The post The carbon costs of the construction industry appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

The post The carbon costs of the construction industry appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

Dr. Christine Schreyer can pinpoint the exact moment when she knew she wanted to become an anthropologist. It was during a Grade 6 social studies class focused on the Indigenous People of Canada where her interest in other cultures and languages was ignited, and where she first learned the word “anthropologist.”

That pivotal occasion led Dr. Schreyer to pursue her love for languages by taking high school courses in French and Spanish. From there, she learned Latin and Cree in university, and eventually found her niche in the field of linguistic anthropology.

“I would describe myself as a language fangirl—I’m very passionate about language. I hope my students see that passion in my teaching, but also understand how my research is tied to it,” explains Dr. Schreyer, an Associate Professor of Anthropology in UBC Okanagan’s Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies.

In addition to teaching courses in linguistic anthropology, she also supervises both undergraduate and graduate students in research projects related to language revitalization, language documentation and language education, with a focus on Indigenous education.

“Take, for example, my work with the Splatsin First Nation in Enderby. Every time I’ve taught a course on language revitalization, my classes have done projects with that community, like a handbook of their Secwépemc phrases that can be given to community members.”

Dr. Schreyer also supervises students interested in constructed languages and has gained a student following for her research with the Na’vi speech community from the movie Avatar. She has created a number of languages featured in Hollywood films, including the Kryptonian language in Man of Steel, the Eltarian language in Power Rangers: The Movie, the Beama/Cro-Magnon language in Alpha, the Atlantean language in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and multiple languages in Rebel Moon 1 & 2 and The Spiderwick Chronicles.

“I’m a little famous in certain circles,” Dr. Schreyer shyly concedes.

Within the classroom, she implements a combination of effective strategies to meet the needs and interests of her students, such as flexible deadlines and multi-access, where students can participate in-person or online so that anyone can join her lectures. Every one of her courses is discussion-based.

“Despite her classes being lecture style, she highly values the input of her students,” says Agata Beau Ramos, one of Dr. Schreyer’s Bachelor of Arts students.

“She regularly gives us opportunities to chime in with our opinions or questions. The safe learning environment she creates is highly motivating and allows for more intimate connections between students.”

“Dr. Schreyer is a very gifted instructor. She nurtures students’ enthusiasm in course topics by encouraging students to explore their own interests wherever possible, and by providing opportunities for students to apply their learning in creative and tangible ways.”

To supplement and enrich her classes, Dr. Schreyer incorporates the use of Padlets (visual boards for organizing and sharing content), online periodicals, TED Talks, podcasts, spoken word performances and various social media platforms. She also offers unique assignments like editing Wikipedia articles to add peer reviewed academic citations. Her classes have had a huge effect on the platform, adding hundreds of references to improve its credibility.

“Dr. Schreyer is a very gifted instructor. She nurtures students’ enthusiasm in course topics by encouraging students to explore their own interests wherever possible, and by providing opportunities for students to apply their learning in creative and tangible ways,” says doctoral student Emily Comeau.

In recognition of her contributions to teaching and learning, Dr. Schreyer was awarded the 2024 Killam Teaching Prize.

Recently named Director of the Institute for Community Engaged Research, Dr. Schreyer will spend the near future focusing on her research while also mentoring graduate students, faculty and community partners in doing good community-based research.

“It will be interesting to see how that different kind of teaching and mentoring works and how I can bring that back to my classes. I think it will make excellent partnerships for the way I approach my teaching.”

The post Engaging UBC Okanagan students and Hollywood audiences alike appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

The post The future of construction: From building booms to control rooms appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

The post Building better infrastructure for climate resilience appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

Laughter rings through the University Centre Ballroom as a group of Bachelor of Education students present their puppet plays of a Syilx captikʷɬ story with tmixʷ puppets. The stories activate students’ collective imagination while growing their understanding of the cultural knowledge of the Syilx Okanagan people.

“Storytelling is a community practice,” says Dr. Bill Cohen, an Assistant Professor in the Okanagan School of Education and Indigenous Scholar. Dr. Cohen is from the Okanagan Nation, with extensive kinship ties throughout British Columbia and Washington.

“The puppet show is one way for the students to be the story. They create their own characters—and they can be as minimalistic or elaborate as they’d like—but it’s a collective and creative process.”

The puppet show is one of many different activities and experiences where students learn and unlearn together. Much of Dr. Cohen’s teaching practice has been informed by capti̓kʷɬ, grounded in his Syilx homeland.

Take, for example, the graduate course that Dr. Cohen developed called Coyote Stories: Pedagogy and Praxis. The course focuses on Indigenous traditional knowledge stories and storytelling practices as they relate to theoretical frameworks within teaching and learning.

“We look at stories from Indigenous peoples locally and across the world, and we can see there are consistent themes,” says Dr. Cohen. “They express the interconnectedness and kinship of all beings and the shared responsibilities we have towards future generations.”

He adds: “Interior Salish stories address the presence of ‘monsters,’ which represent societal practices and systems like patriarchy and colonialism. These are destructive and homogenizing to cultural and eco-biodiversity, to food and wellness security. We also have Snk’lip (Coyote), who can transform monsters and make the world safe for the peoples to be. Snkl’lip’s gift, through storyways, is extended to us humans.

“We can use these narratives as a means of fostering understanding, healing and betterment of society.”

“I quickly realized I was learning a lot more from the Elders than they were from me, and that multiple knowledge streams are the way to go.”

Reflecting on his own primary and secondary education, Dr. Cohen says those years were marked by systemic biases and racism in the education system and subsequent disengagement, but he fondly remembers one inspiring teacher.

“Mrs. Young, my 12th-grade English teacher, was the first to say something positive about my writing, and was very encouraging, which helped plant the seeds for a pathway into education.”

This path continued at the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, where Dr. Cohen volunteered as a literacy tutor.

“I was teaching and working with mostly Elders and adults who were well educated in the Interior Salish sense,” explains Dr. Cohen. “They knew our languages and traditional knowledge, but didn’t read or write English well. I quickly realized I was learning a lot more from them than they were from me, and that multiple knowledge streams are the way to go. With encouragement from Elders and family members, I decided to get some credentials.

Dr. Bill Cohen in the classroom.

“When I began teaching subjects like English, social studies and math, I noticed a lack of kinship pedagogy from Syilx Okanagan storyways and practices, where teachers are in aunty-uncle roles with kinship responsibilities to students.”

Now, after nearly 40 years of teaching, he sees his educator role as being a connector. That is, bringing together Elders and traditional knowledge with students and teachers, and co-creating new curriculum.

A passion for his community is at the heart of many of Dr. Cohen’s endeavours. Over the last several decades, he has played a leadership role in a number of initiatives and projects designed to enhance community, including bush school projects with En’owkin Centre, and the creation of an Okanagan Indian Band Cultural Immersion Elementary School.

In recognition of his dedication and passion for inspiring the next generation of educators, Dr. Cohen was recognized by UBC Okanagan with the 2024 Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence and Innovation.

“With capti̓kʷɬ pedagogy with students and educators, collectively we can transform schools to be more appreciative and sustaining with place-based relationships and cultural and ecological diversity.”

The post How Dr. Bill Cohen is transforming education through Indigenous perspectives appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

The post Anti-racism starts with knowing history appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

The post Math games have real consequences and rewards at UBC Okanagan appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

It was the allure of studying language and politics that changed Dr. Anita Girvan’s (she/they) academic path. During her time in Japan teaching English to high school students, Dr. Girvan began to explore the role of discourse and language in shaping societal and environmental perspectives.

“Initially, I was interested in completing a master’s degree in teaching English as a second language. But I soon became interested in how language and politics intersect to shape how we orient ourselves around social and environmental considerations,” says Dr. Girvan.

This led to a doctorate at the University of Victoria, where she examined the metaphor of the carbon footprint and its impact on political responses to climate change.

Then, in 2022, a perfect opportunity presented itself: a position in environmental justice and cultural studies at UBC Okanagan that enabled Dr. Girvan to delve into their two primary passions.

“At that point I held a cultural studies position, but had previously taught environmental studies, and my research and teaching were engaging COVID, climate change, racial justice and the role of metaphors and stories. So the position at UBCO seemed like a perfect fit.”

“The overarching goal [of the reading salon] is to foster solidarity among diverse groups, recognizing both the distinctness and interconnectedness of various struggles.”

Dr. Girvan also notes that the beauty of Syilx Okanagan land, with its lakes, mountains and opportunities to learn from and about Okanagan people further sealed their decision to join the university.

Upon joining the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, Dr. Girvan started a reading salon called Black Feminist, and Coalitional Ecological Thought.

For Dr. Girvan, the reading salon encapsulates a revolutionary approach to environmental discourse by combining black feminist perspectives with ecological considerations, emphasizing the importance of coalition-building. It also seeks to redefine environmental conversations, ensuring that different perspectives are not only heard but that they inform shared commitments to ecological justice.

“While black feminism has a long history of being coalitional, the reading salon aims to break down silos within identity politics and to engage with decolonial movements. The overarching goal is to foster solidarity among diverse groups, recognizing both the distinctness and interconnectedness of various struggles.”

The first book the group began with is Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ Undrowing: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals, which demonstrates the need to learn from and build coalitions across species and across human communities.

“It’s important to work collectively to have a richness of diverse perspectives on these sorts of issues.”

“I see the role of teaching and conducting research in a university setting—and beyond—as an opportunity for collective learning. We need to keep asking questions and remain humble. I value that the university can be a place for humility and learning, and not only mastery and colonial expertise.”

Rejecting a conventional hierarchical and Euro-Western approach in academia that favours the usual suspects and subjects of knowledge, Dr. Girvan embraces a model of humility, acknowledging the vastness of knowledge and the importance of continuous questioning, especially as a new learner of nsyilxcən.

In their 100-level cultural studies course, Dr. Girvan invites students to put on their “cultural studies goggles” to critically examine power dynamics and culture in everyday life. A third-year course in environmental justice explores the intersections of culture and knowledge production as they impact environmental issues.

Situating this learning in the context of Syilx land and structures of colonization is key and as a newcomer, Dr. Girvan has been gratefully reading articles and viewing talks by people like Dr. Jeannette Armstrong and Dr. Bill Cohen.

“It’s important to work collectively to have a richness of diverse perspectives on these sorts of issues. We need a transformative approach to education, especially given the complexities of issues like climate change and the local manifestations of wildfires as they impact different communities here in Syilx territory, where longstanding knowledges can inform approaches to these issues.”

The post How Dr. Anita Girvan is creating inclusive spaces for environmental conversations appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

When Dr. Adam Ford spots a mule deer meandering through a subdivision, he loves knowing not just what she eats, but where she spent the last summer and her routes through the Okanagan landscape. Most importantly, he loves knowing his research supports this deer’s very existence in BC.

It’s this kind of real-world impact that led Dr. Ford to be named UBC Okanagan’s 2024 Researcher of the Year in Natural Sciences and Engineering.

As the Canada Research Chair in Wildlife Restoration Ecology (Tier 2) and an Associate Professor in Biology, Dr. Ford leads the Wildlife Restoration Ecology (WiRE) Lab to explore how humans affect the predators and prey around them. His research ranges from minimizing human/bear conflict to understanding people’s opinions on ways to protect caribou.

While much of his work is focused on BC, a UBC Killam Accelerator Research Fellowship is helping expand Dr. Ford’s research in Kenya. Just as elk encounter human-made roadblocks from new cherry orchards in Kelowna, giraffes in Kenya face increased mango crops along the river, which block their drinking water and create conflict with humans when the giraffes eat the mangoes.

“It’s like two versions of the same story,” says Dr. Ford. “The questions in Kenya are very similar to what we’re doing here in BC.”

Photo courtesy of Dr. Adam Ford.

His research often follows the lead of Indigenous conservation and restoration, like the West Moberly First Nations’ and Saulteau First Nations’ successful recovery of the Klinse-Za caribou population. Through actions like habitat protection and a maternal pen that allowed caribou to give birth away from predators, Dr. Ford’s lab found the herd grew from 30 caribou in 2013 to over 136 animals in 2023.

“The motivation and the leadership of the caribou recovery came from the communities. It was a huge privilege to be part of that work,” says Dr. Ford.

His engagement with communities and governmental organizations often leads to real-world impacts well before academic publications, like when he saw the threat of chronic wasting disease (CWD) entering BC through Alberta and Montana.

Sometimes called “zombie deer disease,” this fatal disease causes animals to become lethargic and waste away. CWD can spread through the deer family to caribou, already a threatened species in Canada. While not yet documented, there’s potential for CWD to jump the species barrier to humans through infected meat, similar to how mad cow disease has a human variant.

“There are huge implications for the spread of CWD in communities that are dependent on wild game, including many Indigenous communities and rural communities,” says Dr. Ford.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Adam Ford.

Upon seeing this risk, Dr. Ford was able to rapidly put together a study that identified gaps in provincial sampling where CWD could cross into BC undetected. They directly shared this report with the BC government, which changed the areas for mandatory deer testing as a result.

Unfortunately, the province did identify the first documented cases in BC in early 2024—in one of the same hot spots Dr. Ford’s lab predicted.

Dr. Ford points to funding and support from UBC Okanagan that helped him act so promptly, getting tracking collars out in the field as soon as they were needed.

“I can’t imagine anywhere else I’d rather be to do this work. I can look out my front door and know there are grizzly bears, elk migrations, wildfire… All the dynamics that go into our work are right here.”

He notes that his Researcher of the Year recognition is due to years of hard work from not just him, but everyone in the WiRE Lab.

“This award is testament to the hard work of my students and staff and the trust our partners have put in us. We’re tackling problems that matter to people, and we’re making a difference.”

The post Restoring nature’s broken links to help wildlife appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.