2023 Symposium on Teaching and Learning

Anushay Malik is primarily a labor historian with a geographical focus on South Asia. Her teaching and research interests focus on labor movements with particular attention to the space of the city and the way in which it affects worker organization and possibilities. This idea, of possibilities, underlies most of her work and was the main focus of her PhD dissertation that explored how expansive political imaginations, made possible by the end of WWII and decolonization, made workers in Pakistan think that a revolution was possible. She spent some time as a research fellow at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam working on a comparative project exploring how Partition in 1947 impacted the labor networks of Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian sea faring workers. She moved back to Pakistan in 2014 and joined LUMS (Lahore University of Management Services) as an Assistant Professor where She have been teaching courses on global histories of migration, nationalism in South Asia, labour and urban history and Pakistani history.

Website: Anushay Malik, Visiting Faculty, Department of History

Mark Lechner is a molecular biologist with a research background in human cancer and developmental biology. Dr. Lechner received his B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Notre Dame and conducted his Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Chicago on how certain human viruses such as HPV lead to cancer. His subsequent research efforts were aimed at understanding the mechanisms that control early embryonic development and how genetic errors or environmental factors alter that process and lead to disease. He has special interest in the field of epigenetics, where the interaction between genes and the environment takes place. In 2001, Dr. Lechner was appointed as faculty in the Department of Bioscience & Biotechnology at Drexel University in Philadelphia as an Assistant Professor where he led teaching and research efforts until he joined the Faculty of Health Science at SFU in 2008.

Website: Mark Lechner, University Lecturer and Academic Integrity Advisor, Faculty of Health Sciences

Ouldooz Baghban Karimi, is currently a Lecturer at the School of Computing Science, where she teaches systems and networking courses and conducts research on data, systems, and networks.  After receiving her PhD degree, she joined the networking industry and experienced working in a startup (Cyan) and acquisition by a well-known industry player (Ciena). She started industry involvement by building products, and then moved to solution architecture and integration to run proof-of-concepts(PoC), introducing network virtualization at the edge to international telecommunication providers in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. She is passionate about computing science education and facilitating progress towards equity, justice, and fair access in the computing science discipline, and through computing science in society. She is active in taking opportunities to serve the community towards diversity and inclusion. She is currently the chair of the Diversity Committee at the School of Computing Science, president of Academic Women at Simon Fraser University, and Diversity and Inclusion Chair at ACM MMSys2023

Website: Ouldooz Baghban Karimi, Lecturer, School of Computing Science

Genevieve LeBaron is Professor and Director, School of Public Policy, at Simon Fraser University's Vancouver campus.

Her award-winning research investigates the business of forced labour in global supply chains and the effectiveness of government, industry, and worker-led strategies to combat it.  Her latest books are Combatting Modern Slavery: Why Labour Governance is Failing and What We Can Do About It (Polity Press, 2020, Winner of the Academy of Management SIM Division’s Best Book Prize) and Fighting Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking: History and Contemporary Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2021, co-edited with David W. Blight and Jessica Pliley). She is the author of over forty academic journal articles and book chapters (her list of publications is here).

LeBaron is Co-Principal Investigator of Re:Structure Lab, a research and policy Lab based across SFU School of Public Policy, Stanford and Yale Universities. 

Website: Genevieve LeBaron, Director and Professor, School of Public Policy

Nicky Didicher (she/elle) is a settler of British and German ancestry born on the territory of the Nipissing First Nation Anishinaabe, covered by the Robinson Huron and Upper Canada treaties. She teaches a wide variety of courses in English literature, and used the HRJ to help her redesign her 300-level children's literature course. She is known for courses with flexible and experimental grading schemes, for finding ways to make student work matter beyond the course, and for having students do mindfulness, dance, sing, and recite poetry in class.

Website: Nicky Didicher, University Lecturer, Department of English

Tara Holland is a Lecturer, cross-appointed in Environmental Science and Geography, and her academic career is focused on teaching. She has taught at Bishop's University, University of Guelph, Quest University Canada, and University of British Columbia. Most recently she held a position as a Science Education Specialist at UBC. Her current research involves assessing the best teaching methods for improving student learning and engagement. She has multidisciplinary interests, and in past positions has researched climate change impacts and adaptation in natural resource sectors, human impacts on coastal environments, and forest fragmentation patterns in Canada. Tara's teaching is informed by her interdisciplinary research, and she loves to challenge students to think critically and to embrace (and enjoy!) the lifelong process of learning.

Website: Tara Holland, Lecturer, School of Environmental Science and Department of Geography

Helene Love, S.J.D. is a lecturer at Simon Fraser University’s School of Criminology. Prior to joining Simon Fraser University, Helene completed her LL.B. and LL.M. at the University of British Columbia and her S.J.D. at the University of Toronto. She worked as a litigator at Stikeman Elliott LLP, then worked in administrative and program development roles at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law. She has published her research on evidence, ageism, and the criminal justice system in a number of peer reviewed journals including the International Journal of Evidence and Proof, the Canadian Bar Review, and the Canadian Criminal Law Review.

Website: Helene Love, Lecturer, School of Criminology

Alys D. Avalos-Rivera has worked as an English teacher educator, English for Academic Purposes instructor, and curriculum developer in Mexico, The United States, and Canada. As a teacher educator, she has conducted research on the development of foreign language teachers’ identity, focusing on novice in-service teachers. She expanded her research and teaching interests while working as an Academic English lecturer in the University of British Columbia to include the study of academic literacy development among novice writers. At Simon Fraser, her current research and pedagogical interests include novice writers’ intertextuality, the development of novice writers’ identities, and the effects of multi-modal tools on teachers’ feedback. Alys is committed to support her students in their literacy journey in an atmosphere of inclusivity and respect.

Website: Alys D. Avalos-Rivera, Continuing Lecturer, Department of English