Mahtab Matin is a Writing & Academic Communication Consultant in the Centre for Scholarly Communication (CSC) and a PhD candidate in the school of Nursing, researching infant sleep, gut microbiome, and infant feeding.  

CSC

Through the CSC, Mahtab provides one-on-one consultations to graduate and post-doctoral researchers at UBC Okanagan who are writing journal articles, grant proposals, theses, and dissertations or preparing conference presentations. 

Get writing support  

During a consultation, Mahtab can help her clients: 

• Develop clear research questions.
• Refine research methodology. 
• Organize data. 
• Structure papers or theses. 
• Ensure arguments are coherent and supported by evidence. 
• Improve clarity, flow, and academic tone. 
• Check for proper citation and adherence to style guidelines. 
• Help interpret qualitative or quantitative results using related software or applications. 
• Help translate complex findings into accessible, well-written narratives. 

Consultations  

“A common misconception about academic writing and data management is that they are purely technical tasks rather than integral parts of the research process. Many believe data management simply means storing files or backing up data, when in fact it involves organizing, documenting, and preserving information to ensure transparency and reproducibility. Similarly, academic writing is often seen as the final step after research is complete but it’s actually a continuous process that helps researchers think critically, clarify ideas, and communicate findings effectively. Both academic writing and research data management are ongoing practices that strengthen research integrity and impact.”
–Mahtab Matin  

Learn more about Research Data Management   

No matter what your citation style is, we can help! 

• Instant response through AskAway Chat
• In-person support at the Library Service Desk
• Citation style guides
• Librarian consultations

You’re super into: Psychology, Sociology, Social Work, and Nursing.

Your vibe: You’re trying to make ‘et al.’ happen but you’re a bit micro-managey and even finnicky with your Italics (and) spacing. You Call It Like It Is: your references are References. 

Your style guide

You’re super into: English, Languages, and Cultural Studies.

Your vibe: You are thorough and careful to make sure that we’re on the right page, even when it’s not a direct quotation. But honestly, you’re a little self-obsessed. Does your name really need to be on every page? You’re grandiose, from tweets to classics everything is a “Work Cited” to you. 

Your style guide

You’re super into: History, Fine Arts, Political Science, and Philosophy.

Your vibe: Sometimes called Turabian, you’re the Gemini of the group and your twin versions couldn’t be more different. One is fancified with footnotes and bibliography while the other keeps it classy with author/date. Both are a bit obsessed with Oxford commas, double-spacing, and nitpicking. 

Your style guide

You’re super into: Chemistry.

Your vibe: You’re often bold and focused, but you use so many abbreviations that we need to ask CASSI what you’re saying. 

Your style guide

You’re super into: Engineering.

Your vibe: You’re the Libra. You like balance, often preferring two columns per page. Some say you’re a [square] with your abstract and index terms but the way you disregard the alphabet in your reference list is rebellious. 

Your style guide

Naeem Nedaee is a Writing and Academic Communication Consultant in the Centre for Scholarly Communication (CSC) and supports researchers with English language development, writing, and academic communication. Naeem Nedaee is a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies, studying posthumanism, visual culture, and literary studies. 

CENTRE FOR SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION 

Through the CSC, Naeem provides one-on-one consultations to graduate and post-doctoral researchers at UBC Okanagan who are writing journal articles, grant proposals, theses, and dissertations or who want to practice their academic and conversational English skills.

Get support

Naeem helps writers build clarity and momentum by approaching writing as a processual and open act where ideas take shape through engagement and revision. He views writing as an invitation to curiosity, experimentation, and reflection. Naeem believes that a common misconception about academic writing is that you have to read a lot before you can start writing.

“In reality, thinking often happens through writing. It’s an active, sometimes messy process of discovery.” 

Consultations

Climate Action Week in the Archives

Okanagan Special Collections & Archives collects and provides access to materials that document the history of the Okanagan and surrounding regions. This exhibit includes archival materials depicting historical changes to land and climate as well as several examples of local climate action.

Materials on display:

• Walter G. Hardwick and J. Lewis Robinson. British Columbia: One Hundred Years of Geographical Change, 1973
• Contacts from Joe Harris collection (OSC ARC 1.3-7)
• Marilyn James and Taress Alexis. Not Extinct: keeping the Sinixt Way, 2021 (with accompanying map)
• Eva Durance, with annotations by Gayle Cornish. Vanishing Desert, 1992 (OSC ARC 13)
• Photograph taken by Gayle Cornish of Herman Solivards of the Similkameen Band with hand-carved flute, 1994 (OSC ARC 13)
• Interview with Jane Stelkia, [1992] (OSC ARC 13)
• James C. Anderson. Our beautiful Redlich Pond is in serious difficulty, 2018 (OSC ARC 10)

Climate Action Week film and book display and virtual list

Every year, the BC Library Association partners with libraries on Climate Action Week, from November 1 to 7. To help acknowledge this initiative, UBC Okanagan Library has curated a selection of books and films to expand our understanding of climate change and inspire action. All of the items below are available through UBC Okanagan Library.

The end of this world: climate justice in so-called Canada by Angele Alook, Emily Eaton, David Gray-Donald, Joël Laforest, Crystal Lameman & Bronwen Tucker

Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World by Miriam Aczel

A warmer world: from polar bears to butterflies, how global warming is changing lives by Caroline Arnold, illustrated by Jamie Hogan

David Suzuki by Terry Barber

Extinction Rebellion and Climate Change Activism: Breaking the Law to Change the World by Oscar Berglund and Daniel Schmidt

This Crazy Time: Living our Environmental Challenge by Tzeporah Berman and Mark Leiren-Young

The carbon footprint of everything by Mike Berners-Lee

I Know This to Be True: Greta Thunberg on truth, courage & saving our planet by Geoff Blackwell

Why Women will save the planet by Bloomsbury Publishing

Negotiating climate change in crisis edited by Steffen Böhm and Sian Sullivan

Stopping Oil: Climate Justice and Hope (ONLINE): by S. Bond, Amanda Thomas, Gradon Diprose

Climate Action Planning: A Guide to Creating Low-Carbon, Resilient Communities by Michael Boswell; Adrienne Greve; Tammy Seale

One Garden Against the World: In Search of Hope in a Changing Climate by Kate Bradbury

Better: the everyday art of sustainable living by Nicole Caldwell

New Woman Ecologies: From Arts and Crafts Through the Great War and Beyond by Alicia Carroll

An Unreal Estate: Sustainability & Freedom in an Evolving Community by Lucinda Carspecken

How we know what we know about our changing climate: Scientists and kids explore global warming by Lynne Cherry and Gary Braasch

Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: The political economy of saving the planet by Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin

The new possible : visions of our world beyond crisis edited by Philip Clayton, Kelli M. Archie, Jonah Sachs, and Evan Steiner

What climate justice means and why we should care by Elizabeth Cripps

Grassroots rising: a call to action on climate, farming, food, and a green new deal by Ronnie Cummins

Climate change adaptation : an Earth Institute sustainability primer by Lisa Dale

Greta Thunberg: Climate crisis activist by Matt Doeden

Changing planet, changing health : how the climate crisis threatens our health and what we can do about it by Paul R. Epstein and Dan Ferber

Sustainable nation : urban design patterns for the future by Douglas Farr

The Future We Choose: The stubborn optimist’s guide to the climate crisis by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac

The weather makers : how man is changing the climate and what it means for life on Earth by Tim Flannery

The Earth transformed: an untold history by Peter Frankopan

How to avoid a climate disaster : the solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need by Bill Gates

David Suzuki : doing battle with climate change by Suzy Gazlay

Climate Hope: Stories of Action in the Age of Global Crisis by David Geselbracht

The politics of climate change by Anthony Giddens

More Powerful Together: Conversations with Climate Activists and Indigenous Land Defenders by Jen Gobby

An inconvenient truth : the crisis of global warming by Al Gore

Asserting native resilience: Pacific rim indigenous nations face the climate crisis edited by Zoltán Grossman and Alan Parker

Inside the world of climate change skeptics by Kristin Haltinner & Dilshani Sarathchandra

Zen and the art of saving the planet by Thich Nhat Hanh

Food in a Just World : compassionate eating in a time of climate change by Tracey Harris & Terry Gibbs

Saving Us: a climate scientist’s case for hope and healing in a divided world by Katharine Hayhoe

The carbon crunch : how we’re getting climate change wrong–and how to fix it by Dieter Helm

The economics and politics of climate change edited by Dieter Helm and Cameron Hepburn

Fresh banana leaves : healing indigenous landscapes through indigenous science by Jessica Hernandez

Educating for Hope in Troubled Times: Climate Change and the Transition to a Post-Carbon Future by David Hicks

Transition in action : Totnes and district 2030, an energy descent action plan scripted & edited by Jacqi Hodgson with Rob Hopkins

Young People as Agents of Sustainable Society: reclaiming the future edited by Päivi Honkatukia

Promoting Sustainable Living: Sustainability as an Object of Desire by Justyna Karakiewicz

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the climate by Naomi Klein

A good war : mobilizing Canada for the climate emergency by Seth Klein

Universities and the sustainable development future by Peter H. Koehn and Juha I. Uitto

Under a white sky : the nature of the future by Elizabeth Kolbert

The Winona LaDuke chronicles: stories from the front lines in the battle for environmental justice by by Winona LaDuke

Global warming : the Greenpeace report edited by Jeremy Leggett

Our fragile moment: How lessons from Earth’s past can help us survive the climate crisis by Michael E. Mann

The future is now : solving the climate crisis with today’s technologies by Bob McDonald

The Climate Change Counter Movement : How the Fossil Fuel Industry Sought to Delay Climate Action by Ruth McKie

Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change by Susanne Moser, Lisa Dilling

A bigger picture: my fight to bring a new African voice to the climate crisis by Vanessa Nakate

Resilient Cities: Overcoming fossil fuel dependence by Peter Newman, Timothy Beatley, and Heather Boyer

The climate casino: risk, uncertainty, and economics for a warming world by William Nordhaus

Hope is an Imperative by David W. Orr

Climate Justice and Participatory Research: Building Climate Resilient Commons by Patricia Perkins

Billion dollar burger: inside big tech’s race for the future of food by Chase Purdy

A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet by Sarah Jaquette Ray

Not the end of the world : how we can be the first generation to build a sustainable planet by Hannah Ritchie 

Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future by Mary Robinson and Caitriona Palmer

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

Media and Transnational Climate Justice: Indigenous Activism and Climate Politics by Anna Roosvall and Matthew Tegelberg

The quickening : creation and community at the ends of the Earth by Elizabeth Rush

Against Catastrophism: Climate Change, Pandemics, and Hope for the Future by Cosimo Schinaia

Not too late: Changing the climate story from despair to possibility edited by Rebecca Solnit & Thelma Young Lutunatabua with illustrations by David Solnit

Quiet Activism: Climate Action at the Local Scale by Wendy Steele, Jean Hillier, Diana MacCallum, and others

Imagining the future of climate change : world-making through science fiction and activism by Shelley Streeby

The big picture: reflections on science, humanity, and a quickly changing planet by David Suzuki and Dave Robert Taylor

You are the earth : know your world so you can make it better by David Suzuki and Kathy Vanderlinden; art by Wallace Edwards 

The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering our place in nature by David Suzuki, Adrienne Mason, and Amanda McConnell

David Suzuki’s green guide by David Suzuki & David R. Boyd

Everything under the Sun: Toward a Brighter Future on a Small Blue Planet by David Suzuki and Ian Hanington

Just cool it!: the climate crisis and what we can do | a post-Paris Agreement game plan by David Suzuki & Ian Hanington

Dear earth : art and hope in a time of crisis curated by Rachel Thomas

The Climate Book by created by Greta Thunberg

The Winona LaDuke chronicles : stories from the front lines in the battle for environmental justice by Blaire Kristine Topash-Caldwell

How to be a climate optimist : blueprints for a better world by Chris Turner

Fire weather: a true story from a hotter world by John Vaillant

All we can save: truth, courage, and solutions for the climate crisis edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson

Hope and Courage in the Climate Crisis: Wisdom and Action in the Long Emergency by John Wiseman 

Confronting climate crisis through education: Reading our way forward by Rebecca L. Young

Films

There once was an island = Te henua e nnoho by an On the Level production, directed by Briar March

Everything’s cool directed by Daniel B. Gold

An inconvenient sequel : truth to power directed by Bonni Cohen & Jon Shenk

Rising waters: Global warming and the fate of the Pacific Islands directed & written by Andrea Torrice 

Chasing ice directed and produced by Jeff Orlowski

Do the +math produced and directed by Kelly Nyks & Jared P. Scott

The age of stupid presented by Spanner Films in association with Passion Pictures

Global warming : the signs and the science directed by Michael Taylor

The great global warming swindle written & directed by Martin Durkin

The great warming a Stonehaven production in association with Discovery Channel Canada

An inconvenient truth directed by Davis Guggenheim 

Meltdown : a global warming journey directed by Jonathan Renouf

The vanishing ice written and directed by Rachel Gauk

Climate change I : an uncertain future directed, photographed and produced by Leonard Gilday 

Sun come up directed by Jennifer Redfearn 

Managing a large amount of physical records in a limited space is a challenge. Okanagan Records Management (ORM) can help!    

ORM offers secured storage for a department or unit’s paper records at our storage facilities in the Commons building. We can schedule pickup, delivery, storage and retrieval of the boxes until they have met their scheduled retention—after which point, we can facilitate the destruction of the records via a bonded destruction agency, or the transfer of applicable records into the Okanagan University Archives.   

ORM is located within the Okanagan Special Collections and Archives complex, at COM004 on the ground floor of The Commons.  

As with all services provided by Okanagan Records Management, this is provided to UBCO campus units free of charge! To view details regarding transferring your materials to records storage, please see our Records Storage Program webpage, or contact us directly.  

Records Management Services

To help celebrate Women’s History Month and spooky season, we’ve curated a selection of feminist horror books and films. Discover the contributions of feminism to the horror genre through film and literature. 

An Ordinary Violence
by Adriana Chartrand

“Creepy and unsettling, this assured debut addresses the ways violence, grief, and unprocessed trauma reverberate over years, keeping fractured psyches and relationships from mending.” —Booklist

Bloody Women: Women Directors of Horror
Edited by Victoria McCollum and Aislinn Clarke

“More than just another academic reading of pop culture, Clarke and McCollum have offered a gift to fans and a love letter to the women who shaped the genre.”
—W. Scott Poole, Department of History, College of Charleston

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

“Julia Bartz’s shrewd, suspenseful debut takes the typical writer’s anxieties and obsessions and transforms them into a pulse-pounding, impossible to put down thriller.” —Layne Fargo, author of They Never Learn

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

“Rebecca is a masterpiece in which du Maurier pulls off several spectacular high-wire acts that many great writers wouldn’t attempt.”
—Jim Crace, Guardian

Non-Fiction

Alien legacies : the evolution of the franchise / edited by Nathan Abrams and Gregory Frame

Gothic forms of feminine fictions / Susanne Becker 

Attack of the Leading Ladies : Gender, sexuality, and spectatorship in classic horror cinema / Rhona J. Berenstein

Searching for Sycorax: Black women’s hauntings of contemporary horror / Kinitra D. Brooks 

Killing women : the visual culture of gender and violence / Annette Burfoot and Susan Lord, editors 

Men, Women, and Chain Saws: gender in the modern horror film / Carol J. Clover

The Twilight of the Gothic?: Vampire fiction and the rise of the paranormal romance / Joseph Crawford

The monstrous-feminine: Film, feminism, psychoanalysis / Barbara Creed 

Return of the monstrous-feminine: Feminist new wave cinema / Barbara Creed

The female vampire in Hispanic literature: a critical anthology of turn-of-the-twentieth-century gothic-inspired tales / edited and translated by Megan DeVirgilis

The female investigator in literature, film, and popular culture / Lisa M. Dresner 

The Monstrous-Feminine in Contemporary Japanese Popular Culture by Raechel Duma 

Monsters, Demons and Psychopaths: Psychiatry and horror film / Fernando Espi Forcen

Shirley Jackson : a rather haunted life / Ruth Franklin 

The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the appeal of horror / Cynthia A. Freeland 

Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The history and future of transness in cinema / Caden Mark Gardner and Willow Catelyn Maclay

The Dread of Difference: Gender and the horror film / edited by Barry Keith Grant

Representations of Femininity in American genre cinema: The woman’s film, film noir, and modern horror / David Greven

Hollywood Heroines: Women in film noir and the female gothic film / by Helen Hanson

Women and domestic space in contemporary gothic narratives: the house as subject / Andrew Hock Soon Ng

I spit on your celluloid: The history of women directing horror movies / Heidi Honeycutt 

Screening the gothic / Lisa Hopkins

Women and the gothic : an Edinburgh companion / edited by Avril Horner and Sue Zlosnik

Monstrous Possibilities The Female Monster in 21st Century Screen Horror / by Amanda Howell, Lucy Baker

Stepford daughters: Weapons for feminists in contemporary horror / Johanna Isaacson

Violent Women in Contemporary Cinema / Janice Loreck

Horror film and otherness / Adam Lowenstein

The new queer gothic : reading queer girls and women in contemporary fiction and film / Robyn Ollett

John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps / Ernest Mathijs 

Women who kill: Gender and sexuality in film and series of the post-feminist era / edited by Cristelle Maury & David Roche

Bloody Women: Women directors of horror / edited by Victoria McCollum, Aislínn Clarke

Final Girls, Feminism and Popular Culture edited by Katarzyna Paszkiewicz, Stacy Rusnak 

Women make horror : filmmaking, feminism, genre / edited by Alison Peirse

Recreational Terror: Women and the pleasures of horror film viewing / Isabel Cristina Pinedo

New blood in contemporary cinema : women directors and the poetics of horror / Patricia Pisters 

Feminism at the Movies: Understanding gender in contemporary popular cinema / edited by Hilary Radner and Rebecca Stringer

Monsters vs. Patriarchy: Toxic imagination in global horror cinema / Patricia Saldarriaga and Emy Manini

Carmilla: a critical edition / by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Misfit Sisters: Screen horror as female rites of passage / Sue Short

Mastering fear : women, emotions, and contemporary horror / Rikke Schubart

Phantom Ladies : Hollywood horror and the home front / Tim Snelson

Scare tactics : Supernatural fiction by American women / Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock 

Why Buffy matters: The art of Buffy the vampire slayer / Rhonda Wilcox 

Gothic (re)visions : writing women as readers / Susan Wolstenholme

Films

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho / Universal ; a Paramount release. 

Carrie directed Brian De Palma

Ginger snaps directed by John Fawcett

Ginger snaps : unleashed directed by Brett Sullivan

Onibaba directed by Kaneto Shindo

Rosemary’s baby directed by Roman Polanski

What ever happened to baby Jane? produced and directed by Robert Aldrich 

All Book Lists

Renowned local author Alix Hawley has recently produced a new podcast about the history of the Okanagan in the 1800s called Two Lives. Each episode looks at two lives, one Syilx or Métis person and one settler, whose paths crossed in some way. Alix credits UBCO Library’s resources and supports with helping her to create and produce her podcast. 

Two Lives

UBCO Library support researching and producing the podcast  

Alix researched for her podcast using the digitized archives made available through British Columbia Regional Digitized History (BCRDH) portal, an integrated, cross-searchable repository of digitized archives spearheaded by UBC Okanagan Library’s Special Collections & Archives.

“I was glad to be able to access so many historical newspapers through BCRDH,” Alix states. “For example, the police reports in Episode 3, about Lucy Simla and Florence Richter, came directly from the Okanagan Mining Review of 1893.” 

Alix Hawley grew up in the Okanagan and is currently a Master’s of Library and Information Science student. Being a self-described giant history nerd, she knew she wanted to work on archives as part of her thesis project. When asked about her inspiration for the project, Alix credits UBC Okanagan Library with pointing her to the Okanagan Historical Society, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and was seeking a partner to help promote its decades of reports. 

“The Okanagan Historical Society are keepers of voluminous amounts of detailed information, often from average people, not just historians,” says Alix. “Their annual reports include pieces you wouldn’t find anywhere else, about places and people and events, often very vividly told. The digitized reports were crucial, and being able to access them so easily through the BCRDH portal was a gift.” 

For anyone looking to utilize Okanagan Special Collections & Archives to complete archival research, Alix recommends starting with the browse function on the BCRDH portal, which leads you through all the resources. 

Many different Librarians and staff members assisted Alix in creating her podcast. It was very much a team effort! “It’s great to have knowledgeable staff and librarians; they were each so responsive and thoughtful,” she states.

Archivist Paige Hohmann and UBCO Library Administrator Lois Marshall provided some initial guidance and contacts for next steps. Later, during the research phase, Programmer Analyst Sharon Hanna provided keyword searches and Library Services Assistant Lisa Clarke shared finding aids. Indigenous Initiatives Librarian Christian Isbister assisted with finding additional Syilx Okanagan resources. When it came time to produce the podcast, Open Education Librarian Donna Langille provided a podcasting workshop with many practical tips to get started.

Learn more about the Podcast

Two Lives is a limited audio series produced in partnership with the Okanagan Historical Society. Two Lives is available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeart Radio. You can hear Alix talk about the podcast on this CBC radio segment or learn more about Alix on her website.  

Two Lives shares the history of the Okanagan in the 1800s by focusing on two individual people for each episode, one Syilx or Métis person and one settler, whose paths crossed at that time. 

When asked why she decided to tell these stories in pairs, Alix says it was essential to tell the stories of Syilx Okanagan and Métis people on an even footing with those of settlers, and in a non-appropriative way. “As a settler descendant, I was personally aware of this need and as a fiction writer, I thought that narratives about pairs of people could be engaging.”  

You might recognize some local voices throughout the podcast. Alix says that she hassled many community members into voicing the first-person quotations of the historical people in the episodes. 

The Two Lives podcast project exemplifies why it’s so important that regional history is made accessible. Alex Liu Archivist in Okanagan Special Collections & Archives states that, “Digitizing and hosting digital materials online is very labour and cost intensive. BCRDH helps break down barriers for both institutions and researchers by partnering with regional heritage institutions and providing assistance and guidance for digitizing materials as well as hosting those materials on the BCRDH online platform.”

Explore BCRDH

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, or Orange Shirt Day, is a day to remember and honour the Survivors and victims of the residential school system in Canada. Secwepemc author and activist Phyllis Webstad is the Founder and Ambassador of the Orange Shirt Society and speaks of her first day attending residential school, where her new orange shirt was taken by school officials. 

See the UBC Okanagan Orange Shirt Day webpage for information about on-campus and community events.

While wearing an orange shirt in solidarity with Indigenous people can be a meaningful personal action, many Indigenous leaders and academics speak of the importance of truth before reconciliation. September 30 provides an excellent opportunity to learn more about the impacts of discriminatory colonial policies like residential schools on Indigenous communities. It is equally important to recognize the continuing emotional burden that teaching this history places on Indigenous people. September 30 offers an opportunity to consider our own responsibilities in reconciliation.

If you are looking for more information on the history of residential schools or Indigenous-Canadian relations, we encourage you to continue your learning and consult some of the books or movies we have available through the library.  

Below are a few recommendations by Sajni Lacey, Librarian at UBC Okanagan Library.

A Grandmother Begins This Story by Michelle Porter (Novel) 

Becoming a Matriarch by Helen Knott (memoir)

A Beautiful Rebellion by Rita Bouvier (poetry)

A Medicine Wheel for the Planet by Jennifer Grenz (non-fiction)

Orange Shirt Day, September 30th by Phyllis Webstad and the Orange Shirt Society 

Fiction 

The inconvenient Indian : a curious account of Native People in North America by Thomas King 

A broad look at the history of Indigenous-settler relations throughout North America, King’s dry sense of humour acts as an irreverent guide through key moments in history and is a great starting place if you are new to this area.

Indian Horse : a novel by Richard Wagamese 

One of Richard Wagamese’s better known works and a personal favourite, it follows a young Anishinaabe hockey player who survives his time in a residential school but must contend with the ongoing impact it has on his life. A deeply challenging read at times but well worth your time. 

Black apple : a novel by Joan Crate 

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

Kiss of the fur queen by Tomson Highway

Poetry 

Inconvenient skin = Nyêhtâwan wasakay by Shane L. Koyczan

The Red Files by Lisa Bird-Wilson 

Memoirs and Autobiographies

NISHGA by Jordan Abel

Totem poles and tea by Hughina Harold and Eldon Lee 

Stoneface : memoir of a defiant dene by Stephen Kakfwi

Genocidal love : a life after residential school by Bevann Fox

The Knowing by Tanya Talaga 

Up Ghost River: A chief’s journey through the turbulent waters of native history by Edmund Metatawabin with Alexandra Shimo 

Following the good river: the life and times of Wa’xaid by Briony Penn 

Our voice of fire: a memoir of a warrior rising by Brandi Morin 

Namwayut : we are all one : a pathway to reconciliation by Chief Robert Joseph 

They called me number one: secrets and survival at an indian residential school by Bev Sellers  

Finding my talk : how fourteen Native women reclaimed their lives after residential school by Agnes Grant

Films 

Survivors of the red brick school by Kla-How-Ya Communications, First Nations Friendship Centre 

We were children = Nous n’étions que des enfants by Eagle Vision ; eOne ; National Film Board of Canada ; Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. 

Childhood lost : the residential school experience by executive producer, Chalen Ewing 

Indian horse = Cheval Indien directed by Stephen S. Campanelli. 

Savage written & directed by Lisa Jackson. 

8th fire : [Aboriginal peoples, Canada and the way forward] a CBC production

Stolen children a CBC production 

Illustrated Books  

Stolen Words by Melanie Florence ; illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard 

Beautifully told and illustrated story about the emotional toll that losing one’s language has and on the potential for intergenerational love to bring it back. 

When I was eight by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton ; art by Gabrielle Grimard 

When we were alone by David Alexander Robertson ; art by Julie Flett

I lost my talk words by Rita Joe ; art by Pauline Young

I am not a number written by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer ; illustrated by Gillian Newland. 

Shi-shi-etko by Nicola I. Campbell ; pictures by Kim La Fave

Every child matters by Phyllis Webstad, illustrated by Karlene Harvey

For young readers 

Fatty Legs by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton/ Liz Amini-Holmes 

A stranger at home : a true story by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton ; artwork by Liz Amini-Holmes 

Sugar Falls : a residential school story by David Alexander Robertson, Scott B. Henderson. 

The journey forward: a novella on reconciliation by Richard Van Camp and Monique Gray Smith

Anthologies and Collections

Resistance and renewal : surviving the Indian residential school by Celia Haig-Brown

Power through testimony : reframing residential schools in the age of reconciliation edited by Brieg Capitaine and Karine Vanthuyne

“Speaking my truth” : reflections on reconciliation & residential school selected by Shelagh Rogers, Mike DeGagné, Jonathan Dewar, Glen Lowry

Witnesses : art and Canada’s Indian residential schools : September 6-December 1, 2013 curated by Geoffrey Carr 

Valley of the Birdtail: an Indian reserve, a White town, and the road to reconciliation by Andrew Stobo Sniderman & Douglas Sandderson (Amo Binashii) 

A knock on the door : the essential history of residential schools from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada foreword by Phil Fontaine

Residential schools: with words and images of survivors by Larry Loyie with Wayne K. Spear, Constance Brissenden 

Reconciliation from an indigenous perspective : weaving the web of life in the aftermath of residential schools by Herman J. Michell

In this together : fifteen stories of truth & reconciliation edited by Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail 

The fire still burns : life in and after residential school by Sam George with Jill Yonit Goldberg and Liam Belson, Dylan MacPhee, and Tanis Wilson 

Beyond the orange shirt story : a collection of stories from family and friends of Phyllis Webstad before, during, and after their residential school experiences by Phyllis Webstad

Behind closed doors : stories from the Kamloops Indian Residential School edited by Agnes Jack

Other non-fiction 

Truth Telling by Michelle Good

Resolve : the story of the Chelsea family and a First Nation community’s will to heal by Carolyn Parks Mintz with Andy and Phyllis Chelsea

Truth and indignation : Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools by Ronald Niezen 

Unsettling the settler within: Indian Residential Schools, truth telling, and reconciliation in Canada by Paulette Regan 

Final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada 

Picking up the pieces : residential school memories and the making of the Witness Blanket by Carey Newman and Kirstie Hudson

Residential schools : the devastating impact on Canada’s Indigenous Peoples and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings and calls for action by Melanie Florence

A national crime : the Canadian government and the residential school system, 1879 to 1986 by John S. Milloy ; foreword by Mary Jane Logan McCallum

Spirit of the grassroots people : seeking justice for indigenous survivors of Canada’s colonial education system edited by Jackson Pind and Theodore Michael Christou

University Librarian Susan Parker has released an important Library Service Update that will directly impact all UBC Library users, including those at UBC Okanagan.

Read the entire message using the link below and explore the Collections Budget and Planning webpage for more information, FAQs, and a feedback form.

Read the message

Celebrate plurilingualism and the accents, colloquialisms, dialects, and speech patterns that help make our voices unique. This initiative highlights the power of using your authentic voice and provides you with the resources and supports to use and develop that voice.

Why it matters

Standard Academic English (SAE) can be seen as the only way to speak properly and is often presented as objectively more correct or superior to other dialects of english. But the idea that there’s only one right version of english, or any language, starts to fall apart when you ask why a specific version is seen as better than another. The reason is proximity to power, usually historic colonial power. 

Language is a tool for communication and if your audience understands you, the communication works. We often discuss dialects as if they only exist when there is enough of a difference that we can easily categorize it. We might also know about a dialect if it’s used by a large enough population it enters public conversations. But everyone speaks a version of english different from SAE. We all code-mesh when we mix languages, dialects, or even versions of english together to communicate. 

learn more

The Student Learning Hub provides a philosophy on Linguistic Justice, Language Awareness, and Plurilingualism that recognizes the inherent value of linguistic and cultural diversity in communication. They also provide a handout (see below) to help you learn more about academic English, code meshing, and pluralingualism.

SLH Handout

See below to discover how authors Aiden Thomas, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and M.L. Rio use plurilingualism and code-meshing to express their authentic voices and entering our language awareness draw for your chance to win a copy of their books. 

Get support 

Consultants in the Student Learning Hub and Centre for Scholarly Communication are trained to support you in using your own authentic voice in your writing.

Undergraduate students can book an appointment with Writing and Language Consultants in the Student Learning Hub.

While we can’t change what instructors’ grade on, you can ask an instructor if they are requiring standard academic English for assignments or if writing in other englishes is welcomed. Consultants can also help you write an email to your instructor to ask about this if it is a conversation you want to start.

Student Learning Hub

Graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty members can get support from Writing and Academic Communication Consultants at the Centre for Scholarly Communication. 

Centre for Scholarly Communication

Examples in literature

The Student Learning Hub partnered with the Equity and Inclusion Office and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies to offer a pluralingualism prize pack that contains one of these three books that demonstrate pluralingualism and code-meshing.

About the books:

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Aiden Thomas code-meshes Spanish and English in his paranormal young adult novel Cemetery Boys about a trans Latinx boy and a ghost.

Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson code-meshes Nishnaabemowin and English combining prose and poetry in Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies.

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

M.L. Rio incorporates Shakespearean English and contemporary English in her murder mystery If We Were Villains.

Learn more about linguistic diversity and linguistic justice with these resources: 

1. CCCC Statement on White Language Supremacy. 2021. CCCC Statement on White Language Supremacy – Conference on College Composition and Communication 
2. National Council of Teachers of English. 1974. Resolution on the Students’ Right to Their Own Language. National Council of Teachers of English. https://ncte.org/statement/righttoownlanguage/ 
3. Strause, A.W. 2017. Why We Need Greater Linguistic Diversity. Inside Higher Ed https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2017/08/11/colleges-should-encourage-greater-linguistic-diversity-classroom-essay 
4. Young, V. A. 2014. (Video). https://www.pbs.org/video/connections-dr-vershawn-young/ PBS Connections 
5. Inoue, A.B. (Video) – How do we stop languaging so people stop killing each other, or what do we do with white language supremacy? 
6. Conference on College Composition and Communication. 2020. CCCC Statement on Second Language Writing and Multilingual Writers. CCCC. https://ncte.org/statement/secondlangwriting/