This fall we launched in-person, for the first time since its inception, our Camosun Showcase publication with a celebration for Camosun Showcase 2023, the sixth annual publication highlighting creative, professional and scholarly activities by instructors across the college.
Like many things at the college, Camosun Showcase started with an idea, followed by a series of enthusiasm-fueled conversations, to eventually become a full-blown college publication.
In 2016 Elizabeth West, faculty in the English Language Development Department, was a committee member and chair of the Camosun College Faculty Association Professional Development (PD) Committee, where she âhad the very great privilege of reviewing fabulous projects that Camosun faculty submitted for PD funding.â The projects the PD Committee reviewed were from across the college and spanned all disciplines. Recognising that the wider college community did not have the opportunity to hear about these projects, Elizabeth âthought it would be terrific to somehow celebrate the work at Camosun and get the word out that Camosun faculty were contributing in so many creative, innovative, and scholarly waysâ to the college.
Unbeknownst to Elizabeth, in Learning Services (retired) director Sybil Harrison was thinking the same thing. Having long recognized the tremendous efforts instructors put into their scholarly and creative endeavours, Sybil wondered how their work might best be celebrated and shared. Having put their heads together and âbrainstorm[ed] various ways of doing this, [Elizabeth and Sybil] agreed that a book/publication would be the best way to tell these stories â [in other words] â something tangible.â
The first issue of Camosun Showcase was published in 2017 and included contributions from across the college. Faculty shared stories that underscored the creativity and passion they bring to their classrooms, including research projects focused on language learning, interdisciplinary education, and gender diversity in engineering, among a host of other topics. Field schools in Bolivia, a drama project in the School of Health and Human Services addressing issues of social justice and oppression, the 2017 SâTENISTOLW (Indigenous Education) Conference, Universal Design for Learning, and a welding project that culminated in the design and creation of welded armature for a 150-million-year-old dinosaur skeleton, were some of the other projects featured in the first issue. Elizabeth notes:
It was exciting to see the inaugural [issue of] Showcase in print with contributor bios, stories of projects, photos of contributors and the various projects â a mix of images and text. This was not something I curated alone: Stephanie Morris in Graphic Design, Allan Shook, photographer, and the expert printers in the Camosun Print Shop played a huge role â and of course, we had Sybilâs strong support and the inspiring faculty who took time from their busy schedules to write about their work for an audience outside their subject areas. This Showcase was informative, celebratory, visual, and colourful.
The 2018 and 2019 issues of Showcase integrated artwork from Camosun Visual Arts. Joseph Hoh contributed the cover in 2018, with John G. Boehme, Brad Muir, and Nancy Yakimoskiâs terrific artwork featured throughout the publication. In 2019, Nancy Yakimoski contributed the art from her piece in Showcase on photography in the style of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, for the cover of Showcase.
In 2020 Deidre Murphy, an Educational Developer in the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), joined the Showcase team as a co-project coordinator with Elizabeth, and Sean McLauglin came on board as graphic designer. The cover of the 2020 issue features the artwork of Melissa Mills from the Communications Department. 2020 also spanned the COVID pivot â all faculty stories and projects included were completed before COVID and the 2020 Showcase was finally produced in 2021.
By 2022, while the college had returned to in-person interactions, the pandemic had transformed much of how we do our work. Contributions for the 2022 edition came from both faculty and leadership, many of whom had conducted their work for the fifth issue of Showcase remotely during the pandemic, embracing the challenges and opportunities this disruption brought.
In 2023, the Showcase team increased to three with the addition of Emily Schudel, an instructional designer in eLearning and Chair of CETL, with Jenn Playford joining the team as our new graphic designer. As with previous years, the Showcase coordinators were awed and inspired by the range of stories featured in the 2023 issue. In Elizabethâs words:
With Camosun Showcase 2023 we can see how this publication has evolved. More people know about it and our team is bigger, offering different perspectives and insights. In revisiting the past issues and reflecting on each one in preparation for our launch celebration, I have again been inspired by the range of the stories and the richness of the work at Camosun. These six editions form a record of Camosun professional, scholarly, and creative activity over time â each Showcase is a window on Camosun at a given time.
The stories in Showcase demonstrate how Camosun educators are simultaneously creative, inspiring, enthusiastic, innovative, inclusive, curious, and forward looking ⊠They are problem solvers [and] critical thinkers, continuously thinking of ways to make studentsâ educational experiences more relevant, more interesting, more connected with community⊠and [able] to deal with the real-world complexities we [all] face. They look for ways to Indigenize curriculum in real and meaningful ways. They work collaboratively with other institutions locally, throughout Canada, and internationally.
In her introductory message to the 2022 issue of Showcase, Sybil Harrison quoted the late educator and author bell hooks: âAs a classroom community, our capacity to generate excitement is deeply affected by our interest in one another, in hearing one anotherâs voices, in recognizing one anotherâs presence.â Sybil continued, writing, âOur work as educators is lifted up and amplified when we share it.” This is exemplified in Camosun Showcase, where we see the âclassroomâ expanded to include the campus, the library, and the community, as well as the land, in-person and virtual learning and instruction across time zones, and at the local, national, and international level.
The stories in this edition are rich with faculty and student voices:
- in Biology weaving Indigenous science into Western science curriculum so students see and experience the value of both;
- in Business moving between online and in-person instruction with HyFlex instruction;
- in Nursing enhancing health care education with virtual simulations and open-source electronic health records in medical settings;
- in Academic and Career Foundations moving a 40-year classroom-based program online;
- in Totem 2.0 an innovative and far-reaching project with Camosun Innovates, engineering students, and Carey Newman, renowned Indigenous artist;
- in the South Island Partnership (SIP) that introduce high-school students to college courses;
- in Curriculum Development and Program Renewal learn about preservice and in-service teacher training in Kenya.
When Emily thinks of the future for Showcase, she says, âI want to encourage everyone at Camosun to tell us about the amazing projects they are working on. Showcase is about Professional, Scholarly, and Creative activity, but I donât like to think of these things as separate. I donât believe that my creative life lives only at home and then I come to work and itâs all âprofessionalâ and âscholarlyâ. In fact, I believe we are creative in all aspects of our lives. I work with so many faculty who ask me, âWhy would you want to talk to me or have me share my story because I donât do anything innovative in the classroom.â Well, I can tell you all that every day you are in the classroom, or creating curriculum, or marking assignments, you are being creative. When I Googled âcreativityâ, I found several definitions that affirm this. For example, âCreativity is the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form.â Isnât that what we do every day as educators and students?â
Thank you to all the individuals who have so generously shared their stories with us over the last six years. We are inspired by your creativity, your commitment, and your passion, and look forward to many, many more!