AI Reflections: Faculty Spotlight on Daisy Rosenblum – Part 1
Daisy Rosenblum She/Her/Hers Assistant Professor First Nations and Endangered Languages Program, Faculty of Arts Earlier this spring, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Daisy Rosenblum to talk about AI and its impacts on teaching and learning at UBC and on community-based language work. This is part 1 of 2. Daisy is an Assistant Professor in the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program within the Institute for Critical […]
AI Reflections: Language and Artificial Intelligence
Indigenous languages are much more than a means of communication; they contain entire universes of understanding and ways of being that are unique to each Indigenous nation. As Dr. Lorna Wánosts’a7 Williams shares, “our languages are really important for our sense of identity, our sense of who we are. Our languages also help us to understand our lands.” Connection to ancestral languages improves health and wellbeing for individuals and communities, something that […]
Decolonizing Evaluation Interview Series: Warren Cardinal-McTeague
Welcome to the summer edition of our Decolonizing Evaluation Series! In this post, we share our interview with Dr. Warren Cardinal-McTeague, Assistant Professor in the Department of Forest & Conservation Sciences, where he reflects on a graduate level course he developed on Indigenous data sovereignty. Interested in its innovative design and timely focus, we connected with Warren to discuss his pedagogical […]
Decolonizing Evaluation Interview Series: Wendy Bond, Asma-na-hi Antoine, Sam Filipenko
Welcome to our very first Indigenous Initiatives interview series exploring decolonizing approaches to evaluation! Across this series, we’ll be speaking with colleagues from across the University of British Columbia who hold different roles and responsibilities, but who are all deeply engaged in research and evaluation work. Together, they help shape how knowledge is gathered, interpreted, and mobilized within the institution and […]
AI Reflections: Faculty Spotlight on Alexander Ross
Alexander Ross He/Him/His Assistant Professor School of Information, Faculty of Arts We recently had the privilege of sitting down with Dr. Alexander Ross from the School of Information to hear his perspectives on AI and its impacts on teaching and learning at UBC. Alex is a critical communications scholar, with a focus on media theory and the political economy of […]
AI Reflections: Perpetuation of Bias
AI uses data to generate content, identify patterns, summarize, and make predictions. This data exists as information firmly located in our past and present, even as it tries to move us into the future. When we consider the systems that produce the most data: education, healthcare, and legal systems, to name a few, we can see their outputs are shaped […]
What would your world look like if racism and oppression did not exist?
When I was first asked this question, my brain could not even fathom the possibilities and others in the room with me could not either! I was in an anti-racism educators’ workshop and the facilitator coyly chuckled and stated, “As a person of colour, it’s okay to give yourself permission to dream.” In shock and awe, I decided to rescind almost to a childlike state and threw myself into the […]
AI Reflections: Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) requires large amounts of data to function; that data comes from somewhere, and from someone(s). Over the years, many of us have given up our data; social media is a prime example of the ways that we hand over our data for free to use a service. Indigenous communities, however, have never given up their sovereignty, including sovereignty over their data. You may have heard of Indigenous data sovereignty; we’re going to highlight why it’s a particularly […]
Building a Meaningful Relationship with the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nation through Peer-Facilitated Classroom Climate TA Training
UBC CTLT Indigenous Initiatives has been enhancing TA training for over a decade, focusing on respectful engagement with Indigenous content inside the classroom. The Classroom Climate TA training program aims to create a classroom environment grounded in understanding the long presence and histories of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples as well as our own historical, social, and physical locations. By engaging with the teachings and resources shared by the Musqueam community, TAs become more aware of how their […]
Listening to the 2023 Teaching Practices Survey: Professional Development
For those following our Teaching Practices Survey (TPS) results from 2023, we’re back for our final blog post to wrap up the series. This last post focuses on the area of “professional development”, which 16% of survey respondents said this was how they engage with Indigenous topics, perspectives and worldviews in their courses (for reference, […]