BC Studies no. 224 Winter 2024/25

Denise Fong is the curator of Urban Cultures at the Museum of Vancouver. She holds a PhD from UBC’s Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program, where her research focused on community-centered curation and Asian Canadian representation in museums. Denise has co-curated two award-winning history exhibitions: Across the Pacific at the Burnaby Village Museum and A Seat at the Table: Chinese Immigration and British Columbia, which was featured at both the Museum of Vancouver and the Chinese Canadian Museum of British Columbia. She is the lead author and researcher of Rooted: Chinese Canadian Stories in Burnaby, published by the City of Burnaby, and the co-author of 1923: Challenging Racisms Past and Present.

David Gaertner is a settler scholar and an associate professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies at UBC-Vancouver. He writes, researches, and teaches new media, critical Indigenous studies, Indigenous literatures, contemporary Canadian literature, cultural theories of reconciliation, and speculative fiction. His most recent writing appears in Transmotion, Anglistica AION, and Future Horizons: Canadian Digital Humanities. He is the author of The Theatre of Regret: Literature, Art and the Politics of Reconciliation in Canada (UBC Press) and editor of Sôhkêyihta: The Poetry of Sky Dancer Louise Bernice Halfe (WLU Press).

Candace Kaleimamoowahinekapu Galla, PhD (Kanaka Hawaiʻi/Filipino) is an associate professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education (Faculty of Education) and the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies (Faculty of Arts) at UBC (Vancouver) on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people. Her scholarship has focused on Hawaiian language and Indigenous languages, emphasizing education, and community-centred revitalization, digital technology, well-being, traditional and cultural practices, and policy and planning.

Jonathan Hennessey is the author of five non-fiction graphic novels, including the New York Times bestseller The Comic Book Story of Beer, with coauthor Mike Smith. He worked for many years as a crew member on Hollywood feature films and television, and recently earned a master’s degree from UBC’s Centre for Digital Media. He lives in Victoria, BC.

Kris Krüg is a digital strategist and AI community catalyst based in Vancouver, fusing creativity, technology, and ethical innovation. As the force behind the Vancouver AI Community Meetups, he cultivates inclusive spaces where entrepreneurs, artists, and researchers explore generative AI’s potential. With a background in web development and digital strategy, his work now zeroes in on AI’s creative applications, ethical integration, and democratization. From AI-driven Indigenomics initiatives to generative arts projects, Kris champions a philosophy where “AI is best when it brings people together,” fostering collaborative ecosystems that push the boundaries of what’s possible.

Ania Landy is a PhD student in interdisciplinary studies at UBC, with a focus on driving social change through enhanced inclusion, engagement, and support for older people in rural communities, especially those who are considered frail. Her research investigates innovative strategies to foster involvement of older people in the planning and future organization of health and social care services.

Janey Lew is senior strategist with the Indigenous Initiatives team at UBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, providing strategic guidance for Indigenous and anti-racist faculty development programs, curricular support, and educational resources. She is a second- generation Chinese Canadian, born and raised on unceded Coast Salish xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) territories. She holds a PhD in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley focusing on Indigenous and Asian Canadian solidarities and creative cultural activism.

Firth MacKenzie McEachern is currently a PhD student at UBC. He advocates for government policies that are more inclusive, flexible, and equitable for non-dominant language communities, that counter marginalization, and that help sustain linguistic and cultural diversity.

Paulina Malcolm is a graduate student in rehabilitation sciences at the UBC where she focuses on the advocacy of family care partners of people living in long-term care. She works as a research coordinator alongside people with lived experience of dementia, older adults, and researchers in various health disciplines towards a greater shared understanding of what it means to live with dementia and how to create more inclusive spaces for dementia in the community.

Josh L. Carriere McKenna is Métis with Cree and Anishinaabe ancestry. His family comes from Treaty One territory of the Red River Valley in Manitoba, primarily the communities of St. Boniface and St. Laurent. Josh’s family names include Carriere, Hamelin, Vandal, Parenteau, Landry, Laurence, McGillvary, and the unnamed Cree women that populate his family tree. He lives on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh Peoples in Vancouver. Josh completed his bachelor’s degree at the UBC in media studies with a minor in First Nations & Indigenous Studies in 2022, and is currently working on his MA in interdisciplinary studies (with a focus on Indigenous studies and new media) under the supervision of Dr. David Gaertner and Dr. Billy-Ray Belcourt. During his undergrad, Josh developed his 8-bit game Sage Plains, which he presented at ILSA’s 2022 gathering. Recently, he worked on two projects that engage directly with his ancestors’ archival documents, attempting to imagine them out of erasure. Outside of school, Josh works on his Métis politics/culture podcast, which has featured guests who are prominent Métis figures in Indigenous literatures.

Courteney Morin is a Métis, nêhiyaw (Cree), and forth generation Ukrainian and Dutch multidisciplinary artist and MA student in interdisciplinary studies at UBC. Her research is at the intersection of surveillance/policing studies, abolition studies, and Indigenous studies. She has a special focus on activism and new media.

Samantha Nock is the educational resources developer, Indigenous Initiatives, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology at the UBC Vancouver campus. She is a Cree-Métis writer, poet, and educational facilitator originally from Treaty 8 territory in the Peace Region of northeast British Columbia. Her family is originally from sâkitawâhk ᓵᑭᑕᐚᕽ (Île-à-la-Crosse), Saskatchewan. Samantha currently resides on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Sel̓íl̓witulh lands in so-called Vancouver.

Patrick Parra Pennefather, PhD, is an associate professor at UBC Theatre and Film, co-appointed with Arts, and a faculty in residence at UBC’s Emerging Media Lab. Patrick teaches sound design, collaborative methods, and emerging technology development across media. His interdisciplinary research focuses on mixed reality (MR) prototypes, spatial audio and capture, and responsible artificial intelligence. He has mentored multi-disciplinary teams co-constructing scalable digital prototypes with more than 50 companies and organizations. He regularly investigates the human experience of MR, composes for a variety of physical and virtual media, and consults organizations on the integration and implementation of AI systems. Patrick has facilitated workshops internationally, has written a book on mentoring projects in post-secondary, and two books on learning and creativity with generative AI, has co-published in a variety of journals and book chapters within the fields of anatomy, extended reality (XR), virtual reality, MR, education, and Agile application development. He is a founding member of the Certificate in Biomedical Visualization and Communication (BMVC) where he teaches Managing Creativity, and is on the UBC team building a new Master in Biomedical Visualization.

Alison Phinney is professor and associate director of Faculty Development in the School of Nursing at UBC in Vancouver, Canada, and director of the Centre for Research on Personhood in Dementia (https:// www.crpid.ubc.ca/). She conducts interdisciplinary research to advance understanding of the lived experience of dementia, especially how people can remain involved in meaningful activity and the role of families and communities in supporting them. Her current work takes a community-engaged participatory approach to promote social inclusion and reduce the stigma surrounding dementia.

Daisy Rosenblum teaches in Critical Indigenous Studies and Anthropology at UBC-Vancouver on Musqueam territory. She co-founded and directs CEDaR Space, a lab for community-led development of relational technologies to support cultural and linguistic continuity. Her partnerships with communities engaged in language reclamation draw on her training and experience as a discourse-functional linguist, an elementary school art teacher, and maker-organizer-advocate of art and community gardens in urban and rural contexts. She has worked closely with Bak̕wa̱mk̓ala and Kwak̓wala language revitalization programs for over fifteen years, as well as with scholars and students from around the world, toward long-term goals of linguistic and territorial sovereignty.

Paul Seesequasis is Willow Cree, a registered band member of Beardy’s and Okemasis, Cree Nation, a curator, writer, editor, researcher, and journalist residing in Saskatchewan. He is the author of the award-winning photobook Blanket Toss under Midnight Sun (Knopf Canada), published in 2019. His 2024 photobook, People of the Watershed: The Photography of John Macfie, was released by Figure.1/McMichael in May 2024, and exhibited at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection from May to November. He has several books upcoming, including Gaze (Knopf), planned for completion in 2026. He has curated numerous exhibitions.

Karen Lok Yi Wong is a PhD candidate and sessional lecturer in social work at UBC. She has been researching in the field of aging. Her research interests include the intersection of aging, race, culture, immigration, lived experiences of dementia, and aging and technology. She is also a registered social worker, working with older adults and their families in diverse settings, such as community senior services, long-term care, and geriatric hospitals.

Ayaka Yoshimizu 美水彩加 is a Japanese settler on the unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, səlilwətaɬ /Selilwitulh, and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Peoples and an associate professor of teaching in the Department of Asian Studies at UBC. She teaches transpacific histories and cultures, Indigeneities in Asia and Asian diaspora, and embodied and decolonial methodologies. Her current research looks at various sites, objects, and practices that commemorate the deaths of Japanese sex workers involved in transnational and interracial sex trade in the late 19th century through early 20th century in the transpacific world. Through this research she also explores how to grieve the deaths of Japanese transient migrants that took place on stolen Indigenous lands, and how to cultivate a translocal space to acknowledge other neglected losses in the past and present.

Anastasia Zhuravleva is a PhD candidate in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at UBC. Her research is focused on critical applied linguistics and culturally sustaining modern language pedagogy. She has also worked on collaborative projects related to Native Hawaiian histories in the Pacific Northwest, anti-racism in language and literacy education, and GenAI in second language writing.