MAY 2014 HIGHLIGHTS
Congratulations, Sandy Lapsky!
Congratulations to our Department Administrator, Sandy Lapsky, for being awarded a
2014 UBC President’s Staff Award! A UBC Alumna herself, Sandy is often referred to as
the glue that holds our department together; we’re very excited that she’s receiving
recognition for all her hard work.
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Outgoing Execs Post-GSA Plans
—Photograph by Gurbir Grewal
Left to Right: Holly, Brittany, James, Rachel, Blake, Sejal, Joanna [Devin, VP Social not pictured]
The 2013-2014 Geography Students’ Association Executives were like a family– both to
one another and the Department of Geography. They’ve planned wonderful and
exciting events including seasonal beer gardens, DIY workshops, and of course, the
annual GeoGala. Some are graduating while others have filled their timetable with new
and exciting plans for next year, so we’ve asked some of them to share what the future
holds…
Brittany Jang (VP-Academic): “This summer I plan to continue working at the AMS and
volunteering in and around the community. But with my new found free time I hope to
finally get into shape and spend as much time as possible catching up with friends and
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family. Later in the summer I’ll be visiting Hong Kong and Tokyo with my family, before
coming home to my last month in Vancouver before I leave for grad school in the fall.”
James Wang (VP-Finance): “After writing my last exam of undergrad, I just felt a huge
load being lifted off my shoulders. Just like that, four years of university was over. I swear
it was just yesterday that I was still in high school awaiting an acceptance letter from
UBC. But alas, it is now time to move on. After finishing my last exam, I took a couple
days to collect myself, to reflect on the magnificent journey that was life as a UBC
student. While studying for exams, I spent some time revising my resume and cover
letter and started applying for jobs. The Vancouver Aquarium was one of the places I
applied, and after going through the hiring process of telephone and in-person
interviews, I got the position of membership sales associate.
I will be working full time starting May 23 and I could not be happier to be doing so
especially since the Vancouver Aquarium is a LEED (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design) certified institution. Being an Environment & Sustainability major, I
can see myself learning a lot from one of the worldwide leaders in environmental
stewardship. I contemplated taking a couple months off but decided ultimately that
working was the best option.”
Rachel Schott (VP-Sustainability): “This summer, I’ll have graduated from UBC’s
Geography program with a major in Environment and Sustainability. Although this marks
the end of my undergraduate degree, I plan on continuing my education through
graduate or law school – which I’ll be applying to later this year. In the meantime, I’ll be
working at Edible Canada on Granville Island where I serve locally made food and
products. I also plan on reading the Lord of the Rings series and unlocking all the
characters in Super Smash Bros Melee for Nintendo Gamecube.
Blake Allen (Co-President): “This summer, I plan to spend more time developing and
exploring my interest in sustainability by pursuing related work as well as continuing to
write about cities and urban development. As an avid homebrewer, I’ve already made
several new and innovative beers this summer, and I plan to continue improving my
technique, to refine my recipe design; I hope to submit beers into Canadian
homebrewing competitions in the near future. Most recently, I’ve made a Spruce Tip
IPA that carries the terroir of the region with an aroma of pine and citrus that cascades
through to a round yet prominent bitterness. Without question, I’ll travel down the coast
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to Portland (arguably North America’s craft beer mecca) for a beer safari of sorts to
learn more about the quickly growing culture of craft beer. Looking forward, I also plan
to work for the next two years in a related field to my degree as well as going back to
school for a graduate program in the near future!”
Sejal Lal (VP-External): “I’ve had a great year with the GSA this year! It was pretty
hectic, but I met so many wonderful people through GSA events and bzzr gardens :)
Time for a break though! This summer I’m heading off to the Canadian Arctic! I’ll be
working for Parks Canada in Ivvavik National Park, Yukon, taking visitors on camping
trips and guided hikes through the park. I should be in Ivvavik just around the time the
Porcupine Caribou herd migrates through to their calving grounds in Alaska, so I hope I
get a chance to see them. The area is also home to other wildlife including arctic fox,
moose, grizzlies, wolves, martens, snowy owls, ptarmigans, and jaegers. I’ve heard the
horseflies there are monstrous as well…I’ll try to take a picture of one before I get eaten
alive! As the summer season approaches, the Arctic circle will receive almost 24-hour
sunlight, so I’m definitely looking forward to experiencing the midnight sun….I’m
planning on taking a sleep mask with me too though! During my days off, I’ll be in the
town of Inuvik, getting the chance to take a shower, try some caribou burgers, and
hopefully catch some local musicians around town! See you all when I get back in
September!”
Joanna Yang (Co-President): “After six years at UBC, I’m excited to embark on a new
chapter in my life. This summer, I’ll be travelling to Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong
to lead a GoGlobal Group Study course (HIST 482) with a colleague and history
professor, Henry Yu. After four weeks with the program, I’m going to meet up with
friends and travel to Myanmar, northern Thailand and my homeland in Hainan, China.
After my adventure in Asia, I plan on looking for work in fields relating to immigration
settlement services, community capacity building and/or community engagement.
Eventually, I’d like to make my way to a different city to pursue a master’s in degree in
either planning, geography or public policy. Long-term goals include becoming a cat
and dog owner and refining my skills in shooting and editing short films.
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GEOG 495: MIGRANT WORKERS’ DIGNITY
By Maiya Letourneau, 4th Year Human Geography Major
Migrant workers often suffer through appalling living conditions, are subject to harsh
and dangerous labour, and receive very little pay. Too often, notions of citizenship and
birthright encourage borders and boundaries that polarize the “self” and the imposing
“other”, while turning migrant workers into vulnerable “outsiders”, where they are
denied the privileges of other citizens.
This year, our Geography 495 Social
Movements in the Americas
seminar sought to deconstruct
these borders by learning about
oppression and discrimination in
Canada and Latin America. We
invited Alexandra Henao, Raul
Gatica and Gil Aguilar, members of
The Indigenous Popular Council of
Oaxaca in Vancouver (CIPO-Van),
to speak with us about the struggles
of migrant agriculture workers in
British Columbia. We aimed to
create social and cultural networks between ourselves and Latin American social
workers and activists through guest lectures, group discussions, and community service
opportunities.
One of our most rewarding classes involved creating a banner for the Migrant Workers’
Dignity Project (a new project of CIPO-Van). Following artistic advice and information
from Canadian and Latin American artists, we created a banner that symbolized our
efforts to build solidarity and resistance against discrimination and oppression. We hope
that in some way, we succeeded in helping migrant agricultural workers stand up to
discrimination.
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GEOB 472: Cartography & Game of
Thrones
Geography can work with a variety of disciplines. Elements of cartography and GIS
analysis can be used alongside History, Criminology, Anthropology, Health Sciences,
and Education. With my final cartography project I wanted to push the boundaries a bit
by trying to add Creative Writing to that list by making a map visualizing characters and
storylines.
How do we think about stories? How do we plan them out or break them down? There
are ton of ways, but probably the most common structure is a ski jump with an inciting
incident, rising action with a push and pull of tension, climax, denouement, and then a
conclusion. Maps also tell stories in a unique way by combining various data sets into a
single output which I thought would be applicable to visualizing the various aspects of
characters and their experiences and interactions.
I was inspired by Randall Monroe’s work on xkcd, specifically his narrative charts
visualizing Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, 12 Angry Men, and Primer. I
mapped out storylines from Game of Thrones in a similar fashion with the horizontal axis
as time and the vertical line groupings indicating which characters are together at a
certain time. I picked Game of Thrones because of the complex characters and the
detailed storylines. Great stories are usually character driven and the series is a prime
example of telling human stories in a fantasy world.
I wanted to do the books but that would’ve taken much more time, as a lot more
scouring for details would have been required. Also I wasn’t sure if everyone had read
the books and I didn’t want to spoil anything for the upcoming season. When I started
planning out the process, I thought that it would be best to use Adobe Illustrator but my
professor, Sally Hermansen, suggested that I do the project by hand, which was a
wonderful idea since my Illustrator skills aren’t the best. Doing the project by hand
meant a lot of rough drafts, erasing, and then re-watching the first three seasons, for
educational purposes, of course. I tried to map episode by episode to get a more
accurate time line of character experiences.
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There are cartographic design principles incorporated into the project such as the
neatline which is comprised of well-known quotes from the series or the use of dotted
lines turning into solid ones to show how peripheral characters become more prominent
in the story. There were a few challenges with the project such as leaving out certain
characters, generalizing them into groups, or lines overlapping and going underneath
in order to keep the characters organized. There are definitely aspects of the project
that I would re-work in another iteration. Drawing and outlining by hand was tedious,
but in the end, it felt fulfilling.
When I think about a story, I think about it in terms of characters experiences and
interactions. Game of Thrones was a platform to show that storyline visualizations can
take complex dynamic events and show them in a simplistic manner. With my final
cartography project as a Geography undergrad, I wanted to use design ideas and
aspects in an unconventional way. It was an opportunity to have fun combining two
distinct topics that I’m passionate about and I’m looking forward to working on another
creative project like this in the future.
Arts Tri-Mentoring Program with Emily
Huang
Emily Huang is a 2nd Year Human Geography Major and the incoming GSA VP External
What prompted you to join the Arts Tri-Mentoring Program?
I was actually part of the YWCA mentorship program in high school and when I found
out UBC had a mentorship program, I joined right away! Since high school, I have
always wanted to become a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) and I had a SLP
mentor in the UBC Tri-Mentoring Program. However, after job shadowing her and taking
several linguistics and psychology courses, I knew I did not want to go into that field. I
remembered I really enjoyed Geography in high school and decided to take a
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geography course during the summer term. I loved it and that is how I ended up in
Geography instead. The following year, I decided to join the Tri-Mentoring Program
again, this time in Geography.
Who were you paired up with?
I was paired up with Katie Eliot. She majored in Geography here at UBC and was very
involved in the Geography Department and the UBC community. She brought me to
her workplace at Langara College as well as some conferences and workshops.
What did your meetings with your mentors consist of? What did you do or talk about?
Meetings consisted of just chatting at coffee shops, visiting my mentor’s workplace,
working on my presentation, and resume and interview skills to visiting conferences and
workshops. However, being in this program consisted of more than just meeting my
mentor on a monthly basis. Being part of the Tri-Mentorship program also allowed me to
attend Arts Xplorations where I met and networked with many professionals outside of
the field of Geography such as Psychology, Business, Law, Fine Arts, and the Non-Profit
sector. I also met many students who were actually part of the Geography Department
as well.
How do you think you’ve benefited from the program?
I definitely benefited a lot. If it was not for this program it would have taken me longer
to find my way into the Geography Department! I learned how to better network with
other professionals and students, as well as improving my interview skills which is
probably my greatest weakness. I also met many amazing Geography students who I
still talk to when I see them in the building. However, I think the best part of this program
is being able to meet and network with students and professionals, learn about their
field of study and how they got to where they are right now
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Tom Koch: Adjunct Professor Updates
Although currently based in Toronto, UBC
Geography adjunct professor of medical
geography, Tom Koch, was a successful MA
candidate in the 1970′s and received an
interdisciplinary PhD from UBC (medicine,
philosophy, geography) with geography as his
home department. With Ken Denike he co-taught
GEOG375, Spatial Data Analysis Using GIS. His
books on mapping disease and on public health
(Cartographies of Disease, 2005; Disease Maps
2011) are now seen as essential texts in the field.
In March, Tom was invited to lecture at Johns
Hopkins School of Medicine on “Mapping Global
Health”. Each year, the History of Medicine
department at Johns Hopkins takes a subject to
study and this year’s was mapping global heath.
With the lecture came meetings with those interested in the teaching of medicine,
classically and in the present, as well as on issue of health in China. As an MA student in
Geography at UBC, Tom had minored in classical Chinese.
In June, Tom Koch is presenting a plenary address on aging in
modern society at the Korean Medical Association’s annual
meeting. In the 1990′s, Tom had published the first books on
age and aging from the perspective of the caregiver, creating
a strongly geographical perspective on the lived realities of
fragile seniors and their caregivers.
His most recent book, Thieves of Virtue, will be published in a
Korean-language edition in Korea at the same time that its
publisher, MIT Press, brings out a paperback of that volume, a
critique of modern bioethics.
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Getting To Know You – Icebreakers with
Dr. Liz Lee
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She’d love to hear from all of our undergraduate students. Email her and show off your
artistic skills! She can be reached at [email protected]!
New Ross Mackay Graduate Lounge
After a department-wide competition, the previous unnamed newly renovated
graduate lounge (Rm. 140) has been named the Ross Mackay Graduate Lounge, after
noted Canadian Geographer, a member of the Royal Society of Canada, and Willet
G. Miller Medal Awaredee, John Ross Mackay. The room is located on the first floor of
the Geography Building. As well as featuring a number of tables and chairs, it boasts
glass walls and overall is an inviting space for graduate students to meet.
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