook including different forms of poetry and collage visuals. The chapbook focuses on the trades industry within Canada with a focus on BC., exploring toxic masculinity and the poor work conditions centered in rural industrialization, and as a result, the ongoing pandemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women within these environments.

“My research revolved around the question, ‘how do the socio-economic, racial, and mental health issues that greatly affect the men in the trades industry affect their families, cultures, and quality of life, while also systematically affecting the history and treatment of Indigenous peoples lives and lands?’” explains Giffen.

Tamez worked to create an original, experimental film focusing on Indigenous pasts, presents, and futures through a Dene lens. She was able to use tools to advance her technical skills and gain experience working with the Sony FS7 & Panasonic GH4 DSLR cameras.

Tamez says that her identity as a Dene Ndé woman informs her art practice based in sculpture, and recently, through filmmaking.

“My research engages Ndé peoples’ knowledge and perspectives. Community-based mentorships with Indigenous artists and Elders have nurtured my learnings,” she adds.

Summer 2022 Awards

For 2022, the faculty offered two awards, one to Rachel Pickard, and one to Eun Jee Lee. Pickard is a domestic student completing a combined major in Cultural Studies and English, and Lee is an international student completing a BA in an Art History and Visual Culture.

Rachel Pickard’s project is to create a multi-media digital edition of the Pocket Desert radio documentary, the original of which is housed in the Pocket Desert fonds (1993-1996) in the UBC Okanagan Archives. Through this digital edition, she plans to investigate the relevance of recorded oral histories and their significance to the Okanagan from the time they were produced to our present day.

“The funds will allow me specifically to engage with oral histories found in the audio recordings of interviews and discussions between experts such as Dr. Jeannette Armstrong and Dr. Geoffrey Scudder, regarding concerns around the diverse and unique desert climate and ecology in and around Osoyoos in the Okanagan valley and the significance the land has with the Syilx Okanagan people,” Pickard explains.

Eun Jee Lee will be exploring the interrelated and paradoxical relationship between the Christian and queer identity in the fine arts during the Modern period, in particular, the Renaissance and the Baroque, and its impact on how we understand the contemporary discipline of art history.

“The influence of the Church was powerful in the early modern period. While artists commissioned by the Churches depicted religious iconography and stories, allusions to queer identity can also be found,” says Lee.

More information on these awards and other funding opportunities in FCCS can be found here: fccs.ok.ubc.ca/student-resources/funding-awards

While UBCO has access to some more wild spaces such as the Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre, this is quite a distance from campus. To deal with this, Tania Willard is working to establish a new research creation space here at UBCO, the Site/ation studio, supported by Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). Site/ation studio will allow for creative making tied to Indigenous knowledges and creative practice on campus, and will also be activated during the Indigenous Art Intensive program each spring.

CFI gives infrastructure funding to create research centres and labs on campus, which can include renovating or building space, the purchase of equipment and software as well as operational funds to get spaces up and running.

Site/ation studio is a research-creation space that uses collaborative creative practice as a methodology to acknowledge advocate and advance Indigenous land-based knowledges through creative making. The new research/creation space will be located in the portable near the University House here on campus, and with this funding, the space will be renovated and new equipment will include 3D scanners and projectors for projects. This eco-interface zone allows for outdoor making with accessible equipment to interact with the wild and native plants and other life at the edges of campus.

Projects will include a focus on Interior Salish basketry, the Indigenous art Intensive and projection-based work among other research activities. The ‘Site/ation Studio’ describes the ways that land, as a basis for Indigenous knowledge, can be a site of knowledge production and knowledge transfer equal to the value of academic text-based citations, Willard explains.

“I am planning several research creation projects in the space again considering skills-based making such as basketry, gardening and working with native plants, light projections and 3D scanning as it relates to cultural practices and virtuality, augmented reality and other manifestations of claiming virtual Indigenous spaces to create connections to urban and or global spaces that tether specific Indigenous knowledges of place,” she says.

Willard adds that that students and researchers will have the opportunity to work outdoors in a covered area in relation to natural surroundings.

“This will allow us to consider knowledge as embedded in land and Indigenous knowledges of land and work with new technologies in Audio Visual to research and create works that are interested in the interfaces of Indigenous knowledge the land and learning,” she says.

Renovations are underway, with plans to open this new space in 2023.

AR filters and video art installation from ‘Distant Distraction, Foul Breach, Separate Sensation’ by Lark Spartin. Images CC BY-SA 2022

Lark Spartin, a recent graduate from UBC Okanagan, presented her first academic publication on Digital Relationality at EVA London this July. EVA London is one of the international Electronic Visualization & the Arts conferences. Through her Bachelor of Media Studies degree, Spartin explored various ways to blend art and technology, and developed a strong technical skillset across a variety of digital media. In John Desnoyers-Stewart’s Media Studies Seminar Series (MDST 490), she began to uncover the under-utilized relational potential that these tools have to connect individuals and inspire creative expression among a wider demographic. John saw the potential value of Lark’s ideas to the larger digital art community and encouraged her to publish, which led them to co-author the EVA London article on Digital Relationality.

“Digital Relationality: Relational Aesthetics in Contemporary Interactive Art” by Lark Spartin and John Desnoyers-Stewart proposes ways in which Nicholas Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics can be integrated with contemporary interactive art. Through their publication, presented at the Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA) London conference in July 2022, they analyse their own artworks as examples of how merging relational aesthetics with interactive digital art can benefit both realms. Applying relational aesthetics to digital media reveals the antagonism within the structures imposed by technology that is ordinarily taken for granted. Drawing attention to these structures, and subverting the typical uses of these platforms, allows for reflection and discourse. This can lead both artist and viewer to imagine alternative ways of living beyond the constraints we ordinarily operate within, becoming active participants in constructing a digitally relational future. When relationality is infused into technology by inverting its typical use, artists can encourage those who participate to become creators and performers. Digital relationality provides a way to bring awareness to the role we all have in reshaping the technology we use daily and reflect on the technology that shapes us.

Colours and shapes responding to movement in Gestures by Lark Spartin. Photo CC BY-SA 2021

Lark Spartin’s relational artwork, including Gestures and Distant Distraction, Foul Breach, Separate Sensation, has been exhibited at the UBC Okanagan FINA Gallery. Her artwork, mostly focused within digital art, interactive installation, and augmented reality, aims to invert the typical use of digital media to confront entrenched norms of social separation and disembodiment within the use of these tools. As such, she exhibits through online platforms that can reach a broad audience including Instagram filters and websites such as larkbutonline.com. By exploiting and subverting technology that is used to quite literally filter how we relate to our world, ourselves and one another, her work emphasizes the creative and relational potential of the tools that are so ingrained in our everyday communication and creation practices. She aims to continue her research and art practice to create relational artwork that encourages connection and expression from its viewers, changing the landscape of how individuals interact with technology, social media, and each other daily.

John Desnoyers-Stewart is a PhD Candidate at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology. His practice-based research centres around pushing the boundaries of virtual reality, encouraging new perspectives on its capacity to facilitate social connection and encourage self-expression. His interactive VR artworks including Transcending Perception and Body-RemiXer reframe how immersants see each other, encouraging them to dance, play, and connect with one another. His recent telepresent social experience Star-Stuff transforms immersants into constellations and galaxies and is available on AppLab, and will be exhibited at SIGGRAPH 2022 and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre this fall. He is also collaborating with an international team on a cutting-edge VR performance, Eve 3.0, that transforms audience members into performers through touch and movement. He teaches online courses at UBC Okanagan including MDST 490 Seminar Series and IGS 501 Creative Research Methods.

View Lark’s projects below.

Dr. Kyong Yoon

Kyong Yoon was announced as a Tier 1 Principal’s Research Chair for UBC Okanagan in the summer of 2022. In this role, Yoon will work to strengthen research in Trans-Pacific Digital Platform Studies. Already a leading figure in Asian media research, this award will allow Professor Yoon to advance the research on trans-Pacific digital platforms that are increasingly reshaping cultural production and consumption.

This 5-year research project will comprehensively examine the emerging process of platform-oriented media practices, known as platformization, in trans-Pacific contexts.

“Platformization refers to a process in which media production, circulation, and consumption are reshaped around major digital platforms, such as Netflix and YouTube” Yoon says.

Through this research project, Yoon will investigate these platforms, the media texts they enable, and audience engagement with platforms.

Yoon explains that global platforms have enabled the unexpected international success of recent non-Western media texts that would otherwise have not been disseminated globally. For example, the Korean-made Netflix series Squid Game and its global popularity illustrate the ways in which Asian media production is integrated with the global platform-driven economy. The show’s production has benefitted from Netflix’s catalog-building strategies through which content produced in various geo-cultural contexts, especially in non-Western countries, is licensed so that the streaming platform rapidly expands its global viewership.

As such, Netflix distinguishes itself from traditional legacy media, such as network TV, that have introduced a limited amount of foreign content. Dominant streaming services, exemplified by Netflix, have appropriated the high production value of certain local talent and creativity, while enabling audiences to access transnational texts through prompt availability of multiple versions of translated subtitles and dubbing.

With the PRC award, Yoon will extend his expertise to explore the emerging field of digital platform studies and move beyond the dominant Western-centric discourses about digital media.

“My goal for this work is to contribute to opening up new areas of digital research and enhance the interdisciplinary research capacities of UBC Okanagan,” he says.

About the PRC

The Principal’s Research Chairs (PRC) program provides internal funding support for top-tier researchers engaged in outstanding research or creative scholarship. Supported by the UBC Okanagan Excellence Fund, the goals of the PRC program are to enable the recruitment of outstanding new faculty, retain top researchers, promote research intensification, and generate international recognition of research achievements.

Cap toss at the June 9th, 2022 ceremony

The year’s convocation ceremony was held in person on June 9^th, and the faculty and staff in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies are happy to congratulate all of the students who completed their degrees in 2022.

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

Camila (Alex) Labarta-Garcia, a member of the graduating class of 2022, was the student reader at our ceremony, and shared these words with the graduating class:

“I’d like to say congratulations to all of us. The fact that we are here means that we have overcome the intimidating wall that is university,” she said. “This moment for many people holds feelings of fulfillment, relief. But also regret and dissatisfaction. It is a hard task getting to know yourself before taking the next step. So whether you laugh cry to curse them, reserve those moments of uncertainty, for the questions your goals won’t really answer.”

Camila completed her BA degree with a major in Cultural Studies.

We are happy to celebrate the achievements of all of our students at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

“Congratulations to the class of 2022! It was wonderful seeing our graduates cross the stage this year and I look forward to all the great things they will accomplish in the years to come!” says Jordan Stouck, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies in FCCS.

“I am so happy and proud to be offering my congratulations to our masters and doctoral graduates of 2022. Good luck and best wishes to them all!” Says Greg Garrard, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies in FCCS.

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

“We are proud of all our students for what they have accomplished over their years here, and for what they have taught us,” says Dr. Traister. “We have learned about compassion and resilience from our students.”

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

• Mackenzie Beeman, Doug Biden Memorial Scholarship in Visual Arts
• Alex Bourassa, French Scholarship
• Sophia Cajon, International Student Award
• Taylor Carpenter, Murray Johnson Memorial Award in Visual Arts
• Gabrielle Chee, Jessie Ravnsborg Memorial Award
• Pip Mamo Dryden, Audain Travel Award
• Katja Ewart, Frances Harris Prize in Fine Arts
• Fiona Firby, Bachelor of Media Studies Interactive Media Prize
• Amelia Ford, BFA head of Class
• Chloe Griffiths, French and Spanish Scholarship
• Asahna Hughes, Jack and Lorna Hambleton Memorial Award
• Candice Hughes, FCCS Visual Arts Scholarship
• Chloe Jenkins, Okanagan Visual Arts Scholarship
• Camila (Alex) Labarta-Garcia, Cultural Studies Scholarship
• Karly Larson, Creative Studies Transfer Prize in Creative Writing
• Jordan Macdonald, Elinor Yandel Memorial Award in Fine Arts
• Rachel Macarie, Kelly Curtis Memorial Scholarship in English
• Amber Nuyens, Creative Writing Prize
• Julia Pearson, Craig Hall Memorial Visual Arts Scholarship in Printmaking
• Arthur Pielecki, 2021 Vernon Film Society Media Prize
• Jordan Pike, Bachelor of Media Studies Capstone Prize of Excellence, BMS Head of Class
• Natalie Rice, HSBC Bank of Canada Prize
• Jaime Sanrtos, Jack and Lorna Hambleton Memorial Award
• Anna Shaeffer, French Essay Prize
• Lark Spartin, Bachelor of Media Studies Computational Art Prize
• Karen Takahashi, Asper Graduating Prize
• Maura Tamez, Norma and Jack Aitken Prize in Visual Arts
• Mackenzie Rose Tennant, Creative Writing Scholarship
• Abigail Wiens, Dr. Shelley Martin Memorial Scholarship
• Maggie Wileman, English Scholarship

Dean Bryce Traister

FCCS reception, cheers to our graduates!

Dr. Megan Smith with BMS Head of Class, Jordan Pike

PhD graduate Toby Lawrence (centre) with supervisors Ashok Mathur and Tania Willard

BFA graduates Avery Ullyot-Comrie and Sofie Lovelady

Student reader, Camila (Alex) Labarta-Garcia

Aisha Ravindran, mace bearer

Anita Chaudhuri

Anita Chaudhuri is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of English and Cultural Studies. She specializes in second language writing (broadly, Writing Studies) and world Englishes, and is interested in the identity construction of language learners, their development in writing and communication, and how pedagogical practices such as, Writing in the Disciplines, Writing Across Curriculum and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy impact curriculum development.

Dr. Chaudhuri shared some insights on her research and teaching practices here at UBC Okanagan.

What brought you to UBCO?  

Research-intensive activities and UBC’s focus on teaching and learning have appealed to me since graduate school. Researchers such as, Bonny Norton and Ryuko Kubota guided my learning and research interest. When the opportunity to join UBC’s Okanagan campus became possible, I was ecstatic to join some wonderful colleagues and furthering my career in the Educational Leadership stream.

How did you know you wanted to be a professor? 

I come from a family of teachers so, my childhood was spent sitting in classrooms where I didn’t belong, sometimes tutoring, and always enjoying the idea of being surrounded by interesting people and questions. I have come to value the process of teaching and learning even more because I share classrooms with learners who bring with them the knowledge of geographical spaces and socio-cultural interests that are fascinating.

Tell us about a recent project that you are excited about.

I am excited about the new Certificate and Minor in Communications and Rhetoric (CORH) project. Working with Drs. Aisha Ravindran, Jordan Stouck and Marie Loughlin on this ALT-2040 funded project has been an opportunity to prepare students with strong communication and argumentative skills. We hope to offer the Capstone course in Winter 2022-23 for our first cohort of students to complete the CORH Certificate. The Minor is currently in development.

I am also excited about UBC’s Curriculum MAP project supported by UBCO’s Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic. Participating in the creation of the curriculum mapping, alignment and planning tool for UBC (and beyond) has been a rewarding experience.

You recently received ALT-2040 Learning Transformations Funds and UBC’s Equity Enhancement Fund Tell us about these projects.  

I received ALT-2040 Learning Transformations Fund to create an OER titled, Disciplinary Approaches to Academic Integrity in 2022. This multidisciplinary work in student engagement and learning will contribute to discussion on how AI needs to be unpacked and made relevant to the student body before they are penalized for academic misconduct, plagiarism, contract cheating, to name a few. Therefore, the objectives of this OER are to: (i) offer student-facing, discipline-specific content for undergraduates to become informed decision makers vis-à-vis their own learning practice and (ii) support classroom discussion and activities on AI.

I also received UBC’s Equity Enhancement Fund in 2022 to create an e-magazine on equity matters. Dr. Rishma Chooniedass at FHSD is a collaborator on this project. The objective of this project is to plan and produce a student-facing and UBC student-run e-magazine titled, RESPECT that publishes their understanding of EDI issues as essays, interviews, artwork, photographs, multimodal, and interactive presentations to enhance UBC’s Inclusive Action Plan.  By promoting conversations around sensitive topics that are current and impactful, this e-magazine will develop opportunities for engagement, development of ideas, individual and shared understanding with fellow UBC students and the community at large.

As part of the ALT funded project to create a certificate and minor in Communications and Rhetoric, Dr. Anita Chaudhuri joined a discussion with the Provost’s office here at UBCO to find out what kind of supports were available for program development. That sparked a conversation with Dr. Bowen Hui and Janine Hirtz about tools to help streamline the process of program and course development.

Laura Prada explains that in the Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic, they were looking at ways to support faculty members to create and evaluate programs from a learning outcomes perspective which is a pillar of high-quality education towards student success.

“There was excitement to do something that was thoughtful, intentional and supported by pedagogical best practices,” she says.

So a team was created with faculty members, staff from the Office of the Provost and the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), and the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT), along with co-op students to help build the Curriculum MAP platform that would assist with mapping, alignment and planning of courses and programs and support instructors in creating course syllabi consistent with our Senate guidelines.

The CTL and the CTLT support faculty in developing curriculum for new courses, redesigning current courses or with new programs.

Janine Hirtz, Manager and Senior Education Consultant with the CTL explains that when working with faculty, they look at ways to align curriculum learning outcomes with program and institutional goals around things like the Indigenous Strategic Plan and Inclusion Action Plan.

“The more faculty can show collaboration with interdisciplinary ways or foster goals of university and programs, they are more likely to have better success,” she says.

This team has now been working on the Curriculum MAP project for the last two years, and the platform is ready and available for use. The tool supports a step-by-step process with links to resources that will help identify learning outcomes, principals of universal design for learning to support inclusive learning design as well as a syllabus generator.

For their ALT funded project,  World Literatures and Intercultural Communication’s team has used the Curriculum MAP tool to develop a major and minor. They will include the reports generated by the tool in their package for the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training.

Dr. Chaudhuri says she was motivated to be part of this development with a desire to understand how courses across campus approach learning objectives and how we prepare students for their academic and professional lives.

She notes that this tool can also help us identify gaps, for instance, if assessment practices and classroom activities align with the course objectives, and visualize how program level outcomes relate with strategic priorities of the institution.

This online tool provides flexibility to meet the needs of faculty in any point of their development to generate ideas, create, and evaluate new or existing courses and programs, using backward design.

With this tool, the goal is to get to a point where instructors feel they are supported with curriculum development without having to know the ins and outs of pedagogical needs, or of specific program requirements.

“The website will meet the needs of instructors at different points – if they want to identifying learning outcomes, or figure out how to align assessment strategies, or how are they meeting the TRC Calls to Action or sustainability commitments for the university,” says Prada.

Hirtz adds that they want to see faculty use this to generate syllabus to make the planning process more streamlined in finding statements and policies that are needed on an outline. “On a student level, it would be great to have something standardized that is similar across faculties and departments.”

Visit the curriculum MAP 

The following are examples of some of the Curriculum MAP outputs.

Table generated by the Curriculum MAP tool, showing how courses align with program learning outcomes

Bar graph showing frequency of learning activities across courses

Please note these are not accurate representation of CORH courses.

Meet the Team

The Curriculum MAP working group consists of Dr. Anita Chaudhuri (Department of English and Cultural Studies); Dr. Bowen Hui (Department of Computer Science); Janine Hirtz (Manager and Senior Educational Consultant, CTL); Carrie Hunter (Curriculum Consultant, CTL); Laura Prada (Office of the Provost); Abdelmuizz Yusuf (Undergraduate Developer); Jia Fei LuoZheng (Undergraduate Developer); Damyn Filipuzzi (Undergraduate Developer); Daulton Baird (Undergraduate Developer); Kieran Adams (Undergraduate Developer).