![\"instagram1\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/conversationscanada\/files\/2015\/06\/instagram1.jpg\")
<\/a>I\u2019m a third-year UBC student specializing and Creative Writing and English Literature, so I\u2019m 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 \u201cimmigrant societies\u201d like Canada and the United States where the concept of a \u201ctrue Canadian\u201d and a \u201ctrue American\u201d is blurry. I believe the media, including the entertainment industry, is a powerful provoker of thought in general society\u2014in other words, change the media and you can change the world.\u00a0As a Creative Writing student, I\u2019m especially interested in TV writing as I think television is the novel of the new generation. Moreover, it’s\u00a0a form\u00a0that’s becoming increasingly innovative and complex. This summer I’ve been working with\u00a0a local indie\u00a0sitcom production\u00a0called The Switch<\/a><\/em>, which features\u00a0an all-trans cast playing trans roles, shedding\u00a0a light on LGBT issues and socio-economic disparities in Vancouver. Incidentally, the lead role is played by an Aboriginal\u00a0actress. Outside of school, I live a pretty laidback West Coast lifestyle that consists of snowboarding, guitar-playing, and of course coffee-toking.<\/p>\nFreda Li<\/h3>\n![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/conversationscanada\/files\/2015\/06\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-04-at-9.50.27-PM-288x300.png\")
<\/a><\/h2>\nI\u2019m a fourth year student student in the Bachelor of Arts program pursuing a major in English Literature. \u00a0As 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. \u00a0On top of all the reading and writing I do, I am also passionate about studying mass media and popular culture and gender studies. \u00a0Although 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.\u00a0On the other hand…Canadian literature and storytelling have never been a focus in my life as something I believed was \u201crelevant\u201d or something I could be passionate about. \u00a0However, 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. \u00a0I realized that a large reason for my \u201clack of interest\u201d was a actually a lack of exposure and true understanding, which is the root of the issue. \u00a0In fact, my stance has changed from \u201chow is this relevant to me\u201d to \u201chow could this not be relevant to me\u201d. \u00a0The readings and discussions of this class have already challenged many of my preconceptions about our nation\u2019s identity and history and encouraged me to think critically about constructions and representations of \u201cthe Other\u201d in Euro-North American society. \u00a0I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n
Arianne\u00a0LaBoissonni\u00e8re<\/h3>\n
I\u2019m 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\u2019s colonized past. While learning about First Nation\u2019s history and politics in my last seven years of university, I have become more interested as to why Canada\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019 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!<\/p>\n
Static images used on this site<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/h2>\nI\u2019m a fourth year student student in the Bachelor of Arts program pursuing a major in English Literature. \u00a0As 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. \u00a0On top of all the reading and writing I do, I am also passionate about studying mass media and popular culture and gender studies. \u00a0Although 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.\u00a0On the other hand…Canadian literature and storytelling have never been a focus in my life as something I believed was \u201crelevant\u201d or something I could be passionate about. \u00a0However, 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. \u00a0I realized that a large reason for my \u201clack of interest\u201d was a actually a lack of exposure and true understanding, which is the root of the issue. \u00a0In fact, my stance has changed from \u201chow is this relevant to me\u201d to \u201chow could this not be relevant to me\u201d. \u00a0The readings and discussions of this class have already challenged many of my preconceptions about our nation\u2019s identity and history and encouraged me to think critically about constructions and representations of \u201cthe Other\u201d in Euro-North American society. \u00a0I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n
Arianne\u00a0LaBoissonni\u00e8re<\/h3>\n
I\u2019m 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\u2019s colonized past. While learning about First Nation\u2019s history and politics in my last seven years of university, I have become more interested as to why Canada\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019 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!<\/p>\n
![Wikimedia Commons<\/a>. MLA citation:\u00a0Brodo. Cedrus Wood<\/i>. Digital image. Wikimedia Commons<\/i>. Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Feb. 2006. Web. 30 June 2015.<\/p>\nHeader image: own work, from Charmaine’s instagram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28445,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/conversationscanada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/conversationscanada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/conversationscanada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/conversationscanada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/conversationscanada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/conversationscanada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/conversationscanada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/conversationscanada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Cedrus_wood.jpg#\/media\/File:Cedrus_wood.jpg\"){kind=link}