University of British Columbia
Creative Writing
The Lethbridge Journal Incubator is a joint project of the University of Lethbridge Library, School of Graduate Studies, and Faculty of Arts and Science. Its goal is to address the issue of the sustainability of gold open access journals... more
The Lethbridge Journal Incubator is a joint project of the University of Lethbridge Library, School of Graduate Studies, and Faculty of Arts and Science. Its goal is to address the issue of the sustainability of gold open access journals by aligning the publication process with the educational and research missions of the public University. In this way, the open access publication, which is more commonly understood as a cost center that draws resources away from a host university's core missions, is transformed into a sustainable, high-impact resource that improves retention and recruitment. It does this by providing graduate students with early experience with scholarly publishing (a proven contributor to in- and post-program student satisfaction and career success), highly-sought after research and technical skills, and project management experience. This article provides a background to the problem of financing gold open access publication and reports on the experience of the researchers responsible for establishing the incubator as it leaves its experimental phase and becomes a center of the University.
Those of us who hope to shape what scholarly communication will become need to understand that scholarly communication, like the larger research enterprise, is a public good and that, as such, it requires subsidy to maximize its benefit.... more
Those of us who hope to shape what scholarly communication will become need to understand that scholarly communication, like the larger research enterprise, is a public good and that, as such, it requires subsidy to maximize its benefit. Subsidy exists in the established system, but we often do not see it because the channels the subsidy travels are longstanding and familiar. As we consider new mechanisms for scholarly communication, we need to look carefully at the established system. We need to follow the money and see where it goes, determine the value provided by those who take the subsidy, and decide whether there are cheaper or better means for providing that value. Changing how this subsidy is channe[l]led will be one of the most important moves we can make in creating new business models for the distribution of scholarly content. [1] [#N1] Abstract The Lethbridge Journal Incubator is a joint project of the University of Lethbridge Library, School of Graduate Studies, and Faculty of Arts and Science. Its goal is to address the issue of the sustainability of gold open access journals by aligning the publication process with the educational and research missions of the public University. In this way, the open access publication, which is more commonly understood as a cost center that draws resources away from a host university's core missions, is transformed into a sustainable, highimpact resource that improves retention and recruitment. It does this by providing graduate students with early experience with scholarly publishing (a proven contributor to in and postprogram student satisfaction and career success), highlysought after research and technical skills, and project 24/06/--aligning-open-access-publication-with-research-and-teaching?rgn=main;view=… 2/20 management experience. This article provides a background to the problem of financing gold open access publication and reports on the experience of the researchers responsible for establishing the incubator as it leaves its experimental phase and becomes a center of the University. that improves the research and teaching capacity of the university, turning what is usually understood by administrators as a cost center into an investment opportunity. Now in its fourth year, the incubator represents a viable method of funding gold open access publications in a way that avoids taking resources away from core activities.
A defining feature of life in academia is the degree to which we get to decide what is important to us. In many fields there is broad agreement as to what must be taught or what the major research questions are. But there are, outside... more
A defining feature of life in academia is the degree to which we get to decide what is important to us. In many fields there is broad agreement as to what must be taught or what the major research questions are. But there are, outside some certification requirements in the professional faculties, no provincial or national curricula we are required to follow. Likewise, in our work as researchers, we decide what topics and approaches are interesting and appropriate to pursue. We set our own research agendas and through our citation and publication patterns decide collectively what our generation considers to be the most important questions and results. Many of us end up on the editorial boards and agency panels that select the research that is to be funded and published. If we are lucky enough to be tenured, we serve on the committees that decide who our colleagues will be. Not everybody shares in this autonomy, of course, including a growing number of adjunct faculty. And even for those of us who do share in it, a few brilliant exceptions aside, the exercise of our freedom is constrained by our need to work within the consensus we have helped establish. But for the most part the working lives of tenured researchers and teachers, at the very least, are marked by a remarkable degree of autonomy.
We believe autonomy is essential for our own academic success. Why don't we insist on it for our students? Article discusses approach to grading and teaching essay writing adopted by the author.
In the twentieth century many writers experimented with the form of the novel, from the Modernists James Joyce and Virginia Woolf; to the Oulipo group of Raymond Queneau, Italo Calvino and Georges Perec; to contemporary writers such as... more
In the twentieth century many writers experimented with the form of the novel, from the Modernists James Joyce and Virginia Woolf; to the Oulipo group of Raymond Queneau, Italo Calvino and Georges Perec; to contemporary writers such as Jennifer Egan, Mark Z. Danielewski and Robert Coover. Despite their attempts the overall shape of fiction narrative does not appear to have been significantly altered in the popular consciousness. Meanwhile, an entirely new and extremely popular medium for narrative has emerged in recent decades – that present in interactive digital entertainment, or video games – whose writers and developers are grappling with many of the experimental narrative techniques previously attempted by many of these fiction writers. In this paper I compare the works of B.S. Johnson's The Unfortunates and Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style to the games Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and The Stanley Parable, and argue that there are significant parallels in their use of randomness and narrative repetition and revision. I conclude that significant narrative experimentation is being played out now in the minds of many game writers and designers around the world, and suggest that a popular revolution in narrative form anticipated by writers such as Queneau and Johnson might not take place in the novel at all, but in games.
Having collaborated closely on a project we dubbed the 'peer review of teaching marathon,' we reflect on the role of care in opening up conversations about teaching and learning. We posit that care, through collaboration, lays a... more
Having collaborated closely on a project we dubbed the 'peer review of teaching marathon,' we reflect on the role of care in opening up conversations about teaching and learning. We posit that care, through collaboration, lays a foundation for trust in higher education. Trust, in turn, invites us to be open to new ideas, to be kind and have compassion, and to foster community between instructors and educational developers, instructors and their peer reviewers, and ultimately, between instructors and their students.
In the creative writing workshop, peer assessment, marginalia and the discussion of student work are central tenets. Collegial but rigorous feedback is important to the growth of a writing practice. When students are involved in... more
In the creative writing workshop, peer assessment, marginalia and the discussion of student work are central tenets. Collegial but rigorous feedback is important to the growth of a writing practice. When students are involved in peer-feedback, they have the opportunity to see what quality writing looks like and to define for themselves whether they've met the expectations set out in an assignment. A culture of revision and of learning together can increase proficiency for giving and receiving critical feedback and help students writers create more sophisticated work.