We are pleased to partner with the Student Development & Services division at UBC to provide a Summer Institute of Thursday lunchtime lectures related to the themes of this course. All presentations are free and open to the public.
Thursday, July 6, 2017
11:30am – 12:50pm
Location: Irving K Barber, room 261
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
xʷməθkwəy̓əm Musqueam Territory
Dr. Michael Marker, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Studies
“Landscape and Indigenous Meanings of Place: Some Observations and Reflections from the Coast Salish Territory”
Settler colonialism has followed an intellectual and economic design for interpreting the meaning of landscape to be an inanimate surface for extracting, shaping, and constructing the artifacts of progress. This commodification of place and place-ness persists in both public consciousness and environmental policy; oil extraction, mining, and massive hydroelectric dams are just a few examples. Indigenous knowledge systems recognize forests, rivers, and mountains as conscious entities that inform human consciousness about ecological and ethical conduct; a sacred geography. Indigenous people have always recognized a kind of kinship or ancestral relationship with entities such as rivers and mountains. The Maori Whanganui Iwi, have recently won legal rights for the Whanganui River. The New Zealand government now recognizes this river as an ancestor to the Maori people. For Indigenous people the storied landscape is both a repository and a methodology for thinking through the layers of metaphysical truth that places are soaked with. In this discussion, I consider what it might mean for universities in this present Anthropocene era to recognize—and respect—the wisdom of local Elders and traditional knowledge holders while discovering the reality of the Indigenous land that the university has been constructed on.
Michael Marker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia and the director of Ts”kel First Nations Graduate Studies. He was Teacher Education Director at Northwest Indian College at the Lummi reservation in Washington State. His research has focused on the politics of Indigenous knowledge systems, historiography, and Coast Salish understandings of landscape and education.
Thursday, July 13, 2017
11:30am – 12:50pm
Location: Irving K Barber, room 182
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
xʷməθkwəy̓əm Musqueam Territory
Dean Gregory, UBC Landscape Architect
“Transforming the Campus Experience: The Importance of Place and Public Realm Design”
The importance of place and experience is growing as traditional academic institutions face competition from peer institutions and alternative learning sources. This presentation looks at how investments in landscape at UBC over the past 8 years have been leveraged to create a vibrant public realm that supports the social, environmental and academic experience of students, faculty, staff and residents.
Dean Gregory, BCSLA, ASLA, LEED, is Campus Landscape Architect at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and in Kelowna. In addition to directing the implementation of the landscape vision embodied in the University’s $46M Public Realm Plan, he directs and reviews the work of landscape architects associated with consultant teams working on new campus buildings. Dean provides leadership, conceptual design development, and professional advice for any policy initiatives related to campus landscape architecture. Prior to joining the University of British Columbia in 2009, he was in private practice in Chicago and Seattle where he was involved in significant streetscape, plaza, and park projects throughout the United States. He began his career at the Vancouver firm of Durante Kreuk. Dean received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Urban Studies at the University of Toronto and a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Guelph in 1993.
Thursday, July 20, 2017
11:30am – 12:50pm
Location: Irving K Barber, room 261
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
xʷməθkwəy̓əm Musqueam Territory
Dominique Bautista, Admissions Coordinator, Enrolment Services, English Literature/ACAM alumni
“Re-framing UBC through and Asian Canadian Lens”
While UBC has long exemplified the educational aspirations of its diverse communities, its development into a global university cannot be separated from larger histories and ongoing legacies of systemic settler colonialism, racism, and discrimination. This presentation focuses on recent efforts to engage with diverse Asian Canadian communities in the context of an increasingly diverse student body and the university’s growing awareness of its location on the Pacific Rim. In 2012, the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program (ACAM) was created in recognition of the University’s history of racism, particularly the expulsion of 76 Japanese Canadian students in 1942. Since its establishment, ACAM has been building an undergraduate curriculum that emphasizes collaborative learning with communities. In 2016, it sponsored the ”ACAM Centennial Alumni Project” to uncover and record lesser known stories about Asian Canadian students and faculty and their lived experiences as minorities at UBC during its first century. Combining extensive community outreach with in-depth interviews, this project re-thinks dominant narratives and knowledge structures in relation to place. The vignettes created seek to connect these histories and their legacies with current student experiences in order to reframe our understanding of UBC’s diversity.
Dominique Bautista is a community-based humanities educator who has taught in Richmond and Vancouver classrooms. She graduated and worked with UBC’s Asian Canadian & Asian Migration studies program on the Centennial Alumni Project while receiving her Bachelor of Secondary Education English & Social Sciences degree. When not engaged in community programming and curriculum design to support gaps in our broader education system, she holds an administrative position with UBC’s Undergraduate Admissions Office.
Chris Lee is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program (ACAM). He received his BA in English from UBC and a PhD from Brown University before returning to teach Asian diaspora literatures and cultures. As Director of ACAM, he works closely with students, faculty, and staff to create opportunities for respectful engagement with diverse Asian Canadian communities.