Wen Tsai

Department of English master's student in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

On the “spectrum of intersectional identity”, I like to identify myself as as a QPOC in the community. On the other hand, this is what led me to become a graduate student at SFU : I finished my undergraduate degree in Taiwan in 2011 with a B.A. in English Literature & Linguistics. I came to Canada for work in the same year and have lived here ever since. After working and being out of the academe for almost 10 years, I decided to further my education and pursue a career in the Humanity and Social Science field. Coming back to study in the university after being out of the academe for almost a decade was one of the most challenging and yet rewarding decision I’ve made!

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO COME TO SFU?

I was interested in a Multiculturalism course taught by Dr. Christine Kim at the Department of English for fall 2019 semester, thus I reached out to her and the department assistant for information. Both of them were so helpful and friendly and they emailed me back right away with answers to my inquires. It encouraged me to choose SFU to do my M.A. in English Literature and I got to take the Multiculturalism course with Dr. Kim.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR RESEARCH OR YOUR PROGRAM TO A FAMILY MEMBER?

Honestly, my cat has never cared enough to ask me about my academic career. :p. However, when my parents asked, I explained to them that my M.A. and T.A. experiences in the Department of English is guiding me to a language-teaching career in the near future.

WHAT ARE YOU PARTICULARLY ENJOYING ABOUT YOUR STUDIES/RESEARCH AT SFU?

The open-mindedness of my research community members and all the fascinating seminar discussions I get to participate in at SFU.

HAVE YOU BEEN THE RECIPIENT OF ANY MAJOR OR DONOR-FUNDED AWARDS? IF SO, PLEASE TELL US WHICH ONES AND A LITTLE ABOUT HOW THE AWARDS HAVE IMPACTED YOUR STUDIES AND/OR RESEARCH.

I am very grateful that I was the recipient of Temple Maynard Grad School in English in fall 2020 and the recipient of Aphra Behn Grad School in spring 2021. I purchased textbooks and a couple of necessary technology devices for remote learning with the funding during the Covid pandemic.

Contact : wen_tsai@sfu.ca