Below the Radar: Recent Episodes
SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement
Amplifying ideas that fly below the radar. We talk environmental and social justice, arts, culture, community-building and urban issues with featured guests.
This podcast is produced by SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement as a part of our Knowledge Democracy Project @ 312 Main — encouraging the meaningful exchange of ideas and information across communities.
Hosted and currently produced by: Am Johal Alex Masse Alyha Bardi Fiorella Pinillos Kathy Feng Melissa Roach Paige Smith Steve Tornes
Visit our website for archived audio and video recordings of our public events: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/library.html
In this episode, we are joined by Professor John Price (University of Victoria), who leads the Canada–China Focus project. We discuss how Canada–China relations are debated in ways that can intensify anti-Asian racism and Sinophobia, and how Canada–China Focus works to reframe public conversation. We use Price’s submission to the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference as a stand-alone case to think through how “security” discourse can produce racialized harm, and we close by reflecting on what Prime Minister Mark Carney’s January 2026 visit to Beijing signals for the next phase of Canada–China relations—and what short- and long-term work is needed to sustain anti-racist public awareness alongside serious foreign-policy debate.Resources:John Price: https://www.uvic.ca/research/centres/globalstudies/people/associate-fellows/pricejohn.php Canada-China Focus: https://www.canadachinafocus.ca/ Submission to the Honourable Marie-Josée Hogue, Commissioner of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions.: https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/ccf/wp-content/uploads/sites/6776/2024/08/Hogue-Commission-JP.pdf Bio:John Price is an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Global Studies. He retired in 2018 after teaching history at UVic for twenty-one years. He retains an active research and writing program, however, with special focus on Canada-China relations and Indigenous-settler relations in the Pacific Northwest. With faculty members Nicholas XEMŦOLTW̱ Claxton (HSD) and Christine O’Bonsawin (History), he was recently awarded a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant to promote Indigenous Ecological Knowledge with the environmental organization, Dogwood. His historical research spans the history of Japan, transpacific migrations, Asian Canadian histories, and Indigenous-Settler relations in the Pacific Northwest. He is the author of Japan Works: Power and Paradox in Postwar Industrial Relations (Cornell, 1997), Orienting Canada: Race, Empire and the Transpacific (2011), and, with Ningping Yu, the biography A Woman in Between: Searching for Dr. Victoria Chung (2019). He is a co-author of the recent Challenging Racist “British Columbia”: 150 Years and Counting (2021) and co-editor of a special volume of BC Studies: Unsettling the Islands: Race, Indigeneity, and the Transpacific (204, Winter 2019/20). He is a founding member of Canada-China Focus and has recently published a series on Canada-China relations and another on Canada-US militarization of the Pacific. When not in the library or writing at home in Vancouver, he is looking after his three grandchildren, or on bike trips with his partner of forty-six years, Margaret McGregor.
In this episode, we are joined by Professor Henry Yu from University of British Columbia. We discuss Vancouver’s Chinatown as a living archive of anti-Asian racism, and what it reveals about the persistence of racism after the acute pandemic period. We also use Yu’s essay “The white elephant in the room” to reflect on why naming white supremacy matters, and what coalition-building—including national forums on anti-Asian racism—can and cannot accomplish.Resources:Henry Yu: https://acam.arts.ubc.ca/henry-yu/ The white elephant in the room: anti-Asian racism in Canada: https://beyond.ubc.ca/henry-yu-white-elephant/ Thinking Orientals: Migration, Contact, and Exoticism in Modern America: https://academic.oup.com/book/47996 Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia: http://www.cchsbc.ca/ Chinatown Reimagined: https://www.chinatownreimagined.ca/ Bio:Professor Henry Yu was born in Vancouver, B.C., and grew up in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island. He received his BA in Honours History from UBC and an MA and PhD in History from Princeton University. After teaching at UCLA for a decade, Yu returned to UBC as an Associate Professor of History to help build programs focused on trans-Pacific Canada. Yu himself is both a second and fourth generation Canadian. His parents were first generation immigrants from China, joining a grandfather who had spent almost his entire life in Canada. His great-grandfather was also an early Chinese pioneer in British Columbia, part of a larger networks of migrants who left Zhongshan county in Guangdong province in South China and settled around the Pacific in places such as Australia, New Zealand, Hawai’i, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, the United States, and Canada. Prof. Yu’s book, Thinking Orientals: Migration, Contact, and Exoticism in Modern America (Oxford University Press, 2001) won the Norris and Carol Hundley Prize as the Most Distinguished Book of 2001, and he is currently working on a book entitled How Tiger Woods Lost His Stripes: Finding Ourselves in History. Currently, he is the Director of the Initiative for Student Teaching and Research on Chinese Canadians (INSTRCC) and the Principal of St. John’s College at UBC, as well as a Board Member of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia (CCHSBC).
On this episode of the Below the Radar B-Sides, our host Am Johal is joined by Lauren Wendling, Director of Institutional Success at Collaboratory. Together, they chat about community engagement in higher education, how she got involved in the work, and the evaluation and evolution of the field.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-lauren-wendling.htmlResources:Collaboratory: https://cecollaboratory.com/ Carnegie Classification: https://cecollaboratory.com/carnegie/ Lauren’s website: https://laurenwendling.wixsite.com/laurenwendling Bio:Dr. Lauren A. Wendling is a scholar-practitioner whose work focuses on integrating community engagement, institutional policy, and data to drive cultural change in higher education. In her role at Collaboratory, she guides institutions in capturing and utilizing engagement data to inform assessment, institutional decision-making, and the broader institutionalization of community-engaged scholarship. Prior to joining Collaboratory, Lauren worked within the IU Indianapolis Office of Community Engagement, where she built structures to track collective impact and improve campus-wide reporting. Her scholarship focuses on the institutionalization of community engagement and the evaluation of faculty work across diverse campus contexts. Lauren earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education from Indiana University Bloomington, with a focus on urban education.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Evaluating Community Engagement — with Lauren Wendling.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, March 9, 2026. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-lauren-wendling.html.
On this episode of the Below the Radar B-Sides, we’re joined by Farheen Haq, an interdisciplinary artist who works with video, textile, installation and performance to explore personal, familial, cultural and political reconciliations.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/farheen-haqRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/farheen-haqResources:Farheen Haq: https://www.farheenhaq.com/Hamara Badan: https://www.farheenhaq.com/#/rhb-2/Feast: https://www.farheenhaq.com/#/feast/Silsila: https://www.farheenhaq.com/#/silsila/Bio:Farheen Haq (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist living and working on unceded Lekwungen territory (Victoria, BC). She was born and raised on Haudenosanee territory (Niagara region, Ontario) amongst a tight-knit Muslim community. Her family roots are from Bihar, India and Karachi, Pakistan. Farheen works with video, textile, installation and performance to explore personal, familial, cultural and political reconciliations. Farheen’s current work is focused on the teachings of the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb and how it can be applied to settler-Indigenous relationships on Turtle Island through culture making and ceremony. She has exhibited her work in galleries and festivals throughout Canada and internationally including New York, Paris, Buenos Aires, Lahore, Hungary, and Romania. Recent exhibitions include I am my mother’s daughter at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (2023) and The Reach Gallery, Abbotsford (2024), Sentirse en Casa at Casa Cultura Gallery, Medellin Colombia (2018), Being Home at the Comox Valley Art Gallery (2015), Fashionality at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection (2012), Collected Resonance at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (2011), The Emperor’s New Clothes at the Talwar Gallery, New York (2009), and Pulse Contemporary Art Fair, Miami (2008). Farheen received her BA in International Development (1998) from the University of Toronto, her BEd (2000) from the University of Ottawa and her MFA in Visual Arts (2005) from York University. In 2014, Farheen was nominated for Canada’s pre-eminent Sobey Art Award.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “I Am My Mother's Daughter — with Farheen Haq” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, February 16, 2026. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-farheen-haq.
utm_content=link_in_bioWhat’s Fear Got To Do With It?: https://conundrumpress.com/product/whats-fear-got-to-do-with-it/Bio:In 1999, Ivana Filipović/Ivana Filipovich/Ивана Филиповић, an architect, archaeologist, designer, cartoonist, and occasional procrastinator, became a literal escape artist, selling her beloved black lacquer piano for a one-way ticket to Vancouver. After a 20-year hiatus, during which she worked in educational media and communications at a Canadian university, she returned to cartooning. In the last few years, her comics were published in Sweden, Slovenia, and Serbia and were exhibited at the French Institute (L’Institut français) galleries in Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia, and at the NOVA comic arts festival in Serbia. Deeply interested in psychology, her work aims predominantly to portray complex female characters and other underrepresented persons and groups. Mainly focused on slice-of-life stories, she occasionally ventures into other genres. Stylistically close to French and Italian cartooning, she uses both traditional and digital tools. Most recently, the Canada Council for the Arts has supported her exploration of 3D storyboarding.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “What’s Fear Got To Do With It? — with Ivana Filipovich” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, Feb 2, 2026. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-ivana-filipovich
was recently published by MIT Press (2025). Andrew's writing has appeared in Camera Austria, History of Photography, Momus, Oxford Art Journal and Philosophy of Photography. Witt completed his PhD at University College London in 2017 and his MA at UCL in 2010. From 2018 to 2022 he was Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Lost Days, Endless Nights — with Andrew Witt” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, January 26, 2026. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-andrew-witt.
On this episode of the Below the Radar B-Sides, we’re joined by Philip Hoffman, a renowned experimental filmmaker. We discuss his journey as an artist, founding the Film Farm, and what it means to work with a focus on process and memory.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-philip-hoffmanRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/btr-bsides-philip-hoffmanResources:Philip Hoffman: https://philiphoffman.ca/Philip’s Films: https://philiphoffman.ca/filmography/Film Farm: https://philiphoffman.ca/film-farm/Bio:Philip Hoffman has been making art and film for more than 40 years. His recent work explores plant processing of motion picture film. vulture (2019) received the Kodak Cinematic Award from Ann Arbor Film Festival and the Fugas Award at Documenta Madrid. Deep 1 received a Jury Award at Ann Arbor. He has been honored with more than a dozen retrospectives of his work, and the publication Landscape with Shipwreck: First Person Cinema and the Films of Philip Hoffman, comprising some 25 essays by academics and artists. In 2016 Hoffman was awarded the Governor General Award in Media Arts. He currently teaches Process Cinema in York University's MFA in Cinema and Media Arts. philiphoffman.caCite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Of Memory and Association — with Philip Hoffman” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, January 26, 2026. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-philip-hoffman.
fbclid=IwY2xjawPSRrFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFKNndhNE1pV0tKTVhCQlRKc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHox9BGh-D98cXXqyy823e2-_3ehTWtk_u1bHQNbpF4E0PwvdRYLwV5BT2on__aem_1GUchewA_DmcwDwE2Gp0Iw Public Forum on January 30, 2026: https://events.sfu.ca/event/47169-the-no-more-loopholes-act-cleaning-up-the-canadian Bio:Kelsey Gallagher is a Senior Researcher with Project Ploughshares, where he focuses on conventional arms controls and the Canadian arms trade. He monitors exports of conventional weapons and their use in conflict abroad, as well as export control policy and transparency.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “No More Loopholes Act — with Kelsey Gallagher.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, January 12, 2026. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-kelsey-gallagher.html.
International Affairs at Northern Arizona University. His scholarship on human meaning-making includes The Ethical Fantasy of Rhetorical Theory (U Pittsburgh P, 2018), alongside many articles and chapters, and undergirds his inquiry into the AI revolution and other features of polycrisis in Panic Now? Tools for Humanizing (U Tennessee P, 2024). With Scott Sundvall and Caddie Alford, he has a volume exploring our hypermediated and increasingly automated crisis of meaning forthcoming in 2026: Rhetoric Before and Beyond Post-Truth (U Pittsburgh P). Among other topics, Ira teaches undergraduate courses on digital argumentation and graduate courses on #datapolitics and humanizing rhetoric.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Panic Now? — with Ira Allen.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, January 5, 2026. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-ira-allen.html.
On this episode of the Below the Radar B-Sides, we’re joined by Djaka Blais, the Executive Director of Hogan’s Alley Society. Am and Djaka discuss the history and future of the organisation, and its ongoing work in daylighting Black history in Vancouver and beyond.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-djaka-blaisRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/btr-bsides-djaka-blaisResources:Hogan’s Alley Society: https://www.hogansalleysociety.org/Hogan’s Alley 2024 report: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/654e87e4e6889372eafb1636/t/6776c85dd93b442d0750f334/1735837829981/HAS+-+2024+Final+Year+In+Review-compressed.pdfBio:Djaka Blais (she/her) is a social sector leader with 21 years of experience in philanthropy, government, and community mobilizing. She is a change agent to shift power dynamics and remove oppressive structures within philanthropic and nonprofit organizations. Djaka is the inaugural Executive Director of Hogan’s Alley Society, a Vancouver-based non-profit focused on advancing the social, political, economic, and cultural well-being of people of African descent (Black People) through the delivery of inclusive housing, built spaces, and culturally informed programming. Djaka is a founding Director of the Foundation for Black Communities, the first philanthropic foundation for Black communities in Canada. She is a board member with Philanthropic Foundations Canada and a How Women Lead fellow in their first Black cohort. Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “The Future of Hogan's Alley — with Djaka Blais” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, November 12, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-djaka-blais.
On this episode of the Below the Radar B-Sides, we’re joined by Ness Nöst, an independent singer-songwriter. Ness is known for her powerful live performances, and her breakout EP, Working Hours (2024), received international airplay and acclaim.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-ness-nostRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/btr-bsides-ness-nostResources:Ness Nöst: https://www.nessnostmusic.com/Ness’ Bandcamp: https://nessnostmusic.bandcamp.com/Bio:Ness Nöst is known for her soulful blend of indie folk, jazz, and dark poetic storytelling. Think Joni Mitchell and k.d. lang meets Feist. She is currently working on her debut full-length album following the release of Glimmers (March 2025), her second self-released, self-produced EP. A fully independent artist, Nöst continues to push creative boundaries while integrating themes of women’s rights and advocacy into her music. Her breakout EP, Working Hours (2024), received international airplay, including on London Soho Radio in the UK, and was featured in Exclaim! and RANGE Magazine. Following a Canada-wide tour in 2024, she returned with Glimmers, which has already been featured on CBC Music. She has also collaborated with grassroots organizations such as Good Night Out and #NOTME, using her platform to support workplace safety and harm reduction. Known for her powerful live performances, Nöst has played over 250 shows across Canada, captivating audiences with her rare ability to connect through music.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “The Regular — with Ness Nöst” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 25, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-ness-nost.
On this episode of the Below the Radar B-Sides, we’re joined by Rosemary Georgeson and Jessica Hallenbeck, two artists whose ongoing community engaged collaborative work have produced multiple acclaimed film and research projects.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-rosemary-georgeson-jessica-hallenbeckRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/btr-bsides-rosemary-georgeson-jessica-hallenbeck/Resources:Lantern Films: https://www.lanternfilms.ca/Rosemary Georgeson: https://rosemarygeorgeson.wordpress.com/Jessica and Rosemary’s Research: https://geog.ubc.ca/news/written-out-of-history-restorying-the-archive/We Have Stories: Women in Fish: https://www.facebook.com/WeHaveStoriesThe Saltlicks: https://thesaltlicks.bandcamp.com/album/diariesBio:Rosemary Georgeson is a Coast Salish and Sahtu Dene filmmaker and multi-media artist. She was born and raised in the commercial fishing industry, spending the first half of her life fishing around Galiano Island and the Salish Sea, sometimes as far as Prince Rupert. Since leaving the industry, she’s worked in the arts community as a writer, storyteller and researcher. Recognized in 2009 by the Vancouver Mayor’s award for emerging artist and in 2014 as the Vancouver Public Library’s Storyteller in Residence, her work is deeply rooted in her family history on Galiano Island.Jessica Hallenbeck is a documentary filmmaker, independent scholar and community planner. With an undergraduate degree in media and film from Queen’s University, she has worked in documentary for 20 years. Jessica holds a PhD in Geography from the University of British Columbia and her multimodal research cuts across filmmaking, writing, and exhibitions. Jessica is a Sundance Institute and Chicken and Egg Alumni. Her dissertation (2020) won The Starkey-Robinson Award for graduate research on Canada and is currently under contract with UBC Press. She has been the recipient of multiple Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Grants (SSHRC), including the prestigious Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “We Have Stories — with Rosemary Georgeson and Jessica Hallenbeck — with Rosemary Georgeson and Jessica Hallenbeck” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 14, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-rosemary-georgeson-jessica-hallenbeck.html.
On this episode of the Below the Radar B-Sides, we are joined by Sadhu Binning, bilingual author, educator, and advocate for Punjabi literature, culture, and language. Sadhu shares stories from his life, and discusses the path to founding arts and cultural collectives in Vancouver in the 80s and 90s.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-sadhu-binning.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/btr-bsides-sadhu-binning.htmlResources:No More Watno Dur: https://www.mawenzihouse.com/product/no-more-watno-dur/ Watan: https://www.watanpunjabi.ca/oct2018/Bio:Sadhu Binning, a bilingual teacher, advocate/founder, author, and editor, has lived in Vancouver since 1967, when he migrated there. During his resilient career, he has published and edited over nineteen poetry, fiction, plays, translations, and research books.His works have been included in more than fifty anthologies both in Punjabi and English. He edited and co-edited the Punjabi magazines Watno Dur and Watan. He co-founded Vancouver Sath, a theatre collective (1983), Ankur, an English literary magazine (1993), and founded the Punjabi Language Education Association and various other literary and cultural organizations, including the Punjabi Literary Association (1973). He has sat on the BC Arts Board, is a central figure in the Punjabi arts community, and was named one of the top 100 South Asians who made a difference in BC.He has received numerous awards in Canada and Punjab, India, including the supreme nonresident Punjabi author in 2015. Sadhu Binning received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from UBC in 2019.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “No More Watno Dur — with Sadhu Binning.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 21, 2025.. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-sadhu-binning.html.
(being the ultimate expression). Dave Biddle (being the artist whose bio is in question) was born in Vancouver (being the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations) and he continues to live in that (being this) strange place where he studies the silverfish in his books (being being). Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “M.I.T.C.O.E. — with Dave Biddle.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 21, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-dave-biddle.html.
On this episode of the Below the Radar B-Sides, we’re joined by Johan Grimonprez, a Belgian multimedia artist, filmmaker, and curator whose film Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat was nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary at the 97th Academy Awards. Am and Johan discuss Johan’s past video work, and what Johan discovered along the way in creating and sharing Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-johan-grimonprezRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/btr-bsides-johan-grimonprezResources:Johan Grimonprez: https://www.johangrimonprez.be/Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat: https://kinolorber.com/film/soundtrack-to-a-coup-d-etatVancouver International Film Festival: https://viff.org/Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y: https://vimeo.com/231411671Bio:Who owns our imagination in a world of existential vertigo where truth has become a shipwrecked refugee? Is it the storyteller who can contain contradictions, who can slip between the languages we have been given to become a time-traveler of the imagination? Johan Grimonprez’s critically acclaimed work dances on the borders of theory and practice, between art and cinema, beyond the dualisms of documentary and fiction, other and self, mind and brain to weave new pathways and stories, emphasizing a multiplicity of realities. Informed by an archeology of present-day media, his work depicts intimate stories that brush up against the bigger picture of globalization. It questions our collective imagination and the contemporary sublime, one framed by a fear industry that has infected political and social dialogue.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat — with Johan Grimonprez” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 14, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-johan-grimonprez.html.
This episode of Below the Radar B-Sides is guest hosted by Joe Clark, term assistant professor at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts. He is joined by Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa, Assistant Professor in Film Studies at Seattle University, and author of The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life. Together, they chat about their shared interest in non-theatrical film, and the histories and speculative futures of scientific filmmaking.Resources:Joseph Clark: https://www.josephclark.me/ Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa: https://www.benjaminschultzfigueroa.com/The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life: https://www.benjaminschultzfigueroa.com/the-celluloid-specimen-moving-image-research-into-animal-life Bio:Joseph Clark: Joseph Clark (PhD, Brown University) is an educator, filmmaker, researcher, and arts programmer. His research and teaching interests focus on archival and non-theatrical media, including newsreels, home movies, and sponsored film. He is the author of News Parade: The American Newsreel and the World as Spectacle (University of Minnesota Press, 2020) and the director of the short film Persistence & Loss (2021). He is a long-time member of the DOXA Documentary Film Festival Programming Committee and part of the organizing committee of the Vancouver Podcast Festival. Benjamín Schultz-FigueroaDr. Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa is an Assistant Professor in Film Studies at Seattle University. His research focuses on the history of scientific filmmaking, nontheatrical film, and animal studies. Among other venues, his writing has been published in JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Film History, Journal of Environmental Media. His book The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life is due to be published by UC Press in February, 2023.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleClark, Joseph. “The Celluloid Specimen — with Joe Clark and Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, August 12, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-celluloid-specimen.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Dorothy Christian, the Associate Director of Indigenous Policy & Pedagogy in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Simon Fraser University. Dorothy talks about her work as a storyteller and academic, as well as her activism with the Oka crisis and the Gustafsen Lake standoff. Resources:Dorothy Christian: https://www.sfu.ca/gradstudies/about/contact/dorothy-christian.htmlGathering knowledge : Indigenous methodologies of land/place-based visual storytelling/filmmaking and visual sovereignty: https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0343529Bio:Dorothy Cucw-la7 Christian is Secwepemc and Syilx from the interior plateau regions of what is known as British Columbia. She is happy to be a good relative to her Coast Salish cousins while she lives, works, and plays on their lands. Her research centralizes land, story, cultural protocols and how Indigenous Knowledge informs film production practices. She is the the Associate Director of Indigenous Policy & Pedagogy in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Simon Fraser University.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Story Sovereignty — with Dorothy Christian” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, August 12, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-dorothy-christian.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar B-Sides, our host Am Johal is joined by Ming Wong, Singapore-born and Berlin-based contemporary artist. Together, they chat about Ming’s artistic practice, his research into Cantonese Opera cinema, approach to pedagogy, and the advantages of being at the fringe looking in.You can see Ming’s installation “Vast Oceans, Endless Skies / 海闊天空” in the Chinese Canadian Museum’s exhibition Dream Factory: Cantopop Mandopop 1980s-2000, on until May 31, 2026.Resources:Ming Wong: https://www.mingwong.org/ Chinese Canadian Museum exhibition: Dream Factory: Cantopop Mandopop 1980s-2000: https://www.chinesecanadianmuseum.ca/exhibitions/dream-factory-cantopop-mandopop-1980s-2000 Ming Wong: 2023 SFU Fall Audain Visual Artist in Residence artist talk: https://www.sfu.ca/sca/projects---activities/audain-visual-artist-in-residence/ming-wong.html Bio:Ming Wong (b. 1971, Singapore) currently lives and works in Berlin. His interdisciplinary practice incorporating performance, video and installation unravels ideas of ‘authenticity’ and the ‘other’ with reference to the act of human performativity. In recent years, he has had strong theatrical interests in the intersection of sci-fi and traditional Chinese culture, particularly Cantonese opera. Wong uses this speculative association to tackle issues such as Chinese modernity, the role of popular culture in building national identities. His works often assemble languages and personalities to create their own “World Cinema”.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am.. “Re-enactments, Theatre, and Cantonese Opera — with Ming Wong.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, August 12, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-ming-wong.html.
On this episode of the Below the Radar B-Sides, our host Am Johal was joined by Alphonso Lingis, who was a renowned philosopher, writer, and professor at Pennsylvania State University. Alphonso passed away in May 2025, and we’re pleased to share this conversation where he discussed his recent writing, some of the thinkers who were important to his work, and notions of community and mortality.Resources:The Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common by Alphonso Lingis: https://iupress.org/9780253208521/the-community-of-those-who-have-nothing-in-common/Abuses by Alphonso Lingis: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/abuses/paperIrrevocable A Philosophy of Mortality by Alphonso Lingis: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo28301901.htmlBio:Alphonso Lingis was an American philosopher, writer, translator, and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Pennsylvania State University. His areas of specialization included phenomenology, existentialism, modern philosophy, and ethics.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “The Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common — with Alphonso Lingis” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, August 12, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/btr-bsides-alphonso-lingis.html.
In this episode we are joined by Viola Tian, where she shares her journey from arriving in Canada at the age of 19 as a student in Queen's University, to becoming a leading advocate for anti-racism and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She discusses her work with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in the U.S., highlighting bureaucratic challenges in achieving systemic change. Tian details her role in creating the Coalition Against Anti-Asian Racism Canada, focusing on education, policy advocacy, and community support. She emphasizes the need for nuanced approaches, addressing issues like online hate and funding cutbacks impacting Asian Canadian organizations. Tian also notes the importance of long-term education and the challenges of implementing DEI in corporate settings.Resources:Community Resilience Fund: https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/bt/cc/fnd-en.aspx#blockhate Report: https://ywcacanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Block-Hate-Report-October-2022-corrected-1.pdfEqual Employment Opportunity Commission: https://www.eeoc.gov/Canadian Human Rights Commission: https://www.chrc-ccdp.gc.ca/enCanadian Race Relations Foundation: https://crrf-fcrr.ca/Coalition Against Anti-Asian Racism Canada: https://crrf-fcrr.ca/coalition-against-anti-asian-racism-canada/Online Harms Bill: https://www.parl.ca/LegisInfo/en/bill/44-1/c-63Bio:Viola Tian Viola has combined five years of comprehensive experience in public policy with expertise in health and social justice. Throughout her career, Viola has engaged in meaningful collaborations in policy development and strategy with a multitude of non-profits and government institutions, playing pivotal roles in both Canadian and US federal settings. Most notably, she established the first national, pan-Asian coalition in Canada. She holds a firm conviction that every citizen possesses the potential to influence policy change, provided they are equipped with the right knowledge in government relations and advocacy techniques.
In this episode, we are joined by Irene Gammel and Jason Wang from Toronto Metropolitan University. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Irene and Jason held webinar series at the Modern Literature & Culture Research Centre. In this episode Irene and Jason share personal anecdotes and insights on how the pandemic has affected their lives, research, and cultural practices. They emphasized the importance of creative expressions, personal storytelling, and cultural documentation in navigating uncertain times and fostering a sense of community and solidarity. The speakers also discussed the surge of anti-Asian sentiment during the pandemic, highlighting the need for educational curricula, grassroots movements, and empathy across cultures to address the issue.Resources:Irene Gammel: https://www.torontomu.ca/english/about-us/faculty-and-staff/faculty/gammel-irene/ Jason Wang: https://mlc.torontomu.ca/people/jason-wangModern Literature and Culture Research Centre: https://mlc.torontomu.ca/MLC Pandemic Webinar Series: https://mlc.torontomu.ca/news/webinars/pandemic-webinar-seriesCreative Resilience and COVID-19 — Figuring the Everyday in a Pandemic: https://mlc.torontomu.ca/creative-resilience-and-covid-19 Bios:Irene Gammel Since coming to Toronto Metropolitan University in 2005, Dr. Irene Gammel has held positions as professor of English, Canada Research Chair in Modern Literature and Culture (2005; renewed 2011), and director of the Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre. She is the author and editor of fourteen books, including the internationally acclaimed Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada and Everyday Modernity (MIT Press) and Looking for Anne of Green Gables (St. Martin’s Press), as well as over 50 peer-reviewed articles and chapters. Irene Gammel is well-known for her scholarship on gender and modernism. Her research has helped uncover the earliest roots of modern and feminist performance art, contributed to the consolidation of L.M. Montgomery Studies as an academic field, and claimed women's confessional discourses as a sub-discipline of autobiographical studies. As the Director of the Modern Literature and Culture (MLC) Research Centre, she has hosted and curated numerous exhibitions, symposia, and workshops; her passion is training students at all levels through experiential methods. Jason Wang Dr. Jason Wang holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Culture (York University, 2021), an M.A. in Literatures of Modernity (Ryerson University, 2013), and a B.A. Honours with double majors in Communication Studies and Psychology (York University, 2012). He specializes in studying how modernist and contemporary literature and culture encode power, politics, and social values. His doctoral dissertation, “Urban Walking: Configuring the Modern City as Cultural and Spatial Practice” (defended with distinction), explored the aesthetics of spatial politics and the politics of spatial aesthetics in urban literature and culture from the early twentieth century to the post-industrial era.Dr. Wang is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the MLC Research Centre (2021-2023), working with Dr. Gammel on a volume of essays exploring creative resilience and COVID-19. A member of the Executive Team at the MLC Research Centre, Jason oversees the CFI-funded research space of the MLC Research & Innovation Zone (RIZ), provides technology leadership for the CWAHI (hybrid) conference, and is cohost of the MLC Pandemic Webinar Series.
In this episode we are joined by Kevin Huang and Kimberley Wong of hua foundation. The conversation centers on the rise of anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic, and highlights urgent concerns around community health, public health orders, and hate crimes. Kevin and Kimberley emphasize the importance of recognizing and addressing diverse experiences and perspectives within Asian communities, and shifting community engagement and resource allocation towards racialized communities. Speakers also discuss the limitations of the model minority myth and the need to build intergenerational relations, while acknowledging the complexities of identity and power dynamics in community work.Resources:hua foundation: https://huafoundation.org/Asian Community Convener Project: https://huafoundation.org/portfolio/acc/Anti-Racism and Solidarities Resource Collection: http://solidarities.huafoundation.orgThe Choi Project: https://huafoundation.org/portfolio/seasonal-choi-guide/Chinatown Cares Grocery Program: https://huafoundation.org/work/food-systems/chinatown-cares/Chinatown Food Security Report: https://huafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Report_VancouverCTFoodSecurity.pdfReorienting Our Trauma: https://huafoundation.org/portfolio/reorienting-our-trauma/Bios:Kimberley Wong 黄壯慈 (they/them)Kimberley Wong | 黄壯慈 (they/them) is the Program Manager at hua foundation. In their role, Kimberley designs resources for anti-racism education, builds solidarity across racialized communities, and forges paths to access culturally-appropriate mental health care for youth facing barriers. They served as a Co-Chair of the City of Vancouver’s Chinatown municipal advisory committee, were a founding member and Vice President of Chinatown Today, and were an elected member of the OneCity Vancouver Organizing Committee. Their work often mirrors their experiences moving through spaces as a queer, neurodivergent, and fifth generation Cantonese diasporic person, and though they draw on their knowledge from over a decade of navigating precarious work environments in the arts, culture, political, and equity sectors, Kimberley’s work is also deepened by their love of being a lifelong crafter, a triathlete, and a descendant whose ancestors have long histories organizing for marginalized populations on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land known colonially as Vancouver. Find them online @KimberleyLW.Kevin Huang 黃儀軒 (he/him)Kevin Huang 黃儀軒 (he/him) is the co-founder and executive director of hua foundation, an organization with the mission of strengthening the capacity among Asian diasporic youth, in solidarity with other communities, to challenge, change, and create systems for a more equitable and just future. His work has ranged from scaling culturally appropriate consumer-based conservation strategies, advancing municipal food policy to address inclusion and racial equity, to providing supports for youth from ethnocultural communities to reclaim their cultural identity on their own terms. Kevin currently serves on committees with Vancity Credit Union, Vancouver Foundation, and Metro Vancouver.
Julia Aoki hosts a discussion with Dr. Sibo Chen and Dr. Cary Wu on anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Chen, assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, discusses his research on media narratives, political polarization, and disinformation. Dr. Wu, an associate professor at York University, highlights the rise of anti-Asian racism and its impact on mental health. Sibo emphasizes the importance of bringing together diverse voices, including scholars, community practitioners, and journalists, to discuss and address the long-lasting impact of anti-Asian racism, which intensified during the pandemic. The conversation also covers the importance of understanding different perceptions of racism within Asian communities and the need for transdisciplinary research to address these issues effectively.Resources:Sibo Chen: https://www.torontomu.ca/procom/people/sibo-chen/Cary Wu: https://profiles.laps.yorku.ca/profiles/carywu/#StopAsianHate: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jtc-2021-2002/html?lang=enAngus Reid Institute: https://angusreid.org/Bios:Sibo Chen Sibo Chen is an Assistant Professor in the School of Professional Communication at Toronto Metropolitan University. As a critical communication scholar by training, his areas of interest include Public Communication of Climate and Energy Policy, Risk and Crisis Communication, Transcultural Political Economy, and Critical Discourse Analysis. Currently, he serves as Executive Board Members of the International Environmental Communication Association as well as the Canadian Communication Association.Cary Wu Cary Wu (PhD, UBC) is an assistant professor of sociology at York University. His research focuses on political culture, race and ethnicity, and health inequality. He has published widely on these topics and often shares his research with the public via national and international TV, radio, and newspaper forums including NPR, CBC, CTV, Washington Post, Toronto Star, Maclean’s, and The Economist. He is currently working on a five-year (2022-2026) SSHRC Insight Grant research project to develop a political sociology of health (PSH) to study social and political trust as essential determinants of health.
Welcome to Common Concern: Conversations on Anti-Asian Racism in the Wake of COVID-19. This is a special Below the Radar series produced in collaboration with Toronto Metropolitan University and SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Common Concern is a mini-series that considers the historical context, and short and long term impacts of a rise of anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic, through the lens of academics and community organizers.In this introductory episode, Canadian Journal of Communication editor Stuart Poyntz is joined by Sibo Chen to discuss the origins of Common Concern, as an offshoot of Sibo’s ongoing research, the potential for podcasting as an accessible vehicle for knowledge mobilization, and the development of this special series in partnership with Below the Radar.Bios:Sibo Chen Sibo Chen is an Assistant Professor in the School of Professional Communication at Toronto Metropolitan University. As a critical communication scholar by training, his areas of interest include Public Communication of Climate and Energy Policy, Risk and Crisis Communication, Transcultural Political Economy, and Critical Discourse Analysis. Currently, he serves as Executive Board Members of the International Environmental Communication Association as well as the Canadian Communication Association.Stuart R. PoyntzStuart R. Poyntz is Professor and Associate Director of the School of Communication and a Director of the Community Engaged Research Centre (CERi) at Simon Fraser University. His work in participatory research has largely involved teenagers in informal learning spaces and art institutes. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Queensland University of Technology, Griffith University, Hong Kong Baptist University, and the University of British Columbia, and was President of the Association for Research in Cultures of Young People.Stuart's research addresses children’s media cultures, theories of public life, social care and urban youth cultures. He has published five books, including the forthcoming monograph, Youthsites: Histories of Creativity, Care and Learning in the City (Oxford UP), and has published widely in national and international peer-reviewed journals, including Oxford Review of Education, Popular Culture, Journal of Children and Media, Canadian Journal of Communication, Cultural Studies, Studies in Social Justice, Journal of Youth Studies, Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies, and in various edited collections.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Kate Hennessy, Associate Professor at SFU’s School of Interactive Arts & Technology and member of anti-patriarchal, anti-colonial folk inspired punk band, The Saltlicks. Together, they chat about Kate’s practice in anthropology and contemporary art, the experience of working collaboratively and across disciplines, and her recent exhibitions Becoming Anarchival at Gallery 881 and The Water We Call Home on Galiano Island. Featuring music by The Saltlicks (“Eyeliner,” “Waxing and Waning”).Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/263-kate-hennessy.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/263-kate-hennessy.htmlResources:Making Culture Lab: https://www.makingculturelab.com/ Ethnographic Terminalia: https://ethnographicterminalia.org/ The Water We Call Home: https://www.thewaterwecallhome.com/Becoming Anarchival: https://www.smithhennessystudio.com/exhibition/becominganarchival881The Saltlicks: https://thesaltlicks.bandcamp.com/album/diaries Bio:Kate Hennessy is an Associate Professor specializing in Media at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT). She is a cultural anthropologist with a PhD from the University of British Columbia (Anthropology). As the director of the Making Culture Lab at SIAT, her research explores the role of digital technology in the documentation and safeguarding of cultural heritage, and the mediation of culture, history, objects, and subjects in new forms. Her video and multimedia works investigate documentary methodologies to address Indigenous and settler histories of place and space. Current projects include the collaborative production of virtual museum exhibits with Indigenous communities in Canada; the study of new digital museum networks and their effects; ethnographic research on the implementation of large scale urban screens in public space; open-access and innovative forms of publishing; and, the intersections of anthropology and contemporary art practices.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Becoming Anarchival — with Kate Hennessy.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, February 18, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/263-kate-hennessy.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Michael Turner, a Vancouver-based writer and musician. Am and Michael discuss the release of his latest book Playlist: A Profligacy of Your Least-Expected Poems. They also talk about the Hard Rock Miners, as well as programming work at the Malcolm Lowry Room, the Railway Club, and the Candahar Bar during the 2010 olympics. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/262-michael-turner.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/262-michael-turner.htmlResources:Michael Turner: https://mtwebsit.blogspot.com/Playlist: A Profligacy of Your Least-Expected Poems: https://www.anvilpress.com/books/playlist-a-profligacy-of-your-least-expected-poemsBio:Michael Turner lives in the garrison town of Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish territories. His books include Hard Core Logo, The Pornographer’s Poem and, more recently, 9×11 and Other Poems Like Bird, Nine, x and Eleven. His wartime journal mtwebsit.blogspot.com continues to cause him problems.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Playlist: A Profligacy of Your Least-Expected Poems — with Michael Turner.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, February 11, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/262-michael-turner.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Lisa Jackson, an award-winning filmmaker, whose work spans hybrid documentary, installation, VR, and more. Am and Lisa discuss her latest work, Wilfred Buck, a portrait of Cree Elder Wilfred Buck, an Indigenous star lore expert. They also talk about her time as an undergraduate student at SFU and her journey as a filmmaker. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/261-lisa-jackson.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/261-lisa-jackson.htmlResources:Lisa Jackson: https://www.lisajackson.ca/Door Number 3: https://doornumber3.ca/Wilfred Buck: https://doornumber3.ca/wilfred-buck/Transmissions: https://doornumber3.ca/transmissions/Biidaaban: https://doornumber3.ca/biidaaban-first-light/Suckerfish: https://www.lisajackson.ca/SuckerfishBio:Lisa Jackson lives in Toronto and is Anishinaabe from Aamjiwnaang First Nation. Her award-winning work has screened at CPH:DOX, Sundance, Berlinale Forum Expanded, SXSW, Camden, Hotdocs, Tribeca, BFI London, the Melbourne Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and broadcast widely. She’s made works ranging from current affairs to IMAX, animation to VR, and even a residential school musical. In 2021 she received the Documentary Organization of Canada’s Vanguard Award and in 2022 she was selected for a Chicken & Egg Award. Her 2024 hybrid feature documentary Wilfred Buck premiered in the DOX:AWARD section at CPH:DOX and was a top five audience pick at Hot Docs and won Best Canadian Film at Calgary Film Festival and the Women Inmate Jury Award at RIDM. Her short Lichen screened at Sundance in 2020 and Indictment: The Crimes of Shelly Chartier is one of the top watched documentaries on CBC, won the 2017 imagineNATIVE Best Doc award and was also co-produced by Lisa. Her Webby-nominated VR Biidaaban: First Light premiered at Tribeca Storyscapes in 2018, exhibited internationally to 25,000+ people, and won a Canadian Screen Award (Canada’s Oscar), the second time she’s received this honour. Transmissions, a 6000-square-foot immersive multimedia installation and sister project to Biidaaban, premiered in Vancouver in 2019 and was featured on the cover of The Georgia Straight. In 2016, she directed the VR Highway of Tears for CBC Radio’s The Current which was nominated for a Canadian Association of Journalists award. In 2015 she was drama director for the 8 x 1 hour APTN/ZDF docudrama series 1491: The Untold Story Of The Americas Before Columbus, based on the bestselling book by Charles C. Mann, which was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award. She has an MFA in Film Production from York University (thesis prize) and is an alumna of the TIFF Talent and Writers Labs, Canadian Film Centre’s Directors Lab, IDFA Summer School, CFC/NFB/Ford Foundation’s Open Immersion VR Lab, and was a Fellow at the MIT Open Doc Lab.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Star Stories — with Lisa Jackson.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, February 4, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/261-lisa-jackson.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Beatrice Marovich, Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Hanover College and author of Sister Death: Political Theologies for Living and Dying. Together, they chat about the process of writing the book, and the theoretical and philosophical concepts of death as a relationship of enmity and sisterhood. Enjoy the episode!Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/260-beatrice-marovich.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/260-beatrice-marovich.htmlResources:Beatrice Marovich: https://www.beatricemarovich.com/ Sister Death: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/sister-death/9780231208376 Bio:Beatrice Marovich is the author of Sister Death: Political Theologies for Living and Dying (Columbia University Press, 2023). She teaches in the Department of Theological Studies, at Hanover College. Her work offers provocative reflections on the way that strange and ancient religious figures and ideas remain at work in our cultures, in our politics, and in our bodies in both beautiful and deeply unsettling ways.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “On Dying — with Beatrice Marovich.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, January 28, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/260-beatrice-marovich.html.
In this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Véronique Sioufi, the Researcher for Racial & Socio-economic Equity at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC Office, and a doctoral candidate in geography at Simon Fraser University.Am and Véronique discuss what brought her to her doctoral work and her interest in issues of labour inequality, as well as how her position at the CCPA was created in order to look at structural racism in BC and fill in major data gaps. They also talk about how she and her colleagues in the CCPA approach questions of decolonisation in their work.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/259-veronique-sioufi.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/259-veronique-sioufi.htmlResources:Véronique Sioufi: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/people/veronique-sioufi/Véronique's Doctoral Research: https://www.sfu.ca/geography/about/our-people/profiles/veronique-emond-sioufi.htmlCCPA BC: https://www.ccpabc.ca/Bio:Véronique is the CCPA-BCs Researcher for Racial & Socio-economic Equity, a data-driven, intersectional initiative that investigates structural racism and socio-economic inequalities in BC. An interdisciplinary researcher, Véronique critically examines the social and political structures affecting the ability of the working class to thrive. She brings a rich blend of expertise and work experience in labour, economic geography, critical data studies, critical race theory and communication. Currently a doctoral candidate in geography at Simon Fraser University, her SSHRC-funded study delves into crowdwork in Canada and Tunisia, particularly how platforms rely on and reproduce precarity and the uneven distribution of that precarity across gender, race, class and geography. Véronique also holds an MA in Communication from SFU, where she explored the tensions in Canadian unions' use of privately owned social media platforms for collective organizing. Véronique is proud of her Palestinian roots, which make her particularly sensitive to the geographies of politics and power. She is passionate about community-driven, collaborative and hopeful research.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Racial Equity in Policy Making — with Véronique Sioufi.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, January 14, 2025. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/259-veronique-sioufi.html.
In this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Damla Tamer, a visual artist and sessional lecturer at UBC whose work explores the affective conditions of labour under late capitalism, and the evolution of forms of civil protest within the contemporary political history of Turkey. Damla is also a founding member of the Art Mamas artist collective, which aims to create support networks for artist caregivers, while critically exploring the place of motherhood and care work within the dominant culture of art production.Am and Damla discusses her recent exhibition at Access gallery, which explored the aftermath of the Gezi protests in Turkey through textile works, her work with housing co-ops in False Creek South, and why she thinks it’s ok for students to express love for a work of art.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/258-damla-tamer.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/258-damla-tamer.htmlResources:Art Mamas CBC Article: https://www.cbc.ca/arts/exhibitionists/art-mamas-meet-the-vancouver-collective-that-creates-community-for-mothers-in-the-arts-1.5129578 Art Mamas | Access Gallery: https://accessgallery.ca/programming/artmamasart/mamas: Intermedial Conversations on Art, Motherhood and Caregivinghttps://criticalmediartstudio.iat.sfu.ca/artmamas/?page_id=291&fbclid=PAAaYDby0LbG_w1ZkyIsEjU61ZIV3FfuBCa25TBFHLHuMn9XUUmJqpUro5pPU UBC Profile:https://ahva.ubc.ca/profile/damla-tamer/ Bio:Damla Tamer (born in Istanbul, Turkey) is a visual artist and educator living on the unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories. Her practice engages with the intersections of textile crafts and contemporary studio practices, with a special focus on weaving. Her work is heavily invested in searching for a new ethics of temporality through the relationships between aesthetics and politics. Her most recent work focuses on tracing the rise of neoliberal authoritarianism in Turkey and its relation to global movements, the evolution of forms of civil protest and resistance, and the capacities and limits of language and representation in locating oneself in a world that is rife with shifts. She does social-collaborative work as part of various artist collectives and co-operatives. She is a founding member of the artist mothers collective A.M. (Art Mamas) and has organized extensive public programming and co-published a book on motherhood, caregiving and social reproduction in relation to art and labour at large. She teaches at The University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and Emily Carr University of Art+Design.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Art Mamas — with Damla Tamer.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, December 17, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/258-damla-tamer.html.Tags:SFU, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement, Simon Fraser University, Am Johal, Below the Radar, Damla Tamer, Art Mamas, Gezi, Vancouver Podcast
In this episode of Below the Radar, host Am Johal sits down with Mena El Shazly, a visual artist specializing in moving image creation, curation, and programming. Her practice speculates on notions of presence and transcendence in the digital world, exploring how processes of decay provide alternative forms of transformation and regeneration. They discuss her approach to time-based media, how the collaborative Death Spells project explores the ancient Egyptians afterlife obsessions, the Sudanese Crystalist movement, and how a teenage visit to Dracula’s castle unexpectedly waylaid her tennis career, steering her toward a life in art.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/257-mena-el-shazly.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/257-mena-el-shazly.htmlResources:Mena El Shazly: https://substantialmotion.org/profile/mena-el-shazlyThe Crystalist Manifesto: https://post.moma.org/modern-art-in-the-arab-world-primary-documents-the-crystalist-manifesto/ The Motion of the Image: https://thecinematheque.ca/films/2024/motion-imageThe Lind Biennial: https://thepolygon.ca/exhibition/the-lind-biennial/ Stir ‘Splainer: 5 artists at The Lind Biennial exhibition at the Polygon Gallery: https://www.createastir.ca/articles/lind-biennial-stir-splainer Small File Media Festival: https://smallfile.ca/ Bio:Mena El Shazly is a visual artist who works with analogue video, embroidery and performance. Her practice speculates on notions of presence and transcendence as informed by the internet culture and ancient rituals, and explores practices of cultivating decay to arrive at alternative forms of transformation and regeneration. Exhibitions of her work include Polygon Gallery, Vancouver (2024), Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo (2024), and House of World Cultures, Berlin (2015). She was a fellow of the Home Workspace Program at Ashkal Alwan in Beirut (2015). El Shazly is based in Vancouver on unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ First Nations. She obtained an MFA from the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver (2023) and a BA from the American University in Cairo (2013). El Shazly also has a well-established curatorial practice. She is the Artistic Director of the Cairo Video Festival organized by Medrar and a programmer at the Small File Video Festival.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “On Crystals, Tennis and Vampires — with Mena El Shaly.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, December 3, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/257-mena-el-shazly.html.Tags: SFU, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement, Simon Fraser University, Am Johal, Below the Radar, Mena El Shazly
This week on Below the Radar, we’re joined by Tina Sikka, Reader in Technoscience and Intersectional Justice in the School of Arts and Culture at Newcastle University. Tina discusses her research and writing on topics such as consent, justice, and feminist science studies, as well as her work in EDI at the university. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/256-tina-sikka.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/256-tina-sikka.htmlResources:Tina Sikka: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/people/profile/tinasikka.htmlSex, Consent and Justice: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-sex-consent-and-justice.htmlHealth Apps, Genetic Diets and Superfoods: https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/health-apps-genetic-diets-and-superfoods-9781350202030/Disrupted Knowledge Book: https://brill.com/display/title/64108?language=enDisrupted Knowledge Podcast: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/disruptedknowledgeBio:Dr. Tina Sikka is Reader in Technoscience and Intersectional Justice in the School of Arts and Culture at Newcastle University, UK. Her current research includes the critical and intersectional study of science, applied to climate change, bodies, and health, as well as research on consent, sexuality, and restorative justice. Dr. Sikka also works in the areas of decolonisation, bordering practices, and DEI. Dr. Sikka’s book, Health Apps, Genetic Diets, and Superfoods: When Biopolitics Meets Neoliberalism (Bloomsbury, 2023), uses autoethnography, science and technology studies, and new materialism to examine what constitutes ‘good health’ and explore possibilities for enacting health justice. Her previous book, Sex, Consent, and Justice: A New Feminist Framework (Edinburgh University Press, 2021) offers a novel approach to sexual ethics and transformative forms of justice using case studies from #MeToo, while her first book, Climate Technology, Gender, and Justice: The Standpoint of the Vulnerable (Springer, 2019), draws on feminist science studies to explore the science underpinning solar climate engineering. Dr. Sikka’s work on EDI, and current role as Director of EDI in The School of Arts and Cultures at Newcastle University, has led to invitations to lead workshops and she acts as a consultant on race, gender, and the workplace, cancel culture, and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the public and private sectors.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Technoscience and Intersectional Justice — with Tina Sikka.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, November 19, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/256-tina-sikka.html.
Filmmaker Brett Story and labour organizer Chris Smalls join us this week on Below the Radar. Brett is the co-director of UNION, a documentary film that follows the efforts of the Amazon Labor Union and their campaign to unionize the first Amazon warehouse in American history. The movement was spearheaded by Chris, a former Amazon warehouse supervisor who was fired in 2020 after organizing a protest against Amazon’s lack of COVID-19 safety protocols. Brett and Chris chat about the process of making the film, the state of organizing in the contemporary moment, and the international reception of UNION.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/255-brett-story-chris-smalls.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/255-brett-story-chris-smalls.htmlResources:Brett Story: https://brettstory.ca/Chris Smalls: https://www.instagram.com/chris.smalls_/?hl=enAmazon Labor Union: https://www.amazonlaborunion.org/UNION: https://www.unionthefilm.com/DOXA Documentary Film Festival: https://www.doxafestival.ca/Bio:Bretty Story:Brett Story is an award-winning filmmaker and writer based in Toronto. Her films have screened in theatres and festivals internationally, including at CPH-DOX, SXSW, True/False, and Sheffield Doc/Fest. She is the director of the award-winning films The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016) and The Hottest August (2019), and author of the book Prison Land: Mapping Carceral Power Across Neoliberal America. The Hottest August was a New York Times Critics’ Pick and was called one of the ten best documentary films of 2019 by over a dozen publications, including Variety, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.Brett has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Sundance Institute, and was named one of Variety’s 10 Documentary Filmmakers to Watch. In 2020 she was nominated for a Cinema Eye Award for Best Director. She holds a PhD in geography and is currently an assistant professor of Media Praxis at the University of Toronto. Her most recent film, UNION, co-directed with Stephen Maing, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024.Chris Smalls:Christian Smalls is the founder of the Amazon Labor Union, an independent, democratic, worker-led labor union at Amazon in Staten Island. He is also the founder of The Congress of Essential Workers (TCOEW), a nationwide collective of essential workers and allies fighting for better working conditions, better wages, and a better world.Smalls was formerly an Amazon warehouse supervisor, helping open three major warehouses in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut during his five years with the company, but he was fired in 2020 after organizing a protest against the company’s unsafe pandemic conditions.Smalls has been profiled by media outlets worldwide, including The New York Times, USA Today, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, CBC Radio, Salon, and Jacobin. He lives in Hackensack, New Jersey.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “ Union Power — with Brett Story and Chris Smalls.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, November 5, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/255-brett-story-chris-smalls.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Hank Bull, an artist and curator whose administration and advocacy work has greatly contributed to artist-run culture in Canada. Hank discusses his work with the Western Front and Centre A, and he also brought along some props to give us a taste of what his past radio art sounded like!Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/254-hank-bull.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/254-hank-bull.htmlResources:Hank Bull: https://hankbull.ca/The HP Show: https://wavefarm.org/ta/archive/works/vae2daWestern Front: https://westernfront.ca/Centre A: https://centrea.org/Vancouver Art Gallery: https://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/Bio:Hank Bull was born in 1949 in Moh’kins’tsis/Calgary and grew up in Toronto and small towns in southern Ontario. He became interested in art and music at an early age, mentored by a librarian, Graham Barnett, and encouraged by high school instructors Paavo Airola and David Blackwood. After travels in Europe in 1968, he studied drawing and photography in Toronto under Robert Markle and Nobuo Kuobota. In 1973, he moved to xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam)/Vancouver to join the newly formed artist-run centre Western Front. In this interdisciplinary setting, he was exposed to mail art, poetry, ceramics, improvised music and video. He produced a weekly radio broadcast, cabaret performances, shadow theatre and telecommunications projects. During the 1980s he travelled in Asia, Africa and Europe, organized international exchanges and helped to develop a Canadian network of artist-run centres. He has worked in collaboration with a wide range of artists, including Kate Craig, Glenn Lewis, General Idea, Robert Filliou, William S. Burroughs, Kathy Acker, Michael Snow, Mona Hatoum, Antoni Muntadas, Steve Lacy, Tari Ito, Rebecca Belmore, Germaine Koh, Khan Lee, Cornelia Wyngaarden and many others. He has filled a variety of roles as artist, curator, writer, organizer and administrator. Throughout his career, he has continued an individual practice of painting, music, photography, video, sound and sculpture. He lives at the Western Front and spends a fair amount of time in swiya, territory of shíshálh Nation, as a member of the Storm Bay Art and Conservation Society.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “The World Accordion To Hank — with Hank Bull.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 22, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/254-hank-bull.html.
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer, and artist, joins us on this week’s episode of Below the Radar. Am Johal and Leanne chat about her creative process, the significance of Nishnaabeg thought and practice in her work, and some upcoming projects including her newest book Theory of Water, set to be published in Spring of 2025.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/253-leanne-simpson.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/253-leanne-simpson.htmlResources:Leanne Betasamosake Simpson: https://www.leannesimpson.ca/ Leanne Simpson: Listening in Our Present Moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VhckgLYX3k Episode 122: Theory of Ice — with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/122-leanne-betasamosake-simpson.html Dancing On Our Turtle’s Back: https://arpbooks.org/product/dancing-on-our-turtles-back/ As We Have Always Done: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517903879/as-we-have-always-done/ Bio:Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg musician, writer and academic, who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. Her work breaks open the boundaries between story and song—bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity.Leanne has performed in venues and festivals across Canada with her sister singer songwriter Ansley Simpson and guitarist Nick Ferrio. Leanne’s second album, f(l)light, was released in 2016 and is a haunting collection of story-songs that effortlessly interweave Simpson’s complex poetics and multi-layered stories of the land, spirit, and body with lush acoustic and electronic arrangements. Her EP Noopiming Sessions combines readings from her novel Noopiming with soundscapes composed and performed by Ansley Simpson and James Bunton with a gorgeous video by Sammy Chien and the Chimerik Collective. It was produced during the on-going social isolation of COVID-19 and was released on Gizhiiwe Music in the Fall of 2020.Leanne is the author of seven books, including This Accident of Being Lost, which won the MacEwan University Book of the Year; was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Trillium Book Award; was long listed for CBC Canada Reads; and was named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Quill & Quire. Her new novel Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies was released by the House of Anansi Press in the fall of 2020 and in the US by the University of Minnesota Press in 2021 and was named one of the Globe and Mail’s best books of the year and was short listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction. A Short History of the Blockade was released by the University of Alberta Press in early 2021. Her new project with Robyn Maynard, Rehearsals for Living will be released in 2022 by Knopf Canada.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Theory of Water — with Leanne Simpson.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 8, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/253-leanne-simpson.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, we’re joined by Miwa Matreyek, an animator, designer, performer and Assistant Professor in Theatre Production and Design at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts. Am and Miwa discuss how she got into making interdisciplinary artwork and some of her recent projects that combine animation and live performance. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/252-miwa-matreyek.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/252-miwa-matreyek.htmlResources:Miwa Matreyek: https://miwamatreyek.com/ SFU Theatre Production and Design: https://www.sfu.ca/sca/programs/theatre-production---design.htmlInfinitely Yours: https://miwamatreyek.com/#/infinitelyyours/Cloud Eye Control: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cloud-eye13-2009oct13-story.htmlBio:Miwa Matreyek is an animator, designer, and performer. Coming from a background in animation, Matreyek creates live, interdisciplinary performances that integrate projected animations at the intersection of cinematic and theatrical, fantastical and physical, and the hand-made and digital. Her work exists in a dreamlike visual space that makes invisible worlds visible, often weaving surreal and poetic narratives of conflict between humanity and nature as embodied performed experiences. She has presented her work internationally, including animation/film festivals, theater/performance festivals, art museums, science museums, tech conferences, and universities. A few past presenters include TED, MOMA, SFMOMA, New Frontier at Sundance Film Festival, PUSH festival, Lincoln Center, Walker Art Center, and many more. Her newest solo piece, Infinitely Yours, was awarded the grand prize for Prix Arts Electronica’s Computer Animation category. She is a 2013 Creative Capital award recipient. She is the co-founder and core collaborator of Cloud Eye Control. Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Infinitely Yours — with Miwa Matreyek.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 1, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/252-miwa-matreyek.html.
This week on Below the Radar, we’re joined by Ghinwa Yassine, a Lebanese anti-disciplinary artist whose work confronts the ideological and patriarchal systems that she grew up in, while exploring collective feelings and what it means to be a marked body. Ghinwa discusses her recent multi-media installations and ongoing artistic research into gestural agency and freedom.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/251-ghinwa-yassine.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/251-ghinwa-yassine.htmlResources:Ghinwa Yassine: https://www.ghinwayassine.com/How Far Can a Marked Body Go? : https://www.ghinwayassine.com/how-far-can-a-marked-body-goKickQueen: https://www.ghinwayassine.com/kickqueenMENA Film Festival: https://www.menafilmfestival.com/When You Pour Something, It Carries the Memory of its Mold: https://www.ghinwayassine.com/when-you-pour-something-it-carries-the-memory-of-its-moldBio:Ghinwa Yassine is an anti-disciplinary artist based on the land of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people, so-called Vancouver. Her work uses various media, including film, installation, performance, text, and drawing. Yassine’s work confronts the ideological and patriarchal systems that she grew up in while exploring collective feelings and what it means to be a marked body. She seeks a radical historicizing of individual and collective traumas where embodied memories are put into question. Using hybrid forms of storytelling, where story manifests as somatic experiencing, ritual, and gesture, her projects are portals to factual/fictional dimensions that activate collective memory. Yassine holds an MFA in Contemporary Art - Interdisciplinary Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, an MA in Digital Video Design from the University of the Arts Utrecht, and a BA in Graphic Design from the American University of Science and Technology in Beirut. Her works have been exhibited in the Netherlands, Lebanon, UAE, Canada, Iran, and Croatia.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “How Far Can A Marked Body Go? — with Ghinwa Yassine.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, September 24, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/251-ghinwa-yassine.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Wendy Brown, distinguished American political theorist and Professor Emerita of Political Science at the University of California Berkeley. Together they discuss Wendy’s writing on the emergence of and critical responses to identity politics, physical border controls as performative expressions of sovereignty, the replacement of democratic values with neoliberal values of free market competition and individualism, and her forthcoming work on expanded notions of democracy that account for the past, future, human and non human. They also discuss the 2024 American presidential race, and as this episode was recorded in May, before President Joe Biden announced that he would not run for re-election, some comments are out of date, though still relevant to larger conversations around electoral politics.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/250-wendy-brown.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/250-wendy-brown.htmlResources:Wendy Brown: https://www.ias.edu/sss/wendy-brownStates of Injury: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691029894/states-of-injuryWalled States, Waning Sovereignty: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9781935408031/walled-states-waning-sovereigntyUndoing the Demos: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9781935408543/undoing-the-demosBio:A political theorist who works across the history of political thought, political economy, Continental philosophy, cultural theory and critical legal theory, Wendy Brown is the UPS Foundation Chair in the School of Social Science. Prior to her appointment at the Institute, she was Class of 1936 First Chair at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a prize-winning teacher and scholar. Drawing from Nietzschean, Weberian, Marxist, Foucauldian, feminist and postcolonial angles of vision, Professor Brown writes about the subterranean powers shaping contemporary EuroAtlantic polities, with particular attention to the political identities, subjectivities and expressions they spawn. The author/co-author of a dozen books in English, she is best known for her interrogation of identity politics and state power in States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity (1995); her critical analysis of tolerance in Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire (2006); her account of the inter-regnum between nation states and globalization in Walled States, Waning Sovereignty (2010); and her study of neoliberalism’s assault on democratic principles, institutions and citizenship in Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution (2015) and In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West (2019). Across her work, Brown aims to illuminate powers unique to our era and the predicaments they generate for democratic thought and practice. These predicaments range from rule by finance, to the de-democratization of political culture, to the nihilistic depletion of truth, values and conscience. Currently, Brown is exploring how political freedom can be salvaged from its historical imbrication with regimes of class, race and gender subjection and be made responsive to the climate crisis. Her driving question is whether and how political freedom can be reformulated in light of both. She is also extending and revising for publication her 2019 Yale Tanner Lectures, “Politics and Knowledge in Nihilistic Times: Thinking with Max Weber.” Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “States of Injury — with Wendy Brown.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, September 17, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/250-wendy-brown.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Ranjit Hoskote, poet, translator, art critic, and curator. Together they discuss Bombay’s political and cultural milieu in the 1980s and 90s, from which Ranjit began to experiment with art making, artistic and curatorial responses to an emergent neo-colonial Indian state. They also discuss the crisis of cultural politics, Ranjit’s poetic responses to humanity’s demise in this moment of ecological crisis, and the promise he sees in interstitial spaces. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/249-ranjit-hoskote.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/249-ranjit-hoskote.htmlResources:Ranjit’s linktree: https://linktr.ee/rhoskote Icelight: https://www.weslpress.org/9780819500557/icelight/Hunchprose: https://www.penguin.co.in/book/hunchprose/ Jonahwhale: https://www.penguin.co.in/book/jonahwhale/ PEN International: https://www.pen-international.org/ Bio:Ranjit Hoskote is an Indian poet, theorist, and curator whose influential work centres on the complex history and presence of cultural pluralism from the local to the global. His eight books of poetry—including Icelight (2022), Jonahwhale (2018), and a translation of a fourteenth-century Kashmiri mystic-poet, I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd (2011)—engage with themes of identity, displacement, and transformation through time. His acclaimed 2012 book Confluences: Forgotten Histories between East and West (with Ilija Trojanow) traced the rich history of intercultural and interreligious encounter that has shaped—and continues to shape—the contemporary world. Hoskote has curated more than 50 showcases of Indian and global art over the past three decades, including India’s first national pavilion at the Venice Biennale.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “The Politics of Art — with Ranjit Hoskote.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, September 10, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/249-ranjit-hoskote.html.
This week on Below the Radar we’re joined by Michael Hardt, political theorist and Professor at Duke University. Am and Michael discuss the political concept of love, Michael’s research on revolutionary movements in the 1970s, as well as his past writing with the late Tony Negri, and how they continue to think together.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/248-michael-hardtRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/248-michael-hardtResources:Michael Hardt: https://scholars.duke.edu/person/hardtThe Subversive Seventies: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-subversive-seventies-9780197674659Michael’s Talk at SFU: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/library/2023/michael-hardt-the-subversive-seventies.htmlEmpire by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674006713Bio:Michael Hardt teaches political theory in the Literature Program at Duke University. He is co-author, with Antonio Negri, of the Empire trilogy and, most recently, Assembly. He is co-director with Sandro Mezzadra of The Social Movements Lab.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “The Politics of Love — with Michael Hardt.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, August 27th, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/248-michael-hardt.html.
As the seasons change, Below the Radar is back to our regularly scheduled programming featuring a dynamic range of local and international voices. We’re thrilled to bring a host of critically acclaimed writers, theorists, and artists across disciplines to share conversations on the politics of love, the crisis of neoliberalism, and artmaking through political shifts. We also have graduates and faculty of our very own SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts to discuss their practice and pedagogy.Our Fall season will begin on August 27, 2024, with new episodes on Tuesdays. This season is also a celebration of Below the Radar’s milestone 250th episode, featuring political theorist Wendy Brown. As we head into our sixth year, we’re so grateful for your continued listenership, and we have lots of exciting projects and partnerships coming up ahead. As always, thank you for listening and we’re looking forward to sharing these conversations with you.Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/btr-trailer-fall-2024.html
This episode of Below the Radar is a special live recording from SFU School for the Contemporary Arts’ 2023 Re-Orientation Day, an all-day event designed to welcome SCA students, faculty, and staff back to campus for the fall semester. The 2023 theme was on “Place,” and the Vancity Office of Community Engagement convened a panel of speakers across the arts, academia, and community engagement to speak on community engaged practices in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Our host Am Johal is joined by Wendy Pedersen of the Downtown Eastside SRO Collaborative, SFU Professor of Geography Nick Blomley, musician and facilitator Khari Wendell McLelland, dancer, choreographer and now SCA faculty Justine Chambers, and Vancity Office of Community Engagement staff Julia Aoki, Kathy Feng and Samantha Walters. Enjoy the episode!Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/247-re-orientations.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/247-re-orientations.htmlResources:DTES SRO Collaborative: https://srocollaborative.org/ Nick's work: https://www.sfu.ca/geography/about/our-people/profiles/Nicholas-Blomley.html Khari’s website: https://khariwendellmcclelland.com/ Justine’s website: https://justineachambers.com/ About Julia: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/about/updates/all-updates/meet-julia-aoki.html Samantha’s website: https://samanthawalters.com/ Kathy’s website: https://kathyfeng.info/ Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “PLACE: SCA Re-Orientation Day 2023.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, August 20, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/247-re-orientations.html.
This week on Below the Radar, we’re joined by Zool Suleman, co-founder and editor of Rungh Magazine. Zool discusses Rungh’s founding as a national South Asian focused cultural initiative in the 90s, and how the magazine has since evolved into a platform for Indigenous, Black and racialized artist conversations.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/246-zool-suleman.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/246-zool-suleman.htmlResources:Rungh Magazine: www.rungh.orgStop Racial Profiling: www.stopracialprofiling.caZool Suleman: www.sulemanco.comBio:Zool Suleman is a lawyer, writer, journalist, and cultural collaborator. He is the Editor of Rungh Magazine. He co-founded Rungh (1991), as a national South Asian focused arts initiative and relaunched Rungh in 2017 as a creative platform for Indigenous, Black and racialized artist conversations. In addition to his engagements as a cultural connector, he advocates for immigrants and refugees and has been active in national and local civil society initiatives against racism, racial profiling and Islamophobia, as the Executive Director of MARU since 2004. His work has been recognized by the City of Vancouver, the Attorney General of British Columbia, the BC Museum Association, and the Canadian Association of Journalists.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Archiving Counter-Histories — with Zool Suleman.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, July 23, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/246-zool-suleman.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Ellie Anderson, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Pomona College, and co-host of the Overthink podcast. Ellie joins us to discuss how she got into philosophy and contemporary readings of Simone de Beauvoir’s work.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/245-ellie-anderson.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/245-ellie-anderson.htmlResources:Ellie Anderson: https://www.ellieandersonphd.com/Ellie Anderson’s work: https://pomona.academia.edu/EllieAndersonOverthink podcast: https://overthinkpodcast.com/Bio:Ellie Anderson is a philosopher with expertise in feminist theory, existentialism, phenomenology, and philosophy of race. She is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Pomona College and co-host of Overthink podcast. An internationally recognized specialist on love, dating, sexual consent, ethical non-monogamy (including open relationships and polyamory), and selfhood, Ellie is published in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Hypatia, Continental Philosophy Review, Forge Magazine, and more. She is currently working on a book.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Reading Simone de Beauvoir — with Ellie Anderson.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, July 9, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/245-ellie-anderson.html.
Our host Am Johal is joined by Ian Angus, Professor Emeritus from the Department of Global Humanities at Simon Fraser University. Together, they chat about Ian’s academic career, his engagement with the work of Husserl, and his most recent book, Groundwork of Phenomenological Marxism: Crisis, Body, World (Lexington Books, 2021).Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/244-ian-angus.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/244-ian-angus.htmlResources:Ian Angus: https://www.sfu.ca/globalhumanities/human-dir/emeritus/i-angus.html Groundwork of Phenomenological Marxism: Crisis, Body, World: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793640918/Groundwork-of-Phenomenological-Marxism-Crisis-Body-World Ian’s work: https://sfu.academia.edu/IanAngus/ Bio:Ian Angus is Professor Emeritus from the Department of Global Humanities at Simon Fraser University. He has published in the areas of contemporary philosophy, Canadian Studies, and communication theory. A Festschrift on his work has been edited by Samir Gandesha and Peyman Vahabzadeh: "Crossing Borders: Essays in Honour of Ian H. Angus, "Beyond Phenomenology and Critique" (Arbeiter Ring, 2020). His most recent book is "Groundwork of Phenomenological Marxism: Crisis, Body, World" (Lexington Books, 2021).Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Groundwork of Phenomenological Marxism — with Ian Angus.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, June 18, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/244-ian-angus.html.
Artist and curator Germaine Koh joins our host Am Johal on this week’s episode of Below the Radar. Together, they chat about some of Germaine’s work—including her ongoing project League—and the incorporation of sport into art. Germaine also shares stories about receiving a 2023 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, the importance of unproductivity, and her projects on Salt Spring Island. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/243-germaine-koh.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/243-germaine-koh.htmlResources:Germaine’s website: https://germainekoh.com/ Home Made Home: http://homemadehome.ca/League project site: http://league-league.org/ Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency: https://thebluecabin.ca/ Interview with Shadbolt Fellow and Governor General's Award winner Germaine Koh: https://www.sfu.ca/fass/news/2023/12/germaine-koh-shadbolt-fellow.html Bio:Germaine Koh is a Canadian artist and curator based on the west coast of Turtle Island, in traditional Coast Salish territories. Her work adapts familiar situations, everyday actions and common spaces to encourage connections between people, technology, and natural systems. Her ongoing projects include Home Made Home, an initiative to build and advocate for alternative forms of housing, and League, a participatory project using play as a form of creative practice. From 2018 to 2020 she was the City of Vancouver’s first Engineering Artist in Residence, and was Koerner Artist in Residence at the University of British Columbia for 2021. In 2023-24 she was a Shadbolt Fellow in the Humanities at Simon Fraser University. Koh was awarded a 2023 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “League — with Germaine Koh.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, June 4th, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/243-germaine-koh.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Srećko Horvat, a philosopher, author, and co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025. Am and Srećko discuss the journey behind launching the Island School of Social Autonomy on the Adriatic island of Vis. ISSA is a place for imagining, experimenting with and cultivating forms of knowledge-production and knowledge-sharing for the “age of extinction”..Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/242-srecko-horvat.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/242-srecko-horvat.htmlResources:Srećko Horvat: https://sreckohorvat.org/Island School of Social Autonomy: https://issa-school.org/Subversive Festival: https://subversivefestival.com/Democracy in Europe Movement 2025: https://diem25.org/en/The Radicality of Love: https://sreckohorvat.org/the-radicality-of-love/After the Apocalypse: https://sreckohorvat.org/after-the-apocalypse/Bio:A Croatian philosopher and author who produced a blizzard of political works – with several books published when he was barely into his thirties. Nowadays he is known as a fiery voice of dissent in the Post-Yugoslav landscape. If you aren’t familiar with Horvat’s work, you can probably recognise a lot of people who are. He is friends with the former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis; had regular visits with Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, an organisation that publishes news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. He is also a staunch friend of Slavoj Žižek, the maverick Slovenian celebrity academic with whom Horvat co-wrote a book in 2013 entitled “What Does Europe Want?”. His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel. Aside from co-founding DiEM25, which campaigns to reform the EU into a “realm of shared prosperity, peace and solidarity”, he is a founder of the Subversive festival, an annual jamboree in Zagreb of radical thought that has featured the likes of Oliver Stone and Antonio Negri.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Island School of Social Autonomy — with Srećko Horvat.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, May 21, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/242-srecko-horvat.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Seth Klein, Team Lead and Director of Strategy of the Climate Emergency Unit, a 5-year project of the David Suzuki Institute that Seth launched in early 2021. Am and Seth discuss how he and his team are working to mobilise Canada for the climate emergency, including their latest project evaluating how the CBC reports on climate.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/241-seth-klein.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/241-seth-klein.htmlResources:Seth Klein: https://www.sethklein.ca/Climate Emergency Unit: https://www.climateemergencyunit.ca/A Good War: https://ecwpress.com/collections/books/products/a-good-warCBC Climate Emergency Campaign: https://www.climateemergencyunit.ca/cbc-climate-emergency-campaignBio:Seth Klein is the Team Lead and Director of Strategy of the Climate Emergency Unit (a 5-year project of the David Suzuki Institute that Seth launched in early 2021). Prior to that, he served for 22 years (1996-2018) as the founding British Columbia Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a public policy research institute committed to social, economic and environmental justice. He is the author of A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency (published by ECW press in 2020) and writes a regular column for Canada’s National Observer. He is an adjunct professor with Simon Fraser University’s Urban Studies program, an honorary research associate with the University of British Columbia’s School for Public Policy and Global Affairs, and remains a research associate with the CCPA’s BC Office.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “The Politics of Climate Emergency Mobilization — with Seth Klein.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, May 7, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/241-seth-klein.html.
Artist and comedian Kira Nova joins us this week on Below the Radar. Alongside our host Am Johal, they chat about growing up in the circus, clowning, experimental pedagogy, and Kira’s psychedelic clown workshops.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/240-kira-nova.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/240-kira-nova.htmlResources:Kira’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kira.nova_/?hl=en Psychedelic Clown Workshops: http://clownsonacid.tilda.ws/ Bio:Kira Nova is a world renowned artist, comedian and producer whose credits include the MoMa and the MET. Over the past 10 years she has created 5 solo shows and curated a number of variety theater productions. Among which was a show she created with Michael Portnoy and Reggie Watts — “Alligators! Experimental Comedy Lab”, presented in The Netherlands and Belgium.Nova has presented her breed of one-woman shows at such venues as MoMa PS1, MET Breuer, The Kitchen in New York; Center Pompidou in Paris, Royal Academy Theater in London, Art Basel in Basel among many. While as a comedian Nova performed in many venues around NY, which include productions at The Box and House of Yes.For the past 10 years, Nova has been leading workshops and teaching at many North American and European Art Academies, that include: Columbia University in New York (US), Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta (Canada), Paul Klee Center in Basel (Switzerland), Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), de Appel Curatorial Program in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel (Germany), Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Since 2013, Nova works as a professor at Lunds University (Sweden).Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Clowns on Acid — with Kira Nova.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 23, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/240-kira-nova.html.
This week on Below the Radar, we’re joined by Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim, co-creators of the participatory videogame performance asses.masses. The show recently wrapped up a run at Vancouver’s PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Patrick and Milton discuss the show’s development, videogames as performance, and what they’ve discovered as they’ve toured the piece.Find out more and get tickets for their upcoming performances at https://www.assesmasses.work/performancesFull episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/239-patrick-blenkarn-milton-lim.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/239-patrick-blenkarn-milton-lim.htmlResources:asses.masses: https://www.assesmasses.work/Patrick Blenkarn: https://patrickblenkarn.com/Milton Lim: https://www.miltonlim.com/culturecapital: https://www.culturecapital.cards/Bio:Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim are conceptual artists exploring urgent questions around the social value of art, digital labour, and the political potential of games. Mixing their backgrounds in performance, philosophy, psychology, and digital media, their collaborations have manifested in video games, participatory installations, digital archives, and card games. In addition to asses.masses, Patrick and Milton are also the co-founders of the Canadian national video archive of performance (videocan) and the co-creators behind a performing arts economy trading card game (culturecapital). Their projects have been presented across Canada, as well as in Argentina, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, in English, French, and Spanish.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleWalters, Samantha. “Ass Power — with Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 9, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/239-patrick-blenkarn-milton-lim.html.
This week, we’re sharing an episode from our friends at FCAT After School. FCAT After School is a podcast project led by student hosts from across SFU’s Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology speaking with alumni about their career journey since graduation. You’ll hear stories of and advice for traditional and unconventional career paths across communication, interactive arts and technology, contemporary arts, publishing and digital media.What does it mean to fail and succeed at the same time? How can one offer joy as a form of activism? What is the purpose of comedy in 2024? In this episode, host Torien Cafferata explores these questions with SFU School for the Contemporary Arts alum June Fukumura, an interdisciplinary theatre artist, clown, and comedian.June has appeared on the Arts Club stage, in film and TV, and an award-winning Fringe Festival solo show. Together she and Torien explore how, in June’s line of work, failure is very much a form of success — and re-enchanting the everyday can happen both on and off the stage.To learn more about June’s work, check out her website: junefukumura.com or Instagram: @june.fukumuraFind full episode transcripts and more info on FCAT After School: sfu.ca/fcat/news/podcast.htmlTo learn more about SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts, Theatre & Performance BFA: sfu.ca/sca/programs/theatre-performance.htmlFollow SFU's FCAT on social media:Twitter: twitter.com/FCATatSFUInstagram: instagram.com/fcatatsfuLinkedin: linkedin.com/school/fcatatsfuFacebook: facebook.com/FCATatSFU
On this episode of Below the Radar, we’re joined by Ania Malinowska, hypnotherapist, cultural theorist and Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. We discuss Ania’s scholarly practice, love, and how Ania found herself being trained in hypnosis.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/238-ania-malinowska.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/238-ania-malinowska.htmlResources:Ania Malinowska: https://aniamalinowska.com/The Unhappy Ending Project: https://unhappyendingproject.com/Hypnotic AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhptkULpzkkData Dating: https://www.datadating.online/Love in Contemporary Technoculture: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/love-in-contemporary-technoculture/074FE883A89E836B494D581E7C74A3AB?fbclid=IwAR1Kw7BqgQ8sdCZRMmz80YHApzetCqdjg6h43Zoq3wT8Yt0SmB3GJcNH00AThe Materiality of Love: https://www.routledge.com/The-Materiality-of-Love-Essays-on-Affection-and-Cultural-Practice/Malinowska-Gratzke/p/book/9780367886639Bio:Ania Malinowska is a cultural theorist, poet and author. She is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice (Institute of Culture Studies and Centre for Critical Technology Studies), and a former Senior Fulbright Fellow at The New School in New York. Malinowska’s work is associated with critical posthumanism and cultural semiotics, gathering approaches from media and cultural studies, anthropology, philosophy of technology, and digital humanities. Her critical writing focuses on technologically shaped love practices and emotional traditions under digitalism. A licensed hypnotist and an author of fiction and poetry, Malinowska is a proponent of textrapolation, a method of poetic experimentation based on intuitive assemblage she employs for her cutout and stamp poems.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “The Art of Love, Hypnosis, and AI.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, March 26, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/238-ania-malinowska.html.
Curator, writer, and educator Moroti George joins our host Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar. Moroti is the curator at The Black Arts Centre in Surrey, BC and the Director/Curator of Gallery Gachet in downtown Vancouver. Together, they chat about how Moroti became interested in the arts, their experience working in two different art spaces, and their approach to curating in Greater Vancouver.sFull episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/237-moroti-george.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/237-moroti-george.htmlResources:Gallery Gachet: https://gachet.org/Gallery Gachet’s instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gallerygachet/The Black Arts Centre: https://theblackartscentre.ca/The Black Arts Centre’s instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblackartscentre/ See How We Run! Art as Agency, Autonomy and Community — with Demi London and Moroti George: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/see-how-we-run/229-art-as-agency-autonomy-and-community.htmlBio:Olumoroti (MorotiI) Soji-George (he/they) is a curator, writer and educator based in Vancouver, BC. He is the curator at the Black Arts Centre in Surrey, BC and the Director/Curator of Gallery Gachet in downtown Vancouver. Olumoroti's curatorial practice primarily involves unravelling and demystifying the ways Blackness is embodied and codified in our shared milieu and conceptualizing the works of Black Contemporary artists and their contributions to the Black cultural lexicon and our understanding of the state of Blackness. His research and curatorial practice also involve envisioning accessible and community-centred art spaces and highlighting the stories of individuals and communities who construct new ways of being that challenge the Western status quo. At the core of his practice is the belief that space could be used to reflect the agency and lived experiences of individuals whose bodies and identities are not typically valued, respected and represented in traditional art and academic settings.Through an exploration of language, the archive, lens-based works, history and cultural theory, Olumoroti's curatorial practice is grounded in a passion for non-hierarchical epistemological production that could contribute to the creation of a pathway where new approaches to cultural production and the politics that fuel the ways different bodies perceive and understand the world could emerge.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Community-Centred Curating — with Moroti George .” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, March 12, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/237-moroti-george.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Glen Clark, who was formerly premier of British Columbia, as well as president and chief operating officer of the Jim Pattison Group in Vancouver. Glen discusses his political career, from his time in labour movements to the legislative assembly, and further on to how he exited politics and got into working with corporate titan Jim Pattison.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/236-glen-clark.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/236-glen-clark.htmlResources:Glen Clark 1996 Cabinet: https://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/reference/clarkcabinet.pdfThe Jim Pattison Group: https://www.jimpattison.com/Bio:Glen Clark is a senior advisor to Rogers Communications and Tiny Ltd. Prior to that he was the President and COO of The Jim Pattison Group. Mr. Clark is also a member of the Board of Directors of Westshore Terminals Investment Corporation, an export terminal company and Tersa Earth, a small biotechnology startup. Prior to his corporate roles, Mr. Clark served as Premier of British Columbia, Minister of Finance and Corporate Relations, and Minister of Employment and Investment. Mr. Clark was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in 1986 to represent the constituency of Vancouver-East. In the 1991 and 1996 general elections, he was re-elected to represent the constituency of Vancouver-Kingsway. Mr. Clark holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Simon Fraser University, and a master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of British Columbia.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Glen Clark: Main Street vs. Howe Street — with Glen Clark.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, March 5, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/236-glen-clark.html.
This week on Below the Radar, we are joined by T.J. Demos, Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Visual Culture at University of California, Santa Cruz, and Director of its Center for Creative Ecologies. Together, they chat about TJ’s book, Radical Futurisms: Ecologies of Collapse, Chronopolitics, and Justice-to-Come. They also discuss the question of climate justice in visual culture, green capitalism, and fossil fascism.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/235-tj-demos.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/235-tj-demos.htmlResources:T. J.'s website: https://tjdemos.sites.ucsc.edu Center for Creative Ecologies: https://creativeecologies.ucsc.edu Radical Futurisms: Ecologies of Collapse, Chronopolitics, and Justice-to-Come: https://www.sternberg-press.com/product/radical-futurisms/ Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today: :https://www.sternberg-press.com/product/against-the-anthropocene-visual-culture-and-environment-today/ Decolonizing Nature: Contemporary Art and the Politics of Ecology: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9783956790942/decolonizing-nature/ T.J. Demos Essays: https://ucsc.academia.edu/TjDemos Bio:T. J. Demos is the Patricia and Rowland Rebele Endowed Chair in Art History in the Department of the History of Art and Visual Culture, at University of California, Santa Cruz, and founding Director of its Center for Creative Ecologies. Demos is the author of several books, including Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today (Sternberg Press, 2017); Decolonizing Nature: Contemporary Art and the Politics of Ecology (Sternberg Press, 2016); The Migrant Image: The Art and Politics of Documentary During Global Crisis (Duke University Press, 2013) – winner of the College Art Association’s 2014 Frank Jewett Mather Award – and Return to the Postcolony: Spectres of Colonialism in Contemporary Art (Sternberg Press, 2013). He recently co-edited The Routledge Companion on Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, and Climate Change (2021), was a Getty Research Institute Fellow (Spring 2020), and directed the Mellon-funded Sawyer Seminar research project Beyond the End of the World (2019-21). Demos was Chair and Chief Curator of the Climate Collective, providing public programming related to the 2021 Climate Emergency > Emergence program at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (Maat) in Lisbon. His new book, Radical Futurisms: Ecologies of Collapse, Chronopolitics, and Justice-to-Come, 2023, is now out from Sternberg Press.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Radical Futurisms — with T.J. Demos.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, February 27, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/235-tj-demos.html.
This week on Below the Radar we’re joined by Sanem Güvenç, a scholar, psychoanalyst, and university professor, as well as co-president of the Vancouver-based psychoanalytic society Lacan Salon. Together they discuss friendship, authoritarianism, teaching, and how Sanem reads the works of various philosophers, with a focus on how she got into Lacan. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/234-sanem-guvenc.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/234-sanem-guvenc.htmlResources:Sanem Güvenç: https://www.sanemguvenc.com/ Lacan Salon: https://lacansalon.com/ECUAD's Critical and Cultural Studies: https://www.ecuad.ca/academics/all-programs/undergraduate-programs/crcpBio:Sanem Güvenç is an independent scholar based in Vancouver. Her current practice sits at the intersection of social-political theory and psychoanalysis, and works towards carving and mapping possible instances of echoes, dissonances, knottings and alliances in between those two broad fields. She traces these, on the one hand, in the humanities and social science classes she teaches at ECUAD's Critical and Cultural Studies, where she is positioned as a scholar in residence. On the other hand, these tropes are the founding questions of her book manuscript, tentatively titled, Topologies of the Void, where she employs speculative narration and experimental theorizing. Previously she journeyed through twentieth century its beginning and end through politics of eugenics and diseases in the first half of the twentieth century and neoliberal governmentalities at the tail end of it. At the moment, she is acting as the co-president of the Lacan Salon, the Vancouver-based psychoanalytic society that promotes and transmits analytical discourse.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Unhingedness — with Sanem Güvenç.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, February 13, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes234-sanem-guvenc.html.
This week on Below the Radar, we are joined by Travis Holloway: a poet, translator, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at SUNY Farmingdale, and author of the book How to Live at the End of the World: Theory, Art, and Politics for the Anthropocene (Stanford University Press, 2022). Am and Travis discuss noticing patterns in contemporary art making during the climate crisis. Travis also shares about translating the work of philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, the importance of friendship with all living beings, and the process of publishing a book.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/233-travis-holloway.html Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/233-travis-holloway.htmlDonate to Below the Radar:https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/donate.html Resources:How to Live at the End of the World: Theory, Art, and Politics for the Anthropocene:https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=34552 Read more of Travis's work: https://pratt.academia.edu/TravisHollowayBio:Travis Holloway grew up queer and working class in a rural factory town affected by free trade and globalization. His most recent book is How to Live at the End of the World: Theory, Art, and Politics for the Anthropocene (Stanford, 2022). Holloway is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at SUNY Farmingdale and a poet and former Goldwater Fellow in Creative Writing at NYU. He has an M.F.A., Ph.D., and is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at SUNY Farmingdale, a translator, and a poet and former Goldwater Fellow in Creative Writing at NYU. His primary interests are in contemporary continental philosophy, aesthetics, social and political philosophy, queer theory, and the environmental humanities. His work on these topics has been published in Italy, Turkey, the UK, Columbia, Canada, the Czech Republic, and the U.S. His most recent publications include "Weather" (The Philosopher, 2022), "Philosophy at the End of the World: For a Counterhistory of Human Beings in the Anthropocene" (The Philosopher, 2020), "A Strategy for a Democratic Future" (Tropos, 2019), “Neoliberalism and the Future of Democracy" (Philosophy Today, 2018), and “How to Perform a Democracy” (Epoché, 2017). He is co-translator of three books and several articles by Jean-Luc Nancy, and co-author of several public-facing articles and the book Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action that Changed America (OR Books, 2011). He is currently working on two additional monographs: How to Perform a Democracy; and How to Assemble with All the Living. Holloway has received fellowships from the Fulbright Commission, the DAAD, the Andrew Mellon foundation, and the Max Kade Institute for research and advanced study in Germany, France, and Italy.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “How to Live at the End of the World — with Travis Holloway.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, January 30, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/233-travis-holloway.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, we’re joined by John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast. Fire Weather is a national best selling book about the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, North America's oil industry, and our new century of fire, which has only just begun. Our host Am Johal and John discuss how John approached the subject, the process of collecting and weaving stories from Fort McMurray, and how the book has been received. John will be joining us for a free public talk on the book on January 31st, 2024! RSVP at https://bit.ly/47YnwDZFull episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/232-john-vaillant.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/232-john-vaillant.htmlResources:Fire Weather: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/739360/fire-weather-by-john-vaillant/9780735273160Fire Weather winning the Baillie Gifford Prize 2023: https://www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/year-by-year/2023Fire Weather on the New York Times Top 10 Books of 2023: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/books/review/best-books-2023.htmlBio:John Vaillant is an author and freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and the Guardian, among others. His first book, The Golden Spruce (Knopf, 2005), was a bestseller and won several awards, including the Governor General's and Writers’ Trust awards for non-fiction. His second nonfiction book, The Tiger (Knopf, 2010), won the B.C. Achievement Award for Non-Fiction, was a bestseller selected for Canada Reads, and has been published in 16 languages. In 2014 Vaillant won the Windham-Campbell Prize, a global award for non-fiction. In 2015, he published his first work of fiction, The Jaguar's Children (Knopf, 2015), which was long-listed for the Dublin IMPAC and Kirkus Fiction Prizes, and was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. His latest book, Fire Weather (Knopf, 2023), is a #1 national bestseller, and a finalist for the National Book Award (US), the Baillie Gifford Prize (UK), and the Writers‘ Trust Nonfiction Prize.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Fire Weather — with John Vaillant” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, January 16, 2024. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/232-john-vaillant.html.
On this episode of See How We Run! we’re joined by Hives for Humanity’s co-directors Sarah Common and Cait Hurley to talk about the history of the apicultural organization, its evolution from a supportive prevocational training program to a Community Supported Apiculture model, and the ways they are centering their relationship to the plants and soil in the Hastings Folk Garden in their work.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/see-how-we-run/231-learning-from-fireweed.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/231-learning-from-fireweed.htmlResources:Hives for Humanity: https://www.hivesforhumanity.com/Hives' Community Supported Apiculture: https://www.hivesforhumanity.com/onlineshopSOIL: A Transformative Justice Project: https://www.soiltjp.org/our-work/resourcesCARFAC: https://www.carfac.ca/tools/fees/Bios:Sarah Common Sarah is a community weaver, gardener and sometimes beekeeper; she is passionate about fostering vibrant, healthy community through empowerment and education; they believe in the profound impact of connecting individuals and communities to their land, food, plant medicine, and spirit. They are of Irish Settler descent, a guest on these shared, ancestral, and occupied lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples. Practicing care and connection through healing gardens, shared story, and slowing time, Sarah volunteers on the Board of Grounded Futures; and with Ancestral Food Ways.As Time & Times Sarah plays accordion and works with plant fibres - weaving protective spells into adornments towards truth.Cait HurleyCait (they/them, co-director of Community Care & Growing Governance) is a queer care worker of Doukhobor and Irish descent, based on the ancestral and occupied lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) first peoples.Graduating from Simon Fraser University with a BA Geography, they are curious about community encounters that transform us and the durational care necessary to persist while considering the geographies of their utopian-commune settler ancestors. Composing small studies and time-based questions on the edges with Gentle Geographies, - an embodied, land-based research praxis grounded in a study of relationships and conditions - composing with plants and the elements, primarily orbiting through the Downtown Eastside and remote frontlines.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleAoki, Julia. “Learning from Fireweed – With Sarah Common and Cait Hurley.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, December 19, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/see-how-we-run/231-learning-from-fireweed.html.This episode is hosted by SFU VOCE program manager Julia Aoki.
On this episode of See How We Run!, we’re joined by two cultural workers: Asia Jong, an emerging curator, arts facilitator and who was one of the co-organizers of Ground Floor Art Centre, a collectively-run DIY gallery, studio and project space with a focus on supporting early emerging artists; and Vitória “veto” Monteiro, an emerging visual artist, arts facilitator, and current Board President of grunt gallery and Acting Curator of Learning and Engagement at the Contemporary Art Gallery. Hosted by SFU VOCE staff member and emerging visual artist Kathy Feng, the three are in conversation about some of Asia and Vitória’s previous work and individual practices. They explore how to create opportunities for emerging artists, and the history of Ground Floor Art Centre and other DIY spaces similar to it. They also talk about incorporating accessibility into the gallery, opening up spaces through workshops and prioritizing access needs, as well as the importance of centering care and joy in arts and cultural spaces.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/see-how-we-run/230-from-a-place-of-care.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/230-from-a-place-of-care.htmlResources:Vitória’s website: https://vitoriamonteiro.ca/Vitória’s instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vetosea/Contemporary Art Gallery: https://cagvancouver.org/grunt gallery: https://grunt.ca/Asia’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asiajong/Ground Floor Art Centre: https://www.instagram.com/groundfloorac/Bios:Asia Jong:Asia Jong is an independent curator, arts facilitator, administrator and writer from Armstrong, B.C. currently based in Vancouver, on unceded and traditional Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories. She co-ran Ground Floor, a DIY art space and collective which supported early-emerging artists, operating through the values of care, hospitality, and a positive approach to failure.Vitória “veto” MonteiroVitória "veto" Monteiro (b. Brazil) is an arts worker, facilitator and visual artist. In their art practice, they explore the intricacies of language abstraction, the anti-archive and the reprocessing of information. Navigating the fields where information dwells, veto's work provides a new realm for knowledge to co-exist that is silent, inarticulate, and abstract. veto works as the Acting Curator of Learning and Engagement at the Contemporary Art Gallery, along with serving as the Board President at grunt gallery. Their community practice centers accessible, joyful, and more tender approaches to existing within art and cultural spheres. As a facilitator, they reimagine office culture and modes of productivity, shifting towards cultivating workspaces that prioritize care. By exploring ways of incorporating play, stimming, and self-expression into office culture or the day-to-day, veto roots these shifts as powerful acts of resistance.veto is based on Skwxwú7mesh, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm , and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ lands or so-called “Vancouver”.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleFeng, Kathy. “See How We Run! From a Place of Care — with Asia Jong and Vitória Monteiro.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, December 12, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/see-how-we-run/230-from-a-place-of-care.html.
On this episode of See How We Run! we’re joined by Gallery Gachet’s executive Director Demi London and artistic director Moroti George to talk about the evolution of Gachet’s approach to supporting artistic creation and exhibition, in ways that are accessible to and supportive of people facing systemic barriers and social marginalization. We speak about the ways the gallery’s programming and operations changed over time in response to shifts in funding, space and the needs of the community, and we discuss their personal entry points into their work at the gallery. This episode is hosted by SFU VOCE program manager Julia Aoki.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/see-how-we-run/229-art-as-agency-autonomy-and-community.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/229-art-as-agency-autonomy-and-community.htmlResources:Gallery Gachet: https://gachet.org/Dion Smith-Dokkie, This Will Be The First Of A Thousand Worlds: https://gachet.org/current-events-and-exhibitions/dion-smith-dokkieBlack Art Centre: https://theblackartscentre.ca/VANDU: https://vandu.org/Open Space: https://openspacearts.ca/Bios:Demi LondonTraversing through the fields of art, culture, education, and parenting, Demi March London has become attached to experimental emergent spaces and the dialogical aesthetics of administration. Figuring out what ideas look like, and how to talk about them, is an integral part of progressing critical discourse; Demi finds encouragement and hope by advocating for different ways of knowing and being. Galleries and museums have a tendency to be ceremonial spaces for the performance of authority, and Demi has always admired artist-run centres for challenging this and interrogating notions of power and place. As Executive Director at Gachet, Demi aims to foster a reflective and inclusive culture of ideas, discourse, critique, and community – a safe space for creative experimentation and articulating vulnerability.Moroti GeorgeOlumoroti (MorotiI) Soji-George (he/they) is a curator, writer and educator based in Vancouver, BC. He is the curator at the Black Arts Centre in Surrey, BC and the artistic director of Gallery Gachet in downtown Vancouver. Olumoroti's curatorial practice primarily involves unravelling and demystifying the ways Blackness is embodied and codified in our shared milieu and conceptualizing the works of Black Contemporary artists and their contributions to the Black cultural lexicon and our understanding of the state of Blackness. His research and curatorial practice also involve envisioning accessible and community-centred art spaces and highlighting the stories of individuals and communities who construct new ways of being that challenge the Western status quo. At the core of his practice is the belief that space could be used to reflect the agency and lived experiences of individuals whose bodies and identities are not typically valued, respected and represented in traditional art and academic settings.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleAoki, Julia. “See How We Run! Art as Agency, Autonomy and Community — with Demi London and Moroti George .” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, December 5, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/see-how-we-run/229-art-as-agency-autonomy-and-community.html.
On this episode of See How We Run! we’re joined by Neworld Theatre’s managing director Alen Dominguez and consultant Caitlin Jones to talk about Progress Lab 1422’s Backstage Spaces report. Progress Lab is a building in East Van that is a dedicated performance creation space and home to a collective of renowned theatre and dance companies, who collaboratively run the space with their nonprofit tenants’ board C-Space. The Backstage Spaces report provides an understanding of the issues performance creation spaces face in terms of affordability, city zoning, and property-tax, that threaten not only the companies tenancies but their creative capacities.This episode is hosted by SFU VOCE program assistant and interdisciplinary performance artist Samantha Walters.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/see-how-we-run/228-backstage-spaces.html.Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/228-backstage-spaces.htmlResources:Progress Lab 1422: https://c-space.ca/Backstage Spaces Report: https://c-space.ca/backstage-spaces/Neworld Theatre: https://neworldtheatre.com/Bios:Alen Dominguez (He/Him) is a Mexican-Canadian theatre artist who trained as an actor at the University of British Columbia. He has since expanded his work into producing and arts management for several award-winning companies across Metro Vancouver. He's currently the Managing Director at Neworld Theatre and the chair of C-Space, which runs Progress Lab 1422. He's so lucky to get to work in that building surrounded by the coolest cats in town. He’s also worked with Tara Cheyenne Performance, Royal City Musical Theatre, Electric Company, The Chop, City Opera Vancouver, Bard on the Beach, Ruby Slippers, Arts Club, Citadel, Chemainus and Western Gold. Alen is a co-founder of the Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition (CALTAC) and an active member of the Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency (SCALE).Caitlin Jones is a long-time cultural worker, curator and writer—working with and within a range of independent and institutional contexts. As Executive Director of BCA (formerly BC Artscape) she was responsible for the development and operations of multiple affordable real-estate projects for the cultural community. As the Executive Director of the Western Front Society in Vancouver, in addition to her directorial and curatorial duties, she spearheaded programming, policy and dialogue around issues of equity and urban development, and the roles of artists within it. Prior to her move to BC she held a combined curatorial and conservation position at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, was the Director of Programming at the Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery and was a writer and advisor for Rhizome.org. Her writings on contemporary art and new media have appeared in a wide range of exhibition catalogues, periodicals and other international publications including The Believer, Documents in Contemporary Art series, among others.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleWalters, Samantha. “See How We Run! Backstage Spaces — with Alen Dominguez and Caitlin Jones.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, November 28, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/see-how-we-run/228-backstage-spaces.html.
Welcome to See How We Run! An original Below the Radar mini-series featuring conversations with arts and cultural workers in Vancouver. In this first episode, co-hosts Julia Aoki, Kathy Feng, and Samantha Walters introduce the series and what’s to come. In each episode, they’ll speak to artists, consultants, administrators, and advocates about how art and culture is made and sustained in Vancouver.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/see-how-we-run/227-see-how-we-run.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/227-see-how-we-run.htmlResources:Gallery Gachet: https://gachet.org/Hives for Humanity: https://www.hivesforhumanity.com/Progress Lab 1422: https://c-space.ca/Backstage Spaces Report: https://c-space.ca/backstage-spaces/Contemporary Art Gallery: https://cagvancouver.org/Powell Street Festival: https://powellstreetfestival.com/Bios:Julia Aoki is an administrator, writer, researcher, and advocate. She is the Program Manager at SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement. She has served as the Executive Director of Megaphone magazine, General Manager of VIVO Media Arts Centre, and General Manager and Programming Director of the Powell Street Festival, where she prioritized developing community centred programs. Julia currently sits on the board of 221A Artist Run Centre Society, and has volunteered with advocacy organizations such as the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres and DTES SRO Collaborative. Her writing on cultural expressions and community formations that are overlooked and underserved by commercial and political mechanisms and practices can be found in TOPIA, Space and Culture and a collection by Lexington Books.Kathy Feng is an interdisciplinary artist, born in Guangzhou, China, and is a guest living and working on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. As an immigrant and child of immigrants, she grew up between cultures in a constant process of learning, unlearning, and relearning. This framework informs the central themes to her work: in which memory and nostalgia are expressed through images, text, and the aesthetics of the temporal. Kathy holds a BFA in Visual Art with a minor in Art and Performance Studies from SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts. She began working at SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement January 2020 as a Research Assistant for the Below the Radar podcast.Samantha Walters is an emerging interdisciplinary performer, writer, and creator. She has been the Program Assistant at SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement since 2022. They are based on xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) lands. As an artist, she mostly works between contemporary theatre, directing, and video making. Their most recent works examine ecological relationships and post-human spiritualities, with a heavy favour towards the weird, the dark, and the camp. Collaboration within communities and alongside the non-human lies at the heart of her process. She grew up in England and Hong Kong and holds a BFA honours in Theatre Performance with a minor in English and a certificate in Performance Studies from SFUs School for the Contemporary ArtsCite this episode:Chicago StyleAoki, Julia, Feng, Kathy, and Walters, Samantha. “See How We Run! Conversations with Arts and Cultural Workers.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, November 21, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/227-see-how-we-run.html
This week on Below the Radar, we’re joined by Vancouver legend Norman Armour, a curator, consultant, producer, director, actor and non-profit arts specialist with over 35 years of experience. Norman discusses his experience co-founding the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, his storied career in the Canadian arts scene, as well as his health.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/226-norman-armour.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/226-norman-armour.htmlResources:Norman Armour: https://www.normanarmourconsulting.com/PuSh International Performing Arts Festival: https://pushfestival.ca/Rumble Theatre: https://rumble.org/The Post at 750: https://thepostat750.ca/VIFF Live: https://viff.org/live/viff-2023/Bio:Norman Armour is a Vancouver-based curator, consultant, producer, director, actor and non-profit arts specialist with 35+ years of experience. Since graduating from SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts in 1986, he has collaborated on over 120 works for the stage and other media. In 2005, he co-founded the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, serving as its Artistic and Executive Director for 14 years. Prior to that, he co-founded and established Rumble Theatre as a mainstay of the city’s thriving independent theatre scene. He is also a co-founder of the Post at 750, an innovative shared workspace for the non-profit arts. His consulting practice focuses on scenario planning, business strategy, mentoring, proposal writing and development, as well as international engagement, touring and exchange. His career and community contributions have been recognized with numerous awards, including the City of Vancouver Mayor’s Award and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from his alma mater.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Paramedic for the Arts — with Norman Armour.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, November 7, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/226-norman-armour.html.
Alex Hemingway, Senior Economist and Public Finance Policy Analyst at the BC Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), joins Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar. They discuss the Canadian housing crisis, the misclassification of independent contractors in the gig economy, and the CCPA’s report promoting a wealth tax.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/225-alex-hemingway.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/225-alex-hemingway.htmlResources:Alex Hemingway: https://policyalternatives.ca/authors/alex-hemingwayCanadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA): BC Office: https://policyalternatives.ca/offices/bc/aboutCCPA: Wealth Tax Report: https://www.policynote.ca/tax-the-rich/Understanding Precarity in BC Project: https://policyalternatives.ca/projects/understanding-precarityNo Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age: https://janemcalevey.com/book/no-shortcuts-organizing-for-power-in-the-new-gilded-age/Bio:Alex Hemingway is a Senior Economist and Public Finance Policy Analyst at the CCPA’s BC Office. His research focuses on tax fairness, public finances, public services, and economic inequality in BC and Canada.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Extreme Inequality in Canada — with Alex Hemingway.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 31, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/225-alex-hemingway.html.
This week on Below the Radar, we're joined by Samir Gandesha, Professor in the Department of the Humanities and the Director of the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University. In this conversation, Samir and Am discuss the importance of challenging ideas in academia, how family trauma has impacted his perspective, and the long history of the Institute for the Humanities–leading up to the celebration of the Institute's 40th anniversary in October 2023.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/224-samir-gandesha.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/224-samir-gandesha.htmlResources:Samir Gandesha: https://www.sfu.ca/people/gandesha.htmlInstitute for the Humanities: https://www.sfu.ca/humanities-institute.htmlDissertation: Tragedy and Enlightenment: https://philpapers.org/rec/GANTAESpectres of Fascism: https://btlbooks.com/book/spectres-of-fascismJournal: Contours: https://www.sfu.ca/humanities-institute/publication/contours.htmlThe Spell of Capital: https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789089648518/the-spell-of-capitalBio:Samir Gandesha is currently Professor in the Department of the Humanities and the Director of the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University. He specializes in modern European thought and culture, with a particular emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Samir was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and immigrated with his parents as an infant to Canada in the mid-1960s. Members of his extended family were expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin in 1972.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “The Reason for Reason — with Samir Gandesha.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 24, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/224-samir-gandesha.html.
Bruce Mutsvairo, Professor of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University, and a 2023 SFU CERi researcher-in-residence, sits down with Am Johal to discuss his journey from journalism into academia and the state of journalism in Africa. He and Am also discuss the complexities of citizen journalism in relation to influencers, especially in the context of transparency, misinformation, and inequality.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/223-bruce-mutsvairo.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/223-bruce-mutsvairo.htmlResources:Bruce Mutsvairo: https://www.uu.nl/staff/bmutsvairoIntroducing Bruce Mutsvairo: https://www.sfu.ca/ceri/blog/2023/Introducing-Bruce-Mutsvairo.htmlPlatforms, Power and Politics: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=platforms-power-and-politics--9781509553570&fbclid=IwAR0qhMg8n4OLgGo0ucxHYcTwtdXSF38ZpYbDYYCLmcCNpZIEWuf3tCuSsv4Bio:Bruce Mutsvairo is a Professor in the department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University, where he also doubles as the UNESCO Chair on Disinformation, Data and Democracy. His research revolves around the importance of community engagement in academia. Bruce is SFU CERi’s researcher-in-residence from January until August 2023.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Platforms, Power, and Politics — with Bruce Mutsvairo.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 17, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/223-bruce-mutsvairo.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Ali Kazimi, director and winner of the 2019 Governor General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts. Ali shares with Am how he got into filmmaking, his experiences of discrimination when arriving in Canada, and his path into the production of his various films, such as Continuous Journey, Narmada, Random Acts of Legacy, and his latest film, Beyond Extinction.In talking about his film, Shooting Indians, created in collaboration with Jeffrey Thomas, Ali describes the film’s dialogic approach, and how Jeffrey challenges the visual stereotypes of Indigenous people put forward by the American photographer, Edward Sherriff Curtis. Ali explains how he uses archives to unearth never before seen footage of the Komagata Maru, and how he embraces the imperfections of old archival materials. Finally, Am and Ali discuss the effort it takes to maintain autonomy as a filmmaker.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/222-ali-kazimi.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/222-ali-kazimi.htmlResources:Ali Kazimi: https://alikazimi.ca/Continuous Journey: https://alikazimi.ca/films/continuous-journey/Narmada: A Valley Rises: https://alikazimi.ca/films/narmada/Random Acts of Legacy: https://alikazimi.ca/films/random-acts-of-legacy/Shooting Indians: https://alikazimi.ca/films/shooting-indians/Beyond Extinction: A Sinixt Resurgence: https://alikazimi.ca/films/beyond-extinction/Bio:Ali Kazimi is a filmmaker, author and media artist whose work deals with race, social justice migration, history and memory. He is the recipient of the 2019 Governor General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts. Ali is currently an associate professor at York University's School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design and was the former chair for the Department of Cinema & Media Arts.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Beyond Extinction — with Ali Kazimi.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 10, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/222-ali-kazimi.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, Angela Aujla, visual artist and Professor of Sociology at Georgian College, sits down with Am Johal. Angela shares her career transition into the visual arts, while continuing to draw upon her academic background in Sociology and Anthropology to influence her mixed-media works. Angela also discusses the influences and inspiration of her art exhibition, My Grandmother’s Dress. The episode ends on a meaningful conversation about the complexities of diaspora identities and how different generations dealt with them.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/211-angela-aujla.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/211-angela-aujla.htmlResources:Angela Aujla’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angela_aujla_art/?hl=enAngela Aujla - Exhibition: My Grandmother’s Dress: https://maclarenart.com/exhibition/my-grandmothers-dress/Bio:Angela Aujla is a South Asian Canadian visual artist, influenced by her academic study of visual culture, anthropology, and feminist postcolonial theory. Her mixed-media, narrative artwork explores the complexity and interplay of history, memory, and identity with a focus on diasporic and material culture. Angela is also a Professor of Sociology in Georgian College’s Liberal Arts department.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Making Legible These Lives — with Angela Aujla.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 3, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/221-angela-aujla.html.
This week on Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Ryan Tacata, Assistant Professor of Performance at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts. Together, Am and Ryan discuss his performance residency at the Libby Leshgold Gallery, and methods of designing pedagogy for contemporary performance education. Ryan also shares how he started in live performance and some of the various artists who have inspired him.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/220-ryan-tacata.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/220-ryan-tacata.htmlResources:Ryan Tacata: http://www.ryan-tacata.com/about/School for the Contemporary Arts: https://www.sfu.ca/sca.htmlWhite Carpet: https://libby.ecuad.ca/exhibitions/2023/soft-launch.htmlLa Mamelle: http://www.ryan-tacata.com/la-mamelleFor You: http://www.foryou.productions/aboutThe Welcoming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8Z3XHtNdm0Florentina Holzinger: https://floholzinger.wordpress.com/Bio:Dr. Ryan Tacata is a performance maker, educator, and scholar living in Vancouver, BC. He is currently Assistant Professor of Performance at the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University. He has a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2007) and received his PhD in Performance Studies from Stanford University. His dissertation "La Mamelle: Bay Area Conceptual Performance Art and The Alternative Art Archive" undertakes the La Mamelle/Art Com archive and various histories of West Coast conceptualism.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Nasty Performances — with Ryan Tacata.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, September 26, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/220-ryan-tacata.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, Charlotte Gill, author of the books Ladykiller and Eating Dirt, sits down with Am Johal to explore her latest book, Almost Brown, which shares her experience growing up as a mixed-race child in a multi-cultural/religious household. Charlotte describes the family dynamics that led her Punjabi father to marry her English mother and become estranged from his father, and in turn, the process that led Charlotte to becoming estranged from her own father.The episode ends on a meaningful conversation about how mixed identities narratives have changed across generations, and how the language to discuss those identities have evolved.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/219-charlotte-gill.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/219-charlotte-gill.htmlResources:Charlotte Gill: https://charlottegill.com/about/Almost Brown: https://charlottegill.com/almost-brown/Ladykiller: Stories: https://charlottegill.com/ladykiller/Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe: https://charlottegill.com/eating-dirt/Bio:Charlotte Gill is the author of Eating Dirt, a national bestseller that won the B.C. National Award for Canadian Nonfiction. Her previous book, Ladykiller, was a Governor General’s Award nominee. Charlotte is the Rogers Communications Chair in Literary Journalism at the Banff Centre as well as faculty in the MFA program in creative nonfiction at the University of King’s College. Her latest book, Almost Brown, a mixed-race family memoir, is published by Penguin Random House.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Almost Brown — with Charlotte Gill.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, September 19, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/219-charlotte-gill.html.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University, joins Am Johal to discuss the pertinent topic of fascism and how political figures use and promote the image of “strongmen'' in their pursuit of power. Am and Ruth explore the modern political environment through Ruth’s book, Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present, linking the style of Mussolini to politicians like Berlusconi, Orban, and Trump, and the process by which they become more corrupt, more reliant on power, and thereby more reliant on extremists. In conjunction with our previous episode with Alberto Toscano, these two episodes give a historical perspective to understanding the rise of fascism in the present.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/218-ruth-ben-ghiat.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/218-ruth-ben-ghiat.htmlResources:Ruth Ben-Ghiat: https://ruthbenghiat.com/Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present: https://wwnorton.com/books/strongmenLucid: Substack Newsletter: https://lucid.substack.com/Bio:Ruth Ben-Ghiat is Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University. She writes about fascism, authoritarianism, propaganda, and democracy protection. Her latest book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, examines how illiberal leaders use corruption, violence, propaganda, and machismo to stay in power, and how resistance to them has unfolded over a century.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Fascist Strongmen — with Ruth Ben-Ghiat.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, September 12, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/218-ruth-ben-ghiat.html.
Critical theorist Alberto Toscano sits down with Am Johal to discuss the emergence of critical theory alongside fascism's rise in the 1920s and 30s. He speaks of Georges Sorel as a politically radical figure from the time period, highlights the role of political violence in the emergence of fascism, and delves into contemporary American currents of fascism – particularly focusing on the racialized form of state terror present in the United States.From there, Alberto discusses the concept of fascism and its continued relationship to settler colonial formations, its association with extreme neoliberalism, and the importance of figures like Aimé Césaire, W. E. B. Du Bois, Angela Davis, and George Jackson in emphasising manifestations of racial fascism. He acknowledges the complexity of using terms like American fascism, and mentions the need to understand the dynamics and political economy underlying the far-right movements in the U.S., which are the result of white homogeneity and privileged groups imagining their annihilation and victimisation.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/217-alberto-toscano.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/217-alberto-toscano.htmlResources:Alberto Toscano: https://www.sfu.ca/communication/people/faculty/Alberto-Toscano.htmlFanaticism: The Uses of an Idea: https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/products/2134-fanaticismCartographies of the Absolute: https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/our-books/cartographies-of-the-absoluteThe Nightwatchman’s Bludgeon: https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/the-nightwatchmans-bludgeonBio:Alberto Toscano is Reader in Critical Theory at the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London, where he co-directs the Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought. He is Visiting Faculty at the Digital Democracy Institute, School of Communication, SFU.Alberto’s current research is divided into three main strands: a theoretical inquiry into contemporary authoritarian trends and their dis/analogies with their historical predecessors, culminating in the forthcoming book Late Fascism (Verso, 2021); the study of tragedy as a framework through which to understand political action and its discontents, from decolonisation to environmentalism; and the development of ‘real abstraction’ as a heuristic for the analysis contemporary capitalism, notably in its nexus with processes of racialisation. As the series editor of The Italian List for Calcutta-based publisher Seagull books, Alberto’s research is also concerned with the translation and reception of Italian literature, literary criticism and critical theory.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Late-Facism — with Alberto Toscano.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, August 29, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/217-alberto-toscano.html.
Below the Radar is returning from our summer break, bringing you 15 new conversations from an eclectic range of guests. We have invited local and international academics and artists to speak on topics ranging from continuing and emergent forms of fascism, and expressions of diasporic narratives and experiences in literary, visual, and moving image arts, to citizen journalism in Africa and shifting dynamics of labour in an increasingly casualized economy here in BC.
We’re also delighted to bring to you a new series created by 3 members of our team: Program Manager Julia Aoki, Program Assistant Samantha Walters, and Research Assistant/Editor Kathy Feng. Together, they feature the work of local arts collectives and organizations, highlighting conversations about creation, spacemaking, accessibility, and self-determination within the framework of Vancouver’s cityscape.
The season kicks off on September 5, 2023, with new episodes every Tuesday. Thank you so much for tuning in to Below the Radar, and we’re excited to share these conversations (and more!) with you.
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/btr-trailer-fall-2023.html
A family journey that spans three generations. This week on Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Bill Sundhu, a human rights & criminal justice lawyer. Bill shares the remarkable story about his parents' arrival in Canada following the partition of India, and how an interview with his mother led to them reconnecting with her sister in Pakistan. Am and Bill also discuss growing up in Williams Lake, Punjabi diaspora, and the lasting legacy of the partition.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/216-bill-sundhu.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/216-bill-sundhu.htmlResources:Bill Sundhu: https://bwilliamsundhu.com/Gurdev Sundhu’s story in The Globe and Mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article-youtube-connected-gurdev-sundhu-to-a-sister-she-lost-in-the-partition/Gurdev Sundhu’s Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAf2U1Q3I7kBill on CBC News: https://twitter.com/cbcnewsbc/status/1626424446587133952Bio:William (Bill) Sundhu is senior attorney and owner of the Law Office of B. William Sundhu independent law practice, specializing in criminal justice, human rights and civil liberties. From 1996 to 2007, Bill was a BC Provincial Court judge. He is a member of the Law Society of British Columbia and the Canadian Bar Association. A respected speaker and commentator on human rights, justice, diversity, equality and international legal issues, Bill has extensive knowledge of the Canadian justice system and international human rights law. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee medal in 2002. Bill holds a Masters degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford, a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Windsor, and a Bachelor of Arts from UBC.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “A Partition Story — with Bill Sundhu.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, May 30, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/216-bill-sundhu.html.
This week on Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Jorge Amigo, the head of cultural programming at the Vancouver Public Library. Together they discuss the power of library public programs, some of Jorge’s past public projects, as well as how the urban design of Vancouver relates to social isolation, and potential paths towards cultivating more friendships.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/215-jorge-amigo.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/215-jorge-amigo.htmlResources:Vancouver Public Library Program: https://www.vpl.ca/programs-events Be my Amigo: https://vancouversun.com/life/relationships/be-my-amigo-determined-to-make-vancovuer-a-friendlier-cityOn Civil Society: https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/programs-and-classes/featured/on-civil-society.jspOpera Adventures: https://www.vancouveropera.ca/press-release/vancouver-opera-and-vancouver-public-library-launch-opera-adventures/Uplift Asian: https://www.vpl.ca/program/uplift-asianVLACC: https://vlacc.ca/Bio:Jorge Amigo grew up in Mexico City and moved to Vancouver in 2007, where he studied an undergrad and masters in political science at the University of British Columbia. He started his career working in brand and digital strategy for non-profits and Canadian startups, including as Director of Engagement for Canada’s National Observer. In 2018, he moved to Toronto to produce cultural events for the Toronto Public Library, where he curated the popular #OnCivilSociety series, hosting conversations on the most pressing social and political issues of our time, as well as programming dozens of literary programs. Jorge is now the Head of Cultural Programming for the Vancouver Public Library, where he is responsible for arts and culture events, and spends his days excited about reimagining how we use library spaces. He speaks four languages, and would probably enjoy chatting with you in at least one of them. Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Episode name.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, May 23, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/215-jorge-amigo.html.
Head of the departments of surgery at both the Vancouver General Hospital and the University of British Columbia, and Am Johal’s former brain surgeon, Dr. Gary Redekop, joins Am on this episode of Below the Radar. Dr. Redekop and Am discuss advancements in medical procedures, how patients and medical practitioners experience surgery differently, and the relationship between neuroplasticity and human resilience. This episode explores the importance of preventative care, and celebrates our amazing capacity for human resilience and recovery.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/214-gary-redekop.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/214-gary-redekop.htmlResources:Dr. Gary Redekop: https://neurosurgery.med.ubc.ca/faculty-spotlight/gary-j-redekop-bsc-md-msc-frcsc/UBC: Department of Surgery: https://surgery.med.ubc.ca/about/Bio:Dr. Redekop received his MD from the University of Western Ontario (UWO) and completed neurosurgical residency and fellowship training in cerebrovascular surgery in the Division of Neurosurgery at UWO. He completed graduate studies in the molecular biology of growth factors and angiogenesis, and went on to join the Division of Neurosurgery at the University of British Columbia.Dr. Redekop is head of the departments of surgery at both the Vancouver General Hospital and the University of British Columbia.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Episode name.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, May 16, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/214-gary-redekop.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Lama Mugabo, founding director of Building Bridges with Rwanda, a campaign manager with the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, and a member of the Hogan’s Alley Working Group. Together, they discuss local training and advocacy programs for people with lived experience of homelessness and other marginalizing barriers, Hogan’s Alley Society’s advocacy in Vancouver’s historically Black neighbourhood, and Lama’s capacity building and educational work in Rwanda. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/213-lama-mugabo.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/213-lama-mugabo.htmlResources:Lama Mugabo https://www.lamamugabo.com/BC Poverty Reduction Coalition: https://www.bcpovertyreduction.ca/Building Bridges with Rwanda: https://www.bbrwanda.ca/Hogan’s Alley Society: https://www.hogansalleysociety.org/Bio:Lama Mugabo is the founding director of Building Bridges with Rwanda (BBR), a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable development projects in Rwanda. In Canada, BBR engages local audiences in understanding the Rwandan development model through dialogue and learning exchange workshops. In 2019, BBR joined hands with Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley Society and SFU’s Institute for Diaspora Research and Engagement to launch the Remember Rwanda 25 Year Legacy Project, at SFU. The RR25 LP leads a reflection tour to Rwanda every summer and organizes a bi-annual conference on the Rwandan development model. Lama uses storytelling as a community planning tool to understand problems and work collectively to find lasting solutions. Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Building Bridges, from Vancouver to Rwanda — with Lama Mugabo.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, May 9, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/213-lama-mugabo.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal speaks with Michael Clague, a community developer who has spent decades connecting underserved people to much-needed supports and programming. They begin by discussing Michael’s early service work as a UBC student, and move into conversation about the BC labour movement, community arts programming, and Michael’s new book, titled So, How Have I Been Doing At Being Who I Am?: At 82, A Life In Progress.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/212-michael-clague.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/212-michael-clague.htmlResources:Michael’s book, So, How Have I Been Doing at Being Who I Am?: https://bcbooklook.com/a-life-in-progress/ Carnegie Community Centre: https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/carnegie-community-centre.aspx Britannia Community Centre: https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/britannia-community-services-centre.aspx Social Planning and Research Council (SPARC): https://www.sparc.bc.ca/ The Solidarity Movement in BC: https://www.communitystories.ca/v2/solidarity-bc-protest_solidarite-protestation-cb/ VANDU: https://vandureplace.wordpress.com/Bio: Michael Clague is a former director of the Carnegie Community Centre and Britannia Community Centre, and a former board member of the Fraser Basin Council. He has participated in multiple community and social planning committees, including the Social Planning and Research Council (SPARC) and the Downtown Eastside Local Area Planning Process Committee. He was awarded the Order of Canada for community service in 2008, and he is the author of So, How Have I Been Doing At Being Who I Am?: At 82, A Life In Progress.Cite this episode:Johal, Am. “Reflecting on a Life in Community Development.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, May 2, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/212-michael-clague.html.
This week on Below The Radar, Am Johal is joined by author and associate professor at the Allard Law School at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Brenna Bhandar. She and Am discuss her research into property, property law, and their relationships to histories of colonialism and racial formations. Brenna offers insight into her book Colonial Lives of Property: Law, Land, and Racial Regimes of Ownership. Brenna also talks about gaining an interest concerning the issues of Indigenous dispossession in Canada through her PhD research which was a critique of legal and political forms of recognition, as well as her future projects on property and the doctrine of preemption. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/211-brenna-bhandar.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/211-brenna-bhandar.htmlResources:Brenna Bhandar: https://allard.ubc.ca/about-us/our-people/brenna-bhandar Allard School of Law: https://allard.ubc.ca/Colonial Lives of Property: https://www.dukeupress.edu/colonial-lives-of-propertyRevolutionary Feminisms: https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/products/2532-revolutionary-feminismsPlastic Materialities: Politics, Legality, and Metamorphosis in the Work of Catherine Malabou: https://www.dukeupress.edu/plastic-materialitiesActs and omissions: Framing settler colonialism in Palestine Studies: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/32857Bio:Dr. Brenna Bhandar is an Associate Professor at Allard Law Faculty, UBC. Dr. Bhandar holds a PhD from the Birkbeck School of Law, University of London. Prior to joining Allard Law, Brenna was a Reader in Law and Critical Theory at SOAS, University of London, and previously held faculty positions at the Queen Mary School of Law, Kent Law School and the University of Reading Law School. She is the author of Colonial Lives of Property: Law, Land and Racial Regimes of Ownership which examines how modern property law contributes to the formation of racial subjects in settler colonies and to the development of racial capitalism. She is a co-editor on the books; Plastic Materialities: Politics, Legality and Metamorphosis in the work of Catherine Malabou, and Revolutionary Feminisms: Conversations on Collective Action and Radical Thought. Dr. Brenna Bhandar is a well-known property scholar and legal theorist—as well as an Allard Law graduate. Dr. Bhandar’s transdisciplinary approach to scholarship spans the disciplines of property law, critical theory, colonial legal history and critical race feminism.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Colonial Lives of Property — with Brenna Bhandar.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 25, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/211-brenna-bhandar.html.
Dr. Kari Grain is a research associate at the Community Engaged Research Initiative (CERI) and writer of the book, Critical Hope: How to Grapple with Complexity, Lead with Purpose, and Cultivate Transformative Social Change.On this episode of Below the Radar, Kari joins our host Am Johal, to discuss how the seemingly conflicting frameworks of criticalness and hope are both vital to systemic change, as well as the importance of emotions such as anger and grief, and the influence of Gloria Anzaldúa’s Coyolxauhqui imperative. Throughout the episode, Kari shares impactful excerpts from her book, Critical Hope.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/210-kari-grain.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/210-kari-grain.htmlResources:Kari Grain: https://karigrain.wordpress.com/Critical Hope: https://karigrain.wordpress.com/the-book/Kari Grain’s Dissertation: https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0378228Blog on Critical Hope: https://www.sfu.ca/ceri/blog/2022/Critical-Hope-By-Kari-Grain.htmlCoyolxauhqui imperative: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyolxauhqui_imperativeBio: Dr. Kari Grain is the author of Critical Hope (2022) and teaches at the University of British Columbia in the Faculty of Education, where she leads the Master’s of Education program in Adult Learning and Global Change (ALGC). She is also a research associate at the Community Engaged Research Initiative (CERI) at Simon Fraser University. Her research in experiential learning, critical pedagogy, adult education, anti-racism, and global/local community engagement has been featured in peer reviewed journals, books, blogs, and podcasts. At the nucleus of Grain’s body of work is the belief that education has the potential to be a vibrant pathway toward systemic change and the honouring of multiple ways of knowing and being. Vital to that process of systemic transformation is an attunement to emotional, critical, and creative ways of knowing oneself and being in the world with others. Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Critical Hope — with Kari Grain.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 18, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/210-kari-grain.html.
This week our host Am Johal is joined by NiNi Dongnier, an interdisciplinary choreographer and dancer, and Assistant Professor in Dance at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts. Together they discuss NiNi’s training and artistic experiences across Inner Mongolia, Beijing, New York, and now Vancouver. Am and NiNi also talk about interdisciplinary collaboration and pedagogy.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/209-nini-dongnier.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/209-nini-dongnier.htmlResources:SFU School for the Contemporary Arts: https://www.sfu.ca/sca.htmlSFU Dance: https://www.sfu.ca/sca/programs/dance.htmlNUUM Collective: https://nuum.co/Doppelgänger: https://nuum.co/project/doppelgangerBio:NiNi Dongnier is a choreographer and artist, born in Inner Mongolia, who works in Vancouver and New York. Dongnier works through dance, performance, moving image, soft sculpture, and artistic uses of technology. Rooted in the northern trans-border nomadic philosophies and art, her art is continuous exploration of the metaphysics of body, motion, and its dynamic relation to the compound spatiotemporal, ecological, and technological contexts that shaping the moments. The process conveys her sincere perception in embodied memory, migration, ritual, landscape, and the structure and cultural entanglement behind them. She immerses herself in traditional art on one hand, and on the other hand, embraces the dissonance from various forms and philosophies, which is internalized into an independent perspective of art making. She is particularly good at finding connections and shared nature among seemingly opposite things, challenging dualistic thinking. She holds an MFA focus on Choreography and Media Art from New York University, having previously graduated Summa Cum Laude from Beijing Dance Academy with a bachelor’s and a master’s degrees in Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dance & Ethnography, also studied Contemporary Dance at SUNY Purchase College. She is the founder of Field Motion, and co-founder of New York based interdisciplinary artist collective NUUM.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Choreographing: Motion, Material, and Parallel Living — with NiNi Dongnier.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 11, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/209-nini-dongnier.html.
Independent curator and Vancouver based writer, Joni Low joins our host, Am Johal, on this episode of Below the Radar. They discuss Joni’s book, What Are Our Supports?, including the various contributors to the anthology, and the modes of support local artists find and create. Am and Joni explore artistic practices and the different potential futures which artists are inviting into the city and the world.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/208-joni-low.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/208-joni-low.htmlResources:Joni Low’s Website: https://www.jonilow.com/aboutWhat Are Our Supports? Book: https://i-o.cc/books/supportsWhat Are Our Supports? 2018 Art Project: https://www.jonilow.com/works/what-are-our-supportsGermaine Koh’s Website: https://legacywebsite.front.bc.ca/artist/koh-germaine/HMH Boothy: https://germainekoh.com/works/hmh-boothyAnna Lowenhaupt Tsing: https://www.gf.org/fellows/anna-lowenhaupt-tsing/Bio:Joni Low is an independent curator and writer living on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ territories. Her practice explores interconnection, intercultural conversations, collaboration and sensory experience and she has worked in non-profit visual arts organizations including the Vancouver Art Gallery, Centre A, and Long March Space Beijing. Low is a recipient of Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, and City of Vancouver funding, and has served on numerous juries including the VIVA and Sobey Art Awards. Low recently co-edited a compendium anthology for the 2018 curatorial series, What are our Supports? with over 20 artists, writers, and poets. Currently a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow at Simon Fraser University's School for Contemporary Arts, Low's research-creation focuses on artists sensing otherwise through intermedial and intersensorial forms to access different ways of knowing, feeling and remembering, and interdisciplinary explorations of synaesthetic resonances across art, neuroscience and the humanities.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “What Are Our Supports?— with Joni Low.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 04, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/208-joni-low.html.
This week on Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by writer, editor, and SSHRC Doctoral Fellow of Contemporary Art at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts, Yani Kong. Am and Yani discuss Yani’s research exploring enchantment and how she got into her work writing arts criticism. They also talk about Canadian art at the 2022 Venice biennale and the relationship between public art and real-estate development in Vancouver.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/207-yani-kong.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/207-yani-kong.htmlResources:Yani Kong: https://www.yanikong.com/SFU School for the Contemporary Arts: https://www.sfu.ca/sca.htmlThe Comparative Media Arts Journal: https://www.sfu.ca/cmajournal.htmlYani Kong on the Venice Biennale: https://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/venice-biennale/Rodney Graham’s Spinning Chandelier: https://westbankcorp.com/public-art/spinning-chandelierSmall File Media Festival: https://smallfile.ca/Bio:Yani Kong is a writer, editor, and scholar of contemporary art in Vancouver, Canada. She has recently published essays for the Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation, Vancouver BC, the Freedman Gallery, Reading PA, and is a regular contributor to Galleries West. She is SSHRC Doctoral Fellow of Contemporary Art at the School for the Contemporary Arts (SCA), Simon Fraser University, researching reception aesthetics and contemporary art history. As a member of the Low Carbon Research Methods Working Group, she explores sustainable practices in streaming media. Kong is a faculty member in the department of art history and religious studies at Langara College.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Enchantment, Criticism, and the Activation of Art — with Yani Kong” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, March 28, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/207-yani-kong.html.
Artistic co-director and co-founder of the WaxFactory, and Assistant Professor in Theatre Performance at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts, Erika Latta, sits down with Am Johal to explore her journey as a theatre-maker – from her memorable experiences touring throughout Europe, pushing platforms in the mud for site-specific work with Begat Theater, or now, working with SFU theatre performance students on their upcoming production of Strange Joy.Erika also speaks about growing up in the woods in Oregon with artistic parents, pushing artistic boundaries in university, and co-founding WaxFactory.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/206-erika-latta.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/206-erika-latta.htmlResources:Erika Latta: https://www.sfu.ca/sca/events---news/news/welcome--erika-latta--assistant-professor/SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts: https://www.sfu.ca/sca.htmlSFU Theatre Performance: https://www.sfu.ca/sca/programs/theatre-performance.htmlWaxFactory: https://waxfactory.nyc/Begat Theatre: http://begat.org/ Get Tickets for Strange Joy: https://www.sfu.ca/sca/events---news/events/strange-joy.html HOME/LAND: http://www.hand2mouththeatre.org/homelandBio:Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Erika Latta is the artistic co-director and co-founder of WaxFactory in New York City. WaxFactory continues to nurture a hybrid approach, based on unconventional narrative styles, originally dramaturgy, visual and physical rigor, technological experimentation and site-responsive work. With the company, she works as a director, writer, actor, sound designer and educator. As an actor and director she has presented work in international venues and festivals throughout Europe and Latin America creating long lasting partnerships with artists and designers. She holds a BFA in Theater from the University of Washington, and an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. Erika is also an associate director of the French trans-media company Begat Theater. For Begat, she co-conceived, directed, designed sound and co-wrote several of Begat productions. Begat Theater’s productions have been awarded numerous grants, co-productions and partnerships, as well as the generous support from FACE (French American Fund for Contemporary Theater). Erika is a member of the Society of Authors (SACD) in France, and she continues to author and co-author many of the original productions for both WaxFactory and Begat Theater. Outside her company, she has worked with Felix Barret and Maxine Doyle of Punchdrunk (SLEEP NO MORE), Robert Wilson at the Watermill Center, Anne Bogart (SITI Company), Robert Woodruff, Victor Gautier Martin, Tina Landau, and Chuck Mee , among others.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Strange Joy — with Erika Latta.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, March 21, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/206-erika-latta.html.
Artist, filmmaker, and Assistant Professor for the School of Contemporary Arts, Nadia Shihab, sits down with Am Johal to explore her path as a filmmaker. Nadia begins by sharing her university days as an Iraqi student at the University of Texas, feeling a personal sense of loss from the war, and burnout from her student activism within a conservative state. She speaks of this as the inspiration for her first film, I Come from Iraq. Nadia also explores the inspirations and meanings of her other films, such as Amal’s Garden and Jaddoland. She and Am also explore her urban planning background, and Nadia shares some advice for aspiring student filmmakers.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/205-nadia-shihab.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/205-nadia-shihab.htmlResources:Nadia’s website: https://www.nadiashihab.com/I Come from Iraq: https://vimeo.com/59374843Amal’s Garden: https://www.nadiashihab.com/amalsgarden-archivedJaddoland: https://www.nadiashihab.com/jaddoland Echolocation: https://www.nadiashihab.com/echolocation 57 Manchester: https://www.nadiashihab.com/57manchesterBio:Nadia Shihab is an artist and filmmaker whose work explores the personal, the relational, and the diasporic. Her studio practice includes film, collage and sound. She is the director of several short films and the feature-length film JADDOLAND, which was awarded five festival jury awards, including the Independent Spirit "Truer than Fiction" Award, and went on to broadcast for two seasons on US public television. Her work has shown in exhibitions and festivals internationally, including at the Centre Pompidou, Walker Art Center, Berkeley Art Museum, Dubai International Film Festival, DOXA, CAAMFest, and New Orleans Film Festival. She is the recipient of fellowships and support from the Sundance Institute, Center for Asian American Media, Firelight Media, and Tribeca Film Institute, and has been an artist-in-residency at the MacDowell Colony and Djerassi Residency.Her creative practice is bolstered by over a decade of experience as a community practitioner. She holds an MFA in Art Practice (UC Berkeley, 2021), as well as a Master in City & Regional Planning (UC Berkeley, 2009) – a degree which grounds her art practice within critical understandings of urban space and practical training in ethnography. Her community-based work includes Fulbright research in southeastern Turkey, and facilitating projects spanning affordable housing preservation, refugee youth mentorship, and community-guided philanthropy. She was raised in west Texas by immigrant parents from Iraq & Yemen.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Film and the Political — with Nadia Shihab.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, March 14, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/205-nadia-shihab.html.
Our host Am Johal is joined this week by Dr. Svitlana Matviyenko, Professor of Critical Media Analysis in SFU’s School of Communication and Associate Director of The Digital Democracies Institute. Svitlana talks about her experiences living in Ukraine over the past year, documenting a rising militarization and being attentive to the social changes that war imposes. Am and Svitlana also discuss the asymmetrical cases of misinformation between Ukraine and Russia, as well as how the invasion has merged her research interests of media and cyberwar. This episode was recorded on February 21st, 2023.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/204-svitlana-matviyenko.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/204-svitlana-matviyenko.htmlResources:Svitlana Matviyenko: https://www.sfu.ca/communication/people/faculty/svitlana-matviyenko.htmlSFU School of Communication: http://www.sfu.ca/communication.htmlDigital Democracies Institute: https://digitaldemocracies.org/Dispatches from the Place of Imminence: https://networkcultures.org/blog/author/svitlana/Cyberwar and Revolution: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/cyberwar-and-revolutionBelow the Radar Episode 39 with Svitlana: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/39-svitlana-matviyenko.htmlBio:Svitlana Matviyenko is an Assistant Professor of Critical Media Analysis in the School of Communication. Her research and teaching are focused on information and cyberwar; political economy of information; media and environment; infrastructure studies; STS. She writes about practices of resistance and mobilization; digital militarism, dis- and misinformation; Internet history; cybernetics; psychoanalysis; posthumanism; the Soviet and the post-Soviet techno-politics; nuclear cultures, including the Chernobyl Zone of Exclusion. She is a co-editor of two collections, The Imaginary App (MIT Press, 2014) and Lacan and the Posthuman (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). She is a co-author of Cyberwar and Revolution: Digital Subterfuge in Global Capitalism (Minnesota UP, 2019), a winner of the 2019 book award of the Science Technology and Art in International Relations (STAIR) section of the International Studies Association and of the Canadian Communication Association 2020 Gertrude J. Robinson book prize.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Ukraine: Dispatches from a Place of Imminence — with Svitlana Matviyenko.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, March 7, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/204-svitlana-matviyenko.html.
This week our host Am Johal is joined by Cliff Atleo, a scholar and professor in SFU’s School of Resource & Environmental Management. Am and Cliff discuss prioritising Indigenous communities' wants in environmental and economic movements, Cliff’s past work with the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, and Iron Dog Books. Together they consider how to navigate institutional and governmental bureaucracy in matters of Indigenous governances, resource management, and research.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/203-cliff-atleo.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/203-cliff-atleo.htmlResources:Cliff Atleo: https://www.kamayaam.com/SFU's School of Resource and Environmental Management: http://www.sfu.ca/rem.htmlNuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council: https://nuuchahnulth.org/Ahousaht et. Al Case: https://www.ratcliff.com/publications/aboriginal-right-sell-fish-ahousaht-nation-et-al-v-canada/Clayoquot Sound War in the Woods: https://thenarwhal.ca/clayoquot-sound-tofino-after-war-woods/Iron Dog Books: https://irondogbooks.com/Melina Laboucan-Massimo’s Power to the People: https://powertothepeople.tv/Bio: Cliff Gordon Atleo (he/him) is a Tsimshian (Kitsumkalum/Kitselas) and Nuu-chah-nulth (Ahousaht) assistant professor at the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. He is interested in how Indigenous communities navigate/adopt/resist neoliberal capitalism while working to sustain their unique cultural identities, worldviews, and ways of living. Cliff is particularly interested in how Indigenous leaders continue to assert agency within the confines of settler colonial politics and economics and work tirelessly to lead their communities in more sustainable directions. He has recently published on Indigenous water and land relations, Indigenous community responses to the Trans Mountain pipeline and is working on several exciting research projects on cleaner marine transport and Indigenous community responses to crises such as COVID-19 and climate change.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Supporting Indigenous Self-Determination Through Research — with Cliff Atleo.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, February 28, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/203-cliff-atleo.html.
Former Artistic Director and Co-Founder of the Indian Summer Festival, Sirish Rao, speaks with Am Johal about his previous work as a Himalayan mountain guide, as a book publisher in India, as well as his experiences with the Jaipur Literature festival and the Indian Summer Festival. This episode explores the creation of arts organizations to celebrate local and regional storytelling.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/202-sirish-rao.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/202-sirish-rao.htmlResources:Sirish Rao: https://www.sirishrao.com/Indian Summer Festival: https://indiansummerfest.ca/about-us/Tara Books: https://tarabooks.com/about/The Night Life of Trees: https://tarabooks.com/shop/the-night-life-of-trees/Jaipur Literature Festival: https://jaipurliteraturefestival.orgBio:Sirish Rao is an arts leader, writer, and cultural innovator with deep connections to the international arts world. A trained Himalayan mountain guide, Sirish spent a decade as Director of Tara Books, growing it from a startup into one of India’s most awarded publishing houses. He has worked with a wide range of international cultural institutions including the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles), The Frankfurt Book Fair, Kunsthal (Rotterdam), The Museum of London and the Jaipur Literature Festival. Sirish moved to Vancouver in 2010, and co-founded the Indian Summer Festival with his partner Laura Byspalko, leading its growth to become Canada’s preeminent presenter of South Asian art and thought. In his role as Artistic Director, Sirish has presented more than a thousand artists on the stages of the festival, in a roster that features Nobel, Booker, Grammy and Oscar Award-winning artists. Sirish is now Director of Public Engagement and Learning at the Vancouver Art Gallery.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “Mixing Paint with Giant Cricket Bats — Sirish Rao.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, February 21, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/202-sirish-rao.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal speaks with June Francis, a professor, researcher, and advocate for anti-racist and decolonial practices in universities, businesses, and governments. They discuss how gathering data about racism can be an important step toward equity and racial justice. June also describes her work in connecting Black and African Diaspora communities with institutions and legislators to enact systemic change.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/201-june-francis.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/201-june-francis.htmlResources:Beedie School of Business: https://beedie.sfu.ca/ Institute for the Black and African Diaspora (formerly the Institute for Diasporic Research and Engagement): http://www.sfu.ca/diaspora-institute.html SFU Black Caucus: https://www.sfu.ca/black-caucus.html Hogan’s Alley Society: https://www.hogansalleysociety.org/ The Co-Laboratorio Project: https://colabadvantage.org/ Becoming a Decolonial and Anti-Racist University: https://www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/events/2022/june-francis.html Extra links for transcript:The Equity Myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian Universities: https://www.ubcpress.ca/the-equity-myth Urban Renewal in Vancouver: https://thetyee.ca/News/2018/06/27/Vancouver-Inner-City-Slum-Clearance-Repair/ The Northeast False Creek Plan: https://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/northeast-false-creek.aspx British Columbia Anti-Racism Data Act: https://engage.gov.bc.ca/antiracism/ June’s son, Joshua Robertson curates the first Black history exhibit at the Royal BC Museum: https://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/visit/events/calendar/event/110386/hope-meets-action-echoes-through-black-continuum Bio: June Francis is an Associate Professor of Marketing and is the Co-Founder of The Co-Laboratorio project that works to strengthen cross-sector collaboration, learning and innovation — for more inclusive resilient solutions in governance, policies and industry practice. She is also Director of the Institute for Diaspora Research and Engagement at SFU. The Institute's mandate is to strengthen the links between scholarly research, policy and practice related to multi-cultural and diaspora communities and their role in building innovative, sustainable and inclusive initiatives. June has won awards for both service and teaching excellence winning the Beedie School of Business Canada Trust Teaching Award as well as the inaugural Beedie School of Business Service award in 2019. She is an advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion for racialized groups as well as the advancement of non-traditional intellectual property law related to community well-being and cultural and human rights through her research, consulting, the media and as a volunteer.Cite this episode:Johal, Am. “Racial Justice, Community Building, and Data - with June Francis.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, Long Month Day, Year. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/201-june-francis.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal speaks with Marianne Nicolson, an artist and activist of the Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw First Nations. They discuss ways that Marianne uses art practice to uphold Kwakwaka’wakw philosophies and resist settler-colonial fictions about Indigenous peoples. Marianne describes how her work challenges the colonial practice of treating Indigenous artmaking traditions as resources to be extracted.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/200-marianne-nicolson.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/200-marianne-nicolson.htmlResources: Marianne Nicolson: https://www.mariannenicolson.com/The Sea Captain at Surrey Central skytrain station: https://www.surrey.ca/arts-culture/surrey-public-art/public-art-collection/the-sea-captain Cliff Painting at Kingcome Inlet: https://themedicineproject.com/marianne-nicolson.html#null Bakwina`tsi: the Container for Souls at Artspeak Gallery: https://artspeak.ca/artspeak-wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Postscript-18-Daina-Warren-on-Marianne-Nicolson.pdf The House of the Ghosts at Vancouver Art Gallery: https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/38869/marianne-nicolson-the-house-of-the-ghosts/ The Rivers Monument at Vancouver International Airport: https://www.yvr.ca/en/about-yvr/art/sea-to-sky Marianne’s PhD Dissertation: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/5135?show=full To Refuse/To Wait/To Sleep at Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery: https://belkin.ubc.ca/exhibitions/to-refuse-to-wait-to-sleep-ma/ Bio:Marianne Nicolson is an artist activist of the Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw First Nations. The Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw Nations are part of the Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwak’wala speaking peoples) of the Pacific Northwest Coast. She is trained in both traditional Kwakwaka’wakw forms and culture and contemporary gallery and museum-based practice. Nicolson works as a Kwakwaka’wakw cultural researcher and historian, as well as an advocate for Indigenous land rights. Her practice is multi-disciplinary encompassing photography, painting, carving, video, installation, monumental public art, writing and speaking. All her work is political in nature and seeks to uphold Kwakwaka’wakw traditional philosophy and worldview through contemporary mediums and technology. Exhibitions include the 17th Biennale of Sydney, Australia; The Vancouver Art Gallery, The National Museum of the American Indian in New York, Nuit Blanche in Toronto, Ontario, Museum Arnhem, Netherlands and many others. Major monumental public artworks are situated in Vancouver International Airport, the Canadian Embassy in Amman, Jordan and the Canadian Embassy in Paris, France. Cite this episode:Johal, Am. “Art and the Spatial Logics of Colonialism with Marianne Nicolson.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, February 7, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/200-marianne-nicolson.html.
Over the past 4 years, Below the Radar has grown to be the lively platform for sharing knowledge that it is now, with our 200th episode coming up next week. As we reach this milestone, we are also looking to move to a new seasonal release format, consisting of two 15-episode seasons per calendar year—one in the Spring and one in the Fall.In this short trailer, listen to our host, Am Johal, talk about the Spring season of Below the Radar, as well as a preview of some of our upcoming guests.From all of us at Below the Radar, we would like to thank you for listening and engaging with the vibrant ideas and voices we’ve had on the show. We look forward to continuing to share the work of artists, activists, community members, and researchers across disciplines, and we’re excited for the conversations that are yet to come. Thanks again for listening, and we’ll catch you next time on Below the Radar.Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/2023-0.html
In the summer of 2021, Megaphone Magazine piloted its first podcast mentorship series, inspired by the writings and themes of the 2021 edition of the Voices of The Street anthology, “INSIDE we are all the same.” This special episode of Below the Radar is a live recording of a conversation between our teammate Paige Smith, Megaphone Magazine’s Julia Aoki, and Megaphone vendor and storyteller Yvonne Mark, as they discuss the creation of the Voices of the Street podcast, which was featured on Below the Radar the previous year. Julia, Yvonne and Paige discuss the goals of the podcasting project, the power of auditory community storytelling, and how podcasting can be an accessible form of knowledge sharing.This is a recording from their presentation at SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative’s academic conference: Horizons: Crisis and Social Transformation in Community-Engaged Research, which was recorded live and in-person on May 28, 2022.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/199-vots-live.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/199-vots-live.htmlResources:CERi Horizons Conference: https://www.sfu.ca/ceri/horizons-conference.htmlVoices of The Street podcast: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street.htmlVoices of the Street: Without Prejudice: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street/162-yvonne-mark-dennis-gates.htmlCBC Voices of The Street radio interview: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-46-on-the-coast/clip/15899429-voices-street-podcast-seriesCBC Voices of The Street article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/new-podcast-downtown-eastside-1.6363824Megaphone Magazine: https://www.megaphonemagazine.com/Megaphone Speakers Bureau: https://speakersbureau.megaphonemagazine.com/Helena Krobath: https://krobath.ca/Cite this episode:Chicago StyleAoki, Julia, Yvonne Mark, Paige Smith. “Live Recording: VoTS Podcast at Horizons.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, January 17, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/199-vots-live.html.
On the seventh and final episode of The Climate Imaginary, a Below the Radar series, Am Johal is joined by Karenna Gore, the founder and executive director of Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. In their conversation, they discuss the intersection of environmental ethics and theology, the wisdom contained in tradition, and the need for a new relationship between humans and nature – one not based on domination. Through the contemplation of faith and ecological responsibilities, this episode puts forward alternative ways to resist the climate crisis. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/198-karenna-gore.html Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/198-karenna-gore.html Resources:Karenna Gore: https://centerforearthethics.org/profile/karenna-gore/Center for Earth Ethics: https://centerforearthethics.org/what-are-earth-ethics-tk/Union Theological Seminary: https://utsnyc.edu/about/EcoPeace Middle East: https://ecopeaceme.org/about/Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor by Rob Nixon: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674072343Ahmed Shaheed Report to 77th session of the UN General Assembly: https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a77514-interim-report-special-rapporteur-freedom-religion-or-beliefSeth Klein Interview: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/27-seth-klein.htmlA Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency: https://www.sethklein.ca/bookLaudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.htmlDayenu: https://dayenu.org/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=44444444-4444-4444-4444-444444444444Hazon: https://hazon.org/about/mission-vision/Bio:Karenna Gore is the founder and executive director of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York. She previously worked at the legal centre of Sanctuary for Families, which serves victims of domestic violence and trafficking, and had authored the book, “Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern America” (2006). Karenna graduated from Harvard College, earned her law degree from Columbia Law School, and a Master’s in Social Ethics from Union Theological Seminary.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “The Climate Imaginary: Earth Ethics, Spirituality and Social Justice — with Karenna Gore.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, December 13, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/198-karenna-gore.html.
On the sixth episode of our Below the Radar series: The Climate Imaginary, Am Johal is joined by journalist and researcher Julian Brave NoiseCat. Julian’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CBC, and more. They discuss coming of age in a time of several prominent Indigenous movements that combined political and environmental activism, as well as Julian’s work in policy making for projects such as the Green New Deal. Julian also talks about the book he is working on— We Survived the Night—that braids together reportage on Indigenous peoples in the United States and Canada with personal narratives.Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/197-julian-brave-noisecat.htmlRead the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/197-julian-brave-noisecat.html Resources:Julian Brave NoiseCat: https://www.julianbravenoisecat.com/ Dakota Access Pipeline: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/03/north-dakota-access-oil-pipeline-protests-explainer Julians article on the “Green New Deal”: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/20/joe-biden-has-endorsed-the-green-new-deal-in-all-but-name The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo22265507.html&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1670290375809029&usg=AOvVaw36eJ2Ulrz3ARltEemsEqShThe Sunrise Movement: https://www.sunrisemovement.org/Julian Brave NoiseCat’s upcoming book: https://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/announcements/knopf-author-julian-brave-noisecat-a-recipient-of-the-american-mosaic-journalism-prize/Bio:Julian Brave NoiseCat’s work cuts across the fields of journalism, policy, research, art, activism and advocacy, often engaging multiple disciplines at once. He is currently an 11th Hour Fellow at New America as well as a Fellow of the Type Media Center. At heart, he is a writer, son, brother, nephew, cousin, godfather, friend and community member.Julian’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CBC, and more. His journalism has been recognized by the judges of the Livingston Awards as well as the Mirror Awards, Canadian National Magazine Awards and Canadian Digital Publishing Awards, among others. He wrote the foreword to the Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada and was invited to consult for the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights' general comment on land rights. He has authored and edited many public policy briefs, memos, reports, polls, scorecards and other works, shaping progressive platforms like the Green New Deal.Cite this episode:Chicago StyleJohal, Am. “The Climate Imaginary: We Survived the Night — with Julian Brave NoiseCat” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, December 6, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/197-julian-brave-noisecat.html.
On the fifth episode of our Below the Radar series: The Climate Imaginary, our host Am Johal is joined by investigative climate reporter and author, Geoff Dembicki. In this conversation, they discuss Geoff’s upbringing around the tar sands in Alberta, Canada and how that led to his journalistic focus on climate. Geoff talks about his books, Are We Screwed? How a New Generation is Fighting to Survive Climate Change (2017) and The Petroleum Papers (2022), and shares some of his research around the climate disinformation campaigns conducted by Big Oil companies.
They also talk about the shift of climate denial from traditional news outlets to digital channels, as well as the work of youth activists to combat these narratives.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/196-geoff-dembicki.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/196-geoff-dembicki.html
Resources: The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change: https://greystonebooks.com/products/the-petroleum-papers Are We Screwed? How a New Generation is Fighting to Survive Climate Change: https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/are-we-screwed-9781632864819/ Geoff’s work in The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/Bios/Geoff_Dembicki/ Geoff’s work in VICE: https://www.vice.com/en/contributor/geoff-dembicki
Bio: Geoff Dembicki is an author and journalist whose work appears in VICE, The Tyee, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, and the Guardian. He is the author of The Petroleum Papers: Inside The Far Right Conspiracy To Cover Up Climate Change, published with Greystone Books. His book, Are We Screwed? How a New Generation is Fighting to Survive Climate Change, won the 2017 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award and the 2018 Green Prize for Sustainable Literature. His magazine feature for Foreign Policy titled “The Convenient Disappearance of Climate Change Denial in China,” won the 2018 Energy of Words Media Contest. Dembicki lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Cite this episode: Dembicki, Geoff. “The Climate Imaginary: The Petroleum Papers — with Geoff Dembicki.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, November 29, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/196-geoff-dembicki.html.
On the fourth episode of our Below the Radar series: The Climate Imaginary, our host Am Johal is joined by Dr. Andréanne Doyon, Assistant Professor at the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. They talk about sustainability versus resilience, Andréanne’s journey from being a planning practitioner to an academic, and Andréanne’s research around climate planning. They also discuss the role of researchers and planners in the climate emergency, looking at alternate methods of sharing research and how to engage with a community’s specific knowledge and needs.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/195-andreanne-doyon.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/195-andreanne-doyon.html
Resources: Dr. Andréanne Doyon: https://www.sfu.ca/rem/planning/people/profiles/doyon.html SFU Resource and Environmental Planning Program: https://www.sfu.ca/rem/planning.html The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS): https://pics.uvic.ca/ PICS Coastal Adaptation: Living with Water: https://pics.uvic.ca/projects/coastal-adaptation-living-water
Bio: Dr. Andréanne Doyon holds a Ph.D. in Planning (2016) from the University of Melbourne. She is an Assistant Professor at the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University.
Prior to SFU, she was a Lecturer in Sustainability and Urban Planning in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. The aim of her dissertation was to investigate how planning for urban resilience is informed by niche interventions. Her research engaged with literature and theories from urban planning, resilience, and sustainability transitions. After completing her Ph.D., she contributed to research related to governance processes to support the transition of Melbourne’s west towards a low-carbon economy, as well as research examining the role and effectiveness of building and planning regulatory systems in delivering sustainable cities.
She has published her work in Cities, Sustainability, and Environmental Innovations and Societal Transitions, as well as in edited books. Beyond academic publications, she has also written technical reports, news articles for The Conversation and The Guardian, and participated in numerous public events as a speaker or chair. In Australia, she worked with different levels of government including the Victorian Government Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, and the Inner Melbourne Climate Adaptation Network with the City of Melbourne. She is also a member of the Nightingale Housing Research Collaboration, a group that undertakes longitudinal research relative to Nightingale projects, processes, and practices and is a conduit for conversation between research and practice.
Her current research focuses on urban governance and planning for low carbon and climate just cities, sustainable housing, and questions of justice in sustainability transitions. She is particularly interested in understanding processes of change related to sustainability outcomes.
Cite this episode: Johal, Am. “The Climate Imaginary: Planning for Community Resilience — with Andréanne Doyon.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, November 22, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/195-andreanne-doyon.html.
On the third episode of our Below the Radar series: The Climate Imaginary, our host Am Johal is joined by Charles Henry. Charles is a scholar and current president of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). He joins Host Am Johal to discuss climate change and the works of CLIR on ensuring cultural heritage artifacts are safe and accessible within the digital space.
Charles identifies current climate conditions as a threat to cultural artifacts and archives. Charles also talks about CLIR project with African Universities to ensure the preservation of cultural resources by digitising them and making them accessible over time.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/194-charles-henry.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/194-charles-henry.html
Resources:
Council on Library and Information Resources: https://www.clir.org/ Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Awards CLIR $1.4 Million Operating Grant: https://www.clir.org/2009/12/andrew-w-mellon-foundation-awards-clir-1-4-million-operating-grant/ Charles J. Henry Receives Fulbright Senior Specialist Award for China: https://www.clir.org/2007/05/charles-j-henry-receives-fulbright-senior-specialist-award-for-china/ This Anthro Life, Charles Henry: https://www.thisanthrolife.org/guests/charles-henry/ Random Acts of Legacy, Ali Kazimi: https://alikazimi.ca/films/random-acts-of-legacy/
Bio: Charles Henry is the president of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), a nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning.
Charles has written dozens of publications and has received numerous grants and awards, including from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, and the J. Paul Getty Trust. He received a Fulbright senior scholar grant for library sciences in New Zealand and, more recently, in China, and a Fulbright award for the study of medieval literature in Vienna, Austria. Charles has a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Columbia University, among other degrees.
Cite this Episode: Johal, Am. “The Climate Imaginary: Preserving Cultural Heritage — with Charles J. Henry.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, November 15th, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/194-charles-henry.html.
On the second episode of our Below the Radar series: The Climate Imaginary, Steve Tornes and Alex K Masse sit down to talk with Kendra Fanconi, artistic director of The Only Animal. Kendra’s work with The Only Animal—a theatre company based in Vancouver—arises from a deep engagement with place and unfolds in collaboration with the natural world. Together, they discuss the process of making theatre in the anthropocene, The Only Animal’s Artist Brigade cohort of 100 climate-engaged artists, and the role that artists play in re-imagining the climate crisis. Through collectively traversing climate grief and anxiety, they talk over how collaboration brings forward new ideas and lessons on sharing with our natural world.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/193-kendra-fanconi.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/193-kendra-fanconi.html
Resources: The Only Animal: https://www.theonlyanimal.com/
SCALE, Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency: https://scale-lesaut.ca/about/#values
Shifting Baseline Theory (Diminishing Baseline Theory): https://news.mongabay.com/2009/06/proving-the-shifting-baselines-theory-how-humans-consistently-misperceive-nature/
The Only Animal’s Artist Brigade: https://www.theonlyanimal.com/the-artist-brigade/
Art and the World after this by David Maggs: https://metcalffoundation.com/publication/art-and-the-world-after-this/
1000 Year Theatre: https://www.theonlyanimal.com/2021/11/17/the-thousand-year-theatre/
Museum of Rain: https://www.theonlyanimal.com/2021/11/17/museum-of-rain/
Bio: Kendra Fanconi is the Artistic Director of The Only Animal, a 16-year-old company that is uniquely dedicated to theatre that springs from a deep engagement with place, and towards solutionary outcomes for this climate moment. She is known for her love of the impossible. Selected Credits for directing/writing: World premiere of Slime, written by Bryony Lavery, tinkers, based on the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel by Paul Harding, Nothing But Sky, a living comic book (Jessie for Significant Artistic Achievement), NiX, theatre of snow and ice, at the 2010 Cultural Olympiad and Enbridge Festival, Alberta Theatre Projects 2009, (Winner of Betty Mitchell Award and Vancouver’s Critic’s Choice Award for Innovation). Current projects include 1000 Year Theatre and Museum of Rain. Kendra leads the Artist Brigade, bringing arts and artists to the front lines of the climate movement. Kendra is a founding member and a coordinating circle member of SCALE, Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency, where she is a conduit for the Artist Mobilization Working Group, fondly known as the Art Mob. Kendra lives on Shíshálh land on the far left coast of Canada, and is a farmer, a forager, and mother to two kids who are real characters.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Tornes, Steve and Alex Masse. “The Climate Imaginary: The Art Shaped Hole in the Climate Crisis — with Kendra Fanconi.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, November 8, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/193-kendra-fanconi.html.
This episode of Below the Radar is a special live recording from SFU School for the Contemporary Art’s Re-orientation day 2022: Contemporary Arts + Climate Change on September 8th, 2022. It’s also the first episode of our new series: The Climate Imaginary.
Stephen Collis is an award winning writer and a professor in the English department at SFU. Stephen joins our host Am Johal for a discussion on the relationship between art and environmental activism; They look at what art and writing can offer, but also the moments when you need to put down the pen and engage and take action in other ways. They also cover some of the collaborative artistic projects that Stephen is involved in such as the Refugee Tales Project, and additionally Stephen reads a few of his poems throughout the episode!
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/192-stephen-collis.html.
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/192-stephen-collis.html
Resources: Stephen Collis: https://www.sfu.ca/people/scollis/
Once in Blockadia: https://talonbooks.com/books/once-in-blockadia
A History of the Theories of Rain: https://talonbooks.com/books/a-history-of-the-theories-of-rain
The Commons: https://talonbooks.com/books/the-commons
The Uprising: On Poetry and Finance by Bifo Berardi: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9781584351122/the-uprising/
How to Do Things With Words by JL Austin: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674411524
The Mining Justice Alliance: https://miningjusticealliance.wordpress.com/
Refugee Tales: https://www.refugeetales.org/
Bio: Stephen Collis is the author of a dozen books of poetry and prose, including The Commons (2008), the BC Book Prize winning On the Material (2010), Once in Blockadia (2016), Almost Islands: Phyllis Webb and the Pursuit of the Unwritten (2018), and A History of the Theories of Rain (2021)—all published by Talonbooks. In 2015 he was awarded the Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy, after he was sued by oil company Kinder Morgan, whose lawyers entered Collis’s poetry as evidence in court. In 2019 he was the recipient of the Latner Writers’ Trust of Canada Poetry Prize in recognition of his body of work.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “The Climate Imaginary: Beneath the Poetry, the Barricade — with Stephen Collis.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, November 1, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-climate-imaginary/192-stephen-collis.html.
This week, our host Am Johal is joined by Dr. Kora DeBeck, Erica McAdam, Kali Sedgemore, and Dean Wilson; four guests who all do important work in research and advocacy for drug users in Vancouver. They discuss the recent research that they’ve been involved in as well as the past and present models of drug policy in the city, looking at various decriminalisation policies and the current pressing issues of toxic drug supplies and community relationships with the law. Together they consider the future of provincial and federal drug policies, looking towards regulated supply, safety, and support.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/191-drug-policy.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/191-drug-policy.html
Resources: Harm reduction calls to action from youth: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35505320/ Increased toxicity of Vancouver’s illicit drug supply during COVID: https://1sfu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/kdebeck_sfu_ca/Documents/2022_COVID%20quality%20of%20drugs%20and%20overdose_McAdam.pdf Low awareness of safe supply options in Vancouver: https://www.bccsu.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Updated-Infographic.pdf BCCSU cohort studies: At-Risk Youth Study (ARYS): https://www.bccsu.ca/arys/ VIDUS https://www.bccsu.ca/vidus/
Bios: Dr. Kora DeBeck is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy and a Research Scientist with the BC Centre on Substance Use at Providence Health Care. She holds a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research/St. Paul's Hospital Foundation-PHCRI Career Scholar Award. Kora is the Principal Investigator for the At-Risk Youth Study (ARYS) which is a longitudinal cohort study of >1,000 street-involved youth who use drugs in Vancouver. The cohort began in 2005 and is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the US National Institutes for Health Research.
Erica McAdam, MPP is a research assistant at the BC Centre on Substance Use in Vancouver, Canada, and a recent graduate from the Master of Public Policy Program at Simon Fraser University. Erica’s thesis research conducted an evidence-based multi-criteria policy analysis of different decriminalization threshold models for British Columbia. Erica’s thesis research has won several awards, including the Philip Owen Award for Excellence in Policy Research.
Kali Sedgemore (they/them) is a Youth Researcher & Consultant at ARYS (At Risk Youth Study), PHS Peer supervisor at MOPS (Molson OPS) & MOPU (Mobile OP unit), Youth Peer Support, VCH Peer harm reduction leader & outreach worker. They have been a Harm Reductionist with a focus on youth harm reduction & Stimulants. Through lived/ing experience with substance use, homelessness and government care they advocate, educate, consult & bring awareness to these issues. Currently, they are sitting president of the Coalition of Peers dismantling the drug war (CPDDW).
Dean Wilson is the past president of VANDU. He started the non-profit BCAPOM (British Columbia Association of People on Maintenance) that has become a major proponent of life saving opiate substitution programs. Was awarded the Queens Jubilee Medal for work in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver and is known internationally as a harm reduction activist. He works at PHS Community Services (Portland Hotel Society) as a community liaison and at the BCCSU (British Columbia Centre for Substance Use) as Peer Coordinating Lead.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “Drug Policy — with Dr. Kora DeBeck, Erica McAdam, Kali Sedgemore, and Dean Wilson.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 25, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/191-drug-policy.html.
Leela Gandhi is a professor and writer of the book, Affective Communities: Anticolonial Thought, Fin-de-Siècle Radicalism, and the Politics of Friendship. This episode goes into different forms of friendship in the contexts of democracy, post-colonialism, and climate change; and how friendship can change depending on different circumstances. It is fitting that this episode is hosted by Am Johal and Matt Hern, two close friends writing a book together about friendship and community.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/190-leela-gandhi.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/190-leela-gandhi.html
Resources: Leela Gandhi: https://vivo.brown.edu/display/lgandhi Towards Democracy by Edward Carpenter: https://www.routledge.com/Towards-Democracy/Carpenter/p/book/9781138184121 The Common Cause: Postcolonial Ethics and the Practice of Democracy, 1900-1955 by Leela Gandhi: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo15220206.html Affective Communities: Anticolonial Thought, Fin-de-Siècle Radicalism, and the Politics of Friendship by Leela Gandhi: https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/1024/Affective-CommunitiesAnticolonial-Thought-Fin-de Martin Heidegger: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heidegger/
Bio: Leela Gandhi is a literary and cultural theorist whose research focuses on transnational literatures and postcolonial theory and ethics. Leela is a professor of Humanities and English and Director of Pembroke Centre at Brown University. She is also a Senior Fellow of the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University. Leela received her B.A. from the University of Delhi, her M.Phil. and D.Phil. from Oxford University and authored the books, Affective Communities: Anticolonial Thought, Fin-de-Siècle Radicalism, and the Politics of Friendship and Postcolonial Theory: A critical introduction.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “The Art of Making Unfinished — with Leela Gandhi.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 18, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/190-leela-gandhi.html.
Philosophy scholar and author Willow Verkerk sits down with Am Johal to discuss Nietzsche and his ideas of friendship, as well as her current work on the Gendered Mimesis project at KU Leuven.
Willow compares Nietzsche’s more agonistic notion of friendship with other philosophers like Aristotle, Kant, Derrida – and draws from Luce Irigaray to consider friendship from a more gendered lens. Willow also speaks about her creative writing in the past as a form of expression, and discusses her current work on Gendered Mimesis Project, from which she is looking to trace the genealogies of gendered-being by drawing from Adriana Cavarero, Judith Butler, and Catherine Malabou.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/189-willow-verkerk.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/189-willow-verkerk.html
Resources: Willow Verkerk: https://philosophy.ubc.ca/profile/willow-verkerk/ Nietzsche and Friendship: https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/nietzsche-and-friendship-9781350047341/ Gendered Mimesis project: http://www.homomimeticus.eu/gendered-mimesis-c1/ Willow Verkerk at KU Leuven: https://hiw.kuleuven.be/hua/about/staff-hua/00060614 Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/555192/thus-spoke-zarathustra-by-friedrich-nietzsche-translated-with-a-preface-by-walter-kaufmann/9780140047486
Bio: Willow Verkerk is a Vancouver based scholar and author who has taught philosophy both within and outside of the academy in Europe, the UK, and Canada. She has published numerous academic essays on friendship, feminist activism, and gender identity and is the author of Nietzsche and Friendship. Willow is also an author of short fiction published in literary magazines in Canada and Europe. Her current research is concerned with providing a new account of the human subject through the philosophical concept of mimesis. Dr. Verkerk is frequently invited to speak about her research at universities and art institutions. She is passionate about communicating to diverse audiences the thinking of the three masters of suspicion- Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud- alongside a feminist politics that illuminates the importance of philosophical honesty. Willow brings philosophical frames of meaning from the foundations and legacies of critical theory to contemporary issues in both private and public life. In doing so, she connects thinkers in the history of philosophy to political and ethical studies that reflect upon the axes of oppression that are relevant today.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “Nietzsche and Friendship — with Willow Verkerk.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 11, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/189-willow-verkerk.html.
Bob Williams is the writer of the book Using Power Well: Bob Williams and the Making of British Columbia, which describes his many political contributions to British Columbia. In this episode, our host Am Johal sits down with Bob to discuss his public life and the political impacts that his decisions continue to have.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/188-bob-williams.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/188-bob-williams.html
Resources: Using Power Well: Bob Williams and the Making of British Columbia: https://harbourpublishing.com/products/9780889714243 Zombie Conscripts: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/zombies-world-war-two-poem-reveals-1.5212415 Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF): https://www.cbc.ca/history/EPISCONTENTSE1EP13CH3PA1LE.html
Bio: Bob Williams was a politician representing Vancouver East (1966-1976 and 1984-1991) as a BC NDP MLA. Bob also served as an alderman for Vancouver City Council (1964-1966). After his political career, he was chair of ICBC and director of Vancity Credit Union, In 2022, Bob published his book, Using Power Well: Bob Williams and the Making of British Columbia.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “Bob Williams Unplugged — with Bob Williams.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, October 04, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/188-bob-williams.html.
Khari Wendell McClelland—a diversely talented musician, writer, and community facilitator—joins Am Johal to discuss music as a tool for community healing.
Khari explores music as an interactive process, and sees music as an opportunity to connect with the surrounding community. As an artist, he speaks about the importance of one's presence and the ability to connect with the audience. He says his willingness to interact with the community gave birth to so many of his collaborations.
Khari also discussed the importance of his Freedom Singer Project as a means of connecting with his great great grandmother who was enslaved in the mid 1800’s, and he talks about his other projects like the CCB (Community Capacity Building). As a new father, he also shares how he balances his work with his parental life.
This episode contains excerpts of Khari Wendell McClelland's song "Feels Real Good," courtesy of the artist.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/187-khari-wendell-mcclelland.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/187-khari-wendell-mcclelland.html
Resources: Moving the Centre: https://talonbooks.com/books/moving-the-centre Khari’s website: http://khariwendellmcclelland.com FREEDOM SINGER: https://www.projecthumanity.ca/freedom-singer Catch the Fire, book: https://newsociety.ca/books/c/catch-the-fire?sitedomain=ca Megaphone: https://www.megaphonemagazine.com/ Khari on CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2683535661
Bio: Khari Wendell McClelland is a diversely talented and ever-evolving artist. Originally from Detroit, Khari has become a darling on the Canadian music scene, with reviewers lauding his performances as a clever mix of soul and gospel. Khari’s songwriting crosses genres and generations, joyfully invoking the spirit of his ancestors who straddled the US-Canadian border in efforts to escape slavery and discrimination. His music draws from this rich history, integrating the rhythms and folklore of early African-Americans with contemporary sounds and stories of struggle. Recently, Khari received critical acclaim for his Freedom Singer project, recreating the music fugitive slaves carried on their journey north into Canada. Khari also performs with the Roots Gospel group The Sojourners. Whether on stage or in the studio, Khari's passion for community, equality and justice is palpable, as is his belief in the redemptive power of music.
Khari’s recent jazz festival performances in Halifax, Winnipeg and Vancouver left audiences and reviewers wanting more. Opening for both Andra Day and Ms. Lauryn Hill, Khari is at home with Soul and R&B giants. His debut solo album "Fleeting Is The Time" is available through most online platforms.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “Freedom Singer — with Khari Wendell McClelland.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, September 27, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/187-khari-wendell-mcclelland.html.
Erika Lewis is a singer and musician of Tuba Skinny, a blues and ragtime band from New Orleans. Erika is also a solo artist, with the albums, “Waiting for Stars” (2016) and “A Walk Around the Sun” (2022). This episode goes into the different musical influences of New Orleans, Erika’s move from blues to country, and her overall experiences of street busking and touring internationally. There is also a discussion of her health scare and how it pushed the release of her latest album.
This episode contains excerpts from songs from Erika's album A Walk Around the Sun, courtesy of the artist.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/186-erika-lewis.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/186-erika-lewis.html
Resources: Erika Lewis: https://www.erikalewismusic.com/full-bio Tuba Skinny: http://tubaskinny.com/ A Walk Around The Sun: https://lnk.to/aroundthesun The Bomb Shelter: https://www.bombshelterstudio.com/
Bio: Known for her lengthy tenure touring and busking with beloved New Orleans jazz band Tuba Skinny, prolific songwriter and singer Erika Lewis has been churning out American originals all her own for the past several years. From classic country to cosmic Americana to dreamy indie folk, Lewis continues to dip her toes more deeply into an ever-expanding pool of roots music styles. Her latest record, “A Walk Around the Sun” (2022), is a testament to Lewis’ songwriting prowess and exceptional vocal ability.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “A Walk Around the Sun — with Erika Lewis” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, September 20, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/186-erika-lewis.html.
Situated within the current context of police brutality, for-profit prisons, and excessive incarceration rates, Am Johal sits down with educator, writer, and public scholar, Walidah Imarisha.
Walidah describes her creative works involving ideas and futures of police and prison abolition, including her book Angels with Dirty Faces, and her current work developing Space to Breathe – a film that looks back on our present moment of the abolitionist movement from a future where police and prisons have been abolished. She also shares her collaboration with adrienne maree brown in the creating the Octavia's Brood, an anthology inspired out of their desire to push movement organizers beyond ideas if “realistic” change.
Throughout the interview Walidah also speaks about science fiction as an avenue to inspire greater imaginings for social change, and discusses white supremacy, imperial colonialism, and white “progressiveness” within the past and present histories of Oregon and The United States.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/185-walidah-imarisha.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/185-walidah-imarisha.html
Resources: Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements: https://www.akpress.org/octavia-s-brood.html Walida’s website: https://www.walidah.com/ Below the Radar with adrienne maree brown: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/166-adrienne-maree-brown/ Space to Breath film: https://www.walidah.com/blog/2021/3/24/grant-recipient-for-sci-fi-documentary-film Angels with Dirty Faces: https://www.akpress.org/angelswithdirtyfaces.html What a City Is For by Matt Hern: https://www.akpress.org/angelswithdirtyfaces.html
Bio: Walidah Imarisha is an educator, writer, public scholar and spoken word artist.
She has co-edited two anthologies, Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements and Another World is Possible. Imarisha’s nonfiction book Angels with Dirty Faces: Three Stories of Crime, Prison, and Redemption won a 2017 Oregon Book Award. She is also the author of the poetry collection Scars/Stars, and in 2015, she received a Tiptree Fellowship for her science fiction writing.
Imarisha is currently an Assistant Professor in the Black Studies Department and Director of the Center for Black Studies at Portland State University. In the past, she has taught at Stanford University, Pacific Northwest College of the Arts and Oregon State University.
For six years, she presented statewide as a public scholar with Oregon Humanities' Conversation Project on several topics, including Oregon Black history. She was one of the founders and first editor of the political hip hop magazine AWOL.
She has toured the country many times performing, lecturing and challenging, and has shared the stage with folks as different as Angela Davis, Cornel West, Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Kenny Muhammad of the Roots, Chuck D, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Robin D.G. Kelley, Umar bin Hassan from The Last Poets, Boots Riley, Saul Williams, Ani DiFranco, John Irving, dead prez, Rebecca Solnit, and Yuri Kochiyama.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “Science Fiction & Social Justice — with Walidah Imarisha.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, September 13, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/185-walidah-imarisha.html.
On this episode of Below the Radar, host Am Johal is joined by Lizzie Borden, an independent filmmaker who's been directing & creating since the 1970s.
Lizzie describes her unique creative journey, as a filmmaker who never went to film school and instead came into filmmaking after studying visual arts. She discusses her inspirations, which vary from gallery art, to second-wave feminism, to women in Marxism. She also dives into her colourful filmography: Regrouping, her 1976 experimental documentary, Born in Flames, her 1983 documentary-style fiction film, and Working Girls, her 1986 drama film looking at the lives of sex workers.
Touching on both past and present, Lizzie speaks on her creative process, with intentional editing and aesthetics and the search for intersectionality in her work--even before "intersectionality" was a commonly-used term. She talks about independent filmmaking, and how trying out alternatives only solidified it as her practice of choice. She also looks at the conversations still being held today around her work, especially Born in Flames, with its socialist setting and political message still sparking conversation.
Resources: Born in Flames Website: https://www.borninflamesmovie.com/ Lizzie Borden’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/lizziebordenla?lang=en Whorephobia, Lizzie’s upcoming book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/711521/whorephobia-by-lizzie-borden/9781644212271 Coverage on the restoration of Regrouping: https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/comment/festivals/regrouping-lizzie-borden-edinburgh-2016-revival
Bio: Award-winning feminist filmmaker Lizzie Borden is best known for the 1983 film Born in Flames. Borden's career as a feminist filmmaker began when she majored in art at Wellesley College in Massachusetts before moving to New York. Her early films take on hot topics in the feminist movement with visual representations of struggles for equality in race, class, gender, and sexuality. Her later films focus on women’s sexuality, and her attempts to move into more mainstream film in the 1990’s were challenged by studio politics. She continues to work in film today as a script doctor while developing her own projects.
Citation: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “Born in Flames — with Lizzie Borden.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, September 6, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/184-lizzie-borden.html.
Leanne Prain is the writer of The Creative Instigator's Handbook: A DIY Guide to Making Social Change and Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet & Knit Graffiti. In this episode, Melissa Roach and Leanne discuss the inspiration for The Creative Instigator's Handbook, the different range of projects and artists described in the book, the impact of the pandemic, and the creativity of “Do It Yourself” art projects.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/183-leanne-prain.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/183-leanne-prain.html
Resources: Leanne Prain: https://www.leanneprain.com/about The Creative Instigator’s Handbook: A DIY Guide to Making Social Change through Art: https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/T/The-Creative-Instigator-s-Handbook Godfrey Stephens and the Weeping Cedar Woman of Clayoquot Sound: https://www.godfreysart.com/weeping-cedar-woman Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery: https://belkin.ubc.ca/ Jenny Hart: https://sublimestitching.com/pages/jenny_hart Smokey D: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/respect-chinatown-art-exhibit-1.6493781 Aram Han Sifuentes: https://www.aramhansifuentes.com BE MIGHTY: https://medium.com/bemighty/learning-to-be-mighty-chapter-1-e744a9b2b110 Thomas Dambo: https://thomasdambo.com Dave Eggers - The Spirit of the Animals is in the Wheels: https://daveeggers.net/spirit Laura Farina: https://www.sfu.ca/continuing-studies/instructors/e-h/laura-farina.html Maker Faire: https://makerfaire.ca The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/ Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/tour/getting-started Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti: https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/Y/Yarn-Bombing
Bio: Leanne Prain helps communities connect through creative ideas. A writer, speaker and certified design professional, her previous books include Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet & Knit Graffiti, and Strange Material: Storytelling through Textiles. Her latest book The Creative Instigator's Handbook: A DIY Guide to Making Social Change through Art was published in 2022.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Roach, Melissa. “The Creative Instigator’s Handbook — with Leanne Prain.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, August 30, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/183-leanne-prain.html.
This week we’re highlighting an episode created by our friends at Urbanarium City Talks, from their Should I Stay Or Should I Go? podcast. This series follows Jenny Tan on her mission to figure out how to keep on living in Vancouver, as she explores the housing crisis from her trailer home in the Westend.
Throughout the series, Jenny asks Sonja Trauss, president of YIMBY, journalist/writer Sam Cooper, developers Heather Tremain, Tony Pappajohn and Leslie Shieh, Andy Yan, director of SFU's City Program and her mom, should she stay or should she go? She is asking you too.
If you like the episode, make sure to listen to the rest of the series at https://urbanarium.org/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go
Event recording from 28th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Event took place on April 30th, 2022.
Fight against Genocide in combating Genocide ideology and denial. Conversation presented by the Rwandan community of Vancouver to remember and honour our loved ones, 28 years after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
This event is presented by the Rwandan community of Vancouver, with support from SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement.
On the fourth and final episode of The Trip Diary, Steve Tornes speaks with Bowinn Ma and Uytae Lee about their public engagement work involving transit systems, as well as the possible futures of transportation in the Lower Mainland. Bowinn and Steve have a conversation about INSTPP and B-Line/rapid bus initiative in West Vancouver, while Uytae described how his series, “Uytae Lee's Stories About Here,” brings awareness to urban planning concepts to a larger audience.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-trip-diary/182-b-line-to-the-future.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/182-b-line-to-the-future.html
Resources: Bowinn Ma’s website: https://bowinnmamla.ca/ Uytae Lee with CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/news/author/uytae-lee-1.5094424 Integrated North Shore Transportation Planning Project: http://www.instpp.ca/ Uytae Lee's Stories About Here: https://gem.cbc.ca/media/uytae-lees-stories-about-here/s01 About Here, Uytae’s Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AboutHere
Bio:
Bowinn Ma is British Columbia’s Minister of State for Infrastructure and the MLA for North Vancouver-Lonsdale. She is a licensed Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) with a degree in civil engineering (BASc), a masters from the UBC Sauder School of Business (MM), and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Bowinn previously served as Parliamentary Secretary for TransLink and as the Chair for the Select Standing Committee on Crown Corporations, leading an all-party committee to develop recommendations for Transportation Network Services in British Columbia. She has also served as a member of BC’s Treasury Board since 2017. Prior to being first elected, Bowinn managed terminal expansion and redevelopment projects for the Vancouver Airport Authority.
Uytae Lee produces videos that educate people on the urban planning challenges facing cities today. He is the creator of the CBC series “Stories About Here”, where he explores the often overlooked issues in our own backyards - whether it’s the shortage of public bathrooms, sewage leaking into the water, or the bureaucratic roots of the housing crisis. In addition to producing videos for CBC, he hosts a YouTube channel called “About Here”.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Tornes, Steve. “B-Line to the Future — with Bowinn Ma and Uytae Lee” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, July 26, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/182-b-line-to-the-future.html.
On this third episode of The Trip Diary, Steve Tornes speaks with Councillor Tony Valente and Dr. Meghan Winters talks about cycling, advocacy, and street allocations. Tony describes his advocacy work before being elected to council, and what steps transportation advocates can take in other cities, as well as the development of Esplanade Street as a complete street. Meghan talked about her different research looking at cycling and street reallocations across different North American cities, and making the data available for city planners and members of the public.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-trip-diary/181-cycling-in-numbers.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/181-cycling-in-numbers.html
Resources:
Councillor Tony Valente: https://www.tonyvalente.ca/about-tony/ Dr. Meghan Winters: https://www.sfu.ca/fhs/about/people/profiles/meghan-winters.html HUB Cycling: https://bikehub.ca/ Esplanade Complete Street: https://letstalk.cnv.org/esplanade-complete-street CHATR Lab: https://chatrlab.ca/ Bike Maps: https://bikemaps.org/ Impacts of Bicycle Infrastructure in Mid-Sized Cities (IBIMS): protocol for a natural experiment study in three Canadian cities: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29358440/ COVID-19 street reallocation in midsize Canadian cities: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33650060/ Not quite a block party: COVID-19 street reallocation programs in Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827321000446 WalkRollMap: https://chatrlab.ca/projects/walk-roll-map/
Bio: Tony Valente is a first term City Councillor. Tony has an MBA from UBC and for the last twelve years he has worked as a project manager delivering complex infrastructure projects in the public sector. Tony is currently working as a Risk Director with a Crown corporation.
Tony envisions a vibrant, diverse City of North Vancouver where transportation and housing options abound, and our public spaces are the envy of Metro Vancouver. All of this is supported by a strong local economy where small business thrives.
Dr. Meghan Winters is an epidemiologist interested in the link between health, transportation, and city design. She received her PhD in 2011 from the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility at Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, studying on older adults’ mobility and the built environment. Dr. Winters joined the Faculty of Health Sciences as an Assistant Professor in July 2011.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Tornes, Steve. “Geographies of Identity — with Councillor Tony Valente and Dr. Meghan Winters” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, July 19, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/181-geographies-of-identity.html.
On this second episode of The Trip Diary, Steve Tornes speaks with Dr. Peter V. Hall about the Employer Transit Subsidy Study, a research project which examined the factors that encourage people to switch from driving to public transit and who, even if you made transit free, would still not use public transit.
Compared to our last episode on equity, this research is quantitative and numbers based, and yet, even though it involved big data, it still cares deeply about equity. Peter further discusses how the study was used to inform collective bargaining questions and was designed with a social purpose in mind. This SFU study was done in partnership with the union and management of seven hotels, TransLink, and the City of Vancouver.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-trip-diary/180-a-city-in-transit.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/180-a-city-in-transit.html
Resources: Meet Steve Tornes: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/about/updates/all-updates/meet-steve-tornes.html Simon Fraser University Employer Transit Subsidy Study, Main Report: https://summit.sfu.ca/system/files/iritems1/20608/20200929_ETSS_final%20report_REV_summit.pdf Simon Fraser University Employer Transit Subsidy Study, Executive SUmmary: https://summit.sfu.ca/system/files/iritems1/20609/20200910_ETSS_EXEC_Summary_web.pdf Employer-paid transit subsidies and travel behaviour: Experimental evidence from Vancouver hotels: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667091721000066
Bio: Peter V Hall was Dean pro tem in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and is Professor of Urban Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. His areas of research include port cities, community and local economic development, and he is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Transport Geography. He was Principal Investigator of the Employer Transit Subsidy Study.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Tornes, Steve. “Geographies of Identity — with Dr. Peter V. Hall” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, July 12, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/180-a-city-in-transit.html
On this first episode of The Trip Diary, Steve Tornes speaks with Lori Macdonald and Sadia Tabassum about their research on transit-based mobility through an equitable lens. Lori discusses how recent migrants to the City of Vancouver learn and familiarize themselves to a new public transportation network, while Sadia describes how transit spaces affect women of colour in different ways, pushing back against the concept of the “universal transit user”. Both Lori and Sadia discuss their research methods and how they approach the study of personalized experiences. The episode ends with a series of policy recommendations.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-trip-diary/179-geographies-of-identity.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/179-geographies-of-identity.html
Resources:
Meet Steve Tornes: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/about/updates/all-updates/meet-steve-tornes.html Mapping Daily Mobility in Metro Vancouver: http://summit.sfu.ca/item/18639 Embodied Fear, Perceived Safety and Transit-Based Mobility Among Women of Color in Metro Vancouver: http://summit.sfu.ca/item/18639 Fresh Voices Report: http://freshvoices.ca/reports/2015-report/ The Untokening: http://www.untokening.org/summary Dignity Institute: https://thrivancegroup.com/dignity-institute
Bio: Lori MacDonald is a white settler on the traditional, stolen territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations where she aims for a future surrounded by justice, dignity and reciprocal relationship-building. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Contemporary Dance and a Masters in Urban Studies from Simon Fraser University. During her thesis research: Mapping Daily Mobility in Metro Vancouver: An Ethnography of Regional Transportation for Newcomers Studying within the Service Industry, she was witness to the emergence of mobility as settlement and belonging in the region. In her professional role as the Executive Director of the Emily Carr Students’ Union, she has spent over a decade, advocating, lobbying and when necessary – protesting – for the development of Metro Vancouver’s deeply affordable post-secondary transit program, U-Pass BC. She has spent time during the pandemic questioning everything she has ever accepted as normal.
Sadia Tabassum currently lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where she grew up. It’s supposed to be one of the most “unlivable” cities in the world, but Sadia finds that livability is about as simple as the bus routes and schedules in Dhaka. Sadia studied Architecture as an undergraduate student in upstate New York in the US and later worked as a cost estimator for a rebar supplier company near Syracuse, NY. When she returned to Dhaka, Sadia worked as an architect for a few years before eventually working on the first light rail project in Dhaka, the new MRT line, drafting electrical and mechanical system drawings for its stations. She left that role to join the Urban Studies graduate program at SFU, during which time Sadia worked briefly as a designer/researcher for a non-profit organization in Vancouver where she helped create toolkits for social procurement among developers and suppliers in ongoing development projects. Sadia’s current projects in Dhaka continue to be inspired by her love for architecture, sustainable design and innovative transit-oriented city planning that help create more accessible, equitable, sustainable and livable urban spaces.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Tornes, Steve. “Geographies of Identity — with Lori Macdonald and Sadia Tabassum” The Trip Diary, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, July 05, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/the-trip-diary/179-geographies-of-identity.html.
Genevieve LeBaron is a new Professor and Director of the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University, and the Principle Investigator of the ReStructure Lab. In this episode, Am and Genevieve discuss her research work on forced labour and the global market forces which incentivize those practices. They also discuss the new role for public policy in solving real-world solutions as well as the unique context of the School of Public Policy at SFU and its broader impact.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/178-genevieve-lebaron.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/178-genevieve-lebaron.html
Resources: Meet Genevieve LeBaron, School of Public Policy’s New Director: https://www.sfu.ca/mpp/news-events/news/welcome-genevieve-lebaron.html Genevieve LeBaron: https://www.genevievelebaron.com/about ReStructure Lab: https://www.restructurelab.org/ Confronting the Business Models of Modern Slavery: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1056492621994904 Hybrid (un)freedom in worker hostels in garment supply chains: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00187267221081296 The Unequal Impacts of Covid-19 on Global Garment Supply Chains: http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/The-Unequal-Impacts-of-Covid-19-on-Global-Garment-Supply-Chains.pdf
Bio: Genevieve LeBaron is a Professor and Director, School of Public Policy, at Simon Fraser University's Vancouver campus.
Her award-winning research investigates the business of forced labour in global supply chains and the effectiveness of government, industry, and worker-led strategies to combat it. Her latest books are Combatting Modern Slavery: Why Labour Governance is Failing and What We Can Do About It (Polity Press, 2020, Winner of the Academy of Management SIM Division’s Best Book Prize) and Fighting Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking: History and Contemporary Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2021, co-edited with David W. Blight and Jessica Pliley). She is the author of over forty academic journal articles and book chapters.
LeBaron is Co-Principal Investigator of Re:Structure Lab, a research and policy Lab based across SFU School of Public Policy, Stanford and Yale Universities.
Her research has attracted funding from several councils and foundations, including: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC); the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); The British Academy; Ford Foundation; Leverhulme Trust; and Humanity United. LeBaron has was elected to the College of the Royal Society of Canada in 2020.
Drawing from her research, LeBaron works closely with governments, United Nations agencies, global companies and others to build measures to prevent forced labour directly into their business models and supply chain relationships. She currently serves on the UK Parliament’s Modern Slavery and the Supply Chain Advisory Committee.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “Forced Labour, Modern Slavery and the Global Supply Chain — with Genevieve LeBaron” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, June 28, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/178-genevieve-lebaron.html.
William Lindsay worked as an educator at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, and Concordia University. In this episode, Am and William discuss the writing process for his latest book, “Rez Dog Blues & The Haiku: A Savage Life in Bits and Pieces,” and its focus on music and movies, horror and hope, and the honest depiction of Indigneous life, in the 60s and 70s, on reserve and then in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.
Content Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. Please practice self care, stop listening and seek support if you need to. Help is available! Mental Health Support: Crisis Centre BC: crisiscentre.bc.ca/ Indian Residential School Survivors Society: www.irsss.ca/services KUU-US Crisis Line: www.kuu-uscrisisline.com/ WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre: www.wavaw.ca/ BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services: www.bcmhsus.ca/
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/177-william-lindsay.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/177-william-lindsay.html
Resources: Rez Dog Blues & The Haiku: A Savage Life in Bits and Pieces: https://www.amazon.ca/Rez-Dog-Blues-Haiku-Savage/dp/177792040X The First Nations House of Learning (FNHL): https://indigenous.ubc.ca/longhouse/fnhl/ The First Nations Longhouse: https://indigenous.ubc.ca/longhouse/ Office for Aboriginal Peoples annual newsletter: https://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2022/01/special-edition--office-for-aboriginal-peoples-annual-newsletter.html Marilyn Dumont: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/marilyn-dumont The Warriors (1979): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080120/ Saturday Night Fever (1977): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076666/ On The Road by Jack Kerouac (1957): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Road Sherman Alexie: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sherman-alexie Cahokia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia
Bio: William G. Lindsay (Cree-Stoney) B.Ed. M.A. is retired as of 2021 after working for a quarter century in post-secondary education. This was preceded by a career in the hotel-restaurant industry. He served most recently as the Senior Director, Indigenous Directions at Concordia University in Montréal. He has experience as a college professor, university educator, researcher and published writer, student services coordinator, Associate Director, Director, and Senior Director, across the following institutions: Concordia University, Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia, Douglas College, Institute of Indigenous Government, and Native Education College.
William's book Rez Dog Blues & The Haiku: A Savage Life in Bits and Pieces was released on Amazon in December 2021. The Vancouver Sun and The Province newspaper published book reviews on May 7-8, 2022, calling it a "new classic of Indigenous literature" and "An Indigenous Odyssey for TRC times". The book has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2022 Whistler Independent Book Awards. This is William's second book following The Eagle and the Fish which was published in Korea by Unibooks Inc. in 2002. William has presented at twenty academic conferences during his career, his presentations dealing with Indigenous social justice, life experience, and education.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “[title]” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, June 21, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/177-william-lindsay.html.
David Lester is the author and graphic designer of Prophet Against Slavery, Benjamin Lay: A Graphic Novel and he is the illustrator of 1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike. David is also the guitarist for the bands, Mecca Normal and Horde of Two. This episode explores the subject of the book, Benjamin Lay, the radical Quaker who used guerrilla theatre to shame slave owners and traders, as well as the intersection of political activism and art in David’s personal and professional history.
This episode features the song “Malachi” by the band Mecca Normal.
The episode ends with a look at David’s future projects and the legacy of racism and how it continues to haunt contemporary America.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/176-david-lester.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/176-david-lester.html
Bio: David Lester is a musician, graphic designer and graphic novelist. His most recent book is Prophet Against Slavery: Benjamin Lay, A Graphic Novel (Beacon Press) created with Marcus Rediker and Paul Buhle. He also illustrated "1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike", (published in English, German and French editions). 1919 was co-winner of the 2020 CAWLS Book Prize. Lester's poster of anti-war protester Malachi Ritscher was exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. He is the guitarist in the rock duo Mecca Normal, cited as an influence on the founders of the feminist social movement Riot Grrrl. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “From Dialogue to Action — with David Lester” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, June 14, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/176-david-lester.html.
Shauna Sylvester is the former Executive Director of the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue and is moving on to be the Executive Director of the Urban Sustainability Directors’ Network. Shauna has also been involved in various organizations, such as the Social Planning and Research Council of B.C., the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society, Canada’s World, among others. This episode explores the impacts and changes made through these organizations, as well as how Shauna developed an interest for promoting community dialogue.
Am and Shauna also discuss Shauna’s concerns with Canada’s changing place in the world, her focus on getting cities to 100% renewable energy, and her 2018 mayoral run in the City of Vancouver.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/175-shauna-sylvester.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/175-shauna-sylvester.html
Resources: — The SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue: https://www.sfu.ca/dialogue.html — The Social Planning and Research Council of B.C. (SPARC BC): https://www.sparc.bc.ca/ — Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society (IMPACS): https://reliefweb.int/organization/impacs — Cuso International: https://cusointernational.org/ — Canada World Youth: https://canadaworldyouth.org/ — CIVICUS World Assembly: https://www.civicus.org/worldassembly/ — Imagine Canada: https://www.imaginecanada.ca/en — Kumi Naidoo: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/bios/kumi-naidoo/ — Canada’s World: https://www.sfu.ca/dialogue/programs/international-relations/canadas-world.html — COP26: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/cop26 — Fossil of the Year Award: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-tagged-as-fossil-of-the-year-1.827062 — Carbon Talks: https://carbontalks.wordpress.com/about/ — Renewable Cities: https://www.renewablecities.ca/about-renewable-cities — SFU Public Square: https://www.sfu.ca/publicsquare/about.html — Renovictions: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/residential-tenancies/ending-a-tenancy/renovictions — Semester in Dialogue: https://www.sfu.ca/dialogue/semester/ — Ecotrust Canada: https://ecotrust.ca/ — The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada (The Circle): https://www.the-circle.ca/how-we-work.html — Urban Sustainability Directors Network: https://www.usdn.org/about.html
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “From Dialogue to Action — with Shauna Sylvester,” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, June 7, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/175-shauna-sylvester.html.
In community engagement, values of relationship-building, trust, understanding, and care are paramount—which means listening and learning on both sides.
In this episode of Below the Radar, host Am Johal is joined by Magda Goemans, manager of Community Campus Engage Canada. Together, they discuss her almost decade-long journey in the field of community engagement, the priorities of their practice, and plans they hold for the future.
Magda describes Community Campus Engage Canada as a network or "community of practice" for individuals and organizations interested in campus-community partnership, that prioritizes community-driven work, such as making space and uplifting the voices of their community partners. Magda also discusses some of the key issues in community engagement today, such as the current societal polarizations brought forth by the pandemic, as well as the specifics of community engagement in Canada—its history, the definitions it's had over the years, and priorities around language and active decolonization.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/174-magda-goemans.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/174-magda-goemans.html
Resources: — Community Campus Engage Canada (CCEC): https://ccecanada.ca/ — Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement: https://carleton.ca/communityfirst/
Settler Memory: The Disavowal of Indigeneity and the Politics of Race in the United States (University of North Carolina Press 2021) is about the displacement of Indigeneity in the discourse around race in American political theory, with settler memory being about recognizing or acknowledging the history of Indigenous peoples in colonialism, and then disavowing the active presence of settler colonialism and Indigenous politics in the present.
Am and Kevin discuss how Black theorists, like James Baldwin, discuss Indigeneity in their politics, and how tensions can arise between different conceptions of land, history, and identity. Kevin’s overall project is to link antiracism with anticolonialism, which shows through in the conversation..
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/173-kevin-bruyneel.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/173-kevin-bruyneel.html
Resources: Settler Memory: The Disavowal of Indigeneity and the Politics of Race in the United States by Kevin Bruynee: https://uncpress.org/book/9781469665238/settler-memory/ Bacon's Rebellion: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/events-african-american-history/bacons-rebellion-1676/ W.E.B. Du Bois: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dubois/ James Baldwin: https://nmaahc.si.edu/james-baldwin The White Possessive: Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty by Aileen Moreton-Robinson: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-white-possessive Layli Long Soldier: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/layli-long-soldier Dr. Kim TallBear: https://kimtallbear.com/ Cristina Sharpe: https://profiles.laps.yorku.ca/profiles/cesharpe/ Cedric Robinson: https://globalsocialtheory.org/thinkers/robinson-cedric-j/ I Am Not Your Negro: https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/i-am-not-your-negro/ Kyle Mays: https://www.kyle-mays.com/ Afro Pessimism: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-argument-of-afropessimism Frank Wilderson: https://www.frankbwildersoniii.com/about/ Leanne Betasamosake Simpson: https://www.leannesimpson.ca/ Robyn Maynard: https://robynmaynard.com/ Stuart Hall: https://globalsocialtheory.org/thinkers/hall-stuart/ Kēhaulani Kauanui: https://jkauanui.faculty.wesleyan.edu/ Jean M. O’Brien: https://shekonneechie.ca/biographies/jean-obrien/ Lee Maracle: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/lee-maracle-death-bc-indigenous-writer-poet-1.6245582 Jodi Byrd: https://as.cornell.edu/news/new-faculty-jodi-byrd Campuses and Colonialism: https://www.oah.org/insights/opportunities-for-historians/cfp-campuses-and-colonialism-symposium/ Malinda Maynor Lowery: http://history.emory.edu/home/people/faculty/lowery-malinda-maynor.html Stephen Kantrowitz: https://history.wisc.edu/people/kantrowitz-stephen/ Alyssa Mt. Pleasant: https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/africana-and-american-studies/faculty/faculty-directory/mt-pleasant.html
The Community Engaged Scholarship Institute, situated at the University of Guelph, brings together community and campus skills and resources in order to advance community-identified research goals. This episode describes various projects, such as the Community Engaged Teaching and Learning (CETL) Program, the Research Shop, and the Guelph Lab.
Am and Liz discuss the role of the Institute and how community engaged research can be used to provide a foundation for policy development and in widening imaginations and creating possibilities on the ground. Liz also describes her life trajectory that brought her to this work and led her to Critical Community Engaged Scholarship.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/172-liz-jackson.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/172-liz-jackson.html
Resources: Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) — https://www.uoguelph.ca/research/discover-our-research/centres-institutes-groups/community-engaged-scholarship-institute-cesi Critical Community-Engaged Scholarship (Critical CES): Cynthia Gordon de Cruz — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316638765_Critical_Community-Engaged_Scholarship_Communities_and_Universities_Striving_for_Racial_Justice CESI’s Community Engaged Teaching and Learning (CETL) Program — https://www.cesinstitute.ca/about-cetl CESI’s Research Shop — https://www.cesinstitute.ca/about-research-shop Europe’s Science Shop Model — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261948200_Science_shops CESI’s Guelph Lab — https://www.cesinstitute.ca/about-guelph-lab Art not Shame — https://artnotshame.org/who-we-are
Bio: Liz Jackson is the director of the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute at the University of Guelph. Liz has also previously worked as the Research Collection Coordinator at the Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice Project and the Community Engagement Officer at the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation.
Currently, Liz is the board chair of Art Not Shame, a community-engaged, multidisciplinary arts organization serving youth and adults. Human rights and the politics and implications of artistic representation are some of the themes which Liz is involved in.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “Critical Community Engaged Scholarship — with Liz Jackson” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, May 10, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/172-liz-jackson.html.
In 1983, the province of British Columbia saw the rise of a social movement like no other since — uniting activists, community organizations and trade unionists in protest. This time on Below the Radar, host Am Johal speaks to David Spaner, an author, cultural critic, and organizer who has written a compelling history of the Solidarity resistance movement.
Released in December of 2021 by Ronsdale Press, Solidarity: Canada's Unknown Revolution of 1983 is David’s chronicling of the organizing efforts by the Solidarity movement and its ongoing implications for worker justice in BC. He and Am go behind the scenes of the book, as David recalls experiences from being on the ground as a reporter and activist during that time.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/171-david-spaner.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/171-david-spaner.html
Resources: — Solidarity: Canada's Unknown Revolution of 1983 (Ronsdale 2021): https://ronsdalepress.com/all-books/solidarity/ — SHOOT IT! Hollywood Inc. and the Rising of Independent Film (Arsenal Pulp Press 2012): https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/S/Shoot-It — Dreaming in the Rain: How Vancouver Became Hollywood North by Northwest (Arsenal Pulp Press 2002): https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/D/Dreaming-in-the-Rain
Bio: David Spaner has worked as a feature writer, movie critic, reporter, and editor for numerous newspapers and magazines. David’s also been a cultural/political organizer (Yippie, manager of the punk band The Subhumans). He is the author of Dreaming in the Rain and Shoot It! Hollywood, Inc. and the Rising of Independent Film.
In 2021, Spaner published a behind-the-scenes book about the Solidarity resistance movement, Solidarity: Canada's Unknown Revolution of 1983 (Ronsdale 2021) documenting the event using intimate storytelling and melding cultural and rebel politics to provide insight into the conflicts that are still with us. It was the largest political protest in the province's history and threatened to end in an all-out general strike.
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Johal, Am. “Remembering BC’s 1983 Solidarity Uprising — with David Spaner” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, May 3, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/171-david-spaner.html.
SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts Assistant Professor Eldritch Priest joins this episode Below the Radarl to discuss the potential in nonsense and failure, the phenomenon of the earworm, and his journey from musicianship to employing theory.
In this episode, Eldritch explores his beginnings as a jazz guitarist, the practices that guide his work and his teachings, and the path that led him to composition and beyond. He dives into the legitimacy and aesthetic possibilities of failure and nonsense, and the potentials of daydreaming and a resting mind — in defiance of prevailing positivist neoliberal discourse.
Eldritch also talks about the phenomenon of the earworm, which is a focus in his new book, Earworm and Event. The earworm, to him, is a prime example of studying music less as an artform, but more as a technology, using the imagination to shape not just one's feelings, but one’s thoughts as well.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/170-eldritch-priest.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/170-eldritch-priest.html
Resources: Eldritch’s new book, Earworm and Event: https://www.dukeupress.edu/earworm-and-event Eldritch’s Website: https://www.strangemonk.com/ Eldritch’s previous book, Ludic Dreaming: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/ludic-dreaming-9781501320804/ Eldritch’s other previous book, Boring Formless Nonsense: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/boring-formless-nonsense-9781441122131/ The Logic of Sense, by Gilles Deleuze: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-logic-of-sense/9780231059831
Bio: Eldritch Priest writes on sonic culture, experimental aesthetics, and the philosophy of experience from a ’pataphysical perspective. He is Associate Professor in the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University. Eldritch is also a composer and improviser as well as a member of the experimental theory group “The Occulture.” He is the author of several essays and books including Boring Formless Nonsense: Experimental Music and the Aesthetics of Failure (Bloomsbury 2013) and most recently, Earworm and Event: Music, Daydreams, and other Imaginary Refrains (Duke University Press 2022).
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Priest, Eldritch. “Earworm and Event — with Eldritch Priest” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/170-eldritch-priest.html
This episode of Below the Radar is a special live event recording from “A Conversation About Urban Choreography,” presented in-person at SFU’s Vancouver campus on November 9, 2021.
Taking gesture as a point of entry, Justine A. Chambers and Alana Gerecke extend their collaborative exploration of the everyday choreographies that are built into an urban experience. Combining artistic and academic research, they index the various bodily orientations cultivated by the built and social structures that shape everyday spaces. By tracking an archive of everyday gestures that are prompted by various components of built and social space, they insist on the lasting and vital information contained within those specific organizations of moving bodies. They emphasize the significance of embodied knowledge—even, or especially, as it lives in invisibilized daily gestures.
In this discussion, Chambers and Gerecke are joined by architect Annabel Vaughan. Together, the panelists explore the accumulation of living archival gestures generated by the interactions between moving bodies and built space, an evolving assembly of lost gestures. This public conversation was presented with the aim of sharing evolving research by inviting those present to engage in a consideration of the embodied details of urban circulation.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/169-urban-choreography.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/169-urban-choreography.html
Resources: — Alana Gerecke’s website: https://agerecke.wixsite.com/alanagerecke — Justine A. Chambers’s website: https://justineachambers.com/ — About Annabel Vaughan: https://www.eraarch.ca/person/annabel-vaughan/ — Everyday Choreographies (2016) event recording: https://soundcloud.com/sfu_voce/everyday-choreographies-alana-gerecke-and-justine-chambers?in=sfu_voce/sets/public-event-recordings
Cite this episode: Chicago Style
Chambers, Justine A. and Gerecke, Alana. “A Conversation About Urban Choreography — with Alana Gerecke, Justine A. Chambers & Annabel Vaughan” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 19, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/169-urban-choreography.html.
Micheal Vonn, from the PHS Community Services Society, joins Am Johal to discuss the relation between overdose prevention initiatives with different health policies at different stages of the pandemic. This is a conversation about how policies may not take into account marginalized, at risk groups, especially in the context of crises, whether for a pandemic, or for climate change resiliency.
As someone with extensive experience in law and public health, Micheal ends the discussion by talking about how the narrative framing of crises as concerns of security leads to different policy outcomes.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/167-micheal-vonn.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/167-micheal-vonn.html
Resources: PHS Community Services Society: https://www.phs.ca/about/ Pigeon Park Savings: https://www.phs.ca/our-services/pigeon-park-savings/ BC Civil Liberties: https://bccla.org/ AIDS Vancouver: https://www.aidsvancouver.org/
City of Vancouver Councillor Jean Swanson joins Am Johal to discuss her time in politics, both as an anti-poverty activist, and as a city councillor. In this episode, they discuss the housing affordability crisis in Vancouver, the need for safe supply, and the high cost of living.
Jean also describes how she was introduced to political activism through Bruce Eriksen and Libby Davies, the experience of developing a community newsletter, and her memories of being a political candidate over the decades.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/167-jean-swanson.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/167-jean-swanson.html
Resources: Housing For All Of Us: https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-making-home-kennedy-stewart-revised Carnegie Action Projects: http://www.carnegieaction.org/reports/ Residential Tenancy Act: https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/lc/statreg/02078_01 Vacancy Control: https://bc.ctvnews.ca/b-c-needs-vacancy-control-tenants-group-says-following-alarming-evictions-study-1.5588483 CMHC: Rental Market Report: https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/professionals/housing-markets-data-and-research/market-reports/rental-market-reports-major-centres Renter Services Centre: https://vancouver.ca/people-programs/renter-office.aspx Ian Mulgrew: B.C.'s chief coroner laments lack of action as opioid crisis hits worst death toll yet: https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/change-bonnie-henry-to-b-c-s-chief-coroner Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU): https://vandureplace.wordpress.com/ Drug Users Liberation Front (DULF): https://www.dulf.ca/ Fair Price Pharma: http://fairpricepharma.ca/ Insite: https://www.phs.ca/program/insite/
In this episode of Below the Radar, host Am Johal is joined by adrienne maree brown, organizer and author of nonfiction activism explorations Pleasure Activism, Emergent Strategy, and more. Together, they discuss brown's history as a community organizer and facilitator, the powers of solidarity and pleasure in activism, and some of her inspirations—from Audre Lorde and Octavia Butler to the beauty of nature itself.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/166adrienne-maree-brown.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/166-adrienne-maree-brown.html
Photo credit: Anjali Pinto
Resources:
- adrienne’s website – https://adriennemareebrown.net/
- adrienne’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/Adriennemaree
- Octavia’s Brood – https://www.akpress.org/octavia-s-brood.html
- Pleasure Activism – https://www.akpress.org/pleasure-activism.html
- Emergent Strategy – https://www.akpress.org/emergentstrategy.html
- Audre Lorde’s “The Uses of the Erotic” essay — https://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/11881_Chapter_5.pdf
- Public Reading and Dialogue on Octavia Butler and the Future https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSMZbgo0XZA
Bio: adrienne maree brown is the writer-in-residence at the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute, and author of Grievers (the first novella in a trilogy on the Black Dawn imprint), Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation, We Will Not Cancel Us and Other Dreams of Transformative Justice, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and the co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements and How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office. She is the cohost of the How to Survive the End of the World, Octavia’s Parables and Emergent Strategy podcasts. adrienne is rooted in Detroit.
Cite this Episode: Johal, Am. “The Pleasure in Liberation – with adrienne maree brown” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, March 29, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/166-adrienne-maree-brown
Content Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. This episode in particular discusses substance use, family separation and residential schools. Please practice self care, stop listening, and seek help if you need to. Scroll down to find links to available supports.
For the final installment of the Voices of the Street podcast series, host Angel Gates invites Megaphone author Eva Takakanew into conversation about her powerful writings.
As longtime friends, Angel and Eva share and discuss pieces of writing that shine a light on the traumatic histories and ongoing impacts of the Indian Residential School system and the Sixties Scoop.
Eva reads her poem, “My Mother’s Comfort,” published in the 2021 Voices of the Street anthology, as well as her article, “The truth must be told,” calling for truth and accountability from colonial institutions.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street/165-angel-gates-eva-takakanew.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/165-angel-gates-eva-takakanew.html
Mental Health Support: — Crisis Centre BC: https://crisiscentre.bc.ca/ — Indian Residential School Survivors Society: https://www.irsss.ca/services — KUU-US Crisis Line: https://www.kuu-uscrisisline.com/ — WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre: https://www.wavaw.ca/ — BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services: http://www.bcmhsus.ca/
More Resources: — “The truth must be told” by Eva Takakanew: https://www.megaphonemagazine.com/vendor_voices_july_2021 — ‘Neglected in Life, Dishonoured in Death’ - The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/06/01/Neglected-Life-Dishonoured-Death-TRC-Excerpt/ — Megaphone Speakers Bureau: https://speakersbureau.megaphonemagazine.com/
About the series: The 2021 Voices of the Street anthology, “INSIDE we are all the same,” jumps from the page in this special podcast series. For four Megaphone storytellers, poetry and prose from last year’s special literary edition are a starting point for exploring the themes that moved them — in a whole new form: audio storytelling.
Featuring interviews with writers and personal reflections on how their lived experiences merge with the themes of the text, this podcast series illuminates Voices of the Street in a new way.
The Voices of the Street podcast is a six-part series for Below the Radar, curated and hosted by participants of Megaphone’s Speakers Bureau.
Read more: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street.html
Content Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. Please practice self care, stop listening, and seek help if you need to. Scroll down to find links to available supports.
Storyteller, actor and activist Angel Gates invites Megaphone author Peter Thompson into conversation about his poem, “Empty Inside.” Peter’s piece, published in the 2021 Voices of the Street anthology, is a poetic contemplation of loneliness and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They discuss feelings of anxiety and longing for simple connection and interaction during lockdown. Peter also speaks to the devastating wildfire, fueled by climate change, that burned his hometown of Lytton, BC in the summer of 2021.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street/164-angel-gates-peter-thompson.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/164-angel-gates-peter-thompson.html
Mental Health Support: — Crisis Centre BC: https://crisiscentre.bc.ca/ — Indian Residential School Survivors Society: https://www.irsss.ca/services — KUU-US Crisis Line: https://www.kuu-uscrisisline.com/ — WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre: https://www.wavaw.ca/ — BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services: http://www.bcmhsus.ca/
More Resources: — “Lytton Memories” by Peter Thompson: https://www.megaphonemagazine.com/vendor_voices_august_2021 — Megaphone Speakers Bureau: https://speakersbureau.megaphonemagazine.com/
About the series: The 2021 Voices of the Street anthology, “INSIDE we are all the same,” jumps from the page in this special podcast series. For four Megaphone storytellers, poetry and prose from last year’s special literary edition are a starting point for exploring the themes that moved them — in a whole new form: audio storytelling.
Featuring interviews with writers and personal reflections on how their lived experiences merge with the themes of the text, this podcast series illuminates Voices of the Street in a new way.
The Voices of the Street podcast is a six-part series for Below the Radar, curated and hosted by participants of Megaphone’s Speakers Bureau.
Read more: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street.html
Content Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. This episode in particular discusses substance use, family separation and residential schools. Please practice self care, stop listening, and seek help if you need to. Scroll down to find links to available supports.
The fourth episode of the Voices of the Street podcast series features a conversation on Indigenous honour, healing and empowerment, with your host, Nicolas Leech-Crier.
Nicolas interviews Voices of the Street contributor Eva Takakanew about her written piece, “My Mother’s Comfort,” a deeply personal poem and reflection on drug use and the intergenerational mother-child relationships in her life as an adoptee from the Sixties Scoop.
Together they speak about their experiences as adoptees and reconnecting with their culture as adults. They also speak to finding empowerment through Indigenous-led education programs and taking part in the cultural resurgence of their generation.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street/163-nicolas-leech-crier-eva-takakanew.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/163-nicolas-leech-crier-eva-takakanew.html
Mental Health Support: — Crisis Centre BC: https://crisiscentre.bc.ca/ — Indian Residential School Survivors Society: https://www.irsss.ca/services — KUU-US Crisis Line: https://www.kuu-uscrisisline.com/ — WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre: https://www.wavaw.ca/ — BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services: http://www.bcmhsus.ca/
More Resources: — UBC Transformative Health and Justice Research Cluster: https://transformhealthjustice.ubc.ca/ — Music by Paul Che oke' ten Wagner: https://www.sacredbreath.ca/ — Megaphone Speakers Bureau: https://speakersbureau.megaphonemagazine.com/
About the series: The 2021 Voices of the Street anthology, “INSIDE we are all the same,” jumps from the page in this special podcast series. For four Megaphone storytellers, poetry and prose from last year’s special literary edition are a starting point for exploring the themes that moved them — in a whole new form: audio storytelling.
Featuring interviews with writers and personal reflections on how their lived experiences merge with the themes of the text, this podcast series illuminates Voices of the Street in a new way.
The Voices of the Street podcast is a six-part series for Below the Radar, curated and hosted by participants of Megaphone’s Speakers Bureau.
Read more: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street.html
With additional music: Flute piece provided by Paul Che oke' ten Wagner: www.sacredbreath.ca
‘O Canada’ by Henry Burr, CC BY-NC 3.0 US, UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive
Content Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. Please practice self care, stop listening, and seek help if you need to. Scroll down to find links to available supports.
For the third installment of the Voices of the Street podcast, we have a candid and heartful conversation between host Yvonne Mark and Megaphone writer Dennis Gates in response to his piece “Without Prejudice,” published in the 2021 Voices of the Street anthology.
In his piece, Dennis writes about his experiences of anti-Indigenous discrimination and injustice within the court system and the deep-felt impact of incarceration on his life. Yvonne and Dennis reflect on both their experiences with the criminal justice system, finding strength through writing, and the importance of sharing stories like theirs.
This episode was curated and hosted by poet, storyteller and Megaphone vendor, Yvonne Mark, an avid writer and advocate for ending stigma around substance use.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street/162-yvonne-mark-dennis-gates.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/162-yvonne-mark-dennis-gates.html
Mental Health Support: — Crisis Centre BC: https://crisiscentre.bc.ca/ — Indian Residential School Survivors Society: https://www.irsss.ca/services — KUU-US Crisis Line: https://www.kuu-uscrisisline.com/ — WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre: https://www.wavaw.ca/ — BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services: http://www.bcmhsus.ca/
More Resources: — Yvonne’s website - I Live to Tell: https://www.ilivetotell.ca/ — Pivot Legal Society: https://www.pivotlegal.org/ — BC Civil Liberties Association: https://bccla.org/
About the series: The 2021 Voices of the Street anthology, “INSIDE we are all the same,” jumps from the page in this special podcast series. For four Megaphone storytellers, poetry and prose from last year’s special literary edition are a starting point for exploring the themes that moved them — in a whole new form: audio storytelling.
Featuring interviews with writers and personal reflections on how their lived experiences merge with the themes of the text, this podcast series illuminates Voices of the Street in a new way.
The Voices of the Street podcast is a six-part series for Below the Radar, curated and hosted by participants of Megaphone’s Speakers Bureau.
Read more: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street.html
Bios: Yvonne Mark (Nisga’a-Gitxsan) was born in Haida Gwaii. Her parents had moved the family there so Yvonne wouldn’t have to go to residential school. She came to Vancouver when she was 16. In addition to her volunteer work at Carnegie Community Centre, Yvonne is a Megaphone vendor and member of Megaphone’s Speakers Bureau, working to end stigma around substance use. She has taken part in Megaphone’s Community Journalism 101 writing workshop, held in partnership with SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement, and is an outspoken advocate for the Downtown Eastside.
Dennis Gates (Haida), at 60 years old, has lived in the Downtown Eastside for 25 years. He says he is proud to still be learning new things about himself. As a participant in Megaphone’s recent writing workshops for people with lived experience of incarceration — offered through a partnership with the UBC Transformative Health and Justice Research Cluster — Dennis was able to explore and express himself for the first time since being released from a federal institution in 1996, about what it was like to go to prison.
Content Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. Please practice self care, stop listening, and seek help if you need to. Scroll down to find links to available supports.
Be transported into the soundscapes of two different poems. This installment of the Voices of the Street podcast is produced by Jules Chapman, a writer and peer support worker who is deeply involved in the Downtown Eastside community.
Jules reads from the Voices of the Street anthology, sharing Elaine Schell’s “The Din from Within” and the original poem that Jules was inspired to write in response. These pieces take us through writerly reflections on poetic expression, getting to know yourself, processing through writing and sharing creative work with the world.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street/161-jules-chapman.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/161-jules-chapman.html
Mental Health Support: — Crisis Centre BC: https://crisiscentre.bc.ca/ — Indian Residential School Survivors Society: https://www.irsss.ca/services — KUU-US Crisis Line: https://www.kuu-uscrisisline.com/ — WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre: https://www.wavaw.ca/ — BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services: http://www.bcmhsus.ca/
More Resources: — Opioid Survivors Guide: www.bccsu.ca/opioids-survivors-guide — Empowering Informed Consent: community ethics and cultural production: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubccommunityandpartnerspublicati/52387/items/1.0381026 — Research 101: A Manifesto for Ethical Research in the Downtown Eastside: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubccommunityandpartnerspublicati/52387/items/1.0377565
About the series: The 2021 Voices of the Street anthology, “INSIDE we are all the same,” jumps from the page in this special podcast series. For four Megaphone storytellers, poetry and prose from last year’s special literary edition are a starting point for exploring the themes that moved them — in a whole new form: audio storytelling.
Featuring interviews with writers and personal reflections on how their lived experiences merge with the themes of the text, this podcast series illuminates Voices of the Street in a new way.
The Voices of the Street podcast is a six-part series for Below the Radar, curated and hosted by participants of Megaphone’s Speakers Bureau.
Read more: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street.html
Content Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. Please practice self care, stop listening, and seek help if you need to. Scroll down to find links to available supports.
The Voices of the Street podcast makes its debut on Below the Radar! Over the next six weeks, follow along as Megaphone storytellers weave tales and read from the 2021 Voices of the Street anthology. In this first installment, we hear from poet, writer, actor, research tech and overdose responder Nicolas Leech-Crier, in conversation with your host for this episode, Mr. Essential.
Nicolas shares his journey with Megaphone and how he’s cultivated a passion and skill for community storytelling and journalism. He also reads his original poem, “Why I Choose to Stay,” published in the 2021 issue of Voices of the Street — speaking to the piece as an accumulation of his lived experiences on the streets and his insights into fighting stigma with stories, empathy and love.
Due to Nicolas’s story featuring trauma-heavy content, should the poem or anything said during the episode have an adverse effect on your emotional or mental health, we recommend you stop listening to the podcast and refer to your best practices of self-comfort and/or seek support (links provided below).
Listeners are invited to reach out to Nicolas, the creator of this episode, at nicolas@streetcorner.ca if they would like to discuss the contents of the episode.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street/160-nicolas-leech-crier.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street/160-nicolas-leech-crier.html
Mental Health Support: — Crisis Centre BC: https://crisiscentre.bc.ca/ — Indian Residential School Survivors Society: https://www.irsss.ca/services — KUU-US Crisis Line: https://www.kuu-uscrisisline.com/ — WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre: https://www.wavaw.ca/ — BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services: http://www.bcmhsus.ca/
More Resources: — UBC Transformative Health and Justice Research Cluster: https://transformhealthjustice.ubc.ca/ — BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services - UNITE Project: http://www.bcmhsus.ca/about/news-stories/stories/challenging-stigma-through-storytelling — Megaphone Speakers Bureau: https://speakersbureau.megaphonemagazine.com/
About the series: The 2021 Voices of the Street anthology, “INSIDE we are all the same,” jumps from the page in this special podcast series. For four Megaphone storytellers, poetry and prose from last year’s special literary edition are a starting point for exploring the themes that moved them — in a whole new form: audio storytelling.
Read more: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street.html
Bio: Nicolas Leech-Crier (and his secret identity, “Mr. Essential”) is an adoptee of Cree heritage and a freelance writer. At 43 years old he has spent approximately half his life surviving in the streets and more than a decade in the DTES. It never occurred to him that being a “drug user” would ever be useful, but thanks to the incredible support and loving friendship shown to him by his many neighbours and friends in the DTES, he’s parlayed his street smarts and community connections into a successful career as an overdose responder and outreach worker.
In 2018, Nicolas became a coordinator and facilitator for the Speakers Bureau at Megaphone and just recently his title was upgraded to Storytelling and Community Networking Liaison. (Mr. Essential’s title remains the same: One-time Imaginary Podcast Host of Some Notoriety).
In everything he does — from powerful plays, to playful pictures, or post-secondary presentations and paradigm-shifting podcasts — he sends love to his 11-year-old son, Money.
Content Warning: The stories in this series deal with difficult and sometimes traumatic topics. Please practice self care, stop listening and seek support if you need to. Help is available (links below)!
The 2021 Voices of the Street anthology, “INSIDE we are all the same,” jumps from the page in this special podcast series. For four Megaphone storytellers, poetry and prose from last year’s special literary edition are a starting point for exploring the themes that moved them — in a whole new form: audio storytelling.
Featuring interviews with writers and personal reflections on how their lived experiences merge with the themes of the text, this podcast series illuminates Voices of the Street in a new way.
The Voices of the Street podcast is a six-part series for Below the Radar, curated and hosted by participants of Megaphone’s Speakers Bureau. Created by Jules Chapman, Angel Gates, Nicolas Leech-Crier and Yvonne Mark, this series was recorded and produced on the lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Writers featured in this series include Dennis Gates, Elaine Schell and Eva Takakanew.
Tune in to hear from these talented storytellers as the series moves through immersive soundscapes, poetics and creative prose, and critical conversations about poverty, incarceration, Indigeneity and connections to home, land and relations.
Learn more about the Voices of the Street series and the storytellers: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/voices-of-the-street.html and here: https://www.megaphonemagazine.com/podcast
Read the transcript for this trailer: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/voices-of-the-street-trailer.html
This series was produced with support from the City of Vancouver, BC Arts Council, SFU’s Community Engagement Initiative and SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement.
The podcast was developed through a mentorship program led by Helena Krobath. Special thanks to the storytellers and Voices of the Street writers, the supporting mentors and the audio production team from the Below the Radar podcast.
Mental Health Support: Crisis Centre BC: https://crisiscentre.bc.ca/ Indian Residential School Survivors Society: https://www.irsss.ca/services KUU-US Crisis Line: https://www.kuu-uscrisisline.com/ WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre: https://www.wavaw.ca/ BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services: http://www.bcmhsus.ca/
Credits: Theme music by John Brennan Extra music and sound effects by John Brennan and Helena Krobath Sound engineering, editing, mixing and mastering by Paige Smith, Fiorella Pinillos and Kathy Feng Show art by Kathy Feng & Paige Smith
ABOUT MEGAPHONE: Megaphone changes the story on poverty by promoting social equity, amplifying marginalized voices and creating meaningful work. It produces a high-quality monthly magazine and annual calendar that low-income vendors sell on the streets of Vancouver and Victoria to earn income and build community.
ABOUT SPEAKERS BUREAU: Megaphone’s Speakers Bureau is a public awareness program connecting audiences with speakers who have lived experience of drug use and overdose prevention.
Visit Megaphone online: https://www.megaphonemagazine.com/
City of Vancouver Councillor Christine Boyle sits down with Am Johal to discuss her hopes for the City’s future, and what can be done on the municipal level to combat the climate crisis, the housing crisis, and issue of drug poisoning on Vancouver’s streets.
An organizer, minister and activist, Christine also speaks to her work on the City’s United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Task Force and how the City can take action on the crises we are facing in a way that addresses inequality.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/159-christine-boyle.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/159-christine-boyle.html
Resources: – Christine Boyle’s website: https://christineboyle.ca/ – Christine Boyle’s profile on the City of Vancouver website: https://vancouver.ca/your-government/christine-boyle.aspx – Christine Boyle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/christineeboyle – United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html – COP 26 - Glasgow: https://ukcop26.org/ – ”Superblocks: Barcelona’s car-free zones could extend lives and boost mental health” - The Conversation:s: https://theconversation.com/superblocks-barcelonas-car-free-zones-could-extend-lives-and-boost-mental-health-123295 – Report: “How Minneapolis Ended Single-Family Zoning” - The Century Foundation: https://tcf.org/content/report/minneapolis-ended-single-family-zoning/?session=1 – Drug User Liberation Front: https://www.dulf.ca/ – BC Compassion Club: https://thecompassionclub.org/
Bio: Councillor Christine Boyle was elected to Vancouver City Council with OneCity Vancouver in 2018.
Christine is a community organizer, climate justice activist, and United Church Minister, born and raised on unceded Coast Salish territory in Vancouver, BC. She is passionate about tackling inequality, contributing to climate solutions, and deepening democratic engagement.
Christine has an BSc in Urban Agriculture and First Nations Studies from UBC, and an MA in Religious Leadership for Social Change from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She is a founding member of OneCity Vancouver.
Writer, researcher, and Chairperson of the Institute for Global Analytics, Rumena Filipova joins host Am Johal to discuss her latest book, Constructing the Limits of Europe: Identity and Foreign Policy in Poland, Bulgaria, and Russia since 1989. Rumena speaks to how dominant conceptions of national identity have shaped the foreign policy behaviour of the Balkan states, Hungary and Russia. She explores the internal politics of European Union member states, the competing regional forces of Europeanization and their impact on traditions of national identity.
Am and Rumena discuss the rise of right-wing populism worldwide and how climate change could exacerbate existing geopolitical tensions. This episode also highlights the way national identities can be in flux, and how activists and local community organizers are reasserting liberal democratic norms and their rights through protest.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/158-rumena-filipova.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/158-rumena-filipova.html
Resources: — Institute for Global Analytics: https://globalanalytics-bg.org/ — Constructing the Limits of Europe Identity and Foreign Policy in Poland, Bulgaria, and Russia since 1989: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/constructing-the-limits-of-europe/9783838216492 — Episode 21: Do we really know what democracy is? — with Astra Taylor: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/21-astra-taylor.html — Episode 129: Fascism, Fanaticism and Neoliberalism — with Alberto Toscano: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/129-alberto-toscano.html — Europe and right-wing nationalism: A country-by-country guide: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36130006 — Serbia halts China-owned mine over environmental breaches: https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/serbia-halts-china-owned-mine-over-environmental-breaches-2021-04-14/
Bio: Dr. Rumena Filipova studied Political Science and International Relations at Cambridge and Oxford and she is Chairperson and Co-Founder of the Institute for Global Analytics. Rumena’s main research interests focus on the politics and international relations of Central and Eastern Europe, with a particular reference to questions of identity, media and disinformation, and the authoritarian influence exercised by Russia and China in the region.
Constructing the Limits of Europe: Identity and Foreign Policy in Poland, Bulgaria, and Russia since 1989, is Rumena's latest book and will be published in April, 2022.
Sociocultural anthropologist and assistant professor at SFU’s School for International Studies, Darren Byler joins Am Johal to speak about his latest book, “Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City.” Darren describes how China surveilles and dispossesses Uyghur populations through a mass digital surveillance system, connecting it to the war on terror. Darren and Am also discuss the similarities and differences between the colonialism of China with India, Israel, and other Western countries.
Finally, the conversation goes into how Uyghur men protect their wellbeing by developing anti-colonial friendships. The conversation also highlights how many Han Chinese people are building a community of inter-ethnic solidarity to refuse the colonial structures of the state system.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/157-darren-byler.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/157-darren-byler.html
Resources: — Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City: https://www.dukeupress.edu/terror-capitalism — In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/696114/in-the-camps-by-darren-byler/ — Glen Coulthard on Below the Radar: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/37-glen-coulthard.html — Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon: http://abahlali.org/files/__Black_Skin__White_Masks__Pluto_Classics_.pdf — Justice for “Data Janitors by Lilly Irani: https://www.publicbooks.org/justice-for-data-janitors/ — Amazon Mechanical Turk: https://www.mturk.com/ — Digitize and Punish: Racial Criminalization in the Digital Age by Brian Jordan Jefferson: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Digitize-and-Punish-by-Brian-Jordan-Jefferson-author/9781517909239
Continental philosopher and assistant professor of Philosophy and Women Gender Studies at the University of North Carolina, Elisabeth Paquette, joins Am Johal to speak about her latest book, Universal Emancipation: Race Beyond Badiou.
Elisabeth speaks about some of her transformative moments as a continental philosopher, including an essential question posed to her by Paget Henry, and her experience joining the Black Lives Matter Charlotte Protests in 2016. Her and Am also speak about the important questions surrounding ideas of justice, how justice can be emancipatory, and the ways that states fail in enacting justice — due to its deep foundations upon race and culture.
Elisabeth spends time critiquing Badiou’s class-first philosophies that undermines possibilities for universality in the sense of race, and then discusses the histories of Marxism centering on whiteness and Eurocentric attitudes. She also speaks about the importance of positive conceptions of race, and draws from Sylvia Wynter to determine that true universal emancipation needs to be filled with the varied and particular knowledges of racialized folks.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/156-elisabeth-paquette.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/156-elisabeth-paquette.html
Resources: — Universal Emancipation: Race Beyond Badiou, by Elisabeth Paquette: https://www.abebooks.co.uk/Universal-Emancipation-Race-beyond-Badiou-Paquette/30926172047/bd — LGBTQ Staff and Faculty Caucus at UNC Charlotte: https://qtsfc.charlotte.edu/about-u — Decolonial Feminist Politics Workshop: https://decolonialthoughtworkshop.wordpress.com/ — Red Skin, White Masks by Glen Coulthard: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/red-skin-white-masks — Glen Coulthard on Below the Radar: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/37-glen-coulthard.html — Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon: http://abahlali.org/files/__Black_Skin__White_Masks__Pluto_Classics_.pdf — Black Marxism by Cedric J. Robinson: https://uncpress.org/book/9780807848296/black-marxism/
In this episode, we spoke with Alessandra Pomarico about creating collaborative art for social change, both before and during the pandemic. The show begins by talking about friendship and different collectives in Italy and New York, before moving on to new ways of thinking which combine resistance and existence (re-existence). Centring re-existence in Latin American ideas and the Zapatista movement, Alessandra puts forward a new way of learning through collective living and collaborative art spaces.
Resources: Free Home University: https://www.fhu.art/ Ecoversities Alliance: https://ecoversities.org/ Learning With Covid: https://ecoversities.org/how-to-hospice-the-current-system-learning-with-covid/ 16 Beaver: https://16beavergroup.org/ Society of the Friends of the Virus: https://16beavergroup.org/mondays/2020/03/22/society-of-the-friends-of-the-virus-volume-1/ Firefly Frequencies: https://fireflyfrequencies.org/ Giorgio Agamben, Jean-Luc Nancy, & Roberto Esposito exchange letters: https://www.lacan.com/symptom/philosophy-the-coronavirus/ Chto Delat: https://chtodelat.org/ People of Flour, Salt, and Water: https://www.fhu.art/people-offlour-salt-and-water-session Institute of Radical Imagination: https://instituteofradicalimagination.org/ When the Roots Start Moving. First Movement: To Navigate Backward: Resonating with Zapatismo: https://instituteofradicalimagination.org/2021/09/07/to-navigate-backward-resonating-with-zapatismo-book/ To Be Determined artist residency video: https://www.sfu.ca/content/sfu/vancity-office-community-engagement/library/2016/to-be-determined.html
Bio: Alessandra Pomarico is a founder of Free Home University. Originally from Italy and with a PhD in Sociology, Alessandra has been curating international and multidisciplinary artists’ residency programs in Italy and Europe. Her practice is based on facilitating collaborative, context-based art projects, with a focus on social change. She previously taught History and Italian Literature in high schools in disadvantaged areas.
On this week’s episode, we sat down with long-time Indigenous-rights advocate Scott Clark of the Coast Salish S'Klallam nation, and discussed creating systems of change from the ground up that produce positive and evidence based results. Diving into his work with ALIVE, or Aboriginal Life in Vancouver Enhancement Society, Scott talks about his hope regarding youth-led movements while critiquing how settler governments continue to fail Indigenous people.
Having decades of experience working with urban Indigenous people in the Downtown Eastside, Scott explains his misgivings around nonprofits and how, due to funding sources, they can become extensions of a colonial government at the neighbourhood level. He instead proposes Indigenous self-government and the development of more inclusive and fair policy documents.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/154-scott-clark.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/154-scott-clark.html
Resources: Aboriginal Live in Vancouver Enhancement Society (ALIVE): https://alivesociety.ca/ ALIVE Report: Our Place, Our Home, Our Vision: Youth Voices of East Vancouver: https://alivesociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/alive-youth-policy-report-V02.pdf
Am Johal sits down with the team at InterGenNS, a North Shore community project working to inspire intergenerational connections. This intergenerational trio, Rachelle Patille, Sue Carabetta, and June Maynard, speak about bridging the gap of academia and community, the impacts that COVID had on project goals and funding, and the challenges of embarking upon community-engaged research.
The team also explores their personal stories that led them towards intergenerational programming, and discusses how InterGenNS has created community connectivity and collaboration among organizations, partners, and community members across different ages and social intersections. They also speak about their optimism and excitement surrounding the future of InterGenNS as we slowly emerge from the pandemic.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/153-intergenns.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/153-intergenns.html
Resources: — Celebrating Intergenerational Day with the InterGenNS Project: https://www.sfu.ca/gerontology/news-events/news/celebrating-intergenerational-day.html — North Shore Community Resources: https://www.nscr.ca/ — SFU’s Gerontology Research Centre: https://www.sfu.ca/grc.html
The climatic events of 2021 (heat, fires, floods, storms) have brought home the reality of climate change like never before — and the urgency for media to address this crisis couldn’t feel greater. But how do we talk about the climate emergency in ways that move us away from despair and disaster coverage? How can podcasts shift the conversation in ways the mainstream media cannot or refuses to do? How do we talk about climate justice, Indigenous sovereignty, and de-colonizing media?
For this special release, tune into the live event recording from Podcasting Climate Change, a session at the 2021 Vancouver Podcast Festival. This recording features a panel discussion curated and moderated by Below the Radar host Am Johal. He is joined by Chief Patrick Michell, Julia Kidder, Eugene Kung and Grace Nosek.
This Vancouver Podcast Festival event was presented in partnership with the Vancouver Public Library.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/152-podcasting-climate-change.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/152-podcasting-climate-change.html
Resources: — Vancouver Podcast Festival: https://www.vanpodfest.ca/ — Doxa Festival: https://www.doxafestival.ca/ — Climate Justice & Inequality, a Below the Radar series: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/about/updates/all-updates/climate-justice-inequality-podcast.html — Kanaka Bar Indian Band: https://www.kanakabarband.ca/ — Living with Water: Rethinking coastal adaptation to climate change: https://pics.uvic.ca/media-release/living-water-rethinking-coastal-adaptation-climate-change — West Coast Environmental Law: https://www.wcel.org/ — UBC Climate Hub: https://ubcclimatehub.ca/ — Planet Potluck podcast: http://planetpotluck.com/
Writer and poet, Renée Sarojini Saklikar joins Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar to talk about her latest work, Bramah and The Beggar Boy, first in a series, THOT J BAP (The Heart Of This Journey Bears All Patterns). In this episode, Renée reads passages from her new story and discusses the act of writing as a woman of colour, her creative process, and how writing can be a form of survival and resistance.
Her book is an epic poem and story which was an amazing 10-year undertaking, describing a future dealing with climate change and a viral bio-contagion. Bramah, a locksmith, part human and part goddess, is part of the poet’s “life-long project of unlocking and unbinding, of challenging the primacy of borders, the formal, the political and the self-imposed.” More details about Renée’s new book and her previous books can be found in the resources below.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/151-renee-sarojini-saklikar.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/151-renee-sarojini-saklikar.html
Resources:
— Bramah and The Beggar Boy: https://harbourpublishing.com/products/9780889714021 — children of air india: un/authorized exhibits and interjections: https://harbourpublishing.com/collections/renee-sarojini-saklikar/products/9780889712874 — Listening to the Bees: https://harbourpublishing.com/collections/renee-sarojini-saklikar/products/9780889713468 — SFU’s Writer Studio: https://www.sfu.ca/continuing-studies/programs/the-writers-studio-creative-writing-certificate.html — Air India Redacted: https://summit.sfu.ca/item/20083 — THOT J BAP: https://thotjbap.com
Bio:
Renée Sarojini Saklikar is a poet and lawyer who lives in Vancouver. She is the author of the ground-breaking poetry book, children of air india, about the bombing of Air India Flight 182 which won the Canadian Authors Association Poetry Prize and is the co-author, with Dr. Mark Winston, of the poetry and essay collection, Listening to the Bees, winner of the 2019 Gold Medal Independent Publishers Book Award, Environment/Ecology. She is the curator of the poetry reading series Lunch Poems at SFU and in 2021 curated Vancouver’s first free Poetry Phone, 1-833-POEMS-4-U. Renée Sarojini is an instructor for SFU and VCC and was the first poet laureate for the City of Surrey, (2015-2018). Her work has been adapted for opera, visual art and dance. Her epic fantasy series in verse, THOT J BAP: The Heart Of This Journey Bears All Patterns, is about a female hero battling to save a planet ravaged by climate change, launched in 2021.
Below the Radar explores the transformational capacity of dialogue with apiculturist, award-winning author, and SFU Professor of Biological Sciences Mark Winston. He is in conversation with host Am Johal about SFU’s Semester in Dialogue program and the importance of providing students with opportunities to be engaged with their communities.
Mark shares how part of a university’s job is to help people realize who they want to be in the world, speaking to the impact of alternative pedagogical models that embrace dialogue and art. We hear stories from his time as director of the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, and the complex process of creating a non-traditional, interdisciplinary program such as the Semester in Dialogue.
They speak about Mark’s journey with dialogue, which grew out of his fascination with bee communication. He also talks about the shortcomings of dialogue, what conversations need to be elevated emerging from the pandemic, and how we can translate them into building equity and compassion for all.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/150-mark-winston.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/150-mark-winston.html
Resources: — Mark’s website: http://winstonhive.com/ — Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674368392 — Listening to the Bees: https://harbourpublishing.com/products/9780889713468 — Semester in Dialogue: https://www.sfu.ca/dialogue/semester/ — Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue: https://www.sfu.ca/dialogue.html — Vancouver Manuscript Intensive: https://www.vancouvermanuscriptintensive.com/
Bio: Mark L. Winston is the recipient of the 2015 Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction for his book Bee Time: Lessons From the Hive, and an Independent Publishers 2019 Gold Medal “IPPY” Award for his book Listening to the Bees. One of the world’s leading experts on bees and pollination, Dr. Winston is also an internationally recognized researcher, teacher and writer. He directed Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue for 12 years, where he founded the Semester in Dialogue, a program that creates leadership development opportunities equipping and empowering students to address community issues.
As a consultant and thought leader, Dr. Winston partners with universities, corporations, NGOs, governments and communities to advance communication skills, engage public audiences with controversial issues through dialogue, and implement experiential learning and community engagement in educational institutions. As an award-winning writer and editor, he works with students, scientists, other professionals and writers to develop compelling non-fiction, from proposals and newspaper opinion pieces to manuscripts and books.
He currently is a Professor and Senior Fellow in Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue, a Professor of Biological Sciences, and the SFU Library’s inaugural Nonfiction Writer in Residence (2020-2021).
Performance scholar and Associate Professor in the Dramatic Arts department at the University of Alberta Selena Couture joins Am Johal to talk about her latest book, Against the Current and Into the Light. Selena speaks about how her book explores varying historical and contemporary performances involving Stanley Park through language, relationships to land, and the unlearning of settler knowledges. She draws from colonial and counter-colonial performances such as the 1946 Jubilee show, and the public performances of Native Brotherhood of BC in the same year.
Selena also explores how her doctoral dissertation and the taking of hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language classes influenced the creation of her book, and speaks about the instability of archive-based “truths,” by discussing the fabricated history of Lord Stanley’s dedication of Stanley Park to “people of all colours, creeds and customs.”
Selena and Am end their conversation by speaking of the absence of Indigenous women from historical archives, and the resonating performances of contemporary Indigenous women artists such as Quelemia Sparrow and Marie Clements.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/149-selena-couture.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/149-selena-couture.html
Resources: — Against the Current and Into the Light: https://www.mqup.ca/against-the-current-and-into-the-light-products-9780773559219.php — UBC’s First Nations and Endangered Languages Program: https://fnel.arts.ubc.ca/ — Inventing Stanley Park by Sean Kheraj: https://www.ubcpress.ca/inventing-stanley-park — The Archive and the Repertoire by Diana Taylor: https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-archive-and-the-repertoire — The Native Brotherhood of British Columbia: https://www.nativebrotherhood.ca/ — Ashes on the Water: A Podplay Video: https://vimeo.com/27876873 — The Road Forward by Marie Clements: https://www.nfb.ca/film/road_forward/ — Urban Ink: https://urbanink.ca/
Travis Salway, a social epidemiologist and Assistant Professor with SFU’s Faculty of Health Sciences, joins Am Johal in a conversation about syndemic theory, the state of conversion therapy in Canada, and LGBTQ2S+ affirming healthcare.
Going in-depth about the structural health disadvantages of LGBTQ2S+ people and the multiple epidemics concurrently affecting them, Am and Travis discuss how Canada still needs to do more to achieve an equal society. Travis also speaks to the current limitation of data collection for this vulnerable population and how he and his team are working to create visual tools to help keep people informed on the state of Canada’s LGBTQ2S+ policies.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/148-travis-salway.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/148-travis-salway.html
Resources: — Travis’s Faculty Page: https://www.sfu.ca/fhs/about/people/profiles/travis-salway.html — ILGA Europe: https://www.ilga-europe.org/rainboweurope/2021 — Trans PULSE Canada: https://transpulsecanada.ca — Between Two Pandemics, Ballroom Has Something to Say: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/library/2021/between-two-pandemics-ballroom-has-something-to-say/
For this final episode of Women, Work, More, host Alyha Bardi speaks with Sheila Block, a senior economist from the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, and Jo-Ann Hannah, retired Director of the Pensions and Benefits at Unifor, and board member at the BC Financial Services Authority.
Sheila and Jo-Ann speak in conversation about retirement incomes with a gender and racial equity lens, and explore how pay gaps and gendered life-patterns influence income security for senior women. They speak to the flaws in existing public and private pension systems, discuss the benefits and downfalls of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), and explore solutions in the realms of structural changes, public services and healthcare, and pooled retirement pensions systems.
Throughout the episode we hear from four senior women, as they speak about their life-work trajectories, and the resulting money struggles, worries, or “lucks” they have now — while expressing dissatisfaction with lacking assistance from government systems.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/women-work-more/145-evelyn-encalada-grez.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/145-evelyn-encalada-grez.html
Resources: — Sheila’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/SheilaBlockTO — Colour Coded Retirement: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/ColourCodedRetirement — Sheila’s Other Reports & Commentaries: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/authors/sheila-block — Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives Toronto: https://twitter.com/SheilaBlockTO — BC Financial Services Authority: https://www.bcfsa.ca/about-us
Bios: Sheila Block is a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Sheila’s research focuses on Canada's labour markets, public finance, and inequality. She has worked as both a political advisor and a public servant in the Ontario government and as an economist in the labour movement.
Sheila has an Honours B.A. in Economics from the University of British Columbia and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Toronto.
Jo-Ann Hannah is currently on the board of directors on the BC Financial Services Authority, which regulates pensions, credit unions, mortgage brokers, and trust companies.
In 2016, Jo-Ann retired as Director of the Pensions and Benefits Department at Unifor, one of Canada’s largest private sector unions. She worked with Unifor for over 25 years and bargained with many of Canada’s major corporations: CN Rail, Air Canada, Rio Tinto Alcan. She was invited to speak on pension issues in Canada as well as Europe and the United States.
She also represented the union in international work in various countries including Swaziland, Bolivia, and South Africa.
Her education includes an MA (Psychology, UBC), LLM (Osgoode Hall Law School), and PhD (Education, University of Toronto).
The director of the SFU Labour Studies program, Kendra Strauss, joins Am Johal in a conversation about systemic challenges facing workers, and the ways in which workers shape economies and exercise power in the workplace.
Honing in on issues of precarious work, low wages, technological change, contracting out, and the devaluing of feminized work like care work, Am and Kendra discuss trends in labour studies and how they impact migrant and racialized workers. Kendra also speaks to how labour studies as a discipline can work in-step with labour organizers and workers to strive towards a just transition, to create better, more secure jobs, and to address social issues that affect all workers.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/146-kendra-strauss.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/146-kendra-strauss.html
Resources: — SFU Labour Studies: http://www.sfu.ca/labour.html — Kendra’s faculty page: http://www.sfu.ca/labour/about/people/kendra-strauss.html — Workers in the Aging City research project with Dr. Feng Xu: https://www.sfu.ca/eldercareworkers/project.html — Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives — BC Office: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/offices/bc — Women, Work, More series: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/women-work-more.html
A transnational labour scholar, co-founder of Justicia for Migrant Workers, and assistant professor from SFU's Labour Studies Program, Evelyn Encalada Grez joins this episode of Women, Work, More to speak about migrant women and their experiences of transnational loving.
Evelyn explores the pains that accompany migration, from separating families to the often temporary loves that migrant women find while working within Canada. Despite these pains, Evelyn speaks about the forms of agency that migrant women enact throughout their migration — that often revolves around reasserting their power over their bodies and sexualities.
As the episode continues, Evelyns speaks about her past projects that have aided in re-empowering migrant workers and migrant women within their migration. She also shares the changes that need to be made to undo the exploitation inherent within temporary labour migration programs.
Throughout the episode we hear quotes from migrant women whom Evelyn has encountered and interviewed as part of her research. These quotes came from Evelyn’s transcribed interviews and are voiced by readers in both English and Spanish. These do not feature the voices of the migrant women who initially spoke these words in order to maintain their anonymity.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/women-work-more/145-evelyn-encalada-grez.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/145-evelyn-encalada-grez.html
Resources: Evelyn’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/professor_evy Justice For Migrant Workers: https://harvestingfreedom.org/who-we-are/ Justice For Migrant Workers on Twitter: https://twitter.com/j4mw CODEMUH: http://codemuh.hn/ El Contrato film: https://www.nfb.ca/film/el_contrato/ Migrant Dreams film: https://www.tvo.org/video/documentaries/migrant-dreams-feature-version ‘Contestations of the Heart’ essay: http://www.inderscience.com/storage/f101237925168114.pdf ‘Between Hearts and Pockets’ essay: https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2013.834131 ‘The Other Side of el Otro Lado’ essay: https://doi.org/10.1086/605483
Bio: Dr. Evelyn Encalada Grez is a transnational labour scholar, organizer and co-founder of Justice for Migrant Workers and Assistant Professor in Labour Studies at Simon Fraser University. She has worked with migrant farmworkers for two decades across rural Canada, Mexico and Guatemala. She has mobilized her research in various venues such as the UN in New York, the National Autonomous University of Mexico and collaborated in various multidisciplinary projects to amplify the voices of migrant workers. Her research has focused on the experiences of Mexican migrant women who forge transnational livelihoods between Canada and Mexico. Currently, she is conducting research on the effects of the pandemic on migrant farmworkers within a transnational perspective.
Credits: Host & Producer - Alyha Bardi Audio Editor - Paige Smith Cover Artist & Secondary Editor - Kathy Feng Transcriber & Copywriter - Melissa Roach SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement Director - Am Johal
Music: “Words” by Jason Shaw is licensed under CC BY 3.0: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/WORDS______________________________2-35 “Drive” by Scanglobe is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scanglobe/industrial-sunrise/drive-2 "Mexico DF 1996" by Monplaisir is licensed under CC0 1.0: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Monplaisir/Baisers_de_Sonora/Monplaisir__Cie_-_FAWM2017_-_13_Mexico_DF_1996
Ken Lyotier tells stories from his early days in the Downtown Eastside and how he came to found United We Can, an initiative by binners, for binners. United We Can creates economic opportunities for those who rely on collecting and returning recyclables for their income.
In this episode of Below the Radar, Ken is in conversation with host Am Johal about building community in the neighbourhood, advocating for policies and resources to benefit binners, and reaching across difference to support our neighbours and make progressive change.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/144-ken-lyotier.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/144-ken-lyotier.html
Resources: — United We Can: http://www.unitedwecan.ca/ — Binners’ Project: https://www.binnersproject.org/ — CBC IDEAS documentary on Ken Lyotier: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/meet-ken-lyotier-an-unforgettable-encounter-for-ideas-host-paul-kennedy-1.5188962
Bio: Ken Lyotier has lived and worked in the Downtown Eastside since the late 1970s, and is the founder and former Executive Director of United We Can. Ken founded United We Can, a non-profit bottle depot, in 1995 in order to provide work experience opportunities and income for residents of the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. A community leader, Ken has advised the city of Vancouver and many other groups on social issues, such as medical and housing services and poverty alleviation in Vancouver's inner-City.
His work has been well recognized. He is a recipient of the Medal for Meritorious Service by the Governor-General of Canada, an Environmental Citizenship Award by the Province of British Columbia, the Civic Merit Award by the City of Vancouver, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of British Columbia.
SFU Sociology and Anthropology Professor Amanda Watson, joins Alyha Bardi to speak about her recent book, 'The Juggling Mother: Coming Undone in an Age of Anxiety.'
Amanda speaks about our cultural fascination with the figure of the juggling mother, explores the ableism and racism behind this depiction, and scrutinizes the immense pressures of motherhood that are often ignored — from juggling work and home life, to breastfeeding, to acting unencumbered at work.
Amanda also discusses depictions of mothers as the “gender neutral CEO” — and explores how misogyny, white liberal feminism, and gender socialization, have led us to accept these very ideas involving motherhood that do more harm than good.
The episode ends with Amanda and four working mothers sharing some advice with working mothers, present and future. They speak to their visions for making work better serve parents, reshaping cultural ideas of motherhood to alleviate pressure, and placing greater value on the labour of mothers.
About the Women, Work, More series: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/women-work-more.html
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/women-work-more/143-amanda-watson.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/142-amanda-watson.html
Resources: — The Juggling Mother: Coming Undone in an Age of Anxiety: https://www.ubcpress.ca/the-juggling-mother — Amanda’s website: https://www.amandadwatson.com/ — Amanda Watson & the birthstrike movement: https://www.sfu.ca/sociology-anthropology/news-events/news/2020/amanda-watson-sshrc-grant.html
Bio: Amanda Watson is an author, lecturer, researcher, and mother of two. Her new book, The Juggling Mother: Coming Undone in the Age of Anxiety, is available from UBC Press. She is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Simon Fraser University, and has a focus on feminist teaching and learning. Amanda teaches and studies theories of labour, capitalism, motherhood, care, representation, and popular culture. She also writes opinions for newspapers and magazines.
Her next book project explores the politics of the BirthStrike movement for climate justice.
Credits: Host & Producer - Alyha Bardi Audio Editor - Paige Smith Cover Artist & Secondary Editor - Kathy Feng Transcriber & Copywriter - Melissa Roach SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement Director - Am Johal
“Words” by Jason Shaw is licensed under CC BY 3.0: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/WORDS______________________________2-35
“Drive” by Scanglobe is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scanglobe/industrial-sunrise/drive-2
“Industrial Sunrise” by Scanglobe is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scanglobe/industrial-sunrise/industrial-sunrise
Nick Montgomery joins Below the Radar to talk solutions to what he calls ‘structural precarity’ in housing. He is in conversation with host Melissa Roach about a newly launched project he has co-founded, Solidarity Housing, a new model that supports homeowners in transitioning their homes to become permanently affordable housing.
A writer, theorist, and permaculturist, Nick is deeply interested in housing alternatives, collective living, and finding more sustainable ways to live a thriving life in community with others. He and Melissa speak about the legal framework and model that Solidarity Housing seeks to provide, and how to encourage solidarity across the homeowner-tenant divide through engagement in mutual aid.
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/142-nick-montgomery.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/142-nick-montgomery.html
Resources: — Solidarity Housing: https://www.solidarityhousing.com/ — Solidarity Housing survey: https://www.solidarityhousing.com/survey — Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance In Toxic Times: https://joyfulmilitancy.com/ — Nick Montgomery on the Grounded Futures show: https://groundedfutures.com/shows/grounded-futures-show/grounded-futures-show-episode-10-nick-montgomery/
Bio: Nick Montgomery is passionate about creating alternatives to the dominant order of things, with a focus on housing and food. For the last fifteen years, he has been exploring non-profit and collective ways of living and working, including community land trusts, cooperatives, intentional communities, affinity groups, permaculture, and collective housing. He holds a PhD in Cultural Studies and has designed and taught courses for a number of universities and colleges across Canada. Nick is a writer, theory nerd, and gardener living with his partner on Sla-dai-aich (Denman Island, BC).
Women, Work, More kicks off with an investigation into the experiences of young women in the workplace. Host Alyha Bardi speaks with Kaitlyn Matulewicz, a labour organizer with a background in labour law, who is also the Executive Director of the Worker Solidarity Network. They speak about the unique barriers and harassment experienced by young women working front-of-house positions in the food service and hospitality industry.
Kaitlyn speaks to gendered power dynamics in restaurants, issues around shift scheduling and tip-out practices, and how women workers are pushing back and finding ways to resist the culture of harassment. She also points to examples that set legal precedent for harassment in the workplace, and shouts out the organizing movements working to protect workers and shift power dynamics within the industry.
Woven throughout this episode, we hear stories from anonymized young women currently working in front-of-house positions, as they share their experiences sexual harassment and resistance.
About the Women, Work, More series: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/women-work-more.html
Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/women-work-more/141-kaitlyn-matulewicz.html
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/141-kaitlyn-matulewicz.html
Resources: Worker Solidarity Network: https://workersolidarity.ca/ May I?: https://workersolidarity.ca/addressing-sexualized-violence-in-the-service-industry/ May I?, zine: https://www.antiviolenceproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/May-I-Zine-June-2021-online.pdf F.E.D. U.P.: https://fedupyeg.wordpress.com/ Law, Sexual Harassment, and Restaurants: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/8081 Law’s Gendered Subtext: https://link-springer-com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/article/10.1007/s10691-016-9322-z Law and the Construction of Institutionalized Sexual Harassment in Restaurants: https://muse-jhu-edu.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/article/603009 Kaitlyn’s articles for the Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/Bios/Kaitlyn_Matulewicz/
Bio: Kaitlyn Matulewicz has a PhD in Law and Society from the University of Victoria. Her dissertation examined how women restaurant workers' unwanted or uncomfortable sexual interactions with managers, co-workers, and customers are still happening more than three decades after sexual harassment was first named sex discrimination in Canada. She argues that restaurant work in BC is organized in such a way that uncomfortable or unwanted sexual experiences at work are made normal. Her dissertation tells the story of how law is implicated in the construction of such restaurant workplaces within which sexual harassment and unwanted sexual experiences are normalized.
Kaitlyn has seven years of experience working in restaurants. She is the executive director of the Worker Solidarity Network and co-chair of the BC Employment Standards Coalition.
Credits: Host & Producer - Alyha Bardi Audio Editor - Paige Smith Cover Artist & Secondary Editor - Kathy Feng Transcriber & Copywriter - Melissa Roach SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement Director - Am Johal
“Words” by Jason Shaw is licensed under CC BY 3.0: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/WORDS______________________________2-35
“Drive” by Scanglobe is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scanglobe/industrial-sunrise/drive-2
“Industrial Sunrise” by Scanglobe is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scanglobe/industrial-sunrise/industrial-sunrise
“Transit” by Scanglobe is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scanglobe/electrolyte/transit
“What I see that's hopeful coming out of this pandemic is that I think we've revitalized our ability to work in solidarity.”
Lama Mugabo joins Below the Radar to speak to building community and solidarity, from Rwanda to Hogan’s Alley. Lama is a Rwandan-born community organizer and planner with deep roots in the Downtown Eastside and the Black community in Vancouver.
In this episode, Lama joins host Am Johal to speak to his work around reconstruction and community building Rwanda, following the genocide of 1994. A co-founder of Building Bridges with Rwanda, Lama talks about fostering awareness and international solidarity with Rwandans, Canadians, and the diaspora community.
Having worked for decades in the Downtown Eastside community, Lama draws connections between his work internationally and locally. He shares his experiences of engaging community with Hogan’s Alley Society around housing, discriminatory street checks, and rebuilding the once-thriving Black community that was displaced for the construction of the viaducts. Lama also speaks to how the COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the importance of the human right to housing, a need for increased welfare rates, and how growing food in community promotes health and connection.
Full Episode Details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/140-lama-mugabo.html
Transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/140-lama-mugabo.html
Resources: — Hogan’s Alley Society: https://www.hogansalleysociety.org/ — Building Bridges with Rwanda: https://www.bbrwanda.org/ — Carnegie Community Action Project: http://www.carnegieaction.org/ — Raise the Rates: https://www.facebook.com/RaiseTheRatesBc/ — SFU Institute of Diaspora Research & Engagement: https://www.sfu.ca/diaspora-institute.html — Remember Rwanda 25 Legacy Project: https://give.sfu.ca/ways-to-give/fund/rr25-legacy-project
An artist, community organizer, and a former staff member and longtime friend of SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement, Andrea Creamer joins Below the Radar to catch up with your host, Am Johal. They talk grassroots arts organizing, her experiences as a fine arts student in SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts and at the University of Toronto, and taking a community-centred approach to healthcare and wellness.
Andrea has a long history of working in community and bringing arts programming to the public. They chat about her involvement in the artist-run Toast Collective in East Van, as well as Super Cool Tuesdays, a community arts program Andrea facilitated for many years out of the Interurban Gallery in the Downtown Eastside.
Bringing a lens of centring community care and access to arts and culture, Andrea is deeply interested in how community connection and social prescribing can promote community health and wellbeing. She and Am talk about her work with the Burnaby Primary Care Networks, which brings together the City, the health authority, and the community to support access to primary care and allied health services, as well as vital social supports and services.
Full Episode Details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/139-andrea-creamer.html
Transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/139-andrea-creamer.html
Resources: — The Toast Collective: http://thetoast.org/ — The Arts and Cultural Workers Union: https://www.valucoop.ca/acwu — Anti-Fascist Karaoke Lounge Party (Access Gallery, 2018): https://accessgallery.ca/event/anti-fascist-karaoke-lounge-party-film-screenings — Burnaby Primary Care Networks: https://burnabypcn.ca/ — Burnaby Community Fridge (now at SFU Burnaby!): https://burnabypcn.ca/allied-health/fridge/
Photo use in cover graphic is by Charles Stankievech.
Philosopher, cultural theorist, and author of The Psychoanalysis of Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Isabel Millar joins Am Johal to speak about the psychoanalytical questions of AI and subjectivity. They talk about how Isabel’s work draws from Jacques Lacan, the importance of considering sexuality and the body in conversations about AI, and acknowledging how intelligence is a dynamic concept that changes throughout history.
Isabel draws from the film Ex Machina to consider the positioning of sexuality; and Blade Runner 2049 to pose deeply psychoanalytic questions revolving around the query ‘can AI be human?’ She also criticizes the development of AI for its disclusion of the Humanities disciplines, and speaks about her concept of patipolitics and how it relates to sexbots and the ethics of enjoyment and suffering.
Episode page: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/138-isabel-millar.html Transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/138-isabel-millar.html
Resources: — The Psychoanalysis of Artificial Intelligence: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030679804 — The Palgrave Lacan Series: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15116 — Isabel’s website: https://www.isabelmillar.com/ — Isabel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/IsabelVMillar — AI and the Patipolitical Body, to be released in 2022
Host Am Johal is joined by Julietta Singh, an author and Associate Professor of English and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Richmond. In this episode, they talk about the feminist, queer, ecological, and decolonial lens Julietta brings to her work, as well as her newly-released book, The Breaks, which “takes the form of a letter to her young daughter about race, inheritance, and mothering at the end of the world.”
Episode page: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/episodes/episodes1/ep137-julietta-singh.html Transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/ep137-julietta-singh.html
Resources: — Julietta’s website: https://www.juliettasingh.com/ — Unthinking Mastery: https://www.dukeupress.edu/unthinking-mastery — No Archive Will Restore You: https://punctumbooks.com/titles/no-archive-will-restore-you/ — The Breaks: https://chbooks.com/Books/T/The-Breaks
Award-winning artist, filmmaker, and activist Andrea Luka Zimmerman joins Below the Radar from the UK to speak to us about her approach to making art and films — in deep collaboration, over long periods of time, and always cultivating community. Host Am Johal speaks to Andrea about how her work explores counter-memories to structural violence and how we dream together to build new worlds.
They discuss Andrea’s past and recent works, including Estate, A Reverie, Here for Life, and others, delving into the aesthetics and experimental nature of her work, as well as the political orientation around themes of displacement, gentrification, human rights, and social connection that run through her practice.
Transcript:
Register for the free screening of ‘Here for Life’ on October 15 at 5pm: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/here-for-life-film-screening-tickets-170500399284
Resources: — Fugitive Images https://fugitiveimages.org.uk/about/ — Taskafa, Stories of the Street https://lux.org.uk/work/taskafa-stories-of-the-street — Estate, a Reverie https://lux.org.uk/work/013429-estate-a-reverie — Here For Life https://www.artangel.org.uk/project/here-for-life/ — Shelter in Place https://www.estuaryfestival.com/event/detail/shelter-in-place.html
Wrapping up our series on Climate Justice and Inequality, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip joins Below the Radar to talk about his history of activism as a lifelong advocate for Indigenous Peoples’ Title and Rights. He and Am speak about his role in historical battles for Indigenous land rights over the decades, and the future of land defense.
In the midst of overlapping crises of the global pandemic and the contamination of the drug supply, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip addresses the need for a stronger response from the government that focuses on the people rather than corporations. He digs into government shortcomings when it comes to respecting Indigenous jurisdiction over Indigenous lands, landmark victories, and the ongoing fight to protect Indigenous territories.
He also addresses his unconditional love for the land and for the people as his motivation to continue the fight for justice, and the sense of hope he feels about passing the torch to this new generation of land defenders.
Resources: — Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC): https://www.ubcic.bc.ca/ — Okanagan Nation Alliance: https://www.syilx.org/ — Grand Chief Stewart Phillip’s testimonial with the Unist’ot’en Camp: https://unistoten.camp/grand-chief-stewart-phillip/
Environmental lawyer Eugene Kung joins Below the Radar’s Climate Justice & Inequality series to discuss pipeline politics in BC and the role of law in fighting the climate crisis. Eugene shares about how law has been wielded as a mechanism for enacting colonialism, and the various ways it can instead be a tool for effecting major change and upholding human rights.
Eugene discusses different legal strategies to mitigate climate change — from legislation and law reform, to legal challenges against extractive energy projects that drive pollution. He speaks to a positive shift that has seen more Indigenous nations asserting their own laws and sovereignty in decision-making, as caretakers of their lands.
He and Am also discuss how to decentre whiteness and Western perspectives in the climate justice movement and the importance of connecting environmentalism with other social movements and systemic issues.
Episode page: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/episodes/episodes1/ep134-eugene-kung.html Transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/ep134-eugene-kung.html
Resources: — “The Time of the Lone Wolf is Over” by Eugene Kung: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2016/07/OS124_Kung.pdf — Eugene’s writings for Policy Options: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/authors/eugene-kung/ — West Coast Environmental Law: https://wcel.org/ — BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre: http://bcpiac.com/ — Climate Justice Webinar Series: “Just Is”≠ Justice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr5-J6H0rl0 — 2018 Tsleil-Waututh v. Canada case brief: https://www.dgwlaw.ca/case-brief-tsleil-waututh-v-canada-attorney-general-2018-fca-153/ — “Tim Hortons Workers File Double-Double BC Rights Complaint”: https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/tim-hortons-complaint-bc-human-rights-dawson-creek_n_2104706 — “BC Refuses Calls to Compensate African Tree-planters”: https://thetyee.ca/News/2014/06/05/BC-Treeplanter-Compensation/ — Read the Trans Mountain Assessment Report by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation: https://twnsacredtrust.ca/assessment-report-download/
Co-Director of the Climate Justice Project at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and senior economist, Marc Lee, joins Am Johal to discuss the successes and failures of Canadian climate policies across the political spectrum. Marc speaks about the origins of the Climate Justice Project, and conceptualizes how reaching a net-zero carbon economy can be achieved — through a fundamental restructuring of Canadian and BC systems, and the implementation of decolonizing practices.
Am and Marc also discuss how approaches like carbon pricing and carbon capture systems do little to counteract climate change, and instead offer “escape hatches” for the fossil fuel industry. They explore how other government-based responses like subsidizing pipelines, or setting climate goals for the distant future, do not adequately address the imminent threat of climate change. Marc ends by discussing how we need to deal with this climate emergency with the same level of urgency that was enacted in BC’s COVID-19 response.
Resources: Climate Justice Project: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/projects/climate-justice-project Marc Lee’s Posts on Policy Note: https://www.policynote.ca/author/marclee/ Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/ Marc’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarcLeeCCPA International Panel on Climate Change, 2021 report: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/
Bio: Marc Lee is a Senior Economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ BC Office. In addition to tracking federal and provincial budgets and economic trends, Marc has published on a range of topics from poverty and inequality to globalization and international trade to public services and regulation. Marc is the Co-Director of the Climate Justice Project, a research partnership with UBC's School of Community and Regional Planning that examines the links between climate change policies and social justice.
Community leader and climate justice activist Anjali Appadurai joins Am Johal for the second instalment of Below the Radar’s Climate Justice & Inequality series. Anjali is a Climate Justice Lead at Sierra Club BC, the Sectoral Organizer for the Climate Emergency Unit, as well as the founder of Padma Centre for Climate Justice.
Anjali and Am talk about the growth of the climate movement, and shifting the focus from being ‘green’ to centering justice for all in the fight against climate change. They speak about lifting up the youth and Indigenous leaders at the forefront of the struggle, as well as how to get involved and make the movement accessible to all.
Read the transcript:http://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/ep132-anjali-appadurai.html More in this series: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/climate-justice-and-inequality.html
Resources: - Sierra Club BC: https://sierraclub.bc.ca/ - Climate Emergency Unit: https://www.climateemergencyunit.ca/ - Padma Centre for Climate Justice: https://medium.com/@padmaclimate - West Coast Environmental Law: https://www.wcel.org/
Bio: Anjali is a climate justice activist, communicator and organizer. She works to strengthen climate change messaging and discourse in Canada by centring the stories of those on the front lines of the climate crisis. She brings a strong justice lens to climate change messaging and keeps her work connected to social movements that have been demanding climate justice in the Global South for decades. Anjali is Climate Justice Lead at Sierra Club BC and Sectoral Organizer with the newly formed Climate Emergency Unit.
Squamish Nation Councillor and community leader Khelsilem joins Am Johal on this first episode of Below the Radar’s Climate Justice & Inequality series. In this episode, they discuss the climate crisis as a result of the colonial project, how climate change hits hardest for those already at a disadvantage, and the spaces where colonialism has existed within climate movements.
Khelsilem speaks to his critique of fossil fuel infrastructure, the false narrative of individual responsibility, and the role governments play in worsening the crisis through policy decisions that favour oil and gas. We also hear about innovative affordable housing projects, such as Squamish Nation’s Sen̓áḵw Development, and how to build climate-friendly design into new housing models.
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/ep131-khelsilem.html About the series: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/climate-justice-and-inequality.html
Resources: — Sen̓áḵw Development: https://senakw.com/ — Squamish Nation: https://www.squamish.net/ — Kwi Awt Stelmexw: https://www.kwiawtstelmexw.com/ — Khelsilem’s linktree: https://linktr.ee/khelsilem — Indigenous Languages Program at SFU: https://www.sfu.ca/inlp/programs.html
Below the Radar dives into the call for a feminist economic recovery and a just transition with SFU School of Communication PhD Candidate Alicia Massie. Alicia is a Progressive Economics Fellow with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and a Research Assistant and conference organizer with SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative.
As a feminist political economist and community-engaged researcher, Alicia joins host Am Johal to discuss her research around an economic transition for Canada that can bring us into a more equitable and green future.
They discuss pandemic recovery as an opportunity to implement long-term solutions to ongoing and intersecting issues, such as systemic racism, gender-based inequities and climate change. Alicia speaks to the value of the care economy and investing in green infrastructure like childcare, healthcare and education. She also shares some of her learnings from Fort McMurray and how the inevitable shift away from a fossil fuel-based economy must not leave resource industry workers and their communities behind.
Episode page: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/episodes/episodes1/ep130-alicia-massie.html Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/ep130-Alicia-Massie.html
Resources: — Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/ — SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative: https://www.sfu.ca/ceri.html — Progressive Economics Forum: https://www.progressive-economics.ca/ — Centre for Future Work: https://www.futurework.org.au/
Critical theorist Alberto Toscano joins Am Johal in conversation about his work and writings, as he joins SFU as a visiting faculty member with the Digital Democracies Institute in SFU’s School of Communication.
In this episode, they discuss Alberto’s writing on the philosophy of fanaticism, and conflicting discourse and counter-histories around the figure of the fanatic, which historically takes many forms, from abolitionist leaders to peasant revolutionaries. Alberto and Am also dive into global and historical trends of authoritarianism, racial capitalism and the notion of ‘late fascism.’ Alberto speaks to expanding our concept of fascism, to recognize iterations outside of what could be thought of as European fascism. They also talk about neoliberal tendencies in post-secondary administration, and the workings of mechanisms that maintain or fortify power structures within institutions.
Episode web page: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/episodes/episodes1/ep129-alberto-toscano.html Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/ep129-alberto-toscano.html
Resources: — Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought: https://cpct.uk/about/ — Seagull Books: https://www.seagullbooks.org/our-translators/t/alberto-toscano/ — Digital Democracies Institute: https://digitaldemocracies.org/ — The Theatre of Production: Philosophy and Individuation Between Kant and Deleuze: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781403997807 — Fanaticism: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2475-fanaticism — Cartographies of the Absolute: https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/our-books/cartographies-of-the-absolute — Wolfen movie trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L46RneepoxQ — Pli journal: https://plijournal.com/
Javier Campos joins host Am Johal to discuss reframing the way we think about heritage. Javier is an architect and Principal Designer with Campos Studio, as well as the current president of Heritage Vancouver Society. Together, they explore what heritage means today as a living and changing concept. They discuss the dark roots of heritage, and how heritage has been deployed to erase and exclude the histories of communities who have been dispossessed and harmed by the settler-colonial project.
In this conversation, Javier speaks to the idea of heritage as cultural production. Heritage should empower communities to drive change within their neighbourhoods, and to rewrite and shape their stories. Javier also speaks about taking an ecologically-minded approach to architecture, working with the critical regionalist tradition and passive design.
Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/ep128-javier-campos.html
Resources: — Heritage Vancouver: http://heritagevancouver.org/ — Shaping Vancouver series: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClA0Wn2xodnRMrdH3shZSwQ — Campos Studio: https://www.campos.studio/ — Sen̓áḵw: https://senakw.com/ — Heritage Action Plan: https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/heritage-action-plan-emerging-directions-june-2017-open-house-information-displays.pdf
FoodShare’s Executive Director and lifelong anti-poverty activist Paul Taylor joins host Am Johal in this episode of Below the Radar. In this conversation, they delve into the work Paul has done in both Toronto and Vancouver with various activist organizations such as FoodShare, the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, and Gordon Neighbourhood House.
Paul shares his experience growing up in a low-income household and dealing with food insecurity, and the ways that traditional charity models fall short. He challenges these charity systems that place responsibility on fellow community members, rather than governments and policymakers. Together, they explore the notion of the right to food, particularly in the pandemic climate, and advocacy for greater systemic change. Paul concludes this conversation by encouraging listeners to consider a world of possibility, and come together to demand political leadership that focuses on justice.
Episode page: http://sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/ep127-paul-taylor.html Transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/ep127-paul-taylor.html
Resources: — Paul Taylor’s website: https://www.paultaylorto.com/ — FoodShare: https://foodshare.net/ — Gordon Neighbourhood House: https://gordonhouse.org/ — Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House: https://www.dtesnhouse.ca/ — Nourish Scotland: https://www.nourishscotland.org/ — Global Solidarity Alliance: https://rightsnotcharity.org/ — WhyHunger: https://whyhunger.org/
Community-engaged scholar, current Researcher-in-Residence with SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative and food system planner Tammara Soma joins Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar. She shares with us what drives her interest in food systems and sustainability, and their relationship to equity and justice. Tammara speaks to her experience and the process of researching in communities — where she aims to have everyone’s voices represented at the table.
We hear about the impetus behind co-creating the Food Systems Lab, and how Tammara views the impact of COVID-19 on our current food systems. We also discuss issues with charitable responses to food security, and what kind of justice-centered solutions are needed in a paradoxical system where we have massive food waste, but also food insecurity and hunger.
Read the transcript of this episode: TBC
Resources — Food Systems Lab: https://foodsystemslab.ca/ — Supporting Sustainable Business Adaptation during COVID-19 study: https://foodsystemslab.ca/projects/local-business-covid19/ — 'We are Community': CERi Partners with the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition: https://www.sfu.ca/ceri/blog/2020/ceri-partners-with-the-bc-poverty-reduction-coalition.html#:~:text=Getting%20Around%20to%20Feed%20Ourselves%20Well%20is%20a%20project%20housed,at%2Drisk%20and%20marginalized%20communities. — Farm to School BC: https://farmtoschoolbc.ca/ — FoodShare Toronto: https://foodshare.net/ — Hives for Humanity: Empowering Informed Consent – Community Ethics In Cultural Production and Research 101: https://www.hivesforhumanity.com/empowering-informed-consent-1 — Pollution is Colonialism by Dr. Max Liboiron: https://www.dukeupress.edu/pollution-is-colonialism
Lawyer, climate storyteller, and founder of the UBC Climate Hub, Grace Nosek, joins host Am Johal on a mission — to publicly uncover feelings of ‘climate doom’ and ‘individual responsibility’ as narratives propelled by the fossil fuel industry. While leading this charge, Grace speaks about Exxon Mobil at the forefront of climate science — spinning its narrative web that entangles any space from broadcasting and universities, to legislation.
Grace also discusses her work with the UBC Climate Hub, and the integral role that youth (as well as Indigenous and racialized people) have in this movement of anti-capitalist defiance. She and Am also speak about overcoming eco-anxieties, the importance of making a small day-to-day difference that can ‘ripple outward,’ and Grace’s belief in Pleasure Activism. They end this interview with a brief discussion of Grace’s inspiration to write her hopeful young adult climate fantasy series, Ava of the Gaia.
Grace’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/GraceNosek Grace’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grace.nosek/ Grace’s website: https://www.gracenosek.com UBC Climate Hub: https://ubcclimatehub.ca/ Ava of the Gaia: https://www.gracenosek.com/books ‘Build Student Resiliency in the Face of Multiple Crises’ blog by Grace Nosek: https://www.gracenosek.com/blog/build-student-resiliency-in-the-face-of-multiple-crises-empower-youth-climate-organizers ‘The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Push to Target Climate Protesters in the U.S.’ by Grace Nosek: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol38/iss1/2/ Planet Potluck podcast: http://planetpotluck.com/
Dancer, aerialist, choreographer and producer Gabrielle Martin joins host Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar. Gabrielle tells us how her passion for dance has taken her from spinning fire in an East Van park, to touring the world with Cavalia and Cirque du Soleil, to choreographing and producing her own works.
In the episode, they talk about Gabrielle’s youth as an unschooler/alternative schooler, and how she developed a love for performance and dance through stilt walking, fire dancing, hula hooping and more. Gabrielle also shares her thoughts on the impact of the pandemic on the performing arts, her work as festival manager with the Vancouver International Dance Festival, and the making of "Limb(e)s," a feature-length show she developed with her partner, Jeremiah Hughes.
Read the transcript of this episode: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/ep124-gabrielle-martin.html
Resources: — Ci Co: https://www.companyci.com/ — Limb(e)s trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OIGWCRUivQ&t — Limb(e)s at Dancing On The Edge, July 8-17, 2021, tickets available soon: http://www.dancingontheedge.org/ — “Dark, quietly riveting gem of aerial drama” - a review of Limb(e)s in The List: https://edinburghfestival.list.co.uk/article/110184-limbes/ — Vancouver International Dance Festival: https://www.vidf.ca/
Taiko drumming enthusiast and specialist in modern and contemporary Japanese art Namiko Kunimoto, joins Am Johal on this installment of Below the Radar. Throughout this episode, Namiko explores Japanese imperialism, Olympic dissent, and the internment of Japanese Canadians; while drawing from the works of artists such as Takayama Akira and Shimada Yoshiko.
Namiko and Am also critique the tendency for universities to be run from ivory towers that often overlook issues of poverty, racism and sexism. They speak about some successful bottom-up programs that have been beneficial for students of colour, and speak to the increased importance of these programs coming out of the pandemic. Namiko also explores how her familial history, and growing up as an Asian Canadian in rural BC and Alberta had led her to discover her passion for art history, and taiko drumming.
Read the transcript of this episode: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/ep123-namiko-kunimoto.html
Resources: — OSU Center for Ethnic Studies: https://ethnicstudies.osu.edu/ — The Stakes of Exposure: Anxious Bodies in Postwar Japanese Art: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt1n2txrg — Intimate Archives: Japanese-Canadian family photography, 1939–1949: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0141-6790.2004.02701005.x — Olympic Dissent: Art, Politics, and the Tokyo Olympic Games of 1964 and 2020: https://apjjf.org/2018/15/Kunimoto.html — Transpacific Erasures: Contemporary Art, Gender, Race and the Afterlives of Japanese Imperialism, in Progress — Tsujimura Kazuko and the Body Object: https://apjjf.org/2021/3/Kunimoto.html — A comprehensive list of Namiko’s writings and accomplishments: https://osu.academia.edu/NamikoKunimoto/CurriculumVitae
This final installment of the Power of Disability series highlights an unsung hero of the disability movement, Barb Goode. Host Al Etmanski is in conversation with Barb about her work around self-advocacy for people with learning and developmental disabilities. Barb speaks to the importance of plain language and the harm that comes from labelling people. She also recounts organizing efforts around a milestone legal struggle to prevent the forced sterilization of people with disabilities.
In this interview, Barb is joined by her friend and colleague, Aaron Johannes. In addition to being connected through involvement with PLAN, they collaborate on consulting projects around disability and inclusion with ImagineACircle.
“I think words are very powerful. If we use complicated words, you're going to leave people out of conversations.” - Barb Goode
Read the full transcript of this episode: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/barb-goode/
**A note about the discussion at the 9:30 mark: the “R” word refers to a derogatory term that used to be used to describe people with a developmental or intellectual disability. While not as common today, it is still being used, and it is still hurtful.
Resources: — The Goode Life: Memoirs of Disability Rights Activist Barb Goode: https://spectrumpress.myshopify.com/products/the-goode-life-memoirs-of-disability-rights-activist-barb-goode — “Barb Goode – Unsung Hero of the Disability Movement” on Al Etmanksi’s blog: https://aletmanski.com/impact/barb-goode/ — ImagineACircle consulting: https://imagineacircle.com/ — PLAN Institute: https://planinstitute.ca/ — EVE Supreme Court of Canada case: https://eugenicsarchive.ca/discover/tree/5232a7b75c2ec5000000001d — NFB film: The Sterilization of Leilani Muir: https://www.nfb.ca/film/sterilization_of_leilani_muir/ — BC People First: https://bcpeoplefirst.com/home — Al Etmanski’s website: www.aletmanski.com — The Power of Disability: 10 Lessons for Surviving, Thriving, and Changing the World: https://aletmanski.com/books/
Below the Radar invites Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer and artist Leanne Betasamosake Simpson into conversation about her latest album, Theory Of Ice, as a thinking through of water as a connector. She talks with host Am Johal about covering Willie Dunn’s “I Pity the Country,” and how her work aligns with, and is inspired by, a long tradition of Indigenous musicians and activists.
Leanne speaks to her artistic and academic work as being underpinned by a deep love of the land, and the land as a site of knowledge production. She shares some of her experiences working with the Dechinta Centre for Research & Learning on land-based education in Denendeh. We also learn about some of Leanne’s exciting collaborative works, from artistic collaborations with filmmakers and visual artists to Leanne’s work with Robyn Maynard on "Rehearsals for Living," a book forthcoming from Knopf Canada in 2022.
Thank you to Leanne for the use of her recording of Willie Dunn's "I Pity the Country," from "Theory Of Ice," for this episode.
Read the full transcript of this conversation: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/ep122-leanne-betasamosake-simpson.html
Resources: — leannesimpson.ca — leannesimpsonmusic.com — "Theory Of Ice" album by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson: https://youvechangedrecords.com/product/leanne-betasamosake-simpson-theory-of-ice/ — “I Pity the Country” cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DUV60wpmgk — "The Ballad of Crowfoot", an NFB film by Willie Dunn: https://www.nfb.ca/film/ballad_of_crowfoot/ — "Viscosity" video collaboration with Sandra Brewester: https://youtu.be/Gf0TzU9wCPU — "Solidification ᒪᔥᑲᐗᒋ 凝" video collaboration with Sammy Chien: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA70--wIbbQ&feature=emb_imp_woyt — More films and music videos: http://www.leannesimpsonmusic.com/videos — "Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies" by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson: https://houseofanansi.com/products/noopiming — "As We Have Always Done" by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/as-we-have-always-done — "A Short History of the Blockade" by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson: https://www.uap.ualberta.ca/titles/986-9781772125382-short-history-of-the-blockade — "Rehearsals for Living", forthcoming from Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Robyn Maynard: https://www.transatlanticagency.com/2020/12/11/deal-news-canadian-rights-to-rehearsals-for-living-by-robyn-maynard-and-leanne-betasamosake-simpson-to-knopf-canada/
The Power of Disability host, Al Etmanski is joined by partners and disability advocates Tim Louis and Penny Parry. Tim is a lawyer, politician, and longtime leader of the disability movement within British Columbia. Penny has worked as a university professor, artist, and youth care practitioner. Tim and Penny share stories and learnings from 40 plus years of working on social issues in their own careers and together as a couple.
Tim delves into his experiences working as a lawyer under his mentor, Harry Rankin. He discusses issues with processes that keep supports and monetary assistance behind bureaucratic walls, and problematizes assumptions that disabled folks are fragile, vulnerable, or unresilient.
Penny considers her experience with mentorship, reflects on her teaching and work with youth and families, and shares how she sees her art practice as a means of moving people towards understanding, questioning, and social change.
Read the transcript of this episode: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/tim-louis-and-penny-parry/
Resources: — Tim Louis’s website: https://www.timlouis.ca/ — Penny Parry on Twitter: https://twitter.com/alicereally — Tim Louis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tim_Louis — HandyDART Riders’ Alliance: http://handydartriders.ca/ — Al Etmanski’s website: www.aletmanski.com — The Power of Disability: 10 Lessons for Surviving, Thriving, and Changing the World: https://aletmanski.com/books/
Below the Radar explores equity and public engagement in knowledge-making and learning with community-engaged scholars from the Honors Living-Learning Community at Rutgers University-Newark (HLLC). HLLC is a transformational college access program that aims to provide equitable opportunities to those that have been systematically disenfranchised.
In this interview, our host Am Johal is joined by HLLC’s inaugural Dean, Timothy Eatman, and HLLC scholar Mohamed Farge. Together, they discuss how the pandemic has affected community engagement and teaching relationships in a post-secondary context. Mohamed speaks to bringing a social justice and equity lens into the world of finance. Timothy and Mohamed also talk about the importance of appreciating and respecting the knowledge that lives outside the academy, and taking an imaginative and artistic approach to community-engaged work and scholarship.
Resources: — The HLLC (Honors Living-Learning Community) at Rutgers University-Newark website: https://hllc.newark.rutgers.edu/ — Dr. Timothy K. Eatman’s website: http://timothykeatman.com/ — Dr. Timothy K. Eatman’s story: https://admissions.rutgers.edu/stories/dr-timothy-eatmans-story-newark — Imagining American consortium (IA): https://imaginingamerica.org/ — Interfaith Youth Core: https://ifyc.org/
Rabia Khedr, an activist, consultant, former Human Rights Commissioner and motivational speaker who ‘wears many hijabs,’ joins Al Etmanski for this Power of Disability conversation. They discuss Rabia’s advocacy and policy work within the disability community and the Muslim community; bringing a disability benefit, or basic income, to Canada; as well as the vital importance of having people disabled folks driving systems change.
Rabia speaks to the significance of having what she calls a ‘hyphenated identity’ and how disability is just one facet of people's varied and intersecting experiences and identities. She shares with Al how she is working with the Canadian Association of Muslims with Disabilities to connect people to Disability Justice principles through spirituality and culture. She also sheds light on what she means when she says, “Being blind, I see things differently.”
“The range of disabilities, of lived experience, needs to be reflected in the journey — at the table, making the decisions, leading the work.” - Rabia Khedr
Read the full transcript of this episode: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/rabia-khedr/
Resources: — Rabia Khedr consulting: http://www.diversityworx.com/index.php/consultant-profile/rabia-khedr — Rabia Khedr on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RabiaKhedr — COVID-19 Canadian Muslim Task Force: https://www.cmcovidtf.com/ — DEEN Support Services: https://deensupportservices.ca/ — Canadian Association of Muslims with Disabilities: https://camd.ca/ — Disability and Islam journal (forthcoming) — Al Etmanski’s website: www.aletmanski.com — The Power of Disability: 10 Lessons for Surviving, Thriving, and Changing the World: https://aletmanski.com/books/
Glenn Alteen is a writer, curator, and co-founder of grunt gallery. Having retired after 36 years in May 2020, Glenn joins host Am Johal to talk about his tenure as Program Director of grunt gallery, and his work on The Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency.
In this interview, Glenn recalls the process of founding grunt gallery in 1984, and the dynamic programming of the gallery. He discusses the focus on exhibiting work from artists at the fringes of the art scene in Vancouver: namely, the work of many contemporary Indigenous artists in the 1990s, a time when these perspectives were largely not shown. Glenn and Am also chat about life after retirement, working on the Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency, and the need for reforming the way funding is distributed to artists.
Resources: — grunt gallery website: https://grunt.ca/ — The Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency: https://thebluecabin.ca/ — Glenn Alteen Legacy fund: https://www.vancouverfoundation.ca/glennalteenlegacyfund
Non-visual artist Carmen Papalia speaks with Al Etmanski about the rampancy of ableism across institutions — from the art world to healthcare, to the symbol of the white cane. Carmen and Al discuss how institutions can be sites of retraumatization that can often overlook and underappreciate variations in ability.
Carmen also explores some key ideas central to disability justice, provides some suggestions on how to be a good ally, and considers how accessibility is dependent on the social, cultural, and political conditions of a space and the people within it. Carmen speaks about some of his works, including White Cane Amplified, Mobility Device, and Open Access, drawing out his own positions on the topic of disability, and the importance of mutual aid within the disability community.
“At the heart of disability justice is the idea of mutual aid, which means building a capacity for care that isn’t otherwise available.” - Carmen Papalia
Read the full transcript of this episode: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/carmen-papalia/
Resources: — Carmen Papalia’s website: https://carmenpapalia.com/ — Vocal Eye: http://www.vocaleye.ca/ — Open Access by Carmen Papalia: https://carmenpapalia.com/2015/08/21/open-access/ — “An Accessibility Manifesto for the Arts” - Canadian Art: https://canadianart.ca/essays/access-revived/ — White Cane Amplified by Carmen Papalia: https://carmenpapalia.com/2015/03/01/white-cane-amplified/ — Mobility Device by Carmen Papalia: https://carmenpapalia.com/2013/06/01/mobility-device/ — Sins Invalid: https://www.sinsinvalid.org/ — Skin, Tooth, and Bone: The Basis of Movement is Our People, a Disability Justice primer by Sins Invalid: https://www.sinsinvalid.org/disability-justice-primer — Review of Skin, Tooth, and Bone: The Basis of Movement is Our People: https://disabilityarts.online/magazine/opinion/sins-invalid-skin-tooth-bone-basis-movement-people-disability-justice-primer/ — Sins Invalid access suggestions for mobilizations: https://www.sinsinvalid.org/blog/access-suggestions-for-mobilizations — Sins Invalid access suggestions for public events: https://www.sinsinvalid.org/blog/access-suggestions-for-a-public-event — Disability Filibuster for Bill C-7: https://disabilityfilibuster.ca/
Theorist and author Asad Haider joins Below the Radar to discuss questions he explores in his book, "Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump." Asad discusses how class dynamics cannot be separated from identity-driven movements.
As well, he explores ideas of political exhaustion in the tradition of political theorists such as Sylvain Lazarus and Alain Badiou.
In this interview, Asad interrogates the role of identity in politics and how it has been taken up in discourse — complicating the relationship between race and class in a context that has been defined by capital interests. Asad and Am discuss theoretical questions around frameworks for political organizing and solidarity across movements. He also speaks to our current moment as one of political exhaustion, where it’s difficult to mobilize transformative political change.
— Asad Haider’s website: http://www.asadhaider.com/ — Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump by Asad Haider: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2716-mistaken-identity — “Emancipation & Exhaustion” - South Asian Avant Garde Anthology: https://saaganthology.com/Emancipation-and-Exhaustion — Viewpoint Magazine: https://viewpointmag.com/ — Review: “Mistaken Identity by Asad Haider review – the best criticism of identity politics” - The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/31/mistaken-identity-by-asad-haider-review — Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/300589/revolutionary-suicide-by-huey-p-newton/9780143105329
Lifelong activist and wheelchair user Judy Heumann joins Al Etmanski for this instalment of The Power of Disability. Judy is a powerful advocate in the disability movement both in the US and globally. She and Al talk about her long history of fighting for the rights of disabled people, a part of which is featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary, Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution.
Judy shares stories about significant organizing moments and camaraderie in liberation movements, speaking to the importance for the voices of disabled people to come forward. They also discuss Judy’s appearance on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, creating a thriving disability culture, and the changing nature of allyship.
“It's important to work collaboratively with people, to try to have big dreams, to recognize they may not happen overnight, and to be able to change.” - Judy Heumann
Read the full transcript of this episode: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/judy-heumann/
ABOUT THE SERIES The Power of Disability is a series of Below the Radar. Host Al Etmanski brings us enlightening conversations, featuring guests with disabilities who have been influential in arts, activism, science, and more. This series is a continuation of the work Al has shared in the book, The Power of Disability: 10 Lessons for Surviving, Thriving, and Changing the World, which reveals that people with disabilities are the invisible force that has shaped history.
Resources: Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/621090/being-heumann-by-judith-heumann/ Film: Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution: https://cripcamp.com/ Judy Heumann on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: https://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow/videos/203581457556267/ Judy Heumann - Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Heumann The Heumann Perspective - YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7pemkbDQYezB6PeDFXTvg?view_as=subscriber Judy Heumann’s TED talk: https://www.ted.com/speakers/judith_heumann Judy Heumann on Twitter: https://twitter.com/judithheumann American Association of People with Disabilities’ REV UP campaign: https://www.aapd.com/advocacy/voting/ Al Etmanski’s website: www.aletmanski.com The Power of Disability: 10 Lessons for Surviving, Thriving, and Changing the World: https://aletmanski.com/books/
Blackfoot and Sámi writer, actor, producer and director, Elle–Máijá Tailfeathers joins host Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar to talk about her latest film Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy. Together they discussed how Tailfeathers created the feature documentary film, which takes place in her community of Kainai First Nation in Southern Alberta, and look at the impacts of the drug-poisoning epidemic over a period of four years in that community. Elle–Máijá shares her own process of narrative sovereignty as an Indigenous filmmaker, a process rooted in conversation, deep listening, accountability and that is also respectful of community protocols. She also talks about how she implemented the Blackfoot concept of Kímmapiiyipitssini, working from a place of empathy, love and understanding, to her practice and how her previous works influenced this film.
Resources: — Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy https://www.nfb.ca/film/kimmapiiyipitssini-the-meaning-of-empathy/ — Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers https://elle-maija-tailfeathers.com/?page_id=311 — Hotdocs Film Festival- Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy https://boxoffice.hotdocs.ca/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=141695~367cbc04-eb03-453a-90f8-88ca48c4cf79&epguid=9759e3f1-085c-4e15-88c2-e02a8ee1f1d1& — c̓əsnaʔəm, the city before the city https://www.knowledge.ca/program/city-city — Mavericks, Season 2, Episode: Dr. Esther Tailfeathers: Blood Reserve https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPhIT0bfzJw
Al Etmanski interviews Victoria Maxwell, the Bipolar Princess. They discuss the role of art and creativity in the process of change, the dramatic increase in antidepressant prescriptions and the fact that depression is the number one source of disability in the world today. They also speak to the need for universal mental health care. Victoria explains why we need to shift from recovery as a possibility to recovery as an expectation. The episode ends with Victoria providing the answer to her most recent Psychology Today post, “Is there Love after the Psych Ward?"
“Recovery shouldn’t be a possibility. It should be an expectation.” – Victoria Maxwell
Read the full transcript of this episode: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/transcripts/victoria-maxwell/
ABOUT THE SERIES The Power of Disability is a series of Below the Radar. Host Al Etmanski brings us enlightening conversations, featuring guests with disabilities who have been influential in arts, activism, science, and more. This series is a continuation of the work Al has shared in the book, The Power of Disability: 10 Lessons for Surviving, Thriving, and Changing the World, which reveals that people with disabilities are the invisible force that has shaped history.
Hear more in this series: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/the-power-of-disability.html
RESOURCES — Website and free newsletter: http://victoriamaxwell.com/ — Mental Health E-Guides (free and downloadable): http://victoriamaxwell.com/free-resources/ — “Crazy for Life: Escapades of a bipolar princess” via Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/crazy-life
SFU Mathematics professor Caroline Colijn joins host Am Johal to talk about the role of data modelling in the response to COVID-19. Caroline holds the Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematics for Infection, Evolution and Public Health, and works at the intersection of mathematics and public health, with a particular focus on the spread and evolution of infectious diseases.
She has been working alongside colleagues since the beginning of the pandemic, using data to mathematically model the trajectory of COVID-19 and to inform public policy. In this interview, she gives a brief overview of how we’ve arrived at this point in the pandemic here in BC. They discuss the potential benefits of prioritizing high-contact workers in the rollout of vaccines, variants of concern in BC, and what data tells us about COVID-19 spread in the weeks and months to come.
Resources: — Mathematics, Genomics And Prediction In Infection And Evolution (MAGPIE) research group: https://www.sfu.ca/magpie/home.html — “SFU to lead new national infectious disease modeling network” - SFU News: http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2021/04/sfu-to-lead-new-national-infectious-disease-modeling-network.html — “B.C. could hit 3,000 new COVID-19 cases a day if contact trends don’t go down: health officials” - Global News: https://globalnews.ca/news/7760618/british-columbia-set-to-unveil-latest-covid-19-modelling-data-thursday-afternoon/ — “Modelling shows more work needed to stop COVID from overwhelming B.C. hospitals” - The Vancouver Sun: https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/modelling-shows-more-work-needed-to-stop-covid-from-overwhelming-b-c-hospitals — “Is BC Ready for a COVID Wildfire?” - The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/04/09/BC-Ready-COVID-Wildfire/ — “How BC Fumbled the Third Wave” - The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/04/07/How-BC-Fumbled-Third-Wave/ — “Is it young people who need to focus on individual responsibility in B.C.'s pandemic, or is it John Horgan?” - CBC News: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-covid-march-circuit-lockdown-1.5969125 — “She Plots the Possible Arcs of the Pandemic” - The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/03/26/Pandemic-Plot-Arc/
Longtime community organizer and social entrepreneur Al Etmanski talks to Am Johal about where the movement for disability justice is headed — with lived experience leading the way. Al speaks to the urgent need for a basic income for people with disabilities, and how to build up a grassroots political movement to advance social change.
Al Etmanski is also the host of an upcoming series of Below the Radar, called The Power of Disability. The series will highlight six incredible changemakers with disabilities who are also powerful advocates in the disability community. Al and Am discuss the origins of the series and the importance of shining a light on the often overlooked contributions of people with disabilities.
Resources: — Al Etmanski’s website: https://aletmanski.com/ — The Power of Disability: 10 Lessons for Surviving, Thriving, and Changing the World by Al Etmanski: https://aletmanski.com/books/#powerofdisability — The Power of Disability Digest: https://aletmanski.com/disability-digest/ — Ashoka Fellow profile: https://ashokacanada.org/fellow/al-etmanski/ — Ashoka Canada: https://ashokacanada.org/
Barbara Steenbergen from the International Union of Tenants, European Union office, joins Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar. Together they discuss the role of the tenant unions in Europe as well as their advances in housing policies and protecting tenant rights.
Barbara talks about the European housing context, and how tenant social movements in Europe led to the establishment of tenant unions. She discusses successful progressive housing policies in Berlin, Vienna, and the Scandinavian model for public housing, as well as some of the progress being made in countries that have an extremely high home ownership rate, like Spain and Portugal.
— International Union of Tenants: https://www.iut.nu/about-iut/ — Berlin’s Tenants Association (Berliner Mieterverein): https://www.berliner-mieterverein.de/sprachen/englisch.htm — UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing: http://unhousingrapp.org/ — International Social Housing Festival - Helsinki June 2022: https://socialhousingfestival.eu/#:~:text=The%202022%20edition%20of%20International,now%20and%20in%20the%20future.
Am Johal is joined by Ethọ́s Lab founder Anthonia Ogundele on this episode of Below the Radar. Anthonia shares about her career in emergency management and sustainability and the origins of Ethọ́s Lab. Anthonia also discusses the inequalities of the education system with respect to STEAM and innovation programs, and the importance of centering the Black experience when creating spaces for youth.
Ethọ́s Lab is a non-profit social enterprise that is developing an online collaborative platform and creative co-working spaces for youth ages 13-18 that foster the exploration of culture and STEAM.
Resources — Ethos Lab: https://www.ethoslab.space/ — Solid State: https://solidstate.coop/ — Building Atlanthos: Shifting from Consumers to Creators – Black Youth in the Fourth Place: https://urbanarium.org/building-atlanthos-shifting-consumers-creators-%E2%80%93-black-youth-fourth-place — ‘The Cheeky Proletariat’ Is for the People: https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2019/04/08/Cheeky-Proletariat-People/
Below the Radar invites Harsha Walia to discuss migrant justice, movement practices, and the underlying forces that govern oppressive border practices on a global scale. She is in conversation with host Am Johal about her recently released book, Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism (Fernwood Publishing, 2021).
In this episode, they discuss Harsha’s interrogation of border imperialism and the violence enacted through borders. Am asks Harsha about how her organizing background around race and migration informs her writing. She speaks to a nuanced framework for thinking about borders and migrant justice globally, connecting issues of populist nationalism, racial capitalism, migrant workers, deportations and detentions, eco-fascism, the technology of border enforcement, and more.
Resources: — Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism (Fernwood Publishing, 2021) by Harsha Walia: https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/border-and-rule — Undoing Border Imperialism (AK Press, 2013) by Harsha Walia: https://www.akpress.org/undoing-border-imperialism.html — No One Is Illegal: https://noii-van.resist.ca/ — BC Civil Liberties Association: https://bccla.org/
Below the Radar has partnered with the Or Galley to bring you recordings of the Gas Imaginary Conversations series. This is the second of two talks from The Gas Imaginary, presented by the Or Gallery. This event was recorded virtually on Dec. 5, 2020.
In this panel, Rachel O’Reilly, Tania Willard and Kanahus Manuel—with moderation by Denise Ryner—discuss the ongoing challenges of asserting land rights and the protection of water from each of their respective contexts. The speakers address the role of artistic practices and visual culture in making such struggles resonate with communities, both at home and across distance.
Tania Willard, Secwepemc Nation, works as an artist and curator within the shifting ideas of contemporary and traditional as it relates to cultural arts and production. She often engages bodies of knowledge and skills that are conceptually linked to her interest in intersections between Aboriginal and other cultures. Her curatorial work includes Beat Nation: Art Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture (http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/the_exhibitions/exhibit_beat_nation.html), a national touring exhibition first presented at Vancouver Art Gallery in 2011 as well as residencies at grunt gallery and Kamloops Art Gallery. She is currently assistant professor in Creative Studies at University of British Columbia Okanagan (Kelowna BC). She also founded and operates BUSH gallery, a conceptual space for land-based art and action led by Indigenous artists.
Kanahus Manuel belongs to the Secwepemc Nation and founded the Tiny House Warrior movement as part of her ongoing work as an Indigenous water and land defender. She is also a member of the Secwepemc Women’s Warrior Society. Her family has led the struggle for rights and sovereignty in Secwepemcul’ecw (territory of the Secwepemc people) for generations. Her late father Arthur Manuel, a former Secwepemc chief and residential school survivor, was an author and global champion for Indigenous rights and title in Canada and abroad. Her late grandfather George Manuel was the second president of the National Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of First Nations) and founding president of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples.
The Tiny House Warriors: Our Land Is Home Is A Part Of A Mission To Stop The Trans Mountain Pipeline From Crossing Unceded Secwepemc Territory In British Columbia. Ten Tiny Houses Will Be Built And Placed Strategically Along The 518 Km Trans Mountain Pipeline Route To Assert Secwepemc Law And Jurisdiction And Block Access To This Pipeline. Donate to Tiny House Warriors: https://www.classy.org/give/267006/#!/donation/checkout
Seed is Australia’s first Indigenous youth climate network. The organisation is building a movement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people for climate justice with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Their vision is for a just and sustainable future with strong cultures and communities, powered by renewable energy. Donate to Seed Mob: https://www.seedmob.org.au/donate
Watch the video recording of this conversation here (CC included in video): https://thegasimaginary.orgalleryprojects.org/talks/
Listen to the Gas Imaginary Conversations No. 1: https://soundcloud.com/sfuw-community-engagement/gas-imaginary-1
About The Gas Imaginary: A multi-disciplinary project using poetry, collaborative drawings, installation, moving images, and lectures to unpack the broader significance of ‘settler conceptualism’, the racial logic of the property form and fossil fuel-based labour politics as capital reaches the limits of land use. In ongoing dialogue with elders of Gooreng Gooreng country and settler women activists, where fracking was approved for mass installation in ‘Australia’, new elements of this work address the threatened destruction to 50% of the Northern Territory. Read more: https://thegasimaginary.orgalleryprojects.org/
Image: Rachel O'Reilly, INFRACTIONS, 2019, acrylic paint and marker. Photo: Dennis Ha.
Claire Williams speaks to the potential of direct cash transfers to help lift people out of poverty. A co-founder and CEO of Foundations for Social Change, Claire joins Am Johal on Below the Radar to share results from the New Leaf Project, a pilot initiative exploring the impact of direct cash transfers on the lives of people experiencing homelessness in Vancouver.
Claire and Am talk about issues of stigma around mistrust in financial assistance programs, as well as reducing the barriers and bureaucracy that people meet with when trying to connect with aid and resources. Claire also shared some learnings from the project and participant feedback that will inform their expansion efforts, with the hope that the project’s continued success will model how direct giving could be practically implemented in policy.
Resources: — Foundations for Social Change: https://forsocialchange.org/ — New Leaf Project: https://forsocialchange.org/new-leaf-project-overview — TEDxTalk by Rutger Bregman: Poverty isn’t a lack of character; it’s a lack of cash: https://www.ted.com/talks/rutger_bregman_poverty_isn_t_a_lack_of_character_it_s_a_lack_of_cash?language=en
On this episode of Below the Radar, Am Johal is joined by Roxanne Panchasi from SFU’s History Department and Brit Bachmann from UNIT/PITT. Together they discuss their latest collaboration, La Commune 2021, a free online school commemorating the 150 anniversary of the Paris Commune.
Roxanne and Brit share how the idea of La Commune 2021 came about. They talk about the historical importance of the Paris Commune, how it has resonated in other historical periods, and its relevance in particular in this moment of history.
Resources: — La Commune 2021: https://www.unitpitt.ca/la-commune/ — UNIT/PITT: https://www.unitpitt.ca/ — New Books in French Studies podcast by Roxanne Panchasi: https://roxannepanchasi.com/portfolio/new-books-in-french-studies/ — The Anarchist Library: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/search?query=paris+commune — Documents of the Paris Commune: https://www.marxists.org/history/france/paris-commune/documents/index.htm — Club Atomique upcoming book from Roxanne Panchasi: https://roxannepanchasi.com/home-2/club-atomique/
With the onset of the pandemic came a pressing need to bring health science information to the public, and fast. SFU researcher Alice Fleerackers joins Below the Radar to discuss the uptake of pre-print, or un-peer reviewed research by news media in the age of COVID-19. She speaks to host Melissa Roach about a recent study she has co-authored that analyzes how media communicate uncertainty in COVID-19 research.
Alice is a freelance writer and researcher specializing in online science communication. Currently, she is a researcher at ScholCommLab, the Research Officer at Art the Science, and a Science in Society Editor at Science Borealis. She is also a PhD student at SFU, where she is exploring how uncertain health science is communicated online.
In this episode, we discuss the advantages and drawbacks of reporting on unpublished health research; issues of public trust in journalism and science; and how researchers, communicators, and consumers of health science media can each navigate these complexities, even as the ground shifts beneath our feet.
Resources: — STUDY: “Communicating Scientific Uncertainty in an Age of COVID-19: An Investigation into the Use of Preprints by Digital Media Outlets” - Health Communication: https://www.scholcommlab.ca/wp-content/plugins/zotpress/lib/request/request.dl.php?api_user_id=1298012&dlkey=Q2PLARSL&content_type=application/pdf — Scholarly Communications Lab: http://scholcommlab.ca/ — ASAPbio Preprints FAQ page: https://asapbio.org/preprint-info/preprint-faq — #PreprintsInThePublicEye event [Video]: https://youtu.be/tTXFwYzLPwc — “Problems with Preprints: Covering Rough-Draft Manuscripts Responsibly” - The Open Notebook: https://www.theopennotebook.com/2020/06/01/problems-with-preprints-covering-rough-draft-manuscripts-responsibly/
Press Coverage: — “In the rush for coronavirus information, unreviewed scientific papers are being publicized” - The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/in-the-rush-for-coronavirus-information-unreviewed-scientific-papers-are-being-publicized-152912 — “News media outlets vary widely in how they cover preprint studies, new research finds” - The Journalist’s Resource (includes other helpful resources): https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/news-media/how-media-cover-preprint-studies/ — “Media outlets inconsistently mention uncertain status of COVID-19 preprints” - Science: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/media-outlets-inconsistently-mention-uncertain-status-covid-19-preprints
Below the Radar has partnered with the Or Galley to bring you recordings of the Gas Imaginary Conversations series. In this first of two talks, Rachel O’Reilly is in conversation with Denise Ferreira da Silva. This event was presented by the Or Gallery and recorded virtually on Nov. 26, 2020.
Rachel O’Reilly and Denise Ferreira da Silva have had long-standing exchanges on the many concepts and references that run through the Gas Imaginary project. In this conversation, they address the development of The Gas Imaginary and the language of capitalization in regards to land, settler conceptualism, and the violent movement of land to forms of property and sites of speculation-based capital.
Denise Ferreira da Silva’s academic and artistic work address the ethico-political challenges of the global present. Her publications include Toward a Global Idea of Race (University of Minnesota Press, 2007), A Dívida Impagavel (Oficina da Imaginaçāo Política and Living Commons, 2019), Unpayable Debt (Stenberg/MIT Press, forthcoming) and as co-editor with Paula Chakravartty, Race, Empire, and the Crisis of the Subprime (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013). Her artistic practice includes filmworks Serpent Rain (2016) and 4Waters-Deep Implicancy (2018), in collaboration with Arjuna Neuman; in addition to the ongoing relational project, Poethical Readings and Sensing Salon, in collaboration with Valentina Desideri. She is a professor and Director of the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia.
Watch the video recording of this conversation here (closed captioning included in video): https://thegasimaginary.orgalleryprojects.org/talks/
About The Gas Imaginary: A multi-disciplinary project using poetry, collaborative drawings, installation, moving images, and lectures to unpack the broader significance of ‘settler conceptualism’, the racial logic of the property form and fossil fuel-based labour politics as capital reaches the limits of land use. In ongoing dialogue with elders of Gooreng Gooreng country and settler women activists, where fracking was approved for mass installation in ‘Australia’, new elements of this work address the threatened destruction to 50% of the Northern Territory. Read more: https://thegasimaginary.orgalleryprojects.org/
— Or Gallery: http://www.orgallery.org/ — Rachel O’Reilly: www.rachel-oreilly.net — Dr. Denise Ferreira da Silva: https://grsj.arts.ubc.ca/person/denise-ferreira-da-silva/
Image: Rachel O'Reilly, INFRACTIONS, 2019, acrylic paint and marker. Photo: Dennis Ha.
SFU librarian Heather De Forest joins our host Am Johal to discuss the Community Scholars Program, a project that provides staff of charitable and non-profit organizations in BC with access to academic research and knowledge.
They discuss Heather’s work with the Community Scholars Program and go in-depth about the collective power of academic libraries within the open access movement.
Resources: — The Community Scholars Program https://www.lib.sfu.ca/about/overview/services-you/community-scholars/support — Making Research Accessible initiative https://learningexchange.ubc.ca/community-based-research/making-research-accessible-initiative/ — STOREE (Supporting Transparent and Open Research Engagement and Exchange: https://storee.ubc.ca/
Author and educator David Chang of SFU’s Faculty of Education joins Am Johal for a conversation about what it means to live an ethical life during the Anthropocene — an epoch marked by the monumental environmental impact of human activity. David is co-editor of a recently published collection of scholarly and creative essays, A Book of Ecological Virtues: Living Well in the Anthropocene.
He and Am discuss themes in Ecological Virtues, including Aristotle’s notions of virtue ethics, and the grounding of virtue ethics in other thought traditions. They also speak about David’s colleagues’ contributions to the book that deal with death literacy and the process of forging soulful connection with places through poetry.
— A Book of Ecological Virtues: Living Well in the Anthropocene (University of Regina Press, 2020): https://uofrpress.ca/Books/A/A-Book-of-Ecological-Virtues — “What Are Your ‘Ecological Virtues’?” - review from The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2020/09/22/What-Are-Your-Ecological-Virtues/
Russell Wallace is a traditional Líl'wat singer, composer, and producer from Mount Currie. He has been singing and making music his whole life. He talks with host Am Johal about his musical roots — singing traditional songs for his community and beyond, alongside his mother and siblings, as the performance group Tzo’Kam.
They discuss Tzo’Kam’s longstanding collaborative relationship with the Japanese drumming group, Sawagi Taiko, as well as Russell’s own endeavours as a composer and producer for film, television, and theatre. He has contributed to productions such as, 1491: The Untold History of the Americas Before Columbus, The Road Forward, Monkey Beach, and more. Russell also speaks to the public singing and drumming workshops he instructs at SFU, which have been put on hold during the pandemic.
Resources: — Unceded Tongues album by Russell Wallace: https://russellwallace.bandcamp.com/album/unceded-tongues — “Grandmother Song” by Tzo’Kam: https://youtu.be/ZH8VK-EBChk — Sawagi Taiko: http://sawagitaiko.com/ — Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival: http://www.heartofthecityfestival.com/ — Monkey Beach: https://monkeybeachmovie.com/ — The Road Forward: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rkCmDkYjwE — 1491: The Untold History of the Americas Before Columbus: https://www.aptn.ca/1491/
Below the Radar speaks to some of the artists behind New Red Order, a public secret society that invites people to transform their complicity in Indigenous appropriation and performing Indigeneity into support for Indigenous futures and land sovereignty.
Am Johal is in conversation with Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil, and Jackson Polys about the formation of, and impetus behind, New Red Order — and how they use humour, recruitment and interrogation to call out and call in. They also speak to their Give it Back exhibit at SFU’s Audain Gallery, on display in the gallery’s front window.
Resources: — Become an informant: newredorder.org — New Red Order: Give It Back at the Audain Gallery: http://www.sfu.ca/galleries/audain-gallery/NRO.html — Never Settle: Calling In - New Red Order Recruitment Video: https://vimeo.com/465937878
Charmaine Lyn joins Below the Radar to share learnings from her career in making social change from within post-secondary institutions. Charmaine is the Director of Changemaker Education for Ashoka Canada and works with different changemaker campuses across the country to advance changemaking for social justice in our institutions and communities through community engagement and reciprocal partnership.
Host Am Johal speaks with Charmaine about the journey that brought her to this work and her background in law which sparked a passion for accessibility in education, championing community engagement, and redistributing power and burdens within the often rigid structures of universities. They also discuss equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives in higher education, working at the intersection of community and university, and what the university might look like in a post-pandemic world.
Resources: — Ashoka Canada: https://ashokacanada.org/ — Office of Community Engagement at Concordia University: https://www.concordia.ca/about/community/office.html
SFU Urban Studies professor Anthony Perl joins host Am Johal in conversation about urban mobility and the policy challenges and opportunities that shape the way people move through Canada’s largest urban centres: Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
They discuss findings from Anthony’s new book, Big Moves: Global Agendas, Local Aspirations, and Urban Mobility in Canada, co-authored with Matt Hern and Jeffrey R. Kenworthy. Anthony traces the history of transportation infrastructure development through these three cities, and he and Am look towards a future that embraces more integrated and sustainable mobility options for urban and suburban life.
Resources: — About Anthony Perl: https://www.sfu.ca/politics/people/profiles/aperl.html — Big Moves: Global Agendas, Local Aspirations, and Urban Mobility in Canada by Anthony perl, Matt Hern and Jeffrey R. Kenworthy: https://www.mqup.ca/big-moves-products-9780228001607.php — Vancouver City Planning Commission: https://vancouver.ca/your-government/vancouver-city-planning-commission.aspx
Host Am Johal catches up with author, activist, voice actor and Juno-nominated comedian Charlie Demers about his pandemic year, and how he reads this turbulent moment in politics. They talk about everything from the life of civil rights figure Jack O’Dell, to a strange year for stand-up comedy, to Charlie’s studies in theology.
In the episode, Charlie and Am think through some of the mechanisms of Trumpism — looking to Rob Ford as a prefiguration to Trump, and unpacking the political stratagems populist leaders use to stoke anger and division.
Charlie is also the author of a recently published novel, Primary Obsessions, an amateur sleuth story which takes up mental health themes. He speaks to Am about how his lived experience inspired and informed the book, as well as what led him to pursue studies at the Vancouver School of Theology.
Resources: — Charlie’s website: https://www.charliedemers.com/ — Primary Obsessions, novel by Charles Demers: https://douglas-mcintyre.com/products/9781771622561 — Charlie’s Juno-nominated comedy album, Fatherland: https://604shop.com/products/fatherland — “How OCD, CBT and a Therapist Inspired Charles Demers to Write a Mystery Novel” via The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2020/09/16/OCD-CBT-Charles-Demers-Mystery-Novel/ — The Issue of Mr. O’Dell, a short documentary about Jack O’Dell by Rami Katz: https://vimeo.com/251717171
BC’s Attorney General and Minister of Housing David Eby joins Am Johal for this episode of Below the Radar, discussing policy solutions to BC’s housing crisis — from protecting tenants’ rights and serving those who are under-housed to curbing speculation and quashing renovictions, to addressing issues of supply and an aging rental stock.
David also looks back on getting his start as a lawyer and housing advocate in Vancouver’s urban core decades ago. He provides insights into his time in office so far, and the different policies he has gone, and continues to go to bat for. He speaks to the effects of COVID-19 on Vancouver’s housing availability and real estate market, and gives a brief update on the public enquiry into money laundering in BC.
Resources: — David Eby - MLA for Vancouver-Point Grey: https://davidebymla.ca/ — The Dash Podcast: https://www.thedashpod.ca/ — Sen̓áḵw: https://senakw.com/ — Pivot Legal Society: https://www.pivotlegal.org/ — BC Civil Liberties Association: https://bccla.org/
Global health epidemiologist Angela Kaida joins Below the Radar to share her passion for research to support the sexual and reproductive health of women and nonbinary people. An associate professor in SFU’s Faculty of Health Sciences and a recent researcher-in-residence with SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative, Angela adopts an interdisciplinary, community-driven, ethics-based approach to researching the health of people living with HIV.
In this episode, Angela is in conversation with Am Johal about the process and potentials of embracing a community-engaged approach in her research, from community outreach and the training of peer research associates, to issues around informed consent. She discusses some of her recent projects, including the Life and Love with HIV platform and the CHIWOS-PAW project, and shares how she and her colleagues have had to adjust to working with the communities they serve in the context of COVID-19.
Resources: — About Angela Kaida: https://www.sfu.ca/fhs/about/people/profiles/angela-kaida.html — “3 Questions with Researcher-in-Residence Dr. Angela Kaida” on the CERi blog: https://www.sfu.ca/ceri/blog/2020/meet-researcher-in-residence-angela-kaida.html — Life and Love with HIV: https://www.lifeandlovewithhiv.ca/ — Canadian HIV Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study—Positive Aboriginal Women (CHIWOS-PAW): http://www.chiwos.ca — SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative: https://www.sfu.ca/ceri.html
Below the Radar checks in with Simon Fraser University’s recently installed president and vice-chancellor, Joy Johnson. Stepping into her new role in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Joy speaks to how SFU is working to meet the current challenges it is facing, from adapting to online learning and an added strain on mental health, to addressing systemic racism and inequality within the university and beyond.
In this episode, Joy shares her vision for a more equitable, inclusive, and connected SFU, centering the student experience and community partnerships. We hear about some of Joy’s hopes for SFU’s future medical school and the proposed Burnaby Mountain gondola. She also speaks about her background as a nurse and public health researcher interested in the social determinants of health.
Below the Radar explores critical theory, anti-authoritarianism, the philosophy of technology, and the storied academic career of SFU School of Communication professor Andrew Feenberg, who studied under influential theorists, including renowned German-American philosopher Herbert Marcuse of the Frankfurt School.
Am Johal and Andrew Feenberg discuss Andrew’s intellectual journey with critical theory, the rise of social democratic student movements in the United States in the context of the civil rights and anti-war movements of the ‘60s, and dig into the relevance of Marcuse’s work in radical politics and art today.
Below the Radar explores immigration and connecting to community and social justice movements through art with Adriana Contreras, a visual artist and storyteller who captures dialogues as they unfold as a graphic recorder.
Adriana is in conversation with co-hosts Fiorella Pinillos and Melissa Roach about her journey with visual arts and dance as a first generation immigrant from Colombia. Adriana tells us how her love for the arts has shaped her career, sharing her experiences of working as a visual artist and communicator at the intersection of art and social change.
Resources: — New Works: https://www.newworks.ca/
“Cities are fundamentally about people.” Mary Rowe joins Below the Radar to discuss the pandemic moment as an opportunity to reimagine how we live together in an urban environment. She and Am Johal are in conversation about the urgent need to build social solidarity around collective disaster, honing in on how people are in relationship with their community at the hyperlocal level.
As the president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute, Mary’s recent work is concentrated on urban planning in disaster times, building social infrastructure, and helping cities recover and re-emerge from COVID-19 more connected, more resilient, and more empowered to effect change locally.
Resources — Canadian Urban Institute: https://canurb.org/ — Bring Back Main Street: https://bringbackmainstreet.ca/ — CityTalk/Canada: https://canurb.org/citytalk-canada/ — “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History” by John Barry: http://www.johnmbarry.com/the_great_influenza__the_story_of_the_deadliest_pandemic_in_history__133171.htm — “Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America” by John Barry: http://www.johnmbarry.com/rising_tide__the_great_mississippi_flood_of_1927_and_how_it_changed_america_58205.htm — “The uses of disaster” by Rebecca Solnit: https://harpers.org/archive/2005/10/the-uses-of-disaster/ — “How to Survive a Disaster” by Rebecca Solnit: https://lithub.com/rebecca-solnit-how-to-survive-a-disaster/
In this episode of Below the Radar, Brandon Yan, the executive director of Out on Screen, joins producers Fiorella Pinillos and Paige Smith to discuss his work in film education dialogue and fostering inclusive spaces for youth. Brandon speaks to supporting queer and trans youth in schools by bringing queer joy into classrooms, working collaboratively to push forward policy change, and reimagining the future of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. Brandon also shares his path of embracing his identity as a queer, mixed-race person, and his experience running for city council in Vancouver.
Resources — Out on Screen: https://outonscreen.com/ — Vancouver Queer Film Festival: https://queerfilmfestival.ca/ — CBC article - I'm working to unlearn the racism I internalized as a biracial kid: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/unlearning-internalized-racism-1.5677387 — Study: “A Media-Based School Intervention to Reduce Sexual Orientation Prejudice…”: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/11/2447
Below the Radar’s Am Johal talks issues in urbanism and art as a research method with Sabine Bitter, Jeff Derksen, and Helmut Weber of the cultural research collective, Urban Subjects, based in Vancouver and Vienna.
In this episode, they reflect on past arts exhibitions and programs they’ve facilitated on the urban experience, image politics, and visual representations of urbanism. Their work makes space for critical conversations about dispossession of land, the idea of a commons, the ‘right to the city’ in a contemporary context, the neoliberal commodification of housing, and more.
Resources: — Urban Subjects: http://www.urbansubjects.org/ — Artspeak Gallery: http://artspeak.ca/ — “How High Is the City, How Deep Is Our Love” essay by Jeff Derksen: https://fillip.ca/content/how-high-is-the-city-how-deep-is-our-love — “The Right to the City” by Henri Lefebvre: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/henri-lefebvre-right-to-the-city#toc1 — The Vienna Model - Museum of Vancouver Exhibit: https://museumofvancouver.ca/vienna-model — Alternatives to the Housing Crisis: Case Study Vienna - talk by Gabu Heindl at SFU: https://youtu.be/hLhDItRvBVY
SFU librarian Baharak Yousefi joins Am Johal on Below the Radar to discuss critical librarianship, interrogating the entrenched systems and structures of libraries. She speaks to issues around the way librarians are schooled, the commodification of knowledge, and the need to make libraries welcoming spaces to all.
Baharak also shares her love of books and culture that brought her to librarianship and talks about the popular One Book One SFU events she planned and hosted through the SFU Library. Am also asks her about her fondness for Vancouver’s West End and the neighbourhood’s quirky design gems.
Resources — CritLib: http://critlib.org/ — Baharak Yousefi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BaharakY — #WestEndFonts: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23westendfonts&src=typed_query&f=live — SFU Library: https://www.lib.sfu.ca/ — Fugitive Libraries: https://placesjournal.org/article/fugitive-libraries/ — One Book One SFU event recordings: Maggie Nelson and Amber Dawn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6wsD9khaSQ Ivan Coyote and Tegan Quin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs8OHEOMjeM Eden Robinson and Cherie Dimaline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7-Hb693fJI&feature=youtu.be
Barbara Holland is a leading community engagement scholar who has done extensive research in the areas of organizational change in higher education, service learning, and community-university partnerships. In this episode, she is in conversation with host Am Johal about the shifting landscape of community engagement and embedding engagement in the culture of the urban university as a method of scholarship, teaching, and learning.
Resources — Barbara A. Holland Collection for Service Learning and Community Engagement: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/slce/ — The Maverick Minute: Barbara Holland and the Metropolitan University Mission: https://www.unomaha.edu/news/2018/04/the-maverick-minute-barbara-holland.php — Metropolitan Universities Journal: https://www.cumuonline.org/metropolitan-universities-journal/
When Sobhana Jaya-Madhavan landed in Vancouver 25 years ago from Malaysia, she was told her foreign credentials would make it hard to find employment as a social worker and was encouraged to apply for minimum wage jobs. In this episode, Sobhana is in conversation with Am Johal about the joy of finding community in a new place — and the barriers to employment she experienced as a newcomer to Canada.
Sobhana tells stories from her journey as a social worker and public servant, sharing how her dedication to service and relationship-building led her to her current role as SFU’s Associate Vice-President, External Relations, where she liaises with governments and communities to help facilitate social inclusion and reconciliation initiatives at the university.
SFU News: “SFU education champion walks the talk during her life journey”: https://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2019/06/sfu-education-champion-walks-the-talk-during-her-life-journey-.html
Canadian Immigrant: SFU’s Sobhana Jaya-Madhavan leads with optimism: https://canadianimmigrant.ca/people/professionals/sfus-sobhana-jaya-madhavan-leads-with-optimism
Below the Radar explores Lacanian theory with Lacan Salon President and SFU English Professor Clint Burnham. Clint speaks to how Lacan’s ideas are taken up in the digital age. Clint takes up Lacanian theories of the ‘unconscious,’ ‘extimacy,’ or ‘the split subject,’ as well as Žižek’s works, to unpack racism and microaggressions; intimacy and digital devices; and virtual interactions and teaching in pandemic-times.
For this interview, Clint joined Am Johal to film a distanced conversation in the Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre on SFU’s Vancouver campus. Watch the video version of this interview here: https://youtu.be/1cx6S0jx8dE
Resources: — Lacan Salon: http://www.lacansalon.com/ — Clint Burnham: We don't know what we want when we're on the internet (and that's ok): https://youtu.be/WPExmWzljTU — Book Launch: Alberto Toscano & Clint Burnham: https://soundcloud.com/sfuw-community... — Clint Burnham: The Sublime Object of Edward Burtynsky: https://youtu.be/2e1ecaAnN0A
Dalannah Gail Bowen reflects on a lifetime of making music and convening community in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. A passionate singer, community arts administrator, and activist, Dalannah shares her philosophy of walking compassionately through the world and how she aims to make space for — and remove barriers to — finding connection through art making.
She and Am Johal discuss her work in community arts, her career as a musician, and how she interprets our political moment during the COVID-19 pandemic as a widespread awakening to social inequities. Dalannah gifts us with a song to close the episode.
Resources:
— Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts: https://www.dtescentreforthearts.com/ — Videos of Dalannah Gail Bowen in concert: http://www.dalannah.com/music/videos.html — Heart of the City Festival 2020: An Evening with Dalannah Gail Bowen: https://vimeo.com/473661581 — Germaine Tremmel on the Rise of Women Warriors at Standing Rock: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/blog/2017/germaine-tremmel-on-the-rise-of-women-warriors-at-standing-rock/ — The Issue of Mr. O’Dell: https://vimeo.com/251717171
Below the Radar unpacks ethics in community-engaged research and experiential learning with Kari Grain, who has been working with host Am Johal at SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative. Kari speaks to her dissertation on the impacts of international service learning on local community partners. Centering ethical relationships and the unlearning of harmful biases about expertise and knowledge, Kari talks about teaching courses at UBC on community-based participatory research. She and Am also discuss barriers to meaningful and ethical community-engaged research at the institutional level, and the importance of reciprocity and bringing community in through the doors of the university.
SFU’s Community Engaged Research Initiative: https://www.sfu.ca/ceri.html
Experiential Education at UBC: https://blogs.ubc.ca/experiential/
Community-engaged scholar and filmmaker Lyana Patrick joins Am Johal to discuss how an Indigenous approach to community-building can positively impact the health and wellness of communities. Combining a diverse interdisciplinary background with her own lived experience, Lyana’s work addresses the ongoing colonial impacts of governance and urban planning on Indigenous community health.
In this episode, Lyana also speaks to the importance of relationships and reciprocity in filmmaking and telling community stories, making the distinction between telling stories for communities, not simply about them.
SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative: https://www.sfu.ca/ceri.html
Blog: Announcing Lyana Patrick as CERi Researcher-in-Residence: https://www.sfu.ca/ceri/blog/2020/meet-researcher-in-residence-lyana-patrick.html
Lyana's films "A Place to Belong" and "The Train Station" played at VIFF 2020: https://bit.ly/3eL8PJX https://bit.ly/32vVgZU
Since the onset of the COVID-19, WISH Drop-In Centre Society has rapidly expanded its efforts to support street-based sex workers. Am Johal is joined by executive director, Mebrat Beyene, to discuss how WISH and other Downtown Eastside service providers are collectively responding to the pandemic, which has restricted services and exacerbated many pre-existing crises facing the community.
Mebrat speaks to new WISH initiatives, such as opening a new 24/7 shelter for sex workers, increasing access to bathrooms and showers, and finding new ways to accept donations of essential items. She also calls on policymakers at all levels to swiftly address access to emergency income relief for sex workers, to provide a safe supply of drugs, and to house people as quickly as possible.
Resources: WISH Drop-In Centre Society: https://wish-vancouver.net/ The Courage Campaign: https://wishcouragecampaign.squarespace.com/ Donate to WISH: https://wish-vancouver.net/about/our-board/get-involved/donate/
Am Johal is joined by Derek Woods, an assistant professor of Media Studies at the University of British Columbia. They discuss Derek’s intersecting expertise in media studies and ecotechnology, examining what he deems the three defining characteristics of ecotechnology: artificial ecosystems, media archaeology, and the cultural imaginary through science fiction. They also problematize the term ‘Anthropocene,’ which proposes a new geological epoch marked by the significant impact humans have had on Earth’s geology and ecosystems, including climate change. Derek takes issue with the idea as it universalizes the human species, ignoring how colonialism and capitalism drove the transformation of the earth system.
You can read some of Derek Woods' writing here: https://ubc.academia.edu/DerekWoods
A visual artist who grew up in Vancouver’s Chinatown, Gwen Boyle’s work explores movement, history, and place. The granddaughter of a Pender Street jeweller, Gwen draws inspiration from the sights and sounds of her childhood — the clinking of beads on an abacus, the hammering of jade, the melting of gold.
Gwen is in conversation with host Am Johal about experiences from her Chinatown upbringing. She shares what led her to pursue a lifelong career in art, and her fascination with the Arctic. She also speaks to some of her particular works, including the public art installation, “Abacus (Suan Phan),” an interactive sculpture symbolic of the “merchants and old social fabric of Shanghai Alley and Chinatown.”
Gwen Boyle’s website: https://gwenboyle.com/index.html
Abacus (Suan Phan): https://gwenboyle.com/public-art/abacus-suan-phan/index.html
Visit our website for photos of Gwen's work and life: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar/episodes/episodes1/ep85-gwen-boyle.html/
Working at the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, Jen Sungshine collaborates with fellow Love Intersections artists to celebrate diasporic narratives of queer identities. Jen joins host Am Johal to discuss art making and storytelling as a tool to address systemic racism and build understanding in conversations about gender and sexuality. She shares some recent Love Intersections projects, including Yellow Peril: Queer Destiny, a short documentary following Vancouver drag artist Maiden China and a subsequent visual art installation — both inspired by the Chinese five elements as a framework to explore the artists’ experiences of Chineseness and queerness.
Jen Sungshine: https://www.jensungshine.com/
Love Intersections: https://loveintersections.com/
Documentary: Yellow Peril: Queer Destiny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4LvRXTtrq4
Visual art exhibit: Yellow Peril; The Celestial Elements: https://loveintersections.com/yellowperil-celestialelements/
Urban Indigenous youth are taking the lead, advocating for policies that uphold the rights of Indigenous peoples on and off-reserve. Host Am Johal is joined by Jessica Savoy and Edgard Villanueva-Cruz from Aboriginal Life in Vancouver Enhancement Society (ALIVE). They discuss their recent report, Our Place, Our Home, Our Vision: Youth Voices of East Vancouver. The report contains Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth-generated recommendations for bringing urban Indigenous voices to the table, applying UNDRIP across different levels of government, and creating new models of self-governance for Indigenous people living off-reserve or in urban centers.
Aboriginal Life in Vancouver Enhancement Society (ALIVE): https://alivesociety.ca/
ALIVE Report: Our Place, Our Home, Our Vision: Youth Voices of East Vancouver: https://alivesociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/alive-youth-policy-report-V02.pdf
B.C. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/indigenous-people/new-relationship/united-nations-declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html
Below the Radar explores unfolding the enfolded with Laura U. Marks, an SFU professor, and scholar who works on media art and philosophy with an intercultural focus. She is in conversation with co-hosts Am Johal and Paige Smith about her research into experimentalism and aesthetics in Arab cinema and the connections between Islamic art and philosophy and new media art. Laura talks about co-founding the Substantial Motion Research Network, tracing cultural and artistic genealogies, and de-westernizing artistic practices. They also discuss the concerns around the environmental consequences of streaming media that led Laura to create the Small File Media Festival.
Read more about Laura’s work: http://www.sfu.ca/~lmarks/
Substantial Motion Research Network: https://substantialmotion.org/
Small File Media Festival: https://smallfile.ca/
Ta7talíya Nahanee joins Am Johal to discuss her work in creating social change through decolonial facilitation, rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing and chenchenstway, the law of lifting each other up. Ta7talíya shares her journey of founding Decolonizing Practices, developing Sínulhkay and Ladders, and how she engages people in conversations about redress, land equity, privilege, and resisting the comfort of complacency in neocolonial systems. She also speaks to Indigenous language resurgence, decolonizing identity, and the idea that decolonization is an ongoing and personal process of self-actualization.
Decolonizing Practices: https://www.decolonizingpractices.org/
New Decolonize First Seminar: https://www.decolonizingpractices.org/online-seminar
Find the Decolonize First workbook, Sínulhkay and Ladders game and more online: https://www.nahaneecreative.com/
M̓i tel'nexw Leadership Society: https://www.mitelnexwleadershipsociety.org/
Am Johal is joined by Eris Nyx, an artist and community organizer in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside who advocates for tenants' rights and an end to the war on drugs. She and Am discuss the impact of COVID-19 on drug users and residents of Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels, and how restricting visitors in SROs and reducing access to services during the pandemic has heightened safety concerns around a volatile supply of drugs. Eris shares how the Downtown Eastside community has been organizing to respond to the several and intersecting systems of oppression they are facing.
Coalition of Peers Dismantling the Drug War: https://www.cpddw.ca/
Downtown Eastside SRO Collaborative Society: https://dtescollaborative.org/
Tenant Overdose Response Organizers: https://dtescollaborative.org/toro-project/
Vision for the 100 Block report: http://www.carnegieaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/DTES-Vision-for-the-100-Block-Final-1.pdf
Black Lab Arts Society: https://www.facebook.com/BlackLabVancouver/ https://theblacklabvancouver.tumblr.com/
100 Block Rock: https://incidentalpress.bandcamp.com/album/100-block-rock
Elvy Del Bianco of Vancity Credit Union speaks to the power of cooperatives to help communities meet their own needs. He is in conversation with host Am Johal about the role coops can play in the production of social goods, and how they can support communities of entrepreneurs, small businesses, non-profits, and workers through solidarity and infrastructure. They also discuss the Vancity Emilia-Romagna Co-operative Study Tour and how this particular area of northern Italy has what Elvy calls, “the most significant cooperative economy on earth.” It’s also a region that sees some of the lowest poverty rates and highest levels of civic engagement in Italy. Am and Elvy discuss how similar cooperative policies and models could be implemented in BC and Vancouver to bolster communities, address precarious work, and deliver much needed services.
About the Vancity Emilia-Romagna Co-operative Study Tour: https://www.vancity.com/lang/en/AboutVancity/VisionAndValues/CooperativeModel/CoopSupport/CoopStaffEducation/
Cooperate Now co-op business boot camp: https://bcca.coop/programs-services/training-workshops/
“Seven Ways to Grow BC’s Co-op Sector” by Elvy Del Bianco https://www.policynote.ca/seven-ways-to-grow-bcs-co-op-sector/
BC Co-op Association: https://bcca.coop/
Justine A. Chambers and Laurie Young see choreography in everything. Both are deeply interested in the daily movements that make up the choreographies of our lives, and in capacity to use dance as a political tool. As two dance artists, mothers, and women of colour, the two came together across continents to co-create “One hundred more,” a dance performance portraying the gestures of resistance. Through structured improvisation and moving together, the piece explores the politics of movement and the many ways of embodying the refusal to submit. In this episode, Justine and Laurie are in conversation with Am Johal about their shared work, the radical centering of care and wellness in their collaborations, as well as the social choreographies and relational choreographies that can be found in the everyday.
About “One hundred more” by Justine A. Chambers and Laurie Young: https://justineachambers.com/2020/01/06/one-hundred-more/
Video documentation of “One hundred more”: https://www.tanzforumberlin.de/en/production/one-hundred-more/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V6nVkA9QIE
Watch the video recording of this interview: https://youtu.be/COVdHCst7CU
Yulanda Lui and Rachel Lau share experiences from the making of the radio documentary series “Speak My Language,” which highlights the stories of Chinese-Canadian seniors facing barriers in accessing the BC healthcare system. A project of Yarrow Intergenerational Society for Justice, the radio pieces were created in collaboration with youth and seniors under the mentorship of project coordinator and lead artist Rachel Lau with the support of Yarrow co-founder Yulanda Lui. This episode is hosted by our Office’s previous communications coordinator, Rachel Wong, and touches upon ethical community-based storytelling and accessing healthcare for non-English speakers.
Listen to the radio documentaries: https://www.yarrowsociety.ca/speakmylanguage
Faranak Farzan works at a fascinating intersection of engineering and neuroscience — innovating technological solutions to mental health issues like depression and addiction. Using the concept of brain plasticity, Faranak speaks to host Am Johal about how technological interventions can help the brain to rewire itself. She delves into the exciting opportunities neuroengineering presents for streamlining diagnosis and treatment, reducing the burden on patients who often go through years of trial-and-error before being matched with the right treatment. They also discuss Faranak’s research specific to youth mental health, the ethical implications of neurotechnology, and the importance of community perspectives in co-creating brain health solutions.
e-Brain Lab: http://ebrainlab.ca/about-us/
Faranak’s President’s Faculty Lecture: A Neuroengineering Lens into Treatment of Youth Mental Health and Addiction (Feb 2020): https://youtu.be/G02OKf8r5ho
From Mister Rogers to radioactive frogs, Below the Radar dives into the nuclear imaginary with SFU Associate Professor of Sociology Lindsey Freeman as she recounts the atomic culture she was brought up in. In this episode, Lindsey is in conversation with Am Johal about her new book, “This Atom Bomb in Me,” a reckoning with our nuclear past that resonates with the present moment. Through Lindsey’s experiences of growing up in the Manhattan Project secret city, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the book traces the radiating influence of the arms race on American politics and culture. Lindsey also speaks to her current projects, including a trip to Chernobyl, the impact of rain on Vancouver’s social mood, and a fascination with miniatures and the uncannily small.
Lindsey Freeman’s website: http://www.lindseyfreeman.net/
This Atom Bomb in Me (Stanford University Press, 2019): https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29326
Leilani Farha has a long history of advocacy around poverty and housing, in Canada and beyond. She is in conversation with Am Johal following her tenure as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, a post that saw her travelling the world to connect with people who were struggling with inadequate and precarious housing or homelessness, and to work with governments to uphold housing as a human right.
In this interview, Leilani speaks to concerning patterns in housing globally, including homelessness, evictions, unaffordability, and the financialization of housing. They discuss opportunities in Canadian housing policy, Vancouver’s housing crisis, and the incredible importance of having a safe place to call home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Watch a video recording of this interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEbFe2Z3za0&t
Make the Shift: https://www.make-the-shift.org/
PUSH, a film following Leilani Farha’s work as a UN Special Rapporteur: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/pushthefilm
“When governments sell out to developers, housing is no longer a human right,” an op-ed by Leilani Farha for The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/29/governments-developers-housing-human-right
“How the real estate financial model is harming us,” a TEDx talk by Leilani Farha (2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve_-FbNvy0w
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing: http://www.unhousingrapp.org/
National Right to Housing Network: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?v=PEbFe2Z3za0&event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbXNNZVlsSV94d0pZQUtJSUFEdDVKVnljNGtBd3xBQ3Jtc0traUUxa2NaSkpvSEFLMkl5MENLTkctZlZWRTFSekNZRDN2d2VEc3hwVUdCdzFTV1lvUWo5bWpuQUczS3FsREl3SmNMVkM3SUMyNm5QNXd6aHVZamRObGZUaVJnaU5OZmhZRmxacDZDSHNXWUFsWDduUQ%3D%3D&q=https%3A%2F%2Fcaeh.ca%2Fnnrhn-launches-today%2F%3Fgclid%3DCjwKCAjwzIH7BRAbEiwAoDxxTtJYmqQsd-1No-7pSneMw896CU6oF1jwF7sZDqYvsyG5z0kjnNcovxoCwW4QAvD_BwE
Finding a lack of space for experimentation and play in Vancouver’s theatre scene, New(to)Town Collective formed to provide accessible, low-barrier physical theatre training to the community. Our host, Am Johal speaks to two of the collective’s founding artists and alumni of SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts, June Fukumura and Anjela Magpantay. They discuss barriers facing emerging artists in the city, as well as how they embrace messiness and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration in their by-donation Training Jams. The collective blends different artistic practices in their training and in the creation of new works, spanning from clowning to contemporary dance, to playwriting, to dramaturgy and more. Anjela and June also give Am a taste of what goes on in a Training Jam, guiding him through a sound and movement exercise.
About New(to)Town Collective: http://www.newtotowncollective.com/about.html
With the rise of podcasting as a forum for academic conversations and as a teaching tool, Hannah McGregor of SFU’s Publishing department set out to investigate — and enact — podcasting as a form of scholarly communication, knowledge mobilization, and open pedagogy. Hannah is in conversation with host Am Johal about her research into the exciting potentials of scholarly podcasting, and the power of the podcast as a grassroots, decentralized medium.
About Hannah McGregor: https://hannahmcgregor.com/
Open Peer Review for Secret Feminist Agenda: https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Scholarly-Podcasting-Open-Peer-Review/Secret-Feminist-Agenda
Podcasting and Digital Intimacy – A blog post by Hannah McGregor: https://publishing.sfu.ca/2020/08/podcasting-and-digital-intimacy/
Hannah’s recommended pods: Sandy & Nora Talk Politics (https://sandyandnora.com/) FANTI (https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/fanti/) Rude Tales of Magic (https://www.rudetalesofmagic.com/)
Am Johal is joined by Maltese-American cartoonist Joe Sacco, renowned for his long-form graphic journalism and field work in conflict zones and places where people are facing displacement and dispossession. They discuss his new book, “Paying the Land,” dealing with the painful history of the relationship between Indigenous peoples and resource extraction in northern Canada, as well as overarching themes of dispossession, the violence of settler-colonialism, and the bonds between people and land that are prominent in his work. Joe also shares some of his upcoming projects and touches on the intensification of political tensions in Portland, OR, where he lives.
Watch a video recording of this interview: https://youtu.be/QPIcjakI1PU
Paying the Land: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781627799034
Reviews: https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2020/08/12/Joe-Sacco-North-What-Remains-Paying-Land/ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/joe-sacco-nwt-dene-comic-graphic-novel-1.5640360
Revisit past talks by Joe Sacco, hosted by SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement: https://youtu.be/E7L3TI3_AiQ (2016) https://youtu.be/JTUaxhY9S0c (2013)
Jackie Obungah is in conversation with Aida Mwanzia about the importance of centering Black youth and community perspectives in policymaking. Aida speaks about a policy brief she wrote advocating for a cap on international student tuition, as well as her experience working with Ethọ́s Lab to create accessible and inclusive tech spaces.
Read Aida’s policy brief on international student tuition: https://levelvf.ca/project/building-an-ethical-relationship-between-the-province-of-british-columbia-and-international-students/
More about Ethọ́s Lab: https://solidstate.coop/ethoslab
How do we come together to make and enjoy art in a time of physical distancing? Interdisciplinary artist and community organizer Vanessa Richards joins host Am Johal in his backyard for a physically distanced conversation about convening community through music during the pandemic. They discuss the challenges and opportunities of practising community-engaged arts over these past months; Vanessa’s experiences of virtually leading Van Van Song Society and Dancing in the Dark; and how Vancouver is responding to and participating in this moment of heightened community action for racial justice.
Resources: Van Van Song Society: https://www.vanvansongsociety.com/
Creative Together: http://creativetogether.ca/
- Resmaa Menakem: https://www.resmaa.com/
On this episode of Below the Radar, our guest host, Jackie Obungah, is joined by Ayaan Ismaciil and Natasha Mhuriro. They discuss the importance of starting a Black in BC Mutual Aid fund during the pandemic as a means of community support and sustenance. Ayaan and Natasha also talk about finding a balance between student life and community organizing. Both Ayaan and Natasha are members of the African Students Association at SFU and have been part of several student organizing initiatives on campus. In this conversation, they also explore the continued solidarity between Indigenous and Black communities in working towards liberation.
You can learn more about the African Student Association here: https://www.facebook.com/SfuAfricanStudentsAssociation/
Black in BC Community Support Fund for COVID-19: https://ca.gofundme.com/f/covid19-black-community-support-vancouver
On this episode of our Below the Radar Conversations Series, our host Am Johal is joined by Ann Livingston, community organizer and drug user activist. Ann is the co-founder of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, and is currently the Executive Project Coordinator of the BC-Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors. Am and Ann discuss the two current public health emergencies: the COVID-19 pandemic and the fentanyl contamination deaths in BC.
You can find out more about the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users here: https://vandureplace.wordpress.com/
And you can learn more about the BC-Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors here: http://bcyadws.ca/
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Amal Ghazal, Director of the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies, and Associate Professor in the Department of History at SFU with a focus on the modern history of the Middle East and Africa. Born in Lebanon, she has studied at the American University of Beirut and moved to Canada in 1996 to complete her MA and PhD at the University of Alberta. Prior to joining SFU, she was a faculty member at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Amal has been the Director of the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies since 2017, with an emphasis on community engagement within Muslim communities and beyond.
You can find out more about the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies here: http://www.sfu.ca/ccms.html
On this episode of Below the Radar, we speak with Kenneth Bailey, the co-founder of the Design Studio for Social Intervention. With our host Am Johal, he discusses how social justice issues have been exacerbated during the pandemic and protests in support of racial justice and defunding the police.
You can learn more about Design Studio for Social Intervention: https://www.ds4si.org/ Design Studio for Social Intervention's book Ideas-Arrangements-Effects: https://www.ds4si.org/writings/iae
Below the Radar Twitter: https://twitter.com/BTR_pod Below the Radar Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BelowTheRadarpod/
Bailey is the co-founder of the Design Studio for Social Intervention. His interests focus on the research and development of design tools for marginalized communities to address complex social issues. With over three decades of experience in community practice, Bailey brings a unique perspective on the ethics of design in relation to community engagement, the arts and cultural action. Projects he has produced at ds4si include Action Lab (2012- 2014), Public Kitchen (2011-2018), Social Emergency Response Center (SERC, 2017), People’s Redevelopment Authority (2018) and inPUBLIC (2019). Bailey was recently a Visiting Scholar in collaboration with University of Tasmania and also a founding member of Theatrum Mundi NYC with Richard Sennett. He is currently pursuing his MFA at Bennington College. His new book (co-authored with DS4SI) is entitled “Ideas—Arrangements--Effects: Systems Design and Social Justice” (Minor Compositions, 2020).
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Adel Iskandar, Middle East media scholar and Assistant Professor of Global Communication at Simon Fraser University’s School of Communication. He is the author and co-author of several works, including “Egypt In Flux: Essays on an Unfinished Revolution” (2013, AUCP/OUP), “Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation”, (2010, University of California Press) and “Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network that is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism" (2002, Basic Books). His research primarily involves media, identity and politics. Adel is also the co-editor of online publication “Jadaliyya,” and academic podcast “Status.”
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal sits down with Dan Adleman, an Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Toronto. He has also previously taught at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia Institute of Technology, and Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design. Dan received his PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2016, in his dissertation he explores new-rhetorical approaches to American fiction grappling with the emergence of a new media environment at the turn of the millennium. Alongside Am Johal, he is the co-founder of Vancouver Institute for Social Research, a non-profit graduate-level critical theory free school run out of the Or Gallery since 2013.
In this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal sits down with Karen Jamieson, Vancouver-based dancer and choreographer. Karen's company Karen Jamieson Dance works with residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside through community engagement and cross cultural dancing, and is recognized nationally as groundbreaking. Additionally, her work, "Sisyphus," was named one of the 10 Canadian choreographic masterworks of the 20th century by Dance Collection Danse. Karen has be recognized for her talent and dedication to her field, receiving the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award in 2013, honoured with the Isadora Award in 2016, and in 2018 she was inducted into the Canadian dance hall of fame "Encore! Dance hall of Fame!"
You can learn more about Karen Jamieson Dance at their website: https://www.kjdance.ca/
You can also read more about community engaged dance on our blog, where we spoke with Karen Jamieson Dance facilitator Julie Lebel: http://sfuwce.org/carnegie-dance-troupe-julie-lebel/
On this episode of Below the Radar's Pandemic Conversations series we talk with Garth Mullins, documentarian, community organizer, and host and executive producer of the podcast CRACKDOWN. Garth and our host Am Johal talk about how the overdose crisis in Vancouver has been affected by COVID-19, and the positive affects that listening to drug user activists can have on the safety of the community.
CRACKDOWN is a new, monthly podcast about drugs, drug policy and the drug war led by drug user activists and supported by research. Each episode will tell the story of a community fighting for their lives. It’s also about solutions, justice for those we have lost, and saving lives. Learn more https://crackdownpod.com/
The host and executive producer of CRACKDOWN is Garth Mullins, an award-winning documentarian and longtime community organizer. Garth has been an opioid user for years, injecting heroin daily all the way through the last overdose crisis, and is now on methadone. The podcast is led by an editorial board made up of some of Vancouver’s most experienced drug user activists. CRACKDOWN is produced by Cited Media Productions on the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-waututh) Nations.
On this episode of our Below the Radar Conversations Series our host Am Johal speaks with public health practitioner, activist and LGBTQ community leader Michael Roberson. They talk about how to read the current political times.
Below the Radar Twitter: https://twitter.com/BTR_pod Below the Radar Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BelowTheRadarpod/ SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sfuwoodwardsce/
Michael Roberson created The Federation of Ballroom Houses, co-created the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Group and the nationally diffused CDC behavioral change HIV prevention intervention “Many Men, Many Voices.” Currently, he consults for several national community-based organizations focused on HIV clinical trial/biomedical and evidence-based interventions. He is also invested in national community capacity building and mobilization strategies designed to combat the disproportionate health disparities impacting both the black gay and black/Latino LGBT house ball communities. Michael co-teaches a course on the history of the house/ball community at New School University (New York), is a member of Ultra-red, and is the Scholar in Residence for the Center for Race, Religion and Economic Democracy (CRRED) at Union Theological Seminary. Michael earned Master of Divinity and Master of Sacred Theology degrees from Union Theological Seminary.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal speaks with Louise Schwarz, founder and co-owner of Recycling Alternatives. Am and Louise talk about the cultural shift surrounding recycling from 1989, when Recycling Alternatives was founded, and today. They also discuss the future of recycling and waste management, and what policies might help keep more waste out of landfills.
You can learn more about Recycling Alternatives here: https://recyclingalternative.com/
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal and guest host Fiorella Pinillos are joined by carla bergman, an independent scholar, filmmaker and producer. Alongside videomaker Corin Browne, carla is the co-director of EMMA Talks, a mini-art-festival and speaker’s series by women. With Nick Montgomery, she is the co-author of Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times. Recently, through TouchWood Editions, carla published Radiant Voices, a collection of essays inspired by EMMA Talks. Am, Fiorella and carla chat about previous projects such as the Purple Thistle Institute and EMMA Talks, as well as some upcoming projects in the works.
You can learn more about EMMA Talks here: http://emmatalks.org/
On this episode of Below the Radar, we are joined by Janice Abbott, the CEO of Atira Women’s Resource Society. Our office’s Program Assistant Paige Smith sits down with Janice to discuss how the pandemic has affected the work of Atira in combatting violence against women. Janice discusses the many diverse initiatives Atira has, including their popup refuge SisterSquare for women in the Downtown Eastside, their expansive housing support systems, and their new safety protocols. With reports indicating an increase to support lines for women experiencing violence, Janice also provides tips for what we can all do to support each other during these times.
You can learn more about Atira at www.atira.bc.ca
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal and guest host Rachel Wong are joined by Jackie Wong. Jackie currently is the Director of Communications and Race Equity Project Director at Hua Foundation and is a long-time collaborator and friend of SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Together, they talk about Jackie’s past work as a journalist, the current work that she does in Chinatown with regards to decolonization and working with youth, and how her different experiences have shaped her approach to the work and research she does.
You can learn more about Hua Foundation by checking out their website, https://huafoundation.org.
On this special edition of Below the Radar, guest host Tiffany Muller Myrdahl (SFU Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies and SFU Urban Studies) interviews Brett Stoudt. Brett came to Vancouver in early 2020 to give a workshop on participatory action research based on the work and research that he does at the City University of New York. In this episode, Tiffany and Brett talk about what participatory action research is, the Public Science Project and Morris Justice Project, and what it means to do research with and for the community rather than on it.
Learn more about the projects that Tiffany and Brett discuss here: Public Science Project: https://publicscienceproject.org/ Morris Justice Project: http://morrisjustice.org/
Learn more about SFU's Community-Engaged Research Initiative (CERi) here: https://sfu.ca/ceri.html
Take a listen back to our interview with Tiffany Muller Myrdahl on her work and research here: https://soundcloud.com/sfuw-community-engagement/btr-episode-35-tiffany-muller-myrdahl
On this episode of our Below the Radar Conversations Series, our host Am Johal chats with Kimberley Wong. Kimberley currently sits as the Chair of the City of Vancouver's Chinatown Legacy Stewardship Group, the co-chair of Vancouver Just Recovery Coalition, and the Community Development Coordinator for the Hua Foundation. Kimberley talks with Am about her current work in Chinatown and how its been affected due to COVID-19.
You can learn more about Hua Foundation by checking out their website: https://huafoundation.org.
You can also learn about Vancouver Just Recovery Coalition: https://www.vancouverjustrecovery.ca/
In this episode we talk with Dr. Ethan Taylor, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of North Carolina. With our host Am Johal, he discusses the current research on selenium as an anti-pathogenic factor in emerging zoonotic viral infections, such as COVID-19.
Dr. Ethan Taylor is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. His current research focus is on selenium as an anti-pathogenic factor in emerging zoonotic viral infections: SARS & COVID-19, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Zika, influenza, and other viruses with RNA genomes. Global pandemics like COVID-19 and more lethal variants of avian/swine flu will continue to occur unless humans can desist from eating animals, e.g., bats have been key factors in the origin of SARS, COVID-19, and the 2014 Ebola outbreak; HIV/AIDS came from apes as bushmeat.
In the sixth episode of our Below the Radar Conversations Series, we talk with Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director of Battered Women's Support Services here in Vancouver, Canada. With our host Am Johal, she discusses how COVID-19 is affecting gender inequality and violence within intimate relationships.
Angela Marie MacDougall is the Executive Director of Battered Women's Support Services Society. You can learn more here: https://www.bwss.org/
Hello everyone, welcome to the fourth episode of our Below the Radar Conversations Series. Today we talk with Meaghan Thumath, a clinical scientist at the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity and clinical associate professor at UBC’s School of Nursing. With our host Am Johal, she discusses her previous international work studying and combatting pandemics and how this has informed her current understandings of COVID-19, both globally and locally here in Vancouver, Canada.
Meaghan Thumath, RN, BSN, MPH, D.LSHTM
Clinician Scientist and Clinical Assistant Professor, Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity, University of British Columbia Trudeau Scholar, Centre for Evidence Based Intervention, University of Oxford
Meaghan Thumath is a clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) School of Nursing and holds a clinician scientist affiliation with the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity and a Trudeau Scholar at the University of Oxford.
For over a decade Meaghan has provided technical assistance to international organizations such as WHO, UNDP, UNAIDS, the World Bank and the Global Fund to End AIDS, TB and Malaria supporting human rights and health equity for marginalized populations in Central Asia, Latin America, West and Central Africa and MENA. In Canada, she has served as the Chief of Staff (Senior MA) to the Minister of Mental Health and Addiction, as clinical coordinator of North America’s first supervised injection facility, Insite, and as a Street Nurse and Senior Practice Leader at the BC Centre for Disease Control. In 2019 she worked for the World Health Organization’s Ebola Response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). She is also a public health delegate on the Canadian Red Cross Emergency Response Unit and an active member of the WHO Emergencies Programme (WHE) External Emergency Roster where she has worked on COVID-19 preparedness for both PHAC and WHO-AFRO.
Learn more about Meaghan Thumath's work with pandemics: https://www.straight.com/covid-19-pandemic/a-salute-to-our-frontline-champions-meaghan-thumath
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Michael Byers, an author and professor of Political Science at UBC, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law. He is also the co-director of the Outer Space Institute, a transdisciplinary international network for space studies. Michael’s work focuses on international law, climate change, the Arctic and outer space. He sits down with Am to chat about Arctic sovereignty, international cooperation, space law and issues in outer space. He is currently under contract with Cambridge University Press for a book entitled 'Who Owns Outer Space?: International Law on the Final Frontier.
You can learn more about the Outer Space Institute here: outerspaceinstitute.ca/
In this episode of our Below the Radar Conversations series we speak with ICU physician and writer Dr. Kevin Patterson about what he has learned working in the front lines during COVID-19. He chats with Am Johal about planning for a second wave, what we can learn from past pandemics, the relationship between this outbreak and climate change, and how we can improve our local healthcare systems here in Vancouver, Canada.
Read Dr. Kevin Patterson's writings on COVID-19: https://thewalrus.ca/anatomy-of-an-epidemic/
And an interview The Tyee had with Dr. Kevin Patterson: https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/03/15/Kevin-Patterson-COVID/
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Tara Mahoney, the Research and Engagement Coordinator of SFU’s Community-Engaged Research initiative team (CERi). Tara holds a PhD from SFU’s School of Communications, is also a research fellow in climate change communications at the David Suzuki Foundation and is the creative director of Gen Why Media. She sits down with Am to talk about her research in the recent years, involving the emerging forms of participatory political culture in Canada.
You can learn more about CERi here: https://www.sfu.ca/ceri.html
You can learn more about Gen Why Media here: https://genwhymedia.ca/
This episode of Below the Radar features two members of SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative, or CERi: co-director Stuart Poyntz and program manager Joanna Habdank. Both Stuart and Joanna bring their own experiences and expertise to CERi with hopes to create more opportunities for research that is respectful, ethical, and collaborates with community members. They discuss with host Am Johal what Community-Engaged Research is and how SFU is answering the call to provide more opportunities for collaboration in research with communities.
To learn more about SFU's Community-Engaged Research Initiative (SFU CERi), please check out their website: https://www.sfu.ca/ceri.html
This is the second edition of our Below the Radar Conversations. In this episode, Am Johal speaks with Paul Rogers on COVID-19 and how it impacts geopolitics and climate change.
Paul Rogers is professor emeritus in the department of peace studies at Bradford University in the UK. He is openDemocracy's international security adviser, and has been writing a weekly column on global security since 2001; he also writes a monthly briefing for the Oxford Research Group. You can read more of his work and writing on openDemocracy here: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/author/paul-rogers/.
On this episode of Below the Radar, we welcome psychoanalyst Hilda Fernandez and clinical counsellor Fernanda Selayzin Souza who practice in Vancouver. Both Hilda and Fernanda dive into a discussion around urban intimacy and the good life, including how technology impacts intimacy and relationships, the potential mainstreaming of polyamory, and the differences across generations and cultures that change the way we relate to others and ourselves.
You can learn more about the work, practice and research of both Hilda and Fernanda here: https://www.hildafernandez.com/ http://www.fernandapsychotherapy.com/
Take a listen to our earlier conversation with Hilda, "Psychoanalyzing Love and Desire": https://soundcloud.com/sfuw-community-engagement/btr-episode-17-hilda-fernandez
In this first episode of our Below the Radar conversations series, we hear from Dr. Kelley Lee, Canada Research Chair in Global Health Governance at Simon Fraser University. In this conversation, she chats with Am Johal about the World Health Organization and COVID-19.
Dr. Lee is trained in International Relations and Public Administration with a focus on international political economy. She spent over twenty years at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, initially analyzing the role of the UN in health. She was a core member of two major donor-led studies on WHO reform during the 1990s. She co-established the WHO Collaborating Centre on Global Change and Health, and chaired the WHO Resource Group on Globalization, Trade and Health. Dr Lee also co-led a major international initiative to secure public access to tobacco industry documents, and analyze their contents in relation to the globalization of the tobacco industry. She has authored over 100 peer reviewed papers, 50 book chapters and 13 books including Globalization and Health, An introduction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), The World Health Organization (Routledge, 2008), Global Health and International Relations (Polity Press with Colin McInnes, 2012), and Case Studies on Corporations and Global Health Governance (Rowman and Littlefield International with Nora Kenworthy and Ross MacKenzie, 2016). She joined the SFU Faculty of Health Sciences in 2011 as Associate Dean, Research and Director of Global Health. She is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health, Royal College of Physicians and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Dr. Kelley Lee was featured in a Rolling Stone article entitled "Why the World Health Organization’s Response to COVID-19 Is Crucial to the Future of Public Health" : https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/world-health-organization-coronavirus-response-975543/
Note: This interview was recorded prior to the United States cutting funding to the WHO.
On this episode of Below the Radar, we are joined by SFU President, Andrew Petter. For 10 years, Andrew has led SFU in becoming Canada’s Engaged University. Prior to that, Andrew had extensive teaching experience as a faculty member at the University of Victoria as well as serving the province as an MLA with a variety of cabinet portfolios during his time in office. Am Johal talks to Andrew about the experiences he had prior to coming to SFU, what it’s been like to serve as SFU’s president, and why SFU will always be a big part of his life.
Check out our blog post that accompanies this episode: http://sfuwce.org/andrew-petter-on-the-engaged-university-podcast/
Note: we recorded this episode before COVID-19 restrictions in our region required us to practice social distancing.
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Barbara Adler, interdisciplinary artist, programmer and SFU’s School for Contemporary Arts’ Professional Development Coordinator. Barbara’s artistic work has been presented at The Vancouver Folk Festival, Ballet BC, the Vienna Literature Festival and many more. She currently produces the weekly performance series Sawdust Collector, which showcases experimental and improvised works by established and emerging artists. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Simon Fraser University.
You can find out more about Barbara's artistic work here: http://www.tenthousandwolves.com/
You can learn about Sawdust Collector here: https://www.sawdustcollector.com/
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Scott Bernstein, the Director of Policy at Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, a project based at the Faculty of Health Sciences at SFU. He has also done work with Pivot Legal Society in Vancouver and internationally with Open Society Foundations in New York. Together, Am and Scott talk about his work involving harm reduction, decriminalization and drug regulation policies, and discuss potential regulation models with studies such as the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI) and Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness (SALOME).
Learn more about the work of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition by visiting their website: https://drugpolicy.ca/
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal sits down with John Walker, an award-winning Canadian filmmaker widely known for his documentary films, such as Québec My Country Mon Pays (2016) and Arctic Defenders (2013). He is also one of the co-founders of the Documentary Organization of Canada. In this conversation, John talks about his latest film, Assholes: A Theory. The film is based on the work of Aaron James, author of a book of the same name. Together, they investigate “asshole culture”, and the conditions of our contemporary culture that allows assholes to thrive.
Here you can find upcoming screenings of Assholes: A Theory: https://www.assholesatheory.com/upcoming-screenings/
And here is the link to the film on the National FIlm Board of Canada: https://www.nfb.ca/film/assholes-a-theory/
On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal sits down with Svitlana Matviyenko, an Assistant Professor of Critical Media Analysis at SFU’s School of Communication. Her work and research focuses around topics such as political economy of information, digital militarism, social and mobile media, infrastructure studies, history of science, cybernetics and psychoanalysis. In this conversation, Svitlana talks about digital militarism on a global scale, the impacts of cyberwar on users today, and what is in store for the future of cyberwar.
Svitlana Matviyenko is the co-author of "Cyber-War and Revolution: Digital Subterfuge in Global Capitalism," which was awarded the 2019 STAIR Book Award. Learn more about the book here: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/cyberwar-and-revolution
You can find out more about the award here: https://www.isanet.org/Programs/Awards/STAIR-Book-Award
And you can read more about Svitlana's teaching: http://www.sfu.ca/communication/team/faculty/svitlana-matviyenko.html
On this episode of Below the Radar, Am Johal sits down with Ebony Magnus, the head of the Belzberg Library at SFU Vancouver. Ebony came into the role during SFU Vancouver’s 30th Anniversary and has a focus on community involvement for this branch, both within the university and with the wider community. Together, they discuss some core questions related to libraries, including equal access to technologies, value distinctions between different types of archives, and continued community engagement.
To read more about Ebony, check out our website for her bio: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/Below-the-Radar.html
To learn more about the Belzberg Library and the other SFU library branches, as well as the different events and programming that goes on, you can visit their website: https://www.lib.sfu.ca/
Glen Coulthard is Yellowknives Dene and is an associate professor in the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program and the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. He is also the author of the acclaimed book Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition from University of Minnesota Press. On this special episode live from the Vancouver Podcast Festival, host Am Johal sits down with Glen to talk about who and what influences his work and research, the different projects he’s been involved in over the years, and what continues to inspire him to do the work he does.
Read more about Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition here: www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/b…kin-white-masks
Read more about The Fourth World here: www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/b…he-fourth-world
You can read more about Glen Coulthard on our blog post: http://sfuwce.org/glen-coulthard/
This episode was recorded live at the 2019 Vancouver Podcast Festival, and we’re grateful to them for their invitation to be part of their programming at the Vancouver Public Library. To learn more about the Vancouver Podcast Festival, please visit their website: www.vanpodfest.ca/
In Vancouver, discussions surrounding arts and culture are imperative, especially in relation to continued efforts towards decolonization. Indigenous Arts and Culture Planner for the City of Vancouver Kamala Todd tackles this topic with her work, including her contributions to the new cultural plan: Culture | Shift: Blanketing the city in arts and culture. Kamala previously worked as the Aboriginal Social Planner with the City of Vancouver, and continues her work as a cultural advisor and filmmaker. In this episode, Kamala shares what steps the city has taken, and what more needs to be done, to combat the ever-present consequences of colonization.
To learn more about the Culture | Shift: Blanketing the city in arts and culture plan on their website: https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/culture-shift.aspx
When it comes to making decisions about how things happen in our cities, who has the power to make those decisions? Tiffany Muller Myrdahl, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies and the Urban Studies Program, asks this question along with a host of others in her work and research. From her work with Women Transforming Cities to teaching in the classroom, Tiffany spends a lot of time navigating the inequalities that exist and looking for ways to make spaces and cities more inclusive, particularly for LGBTQ2S people and women. In this episode, Am and Tiffany talk about why this work is necessary and the ways in which Tiffany challenges her students who do this work as well.
You can learn more about Women in Cities International, where Tiffany is a board member, by checking out https://femmesetvilles.org/.
Additionally, you can read and download the Metropolis report, "Safety and Public Space: Mapping Metropolitan Gender Policies", here: https://www.metropolis.org/sites/default/files/resources/Mapping_metropolitan_gender_policies_0.pdf
The question of ethics should always be front and centre when it comes to doing research of any kind. For Scott Neufeld and Nicolas Crier, they aim to take this question even further. In collaboration with other folks in the Downtown Eastside and Hives for Humanity, they co-authored Research 101: A Manifesto for Ethical Research in the Downtown Eastside to help facilitate a wider conversation on ethics in cultural production, such as research, media, and artmaking. On this episode of Below the Radar, host Am Johal talks to Scott and Nicolas about how this project came to be, the profound impact it has had for the community, and what’s at stake for ethical research in the Downtown Eastside.
You can access a digital copy of Research 101: A Manifesto for Ethical Research in the Downtown Eastside here: http://bit.ly/R101Manifesto
You can read more about the processes of developing the manifesto on our blog: http://sfuwce.org/empowering-informed-consent-community-ethics-in-cultural-production/
How well do you know the local music scene in Vancouver? On this episode of Below the Radar, we sit down with Jarrett Martineau, a figure who is very well acquainted with the music scene both locally and abroad. On a local level, Jarrett works as the Music Planner for the City of Vancouver, where he works hard to support the Vancouver music scene and all aspects within that. He is also the host of Reclaimed, which is a weekly series on CBC Music that explores the many worlds of contemporary Indigenous music. In this conversation, we talk to Jarrett about how affordability affects available venues, the diverse array of music being created within the city, and the power of providing the platform of radio to early career musicians.
To learn more about CBC’s Reclaimed, you can visit their website here: https://www.cbc.ca/mediacentre/program/reclaimed. You can also learn more about the Culture|Shift Plan for the City of Vancouver here: https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/culture-shift.aspx.
Back in October, we collaborated with Jarrett on an events at SFU Woodward’s called “Songs of the Land: Tracing Global Pathways in Indigenous Music”. You can listen to the audio for that talk here: https://soundcloud.com/sfuw-community-engagement/songs-of-the-land.
When it comes to understanding the world around us, we can look and observe change with our eyes. But what about using our ears to listen to the ways in which our environments change? This is the type of work that Milena Droumeva and Brett Ashleigh do. Milena is an assistant professor of sound studies and Brett is a PhD student. Both of them work and research at SFU’s School of Communication, which is quite world famous in the areas of sound studies and soundscape research thanks to the work of R. Murray Schafer, Barry Truax and others. In this episode, Am Johal sits down with Milena and Brett to talk about how listening can offer a unique insight into the ongoing change around us that we might miss if we don’t take the time to do it.
You can learn more about the Sonic Research Studio and all the work that they do by checking out their website: https://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio.html.
Watch Milena's TEDxSFU talk, "Sounding out Sexism in Video Games", here: https://www.ted.com/talks/milena_droumeva_sounding_out_sexism_in_video_games
In August of 2019, The Binners' Project faced a new change. After 5 years, co-founder Anna Godefroy stepped back and The Binners' Project welcomed Landon Hoyt as their new director. As a follow up to one of the first episodes of Below the Radar, we welcomed Anna back to the studio for a conversation with Landon and our host, Am Johal. Together, we talk about the ways in which The Binners' Project helped to provide economic opportunities and reduce the stigma of waste-pickers, and what's next for the group.
To learn more about The Binners’ Project, you can check out their website at https://www.binnersproject.org. You can also take a listen to our previous interview with The Binners’ Project at https://soundcloud.com/sfuw-community-engagement/btr-episode-6-binners-project.
On this episode, our Program Assistant Paige Smith sits down with Teresa MacInnes, one of the directors behind the documentary Conviction. Conviction is a powerful documentary that gives an inside look into what life is like for women in a provincial and federal prison in Nova Scotia. This film asks the women what they would have needed to prevent them from getting into prison. The result of this collaboration with the women in the prison shows another side of these women: products of a broken system, but with care and compassion, they have a chance at a happier life.
You can learn more about Conviction by visiting their website, https://convictiondocumentary.com. Be sure to also stay tuned for the premiere of Conviction on CBC’s Documentary Channel, beginning December 1, 2019!
In this episode, the founder of the Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week Joleen Mitton sits down with host Am Johal to discuss how and why she started the fashion show. They touch upon Joleen’s experiences as a teenage model and Indigenous youth mentor, along with her previous collaborations with critically acclaimed Indigenous artist Beau Dick.
This year's Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week runs from Nov. 18-21, 2019 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Please visit their website for information and tickets: http://vifw.webflow.io/
On this episode of Below the Radar, our Communications Coordinator Rachel Wong sits down with Maria Cecilia Saba to talk about Andean horror films. Maria Cecilia currently is the Teen Programs Coordinator at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, but previously she worked as the Interim Program Coordinator for our office. We talk to Maria Cecilia about what got her interested in researching two Peruvian-Andean horror films for her Master’s thesis, what her personal experience with horror films are, and how she came to understand the viewing of horror films as a visceral journey and cathartic experience.
Seth Klein, adjunct professor at SFU Urban Studies, and former Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in BC, sits down with Below the Radar to discuss what the Canadian government can do to combat the climate emergency. Seth discusses the proposed environmental policies of the major political parties running in the upcoming federal elections. Additionally, he chats about his forthcoming book which examines political actions the Canadian government undertook in reaction to World War Two, and how we may learn from these actions in regards to addressing climate change.
You can keep up to date with Seth’s writings on his blog here: https://sethklein.ca/blog/
What are the similarities and differences between Nationalism and Patriotism? Simon Fraser University professor Jerry Zaslove and graduate student Nermin Gogalic discuss this question through the lens of personal identity and political transformation as seen in the former state of Yugoslavia. This in depth and easygoing conversation between our guests and host Am Johal explores the topic from a number of different academic thinker’s perspectives, digging deep to identify the core components of each ideology.
Jerry and Nermin also had a public conversation at the Vancouver Institute for Social Research in Spring 2019 entitled “Transition and Identity in the Post-Yugoslav Environment”, which you can listen to here:
https://player.fm/series/visr-vancouver-institute-of-social-research/nermin-gogalic-in-conversation-with-jerry-zaslove-transition-and-identity-in-the-post-yugoslav-environment
Climate change is a very real issue that we as a society are grappling with. But interestingly enough, climate change denial is particularly strong in the Anglosphere — in English speaking countries. Indian author Amitav Ghosh found the link between movement, the English language, and climate change to be quite interesting, and that is the focus of his book The Great Derangement. This episode features Amitav in conversation with our host Am Johal and special guest host Olive Dempsey from the podcast Big Bright Dark. Amitav Ghosh was in Vancouver for a public talk at SFU as part of their 30th Anniversary of SFU's Vancouver campus, the Indian Summer Festival and SFU Public Square. You can watch an archived version of Amitav's talk on our Knowledge Mobilization A/V Gallery here: https://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/audio-video-gallery.html
You can learn more about Amitav Ghosh and his book The Great Derangement at his website, https://amitavghosh.com.
You can learn more about the podcast Big Bright Dark by visiting their website at https://bigbrightdark.org/.
There’s no denying that we are currently in a housing crisis. Regardless of whether you are a homeowner or a renter, the housing market is in a constant state of flux, making it difficult for people to find adequate and affordable housing for themselves. In this episode, we talk to Architects for Social Housing about housing and a potential solution: socialist architecture. Architects for Social Housing co-founders Geraldine Dening and Simon Elmer join host Am Johal to discuss the pillars of socialist architecture, housing as human rights, and why this is the way forward out of our housing situation.
Between mid-July and mid-August, Architects for Social Housing hosted four public workshops at Pollyanna Library and drafted a manuscript for a forthcoming publication.
You can learn more about Architects for Social Housing and the work they do at https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/. As well, you can check out the current research they are doing as part of their fellowship with 221A by going to https://221a.ca/fellows.
In the current neoliberal world order, is it possible for authoritarianism to return? When we look to the founding of Germany in 1949, a decision was made to follow the logic of ordoliberalism: to firmly regulate the state through the market so as to prevent a return of fascism and authoritarianism. However, according to Samir Gandesha, the opposite effect happened. In this episode, Samir and our host Am Johal discuss the ‘neoliberal identity’, what contributes to it, and how this impacts our current political world order.
Samir Gandesha is the director of the Institute for the Humanities at SFU and an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities. He specializes in modern European thought and culture, with a particular emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Recently, Samir has written about authoritarianism and the neoliberal personality, along with other theoretical work. Samir is the editor of the forthcoming publication, 'Spectres of Fascism' in 2020 with Pluto Press; co-editor with Peyman Vahabzadeh of the publication 'Crossing Borders: Essays in Honour of Ian Angus', forthcoming from Arbeiter Ring Press in 2020; and is also preparing a manuscript on the 'Neoliberal Personality'. You can learn more about Samir and the Institute for the Humanities at https://www.sfu.ca/humanities-institute.html.
There has been a lot of talk of how Canada is currently in a ‘climate emergency’. At the same time, the federal government’s purchase of the Trans Mountain Pipeline means that the expansion project will begin very soon. How does the construction of this pipeline impact the current state of our climate emergency, and what does this say about our governments’ priorities? Our host Am Johal talks to Kai Nagata of Dogwood BC about the implications of this expansion and how this shifts Dogwood BC’s efforts in holding our elected officials accountable.
Kai Nagata is the Communications Director for Dogwood BC. The goal of the organization is to build a grassroots base of engaged citizens ready to take action outside of the existing political party system. You can learn more about Dogwood BC at https://dogwoodbc.ca.
Democracy is a term that’s been used, misunderstood, and taken for granted by many — so what does democracy really mean? Am Johal sits down with activist and filmmaker Astra Taylor to explore how people interpret ‘democracy’ and how we can better understand it. Astra is the director behind the film What is Democracy?, a documentary that tackles this question, alongside celebrated theorists and a diverse cast of folks from different walks of life. Together, they try to understand who gets to participate in democracy and what that means for our society from a place of curiosity and a search for deeper meaning.
Learn more about the film and Astra’s newly-released book, “Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone”: https://www.whatisdemocracy.info/.
What does it mean to use and enjoy a city park on unceded Indigenous land? Am Johal interviews co-authors of “On This Patch of Grass: City Parks on Occupied Land” (Fernwood Publishing 2019), Matt Hern and Selena Couture, who wrote the book with two of their daughters, Sadie Couture and Daisy Couture. As a white settler family, they have lived near and around East Vancouver’s Victoria Park (AKA Bocce Ball Park) for years. Interrogating the concept of urban parks as colonial constructs, they investigate the land politics of this small green space with such a multiplicity of overlapping users and sovereignties.
About the book: https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/on-this-patch-of-grass
On this episode of Below the Radar, Am Johal sits down with Darcie Bennett, the co-author of the Pivot Legal Society report "Project Inclusion". This report draws on interviews and research conducted with people across BC and highlights the way stigma around drug use and poverty has become embedded into current law and policy. Am and Darcie talk about the report and what steps can be taken to reduce the stigma around these issues so that these systems better serve people.
You can read the full report here: http://www.pivotlegal.org/project_inclusion_full
Episode 18 features Baljit Sangra, a Vancouver-based documentarian and filmmaker. Baljit's latest documentary, "Because We Are Girls", is a powerful film that follows three Indo-Canadian sisters from Williams Lake, BC, who experienced sexual abuse by an older relative in their childhood years. Through an empathetic lens, Baljit shows the sisters’ laughs and struggles, as they seek to break the cycle of abuse and redress the wrongs within their family. Am Johal and Maria Cecilia Saba talk to Baljit about her approach to a complex story in a way that highlights her heroines’ humanity and the power of true sisterhood.
Read more about "Because We Are Girls" here: http://vivamantra.ca/
Episode 17 features Hilda Fernandez, a clinical psychoanalyst and a grad student at SFU. Hilda was also the former president of the Lacan Salon, a group that meets bi-weekly to read and discuss the work of Freud and Jacques Lacan. On this episode, she talks to Am Johal about love and desire from a psychoanalytical perspective — the stages of love, how it is sustained and reinvented, and break-ups and the hatred that can come along with it.
The Lacan Salon meets every other Tuesday from 7-9 PM in room 2205 at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. It welcomes participants from all academic disciplines and levels of experience. For more information, please visit their website: http://www.lacansalon.com/.
Episode 16 features Libby Davies, an activist and former Member of Parliament for Vancouver East. Libby spent the past four decades advocating for the Downtown Eastside community as a grassroots organizer, and an elected representative at the municipal and federal levels. She was also the first publicly out woman to be elected to parliament in Canada. SFU’s Melissa Roach and Jamie-Leigh Gonzales interview Libby about her newly released memoir, “Outside In”, covering her early days of community organizing, her experiences as a woman in politics, and representing her community’s concerns in Ottawa.
Read more about “Outside In: A Political Memoir” here: https://libbydavies.ca/ https://www.straight.com/life/1231686/libby-daviess-memoir-outside-tells-grassroots-story-her-journey-downtown-eastside
This episode of Below the Radar features mother, entrepreneur, creative, feminist Madeleine Shaw. Many of us now find the topic of menstruation significantly less taboo thanks to the work of folks like Madeleine. As one of the cofounders of Lunapads, Madeleine has been normalizing menstruation for nearly three decades. Led by her creativity, she has more recently embarked on new projects including G Day, a national event series that celebrates the transition between childhood and adolescence in female-identified tween youth, and Nestworks, a work friendly family space that will shape a better understanding of a healthy work-life balance. To find out more check out these links: https://gday.world/ - don't miss the next event April 29th in Vancouver https://gday.world/simplysmashing2019/ http://nestworks.space/ https://lunapads.ca/ http://lunagals.com/
Episode 14 features Ginger Gosnell-Myers, a Nisga’a-Kwakwaka'wakw urban planner, researcher, and policy expert, who was the City of Vancouver’s first Indigenous Relations Manager. Ginger is currently completing a master’s degree in public policy at Simon Fraser University. She is in conversation with Am Johal and Jamie-Leigh Gonzales, reflecting on her work for the City bringing Indigenous policy-making to Vancouver, speaking to a need for greater access to services for Indigenous folks in the city, and for more meaningful engagement with — and acknowledgement of — First Nations’ governance at the municipal level. She shares her thoughts on building understanding of urban Aboriginal identity and Indigenizing Vancouver through increased political representation and the sustainable funding of Indigenous community planning.
For more information and resources, Ginger recommends you check out: https://unya.bc.ca/ http://www.tsamiks.com/hoobiyee-tsamiks-edition.html (this year’s event has already happened, but it takes place annually) https://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/the_exhibitions/exhibit_claxton.html (this exhibit is no longer at the VAG, but worth reading up on!)
Political Economist and SFU Geography Professor, Geoff Mann, joins Am Johal in episode 13 of Below the Radar. They discuss Mann’s two recent books: "In the Long Run We Are All Dead" and "Climate Leviathan" — co written by Joel Wainwright. For those who may not be familiar with Keynesian economics, Geoff Mann has a way of communicating concepts that makes them easily digestible for all audiences — even without a degree in economics. Learn more about the books and about the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives at the links below:
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2245-in-the-long-run-we-are-all-dead https://www.versobooks.com/books/2545-climate-leviathan https://www.policyalternatives.ca/offices/bc
Find Geoff on Twitter at @GeoffPMann.
Adrienne Smith joins Am Johal and Melissa Roach in conversation for episode 12 of Below the Radar. A poet and human rights lawyer, Adrienne has a passion for social justice and advocacy. They work to protect and uphold workers’ rights, seeking justice for trans and non-binary people. In this episode, they talk about the issues of misgendering folks in the justice system or in a workplace, and how the conflation of sex and gender can have dangerous repercussions on those who may not be out in their workplace. They also speak to the policy and accessibility issues of being a trans person within a healthcare system and what the geographical implications of healthcare can be for trans folks. Adrienne works pro bono for the Catherine White Holman Wellness Centre providing legal support to trans and gender diverse folks.
To learn more visit: http://www.cwhwc.com/ www.transrightsbc.ca http://canadianlabour.ca/sites/default/files/media/WorkersInTransitionGuide-2011-04-EN.pdf
Find Adrienne on Twitter at @VanAlias.
Episode 11 of Below the Radar features Stephanie Allen, a director of the Hogan's Alley Society, and Vice-president at Catalyst Community Developments Society and #46 on the 2018 VanMag Power 50 List. In this episode Am Johal and Stephanie Allen discuss affordable housing, the pros and cons of not-for-profit real estate development, the nature of ownership and property, along with a look at the fight for Hogan’s Alley and the recognition of the erasure of black culture from Vancouver through city development. To learn more, or get involved check out these links: www.catalystcommdev.org www.hogansalleysociety.org Or follow Stephanie on Twitter @builtjustice
Episode 10 of Below the Radar features Sharon Gregson, who works with the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC as the provincial spokesperson for the successful $10aDay Child Care campaign. Sharon Gregson and Am Johal discuss policy change and what is needed for sustainable child care in BC. Twice elected as a Trustee to the Vancouver School Board, Sharon’s advocacy for affordable child care stretches back over three decades. To learn more visit www.10aday.ca
Sarah Blyth joins Jamie-Leigh Gonzales for a conversation about the politics of illicit drugs. With an understanding of what it is like to make change from her experience as both a policy maker and a frontline worker, Sarah uses her voice to advocate for access to safe drugs for community members in the DTES. In this episode we take a closer look at what our politicians can do to acknowledge and respond to the opioid crisis. We also discuss the implications of legalizing cannabis for low income or homeless folks, and the importance of discussing these topics with youth.
For more info visit: https://vancityoverdoseprevention.com/
SFU’s VOCE longtime partner, Megaphone Magazine, is featured in episode 8 of Below the Radar. Megaphone creates meaningful work for people experiencing poverty and homelessness. Each month they produce a magazine that looks at issues and events happening in our city with a local perspective. Along with the monthly magazine, the annual Hope in Shadows calendar is produced and sold by low-income and homeless vendors on the streets of Vancouver and Victoria to earn income and build community. This episode features Executive Director, Jessica Hannon, along with vendor, Peter Thompson in conversation with Jamie-Leigh Gonzales from SFU’s VOCE. Find out more about Megaphone at megaphonemagazine.com.
Hives for Humanity creates and supports opportunities to connect people back to the land through community and pollinators. They’ve been providing opportunities for people to engage in the therapeutic culture of beekeeping while supporting at-risk populations of people and pollinators since 2012. Episode 7 features community beekeepers, Sarah Common and Kevin Sleziak, in conversation with Am Johal.
Read more about Hives for Humanity on their website: https://hivesforhumanity.com/
The Binners’ Project is a Vancouver-based initiative dedicated to advocating for waste-pickers in the city. Am Johal interviews Binners’ Project staff members Davin Boutang and Anna Godefroy about their beginnings and evolution as an organization. They discuss their Universal Carts Initiative, the Coffee Cup Revolution and how the project has grown in its capacity to create opportunities for binners, destigmatizing the work they do in diverting waste from landfills.
Read more about Binners’ Project on their website: https://www.binnersproject.org/
"The way that I rationalize spending so much time in the theory world is because I think it helps train your intuition." Berlin-based artist Patricia Reed talks to Am Johal about the relationship between theory and practice in her work.
Patricia gave a talk at SFU in October, "On Horizonless Futures." Watch the video recording from her talk in our audio and video gallery: http://www.sfu.ca/sfuwoodwards/community-engagement/audio-video-gallery.html
Find more of Patricia's work on her website: http://www.aestheticmanagement.com/
From 312 Main and the future of public infrastructure in Surrey, to his “mad socialist period” in Dave Barrett’s NDP government. Am Johal interviews former city planner, MLA, and cabinet minister Bob Williams about his long and storied history of government work and community development in BC.
Bob gave a public talk on the future of Surrey at SFU last fall. Check out the video recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgQJLv5eFt8&feature=youtu.be
“We don’t have time not to have women at the table,” says Ellen Woodsworth, our guest this week. Ellen is a former Vancouver city councillor and founder of Women Transforming Cities. She is interviewed by Jamie-Leigh Gonzales. They talk about the invisible labour of women, how women experience different social and environmental issues, the inclusion of women’s voices in governance, and how to make our cities women-friendly.
Read more about Ellen’s work on the Women Transforming Cities website: http://www.womentransformingcities.org/ellen-woodsworth
With as little as 3.7% of referendum ballots returned as of last week, our discussion of electoral reform in BC continues. Last week, we heard from Maria Dobrinskaya, advocating in favour of Proportional Representation. This week Am Johal is in conversation with Bill Tieleman from the 'No' side. A political commentator and former NDP political strategist, Bill argues for a rejection of PR in the 2018 referendum.
Read more from Bill Tieleman on his website: http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/
With a referendum on Proportional Representation looming, BC will decide whether or not to move to a new way of electing our provincial government — or stick with our current First Past the Post system.
Our first guest is Maria Dobrinskaya, BC Director of the Broadbent Institute. Maria shares why she is advocating for BC residents to vote ‘Yes’ to PR when they mail in their ballots this month. She is interviewed by your host, Am Johal, the director of SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement.
Inform your vote! Here is some supplemental reading from the Broadbent Institute: http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/electoral_system_for_all_bc