Arts University Studies

I am interested in the global fashion and apparel industry, and in understanding how and why worker rights may be compromised in the making of clothing, as well as how transnational social movements work to challenge and disrupt conventional practices. Sociology allows us to understand clothing as a tool of both exploitation and expression, and, also, one of social change. My PhD research focused on the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse in Savar, Bangladesh, a disaster that killed more than 1,000 workers making clothing destined for the closets of western consumers. I looked at the actions of transnational stakeholders aiming to secure compensation for those impacted by the collapse, as well as those working to prevent another such disaster from happening again. I am also interested in how information and knowledge is learned and shared. I worked for a long time on a project called Social Alterations, which aimed to create and support educational resources related to worker rights and the global fashion and apparel industry. Fashion can be a fascinating tool to create social change, and it’s exciting to think about all the creative ways that might happen.

Learn about Social Alterations

Photo: Old Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 2015, Mary Hanlon

I am testing a community based model to better support migrant farmworkers in the Okanagan. I am currently working with Dr. Susana Caxaj (University of Western Ontario) and a multi-sectoral team in the Central Okanagan on this three-year project funded by the Vancouver Foundation. The current research is focused on the implementation and evaluation of a system of supports for temporary farmworkers who face discrimination, isolation, and a variety of barriers accessing healthcare and other public services while they are in the Okanagan. My selected recent featured work includes a paper published in ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies (2019), co-authored paper in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2019), a presentation at the REB West Conference in 2019, and co-presenter role at the Latin American Studies Association Conference in Boston in 2019. This photo (credit: Elise Hjalmarson) is of me speaking to farmworkers about conditions in the South Okanagan.

Read Amy Cohen's profile

In my books, I explore how personal and cultural mythologies direct our lives, especially our relationships to home and land. My first three books are all written for adults. With a writing style that has always been pared down, sometimes spare, I wasn’t surprised that when my novel, Shelter, was published, it was called an adult/young adult crossover. Recently, I wrote Red Fox Road, a novel for younger readers, completely in longhand, slowly, revising minimally as I went. Though the book is fiction, I named my thirteen year-old narrator Francie, after myself. This made me feel as if I was writing to my younger self, with the joy and ease that writing had for me then. Red Fox Road will be published with Penguin Young Readers in the U.S. and Canada in September 2020. I’m currently working on a sequel.

Read Frances Greenslade's profile

I am  a  criminologist with expertise in long-term imprisonment, the release and resettlement of prisoners, the Canadian penal press and penal reform in Canada.  I began my work with long-term prisoners over thirty years ago and continue to provide workshops and advocacy for the incarcerated at their request. I am a consultant to the Break Away gang-disaffiliation program and an editorial board member for the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons. Inspired to liberate and celebrate the voices of the incarcerated, in 2011, I launched www.penalpress.com, an open-access, digital archive of penal press materials from Canada. I spend much of my spare time trying to acquire, archive, catalogue and preserve these rare publications. I just finished writing a book (Disruptive Prisoners) with History Professor Chris Clarkson, which juxtaposes the story of mid-century prison reform as told by the government with the accounts provided by prisoners in the penal press. I am working on the fourth edition of my booklet "Getting Out. Staying Out: Words of Wisdom from Former Long-term Prisoners," and recently co-authored (with Danny Homer) a chapter (Leaving the Iron House: The Red Road Out of Prison) on Aboriginal parole in Canada.

Read Melissa Munn's profile

My background is in forest hydrology and soil science and this is the main area of scholarly work I undertake. I am also interested in vineyard soils and sustainable recreation trail construction, maintenance and restoration. My current research work is focused on long-term research in forest hydrology. I have a long-term collaboration with Dr. Rita Winkler (B.C. Ministry of Forests) at the Upper Penticton Creek Watershed Experiment. This experiment has been examining the effects of forest harvesting in water quantity and quality for 30 years. I am also working with Rita to review the evolution of long-term forest watershed research projects around North America to guide future research in B.C. This photo is of me leading a field trip during the 2019 National Association of Geoscience Teachers Conference I organized in Penticton in June 2019. The photo was taken above Naramata discussing exposures of metamorphic rocks that formed during the active phase of the Okanagan Fault.

Read Todd Redding's profile

Visual art is part of my research as a faculty member in the Communications Department.  Currently I’m focused on painting and drawing, but I have also used printmaking methods and I’ve participated in performance collaborations.  Like many artists, I focus on elements that communicate around or without words.  Currently, I’ve been focusing on what body language and personal space communicate and how materials and design become visual, tactile language that speaks viscerally. My work has shown in several solo and group exhibitions including at the Kelowna Art Gallery, Stride Gallery (Calgary), Vernon Public Art Gallery, and Soo Visual Art Center (Minneapolis, MN), and the Alternator Centre (Kelowna). I hold an Interdisciplinary MFA in Visual Art from the University of British Columbia, Kelowna, an MA in Applied Linguistics from Northern Arizona University, and a BA in Fine Art, Art History, and Spanish from St. Cloud State in Minnesota. (Photo credit: Lincoln Clarkes)

Read Amy Modahl's profile