Hello! We’re a group of English majors (+ other stuff) with varied interests, bringing all sorts of perspectives towards our research goal. While James and Arianne are more involved in funnelling our topic towards education, Freda and Charmaine have geared their research towards representation.

James Long

I am a 4th year student in the Bachelors of Arts program with a major in literature and a minor in theatre. I plan on finishing my course load as of December then taking a well deserved break before starting the secondary school teaching program. Canadian literature if a relatively new topic of study for me, up till this point I have geared my education towards the Victorian Era and more specifically highly enjoy the Gothic literature. I am however excited to venture into a more modern time in a new land, and experience the social pressures that lead to our current society. I am interested with how stories tie us across borders and generations and speak to the human experience.

Charmaine Li

I’m a third-year UBC student specializing and Creative Writing and English Literature, so I’m quite fascinated with the stories we choose to tell, the stories we choose to consume, and how we tell our stories. One of the big things that drive me within my field is minority representation in entertainment, media, and literature. This principle is especially important, I think, in “immigrant societies” like Canada and the United States where the concept of a “true Canadian” and a “true American” is blurry. I believe the media, including the entertainment industry, is a powerful provoker of thought in general society—in other words, change the media and you can change the world. As a Creative Writing student, I’m especially interested in TV writing as I think television is the novel of the new generation. Moreover, it’s a form that’s becoming increasingly innovative and complex. This summer I’ve been working with a local indie sitcom production called The Switch, which features an all-trans cast playing trans roles, shedding a light on LGBT issues and socio-economic disparities in Vancouver. Incidentally, the lead role is played by an Aboriginal actress. Outside of school, I live a pretty laidback West Coast lifestyle that consists of snowboarding, guitar-playing, and of course coffee-toking.

Freda Li

I’m a fourth year student student in the Bachelor of Arts program pursuing a major in English Literature.  As a Canadian born Chinese, and have spent the last 23 years of my life trying to strike a harmonious balance between these two very different cultures and identities.  On top of all the reading and writing I do, I am also passionate about studying mass media and popular culture and gender studies.  Although my main love is English literature, I have used up many elective credits to explore the intersections of race, sexuality, and class in our society and find them to be relevant in almost everything we see or do. On the other hand…Canadian literature and storytelling have never been a focus in my life as something I believed was “relevant” or something I could be passionate about.  However, this class has opened my eyes to how vast of a topic it is, and how it is interconnected and interwoven with many other topics and subjects.  I realized that a large reason for my “lack of interest” was a actually a lack of exposure and true understanding, which is the root of the issue.  In fact, my stance has changed from “how is this relevant to me” to “how could this not be relevant to me”.  The readings and discussions of this class have already challenged many of my preconceptions about our nation’s identity and history and encouraged me to think critically about constructions and representations of “the Other” in Euro-North American society.  I’m excited to be part of this group and class, and I look forward to exploring ideas about the past, present, and future of Canadian oral history, storytelling and literature with all of you.

Arianne LaBoissonnière

I’m a fourth year student, majoring in English Lit, and minoring in First Nations, and Environmental Studies. I am also a musician, a yogi, and an avid traveler! Before I had entered university, I possessed little knowledge and awareness about Canada’s colonized past. While learning about First Nation’s history and politics in my last seven years of university, I have become more interested as to why Canada’s history has been spoon fed and structured the way it has been, especially in school curriculums. In the elementary and high school curriculums of BC, Canada’s history subjects possess little, to no mention about whom was living in North America (before European settlers came along), what these people are about, and their roles in our history and current national affairs. Why is that? Discovering methods of intersection and converging both First nations’ and Euro-American literature and storytelling is a fascinating approach I love learning about, and will share as much as possible with others. Eventually, I would love to go on teaching, and hopefully aid in the contribution to BC school curriculums to incorporate more First Nations subjects. That would include the topics of the relations between stories and literature, especially the ways in which they are told through modern day technologies. I also find that learning about stories, and the cultural approaches of sharing them, influences my music compositions! Spreading the word through means of art, and education is the key to creating awareness, and shaping the minds of generations to come!

Static images used on this site

Background image: “Cedrus wood”. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. MLA citation: Brodo. Cedrus Wood. Digital image. Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Feb. 2006. Web. 30 June 2015.

Header image: own work, from Charmaine’s instagram