(Esfahan, Iran)
Hi! In December 2010, I completed an M.A. degree in the Geography Department at Simon Fraser University. My supervisor was Jennifer Hyndman (currently at York University). My thesis concerned the settlement of government assisted refugees from Aceh, Indonesia in Metro Vancouver with a focus on transnational marriage and the meaning of 'integration.' You can read my thesis here.
Currently I am based in Vancouver, BC as an instructor at Simon Fraser University. I also work as a contract research coordinator for Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia on a project assessing the settlement experiences of Karen refugees in Langley, BC.
Teaching at SFU
International Teaching Assistants Program (Head Instructor, Fall 2011 - present; formally Instructor, Summer 2010 and Fall 2010), Languages & Intercultural Communication, Continuing Studies
GEOG
327: Geography of Tourism (TA, Fall 2008) under Alison
Gill
GEOG
387: Geography & Gender (TA, Spring 2009) under Jennifer
Hyndman
GEOG 381: Political Geography (TA, Fall 2009) under Nick Blomley
EXPL 130: Global Development: Issues and Patterns (TM, Fall 2010) under Jennifer Marchbank
GEOG
383: Regional Development and Planning (TA, Fall 2011) under John Brohman
Certificate in University Teaching and Learning for Graduate Students Participant (Sept 2009 - April 2010)
Some Publications
Aceh-Malaysia-Vancouver: Settlement Among Acehnese Refugees Five Years On, a Metropolis BC working paper based on my thesis. See here for the paper and here for a policy briefing note.
Learning to Research in Human(e) Geography in the Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies (CCSEAS) Fall 2010 Newsletter. (pdf here)
Book Review of "Handbook of Tourist Behavior" (2009) by Metin Kozak and Alain Decrop (eds.), in The Canadian Geographer (2010, Volume 54, Issue 3, pages 383.384).
Book Review of "Everyday Urban Public Space: Turkish Immigrant Women's Perspective" (2007) by Eda Ünlü Yücesoy, Social & Cultural Geography (2010, vol. 11, no. 1, February, p. 96-98). (pdf here)
Book Review of "Itineraries in Conflict: Israelis, Palestinians, and the Political Lives of Tourism" (2008) by Rebecca L. Stein, in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space (2009, vol. 27, issue 4, p. 759-760). (pdf here)
Book Review of "Telling Young Lives: Portraits of Global Youth" (2008) by Craig Jeffrey and Jane Dyson (eds.), Cultural Geography (June 2009, vol. 26, no. 2, p. 246-248). (pdf here)
Other Activities
In 2011, I worked as a consultant for the Cultural Orientation Resource Center at the Center for Applied Linguistics. I worked on projects such as the Domestic Toolkit and a revision of the Welcome Guide for refugees resettled throughout the United States.
During summer/fall 2010, I was a MITACS intern with Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia where I used ArcGIS to map recent settlement patterns of government assisted refugees in Metro Vancouver. The report "Changing Faces, Chaning Neighborhoods" summarizes the findings. (The report won the 2010 Chris Taylor Award for "the best written work of the year by a graduate student" from Metropolis BC; you can also read the Vancouver Sun's coverage of refugee settlement based on the report here).
I was also the Student Refugee Program Coordinator at SFU's chapter of World University Service of Canada (WUSC).
Previous Study
In high school I participated in an exchange program with Kamakura Jogakuin (Kamajo) Junior and Senior High School in Kanagawa, Japan.
Links of Interest
Canadian Council for Refugees
Frontier College
SFU's Women's Centre
SFU WUSC - Education changes the world
Supporting Women in Geography - Promoting the participation and empowerment of women in the field of Geography
Find me here!
email: {my_id @ sfu dot ca}. my_id is {lisa_brunner}.
Simon Fraser University
Continuing Studies
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6 CANADA
Sous les pavês, la plage!