I am a Senior Instructor, a tenured faculty member who specializes in Educational Leadership. I work in both English and the Coordinated Arts Program (CAP). My areas of specialization include Canadian literature, media, genre and reception studies, as well as academic writing and research in and across the disciplines. I also have expertise in multidisciplinary cohort learning and team teaching (CAP, Bachelor of Media Studies, and UBC-Sciences Po Dual Degree Program). As an educational leader, my primary focus is on collaborating with faculty and staff to improve undergraduate student learning. My educational leadership areas include curriculum design, community-engaged learning, peer review of teaching, and knowledge mobilization. I work with a team of faculty, students, and staff to design and develop Knowing the Land Beneath our Feet at UBC (KLBF), a digitally-augmented Indigenous walking tour of the Vancouver campus. I am also the Associate Editor of CanLit Guides (published by the journal, Canadian Literature), an open-access learning resource published by the journal, Canadian Literature. In this capacity, I work with area experts to translate their research on literature in Canada for undergraduate students and faculty.

IBLC 357I teach Canadian literature, media studies, and academic writing and research courses in both English and the Coordinated Arts Program. I specialize in genre theory, media (particularly Web 2.0), literary canons, and the public circulation and reception of contemporary literature in Canada. As an instructor, I make dialogue central to my students’ experience: dialogue with their peers, with me, and with the scholarly and literary writers whose work we read. In foregrounding dialogism, I follow language and literary scholar M.M. Bakhtin, who sees meaning constructed through “the interaction of voices” (Herndl). For me, a dialogic learning environment is a means to support students as they pursue what Henry A. Giroux argues higher education should offer: “the opportunity to involve themselves in the deepest problems of society, to acquire the knowledge, skills, and ethical vocabulary necessary for modes of critical dialogue and forms of broadened civic participation.”

Recently Taught Courses

ASTU 100 – Term 1: Media & Representation // Term 2: Stories & Responsibilities; Sharing & Surveillance
ASTU 101 – “Don’t Look Now”: Surveillance in Academic Writing
ENGL 100 – Representation and Reception
ENGL 470 – #CrazyforCanLit: Canadian Literature and Web 2.0.
ASTU 260 – Knowledge MobilizationPedagogy Presentations and Workshops  

Grafton, Kathryn and Cindy Underhill. “Considering Digital Literacies.” Workshop. CTLT. 30 August 2017.

Grafton, Kathryn. “Open Practices: Teaching and Learning with Wikipedia Roundtable.” Roundtable. CTLT. Facilitator: Will Engle. Co-presenters: Judy Chan, Christine D’Onofrio, and Tina Loo.  1 February 2017.

Gaertner, David and Kathryn Grafton. “Bridging the Knowledge Gap and Engaging with TRC Calls to Action.” Workshop. Classroom Climate Series, Indigenous Initiatives, CTLT.  26 October 2016.

Grafton, Kathryn and Sarah Ling. “Teaching Knowing the Land Beneath our Feet at UBC.” Presentation. Open House. Aboriginal Initiatives. CTLT. 25 September 2015.

Lindsay, Spencer, Sarah Ling, David Gaertner, Kathryn Grafton, Daniel Heath Justice, Evan Mauro and Amy Perreault. “Knowing the Land Beneath Our Feet: Integrating a digital Indigenous walking tour into UBC classrooms.” Presentation. CTLT Spring Institute. 26 May 2015.

Teaching & Learning Canadian Literature Workshops and Panels

Grafton, Kathryn and Laura Moss. Workshop Designers & Facilitators. CanLit Guides Workshop. Canadian Literature. Vancouver BC. 25-26 May 2016. 19 participants from Canada and the United Kingdom.

Grafton, Kathryn. Organizer & Moderator. Panel, “Teaching and Learning the Literatures of Canada and Québec.” 2015 Congress of the Humanities. ACQL (The Association for Canadian and Québec Literatures). Ottawa ON. 30 May – 1 June 2015. Presenters: Sarah Banting (Mount Royal), Paul W. Martin (McEwan), and Katja Thieme (UBC).