Tag Archives: UBC

How to Write Research Differently: Examples from a Comic Poetic Inquiry

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This presentation was originally given at the EDST 2023 Research Day.

EDST students and faculty are invited to share their own reflections, presentations, or memories from Research Day (see below for further details).

How to Write Research Differently: Examples from a Comic Poetic Inquiry

A Research Day Workshop by Gabriella Maestrini

Location and Length: The Multipurpose room was configured with tables so that everyone could sit around and face each other. The group of 10 was split into two groups of 5. The activity lasted about 1 hour.

The idea for the workshop on research day came from how I had approached writing my dissertation on humor in life, disaster, and pedagogy. In writing this dissertation I wanted the content reflected in the form which brought me to write in a rather fragmented comic poetic form with cartoons, poetry, reflections, stories, conversations, and analysis.

Taking a comic worldview approach, researching humor needed to be reflected in the voices that I created throughout the dissertation. I provided an example of how I had written a short piece on copyright acknowledgement in the dissertation where I demonstrated that it is possible to step outside of the conventional approaches to writing while maintaining academic rigor.

This comic poetic approach combined with the many voices, was then the basis for this workshop. Academically I drew on Faulkner, Ulysse, Richardson and Prendergast for my theoretical frames, which I briefly introduced through PowerPoint slides. Creating found poetry or stories can come from observations, field notes, interviews, photographs, doodles, books, and articles.

It is paying attention to the unexpected twists and turns in stories and the multiple voices that became the idea of a multitude of comic and poetic voices that I wanted to have the participants of the workshop experience. This led me to create an experimental and collaborative approach. Here is the slide with the workshop instructions:

For a longer piece I’ve published on comic vulnerability, click here.

There were ten people in the workshop that were divided into two groups each armed with flipchart paper, markers, and seated around tables. The instructions were to think of multiple voices while each participant was to write down words randomly on the paper. Above you can see the possible prompts.

Group 1’s first chart paper

After about ten minutes, I asked them to start thinking of patterns within the words, and how they could set up an opening line to their piece. Starting from there, the two groups diverged in their outcomes. The first one setting it up as a concise poem that started out with the one word that had coincidentally appeared twice on the page ‘nostalgia’:

Group 1’s second chart paper

While the second group wrote an opening line to a story where the participants tried to incorporate as many words as they could from their page. On a second piece of flipchart paper, the creative expressions took shape.

Group 2’s first chart paper

Group 2’s second chart paper

At times, I guided asking questions about whose voice they wanted to show, where they wanted their story to go and how they could use the context (the main story) to set up an unexpected comic ‘punchline’. The above pictures show the process and the results.

The two groups came to very different results: one was more poetic in nature, the other more narrative. What both had in common was that everyone had a great time doing the exercise, letting the creative juices flow and not editing or censoring the process. Laughter was a common occurrence.

In the debriefing, after sharing the results with the others reading them out loud, we spoke about the workshop experience. The most common comment was that although they initially did not know where the random words would lead them, the participants were surprised that cohesive stories emerged. Some were going to use this brainstorming/writing approach in their classes or use it in their own dissertation writing as a creative outlet.

 

 

EDST students, faculty, and staff are warmly invited to share reflections, photos, and other memories from Research Day 2023. Reflections may take on the form of short narratives (such as this one on CSSE 2021 from EDST’s Yotam Ronen), summations of panel sessions, or other takeaways from the conference day.

Present a paper, poster, performance, roundtable, or other type of presentation?

Consider making your presentation into a blog post like this one! Posts typically are 500-1,000 words long and may include links, images, links, audio, video, and other forms of multimedia.

Have a question about submissions? Photos to share from Research Day? Send an email to blog editor (Jessica Lussier) at edstblog.editor@ubc.ca. 

You can check out the blog’s full call for papers here.

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“All Flourishing is Mutual”: Reciprocity, Education, and Braiding Sweetgrass

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This presentation was originally given at the 2021 EDST Research Day.

EDST students and faculty are invited to share their own reflections, presentations, or memories from Research Day 2023.

EDST Research Day 2023

(See below for further details)

Amidst the pandemic in 2021, EDST students, faculty, and staff gathered on Zoom one Saturday in April.

The conference opened with introductory remarks from Dr. Margaret Kovach who powerfully discussed the university’s relationship with Indigenous ways of knowing and research methodologies.

The day began with an acknowledgement that UBC resides on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people. I extend this land acknowledgement and acknowledge that I live and work upon the unceded lands of the Chinook people, who (for over 120 years) have been seeking formal federal recognition. The process has involved decades of litigation, petitions, congressional legislation and appeals to presidents — yet the tribe is still unrecognized. I share this history to mark my place as a settler on this land, and to bring attention to the ongoing struggles of Indigenous peoples, recognizing that land acknowledgements do not exist in the past tense, but are part of an ongoing process of decolonization.

Following Dr.Kovach’s opening session, I presented the below presentation in a session entitled “Place based education and engaging with our environment.” The presentation draws heavily upon Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book “Braiding Sweetgrass.”

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. I came to read Robin’s book on the recommendation of a friend, and immediately fell in love with the way she speaks and views the world.

As a settler scholar engaging with Indigenous knowledges, I recognize (as the great, late Michael Marker has stated) that the academy has acted as a space of colonial erasure of Indigenous worldviews. In my engagement with these ideas, I aim to enact the sense of reciprocity and respect that Kimmerer describes, while supporting the many movements towards decolonizing university spaces.

The photos

The slides in this presentation are black and white film photographs that I took in 2020 amidst the pandemic. The photos began as a series of shots of spider webs on my front porch, but grew into a collection of snapshots capturing a number of “more than human” others.

I share these images to highlight that interaction with the physical world is a social relationship, and that these interactions bind us into the reciprocal relationships that Kimmerer describes. The photos are by no means perfect or professional, but they help me share how I view the world in an added layer that I can’t seem to capture in words alone. The process of taking the photos amidst the scariest parts of the pandemic also allowed me to retreat to the “safety” of my local ecology, building new relations with the land and its history.

With some of the slides you will hear some audio recordings of birds in my yard. In her book Kimmerer writes, “Listening in wild places, we are audience to conversations in a language not our own.” I often find myself wondering what birds are saying to one another, between the caaws and screeches and songs sent out, wondering if they can all understand one another and I’m the only one out of the loop. Within the back and forth I hear patterns and rhythms, as if the birds are composing a collective song. I take inspiration from this song into my presentation, which somewhat takes a form of call and response between Kimmerer’s words and my own.

“All Flourishing is Mutual”: Reciprocity, Education, and Braiding Sweetgrass

To watch video in full screen, click here

The above presentation was created using “Canva” (a free design tool).

Attending Research Day 2023?

Write something for the blog!


EDST students, faculty, and staff are warmly invited to share reflections, photos, and other memories from the conference. Reflections may take on the form of short narratives (such as this one on CSSE 2021 from EDST’s Yotam Ronen), summations of panel sessions, or other takeaways from the conference day.

Presenting a paper, poster, performance, roundtable, or other type of presentation?

Consider making your presentation into a blog post like this one! Posts typically are 500-1,000 words long and may include links, images, links, audio, video, and other forms of multimedia.

Have a question about submissions? Interested in creating presentations with Canva? Photos to share from Research Day?

Send an email to me (Jessica Lussier) at edstblog.editor@ubc.ca. 

You can check out the blog’s full call for papers here.

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EDST Blog: Call for Papers (and Introduction to Editorial Board)

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The EDST blog editorial board is pleased to invite EDST students, staff, and faculty to submit contributions to the EDST blog.

 

Department head André Mazawi described EDST as our “common home,” “in the sense of a space we all share in the pursuit of our work, studies, and contributions.”

The EDST blog serves as an extension of this shared space, where authors can:

  • Start conversations and raise questions
  • Reflect on university life and student issues
  • Discuss others subjects within education

Watch the video below for more details, then scroll to the bottom to this post to find the full call, and introduction to the blog’s new editorial board!

Questions about submissions can be directed to Jessica Lussier at edstblog.editor@ubc.ca.

Call For Papers

 

Introducing the Editorial Board

Many thanks to previous GAAs and EDST students who volunteered as the blog’s editorial team. The blog warmly welcomes Silas Krabbe and Yotam Ronen as new members of the editorial board.

 

Silas Krabbe is a PhD student in EDST working within the philosophy of education. His research attempts to understand unintended cognitive violence between the educator and educatee, through the lenses of race, phenomenology, and theology. When off campus, you probably won’t find him; he’ll be out skiing or sailing with his wife and daughter.

 

Yotam Ronen is a PhD candidate at EDST. His research focuses on how radical educators during the early 20th century used education to realize their ideology of a free, egalitarian, and cooperative utopian society. He is also a bass player, currently playing live all over Vancouver with the Sam Rocha Trio, and bakes way too much bread.

 

Questions around Community

  • How are communities formed?
  • What does it mean to live, work, learn, or educate in community?
  • What goals might educative communities hold in common?
  • How does the research you are currently doing shape how you understand community

 

EDST students, faculty and staff are invited to share further questions they’d like to pose around the theme of “community” below in a shared Padlet.
Instructions to post: You can click on the plus sign to add a message, your name and a visual if you wish. 

 

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“On Public Facing Scholarship” by Itamar Manoff

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Have you written a paper you are proud of?

Are there aspects of your research you are excited to share with others?

Do you want to learn how to communicate your work to a broader audience?

This blog post will offer some tips and ideas on how to get your work out there and how to translate your research into prose that is public-facing and accessible. Included at the end are some opportunities to get support for public scholarship projects.

-Itamar Manoff

“Research” in education is a complex matter.
Educational Studies as a field is unique in its multi-disciplinary and multi-perspective approach, which derives from the very heart of educational practice as a meeting place for people from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and lived experiences.
On the level of research and scholarship, this is apparent in the broad array of disciplines and theoretical perspectives that come into conversation in educational research: education involves research in sociology, history, philosophy, Indigenous studies, gender studies, queer theory, psychology, ecology, and more.
So, how do you go about showcasing your work in different settings and to different audiences? What are the nuts and bolts of public facing scholarship?
Here are some practical tips and resources that can help you move your project, idea, or research into the public domain:

 

First Steps: Knowledge Translation

One good way to start is by trying to communicate your work to people outside your field of research. This can be as simple as having a conversation with a friend or a relative, or someone in the community who might be interested in your work (e.g. students, teachers, administrators), in which you explain your basic ideas, the research questions or arguments that you have thought about, and their significance.

 

It might be a good ideaimage portrays five people, engaging in conversations with one another. to record your conversation and take notes of questions, responses and ideas your interlocutor has. These can help you “translate” your work into public-facing, accessible, and relevant language. For some more ideas on how to effectively tell your research story, check out this article from the University Affairs website.

 

Dip your toes in some public-facing writing or speaking

Now that you have some sense of how to communicate your ideas to a broader audience, it’s time to get out there and share your ideas! Here are some ideas for engaging in some public facing work:

1. Submit an entry to the EDST blog!

The EDST blog is a supportive and friendly space to showcase your work, create connections with other EDST students and faculty, and get some feedback on your public-facing writing.
Check out blog editor Jessica Lussier’s blog post on academic blogging for more information and keep an eye out for a call for submissions coming soon!

 

2. TAships

TAships can be a great opportunity to practice presenting in front of an audience. If you are working as a TA (or planning to), it might be a good idea to consult with the professor to see if there are any opportunities to make a short presentation about your work, research, or topics you are passionate about.

 

3. UBC’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition

If you are working on your thesis or dissertation, and are looking for an opportunity to communicate your research to a broader audience, try applying to UBC’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, which is a fun and exciting chance to practice your public presentation skills, and gain experience engaging with a non-expert audience.
Click here to view this year’s 3MT presenters.

 

Explore public-facing scholarship

Now that you’ve engaged in knowledge translation and polished your presentation and public writing skills, it’s time to explore some exciting opportunities to take your public-facing scholarship to the next levels. Here are some possible avenues to explore:
    • Explore the world of public scholarship! In recent years, there has been an explosion in research on public scholarship, its significance, and the ways in which to successfully engage in it. Check out this resource list to explore current research on public scholarship.
    • The Conversation Canada is a platform that brings in academic researchers from across the country to contribute public-facing, engaging and accessible writing, based on academic research. The site is free and open-source, and encourages high-quality writing and journalism from academic writers on issues relevant to the wider public. Check out this Atlantic article on similar initiatives to make academic research accessible to the public.
    • Apply to the UBC Public Scholars Initiative (PSI). This initiative brings together doctoral students from different faculties in UBC to foster and support them in becoming public scholars. The program provides students with a network of students and faculty members who work collaboratively on public scholarship initiatives, provides academic support to students in the program, and offers up to $20,000 in funding to support members’ innovative projects. For more information on the program, application procedures and information about current PSI scholars and their work, check out this link.
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Introduction to Blog Editor and Call for Editorial Board

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Hi there,

My name is Jessica Lussier, and I am EDST’s first blog editor.

I joined the EDST community back in 2018 when I began my PhD. Since the pandemic began, I’ve missed being involved in the EDST community. As the blog editor I envision the blog as a forum where EDST students and faculty can publicly share their research, provoke dialogue on topics in education, discuss student issues, and engage with others within the UBC community.

In the coming weeks, in conjunction with EDST GAA Itamar Manoff, the blog will host a writing series focused on different types of blog content, translating academic writing into public facing work, and other themes. Keep your eyes peeled for that!

In my own work I research and write about issues around climate change, environmental education, and living ethically within the ecosystems of which humans are a part. Over the past few years, I’ve acted as social media coordinator and copyeditor for several organizations, and I believe these roles will serve me well as EDST’s inaugural blog editor. I look forward to working with authors, enhancing the outreach of the blog, and making connections within and beyond the university.

Just like any journal or publisher, however, I cannot do this work alone! Which is why I am releasing the below call for a blog Editorial Board. The call is open to all current EDST students, and applications are due by Friday December 9th. Please see below for further details and click here to complete the application form.

Questions about the editorial board should be directed to: edstblog.editor@ubc.ca

Keep an eye out for news about the blog, calls for content, and other news in upcoming GAA newsletters and department announcements!

Cheers,

Jessica Lussier

EDST Blog Editor

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