A walk to remember Zelda
(originally written on November 14, 2025) I walked today. Not for the first time, but for the first time in more than 4 months. For the first time without a leash in my hand. For the first time without some geocache waiting for me 300 meters away. The last week has been filled with reminders and lessons about grief. And although it didn’t start with a podcast, listening to Clarissa Sorensen Unruh and her sister Christy Albright talk about grief with Bonni Stachowiak on the most recent episode of the Teaching in Higher Education podcast (wow, what a mouthful) really got me thinking. That podcast auto-played after listening to a recent episode of The Opposite of Cheating. Rissa, Christy, and Bonni shared stories of relatable grief like failing bodies, losing loved ones, and deciding to leave a PhD program; woven together with lessons connected to psychology, pedagogy and work-life balance.…
UWindsor Pride Committee asks University to create a professional support role for 2SLGBTQIA+ community members
UWindsor Pride Committee asks University to create a professional support role for 2SLGBTQIA+ community members Meta’s policies don’t allow news stories to be shared, so I will include related links about this story here on my blog. On three separate occasions in April, the UWSA (University of Windsor Student Alliance) Pride Centre was vandalized with homophobic slurs. These incidents have been reported on social media sites and have been discussed with various news outlets. From CBC: UWindsor Pride centre closes early after incidents of ‘hate-driven vandalism’From CTV: U of W Students’ Alliance office defaced with hate and homophobic slursFrom CTV: Alleged hate crimes reported at University of Windsor campusFrom Windsor Star: ‘Acts of hatred’ — UWindsor Pride Centre shuts after homophobic vandalism attacksFrom AM800: President of Windsor-Essex Pride Fest saddened by hate crimes at the University of Windsor It’s not hard to find similar stories of unfortunate hate-motivated incidents on…
The Role of Community in Classroom Engagement
This was originally posted on my old draft ePortfolio site, on October 24, 2023. This is my first “academic” blog post. Well, the first one I am going to press “Publish” on, anyway. I always start these things, and then second-guess the belonging of my voice in the larger academic choir of voices. However, I just got out of a workshop and I have some thoughts, I wanted to jot down. I pulled out my notebook, and then realized this might be a good opportunity to just jump into the blogosphere. Here goes… I am in the midst of manuscript revisions with a colleague of mine, and part of what we discuss in the article is the importance of community within the classroom. For context, we are writing about how bell hooks informed our design of an online course, and specifically an online course about anti-racism (which provides another layer…