Faculty Research Highlights

Dr. Susan Barber

Dr. Barber has for the last two years been involved in community research partnerships with major stakeholders in Surrey, especially Surrey Schools, that support refugee education and integration.  With funding from the Refugee and Newcomer Advisory Committee, she completed a preliminary report on the current situation in various fields, such as government perspectives, housing, health, mental health, employment, transportation, and religious and spiritual groups, in addition to education.  A culminating luncheon at SFU Surrey in September brought together participants in the study to launch the report and strengthen commitment to advance refugee support. Additionally, she was invited to UBC to be a guest speaker to PDP students on teaching refugee students.

Dr. Luc P. Beaudoin

Dr. Luc P. Beaudoin’s co-authored article, "Pre-sleep cognitive activity in adults: A systematic review,” the first systematic review of this subject, has been accepted for publication in the prestigious Sleep Medicine Reviews journal. He has continued to develop his theory of sleep onset and insomnolence. He and his colleagues presented three research posters on the subject at the World Sleep Congress in September. Dr. Beaudoin is currently finalizing his new edited book, Discontinuities: Love, Art, Mind. He is also developing plans for using his new CogSci Apps software (Hook Productivity) for research on the meta-access problem (note-taking, information access, and research information management.)

Dr. Alanaise Goodwill

Dr. Goodwill's research has recently focused on Indigenous women's career decision making and Indigenous student mentorship in Psychology. This fall, her SSHRC team concluded their four-year funding and published the article "From knowledge to wisdom: Indigenous women's narratives of doing well with career decision making" in the Canadian Journal of Career Development. She also co-authored an article,  "Indigenous peoples and professional training in psychology in Canada," published in Canadian Psychology.

Dr. Joel Heng Hartse

In collaboration with Education PhD student Daniel Chang, Dr. Joel Heng Hartse presented their paper, “‘We have a customized writing service team with all Caucasians’: Advertising ‘writing services’ to second language writers” at the Symposium on Second Language Writing held in November in Tempe, Arizona. The paper describes and critiques how "writing services" are advertised to international and multilingual students. Dr. Heng Hartse is currently developing a grant application based on this project. Earlier this summer Dr. Heng Hartse served as the discussant for a panel on world Englishes at the International Symposium on Bilingualism at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Cher Hill

Dr. Cher Hill, along with her colleagues, has been experimenting with pedagogies informed by new materialist perspectives in her graduate teaching. This work has recently been published in Beyond the Technical-Rational: Drawing on Social Theory for Educational Research, edited by Nolan and Tupper (Bloomsbury). The chapter is entitled “Pursuing relational and differential methodologies: From diffraction to monstrosity in In-service Teacher Education, and is co-authored by Margaret MacDonald, Cher Hill, Nathalie Sinclair, Suzanne Smythe, Kelly Toohey, and Diane Dagenais. Dr. Hill was selected to participate in SFU’s Disrupting Colonialism through Teaching: An Integrated Seminar Series and Grants Program, facilitated by Dolores Van der Wey, which began in September.

Dr. Adam O. Horvath

Dr. Adam O. Horvath has been conducting qualitative analysis of counsellor/client discursive communication resolving impasses in the helping process and continued his research on the counselling/therapeutic relationship. He has recently co-authored three articles: “Change in family therapy: Accomplishing authoritative and moral positions through interaction”, to be published in Communication & Medicine; “Responding to self-criticism in psychotherapy”, published in Psychotherapy Research; and “The alliance in adult psychotherapy: A meta-analytic synthesis”, published in Psychotherapy.

Dr. Gillian Judson

Dr. Gillian Judson recently launched an Imaginative Schools Network symposium series that connects her Imaginative K-12 Leadership MEd students with a group of innovative leaders from local school districts. She is also facilitating the Imagination Champions program, a free professional learning series for 15 educators, funded by Envision Financial. While continuing to work with BC teachers on Imaginative Ecological Education teaching practices and leading the Walking Curriculum Challenge this fall, she has also started doing workshops on the power of story/storytelling for organizations in the community. She is eager to start a small research project in December entitled “Imaginative Assessment for Learning (AFL) in Post-Secondary: Exploring the Impact of Cognitive Tools on Students’ Learning, Engagement, and Demonstrations of Understanding.” Please connect with Dr. Judson if you want to collaborate with the Centre for Imagination in Research, Culture and Education.

Dr. Angel M. Y. Lin

Together with her postdocs and research students, Dr. Angel Lin has started the Translanguaging & Trans-Semiotizing (TL-TS) Research Group and launched a Research Channel on Youtube in September. The Research Channel aims at building a Community of Practice (CoP) of both emergent and experienced scholars for academic exchange on Translanguaging and Trans-semiotizing research and pedagogies. It serves as a bridge between theory and practice, an interactive platform for intellectual dialogues across different generations and diverse contexts, a space for imagination, criticality and creativity, and an innovative Public Pedagogy forum for 21st Century students, teachers and researchers. The channel has gotten over 560 subscribers and Dr. Lin and her postdoc and research students have hosted over 10 live stream research interviews of both Canadian and International Scholars.

Dr. Carolyn Mamchur

Dr. Carolyn Mamchur continues her active research on animal-assisted learning at her sanctuary, MagicHorse Garden, studying communication between animals and humans as explained by quantum mechanics. In June, she delivered a paper, "Animal-Assisted Learning to Enhance Student Teacher Mindfulness", at the Canadian Society for the Study of Education conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. 

In October, Carolyn accepted a new position as Writer in Residence in the Faculty of Education and is focusing on publishing fiction writing and providing outreach for the SFU community and the general public. As a way to accommodate the latter, she is planning to launch a new website, "Writer’s Room”. Since accepting her new position, Carolyn has written Buzzer, a three-act drama, submitted for competition and reading at the Austin Film and Drama Festival held in October Texas. She also delivered at a three-day workshop, “Using Archetype to Create Authentic Characters for Film”, at the Women in Director’s Chair event in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Dr. Masahiro Minami

Dr. Minami gave a keynote lecture at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Medical Society of Alcohol and Addiction Studies and the 41st Japanese Society of Alcohol-related Problems joint meeting in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. His lecture illuminated what he refers to as ‘psychoecological factors’ facilitative of healing and reconciliation between survivors and perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis. In particular, he highlighted the therapeutic potential of incorporating mundane yet essential activities of day-to-day living as a ‘medium’ of healing. Dr. Minami was also elected as a member of the Working Group for Morita Therapy Efficacy Study, for the Japanese Society of Morita Therapy, preparing to conduct a multi-site clinical trial of this age-old Japanese indigenous psychotherapy.

Dr. Patricia Nitkin

Dr. Patricia Nitkin’s recent paper, “Relationships between people with cancer and their companion animals: What helps and hinders”, has been accepted by the journal Anthrozoos. This qualitative study explored the relationships between 13 British Columbian women with cancer and their companion-animals. The face-to-face interviews yielded rich descriptions of these relationships and the ways in which companion-animals contributed to or detracted from the participants’ sense of well-being during their illness. The findings are congruent with current human-animal bond literature, confirming the significant and primarily positive impact of the psychosocial support experienced by human beings from their companion-animals. It is recommended that, for practice and research, the areas of counselling, psychosocial oncology, and psychological theory include and explore the impact of companion-animals in their clinical work and understanding of the experiences and needs of people with cancer and other conditions.

Dr. Kevin O’Neill

Dr. Kevin O’Neill published an article with two former Educational Technology and Learning Design doctoral students, “Voices at the gate: Faculty members’ and students’ differing perspectives on the purposes of the PhD comprehensive examination” in Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. Dr. O’Neill also collaborated successfully on a major SSHRC grant application, "Thinking Historically for Canada's Future," with Carla Peck from the University of Alberta and Lindsay Gibson from the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Nathalie Sinclair

Dr. Nathalie Sinclair has been working with Dr. Sean Chorney and PhD students Sandy Bakos and Canan Gunes on a SSHRC-funded research project focused on the teaching and learning of multiplication using tangible touchscreen technology. In July, the application TouchTimes was launched in the App Store and the team has been working on several dissemination efforts, including conference presentations (CERME, PME-NA and BCAMT), journal publications (ZDM, in review), public presentations (President’s Faculty Lecture Series in November), radio interviews (Radio-Canada's Phare Ouest, CBC's Morning Edition), a newspaper article (The Source) and classroom research with teachers and students in three lower mainland schools.  

Dr. Celeste Snowber

Dr. Celeste Snowber gave the keynote address to open the Cultural, Intercultural and Transnational Dialogues in Dance and Spirituality Conference held at The Centre for Embodiment and Somatic Movement Education and Therapy in Cheltenham, England. Her spoken and danced keynote was “Embodied ways of inquiry: Releasing the poetics of the body.” With Dr. Eline Kieft, she presented on “Water, stories and the body: Site-specific work in seascapes.” She also presented at the International Society for Education through Art held at the University of British Columbia; with Dr. Jim Sanders, “Embracing chance and moving toward (un)knowing;” and with Dr. Sean Park, “Spiritual punctuation: The meeting of art and mystery in daily life.” In October, with Dr. Sean Wiebe, Dr. Snowber presented “Intertidal poetics: A lexicon of coasts” at the International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry held at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. In December, the book Spiritual Herstories: Call of the Soul in Dance Research is coming out from Intellect Books; Dr. Snowber authors the preface and the chapter, “Mystery, magic and the mundane: A dancer’s journey in the liturgy of life.”

Dr. Krista Socholotiuk

Since joining the faculty in September, Dr. Krista Socholotiuk’s work has focused on reviewing and critiquing relational methodologies with the purpose of advancing and innovating methodologies for the study of relationships. She co-presented a paper on this topic at the Qualitative Health Research conference in October.  This past semester, Dr. Socholotiuk also collaborated with colleagues on a SSHRC proposal related to career development and adolescent mental health.

Dr. Jennifer Beth Spiegel

Dr. Spiegel’s co-edited book The Art of Collectivity was released this summer by McGill-Queen’s University Press. The largest study of social circus to date, combining detailed quantitative, qualitative, and arts-based research, the book explores the intersection between global cultural politics, community-based arts education, collective health, and social transformation.  With the generous support of a SSHRC Insight Development grant, Dr. Spiegel has begun research on Performing Mentorship in the field of arts for social change, along with Dr. Lynn Fels and other researchers across the country. She has also teamed up with environmental scientist Dr. Sky Oestriecher to create a movement-based workshop for exploring relationships between self and environment, investigating microbial transformation and the ‘holobiont’ through performative inquiry.

Dr. David Zandvliet

Dr. David Zandvliet’s most recent research is conducted in partnership with the Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition, an impact-oriented community of organizations and networks across Canada that is leveraging the strengths of its members to establish a strategic path to advance ocean literacy in Canada.   International frameworks define ocean literacy as our "understanding of the ocean's influence on you and your influence on the ocean"; however, in Canada many perspectives impact our relationship with the ocean. Dr. Zandvliet and his team are including diverse communities in BC to share their stories about their relationship to the ocean and tell their stories alongside the broader Canadian narrative.  This ongoing research is funded in part by the MITACS and MEOPAR funding agencies.