Arts and Integrated Studies
Arts and Integrated Studies
I grew up in a small town on Vancouver Island and moved to the Lower Mainland to go to university. For me, university was both wonderful and frustrating – I loved the opportunity to learn, and to work with my peers to think about big problems, but I hated and struggled with its tendency towards bureaucracy and elitism. My BA and MA were focused on issues of class conflict and racism, and I used what I learned in those degrees to work as a labour educator and consultant on public labour history projects. But my life was changed by working at a pathway college for international students. I learned about the scale of international education in Canada, and the vulnerability of international students to exploitation and mistreatment. I also saw that there were opportunities as an instructor in postsecondary education to create radically open, intellectual spaces with diverse groups of people, though I found my power to shield students from the oppressive elements of higher education to be limited. I was inspired to pursue my doctorate and wrote a dissertation that critically examines the history of international student policy in Canada. My scholarly work and my teaching are dedicated to making postsecondary education more just, more democratic, and more accessible. I worked as a sessional instructor at several institutions throughout my doctoral studies, teaching history, labour studies, education, and University 101 style courses until I joined UFV in 2020.
My teaching philosophy is based on George Lakey's “direct education,” an anti-racist approach shaped by dialogic education and critical pedagogy. It cultivates within students a critical disposition, and helps them develop the skills and the confidence to be active learners. I design my courses with the intention of serving diverse student groups, and build in opportunities for them to co-construct course elements. To support this I have crafted a teaching persona that is open and flexible and makes space for cultural complexity. Building cultural inclusivity in a context as diverse as UFV cannot be done in the abstract; the only way to do it effectively is to engage students in co-creating the classroom context.
At UFV I teach primarily University 101, a course intended to ensure new students at UFV succeed in their studies and their career after. In the past, I have taught a wide variety of courses in history, education (including teacher education), and labour studies.
My current research projects revolve around three related themes: the history of international students and international student policy in Canada; the emergence of pathway programs which target international students specifically, many of which are operated by private, for-profit educational corporations; and critical pedagogy in internationalized postsecondary classrooms. I use historical methods and sustained examination of archival records to denaturalize contemporary higher education, and to show how systems and institutions were formed politically and can be changed. Although my method is historical, my research is animated by contemporary concerns and questions. In this way, it is interdisciplinary and meant to be relevant to educational stakeholders today as well as to educational historians.
2022) “Pathway programs and international student vulnerability.” Sheridan College. Enhancing the International Student Experience Summit, July 25-26.
(2022) “Comparing the rationale for private pathway partnerships: A microhistory of for-profit pathway programs at two public universities in Canada and Australia.” Comparative and International Education Society of Canada (CIESC) annual Conference. Online, May 19.
(2022) “To learn but not live together?: The debate about an international student residence at the University of British Columbia.” Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education annual conference. Online, May 15.
(2022) “Making international students migrants: The history of differential fees in Canada.” American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual conference. Online/San Diego, April 25.
(2022) “’The university needs funds, because there is not enough’: International students and the marketization of BC postsecondary education.” Vancouver Community College Faculty Association forum: Privatizing post-secondary (Who said they could do this?), March 1.
(2021) “’Daily education is daily revolution’: Anarchism and education in the past and present.” History of Education Society annual conference. Online, November 3. Chair/Discussant.
(2021) “From ‘friendly relations’ to differential fees: A history of international student policy in Canada since World War II.” E. Lisa Panayotidis annual dissertation award winner lecture, Canadian Association of Foundations of Education annual conference, June 1.
(2021) “International student recruitment, settler futurity, and the reproduction of the settler state,” Comparative and International Education Society of Canada annual conference, Online, June 1.
(2021) “From ‘charity case’ to ‘cash cow’: Examining the history of the idea that international students are wealthy cosmopolitans,” Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education annual conference, Online, May 30.
(2022). Virtual authenticity: The potential risks of historical video games. Active History.
(2021). “A question of self-interest”: A brief history of 50 years of international student policy in Canada. Canadian Journal of Higher Education 51(3): 33-50.
(2021). (with Sharon Stein) Emerging conversations in critical internationalization studies. Journal of International Students 11(S1): 1-14. Role: second author.
(2020). Border imperialism and exclusion in Canadian Parliamentary talk about international students. Canadian Journal of Higher Education 50(4): 37-51.
(2019). Teaching labour history to international students. Labour/Le Travail 84: 16-22.
(2018). (with Robin Folvik and Mark Leier) Pray for the dead, but fight like hell for the living: An introduction to Ginger Goodwin, Joseph Naylor, Lucy Parsons, and Mother Jones, (Burnaby, BC: BCGEU). Role: second author.
(2018). (with Amy Scott Metcalfe) Corporatization of higher education through internationalization: The emergence of pathway colleges in Canada. Tertiary Education and Management. Role: lead author. DOI: