丁香园AV

Research Interests

• educational philosophy & curriculum theory
• biosemiotic, post-digital, and post-humanist theory
• place/land-based pedagogy
• environmental education
• music education & soundscape-informed inquiry/curriculum
• collaborative/team-based research & duo-ethnography
  

Dr. Cary Campbell, Continuing Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at 丁香园AV, is an educational philosopher and curriculum theorist as well as a music educator. Cary's work bridges educational theory with practical implications for teaching and learning, focusing on developing existentially and ecologically-aware approaches to education that address pressing societal challenges.

Cary completed his  in Arts Education at 丁香园AV in 2020. He has worked as a music educator in community arts and conservatory settings for over a decade, also holding a Bachelor of Music (2013) and active as a performing/recording musician. In the Faculty, Cary teaches courses in practitioner inquiry, place-based education, education and curriculum theory as well as music education. 

Cary has published widely in journals such as: the Journal of Philosophy of Education, Postdigital Science & Education, Philosophical Inquiry in Education, Studies in Philosophy & Education, the Journal of Educational Controversy, Signs & Society, Biosemiotics, Sign Systems Studies, and the International Journal of Education & the Arts.

Cary's most recent work has been grappling with the question of 'what education and curriculum is for' in a time of poly/meta-crisis and accelerating economic growth: building on a series of recent articles, chapters and interviews about teaching in a time of climate crisis  (see Campbell, ; Lilburn & Campbell, ; Rees, Campbell & Hoeller, ; Campbell, ; ) Cary has begun work on a monograph, entitled "In need of limits: education in a time of social and environmental unravelling.鈥� This book project seeks to understand how the aims and purposes we commonly subscribe to education are being dramatically reconfigured in this time of social and environmental unravelling. Cary presents a radically terrestrial vision for critical eco-pedagogy in the era of the Anthropocene, with the difficult task of reconciling both students and ourselves to the world, by confronting us with the reality and conditions of our freedom to act (or not act) within our local-embedded contexts. Engaging with a diversity of theoretical approaches from postgrowth theory, posthumanism to biosemiotics, Cary argues that this unique kind of educational freedom, is not at all unlimited or unbounded, but rather cultivated through an awareness and responsibility that is enacted precisely within confronting limits and limitations, most fundamentally, the limits of a planet with limited resources and carrying capacity.

Through the last decade, Cary has contributed to the fields of educational (edu)semiotics as well as biosemiotics informed learning theory (see ; ; ; ) in an attempt to theorize the ecological and evolutionary emergence and dynamics of learning, beyond anthropocentric and language-centred frameworks dominant within educational fields. This has led to ongoing international and transdisciplinary collaborations and engagement with ecologists and biologists (see ; ; )

More recently, and stemming from his engagements with semiotics and multimodality, Cary has become involved in research on "postdigital literacies" (Campbell & Olteanu, ; see Lackovic, Olteanu & Campbell, ), exploring practices and methods that reveal the postdigital condition of contemporary education, increasingly defined by fuzzy boundaries and distinctions between digital/analog as well in-person and online education and learning (Jandri膰 et al. ; Brown et al. ). 

Campbell also remains active in community arts education and music education fields. For instance, he has recently begun work on a series of workbooks, co-written with Thomas Hoeller and stemming from the curriculum of courses EDUC 469 and EDUC 478, presenting an approach to the theory of creative musicianship and creative pedagogy. [see: ]

Through his ongoing work as Director of Research for the BC Society , Cary collaborates with teachers, artists and community members to create curriculum resources and currate public events and programs that connect people with their own localities, communities, bioreigons and public spaces. 

Additionally, Cary has held several scholarly and literary editorial positions, currently working as an editor for the , as well as previously (2017-2022) the editor of the CS. Peirce Section of the international (De Gruyter) journal Chinese Semiotic Studies. He is also co-editor of the philosophy webzine , and a frequent book reviewer for SubTerrain Magazine and other literary periodicals. 

NOTE ON SUPERVISION: Please note that as a Lecturer, I cannot be the senior supervisor of MA or PhD students, but I am able to co-supervise with other faculty members. Get in touch if you are interested in working with me.