Faris came to pursue these questions in GSWS after completing her master’s degree in Graduate Liberal Studies (2015), where she examined travel writing as a “technology of the self.” She argues that the rise of “self-help” books masked as travel writing, such as Elizabeth Gilbert’s popular book Eat, Pray, Love, signals a shift in the relationship between feminism and popular culture, particularly when compared to examples such as the work of early feminist author Mary Wollstonecraft. Faris says “it’s the triumph of self-help over self-understanding, a narrative which undermines the struggle for women’s equality.”
While there are clearly links between her PhD project and her MA thesis, when asked what spurred her on to do her PhD, Faris speaks, first, of her work as a Teaching Assistant: “My first appointment was in the fall of 2011. I loved the work: the interaction with students, the ability to exchange ideas, and the opportunity to help them see how we can connect works from the past to our world today. Knowing that I loved the work and the environment of the university setting, and that there was so much more for me to learn, I decided to pursue my PhD.”
Indeed, Faris has a passion for education in many forms. In addition to her PhD program and her MA, she holds an MBA from the University of Toronto and a BA from the University of British Columbia. She describes herself as “very curious” and says she’s always “liked to think about things, ask a lot of questions, and engage in conversation about this that and everything.” Now, she says “as a mature woman and a mature student, I know those activities must also be connected to action.” When Faris attended her first Parent Advisory Council meeting at her son’s school in 2006, she left the meeting as a member of the executive. When the municipal elections were looming in 2011, she decided she “needed to run to understand education from the other side of the table.”