Notes on Contributors
Sandra Acker
is professor emerita in the Department of Social Justice Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada. Current research interests encompass careers and change in academic work, the social production of research, women in academic leadership, and journal editors’ decision-making. Her many publications include journal articles and several books. Her most recent research project as principal investigator is Academic Researchers in Challenging Times, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Walter Archer
has retired from the mainstream of academic life, although he remains active in his local academic retiree association and the national coordinating body for such associations. He is also the book reviews editor of the Canadian Journal of Higher Education. He served for a total of 21 years in a number of roles, including associate dean, Research, in the Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta, and for six years as dean of Extension at the University of Saskatchewan. For seven years he was on the board of the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education, including two years as president.
Maha Bali
PhD, is Professor of Practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo. She is co-founder of virtuallyconnecting.org (a grassroots movement challenging academic gatekeeping at conferences) and co-facilitator of Equity Unbound which has also branched into academic community activities, Continuity with Care, Socially Just Academia, a collaboration with OneHE: Community-Building Resources and MYFest, an innovative three-month professional learning journey. She blogs regularly at http://blog.mahabali.me and tweets @bali_maha.
Dave V. Cassie
is assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the School of Sciences, Technology and Allied Health at the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC). His doctoral work focused on leadership perceptions of the use of virtual chemistry laboratories and online chemistry courses. His research interests include online science education, e-leadership, public health and climate change and its effects. He has been involved in several local and regional
Sibo Chen
is assistant professor and graduate program director at the School of Professional Communication, the Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University. His current research explores how political polarization is communicated in the public sphere, focusing on climate change denialism, online mis/disinformation, and anti-Asian racism.
Liza Choi
is associate professor at Mount Royal University’s School of Nursing and Midwifery and received the Mount Royal Faculty Association Teaching Excellence Award in 2019. Liza brings a wealth of experience in advocacy work with marginalized learners, stakeholder relations, and strong leadership in people management skills. In 2009, she established the English-as-an-Additional-Language (EAL) Student Support Program, a unique student-centred offering to EAL students using a transformative approach considering curriculum-specific and psychosocial factors. Researching the critical success aspects of this program has been the cornerstone of her scholarly work.
Ailie Cleghorn
PhD, holds a BA in sociology and anthropology from McGill University, an MA in Educational Studies from Concordia University and a PhD in Comparative Education from McGill. Her many years of research focused on language issues in urban and rural African school settings. She has authored and co-authored several academic books based on these studies, including 2016’s Teacher Education in Diverse Settings: Making Space for Intersecting Worldviews, with Prochner, Kirova and Massing. Prior to retirement in 2021. She published a World War II biographical memoir, Marjorie’s Journey: On a Mission of Her Own.
Dianne Conrad
PhD, has retired from active academic life and has found her happy place writing and editing academic books. Prior to this, she worked in higher and continuing education administration, taught online for several institutions in Canada and the USA, developed and promoted prior learning recognition and assessment protocols, and published widely in journals. She served as co-editor of the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL) for six years and sits on several international editorial boards. This is her sixth book and hopefully not her last.
Sir John Daniel
a 50-year veteran of open and distance learning, holds degrees from Oxford University, the Université de Paris (Docteur ès-Sciences Physiques); Concordia University, and Thorneloe University. His 32 honorary doctorates are from 17 countries. His appointments have included: École Polytechnique, Montreal (Professeur assistant et agrégé); Université TÉLUQ (Directeur des études); Athabasca University (VP Learning Services); Concordia University (VP Academic); Laurentian University (President); The Open University (Vice-Chancellor); UNESCO (Assistant Director-General for Education); and Commonwealth of Learning (President). Over 400 publications include Mega-Universities (1996) and Mega-Schools (2010).
Vera Dolan
(Brazilian-Canadian) has spent over two decades helping to advance the remote delivery, evaluation, and improvement of higher education. An early adopter of faculty teaching online, she has trained hundreds of online instructors as a faculty coach. During her studies at the University of Toronto, Dr. Dolan conducted research on the careers and working lives of professors with invisible disabilities. Her MEd in Open, Digital and Distance Education is from Athabasca University, where an award from the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education recognized her thesis research on motivation and loyalty in online adjunct faculty.
Janet Donald
is professor emerita at McGill University. Her research focuses on the quality of postsecondary learning and teaching and her book Learning to Think: Disciplinary Perspectives (2002) consolidated 25 years of research on student learning in academic disciplines. Her articles and chapters examine disciplinary differences in knowledge validation, the evaluation of undergraduate education, and professors’ and students’ conceptualizations of learning. Donald won the Distinguished Researcher Award from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education in 1994, its Distinguished Member Award in 1998, the McKeachie Career Award from the American Educational Research Association in 2000 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Lee Fallin
PhD, lectures in Education Studies and directs the School of Education’s MA programme at the University of Hull. Lee’s professional development has informed his research interests, which centre on learning technology, accessibility and the intersections between education and geography, inclusive of
Wendy Freeman
is an associate professor in the School of Professional Communication, the Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University. She was the inaugural executive director for the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. Wendy’s research interests focus on the sociocultural implications at the intersection of technology and education.
Daniela Gachago
PhD, is an associate professor at the Centre for Innovation for Learning and Teaching (CILT) at the University of Cape Town. Her current research focuses on academic staff development for designing blended and online learning in higher education, with a particular focus on developing socially-just learning and curriculum designs based on co-creation and equity-oriented compassionate design principles. She is a C1-rated researcher and 2022 Fulbright Scholar with more than 70 peer-reviewed publications. She is the managing editor of CriSTaL, the journal for critical studies in teaching and learning in higher education. She blogs at http://danielagachago.blogspot.com and tweets under @dgachago17
Aliya Kuzhabekova
is assistant professor in Leadership, Policy, and Governance in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada, has extensive experience as a faculty member, administrator and scholar in international and Canadian contexts. Aliya has produced publications on such topics as research capacity building in higher education in transitional contexts, doctoral education reform and researcher development; internationalization and international mobility (faculty mobility, mobility of graduate students, immigrant student experiences); and equity issues in higher education, including women in higher education leadership, international mobility, and STEM fields).
Tamara Leary
is associate professor and school director at Royal Roads University. In the past 24 years, she has held a variety of leadership, administration, consultant, and faculty roles. Her teaching and research interests include higher education leadership and
Lillie Lum
PhD, holds a joint academic appointment with the School of Nursing (SON) and School of Health Policy and Management (SHPM) at York University. She has been lead investigator on large, externally funded TriCouncil research grants. Her major research program explores the labour market integration challenges of internationally educated health professionals. She is currently leading a new research project examining the experiences of academic nursing leaders during the pandemic and has extensive health law adjudication experience as a member of three order-in-council Ontario adjudication boards.
Natalia Lumby
is associate professor and chair of the School of Graphic Communications Management. She is an award-winning educator who has been delivering hands-on design, management and technology curriculum for over a decade. Natalia’s research looks at sustainable business models in packaging from a systems perspective.
Stephanie Mason
PhD, is assistant professor in adult dducation in the Faculty of Education at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. She specializes in informal learning, arts-informed research methodology, and public places as learning sites. She has published in the International Journal of Talent Development and Creativity, Engaged Scholar Journal, and Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal, for which she is also an Associate Editor. Her ongoing research includes a collaborative art exhibit exploring everyday moments of leisure at the Nocturne nighttime festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and examining mobile kinetic sculptures in support of adult learning methodologies.
Robin Mueller
PhD, is a settler Canadian currently living on the traditional lands of the Kwakwaka’wakw, Nootka, and Coast Salish ancestors and families (colonially known as Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada). She works at Royal Roads University as an associate professor and program head in the School of Education and Technology. Robin’s areas of expertise and research interests include higher education leadership, the scholarship of teaching and learning,
Stephen Murgatroyd
PhD, former dean of Athabasca University’s Faculty of Business, founded the world’s first fully online MBA. He has been an innovative pioneer of technology-enabled, flexible learning since he began his career at The Open University UK. Stephen has worked extensively in the private sector as CEO of a large UK human resource consultancy and, in Canada, as an entrepreneur leading consulting, technology, and publishing companies. He has consulted for governments worldwide on technology innovation, higher education, organizational change, and transformation. He is the CEO of the Collaborative Media Group Inc and an in-demand keynote speaker. He has published over 40 books and many articles and book chapters.
Nicola Pallitt
PhD, is educational technology specialist and senior lecturer in the Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) at Rhodes University in South Africa. Her current research and collaborative projects include compassionate learning design, online professional development, online supervision, online collaborative research and digital pedagogies in higher education. Nicola is an associate editor for Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning (CriSTaL). She is part of the e/merge Africa team, an educational technology network for educational technology researchers and practitioners in African higher education.
Claire Polster
is professor of sociology and social studies at the University of Regina. Her research focuses on the ongoing transformation of Canadian higher education and its implications for the public interest. She has published widely on, and worked collectively with others to redress, a variety of higher education issues including government policy related to universities, the commodification of academic research, and the erosion of university autonomy, democracy, and collegialism. With Janice Newson, she is co-editor of Academic Callings: The University We Have Had, Now Have, and Could Have and co-author of A Penny for Your Thoughts: How Corporatization Devalues Teaching, Research, and Public Service in Canada’s Universities. She co-founded the University of Regina Faculty of Arts’ Community Research Unit.
Antony J. Puddephatt
PhD, is professor and chair of sociology at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario. He is currently serving as president of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, and is associate editor for the journal Symbolic Interaction. He has interests in interactionist theory and qualitative methods and enjoys applying these tools to investigate a range of topics, including social theory, leisure, science and technology studies, environmental sociology, and the institutional culture of higher education.
Chris Sanders
PhD, is associate professor of sociology at Lakehead University. Sanders, a medical sociologist whose research focuses on the social determinants of health in rural Canada, is currently exploring the impact of lack of access to personal identification (birth certificates, health cards) on health and social services in the north, particularly among Indigenous people and communities. A second research area focuses on medico-legal studies, specifically the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure in Canada. Most recently, Sanders has authored and co-authored papers in Health & Place; PLoS ONE, Qualitative Health Research; Canadian Journal of Sociology; and Culture, Health & Sexuality. He is also co-editor of Quantifying Theory: Pierre Bourdieu (Springer).
Afsoon Soudi
is assistant professor in the RTA School of Media at The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University. Prior to her role at TMU, she led machine intelligence teams at CBC to develop audience analytics platform and recommendation systems for digital products. She has also co-founded an award-winning software company. Her current research is focused on the use of responsible AI in creative practices and study of the audience in the intersection of climate change, AI and media.
Jude Walker
is associate professor of adult learning and education at the University of British Columbia with an interest in education for transformation, and in government and institutional policies that support it. She has published widely in the fields of both adult and higher education. Having researched and lived the challenges of academia, she is currently attempting to live a more meaningful, socially-engaged, community-oriented academic life – and to support others to do the same.
Victoria Wood
PhD, leads the planning, development, and implementation of programs to meet the strategic priorities of the university. For almost two decades, she has been facilitating cross-disciplinary collaborations to enhance existing programs and develop new programs that are innovative and align with best practices. She is an experienced facilitator specializing in team-based competencies, communication skills, and conflict management. Victoria has a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and anthropology, and a Master of Arts in International Relations. Her research focuses on the relationship of universities with society, beyond education and research.
Shuai Yu
is a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta. As such, she has worked as a research assistant on several projects, such as policy reform on China’s world-class universities, curriculum evaluation for high schools in Alberta, underrepresented students’ experiences in engineering programs, and assessment of engineering graduate attributes. Her research focuses on the internationalization of Chinese and Canadian higher education, international student mobility, comparative education, curriculum development, and policy analysis.
Lei Zhang
is a lecturer at the Tianjin Normal University in China with a doctoral degree in Educational Administration from Capital Normal University. During her four years of teaching, she has developed and taught undergraduate and graduate courses. She also presided over the critical project of the National Education Science Planning and the Ministry of Education’s, “Research on the Improvement Mechanism of the Internal Vitality of Group Education from the Perspective of Ecology.” Her research interests include group education and school management.