Lisa’s ASTU Blog

On February 7^th, I attended the CEL talk on Refugee Supports. This CEL talk was also made possible by a joint effort of the AMS and CAP organizers so it wasn’t just CAP students that attended. Due to a larger audience, we also had this talk in a larger room (Great Hall in the Nest) which had a big open space. The speakers, Thariki, Loren Balisky, and Nathalie Lozano-Neira all provided insight on what refugees go through and what supports are available.

I found what Nathalie said about her own experience as a Columbian refugee to be the most thought provoking. She told us about the time she was interviewed as a refugee and her words were used not to tell her story, but to further a narrative of refugee representation in media. She expressed frustration that it was just a way to profit and make money. So, what she did to combat this narrative was to make films with her friends about her experiences. Nathalie wanted her experiences to be true to how she felt about them and her films were a way to take space and share her story the way she wanted it to be told.

Listening to Nathalie’s experience made me think about the other CEL talks I’ve attended. Her story really tied together not only the idea of learning from the community but also how connected all of the talks are to each other. In the Black Cultures in Vancouver talk, Maya mentioned the importance of talking space for yourself and how empowering that is. Also, in the Asian Representation in Media talk, Barbara spoke about the power of representation in film. Nathalie’s story brings ideas from the two talks together and made me think about connections in the CEL talks despite them all being about different topics. I’m looking foreword to attending the next talk and making more connections.

On January 17, 2023, I attended the first CEL talk of the new year. With the new year, the location of Community Engaged Learning talks had changed. It’s now located in the Place of Many Trees room (formerly the multipurpose room), inside the Liu Institute for Global Issues which gave all the attendees a wonderful view of the surroundings trees. The room soon filled with students waiting to hear about Black culture in Vancouver from two guest speakers, Maya Preshyon and Krystal Paraboo. Maya is a current UBC student and founder of Vancouver Black Library (VBL), and Krystal educates people about Black culture through art. Both women have a focus on creating a welcoming community within Vancouver for Black people.

Maya Preshyon https://twitter.com/crisladeras/status/1488969132078874626

Krystal Paraboo https://221a.ca/contributors/krystal-paraboo/

During the talk, both speakers mentioned Hogan’s Alley. They spoke about how an entire community was displaced for something that was never built. Krystal’s mural project in partnership with Black artists around Vancouver puts the focus back onto Hogan’s Alley. She also worked with Chinese and Musqueam artists in this mural project to signify the connection between Hogan’s Alley to Chinatown (which is located nearby) and giving recognition to the fact that Vancouver is on stolen land. Her work piqued my curiosity, so I took a look at the murals after the talk. They feature Black people and tell a story through the colourful murals.

photo of a mural from the project. https://www.artofedge.com/projects/0XNWdY?album_id=1803763

This mural shows community and togetherness, an image of the people that lived in Hogan’s Alley before it was destroyed. It’s a lively scene, the family is making music with what they have-sticks, pipe, and paint cans-and there’s joy in their eyes and a smile dancing on their faces. The foreground uses bright colours, but the background fades out, giving a feeling of nostalgia. This mural feels like a happy memory, remembering what Hogan’s Alley was.

The day before Audrey Siegl’s CEL talk on Water, Identity, and the city, I was in my ASTU class listening to Dr. Moberly Luger give an introduction to the talk and encouraging students to go. After her introduction, I asked if Dr. Luger knew if Siegl would have slides to share after her talk since the previous CEL talks all utilized PowerPoints as a visual aspect of their talks. Dr. Luger responded by saying that it seemed like Audrey Siegl did not have any slides at all which surprised me. Turns out, Siegl didn’t need them and in fact, her talk was more powerful without slides because it made the audience focus on her and the raw emotion she exhibited while speaking.

Photo of Audrey Siegl (https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/audrey-siegl-vancouver-cope-council-candidate-answers-iconic-q_b_6134626)

Siegl’s talk felt more like a story that we were all listening to, and she had our full attention. The room was much quieter than previous talks, so quiet that you could hear a pen drop (or a dog bark which did happen). Her words had power and were woven together in a way that now looking back on her story, made aspects of her life in relation to water all connect to each other. Her stories really highlighted the interconnectedness of humans and the effect we have with land, water, and other people which reminded me of the idea of shared vulnerability. This idea first came up in Judith Butler’s book Frames of War in my readings for ASTU and it’s the idea that we are all vulnerable, that we need each other to not hurt the things that let us live and to not hurt each other. Shared vulnerability in Siegl’s story shows up as how she and her loved ones have already been hurt by others.

Photo of the book Frames of War: when is Life Grievable? By Judith Butler (https://www.amazon.ca/Frames-War-When-Life-Grievable/dp/1844676269)

She spoke about personal stories like how her mother loves eating duck but can’t anymore because of pollution from the Kinder Morgan Holding Tank. This one-story ties in with so many connections that could be discussed such as effects of humans on animals or relation of economics and value of nature. Some of these ideas do seem political but as Siegl says, “[her] work is not political, it’s about survival” which was a very powerful line. She makes an excellent point because what she’s really saying here and throughout her talk is that we need places of nature to survive. We need clean water. We need animals that don’t have a high level of mercury or microplastics in them. Above all, she wants everyone to understand that we are all connected: with the land, water, and each other which is why we need them all to be healthy and well cared for in order for our shared survival.

Ever since my ASTU class did a section on academic integrity, I’ve been giving it more thought. I notice it more in my day to day interactions. Academic integrity is usually centered around writing, as fellow students in my ASTU classes referenced in their blogs. Kendall mentioned “piece of academic writing” while Nina said “writing done in university” when referencing academic integrity. However, it’s lesser mentioned, but academic integrity is also prominent in visual art.

Right now, I’m taking a class on digital media as my elective for this semester. The course is based around photography, photoshop, and other digital creations such as graphics interchange formats (GIFs). However, in our classes, we also discuss art pieces. One piece that came into discussion was the Kent State Massacre photo by John Paul Filo.

Before and after of the Kent State Massacre photo (https://petapixel.com/2012/08/29/the-kent-state-massacre-photo-and-the-case-of-the-missing-pole/)

In this photo, a pole was removed from behind the screaming girl’s head and the photo was cropped. The main message was made clearer by focusing the viewer’s attention on the main subject. This editing may not seem like much, but the edited photo was used in a journal which viewers saw as depicting the whole truth. So, is the photo still depicting the truth? Does it matter if something that didn’t have a large effect on the image got taken away?

I think the answer lies in the definitions that came up in my ASTU class and in blogs. In her blog, Nina defined it “as an act of honesty” and my learning pod (LP5) saw it as a “moral code to follow involving ethics, honesty, and responsibility”. But what Dr. Moberly Luger brought up that really made me think was the idea of transparency. Being open about where your research comes from is essential.

Learning about academic integrity has changed how I see it and also how other students such as Kendall see it too. She writes “I find that by making so many connections between modern day life and academic citation, I have changed my perspective on academic integrity, and found a way to relate it to my everyday life.” I like how she has worded it in her blog because I feel the same way. Academic integrity is a part of our lives and now it’s more visible to me.

Kendall’s blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/kendellsblog/2022/09/22/my-view-of-academic-citation/

Nina’s blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/ninavblog/

On October 11, 2022, I attended Barbara Lee’s talk on Asian representation in media. She started with background information about herself, some of which applied to me as well. I chuckled when she said “as a good Asian daughter, I went into academics” because it’s relatable. It’s part of my story too. I’m sure that many other Asians in the audience saw bits of their lives in the story that Lee told too.

photo of Barbara Lee, Founder of Vancouver Asian Film Festival (https://vaff.org/board-of-directors/)

When she talked about our community being seen as the model minority, that got my attention. Yes, we’re polite, law abiding, and ended up being seen as successful but like Lee said, it’s based on hard work and putting in the extra hours. This made me think about a reading I did for my sociology class called Makúk by John Lutz that mentioned how colonizers in the 1880’s in British Colombia preferred to hire Chinese immigrants in chapter 3. Chinese immigrants were described as being willing to ‘be on call all the time’, ‘reliable’ and ‘exotic’. The jobs that they got were tiring manual labor such as farming or housework. Lutz said that it’s because as immigrants with no other income, they had no choice but to work whatever jobs there were. This ties into Lee’s story where she mentions that when her family came to Canada, they became farm workers, and everyone was expected to help out.

Book by John Lutz (https://www.ubcpress.ca/makuk)

Photo of Souvankham Thammavongsa and her book of short stories How to Pronounce Knife (https://www.cbc.ca/books/how-to-pronounce-knife-1.5419553)

In her talk, Lee also spoke about Canada trying to get well off Asians to immigrate by using incentives and targeting them specifically. I wonder if my family was one of these. My father held a high position in a company in China as did some of his friends that moved to Canada before we did. When my parents arrived, they had to start again in much lower jobs like the father in the short story How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa. Thammavongsa wrote “They’d had to begin all over again, as if the life they led before didn’t count” and it feels so true and painful. Her stories capture the challenges faced and the emotions that come with them after making it across the border. Why did Canada want certain families to come if this would happen to us?

On September 27, 2022, I attended the first community talk which was an introduction to Community Engaged Learning (CEL) for students in the Coordinated Arts Program. The panelists were all alumni from Globalization, Power, and Society which made me really excited to hear what they had to say because it’s the same stream that I’m in. The alumni spoke about sharing stories and perspective from people outside of UBC which makes me think about the master narrative and how these stories from people will change my view to also see the counter narratives.

The master narrative is the one that we see through media and is usually shown. While it’s possible that the speakers’ stories will align with the master narrative, I believe that its more likely that they won’t. One of the alumni spoke about challenging pre-notions and that can’t be achieved if we are not shown outside perspective. This is why I think it’s important to see and interact with people and communities that we learn about not only through texts but by listening to them. But what else can we achieve by attending these talks?

Going to these talks and putting in the effort to interact and ask questions will also help build community. Community within UBC but also outside, in the real world. As one speaker put it, “Your experience is what you make it.” This means that students can just go and listen but if we put in more effort, it will be a better experience. Through these talks, students can meet people and make connections that could be beneficial for both parties later in life. We can learn from the speakers but also contribute our own knowledge. We can be inspired to help solve an issue because we see the people that are impacted by them, and we can fight for change. However, with so many voices and opinions, groups and clubs, this makes me wonder; where do I fit in all of this? How do I find a way through the maze of opportunities?

I appreciate that as a current student, I get to hear the reflections of alumni. This first community talk was good for seeing what’s ahead and what to expect. I now have a better idea of what type of knowledge I will learn and how to get the most out of community talks.

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