Alicia Matthews (MA English and B.Ed Student)

Unhidden Currents: Media, Propaganda and the Architecture of Influence

How can cognitive autonomy survive under the attention economy? What are the forces behind the algorithmic feedback loops that determine what is seen on social media feeds? In an age of increasing technocracy, cybernetic control and polarization, how might we mitigate widening ideological gaps, confront social atomization and question our own media consumption habits? These are pertinent questions discussed in popular culture, yet the societal and psychological effects of media in the digital age remain understudied in academia. This seminar aims to bridge that gap through interdisciplinary inquiry into the evolution of media and propaganda. With critical readings, field research, and a collaborative digital humanities project, students will investigate the mechanisms of mass media, culture and power. Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan warned that “World War III will be a guerrilla information war, with no divisions between military and civilian participation”. This implicates the masses as active agents in the media ecosystem, complicit in memetic warfare yet capable of resistance against it. In an era where decentralized propaganda flows through memes, targeted ads, influencer culture, and artificial intelligence, this seminar allows students to gain an in-depth understanding of media’s roles in shaping both their own worldviews and larger power structures.

Alifa Bandali (Assistant Professor of Teaching, Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice)

Developing the Disclaimer: Bringing Together Pedagogy and the Media

This project seeks to open up academic spaces to the media and popular culture by bringing the genre of the disclaimer into the classroom. In particular, to support students in their critical thinking skills, how to enhance their media literacy and introducing students to social justice approaches that allow them to re-imagine not only how to write a disclaimer, but also how this in turn challenges normative and dominant media representations. By focusing on the disclaimer and why context matters, the lesson plans and assignment highlighted in this project, will allow for pedagogies that are not only inclusive of popular culture but exemplifies its importance. Drawing from experience teaching with popular culture in courses such as GRSJ 307: Gender, Race, Sexuality and Popular Culture, this project aims to provide a more detailed consideration of what the disclaimer is able to do, especially in relation to the media and how dominant ideologies such as white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy and colonialism (to name a few) are upheld. Teaching modules will also be accompanied with an assessment, as the Disclaimer Assignment allows students to put to work their use of tools such as an intersectional frame and a politics of representation.

Conan Chung Man Lee (Curriculum Developer, Applied Science)

Fictional Narratives, Real Negotiations: Teaching Climate Justice with Cinematic Roleplay

Raymond Pai (Lecturer, Department of Asian Studies) & Susanna Ng (Head of Content Development, Chinatown Storytelling Centre)

Punchlines, Proficiency, and Pedagogy: Humour as a Tool for Language Learning and Social Change through Cantonese Stand-Up Comedy

This proposal outlines an innovative, interdisciplinary, and community-engaged pedagogical project that uses Cantonese stand-up comedy as a medium for language learning, identity exploration, and social change. Central to the project are two internationally recognized performers and educators: Vivek Mahbubani, a bilingual (Cantonese/English) stand-up comedian from Hong Kong known for his cultural critique, and Professor Joanna Sio, a linguist and comedian based in Czechia with expertise in humor and multilingual education. Both artists have previously worked with the UBC Cantonese Language Program on projects that were well received . Together with faculty and students from UBC and members of the Vancouver Chinatown community, this program will culminate in an interactive Cantonese stand-up comedy performance and pedagogical workshop at the Vancouver Chinatown Storytelling Centre in October 2025. The project bridges academia, popular culture, and public education to deepen understanding of how humor can be used to teach language and illuminate personal and social histories (Lam & Pai, 2024).

Victoria Rahbar (she/they) (PhD Candidate, School of Information)

Accessible Arts and Popular Culture Workshop: Non-visual engagements with Ainu traditional crafts and Japanese popular culture, a knowledge sharing and touch tour experience

Accessible Arts and Popular Culture Workshop: Non-visual engagements with Ainu traditional crafts and Japanese popular culture, a knowledge sharing and touch tour experience is a redesign of a special teaching session for ASIA 590. The workshop has been redesigned for iSchool Community Learning Day, an inaugural occasion where the iSchool will be cancelling classes in favour of equity and inclusion focused events, workshops, and other engagements for students, staff, and faculty. The workshop will include a panel of information professionals from the GLAM sector sharing their knowledge before an activity portion involving a touch tour distributed at multiple learning stations before closing with a group discussion. The workshop speaks to how the arts and popular culture can be taught as a form of multisensory art appreciation, non-visual and tactile experiences made possible by libraries and museums supporting accessible engagement opportunities, with a focus on media from Japan and the idea of the universal museum. At the end of the workshop, attendees will leave with a stronger understanding of how the arts and popular culture are not purely visual mediums but rather multisensory, eroding against cultural institutions that continue to argue for a world where art is forbidden to be touched.

Zoe Lam (Lecturer, Department of Asian Studies) & Rosalie Gunawan (Education and Public Programs Manager, Chinese Canadian Museum)

Connecting Diasporic Voices Through Rapping: Cantonese Hip-Hop and Trans-Pacific Migration

To foster understanding of the historical and ongoing cultural flows between Hong Kong, North America, and other Cantophone regions, this innovative module for CNTO 403 Intermediate Cantonese II leverages the rich cultural context of Cantonese pop music, personal narratives of two transnational rappers from the Cantonese diaspora, and community engagement via the Chinese Canadian Museum. The main event of the project is a public talk featuring two Cantonese hip-hop artists at the Chinese Canadian Museum, where the exhibition Dream Factory: Cantopop & Mandopop 1980s-2000 will be hosted. The guest talk will provide students with authentic exposure to contemporary Cantonese as used by artists discussing their careers, creative process, and experiences of diaspora, identity, and cultural negotiation through hip-hop. Outstanding multimodal projects produced by students in the context of this module, which are creative forms of academic output, may be featured as future exhibits or educational resources in the Chinese Canadian Museum for knowledge mobilization.