Dr. Natalia Gajdamaschko, teaching professor at Simon Fraser University's Faculty of Education, is deeply rooted in cultural-historical activity theory. Trained as a Vygotskian psychologist at Moscow State University, she has served in academic roles in Ukraine, the US, and Canada. Her research encompasses Vygotsky’s educational theory, Luria's neuropsychology, activity theory, and cross-cultural studies in education. Honoured with the Advanced Scholar Award by IREX, Dr. Gajdamaschko is an active member of AERA's Cultural-Historical SIG and has held pivotal roles, including on the Editorial Board of the journal Mind, Culture, and Activity. She has also served as the Faculty of Education’s Associate Dean of Academic and Faculty Development.

Dr. Sally Vinden is associate dean in the Faculty of Trades & Applied Technology at Vancouver Island University. Her academic achievements include the Dean's Award for Scholarship, Research and Creative Activity (2021), the BC Campus Award for Excellence in Open Education (2020), and the Provost Award for Teaching Design and Practice that Employs Innovative Practices for Student Learning (2019). With both vocational and academic credentials, Dr. Vinden has distinguished herself as a Trades, Vocational, Education & Training (TVET) Curriculum, Teaching & Learning Specialist. Her unique educational journey, transitioning from tradesperson to academic, challenges traditional perspectives on the academic/vocational divide.

Dr. Masahiro Minami is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. He specializes in developing, evaluating, and implementing complex interventions in resource-limited or compromised settings, particularly in areas affected by war, conflict, and genocide. He leads multiple grant-funded projects in Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Japan, Rwanda, and the United Kingdom. He also engages in multiple consultancy roles in respective countries and co-directs service-research centres and institutions that support communities toward improving access to knowledge.

Dr. Yumiko Murai is an Assistant Professor in the Educational Technology and Learning Design program in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University (SFU). Her research explores the design and evaluation of technological tools, programs, and environments that foster learner motivation and confidence through creative activities, both online and in person. 

Dr. Robyn Ilten-Gee is an interdisciplinary scholar and Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University (SFU). Her research focuses on sociomoral development, critical pedagogy, and media education. She previously served as a Microsoft Education Consultant, supporting schools and educators across British Columbia.

Dr. Sandra (Sandie) Kouritzin is Distinguished Professor of second language education at the University of Manitoba. Her areas of special interest include linguistic constructions of performed identities, and freeing Indigenous language emancipation from research furthering colonizer perspectives. Since 2014, after chairing a workload committee, she has focused on the impact of neoliberal practices on academic workload, funded by University of Manitoba and SSHRC Insight Grant programs. Dr. Kouritzin has examined experiences of faculty members experiencing marginalization and oppression, time-on-task for the performance of academic tasks, and critical discourse analysis of public-facing documents in the U15.

Dr. Cristiano Barbosa de Moura is an assistant professor in science education. His research interests focus primarily on how historical, philosophical, and sociological approaches to science can foster justice-centred science education in K–12 and teacher education contexts. He is currently editor-in-chief of Science & Education (Springer). His current projects aim to interrogate the de-politicized character of the Nature of Science (NOS) in science education: reflecting on the boundaries of science education and on what the socio-political turn in science education might mean for an acute post-pandemic global crisis.

Dr. Ana Maria Navas Iannini is an assistant professor in informal science education and museum studies. Her research interests include controversies in informal learning environments, public engagement with science and technology, socioscientific issues and museums, care and museum workers’ emotions, and collective mindfulness in science museums. Her current SSHRC-funded research examines science museums' responses and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic through qualitative case studies from Brazilian, Canadian, Portuguese, and Finnish institutions.

Gina Csanyi-Robah, Vancouver educator and executive director of the Canadian Romani Alliance, will speak at SFU on March 19th to shed light on the ongoing struggle against anti-Gypsy discrimination in Canada. This event commemorates the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (March 21st).

Csanyi-Robah will be joined by Dr. Shayna Plaut (Canadian Museum for Human Rights) and Dr. Margareta Matache (Harvard) to introduce the recently published landmark report, Confronting Major and Everyday Discrimination: Romani Experiences in Canada. This in-depth field study, a collaboration between the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and the Canadian Romani Alliance, documents previously uncounted experiences of everyday discrimination—including racial slurs, stereotype-based questioning, social exclusion, and the systematic underestimation of Romani people in Canada.

Kumari Beck is an Associate Professor, Co-Director for the Centre for Research on International Education, and co-academic coordinator of the Equity Studies in Education Masters program in the Faculty of Education. Her research interests span internationalization of higher education, international education, internationalization of curriculum, equity issues in education, decolonial thought, and international development. 

Jas Uppal Hershorn is an Assistant Professor at the University of the Fraser Valley in the Teacher Education Department. Jas’s extensive experience in educating teachers ranges from mentoring and leading in-service teachers at the school district, as well as locally and internationally, and program development in K-12 schools, school districts and at the graduate-level. Her scholarship interests include decolonizing curriculum, (inter)cultural learning, teacher inquiry and change, and praxis for equity in teaching and mentoring.

Roumi Ilieva is an Associate Professor in the fields of applied linguistics and second/additional language education and a Co-Director for the Centre for Research on International Education at the Faculty of Education. Her research interests include internationalization of higher education, language teacher identities and agency, academic identity construction, interdisciplinary collaborations for multilingual student success, language and culture, migration and integration.

Steve Marshall is a Professor and Associate Dean, Research and International in the Faculty of Education. His research focuses on academic literacy and plurilingualism in Canadian higher education, as well as international teacher education. He recently published, co-authored with Arlene Kent Spracklin, a study of university educators from four Southeast Asian countries and the impacts of graduate studies in Canada: “We are in our country. Why do we have to resort to western ways of doing things?: an analytic framework for knowledge application in language teachers studying abroad” (2022).

Eilidh Singh is an EAL Consultant in the Centre for Educational Excellence at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Her work focusses on using a flexible, evidence-based approach to facilitate EAL support for all faculty and TAs. This includes creating and delivering workshops, collaborating on an instructor series exploring linguistically responsive pedagogy, offering consultations, developing materials, contributing to the work of the centre, and working with campus partners on various projects highlighting linguistic diversity on campus. Her continued interest is in how multilingual learners in higher education can best be supported collectively to thrive in L1 content environments.

Michael Sjoerdsma M.A.Sc., Ed.D., P.Eng. is a University Lecturer in the School of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University and FAS Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies. He teaches courses encompassing various aspects of technical communication and engineering and society. His current research interests focus on students’ concepts of success as they transition to first-year engineering and the persistence of engineering students as they complete their degrees.

Valia Spiliotopoulos is an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa and teaches in the Immersion, Teacher Education, and Master’s program in Bilingual Studies in English and French. Her research interests focus on content and language integrated learning, academic writing, technology-based language learning, and assessment. She has held leadership roles in teacher education and faculty development centres in order to advance equity and inclusion programs and initiatives in linguistically and culturally diverse educational contexts.

Amanda Wallace serves as an EAL Consultant in the Centre for Educational Excellence at Simon Fraser University. In this role, she collaborates with faculty to create linguistically responsive curricula and innovative teaching methodologies. Prior to her work at SFU, Amanda taught English for Academic Purposes at Seoul National University, gaining valuable insights into the needs of multilingual students. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate, with a significant aspect of her research focused on interdisciplinary collaboration between applied linguists and faculty to better support multilingual students.

Zhihua (Olivia) Zhang is the Director of Education at Trinity Language Centre of Trinity Western University. Olivia’s research interests include teaching and learning English as an additional language, inclusive curriculum and pedagogy, international student experiences, and narrative inquiry as a methodology. Olivia is passionate about intercultural communication and collaboration in teaching and research. She earned her PhD in Languages, Cultures, and Literacies in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University in 2017.

Dr. Natalia Gajdamaschko, teaching professor at Simon Fraser University's Faculty of Education, is deeply rooted in cultural-historical activity theory. Trained as a Vygotskian psychologist at Moscow State University, she has served in academic roles in Ukraine, the US, and Canada. Her research encompasses Vygotsky’s educational theory, Luria's neuropsychology, activity theory, and cross-cultural studies in education. Honoured with the Advanced Scholar Award by IREX, Dr. Gajdamaschko is an active member of AERA's Cultural-Historical SIG and has held pivotal roles, including on the Editorial Board of the journal Mind, Culture, and Activity. She has also served as the Faculty of Education’s Associate Dean of Academic and Faculty Development.

Dr. Sally Vinden is associate dean in the Faculty of Trades & Applied Technology at Vancouver Island University. Her academic achievements include the Dean's Award for Scholarship, Research and Creative Activity (2021), the BC Campus Award for Excellence in Open Education (2020), and the Provost Award for Teaching Design and Practice that Employs Innovative Practices for Student Learning (2019). With both vocational and academic credentials, Dr. Vinden has distinguished herself as a Trades, Vocational, Education & Training (TVET) Curriculum, Teaching & Learning Specialist. Her unique educational journey, transitioning from tradesperson to academic, challenges traditional perspectives on the academic/vocational divide.