Episode 1 (February 8, 2021): Stories about Gathering Stories: Creating the Story Bus
In the first episode of the second season of the Global Migration podcast “Geographies from the Heart: Life-writing from Newcomers to Canada,” host Mohammed Alsaleh speaks to Dr. Amea Wilbur (University of the Fraser Valley), Raymonde Tickner, and Zahida Rahemtulla. They discuss the power of migration stories and the impact of multiple narratives that emerged through a year-long writing project with newcomers to Canada. Raymonde, Zahida and Amea discuss how life writing can inform teaching and learning and provide a context for trauma-informed practice. They also touch on the power of mentorship, as an educational framework, to support embarking on life-writing projects. In the upcoming episodes this season, you will hear from several of the writers involved in the project about their own experiences. This will provide a brief reflection into the uniqueness, overlapping and diverse stories of newcomers to Canada. For more information about the book project please visit the website here. To support the project please visit the project’s GoFundMe page here.
This podcast was recorded on Zoom on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people.
Amea Wilbur is an Assistant Professor at the University of the Fraser Valley. She received an Ed.D. from the University of British Columbia in 2015. In 2017, she received the AMSSA Award for her work with marginalized populations and for innovative programming that supports diversity and promotes integration. She also received the Gordon Selman Award for contributions to the understanding of the social and historical foundations of Adult Education in Canada. She is an outside collaborator with the UBC Centre for Migration.
Raymonde Tickner was a long-term member of the Faculty of Access and Continuing Education at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, BC, Canada. She specialized in teaching English as an additional language. She is an experienced instructor with expertise in curriculum design and faculty professional development applying insight and sensitivity to her work in India, Australia, China, the USA and the United Arab Emirates. Raymonde is active in the Abbotsford Restorative Justice and Advocacy Association as a victim/offender conference facilitator and as a board member.
Zahida Rahemtulla is an emerging writer of fiction and theatre. Her plays, The Wrong Bashir and The Frontliners are currently in development in Vancouver. She has worked in Vancouver’s immigrant and refugee non-profit sector for several years in the areas of housing, employment, and literacy and is currently completing an MA in Literature at the University of Toronto.
