Punjabi in BC

2019-2023

Explore Interviews with

K-12 EDUCATORS, ADVOCATES AND ACTIVISTS, STUDENTS, and WRITERS/JOURNALISTS.

With Filmmaker Ali Kazimi (York University), who has provided training and guidance on film techniques.

Part of the Program for Undergraduate Research Experience (PURE), with additional funding from an anonymous donor to the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, UBC, & support from the UBC Work Learn program. Additional research funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities research Council’s Insight Grant program.

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The “Punjabi in BC” research program documents the history of Punjabi language advocacy and mobilization in the lower mainland, through interviews conducted and/or edited by UBC students and recent graduates with advocates and activists, K-12 teachers, and journalists and writers in the Punjabi language community. In its first year of implementation (S2019 and W2019), we focused on K-12 teachers and language advocates. In the second and third years of the project — extended due to the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic — the focus shifted to include also those involved in literary and media production in Punjabi. The project was centrally designed to involve UBC undergraduates, recent graduates, and graduate students in historical research, so we also invited student participants to share their experiences in the research project. In this way, the project has sought to document broadly the history of the Punjabi language in the lower mainland, and the life stories of the people who have given the language such a vibrant life in this region. 54 interviews have been completed, constituting the end of this initial phase of work; there is much more work to be done to fully document the story of Punjabi in BC. Future projects can also extend the work done here to document the rich history of Punjabi in Canada overall.

This project has contributed to the further development of the Punjabi Studies Oral History Program at UBC, which is now housed in the Department of History at UBC. The Punjabi Studies Oral History Program has proceeded sporadically in different forms as an undergraduate teaching initiative at UBC since 2010 with occasional targeted funding support. It was core funded by the Program for Undergraduate Research Experience (PURE) at UBC, with additional support from an anonymous donor to the Department of History and the UBC Work Learn Program, as well as from Dr. Anne Murphy’s SSHRC Insight Grant. Funding was secured to allow for enhancement of existing curricular resources that enable undergraduate research participation, and to involve UBC undergraduates and recent graduates in paid, hands-on research. This initiative brought these initiatives to larger scale and allowed for greater development, and linked the work directly to ongoing faculty research, through Professor Anne Murphy’s SSHRC-funded research project on modern Punjabi cultural production.