UNBC Excellence in Teaching
Award Recipient, 2007
J. Alistair McVey Award for Teaching Excellence (WDCAG), 2009
Graduate Studies Program Affiliations:
Graduate Program Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies (IDIS)
Member of:
Natural Resources and Environmental Studies (MA NRES - Geography stream & PhD program);
Gender Studies (GNDR); and
International Studies (International Development stream)
TO THE PAMPAS-QARACHA RIVIER BASIN IN THE AYACUCHO REGION OF PERU (JUNE 2011)
Video Credit: Catherine Binet, EPAF & the Advocacy Project
Catherine Nolin &
Grahame Russell of Rights Action (along with the
great UNBC
students who accompanied us) want to share our most updated Human Rights
Complaint that we submitted on October 18th to the Minister of Foreign
Affairs,
Foreign Affairs Critics, MPs, Canadian Ambassador to Guatemala Leeann
McKechnie, and many others. This is not a casual letter of concern but a
demand for action and accountability. Please share far & wide and
write your own letters to your own politicians. Click on the link above
for the full text of the Complaint (PDF) or go to
http://www.rightsaction.org/articles/Complaint_HR_&Guate_Mining.html
I am a social geographer with two broad areas of research interest that connect in many ways & often overlap:
Migration/Transnationalism/Refugee Studies
I am interested in exploring the gendered, cultural, and social aspects of population dynamics resulting from immigration and forced migration. I have explored this in the Guatemala-Canada transnational context, in the permanent & temporary migrations in northern BC communities, and most recently with foreign/internet/so-called 'mail-order' brides in northern BC.
Guatemala/Violence/Development/Justice
My research interests also focus on the social, cultural & legal geographies of Guatemalan political violence with particular emphasis on gendered experiences of state-sponsored & contemporary violence. Additionally, I am interested in transnational migration to Canada from Central America, migrant insecurity at the Guatemala-Mexico border, social justice, indigenous rights, and transnational solidarity.Most recently, I am working with several graduate students on the issues of femicide/feminicide, the violent development of Canadian mining in Central America & critical development studies.
I am fortunate to be able to closely combine my research and teaching interests. The courses which I regularly offer include:
- GEOG 206 (Social Geography),
- GEOG 306 (Geography of International Development),
- GEOG 309 (Geographies of Migration and Settlement), and
- GEOG 426/626 (Geographies of Culture, Rights, and Power).
- I often facilitate a graduate-level Advanced Qualitative Research Methodology course (NRES 773).
- I organized and facilitated five Geography Field Schools/Delegations to Guatemala: Click on dates below for information on each & photo essays:
My book,
Transnational Ruptures: Gender and Forced Migration (2006), on issues of Guatemalan political violence and forced migration to Canada, was published by Ashgate. Finally, a former graduate student, Jennifer Reade, and I recently published a revised version of her MA thesis as:
Empowering Women: Community Development in Rural Guatemala.
