What is your current field of research?

My research focuses on a critical analysis of the learning experiences of older adults, particularly a significant demographic in Canada—the older multilingual immigrants. It stems from my own lifelong journey as a language learner and my immigration experience, coupled with my roles as a community activist and an adult educator. The methodology I craft is quite eclectic: a blend of ethnography, biographical storytelling, research poetry, and ethnodrama. I see storytelling spaces as spaces of connection. In the context of my research, biographical storytelling helps me amplify the voices and experiences of the individuals I work with, making the research more impactful and relatable. As a community-engaged scholar, I also advocate for initiatives that empower individuals to embrace their multilingual and multicultural identities. One core belief I hold is that learning is not merely about acquiring knowledge; it’s a powerful tool for facilitating change. In that vein, I develop story-sharing as a pedagogical strategy, seeing it as a way to create more engaging and communal learning environments that affirm learners’ unique educational journeys.

What inspired you to specialize in this line of research?

My fascination with storytelling began in my early childhood. Everyone in my family had a story to tell. For example, my father was an oceanographer and he would often share tales from his research expeditions. He was a talented and captivating storyteller. Hearing about his adventures was not only a fun storytime; it allowed me to recognize that he held many roles beyond just being my father, understanding him as a whole person. I treasure those moments.

My academic journey started with a broad training as a philologist. Over time, I gravitated towards applied linguistics and eventually found my niche in educational linguistics. The turning point in my academic trajectory came when I made the decision to move to Canada for my Ph.D. During my studies, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the UBC Learning Exchange, located in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Initially, I wanted to learn about Vancouver and connect with more people, but little did I know that this experience would reshape my perspective on the very nature and purpose of academic work. As a volunteer, I taught English to older immigrants, and I couldn’t help but notice the prominence of personal stories within the classroom. I began collecting poems, anecdotes, and inspirational quotes shared by the learners during our lessons and compile these texts into small booklets, a keepsake for each class member to take home, serving as a tangible reminder of our shared learning journey. This is how I framed my doctoral dissertation and also one of my current research projects “Tapestry of Tales”. I have many of these chapbooks, they are incredibly meaningful to me.

The motivation for my work today also comes from recognizing that the experiences and needs of older immigrants within educational systems are often overlooked in both research and practice. I aim to bridge this gap by advocating for inclusive and supportive educational environments tailored to older adults’ specific linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

What impact do you want your work to have on society?

I aim for my work to be a catalyst for positive change. I want it to inspire a shift in how we perceive education, particularly in ensuring equitable access for people of all ages. I also hope to encourage understanding and collaboration between academia and wider communities. I hope my work can inform decisions that lead to improved educational systems, especially for underserved older populations.

What do you consider to be your biggest research accomplishment so far?

A project that holds immense personal value for me is the PhoneMe initiative, a research effort that I’ve been part of since my early days as a graduate student. Now, I’m proud to serve this project as a principal investigator. PhoneMe is more than just a research project; it’s a development of a digital poetic community. The essence of PhoneMe lies in creating a virtual space where individuals can craft and share their multimodal poetic expressions inspired by the world around them. The journey began in 2016 as a community outreach initiative, and since then, it has grown into a vibrant global community. We’ve organized poetry readings and literacy outreach events, fostering connections not only within Canada but also internationally. I can’t help but be grateful that what began as a Research Assistantship position during my graduate studies has flourished into a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort over the years. Also, working closely with dedicated colleagues, many of whom have become close friends, has made this journey exceptionally rewarding.

What is a memorable moment in your career and why does it stand out?
A particularly memorable moment in my career was when I had the opportunity to develop large-scale educational programs for the justice sector in Latin America. Seeing the tangible impact of the research I conducted, and witnessing people genuinely change their approach to workplace learning and knowledge creation was profoundly gratifying. This experience stood out for me because it emphasized the real-world application of the knowledge and research we often conduct from the ‘ivory tower’ of academia. It highlighted the potential to effect meaningful change beyond academic realms, especially in vital sectors like justice.

Do you have any advice for students interested in the field of Education?
I would emphasize a few key points. First, it’s vital to broaden your horizons beyond applied teaching practice. Education is a vast field with interconnected aspects, so take the time to explore diverse theories of learning, framings, and objectives. Second, I think that it’s important to see education as encompassing public sphere, familial spaces, adult education and community-based programs, workplace settings, and more. This profoundly changes the way we can see ourselves – not as teachers, but facilitators of learning –  and opens up many new roles for our graduates.

What would students be surprised to know about you?
Well, I think students might be surprised to know that before my academic career, I had an opportunity to immerse myself in different cultures, professions, and communities. I’ve travelled and worked as a movie translator, a tour guide, a fruit import business operator, a corporate trainer, an even a magazine marketing specialist for a short time. From performing on stage in South Korea to developing train-the-trainer programs in Panama, my professional journey has been quite exciting. While I am now living and working in Canada, I’m still an avid traveler and can tell a lot of adventure stories!

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“The York Research Chair program is an important complement to the Canada Research Chair program to advance our efforts to strengthen research and related creative activities across the University and enhance the well-being of the communities we serve,” says President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton. “My warm congratulations to the newest recipients on this achievement.”

This year’s YRCs are the 10th cohort to be appointed as of July 1 since the program was first launched by the Office of the Vice President Research and Innovation in 2015.

“These new chair appointments are the latest example of research intensification at �첥��Ƶ, a major priority of our new Strategic Research Plan,” said Amir Asif, vice-president research and innovation. “York Research Chairs receive institutional support that is on par with what their counterparts are provided by the national program. This internal program advances research excellence at York and enhances the research capabilities of our faculty to create positive change.”  

The new YRCs will conduct research in a variety of fields that range from human and computer vision to children’s musical cultures to the impacts of climate change on lakes.

The YRC program consists of two tiers. Tier 1 is open to established research leaders at the rank of full professor. Tier 2 is aimed at emerging research leaders within 15 years of their first academic appointment. The Chairs have five-year terms.

Tier 1 York Research Chairs

Robert Allison, Lassonde School of Engineering
York Research Chair in Stereoscopic Vision and Depth Perception
Allison’s work as a YRC will study human aspects of virtual and augmented reality. His research program asks: how do we share a common space that is partially or completely virtual? The research results will allow designers to determine whether collaborative experiences and applications are likely to be coherent, consistent and ultimately successful for users. This YRC is administered by �첥��Ƶ’s VISTA (Vision: Science to Applications) program, first funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (2016-23).

James Elder, Faculty of Health and Lassonde School of Engineering
York Research Chair in Human and Computer Vision
Elder’s YRC research program is deeply interdisciplinary, integrating studies of biological perception using behavioural and neuroscience methods, computational modelling of brain processes, statistical modelling of the visual environment, and computer vision algorithm and system design. While advancing fundamental knowledge in perception science and AI, this research has application to safer and more accessible urban mobility, social robotics and sports analytics. This YRC is administered by �첥��Ƶ’s VISTA (Vision: Science to Applications) program.

Jimmy Huang, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
York Research Chair in Big Data Analytics
Huang’s research as a YRC will aim to overcome the limitations of the existing information retrieval (IR) methods for web search and develop a new retrieval paradigm called task-aware and context-sensitive information search for big data. This approach, similar to ChatGPT or GoogleBard, will leverage IR techniques to offer an interactive and dynamic search experience. The program’s research results are expected to provide a deeper understanding of user information needs and generate novel techniques and tools.

Lauren Sergio, Faculty of Health
York Research Chair in Brain Health and Gender in Action
Sergio’s research as YRC investigates the impact of gender on brain health, for which there is little study. The research program will aim to characterize the gender-related differences in an individual’s behavioural response to impaired brain health and design appropriately tailored interventions to optimize their return to work, duty or sport. The research results will provide medically relevant and fundamental knowledge necessary to develop targeted brain health assessments and interventions that account for gender. This YRC is administered by �첥��Ƶ’s VISTA (Vision: Science to Applications) program, first funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (2016-23).

Marie-Christine Pioffet, Glendon College
York Research Chair in Franco-Indigenous Relations in the Americas
This YRC is dedicated to the study of texts from the French colonization in America with research focused on Indigenous history and cultural renaissance, European scriptural practices and Indigenous oral traditions, Franco Indigenous intercultural dialogues, and the Great Lakes region, missionary laboratory, and intercultural junction. Pioffet’s research as Chair will rethink Francophone and Indigenous identities and the cultural blending that inspired the writings of the period, while promoting a resurgence of First Nations culture and languages.

Poonam Puri, Osgoode Hall Law School
York Research Chair in Corporate Governance, Investor Protection and Financial Markets
Puri’s YRC explores the role of the corporation in society and the impact of legal rules, as well as market mechanisms and incentives on corporate behaviour in several key areas of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG). These include racial justice, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and climate change, as well as the role of the corporation and financial markets in times of disruptive technological change. Puri’s cutting-edge, empirical, and interdisciplinary research program charts a new course for the modern corporation, casting it not solely as a profit-maximizer for its shareholders, but as a responsible corporate citizen that genuinely considers the interests of a wider range of stakeholders and is accountable to society.

Tier 2 York Research Chairs

Jacob Beck, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
York Research Chair in Philosophy of Visual Perception
Beck’s work as YRC seeks to combine philosophy and vision science, suggesting new avenues for research in both disciplines. His research explores how longstanding philosophical puzzles about perception can be resolved or recast with the help of vision science. Beck also examines how scientific discussions can be illuminated by philosophy – for example, how numerical perception can be informed by philosophical theories about what numbers are. This YRC is administered by �첥��Ƶ’s VISTA (Vision: Science to Applications) program, first funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (2016-23).

Gene Cheung, Lassonde School of Engineering
York Research Chair in Graph Signal Processing
Cheung’s research as a YRC focuses on signal processing and machine learning. Cheung looks at the frequency analysis and processing of big data residing on irregular kernels described by graphs, in an emerging and fast-growing field called graph signal processing (GSP). His research program involves collaboration with both academic and industry partners to apply GSP theory to a wide range of applications including image/3D point cloud compression, denoising, super-resolution, video summarization, movie recommendation, and crop yield prediction. This YRC is administered by �첥��Ƶ’s VISTA (Vision: Science to Applications) program, first funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (2016-23).

Andrea Emberly, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
York Research Chair in Children’s Musical Cultures
As a YRC, Emberly will take a community-led approach to the study of children’s musical cultures that explores issues around sustaining endangered musical traditions by emphasizing the connection between music and wellbeing. The research program will focus on child-led and intergenerational collaborations that amplify the voices of equity-seeking children and young people who tell their own stories, in their own voices. The work will explore how children and young people are active social agents who locate and activate unique and meaningful pathways to sustain, change and transform musical traditions.

Sapna Sharma, Faculty of Science
York Research Chair in Global Change Biology
Sharma’s research as YRC will seek to gain a deeper understanding of the ecological impacts of climate change on freshwater availability and quality. Sharma’s research will capitalize on long-term climatic and ecological time series collected from thousands of lakes and apply cutting-edge statistical and machine learning analyses to forecast the impacts of global environmental change on freshwater security and help to explain macroecological patterns, drivers and impacts of worldwide lake responses to climate change. The research program will collaborate with researchers across disciplines to develop technological, natural, health and social solutions to water security.

Sue Winton, Faculty of Education
York Research Chair in Policy Analysis for Democracy
Winton’s YRC research program will collaborate with multiple public sector organizations to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education privatization in Canada. Winton’s research will compare policy development, enactment, and effects during and after the pandemic across multiple scales. The research results will create knowledge about local, regional, national and international influences on education privatization and how this process impacts socially disadvantaged groups, teachers’ work and democracy. At York, Winton will establish and lead a cross-disciplinary Community of Practice for new and established researchers with an interest in critical policy research.

Hina Tabassum, Lassonde School of Engineering
York Research Chair in 5G/6G-enabled Wireless Mobility and Sensing Applications
Leveraging tools from statistics, optimization, game theory and machine learning, this YRC focuses on developing novel network deployment planning, radio access design and dimensioning, radio resource allocation and mobility management solutions to address challenges of higher frequencies like millimeter-wave in 5G and THz in 6G. Tabassum’s research will explore the feasibility of novel multi-band network architectures where THz and optical transmissions can complement the RF transmissions optimally. The research results could form a core for Canadian research on multi-band networks with the potential to connect the unconnected in a seamless, safe and resource efficient manner.

Taien Ng-Chan, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
York Research Chair in Marginal & Emergent Media
Ng-Chan’s research explores questions of how emergent media (new technologies such as VR/AR) can aid in the development of original digital and immersive storytelling techniques, foster solidarity and community amongst marginalized groups, particularly from the Asian diaspora, and lead to better representation and inclusion of these groups in culture and society. The YRC program will allow for future long-term collaborations and creative activities that will contribute to more diversity and inclusion in the emergent media industries, a greater sense of community for marginalized groups and better cultural representation in storytelling.

Denielle Elliott, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
York Research Chair in Injured Minds
Elliott’s work as YRC will explore how ethnographic experiments and transdisciplinary collaborations between arts, neuroscience and medical anthropology can contribute to a fuller understanding of conceptions of self, brain trauma and mental health. Her research program involves a multidisciplinary team that will explore the embodied experiences of people living with brain trauma and brain trauma knowledge-making practices in the clinic and laboratory, as well as their convergences. The research results will increase understandings of the effects of brain trauma, facilitate transdisciplinary collaborations between the arts, science and humanities and highlight how uniquely valuable ethnographic methods are to understanding urgent health priorities.

Cary Wu, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
York Research Chair in Political Sociology of Health
Wu’s YRC program will work to establish a transdisciplinary political sociology of health approach to investigate health inequalities and provide greater understanding of what forces maintain, increase and reduce health inequalities. The research includes theoretical and empirical illustrations that will focus on trust – the belief in the reliability of others and institutions. The program will seek to energize the field of political sociology by introducing a much-needed new research direction that focuses on trust and will advance a unifying theory of trust to explain health inequalities.

Article originally published on June 30, 2023 on YFile.

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What is your current field of research?
While my PhD was in anthropology and education, my research is interdisciplinary, drawing insight from critical development studies; refugee and forced migration studies; and gender, feminist and women’s studies. Broadly speaking, l am interested in the contestations that occur around gender, sexuality, and sex education in spaces characterized by high poverty (often produced by colonialism and sustained by inequitable global relations) and by high levels of international intervention. By paying attention to schooling’s role in reproducing or transforming gender roles/sex norms, I think critically about power dynamics in development itself, and between differently situated actors and institutions from families and communities to international funders.

My research has mostly taken place in Dadaab, Kenya and Southern Malawi. Lately, however, I’ve been most interested in how development ‘problems’ get named, and therefore, in the politics of knowledge production on a more global scale. 

What inspired you to specialize in this line of research?
When I was an undergraduate student in Lewiston, Maine, approximately 3500 Somali refugees resettled in what had until that point been a largely homogenous (White/Christian), post-industrial town. As folks in many institutions, including schools, worked to rethink programming to better reflect and serve a more diverse population, the mayor at the time wrote a deeply troubling and racist note to the greater Somali community asking them to stop moving there, because the city had become, in his words, “overwhelmed.” Lewiston, at that point largely unknown, became the center of a national firestorm about immigration, white supremacy, and what it might mean to meaningfully make real the stated ideals of a pluralistic, democratic society.

I became interested in the central role that schooling played in these contestations and how different actors, including newcomers, made sense of its purposes. Eventually, I had the opportunity to explore the role of schooling for refugee women who ended up in Maine across diasporic journeys, including in the Dadaab Refugee camps on the Kenya/Somalia border. In Dadaab, I became immediately struck by the profound power differentials within and across the humanitarian industry, in the heated negotations around the relationship between schooling and gendered cultural change, and in the politics of representation.

What do you consider to be your biggest research accomplishment so far?
I am proud to have co-authored widely with collaborators from Kenya, Malawi, the US, and Canada. Since 2013, I have co-authored with nine different people, each of whom I enjoyed getting to think with. Most recently I’m excited about a piece in that I wrote with York MEd graduates Mark Okello Oyat, HaEun Kim, and Sahra Mohamed Ismail about the possibilities for and barriers to meaningfully collaborative research in Dadaab.

I am also excited to be the Co-Chair of the Gender Justice SIG at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). We’d love for you to !

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What is your current field of research?
My research is situated in the sub-field of critical mathematics education and seeks to serve Black (including Sub-Saharan Africans) youth in educational contexts. I do this within mathematics education where I explore ways to ensure that Black youth thrive in their mathematics learning. In other words, I question the role of space, place, power, identity, and other sociocultural and sociopolitical factors that might impede learning for Black youth. I also consider how mathematics can be harnessed as a space to discuss issues of (in)justice and African Indigenous Knowledges in mathematics. Guiding my work are decolonial theories, Black studies, Black geography alongside critical and participatory methodologies to ensure an ethic of care and reciprocity in my work.

More recently, I have been thinking about the role visual media (tv shows and movies) plays on (mis)representing Black youth’s capabilities in mathematics. Contrast this to the 80s sitcom, A Different World, which showed the ordinariness of a young Black man (Dwayne) who loved mathematics – a type of Black livingness as Katherine McKittrick would name it. I am grateful for the chance to pursue this line of questioning currently through the York Black Seed Grant I was awarded in 2022.

What inspired you to specialize in this line of research?
I have loved and enjoyed mathematics for a very long time. I moved to the United States in 2002 to pursue my undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics and began noticing the low numbers of Black students in my courses. The numbers continued to be subside through my Masters and PhD programs and the subtle or overtly racist comments I experienced. If my memory serves me right, I was the second Black woman to graduate from my masters program in Applied Mathematics (2009) and the first Black woman to graduate from my PhD program in mathematics education (2020). I do not believe I have exceptional abilities in mathematics, but I grew up in a country that was racially homogenous thus, my race was not a factor in determining who belonged in mathematics (though my gender identification definitely mattered in Nigeria). I deeply love Black youth and want to support them through my research and other avenues by reminding them that they matter and that they belong in mathematics (and any other space of their choosing).

What impact do you want your work to have on society?
I dream of a world where Black (and other racialized) youth are given opportunities to learn rich and meaningful mathematics instead of being counted out. I hope my work normalizes the ordinariness of Black youth doing mathematics and hope to be able to cultivate spaces that allows them to be their whole selves in mathematics.

What do you consider to be your biggest research accomplishment so far?
I am really thrilled that I have managed to publish pieces that draw on fictional novels (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Nnedi Binti, Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing), movies (Zootopia), and most recently, song (Burna Boy’s Monsters You Made). I have somehow found ways to merge my love for the arts in and out of mathematics education which fills me with great pride. As an aside, I co-wrote the Zootopia piece in 2017 as a graduate student and it has remained on the “most read” list since its publication which blows my mind.

What advice would you give to your 21-year old self?
Enjoy the zigzag of your life. The multitude of experiences you are amassing living in different cities and countries will shape your thinking and make your research agenda more purposeful and robust.

What would students be surprised to know about you?
I am an avid reader of books unrelated to my research or teaching. Since 2020 (aka since I stopped being a student), I have read an average of 30 books (I read 66 in 2021!). I also enjoy taking long walks, watching all types of TV shows (including Top Chef, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and Abbott Elementary), and am quite obsessed with award season (I save the major tv and movie award dates on my calendar yearly).

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What is your current field of research?
I research visual citizenship, and especially the role photography plays—both in artworks and through everyday objects, such as family snapshots—in shaping who can be seen and recognized as a citizen. One of my most sustained research aims has been to better understand how pedagogical encounters with images determine who counts as a citizen in the colonial and post-colonial context. My first book, Projecting Citizenship: Photography and Belonging in the British Empire (Penn State UP, 2019), draws on archival materials—including lantern slides, photographic albums and children’s textbooks—to examine how photography, race and education were used as interconnected technologies of governance in the British Empire. Involving intensive archival research into a program of illustrated lectures developed by the British government and distributed to schools throughout the empire between 1902 and 1945, the book’s main intervention is to imagine the “disobedient gaze” employed by children spectators to refuse modern colonialism through their encounters with photographs in a space of education.

More recently, this research has expanded to consider how researchers, educators and activists can intervene in the politics of belonging through our encounters with images by critically re-reading images for reparative aims. This past year, I co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Visual Culture (2022) with graduate student research Adrienne Huard on “Reparation and Visual Culture” which invites 15 artists and authors to meditate on art in and as a practice of repair. In this way, my work is interdisciplinary, bridging several fields of study, including visual culture, photography studies, critical race and gender studies, and education.

What inspired you to specialize in this line of research?
I first encountered the archive that became the basis for my book project in an undergraduate class on colonial visual culture taught by Dr. Maureen Ryan at the University of British Columbia, and she encouraged me to pursue a close reading of what the photographs actually depicted—their inherent contradictions and fraught social dynamics—rather than paying attention to what the textbooks instructed students to see or what the captions told viewers was the subject matter of each image. This was an inherently pedagogical question for me: how were learners told to see one thing by colonial educational tools, and how did their visual literacy skills allow them to push back against this reading through their aesthetic encounter with the image? These two questions continue to animate my research today, which has come to focus increasingly on visual culture and artistic practices in so-called Canada, and has taken the form of curated exhibitions in public galleries, essays for artists’ catalogues and a forthcoming book with McGill Queen’s University Press called Citizen Subjects: Photography and Sovereignty in Post-War Canada.

What impact do you want your work to have on society?
A central goal in both my teaching and research is to encourage readers and learners to better trust their visual literacy skills. We live in an ocularcentric society that privileges images and texts above other sensory engagements, yet we tend to trust our textual literacy much more strongly than our ability to read images. My archival research, and my work with students and with viewers at exhibitions, has demonstrated that people are savvy and critical viewers who know how to engage images as both tools for state power, and as modes of resistance.

What do you consider to be your biggest research accomplishment so far?
Working with, or being cited by, contemporary artists is, for me, one of the strongest signs that my research is meaningful to the audiences I am hoping to reach. I have learned so much from the creative, daring and experimental ways artists work as developing agents in the colonial archive and feel indebted to their research creation methods whenever I approach the archives I want to conduct research in.

What would students be surprised to know about you?
Though I spend a lot of time thinking and writing and looking at images, I also value time to be alone and in my body. I spend a lot of my time outside of academia running (I completed a half marathon for the first time this year), lifting weights, and running after my 4 year old.

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Twenty-six years ago, Practicum Facilitator Anne Schlarp had the opportunity to go back to Ukraine with her late dad and watch him kiss the ground of his childhood home. She had always heard about Ukraine and her family there, but until she met them and saw the country through her father’s eyes, only then did she realize what it was to be Ukrainian. This is when she joined a Canadian Charity, “Help Us Help the Children,” and spent the next ten years involved in fundraising, and five summers teaching at camps for orphans in Ukraine. These experiences taught her about the incredible joy of giving which follows her until this day as she prepares care packages to send to local schools in Ukraine affected by the ongoing war.

When Anne spoke to her cousin in western Ukraine about the young children, who have had to grow up quickly, she said, “The young ones have stopped dancing and smiling and are living in fear.” Each day they anxiously wait for the next war siren, which takes them to the bomb shelters in the basement of their residential schools (internat). They tremble at the slightest noises and obey all instructions of martial law. They pray for peace and each day students write letters of support to Ukrainian soldiers who are fighting for peace and freedom.

Millions of Ukrainian children are in school, many virtually, but many, especially in eastern Ukraine, have had their education disrupted by war. Ukraine is focusing on maintaining its education as part of its response to the humanitarian crisis. They know that without school, the mental health of Ukrainian children is at risk.

Twenty-five years ago, Anne spent five summers teaching 500 orphans in Ukraine, at the summer camps that were held in the Carpathian Mountains run by Help Us Help the Children. If there is one thing that this experience has taught her, it is that the essence of transformational teaching is loving and building strong relationships with the students. Each year at the Faculty of Education’s orientation session with new students, Anne shares a letter that she received a few years ago from Artem, an orphan that she had taught approximately 20 years earlier. He took the time to write to her and thank her for the love that she had shared with all the children at the camp. He said that it was that love that propelled him to move mountains and become an architect. She cried and still does when she reads that letter to the students. It reinforces some of the most essential elements of teaching: connecting, building strong relationships, loving, and getting to know the stories of your students.

As the war began in Ukraine, Anne connected with cousins living in western Ukraine. Her cousins felt her getting anxious and helpless and very saddened by the war. She and her husband hung a Ukrainian flag at their country home, and within a few days, neighbours hung flags and placed blue and yellow ribbons on everyone’s mailbox. They felt the unity of their neighbourhood, but that was not enough. Although they made donations through some of the big charities, like World Central kitchen, Red Cross, Help Us Help and the Ukrainian-Canadian Foundation, Anne needed to do something that was going to have a more direct impact on the lives of the children. When her cousin and her daughter-- both teachers in Boryslav, Ukraine--mentioned that their school was going to be getting 28 orphans from the war-ravaged town of Donetsk, she knew that she found her project, “The Ukraine Project”. She was driven to make this project incredibly special. Neighbours, friends and Anne’s education students who are involved in the project know that their donations will be going directly to the children. The children arrived with only a winter coat and the few possessions that they could manage to grab before being rushed off on humanitarian buses and trains. Very shortly, they will receive a gift that will have the power to change their lives and show them that they are loved and cared for.

How does Anne ensure her teaching at �첥��Ƶ influences future teachers to pay attention to foreign affairs and help in any way they can? By example. Her passion for this project became contagious. Several of her students rose to the challenge and took the initiative in providing the children with items in their care packages that they hoped would bring joy into their lives. Others wrote letters, while some donated financially. Hopefully, the joy that filled her student's hearts from participating in this project, will be the same compassion and drive that they can pass on to their future students.

The care packages consisted of spring clothing, dresses, polos, Adidas tracksuits, hoodies, slacks, socks, underwear, spring jackets, and a variety of t-shirts. The students would have received their parcels just before Easter, which is incredible timing, as Easter and spring represent a season of love, hope, renewal, and new beginnings.

York BEd students Julia, Alana, Vanessa and Enrique put together the packages for each of the 28 students.  They hand-picked a variety of fun activities and personal products that they thought could bring a ray of sunshine into the lives of the children. They signed a card for each of the students, with love from Canada.

First-year BEd student Alanna, who is of Ukrainian heritage, personally wrote a letter in Ukrainian to each of the 28 students. A journal was included for each student with a message of love and hope.  “Hopefully, they will feel the love that went into those gifts and feel how deeply they are cared for,” she said.

Altogether, the parcels weighed just over 200 pounds … now that’s a lot of love.

If you can’t donate any personal items and you want to help further, there are many charities providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine, such as and (#StandWithUkraine campaign).

The post The "Ukraine Project" appeared first on Faculty of Education.

What is your current field of research?

On the other hand, at a micro level, I am keenly interested in understanding how these macro government policies gets translated into lived experiences for students. If and how it is that students who engage in international education programs begin to (re) define their sense of self, nationality and citizenship, their place in the world and their world view/s vis a vis those from other nations.

What inspired you to specialize in this line of research?
My father! As a child he always encouraged me to explore the world –travel, meet people, read and broaden my thinking from multiple histories, geographies and cultural perspectives. My own experience as an international student in the U.S., as an administrator of bi national academic exchange programs in India and more recently as an immigrant to Canada have largely shaped my interest in, approach to and understanding of my field of research.

What impact do you want your work to have on society?
I want to effect policy because policy matters. It matters to the everyday lives of our educational institutions and its many constituencies. It matters in achieving the fundamental principles, ethics and values of education. I firmly believe that all too often we feel imprisoned and constraint by policy directives, particularly government policy directives. However, the more we understand policy as process, we can become empowered through our own participation in it, democratizing in the long run, its formation, implementation and effect.

What do you consider to be your biggest research accomplishment so far?
It is hopefully still to come! The one ‘event’ I have been most proud of is a conference I was instrumental in hosting at York in 2006 which initiated among the first major national discussions on internationalization of Canadian higher education. It brought together over 200 participants, including representatives of all levels of government (federal, provincial and municipal) 33 university from 9 provinces, non-profit organizations and the private sector to discuss policies, practices, challenges and opportunities. This conference resulted in one of the first publications on Canada’s international education, Canada’s Universities Go Global in 2009. Several of my colleagues attribute the launch of their careers in international education to this conference and publication.

Do you have any advice for students interested in Education?
Education is not a profession it is a passion. It is about fulfilling the human mind, soul and body through knowledge and enlightenment. It is about constructing, deconstructing and rebuilding new ways of knowing and understanding. It’s about sharing, caring and co-creating a community- between and across various geographies. It is about civilizational dialogue and understanding. I encourage you to explore diverse ways of studying education and become an educator.

What advice would you give to your 21-year old self?
Engage! The best learning and growth occurs through investment and engagement in issues pertaining to your school and your immediate and broader community. Join student groups, non-governmental organizations, other community organizations locally, nationally and internationally. Work in a co-op; participate in an internship program, volunteer at a community center. By engaging you understand issues from multiple perspectives, come to value voice-yours and those of others, and more seamlessly appreciate the integration of scholarship, policy and practice.

What would students be surprised to know about you?
I always did things early- I started university at age 15, got two masters at age 20, married at age 19—and then reversed it all by changing my career to become an academic in my late 40’s!

Also, I love designing interiors. My first college major was interior design! As a child I spent hours every Sunday re-arranging the furniture in my house, much to the displeasure of my mother and siblings. I still continue to do so, much to the displeasure of my husband and son. I simply love creating aesthetically pleasing environments!

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