Current Leadership, Staff, and Advisory Board

Dr. André Elias Mazawi serves as Head, Professor, and Sociologist of Education, in the Department of Educational Studies, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver (BC), Canada. He is Affiliate Professor with the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Educational Research at the University of Malta, and an Affiliate Researcher with the Équipe de Recherche en Dimensions…

Dr. Andrea Webb spent a decade as a high school teacher before returning to higher education as a teacher educator. Her research interests lie in teaching and learning in higher education and she is involved in research projects related to Threshold concepts, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and Social Studies Teacher Education. Currently,…

Elizabeth “Biz” Nijdam is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Central, Eastern & Northern European Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where she lives, works, and learns on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Dr. Nijdam’s research and teaching examine the representation…

Prior to joining the Allard School of Law at UBC in 2021, Brenna Bhandar was a Reader in Law and Critical Theory at SOAS, University of London, and previously held faculty positions at Queen Mary School of Law, Kent Law School and the University of Reading Law School. She has also held visiting appointments at…

Christina Laffin is Associate Professor in the Department of Asian Studies and a former Canada Research Chair in Premodern Japanese Literature and Culture at the University of British Columbia. She also serves as Social Sciences and Humanities Research Advisor in the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation. Dr. Laffin researches women’s writing, travel literature,…

Prof. Christine D’Onofrio is a visual artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She attended York University in Toronto for her BFA, and completed her MFA at the University of British Columbia. D’Onofrio has held positions at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, University of Toledo, and the University of Windsor. She has exhibited her…

Dr. Britton researches and teaches early modern English literature, with a focus on the history of race, critical race theory, Protestant theology, and the history of emotion. He is the author of Becoming Christian: Race, Reformation, and Early Modern English Romance (2014), and has recently co-edited a special issue of the journal Spenser Studies on…

Jasbir K. Puar is a Distinguished Faculty of Arts Professor in the Social Justice Institute at the University of British Columbia, Extraordinary Professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, and Professor Emerita at Rutgers University where she was faculty in the Women’s, Gender, and…

Dr. Nelson uses computational methods – principally text analysis, natural language processing, machine learning, and network analysis techniques – to study social movements, culture, gender, and organizations and institutions. Substantively, her research has examined processes around the formation of collective identities and social movement strategy in feminist and environmental movements, continuities between cycles of activism…

Lindsay Massara is a PhD candidate in Law at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. Her doctoral research broadly considers British colonial administration and the genealogy of common law emergency. She traces the phenomena of emergency and martial law through case studies across Jamaica, Ireland, and India in an…

Renisa Mawani is Canada Research Chair in Colonial Legal Histories and Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia, located on the unceded territories of the Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) peoples. From 2022-2025 she is a Global Professorial Fellow at the School of Law, Queen Mary University of London. Renisa is the author of Colonial Proximities…

Dr. Shannon Leddy (Métis) is a Vancouver based teacher and writer whose practice focuses on decolonizing education and Indigenous education within teacher education. She holds degrees in Art History and Anthropology from the University of Saskatchewan (1994), an MA in Art History (1997), and a BEd (2005) from the University of British Columbia. Her PhD…

Dr. T. Patrick Carrabré is a Métis composer living in Vancouver. Construction of identity and community engagement are long-term themes in his compositions, concert and radio programming, and administrative activities. Recognition for his music has included two JUNO nominations, a recommendation at the International Rostrum of Composers, several WCMA nominations and one award (Best Classical…