丁香园AV

Fall 2021: Semester by the Salish Sea - Explorations in Reciprocity and Care 

The Fall 2021 Semester in Dialogue brought together engaged students from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to explore our relationship as urban residents with the ocean. This full time 13 week program dove deep into the ecology, history and political realities of living in a coastal city on the edge of the Salish Sea. We explored a wide range of issues connected to blue urbanism, sea level rise, coastal development and ocean life. Students worked on a project connected to a local not for profit/local government related to their interests. 

The semester was an immersive, team learning environment combining interdisciplinary skills with the complexity of collaborating within a group setting. The course combined the processes of dialogue and human centred design. Students engaged with communities and researched existing issues in order to design projects to improve the world around them. Students were encouraged to bring an open mind about project scope to the program.  Students cultivated the skills necessary to conduct dialogues, public presentations, and multi-stakeholder discussions. The course offered facilitation and dialogue experience, field experiences, reflective writing, on-the-ground training, leadership development, group process, and project management skills.

Poster design by : artist, performer, researcher and facilitator based in St艒:lo Territory. 

COURSE INSTRUCTORS

Dr. Janet Moore is a Professor of Professional Practice at 丁香园AV where she co-creates, co-designs and co-teaches in the 丁香园AV Semester in Dialogue program. Janet is the Co-founder of CityStudio - an innovation hub that connects students with City Hall to co-create, design and launch experiments. Janet has spent 20 years imagining, designing and facilitating intensive, interdisciplinary programs that focus on dialogue-archive, social innovation, group process, divergent thinking and urban sustainability. Janet has an BSc in Marine Biology from McGill (she loves whales and intertidal zones) an MSc in Ecology from UBC (where she fell in love with teaching, hummingbirds & the west coast). Her PhD at UBC combined lessons from the School of Community and Regional Planning (urban sustainability, systems and feminist methodology) and the Faculty of Education (transformative learning & participatory methods).

Janet is passionate about new possibilities in cities and thrives when co-creating imaginative solutions to complex problems.  Her interests include transdisciplinary higher education, transformative learning, social entrepreneurship, social innovation and organizational change in higher education. She is learning to reconcile what it means to be a settler on the west coast of Canada. She loves riding her bike, digging in the garden, hanging out with her family and walking her dog Magic in the rainforest.

Ginger Gosnell-Myers, who is a member of the Nisga鈥檃 and Kwakwak'awakw Nations has been bringing forward new perspectives of Indigenous peoples in cities for over 20 years, while breaking down misconceptions about urban Indigenous realities in order to reframe our understanding of both issues and opportunities. This led Gosnell-Myers to become the City of Vancouver鈥檚 first Indigenous Relations Manager where she was central to advancing Vancouver as the world鈥檚 first official City of Reconciliation, and created the City鈥檚 reconciliation framework to ensure Indigenous identities and worldviews were respected and reflected in all City plans. Key to this work was supporting Vancouver City Council in recognizing that it was on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh homelands 鈥� the only government in Canada to officially recognize this truth. Also integral was implementing the 28 out of the 94 Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Calls to Action, along with the adoption and recognition of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into all aspects of City planning. This has significantly changed how the City of Vancouver operates, and ensures that Vancouver will create a new urban identity that respects, includes, and reflects Indigenous culture.

Sarah Hay is a practicing designer of graphics, objects, experiences and communication strategies. Armed with two professional design degrees and 10 years of experience in the sustainability and design space, she splits her working time as a freelance designer, facilitator and instructor. She serves as co-director of the Vancouver Design Nerds Society and is a sessional instructor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.