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The Faculty of Arts i s embarking on a strategic planning process that will result in a new five- year strategy for our students\, faculty and staff.
With opportunities for engagement from across our community\, we hope you will work with us to re-envision Arts. Please join us in this exciting journey o f listening and dialogue by attending an upcoming focus group to share your perspectives on the future of our Faculty.
We need your input and yo ur energy to help build this plan and give it life!
Please watch the video below for a personal message from Dean Clare Haru Crowston on how you can contribute.
We are pleased to be offering a series of focus groups to accommodate your varying schedules and needs. Alo ng with “general admission” sessions for all members of our community\, the re will be targeted sessions to ensure we gather feedback from specific and historically marginalized community groups.
We encourage you to sign up for sessions that are most aligned with your personal experiences with the Faculty of Arts. Our process aims to center Justice\, Equity\, and Inclusion \, and our targeted focus group sessions are intended to ensure that sp ecific and historically marginalized community groups will be heard in this process.
[cards][card title="Register now for any focus group sessio n" text="Share your ideas on how to shape our new strategic plan. Campus-Wi de Login (CWL) is required." link_text="Sign up now" link_url="https://ardo .air.arts.ubc.ca/focus-group-registration/" is_external="true"][/cards]
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[accordions collapsible=true active=false][accordion title="Vie
w the in-person schedule"]
The upcoming in-person focus group sess
ions will be held on the UBC Point Grey campus. More details will be provid
ed upon registering for a session.
Monday\, February 26< /strong>
Tuesday\, Febr uary 27
Thursd ay\, February 29
Friday\, March 8
Monday\, March 11
Tuesday\, March 12
Friday\, March 22 (Students only)
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tual schedule"]
The upcoming virtual focus group sessions will be
held online through Zoom. More details will be provided upon registering fo
r a session.
Friday\, March 1
Thursday\, March 7
Monday\, March 18 (Students only)
Monday\, March 25
We recognize that if you identify as being part of a historically marginalized group\, you may feel more comfortable attending a focus group with your fe llow community members. In that spirit\, we will be offering the following targeted sessions:
Dates and locations of these events are still being determined\, with the goal of ensuring that interested participants can be accommodated when scheduling. To participate in any of these opportunities\, please proceed to our registration link where you can indicate your interest in attendance and our project coordinator will reach back to you with your confirmed eve nt details.
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e="View details for our targeted sessions"]
Each targeted session will
be expertly facilitated by one of these community leaders:
Dr. Jennifer Gagnon is a Lecturer in the School of Jou rnalism\, Writing\, and Media at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She has taught in a wide range of programs including Political Science\, Cl assics\, Academic Writing\, International Education and more. Her research is interdisciplinary and embraces topics in Disability Studies\, political theory\, classics\, qualitative methods\, Universal Design for Learning (UD L)\, feminism\, and gender. Her main area of research is in Disability Stud ies\, especially as concerns gender\, inclusion and exclusion\, violence\, and visible and invisible disabilities. As an advocate\, she is involved in activism and workshop facilitation on Disability Justice\, accessibility\, a culture of consent\, and LGBTQ2SIA+ inclusion both on and off campus. Sh e is the creator and President of UBC’s Disability Affinity Group which wor ks towards the goals of community care and Disability Justice. She is a rec ipient of the 2021 Killam Teaching Prize at UBC which recognizes excellence in teaching innovation. Dr. Gagnon identifies as a bisexual settler and di sabled woman\, and strives to bring her whole self to her teaching and rese arch.
Dr. Dana L. Solomon is a researcher\, artist\, entrepreneur\, and advocate for human rights and equity. She has both an MA and PhD in Interdi sciplinary Studies and fifteen years of experience developing innovative an d effective strategies for reducing systemic inequities facing multiple com munities in diverse settings. Her research includes the impact of weight bi as within the medical profession\, ideologies of genocide and international conflict\, and Ideologically Challenging Entertainment. She has almost fif ty creative and academic publications\, including her book\, Ideological Ba ttlegrounds: Entertainment to Disarm Divisive Propaganda. Dr. Solomon serve s as the Vice President of the Disability Affinity Group at the University of British Columbia and owns and operates her own business\, D-Editions and Chalmers Solomon Solutions.
PJ Rayner: is currently working with the Faculty of Arts to help structure program or departmental level curricula. This work includes consulting on the development of progr am outcomes\, curriculum mapping\, and course (re)design. They come to this work with 10 years of experience working in educational development\, and with a focus on community engaged learning\, indigenous pedagogies\, and ex periential learning. They hold a Master’s degree from UBC’s Department of E ducational Psychology.
< strong>Parker Johnson is a group facilitator\, coach\, mediator\, intercultural educator\, and organizational change specialist who is commit ted to building just\, equitable\, diverse and inclusive groups\, organizat ions and communities. With his diverse array of interests\, skills and expe riences\, he brings care\, curiosity\, humanity\, and openness to his work. Parker studied administration\, planning and social policy at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education\, and rounds out his education with practical application in mediation\, coaching\, intercultural communicatio n and anti-oppression work. He worked for the City of Vancouver for 10 year s in the Equal Employment Opportunity Office delivering inclusive and respe ctful workplace workshops\, conflict mediation\, leadership development\, a nd harassment investigations\, along with employment outreach to diverse co mmunities. His specialty is post-secondary educational institutions where h e counsels on both staff and leadership development as well curriculum revi sions. As a workshop facilitator\, he cherishes bringing groups alive throu gh the power of collective storytelling. Although\, semi-retired Parker als o serves on the board of Hogan’s Alley Society and is involved in community activism.
Dr. Jemima Pierre is Professor of Global Race in the I nstitute of Race\, Gender\, Sexuality and Social Justice (GRSJ) at the Univ ersity of British Columbia and a research associate at the Centre for the S tudy of Race\, Gender and Class at the University of Johannesburg. Trained as a sociocultural anthropologist in the African Diaspora Program at the Un iversity of Texas\, Austin\, her research and teaching engages with Africa and the African diaspora across three broad areas of inquiry: 1) the relati onship of political economy to race\, as articulated through capitalism\, w hite supremacy\, and imperialism\; 2) migration\, transnationalism\, and di aspora\; and 3) the ethics and politics of western knowledge production and disciplinary formation.
Amy Perreault is the Associate Director\, Indigeno us Initiatives at the Centre for Teaching\, Learning and Technology (CTLT) at the University of British Columbia on the traditional and unceded territ ory of the Musqueam people. Amy is proudly Red River Métis\, with mixed Eur opean ancestry. She was born in Thompson Manitoba but spent most of her chi ldhood fishing\, picking huckleberries\, hiking and being on the land and w ater ways in the East and West Kootenay’s on the traditional territories an d homelands of the Ktunaxa Nation. She holds an MLIS from the UBC School of Information\, where she currently serves as adjunct faculty and oversees t he First Nations Curriculum Concentration. Amy works with staff\, faculty g roups\, training programs for teaching assistants\, new faculty\, and admin istrators\, to support the development of a higher standard of professional ism in conducting discussions of Indigenous and other contentious social is sues in curricular settings.
Janelle Kasperski: Bio to come
Janey Lew is a Senior Strategist and joined CTLT’s Anti-Racist and Indigenous Initiatives team in August 20 15 and is grateful to work and learn at UBC on the unceded\, ancestral terr itories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people. Janey was born and raised on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm\, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish)\, an d Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations\, in what is now known as East Van couver. She is a second-generation Chinese-Canadian whose family migrated t o and settled on Coast Salish territories from the Four Counties (Sze Yup) region of southern China’s Guangdong Province. As Senior Strategist\, Janey ’s role focuses on faculty engagement\, leadership and educational developm ent\, and strategic curricular support. As Senior Strategist\, Janey also p rovides guidance and leadership to the Indigenous Initiatives team for its core programs\, services\, and educational resources including the Indigeno us Initiatives Design Series\, Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning programmin g\, and the in/relation project. Janey is an experienced facilitator\, coac h\, and mentor in a variety of community and educational settings\, and hol ds a PhD in Comparative Ethnic Studies from the University of California\, Berkeley. Prior to joining CTLT\, Janey was a post-secondary instructor for ten years and taught in the Asian American Studies Program at UC Berkeley\ , the English departments at Capilano University and Douglas College\, and the First Nations Studies Programs at SFU and UBC.
Dylan Robinson is a xwélmexw (Stó:lō/Skwah) artist\, curator and writer. From 2015-2022 he w as the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts at Queen’s University. Dr. Robinson’s curatorial work includes the international touring exhibition So undings (2019-2025) co-curated with Candice Hopkins. His current research p roject xoxelhmetset te syewa:l\, Caring for Our Ancestors\, involves workin g with Indigenous artists to reconnect kinship with Indigenous life incarce rated in museums.
< strong>Dr. Janice Stewart is currently the Associate Dean Fac ulty for the Faculty of Arts. Janice’s work engages the teaching and learni ng benefits of socially networked\, online Community Mapping tools and the unique potential of locative media for social justice initiatives on the UB C campus. Social Justice @UBC considers how official knowledge is mapped in ways that typically exclude members of marginalized groups and represent a very partial aggregate of culture. Participatory community mapping project s enable active relationships to public knowledge and new forms of educatio nal innovation and participatory citizenship. Locative media offer a way of making visible hidden stories of place and belonging. Increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in the world today call for a much broader view of literacy. Technologies of community mapping and social justice work positi ons students as knowledge creators. Flexible learning and community engagem ent provide a diverse group of undergraduate students a pedagogic infrastru cture that will build core research and intercultural competencies.
< strong>Parker Johnson is a group facilitator\, coach\, mediator\, intercultural educator\, and organizational change specialist who is commit ted to building just\, equitable\, diverse and inclusive groups\, organizat ions and communities. With his diverse array of interests\, skills and expe riences\, he brings care\, curiosity\, humanity\, and openness to his work. Parker studied administration\, planning and social policy at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education\, and rounds out his education with practical application in mediation\, coaching\, intercultural communicatio n and anti-oppression work. He worked for the City of Vancouver for 10 year s in the Equal Employment Opportunity Office delivering inclusive and respe ctful workplace workshops\, conflict mediation\, leadership development\, a nd harassment investigations\, along with employment outreach to diverse co mmunities. His specialty is post-secondary educational institutions where h e counsels on both staff and leadership development as well curriculum revi sions. As a workshop facilitator\, he cherishes bringing groups alive throu gh the power of collective storytelling. Although\, semi-retired Parker als o serves on the board of Hogan’s Alley Society and is involved in community activism.
Dr. Ren isa Mawani: is a professor in the Department of Sociology\, with r esearch and teaching interests in colonial legal history\, historical socio logy\, and social theory. Her awards include the Association for Asian Amer ican Studies Outstanding Contribution to History Book Award for Across Ocea ns of Law (Duke\, 2018)\, a Killam Prize for Graduate Teaching\, and a SSHR C Insight Grant (2018-2023). Dr. Mawani has contributed significantly to th e Faculty of Arts as a member of the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Stu dies Program Steering Committee and Chair/Co-Chair of the Faculty of Arts’ Law and Society Minor Program\, which she co-founded. More recently\, she h as been a member of the Sociology department’s Executive Committee and a me mber of the organizing committee for the Annual Racial (In)Justice Lecture (a collaboration with the Department of Anthropology).
Parker Johnson is a group facilitator\, coach\, mediator\, intercultural educator\, and organizational change specialist who is committed to buildi ng just\, equitable\, diverse and inclusive groups\, organizations and comm unities. With his diverse array of interests\, skills and experiences\, he brings care\, curiosity\, humanity\, and openness to his work. Parker studi ed administration\, planning and social policy at the Harvard University Gr aduate School of Education\, and rounds out his education with practical ap plication in mediation\, coaching\, intercultural communication and anti-op pression work. He worked for the City of Vancouver for 10 years in the Equa l Employment Opportunity Office delivering inclusive and respectful workpla ce workshops\, conflict mediation\, leadership development\, and harassment investigations\, along with employment outreach to diverse communities. Hi s specialty is post-secondary educational institutions where he counsels on both staff and leadership development as well curriculum revisions. As a w orkshop facilitator\, he cherishes bringing groups alive through the power of collective storytelling. Although\, semi-retired Parker also serves on t he board of Hogan’s Alley Society and is involved in community activism.
Janey Lew is a Senior Strategist and joined CTLT’s Anti-Racist and Indigenous Initiatives team in August 2015 and is grateful to work and learn at UBC on the unceded\, ancestral territories of the xʷmə θkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people. Janey was born and raised on the unceded territ ories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm\, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish)\, and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Ts leil-Waututh) Nations\, in what is now known as East Vancouver. She is a se cond-generation Chinese-Canadian whose family migrated to and settled on Co ast Salish territories from the Four Counties (Sze Yup) region of southern China’s Guangdong Province. As Senior Strategist\, Janey’s role focuses on faculty engagement\, leadership and educational development\, and strategic curricular support. As Senior Strategist\, Janey also provides guidance an d leadership to the Indigenous Initiatives team for its core programs\, ser vices\, and educational resources including the Indigenous Initiatives Desi gn Series\, Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning programming\, and the in/rela tion project. Janey is an experienced facilitator\, coach\, and mentor in a variety of community and educational settings\, and holds a PhD in Compara tive Ethnic Studies from the University of California\, Berkeley. Prior to joining CTLT\, Janey was a post-secondary instructor for ten years and taug ht in the Asian American Studies Program at UC Berkeley\, the English depar tments at Capilano University and Douglas College\, and the First Nations S tudies Programs at SFU and UBC.
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T he sessions have been designed in part with support from UBC’s Strategy and Decision Support Group.
Our strategic plan for 2019-2024 sets
out our faculty’s goals and strategies\, and identifies opportunities for r
esearch excellence\, transformative learning\, local and global engagement\
, and collaboration.
[buttons][button link_text="Learn more about our
current plan" link_url="https://www.arts.ubc.ca/about/strategic-plan/"][/bu
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