Geraldine Manossa’s academic journey is a testament to the belief that life is not always a straight line but rather a series of twists, turns and detours.

After embarking on various career paths, Manossa made the decision to pursue her doctorate, almost two decades after completing her master’s degree. She’s now a doctoral student in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies program at UBC Okanagan.

Manossa’s educational journey first began amidst challenges within the public school system, where she says the portrayal of Indigenous culture was often negative and prejudicial.

“As a young person, I really struggled with it. I was pushing against the curriculum I was learning. I was challenging it. It was just so opposite of what I knew in my own family, how we see ourselves and how we talk about ourselves,” Manossa explains.

Motivated to redefine the narrative, she enrolled in the Native Communications Program at Grant MacEwan College after high school, where she was exposed for the first time to Indigenous academics who were addressing issues like colonization and intergenerational trauma.

Spurred by this new learning path, she registered for courses at the En’owkin International School of Writing and Fine Arts. There, she learned more about Indigenous history and connected with mentors such as Dr. Jeannette Armstrong, now an Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at UBC Okanagan.

“It’s taking that step back to build relationships so health partners can understand what a health framework looks like driven from, for example, a Cree worldview of health and wellness, and to utilize that framework to develop a specific cultural health model in primary health care settings. That’s my goal.”

These early experiences ignited Manossa’s passion for understanding and leveraging Indigenous knowledge systems to address contemporary issues.

“I was learning that as Indigenous peoples, we have these rich cultures and traditions and I wondered why we couldn’t use those knowledge systems to inform things like educational programs or health programs,” Manossa explains.

“That’s when I started connecting the dots in terms of the strengths of where I come from, and all the different Indigenous knowledge systems and ways of seeing and understanding the world.”

She went on to pursue her undergraduate and master’s degrees in Indigenous Studies at the University of Lethbridge. Her studies prepared her for roles as the Director of Education at the En’owkin Centre and a leadership position in primary care at the First Nations Health Authority, where she played a pivotal role in advocating for culturally informed health practices.

After two decades in the field, Manossa embarked on her doctoral journey, driven by the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Witnessing the gap between intentions and actions in health reconciliation efforts, she felt compelled to try and bridge this divide. Her academic research focuses on developing a land-informed health framework in collaboration with First Nations communities and health partners to integrate Indigenous cultural practices into mainstream health systems.

“Hopefully my findings will be useful and a good starting point within Indigenous primary healthcare centres, and beyond that as well, such as in mainstream healthcare systems.”

“It’s taking that step back to build relationships so health partners can understand what a health framework looks like driven from, for example, a Cree worldview of health and wellness, and to utilize that framework to develop a specific cultural health model in primary health care settings. That’s my goal,” explains Manossa.

Mentor and doctorate advisor Shawn Wilson says it’s Manossa’s approach to research that is so impressive.

“Geraldine has the fantastic ability to use her vast cultural knowledge to look at and pick apart Western health or education systems to see how they work.  She then uses what she finds there to rewrite how those systems work into something that better reflects Indigenous cultures.”

In recognition of her academic achievements, Manossa was recently selected as an exceptional scholar by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and will take part in the foundation’s esteemed three-year leadership program. As a scholar, Manossa not only receives financial support for her research, but will also benefit from the contribution of mentors.

“I have access to mentors who have tremendous experience, not only life experience, but also within academia, and I think that’s just such an amazing layer. It’s an incredible opportunity to learn from them.”

Manossa has another three years before she completes her doctorate, but is hopeful that her completed research will contribute significantly to a new health model that incorporates Indigenous worldviews and practices.

“Hopefully my findings will be useful and a good starting point within Indigenous primary healthcare centres, and beyond that as well, such as in mainstream healthcare systems.”

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Dr. Christine Schreyer can pinpoint the exact moment when she knew she wanted to become an anthropologist. It was during a Grade 6 social studies class focused on the Indigenous People of Canada where her interest in other cultures and languages was ignited, and where she first learned the word “anthropologist.”

That pivotal occasion led Dr. Schreyer to pursue her love for languages by taking high school courses in French and Spanish. From there, she learned Latin and Cree in university, and eventually found her niche in the field of linguistic anthropology.

“I would describe myself as a language fangirl—I’m very passionate about language. I hope my students see that passion in my teaching, but also understand how my research is tied to it,” explains Dr. Schreyer, an Associate Professor of Anthropology in UBC Okanagan’s Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies.

In addition to teaching courses in linguistic anthropology, she also supervises both undergraduate and graduate students in research projects related to language revitalization, language documentation and language education, with a focus on Indigenous education.

“Take, for example, my work with the Splatsin First Nation in Enderby. Every time I’ve taught a course on language revitalization, my classes have done projects with that community, like a handbook of their Secwépemc phrases that can be given to community members.”

Dr. Schreyer also supervises students interested in constructed languages and has gained a student following for her research with the Na’vi speech community from the movie Avatar. She has created a number of languages featured in Hollywood films, including the Kryptonian language in Man of Steel, the Eltarian language in Power Rangers: The Movie, the Beama/Cro-Magnon language in Alpha, the Atlantean language in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and multiple languages in Rebel Moon 1 & 2 and The Spiderwick Chronicles.

“I’m a little famous in certain circles,” Dr. Schreyer shyly concedes.

Within the classroom, she implements a combination of effective strategies to meet the needs and interests of her students, such as flexible deadlines and multi-access, where students can participate in-person or online so that anyone can join her lectures. Every one of her courses is discussion-based.

“Despite her classes being lecture style, she highly values the input of her students,” says Agata Beau Ramos, one of Dr. Schreyer’s Bachelor of Arts students.

“She regularly gives us opportunities to chime in with our opinions or questions. The safe learning environment she creates is highly motivating and allows for more intimate connections between students.”

“Dr. Schreyer is a very gifted instructor. She nurtures students’ enthusiasm in course topics by encouraging students to explore their own interests wherever possible, and by providing opportunities for students to apply their learning in creative and tangible ways.”

To supplement and enrich her classes, Dr. Schreyer incorporates the use of Padlets (visual boards for organizing and sharing content), online periodicals, TED Talks, podcasts, spoken word performances and various social media platforms. She also offers unique assignments like editing Wikipedia articles to add peer reviewed academic citations. Her classes have had a huge effect on the platform, adding hundreds of references to improve its credibility.

“Dr. Schreyer is a very gifted instructor. She nurtures students’ enthusiasm in course topics by encouraging students to explore their own interests wherever possible, and by providing opportunities for students to apply their learning in creative and tangible ways,” says doctoral student Emily Comeau.

In recognition of her contributions to teaching and learning, Dr. Schreyer was awarded the 2024 Killam Teaching Prize.

Recently named Director of the Institute for Community Engaged Research, Dr. Schreyer will spend the near future focusing on her research while also mentoring graduate students, faculty and community partners in doing good community-based research.

“It will be interesting to see how that different kind of teaching and mentoring works and how I can bring that back to my classes. I think it will make excellent partnerships for the way I approach my teaching.”

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Many students—and even scholars—believe that economics is just about money, as conveyed by popular media. This idea is so prevalent that as a student Julien Picault also believed it—until he took his first economics course. In time, he learned to appreciate the complexity and vastness of economic reasoning.

Now a Professor of Teaching in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Picault views economics as a way to investigate and understand the behaviours and relationships interwoven in our everyday lives, with a critical question at its heart: how do we manage resources?

Not only is this question central to the practice of economics, but it also has far-reaching implications for our lives as we all manage scarce resources such as our time, energy and attention.

As an educator, Dr. Picault primarily devotes his resources to supporting the acquisition of knowledge among students and colleagues, guided by his own educational journey, experiences and research in economics education.

Studying did not come naturally to Dr. Picault. As a first-generation student, higher education was not something he or his family had envisioned for his future. Often enough, he barely met the minimum requirements to pass his classes. At the time, he felt many of his instructors underestimated him; some even assumed he would fail.

“I don’t have all the answers. The reality is it’s always possible to do better. By developing and sharing our resources, we stay relevant and make sure our students get something better from being here.”

Despite these challenges, Dr. Picault persisted. A pivotal moment in his educational journey was an international exchange program that took him to Montréal, which transformed his self-perception about his aptitude for education. His personal academic journey gave him a unique perspective and rare understanding of the hurdles so many students encounter.

“I learned to play with being underestimated most of the time. I didn’t feel like I found a mentor who saw value in me until I met Dr. Yves Richelle, my master’s supervisor,” says Dr. Picault. “I strive to be a role model for students; I want to provide them with the tools and guidance necessary to overcome obstacles similar to those I faced.”

As a Professor of Teaching, Dr. Picault blends research and pedagogy, using a variety of educational techniques informed by his research in economics education. His research interests originally emerged as he explored the successful engagement strategies of other economics instructors.

This project would eventually grow into The Economics Instructors Toolbox, an internationally renowned resource that supports the teaching community and impacts the education of colleagues and students around the world.

“I won’t be the one changing the world. If we progress as a society, that’s going to be our students.”

“I don’t have all the answers,” says Dr. Picault. “The reality is it’s always possible to do better. By developing and sharing our resources, we stay relevant and make sure our students get something better from being here.”

As a recipient of the 2024 Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence and Innovation, Dr. Picault made it his mission to provide the support and mentorship he feels he lacked. He continues to reflect on students’ long-term and short-term well-being to help them overcome their educational challenges.

“I want to keep developing teaching methods, as well as new and better ways of thinking to help students reflect and navigate their way through the world. We need to expose our students to new perspectives and ideas that can broaden their horizons and encourage critical thinking,” says Dr. Picault.

“I won’t be the one changing the world. If we progress as a society, that’s going to be our students.”

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Every few weeks, it seems like a like or improved artificial intelligence (AI) technology reinvents what’s possible. Today, AI can write reports, create “deep fakes” that look like photographs or videos of real people, and diagnose diseases.

For Dr. Wendy H. Wong, this disruptive change is an opportunity to think and then actively shape what happens next.

A Professor of Political Science and Principal’s Research Chair in Datafication (Tier 1), Dr. Wong was named UBC Okanagan’s 2024 Researcher of the Year for Social Sciences and Humanities for her work exploring AI’s effects on human rights. She is especially interested in the digital data sourced from humans that make these AI technologies possible, tracking everything from people’s locations to website reading habits.

“Data changes what we know about each other,” says Dr. Wong. “It changes what we know about ourselves. It also changes who can use those data to nudge us towards different types of outcomes.”

While people often talk about, and can be protective of, “their” data, Dr. Wong points out that these data—though they may contain information people consider private—technically also belong to whoever collected them, often a company. She proposes thinking about data as co-created—by the people who are the sources of the data and by whoever decides to track and collect information about their various behaviours, from their daily movements to how they scroll through Instagram.

In her recent book, We, the Data, Dr. Wong expands this idea into being a “data stakeholder” and empowering people around data practices. “I think about autonomy. Do we have choice in how data are collected?”

One issue is how bias in AI and data can intensify inequities that already exist. “Like any other human creation, algorithms or data are going to be biased because people are biased.”

This bias can cause real-world problems, like when AI has been used to predict where police should patrol. As Dr. Wong points out, the data that an algorithm uses to make this prediction is based on where police have already patrolled in the past. If police already disproportionately patrol poorer neighbourhoods or neighbourhoods with more BIPOC residents, then based on that biased data AI will predict more crime in these areas.

With Dr. Pourang Irani, Professor of Computer Science, Dr. Wong co-leads the Data Safety and AI Literacy Cluster of Research Excellence at UBC Okanagan. A main goal of this interdisciplinary research team is to use both technical and non-technical perspectives to help the general public understand safety and literacy issues.

“Having digital data is actually changing the way we live,” says Dr. Wong. “We should all be data and AI literate. We need to understand the basic assumptions built in behind these technologies, and then how they can potentially affect our lives.”

While AI is rapidly changing the world we live in, Dr. Wong puts this new technology in the context of other major technological changes humans have adapted to over time, like cars. Just like humans developed laws and the separation of sidewalks and roads to keep both pedestrians and drivers safe, she advocates for both government and the creators of these technologies to be aware of and responsive to the potential harms of both AI and digital data.

“I’m hoping the more I talk about data and human rights, the more people will start thinking about technology differently. These AI technologies have been created by people who haven’t been forced to think about the social and political ramifications of their inventions. Now we have to do that.”

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Why did you choose economics as your area of study?
I’m originally from a minority group in a small border town in Punjab, India. There I witnessed how poverty—especially among women—and the dependence on male household figures led to abuse and the oppression of their choices. I would repeatedly ask questions like: what makes someone rich or poor, what is the role of governments in uplifting these individuals, why aren’t minority women like me represented, what leads farmers from my community to commit suicide, leaving behind their wives without any means of survival?

Economics, political science and history are where I started finding answers. I first worked as a Research Assistant with the Rural Health Equity Social Enterprise and Technology Synergies team, where I focused on the comparative analysis of various social enterprises, especially those led by women. I also helped explore the challenges faced by women in Canada and other countries of the world. Currently, I’m working as a Research Assistant in collaboration with BC Agriculture Climate Action Research Network on a project for drafting enterprise budgets for farmers in Southern Interior BC. This project uses best management practices like cover cropping and relay-cropping to help the environment while also leading to profits for farmers.

My research reminds me every day of the reason I started on this journey. I wanted to learn about public policy and economics so that one day I can be a woman of colour from a minority Sikh community, representing the interests of my people on a level where our voices get heard.

You’re the recipient of an International Community Achievement Award. What does this mean to you?
The International Community Achievement Award (ICAA) is prestigious to me. It recognizes international students who are contributing to the university community while maintaining excellent grades.

My video call with my parents turned into a teary-eyed conversation when I told them I was selected as an ICAA recipient. If it wasn’t for the awards and scholarships from UBCO, I could have never imagined studying in such a big institution. ICAA came at a time when my younger brother was starting his first year at UBCO but my family was struggling to afford both of our tuitions. ICAA gave me hope that we both could make UBCO our home and that it valued me and my hard work.

What’s the best advice you have for new undergraduate students?
Take vastly different courses in your first year, like history and computer science, or creative writing and math. These diverse courses can help you realize what you really want; even if you think you want to be a computer science major, you never know. There could be an artist hidden inside you.

Why is it important to get involved on campus?
It’s important to devote time to courses, but also join clubs, do extracurriculars, attend university events and just generally be part of the UBCO community. Each of these activities will give you life skills and memories to cherish. Getting involved on campus helps you meet people who have similar interests and offers you different support chains.

What are some challenges you’ve faced so far in your academic career?
The biggest challenge I’ve faced in my academic career is discovering what I really want to do. Even though I believe I know my purpose in life, figuring out how to achieve that purpose has led to a lot of thinking. This challenge, however, has taught me that it’s okay if you don’t have everything figured out right away—the journey teaches you a lot. Another challenge has been managing an adult life all alone, thousands of kilometres away from my family. Nostalgia, longing, sickness and feeling overwhelmed due to work have been a real struggle.

What do you think makes UBCO great?
I think the most valuable thing that UBCO has given me is a sense of belonging and home. I’ve found my community here and I’ve been welcomed and accepted; I have my own voice and feel heard. My hard work has always been valued and appreciated, whether it is through academics, extracurriculars or my jobs at UBCO. The warmth that UBCO provides makes it more than just an educational institution; it makes it home.

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