RESEARCH
Wayfinding Peace: Museums in Conflict Zones - 2014 - 2018 - Ph.D. Research
University of British Columbia, Faculty of Education, Curriculum & Pedagogy, Art Education
Mapping A/r/tography: Transnational storytelling across historical and cultural routes of significance - 2018 - 2021 - Collaborator
Teachers' Stories: Living, learning and teaching in Dadaab refugee camp 2013-2017 - UBC Graduate Teaching & Research Assistant
Circumnavigating the Arctic (CTA) (Sept. - Dec. 2014) - Research Assistant - Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, BC.
UBC Museum of Anthropology - Researcher - (2010-present)
Wayfinding Peace: Museums in Conflict Zones - 2014 - 2018 - Ph.D. Research
University of British Columbia, Faculty of Education, Curriculum & Pedagogy, Art Education
- In 1994, Dr. Sultan Somjee, a Kenyan born ethnographer, established the Community Peace Museums Heritage Foundation (CPMHF). He aimed to explore Kenya's Indigenous cultures values of peace embedded in material culture. What makes the CPMHF peace museums unique is that they focus on a grassroots approach to "recall collective memories of reconciliation during contemporary conflicts" (Somjee, 2014, 8). Today, CPMHF has a network of sixteen community-based peace museums throughout Kenya. This study builds upon Somjee's work and explores how the CPMHF utilizes art education, the expressive arts, and environmental stewardship in their exhibits and programs to resolve contemporary conflict. Three case studies highlighting the Akamba, Aembu, and Maasai Community Peace Museums illustrates the lessons learned from museums that provide a forum for active participation and dialogue about peace practices among Indigenous cultures of Kenya.
Mapping A/r/tography: Transnational storytelling across historical and cultural routes of significance - 2018 - 2021 - Collaborator
- Working with Rita L. Irwin, Principal Investigator; Jun Hu, Koichi Kasahara, Alexandra Lasczik, Ricardo Marins, Joaquin Roldan, Anita Sinner - Co-investigators; 11 collaborators + 9 partners
- Worked with the Living, Learning and Teaching in Dadaab Refugee Camp Research Team to apply for a UBC Equity Research Grant. Successfully granted to provide funds for teacher education workshops to enhance professional practice in the arts
- Developed and facilitated workshops to build global student relationships between UBC student teachers at the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) Learning Centre, Dadaab, Kenya and the Teacher Candidates at the Vancouver Campus
- Indigenous Peace Education - Researched, developed and facilitated Indigenous peace education workshops with the UBC-Moi Student Teachers at the (BHER) Learning Centre, Dadaab, Kenya
Teachers' Stories: Living, learning and teaching in Dadaab refugee camp 2013-2017 - UBC Graduate Teaching & Research Assistant
- Worked with research team: Cynthia Nicol, Principal Investigator; Rita L. Irwin, Samson Nashon, Karen Meyer, and George Belliveau and others, Co-Investigators
- The SSHRC project aims at improving the academic welfare of refugee teachers in Dadaab Refugee Camp, Northeast Kenya. LLTD is a collaborative research project with The University of British Columbia (UBC), Moi University, Kenya, and NGO Windle Trust Kenya.
Circumnavigating the Arctic (CTA) (Sept. - Dec. 2014) - Research Assistant - Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, BC.
- The research project focused on the unprecedented changes in the arctic such as climate change, industrial expansion and migration. Through the multiple lenses of art, education, environmental and cultural sustainability, this project aims to understand shared public concerns across the arctic.
UBC Museum of Anthropology - Researcher - (2010-present)
- Researched a diverse range of projects including MOA's reclassification of the African collection, Chichewa potters of Malawi, Kenyan artifacts collection, Without Masks: Contemporary Cuban Art Exhibition, English Missionary John Williams (1796-1839) journals transcriptions, and the book, The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (2010).
