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The Next Community Engaged Research (CER) Storyteller is Dr. Mary Stockdale

February 13, 2026

We’re excited to announce the next speaker in the Community Engaged Research (CER) Storyteller series is Dr. Mary Stockdale, in conversation with Dr. Christine Schreyer.

Everyone is welome!

Wednesday, March 4th, 2026
11:30 to 1:30 pm,
In Person attendance is in ARTS 368 and will be limited to 25 people, lunch included from 12:30 to 1:30
Zoom attendance is also available

Please register by completing this Qualtrics survey: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4U84XjxeY6ci7cy

Mary’s present community-engaged research initiative is called the Vernon Climate Engagement Centre (CEC) project. Mary will share stories about communities, connectedness and climate resilience with us, and how these themes have been explored in this research project through an approach called Deep Canvassing.

Photo of the Deep Canvassing Vernon collaborators.
Photo supplied by Dr. Mary Stockdale

 

 

 

 

Bio:

About 20 years ago, Mary decided to stop working and travelling in the UK (Ph.D. and post-doc at the University of Oxford) and Southeast Asia (working with forest-based Indigenous communities in Indonesia and the Philippines) putting down roots instead and addressing sustainability concerns in her own community of Vernon, BC. Since then, Mary has worked as an Adjunct Professor in Human Geography at UBC’s Okanagan campus, teaching and doing research in the subject area of sustainability and the environment. This work has enabled her to act as a bridge between community and university, with a special focus on engaging community members in climate action, amongst others.

Questions? Please email: icer.ok@ubc.ca

 

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Starting the Conversation with Kelsey C. Doyle – Ecological Storytelling: Indigenous-Led Filmmaking and Intergenerational Knowledge Transmission in Outer Island Micronesian Communities

February 9, 2026

Everyone is welcome to join us for the next Starting the Conversation!

These talks are informal gatherings where a speaker shares some aspect of their community engaged research, as a way to engage with others interested in learning from their experience.

We’re excited to welcome Kelsey C. Doyle as the next speaker!

Wednesday, Feb. 25
1:00 to 2:00 pm
ARTS 368, UBC Okanagan
Via Zoom, please e-mail icer.ok@ubc.ca

Abstract: 
Participatory filmmaking has long been a tool for social change. In the Outer Island communities of the Yap, Federated States of Micronesia, Ulithian youth are migrating from their homes and cultivating diasporic online spaces. Because sharing knowledge with youth is essential, the Yap Outer Island communities are interested in how Indigenous-led participatory filmmaking can document and adapt traditional intergenerational knowledge transmission to new visual mediums and platforms at the community’s request. Kelsey Doyle will discuss the project’s co-design phase of her community-led research process. This talk will emphasize the politics and ethics of engagement in visual storytelling, including consent and representation in visual anthropology. Her presentation has been approved by the communities of Ulithi for sharing with the ICER audience.

About me: 
Kelsey C. Doyle is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and visual anthropologist whose work focuses on social change and cultural survivance. Her doctoral research examines participatory filmmaking to challenge extractive colonial research practices. She is a recipient of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, the Wenner-Gren Fieldwork Award, the UBC Public Scholars Initiative Award, and ICER Award in 2025.

Everyone is welcome to attend either in person or via Zoom.

Photo credit: Calissa Kloepfer

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Starting a Conversation with Naim Cardinal -Examining NHL Trading Cards as products of colonialism and responding with Indigenous perspectives on relationality

February 3, 2026

Everyone is welcome to join us for the next Starting the Conversation!

These talks are informal gatherings where a speaker shares some aspect of their community engaged research, as a way to engage with others interested in learning from their experience.

We’re excited to welcome Naim Cardinal as the next speaker!

Wednesday, Feb. 11
12:00 to 1:00 pm
ARTS 368, UBC Okanagan
Via Zoom, please e-mail icer.ok@ubc.ca

Abstract:

This presentation will be guided by the following question: how have NHL hockey trading cards historically portrayed Indigenous players, and how have these representations reinforced racialized narratives and colonial stereotypes?

As an Indigenous (Cree) researcher and long-time hockey card collector, I have witnessed how hockey trading cards have historically circulated racialized narratives that shape mainstream understandings of Indigenous Peoples in what is now Canada. Borrowing from Patrick Wolfe and Lorenzo Veracini, I will discuss how trading cards operate as tools of erasure and replacement: reframing Indigenous hockey experiences through marking logics then taken up and repurposed by political interests, producing narratives controlled by settler colonialism appearing in imagery and text.

About me: 

Naim Cardinal is nehiyaw (Cree) from Tallcree Tribal Government in Treaty 8 territory. He is a husband, father, educator, student, and has been collecting hockey cards for over 25 years. His hockey card collection focuses on collecting a rookie card of every NHL player with Indigenous ancestry.

Photo credit: Dr. Taylor McKee

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Starting the Conversation with Emily Comeau – Navigating digital landscapes: Digital tools for land-based language revitalization

January 27, 2026

Everyone is welcome to join us for the next Starting the Conversation!

These talks are informal gatherings where a speaker shares some aspect of their community engaged research, as a way to engage with others interested in learning from their experience.

We’re delighted to welcome Emily Comeau as the next speaker!

Thursday Feb. 5
1:00 to 2:00 pm
Arts 368: In person, UBC Okanagan
Zoom: Please email icer.ok@ubc.ca for the link

Abstract:

While scholars have shown that language learning is highly effective when it is rooted in relationships on the land, many language learners live far away from their ancestral territories. Consequently, there is an increasing need for technologies that allow learners to connect virtually with each other, with Elders, and with the land. However, existing tools for language learning tend to treat languages as objects, isolated from their context on the land. My doctoral research investigates whether digital technologies can be utilized for language revitalization in ways that also strengthen relationships with the land. Through collaborative community-based projects such as the Tlingit Language and Land App, my research explores potential applications of digital technology in supporting land-based approaches to language revitalization.

About me:

Emily Comeau is a PhD Candidate in the IGS-CESCE program at UBCO. They are a Canadian settler with mixed European heritage who grew up on lək̓ʷəŋən territory on Vancouver Island and Treaty 6 territory in Alberta. Emily is a recipient of the Killam Doctoral Scholarship and the Joseph-Armand Bombardier (SSHRC-CGS) Doctoral Award. In 2022, they became a member of the inaugural cohort of the UBCO Public Scholars Initiative.

Emily is a recipient of the 2024-25 ICER Student Community Engaged Research Award.

Photo credit: Emily Comeau, 2023

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The Okanagan Climate Justice Research Award is now Open

December 11, 2025

Announcing the New Okanagan CER Climate Justice Award 

UBCO’s Principal’s Research Chair in Communities, Justice, and Sustainability,  the Institute for Community Engaged Research (ICER) and UBC’s Centre for Climate Justice are piloting a new award initiative in the 2025/2026 academic year. 

This award is intended to respond to UBC’s core academic focus of supporting resilient people, communities, economies and environments in support of a sustainable future. To do so, we are launching the ‘Climate Justice Award’ that foregrounds systemic change and transformation. 

The awards offer financial support to two current UBC Okanagan graduate students ($1,000 each) whose work will combine the power and knowledge of communities, movements, rights and titleholders, and university researchers to conduct research intended to transform our societies and economies away from extractive systems and towards equitable, sustainable, and justice-oriented futures today. 

Climate Justice as a framework recognizes the interlocking nature of systems of power that impact communities. Treating these systems in isolation can often entrench and deepen existing inequalities and injustices. Climate Justice therefore seeks to illuminate connections among common drivers of injustices and supports responses that redress multiple expressions of power at once. UBC’s Centre for Climate Justice has generated four helpful guiding principles that are intended to support and steer climate justice work. 

Application Questions: 

  1. With climate justice being a vast and diverse field, briefly explain how your project perceives of climate justice (Max 150 words) /10 
  2. This award is focused on intervening in interlocking systems of power to support more equitable, sustainable, and justice-oriented futures today.  
    1. Please explain in what interlocking systems your research intervenes? Please also describe how these systems operate in relation to your research (Max 150) /10
    2. How do you see your research responding to climate injustices felt at the local and global level? Please be sure to speak to both scales, even if one is more aspirational than the other (Max 150 words) /10
    3. Briefly explain how your research has the potential to meet these aims. For instance, how do you hope your research may be used? For whom may this research be of use? And what kinds of material do you hope to share from this work? (Max 150 words) /10 

Details: 

The application will require completion of the ICER Student CER Award application, and responses to additional questions focused on the climate justice aspects of your work.  If the ICER CER Award application questions do not align with your work, explain why not. 

Recipients are eligible to receive either the ICER Student CER award or the Okanagan CER Climate Justice Award, not both.

The deadline will be 11:59 pm, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. 

APPLY HERE

For more information, please email: icer.ok@ubc.ca 

 

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The ICER Student CER Award Applications are Open

December 11, 2025

ICER Student CER Award

In recognition of ICER’s commitment to supporting students involved in community engaged research, we are providing two $1,000 awards 2026.

The awards offer financial support to current UBC Okanagan graduate students, or in exceptional circumstances, undergraduate students. The recipients should be actively involved in community engaged research projects or activities and have a community partner. The purpose of the award is to assist with supporting research and building closer ties with the community.

Application Deadline: Wednesday, January 14, 2025 (at 11:59 pm)

Eligibility:
• Applicants must be students of UBC Okanagan;
• Graduate, or in exceptional circumstances undergraduate, students; and
• Actively involved in community engaged research.

Following the completion of their research, award recipients are invited to present their research at a ‘Starting the Conversation’ – ICER’s brown bag discussion series. Their names will be published in the ICER newsletter and social media.

Apply here

The applications are reviewed by a panel of three reviewers who use the matrix below to guide their decisions.

  1. Research and research question exemplifies collaboration with community partners. The application indicates that project is initiated by or is research desired by the community. /15
  2. Research Methods are appropriate to community engaged research? /5
  3. Research Methods are feasible and well thought out? /10
  4. Student have thought of how to effectively report the findings of their research to the community. /10

If you have questions, please email icer.ok@ubc.ca

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Starting a Conversation with Nassim Zand Disari – Listening with Iranian women in exile: politics of everyday practices of belonging

November 26, 2025

Everyone is welcome to join us for the next Starting the Conversation! These talks are informal gatherings where a speaker shares some aspect of their community engaged research, as a way to engage with others interested in learning from their experience.

We’re delighted to welcome Nassim Zand Disari as the next speaker!

 

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025
12:00 to 1:00 pm

In person: Arts 368
Zoom – Please email icer.ok@ubc.ca

Abstract:  

Public spaces have long been sites of negotiation and struggle for Iranian women living under the gender apartheid of the Islamic regime since 1979. For many, these everyday constraints and systematic injustice have led to an irreversible journey away from home. But what happens when they arrive somewhere new – when they begin to search for belonging in an unfamiliar place? This question sits at the heart of my doctoral research, which explores the politics of sound and listening among Iranian women in exile in Metro Vancouver. I draw on decolonial critical listening and relational sonic ethnography to understand how experiences of belonging, alienation, inclusion, and exclusion take shape through sound and sonic encounters in public spaces. In this conversation, I will share some preliminary insights from this ongoing work. 

 Bio: 

Nassim Zand is a PhD candidate, Public Scholar, and social advocate from Iran. After completing her master’s degree in Belgium, she returned home (Iran) and became involved in cultural heritage practices through various roles: from founding a youth NGO in Iran, to interning in UNESCO Uzbekistan, as well as working as a policy consultant for UNESCO in Afghanistan. Nassim is currently in her fourth year of PhD program in Community Engagement, Social Change, and Equity.  Nassim is a recipient of the 2025 ICER Student CER Award. 

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CER Storyteller Event with Dr. Jeannette Armstrong – Nov. 27, 2025

November 17, 2025

Community Engaged Research (CER) Storyteller Series with Dr. Jeannette Armstrong

Thursday, Nov. 27
11:30 to 12:30 talk, in person (ARTS 368), and via Zoom
12:30 to 1:30 post-talk lunch, in person

To register: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9vHuLB0sBeFnj3U

Please join us for the next CER Storyteller event featuring Dr. Jeannette Armstrong in conversation with Dr. Christine Schreyer!


Photo credit: Darren Hull, Darren Hull Studios Inc.

Jeannette Armstrong, OC, PhD

Jeannette Armstrong, (lax̌lax̌tkʷ) is syilx Okanagan, a fluent speaker, language teacher and knowledge keeper of Syilx Okanagan and oral histories. She is a Professor at UBC Okanagan and Coordinator of Interior Salishan Languages programs. Her PhD is in environmental ethics from a syilx perspective. She is a recipient of the Eco Trust USA Buffett Award in Indigenous Leadership and serves on Canada’s Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge Subcommittee of Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. She is a lifetime fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an officer of the Order of Canada.

The CER Storyteller’s has room for 25 guests in person, and the talk will also be shown live via Zoom.

This is event is co-sponsored by the Centre for Interior Salishan Studies, with support from the Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies.

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Starting a Conversation with Lindsay DuPré: Indigenous Knowledge and Changing Environments

October 2, 2025

Wednesday, October 22
12:00 to 1:00 pm
In person in Arts 368, UBC Okanagan, Kelowna
Via Zoom, please e-mail: icer.ok@ubc.ca for the link

Adaptation to change is central to an Indigenous ontology. Indigenous Knowledges have never been passive, rather they are active, dynamic, and have supported Indigenous societies to meet the challenges of changing environments for millennia. During this talk, Vanier Scholar Lindsay DuPré will discuss the pivotal role that families play in the activation of Indigenous Knowledges arguing that Home is both a site and mechanism for epistemological transformation. She will share preliminary results from her PhD research, weaving together lived experiences from her Métis-Cree Home with the perspectives of Elders and Knowledge Keepers from Waterhen Lake First Nation.

Bio:

Image of a woman sitting in on grasslands, backlit by the sun, holding onto her hat with one hand.

Lindsay Dupré

Lindsay DuPré Fiddler is a Métis scholar-practitioner, mom and auntie. She is a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies – Indigenous Knowledges at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Lindsay’s work focuses on how Indigenous philosophies have been understood and adapted over time, and on addressing the power imbalances that continue to exist between Western and Indigenous science. In 2023, she received the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, ranking in the top 25 of doctoral researchers recognized across Canada. Lindsay is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan and lives with her family in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Treaty 6 territory and Homeland of the Métis.

Lindsay is a recipient of the 2025 ICER Student CER Award. Please join us to hear about her research.  Everyone is welcome!

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Starting a Conversation with Stephenie Kendricks: Unintended Consequences – A Podcast Centred Open Source Curriculum Featuring Heroes and Sheroes Working on Environmental Health and Environmental Justice Protections

September 18, 2025

Wednesday, September 24, 2025
 12:00 to 1:00 pm
Arts 368 – In Person
Via Zoom – email icer.ok@ubc.ca for the link

Abstract

Environmental justice (EJ) and environmental health (EH) studies are poorly represented in postsecondary education. Various  governmental and NGO organizations support  the importance of EJ/EH education. Learning about EH and EJ lifts students’ knowledge across multiple subject areas – science, health, history, political science, sociology, business, technology and more. “Unintended Consequences” is a post-secondary curriculum integrating podcasts, curated materials, and pedagogical resources, into an Open Education Resource (OER) curriculum. Students learn through voices of those with lived experiences. “Unintended Consequences” fills a gap for urgently needed accessible knowledge that is crucial for successful  efforts to sustain a healthy world.

Bio:

Stephenie Hendricks’ careers as a radio and television producer, her work as a communications consultant for environmental health and environmental justice advocates, and her experience teaching journalism and social justice communications to post-secondary students, led her to UBCO’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies Sustainability theme and her doctoral project, “Unintended Consequences.”

Everyone is welcome to attend the Starting the Conversation series.

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