FIVE STUDENTS WHO ARE TACKLING CRITICAL CHALLENGES
More than just an institution of higher learning, the University of British Columbia empowers its students and faculty in groundbreaking research that endeavours to make an impact on real-world issues. In part four of a series, we examine five PhD students who are pursuing solutions with help from a multitude of partners beyond the sphere of the university. When Susan Porter came to the University of British Columbia (UBC) as a molecular biologist to pursue her PhD in biochemistry, her research — focused on a gene found in yeast — was confined to a relatively narrow specialty within her scientific area. “I never experienced interdisciplinarity. In other words, I’d never experienced working with anyone outside my own field,” recalls Porter, who obtained her PhD in biochemistry and who today is dean and vice-provost of graduate and postdoctoral studies at the university.
Since finishing her own doctoral studies, Porter has observed the evolution in the approach to research as it moves increasingly beyond the ‘silo’ of the university. “The way research is happening has changed,” she says. “Much of it is done with a diversity of partners, in the context of issues and problems occurring in the real world. And the question becomes, how do you get this kind of experience for students so that they can pursue this kind of research after graduation?”
To better enable PhD students to broaden the scope of their research, engaging communities and organizations in the private and public sectors to do research that directly benefits all involved, UBC launched the Public Scholars Initiative (PSI) in 2015. The initiative endeavours to support and encourage students, as part of their doctoral research, to address pressing issues with partners beyond the university and to generate the types of products that those in these settings would rely upon to effect change.
The result is mutually beneficial: Public, private and nonprofit organizations and communities benefit from the university partnership, and students are better prepared for employment in these sectors.
“So many students want to make a difference, and this initiative encourages them and inspires them to do so,” says Porter. “This was originally an experiment but we are now in our third year. We recognize that there are people doing this kind of research already — so we’re not inventing anything; we’re just calling it something, supporting it, and encouraging it, and helping to make the dissertation flexible enough to incorporate it.”
BRONWYN BRAGG
Changes to immigration policies at the federal level can have profound impacts on communities and neighbourhoods. It’s something that Bronwyn Bragg observed while she was working in the settlement sector, and that ultimately led her to return to school to pursue a PhD that allowed her to “dive deeply” into the subject. “I am interested in the way immigration policy — through the attribution of different legal status — shapes processes of integration and belonging in the city,” she says. “This includes looking at how refugees and immigrants access services, support and build community and how these processes are shaped by legal status (as either permanent or ‘temporary’ residents).”
A human geography specialist with degrees in sociology and anthropology who is pursuing her doctoral research with support from the PSI, Bragg’s research looks at the way immigrants and refugees experience life in a “super-diverse neighbourhood” in Calgary, which has a high level of immigrants and refugees, many of them Syrian. “Due to housing affordability, there are higher levels of poverty and social vulnerability [in these communities],” she explains, noting that the diversity of backgrounds in these communities adds to their complexity in addition to enriching them culturally. “I’m interested in how these dynamics are taking place at neighbourhood level, from the perspectives of Syrians and other migrants but also from service providers. Social services have limited resources and a lot demand.”
JANNA FABRIS
As an engineer working in various roles for The Boeing Company in Australia, Janna Fabris observed firsthand the growing disconnect between scientific research and industrial application in the advanced composites manufacturing industry. Despite sophisticated end products (e.g. a Boeing 787 or BMW i3), there is still much about advanced composites manufacturing that is unknown. Surprisingly, many advancements come about through trial and error. Compounding the issue is that many smaller manufacturing companies simply don’t have the resources for large-scale research and development operations.
These observations inspired Fabris to return to academia and pursue a PhD, with support in part through the PSI. “My research aims to establish a knowledge framework that integrates the creation and application of composites manufacturing knowledge,” she says. “The framework is referred to as ‘Knowledge in Practice,’ to continually remind ourselves that the goal is to explicitly manage this gap.”
Fabris hopes that her work can help smaller companies to better use new research findings and therefore become more effective and competitive.
KELSEY COPES-GERBITZ
Following a lightning storm on July 7, Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz was forced to evacuate the Williams Lake area but she has since returned to continue her forest fire management research — which comes at a particularly critical time in the province’s history.
“I am interested in looking at past landscapes and [fire] disturbances, and how these shape forests today,” she says. Copes-Gerbitz, who has degrees in archaeology and environmental science, is focusing her studies on the Williams Lake Community Forest, which is jointly managed by the City of Williams Lake and the Williams Lake Indian Band. “With my interest in traditional ecological knowledge, and in implementing proactive strategies with dealing with wildfire, I saw the opportunity to blend scientific knowledge and ecological knowledge held by the Williams Lake Indian Band,” she says.
Her work also examines how First Nations and Native Americans have utilized fire throughout history. “For example, in central Canada, through working with First Nations, researchers have learned about intentional fire setting,” she says, noting that these groups have effectively used fire— particularly low-burning fire—to reduce forest fuel, to maintain open landscapes that encourage the movement of certain game species, and to foster the growth of certain plant species.
Copes-Gerbitz hopes her work will help to bridge the gap between scientific and Indigenous knowledge. “I hope that my work builds understanding about ways to proactively manage, prevent and minimize the extent of the damage we are seeing today.”
SARAH MUNRO
Despite the current recommendation that low-risk patients who have had a previous C-section should be offered the option of a natural/vaginal childbirth, high rates of C-sections in this group of expectant mothers persist. “So that’s where my interest in knowledge translation comes in,” says Sarah Munro, who has a background in English literature and health communications and who was also a practicing doula for 10 years. “How do we put that evidence into policy?”
Munro’s PhD work is known as knowledge mobilization, whereby knowledge or research is effectively moved into a real world or active setting. She is developing tools designed to support both clinicians and their patients, including a “patient decision aid” website that helps women and their care teams to make informed, shared decisions for mode of delivery.
The impact of her work has been considerable, with the recommendations in Munro’s dissertation currently being implemented at the policy level by the B.C. Ministry of Health. She is tremendously encouraged by the high level of collaboration occurring between the ministry health authorities, patient groups and clinicians to work towards this “no decision about me without me” approach to C-sections after birth.
“Clinicians have been really excited to have a tool like this to support them,” Munro says. “Women, patients and families are still going to want to have repeat C-sections but on balance, 10 to 15 per cent is an ideal rate to promote best clinical outcomes for moms and babies.”
LYANA PATRICK
After studying creative writing and history, Lyana Patrick began working in treaty negotiations in B.C. before returning to school to pursue a Master’s in Indigenous Governance. Through her broad exposure to colonial history and her personal experiences (Patrick is a member of the Stellat’en First Nation, which is part of the Carrier Nation in the north interior of the province), she says she “started making these connections between health and well-being in families and communities.”
Patrick pursued a PhD at UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning. She views public health and planning as “co-evolving,” explaining that when community planning takes place, public health infrastructure is developed at the same time. For the past six years, Patrick’s research and field work has been mainly focused on the downtown east side of Vancouver, working with the Native Courtworkers and Counselling Association of British Columbia. “My research is seeking to bring public health and planning back together, particularly to address the historical erasure of Indigenous peoples health in urban settings and contemporary experiences of health inequities in the city,” she explains.
“They are doing the work of community planners,” adds Patrick of the association’s efforts to not only deal with immediate crises such as addiction but its focus on broader issues such as justice, health and social services.
“Health and planning tend to be individualized, but from an Indigenous perspective, the healing path is one that takes into consideration all experiences, and that includes families and communities.”