Originally from Italy, Dr. Carolina Bergonzoni holds a Ph.D. in Education, a BA and MA in Philosophy, and an MA in Comparative Media Arts. Carolina’s practice spans dancing, writing, philosophizing, and teaching from the body. She is challenging the labels of “professional” and “community-engaged” artmaking and facilitating. Her work has been published, performed, and presented internationally. Carolina is also Artistic Associate of All Bodies Dance Project and a proud board member of Vines Arts Festival and The Biting School. When she is not making things happen, she can be found hiking or competing in dog sports with her goofy golden retriever, Avon Barksdale.

Sarah Anderson is an educator and author specializing in place-based education and curriculum design. Previously a middle school humanities teacher, Sarah is the fieldwork and place-based education coordinator at the Cottonwood School of Civics and Science in Portland, Oregon and the author of the book Bringing School to Life: Place-based Education across the Curriculum. In this interview, Sarah provides an overview of her experience with place-based education and outlines research interests for her doctoral work at SFU.

Fatima Jalali-Tehrani is a PhD candidate in the Languages, Cultures and Literacies program in SFU’s Faculty of Education. Fatima recently won the Faculty of Education first-place award for her 3MT presentation about challenges newcomers face during the current wave of globalization. Her interest in mass migration has led her to research how gender, identity, and agency play key roles in resettlement of newcomers to Canada. She is exploring how gender, religion, and social class (re)form both immigrant identity and perpetuate systematic (in)equities in discourse.

David Chang is a teacher-educator who studies philosophy of education and contemplative approaches to environmental education. David spent approximately a year on an off-grid island, where he explored the practices and dispositions associated with a land-based ethic. Drawing from Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of habitus and Zen Buddhism, David’s work is a philosophical, narrative, and poetic account of the ways that modern western societies can enter into a sacred and vibrant relationship with land.

A PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Education at SFU, Matthias Sturm works as a researcher at New Language Solutions, a not-for-profit in the newcomer settlement sector. After many years working with basic skills and immigrant language programs, Matthias returned to school, prompted by his desire to support educators and learners by researching digital equity. His doctoral project addresses the lack of research into adult learners’ use of digital technologies and how adult educators can support learners’ access to online resources and services.

Christina is a PhD candidate in Educational Technology and Learning Design. As an educator, Christina is greatly interested in and dedicated to education, empowerment, and equalizing power and privilege for historically excluded, and oppressed peoples of all backgrounds and identities, and the lifelong learning that requires. Her research interests include sense of belonging and inclusion in online learning environments, particularly the possibilities of the learning management system as a third space for students to engage and develop in academic socialization and scholarship. Christina is thankful for the identity development, empowerment, and opportunities higher education has brought her, and will continue to work to pay it forward to others.

As a PhD candidate in the Equity Studies program, Ki Wight's research relationships between media production education, media work cultures, and systems of oppression. Her work engages critical and decolonial pedagogy, social justice education practices, critical whiteness studies, feminist and queer theory, and media and cultural studies. She works as an instructor in the Communication Studies, Motion Picture Arts, and Women’s and Gender Studies departments at Capilano University. Previously, she was a film and television producer and executive for Canadian and international productions.

Akiko Ohta is a PhD student in Languages, Cultures and Literacies and a member of the SFU Mental Health Services Research Lab. She was recently an Evaluation Lead for a pilot project supporting Government-Assisted-Refugee mothers in Canada and has also worked on rural community development in several Islamic countries. Akiko is particularly interested in approaches that support refugee mothers’ individual challenges and complexities, enabling them to feel a sense of belonging in their new home and empowering them to pursue a future.

Elizabeth Bishop is pursuing her PhD with the Philosophy of Education program in the Faculty of Education. She has recently won a Develop Grant with Vancouver Foundation. Her research with the foundation focuses on understanding the lived experiences of healthcare and social service providers to build a productive, equitable, and safe work environment.

Camilla Enns is a Master’s student in the Counselling Psychology program in the Faculty of Education at SFU. She has recently received a graduate scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). With the support of this scholarship, her research will focus on the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program, an early intervention program that supports vulnerable and socially isolated mothers with young children.

Kathleen Forrester is a PhD student (soon to be a candidate) in SFU’s Faculty of Education ETaP: Curriculum and Theory program. Studying under the supervision of Dr. Elizabeth Marshall, she researches kinship in children’s literature through a queer ecologies framework. In 2017, her manuscript, Jaida Wood, was longlisted for the international Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition. Kathleen has published peer-reviewed papers on topics related to children’s literature in the International IBBY journal, Bookbird, in the Canadian journal, Jeunesse, and most recently in the open-access journal, Barnboken.

Jessamyn Hung is a Master’s candidate in the Counselling Psychology program in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. Their research explores the experiences of youth conceived through wartime sexual violence to evaluate and address barriers to sexual and reproductive wellness. Jessamyn is a passionate advocate for mental and sexual health justice and aims to contribute to service accessibility through their research.

Steven Zhao is currently a 3rd year PhD student studying and thinking about philosophy of education at SFU. Specifically, he is in the midst of thinking and writing about things like belief polarization, dialogical ethics, spirituality, Buddhist modernism, philosophy of mind, and ethics of communicative/educational technologies.

Dr. Jing Li recently completed her PhD from the Faculty of Education from SFU. Her research interests include sociolinguistics, critical pedagogies, critical multiliteracies in (non)formal educative contexts, and community research in art, culture, and education. She shared her doctoral journey, her research interests and the projects she is currently involved in.

With a PhD in Experimental Medicine, Dr. Tan is completing her second PhD in Educational Theory and Practice at SFU. Her research focuses on the development of scientific literacy through Indigenous Hawaiian epistemology. In this interview, Dr. Tan shares valuable insights with us about her research, and experiences in academia.

Jacqueline Barreiro, doctoral candidate in SFU’s Curriculum Theory and Implementation program, Sessional Instructor for the Faculty of Education, and Associate Editor of SFU’s graduate-run Educational Review Journal. Her doctoral inquiry focuses specifically on the educational implications of posthumanist theories as pedagogical tools of critique.

Bronwen McCann is a Master’s student in the Arts Education program. She is passionate about early childhood education, particularly curriculum development that bridges the divide between arts and outdoor education.

Jovita Vytasek is a doctoral student in the Faculty of Education and works in the Educational Psychology Laboratory. She presents us with a new topic modelling software application designed to help writers with revision.

After completing his master’s here at SFU, Dominic decided to pursue his PhD in Educational Psychology. “I wanted to study in a heavily research-focused program, but with opportunities to conduct practical research in educational and other applied settings.”

Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Poh Tan did not have an easy childhood. Domestic violence was a reality in her family. Yet, with a strong passion for science, she was determined to overcome her home problems and through perseverance and motivation she became a stem cell specialist.

Ms. Annette Rouleau started her PhD in Mathematics Education in September 2014. She admits having conflicted feelings when Prof. Peter Liljedahl first asked her to be his PhD student. However, she has since met the challenge head-on.