How can students use their voice to advocate for changes and create social impact?

Encouraging and promoting changes is an essential part of the Liberal Arts. The critical thinking that comes with the classroom, along with living experiences, can become a game-changer when advocating for changes within your community.

Today, we would like to use this blog as an open space for the Advocates for Change group. Advocates for Change is a student-led movement at UFV focused on building a community where cultural diversity and difference are not only discussed and celebrated but critically examined.

As part of this group, the Psychology student, Ella Halladin, is leading a project to vocalize changes in the Fairy Creek region in British Columbia. On this guest blog, Ella will walk us through the details about the situation in that region as well as ways you can support the cause:

“Less than 2.7% of the ancient temperate rainforest remains in British Columbia. These old-growth trees help the environment in many ways, preventing land erosion that causes landslides, preventing carbon from being released into the atmosphere, regulating water flow to prevent droughts and floods, and providing homes to millions of species both above and below ground.

These trees hold deep spiritual and emotional meaning for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, and they are being logged through unsustainable, destructive methods. This logging is being carried out on unceded Pacheedaht and Ditidaht territory, where Indigenous land defenders and non-Indigenous supporters have been peacefully protesting the logging of these old-growth trees to help save the surviving trees since August of 2020.

This Indigenous-led peaceful protest has been met with police violence. When extracting blockaders, police often target IBPOC first, resorting to excessive use of force and using aggressive tactics to remove and arrest IBPOC blockaders. Police have been seen displaying the “thin blue line” patch signifying “blue lives matter”, which has become a symbol of white supremacy. Police have been using dangerous extraction methods (heavy machinery, jackhammers, and angle grinders) often putting blockader’s personal safety at risk.

This movement aims to hold the BC government accountable for protecting the last of our ancient forests both across the Fairy Creek region and the rest of the province and to support the Pacheedaht and Ditidaht Nations in achieving sovereign control over their ancestral lands within their own traditional systems of governance. As well, this movement is not anti-logging, but aims to see the implementation of non-destructive logging practices instead of the logging of original forest or irreparable damage to forest ecosystems.

As part of the Advocates for Change group, I am working to raise awareness for the Fairy Creek Blockade. It is an anti-racism and anti-climate change issue. We will be raising support and directing those who would like to donate to fundraisers for supplies, food and legal support for the volunteers defending the old growth. I have attached those links. I appreciate your time and your support. If this is the first time you are hearing about the Fairy Creek Blockade, I encourage you to look into it.”

Click here to learn more about the Fairy Creek Blockade.

Help support this cause:

 

UFV Student Research Awards 2021 – Celebrating Arts students winners!

The 2021 Student Research Day featured 54 research projects created by 80 students from all areas of study at UFV. In addition, eight exemplary posters have been recognized with awards in honour of their scholarship. Among the awarded students, Arts students Regan Thompson (Psychology) and Michelle Grafton (Sociology) were awarded the President Award and the Dean, College of Arts Award.

Regan’s project named “Death Anxiety and Spiritually across the lifespan: Factors and relationships amidst COVID-19” was supervised by the Psychology Associate Professor Dr. Lesley Jessiman and counted 308 participants, from young adults (aged 19-40) to older adults (aged +60). It presented a new perspective about the correlations between death, anxiety, spirituality, age, depression, and loneliness.

In response to the circumstances created by COVID-19, Michelle Grafton’s project named “Enforcing the rules versus ‘doing what’s right’: lived experiences of labour and delivery nurses in the context of COVID-19” introduced a new sociological standpoint of how COVID-19 affected healthcare workers, and specifically labour and delivery nurses whose work demands an extra-level of mental, emotional, and physical support essential for the birthing process.

In the light of such brilliant projects, the College of Arts is proud to acknowledge the high quality of research work produced by Arts students and their faculty supervisors. Each research project is one step forward to making a global difference and creating new perspectives and opportunities for everyday challenges.

Click here to view Regan’s and Michelle’s full project.

GENERAL STUDIES MINI FAIR

Designed to address student needs within the program, this mini-fair will cover the following topics:

  • Diploma Drop-In: 2-3:30pm
  • GPA Booster Workshop: 3-3:30pm
  • So you want to be a teacher? 3:30-4:30pm
  • Degree Drop-In: 4:30-6pm

WHEN: Monday, May 14
TIME: 2-6PM
LOCATION: D217, Abbotsford Campus

OPEN TO EVERYONE! Come learn about customized learning plans, speak with an advisor, or learn how to calculate your GPA.

Click on the event link to learn more!

Faculty Accomplishment: Dr. Lenore Newman

Dr. Lenore Newman gives a keynote speech to 240 attendees at The 2018 Urban Agriculture Forum in Melbourne, Australia on February 23 and 24, 2018.

What Did She Do?

The College of Arts’ Dr. Lenore Newman, a Canada Research Chair in Food Security and the Environment and faculty member in the Department of Geography and the Environment, embarked on a speaking tour of Australia (February 2018) to discuss the subject of farmland’s role in food security.

While in Australia, Dr. Newman spoke at a variety of events and toured several innovative farms and not-for-profit organizations, which included:

  • A keynote speech at the Blueprint for future food systems in regional Victoria in Bendigo, Australia on February 20, 2018 (organized by the City of Greater Bendigo).
  • A keynote speech at the Grampians Food Forum: strengthening food security in the Grampians Pyrenees region in Ararat, Australia on February 21, 2018 (organized by Sustain and the Grampians Food Alliance).
  • A keynote speech and panel discussion at The 2018 Urban Agriculture Forum in Melbourne, Austrailia on February 23 and 24, 2018 (organized by Sustain).
  • A presentation at the Urban Farming: Feeding the Future in Sydney, Australia on February 26, 2018 (organized by the Sydney Environmental Institute at the University of Sydney).
  • A half-day workshop presentation for graduate students and policy members at the Urban Agriculture Workshop in Sydney, Australia on February 27, 2018.
  • A panel presentation at the Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities: Pathways for regeneration from farm to fork in Perth, Australia on March 1, 2018 (organized by Edith Cowan University and the Heart Foundation).

She also made guest appearances on several radio and podcast interviews:

  • An Interview with Steven Martin from ABC Radio Ballarat on February 21, 2018.
  • The Conversation Hour with John Faine from ABC Radio Melbourne on February 22, 2018.
  • Greening the Apocalypse (podcast recording) with Adam Grubb on February 23, 2018.
  • Late Night Live with Phillip Adams from ABC Radio Sydney on February 27, 2018.
  • A radio interview with Tara De Landgrafft from ABC Radio Perth on March 1, 2018.

What’s Next?

Dr. Newman made a number of connections on the Australian tour, which could result in the following future collaborations: sharing data, co-writing a paper, developing a case study in Melbourne with a role for students, and working with the City of Greater Bendigo.