CHASIcast

The CHASIcast is pleased to welcome Melissa Kendzierski, Arts & Culture Coordinator for the City of Mission and UFV alumni. She joins us today to speak about the 2026 public art partnership between UFV students and the City of Mission's Arts & Culture division, her changemaking journey, and the importance of the arts in these times.

The CHASIcast is also available to stream on your favourite podcast services – including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music/Audible, and more.

Transcript available at https://blogs.ufv.ca/chasi/2026/06/16/chasicast-23/

The CHASIcast is pleased to welcome Dr. Geoffrey Spurling, professor emeritus in the history department at the University of the Fraser Valley. Join guest host Chelsea Klassen and Dr. Spurling as they discuss his experience teaching Latin American history through soccer and song, FIFA’s political history, and the 2026 World Cup.

Please note, this episode was recorded on June 29th and further noteworthy developments we would have otherwise addressed have occurred since the time of recording.

Resources

The CHASIcast is pleased to welcome Dr. Craig Jennex, an associate professor of English at the Toronto Metropolitan University. Join host Dr. Martha Dow and Dr. Jennex as they discuss the widespread impact of collective social dance in queer history and how dance can inspire hope in the present day.

Resources

The CHASIcast is also available to stream on your favourite podcast services – in...

Today’s CHASIcast marks the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. On December 6th, 1989, 14 young women were murdered at Polytechnique Montréal by a gunman who targeted them specifically because of their gender. We take this day every year to remember them and to stand firmly and directly against misogyny and gender-based violence of all kinds.

This episode’s guest, Dr. Megan Capp is the Associate Director of Housing and Community Justice at Archway Community Services. She joins us to speak about her work focused on intimate partner violence and the advocacy and allys...

How can we work towards a better society in difficult times? The CHASIcast is pleased to welcome back Dr. Rita Dhungel, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work and Human Services, joined this time by Chelsea Klassen, CHASI's lead researcher and a sessional instructor in the School of Social Justice and Global Stewardship.

The CHASIcast is available to stream on your favourite podcast services – including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music/Audible, and more.

A transcript is available at blogs.ufv.ca/chasi/chasicast-19

How can participatory action research meaningfully improve life for vulnerable communities? The CHASIcast is pleased to welcome Dr. Rita Dhungel, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work and Human Services. Dr. Dhungel’s her experiences working with human trafficking survivors in Nepal, and how she carries that knowledge forward with her.

In our first CHASIcast of the year we welcome back Dr. Iris Lesser, who is joined by her Kinesiology colleague Amber Johnston, MSc, to discuss their unique course — KIN499: Women's Health and Physical Activity. Through this course and their teaching, they aim to fill crucial gaps in understandings of women's health, particularly around menopause and perimenopause.

The CHASIcast is available to stream on your favourite podcast services – including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music/Audible, and more.

A transcript is available at blogs.ufv.ca/chasi/2025/01/03/chasicast-17

This special episode to close out National Career Month features guest host Dr. Linda Pardy from CHASI's Career and Learning for Life Consortium, better known as CALL. Dr. Pardy is joined by students Mayu Ochi and Ava Hedblom to discuss careermapping.ca, a new tool launched by CALL's team to help future, current, and graduated liberal arts students explore the many paths their careers could take.

The CHASIcast is available to stream on your favourite podcast services – including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music/Audible, and more.

This episode, the CHASIcast tackles the complexities of addiction and aid. Join host Dr. Martha Dow and her guest Dr. Amber Gazso, Professor of Sociology at UFV’s School of Culture, Media, and Society, as they discuss the challenge of balancing government assistance with substance use, and how lessons learned in research from Ontario could change the equation elsewhere – including here in B.C.

The CHASIcast is available to stream on your favourite podcast services – including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music/Audible, and more.

A full transcript is available on our blog.

The CHASIcast takes a walk on the wild side! Join producer Emma Hones (substitute hosting for Dr. Martha Dow) and four of her esteemed colleagues and friends from CHASI’s Research and Knowledge Mobilization teams as they discuss the fun – and serious – sides of our recent trip to Victoria.

The CHASIcast is available to stream on your favourite podcast services – including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music/Audible, and more.

A full transcript is available on our blog.

This episode, the CHASIcast examines the post-partum complications they don’t talk about. Join host Dr. Martha Dow, along with Dr. Iris Lesser, associate professor at UFV’s School of Kinesiology (and CHASI faculty associate), as they examine how pregnancy and physical activity interact, in a world that’s all about body image.

The CHASIcast is available to stream on your favourite podcast service – Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Google Podcasts, and Amazon Music/Audible.

A full transcript is available at blogs.ufv.ca/chasi/chasicast-13.

The new year brings something sweeter than fiction, as the CHASIcast examines the surprisingly academic folklore hidden behind a pop culture juggernaut. Join host Dr. Martha Dow and CHASI’s lead researcher Chelsea Klassen as they tackle the sociological and psychological facets of Taylor Swift’s work, and how her fearless advocacy and engaging relationship with her fans are blanketing the music world in a lavender haze.

Click here to read the Time magazine article discussed during the episode.

The CHASIcast is available to stream on your favourite podcast service – Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Google Podcas...

The newest episode of the CHASIcast tackles the challenges students and graduates face in turning their hard-earned credentials into a meaningful career in a brave new post-pandemic world. Join host Dr. Martha Dow, along with Dr. Linda Pardy, Associate Dean of Students at UFV’s College of Arts and part of CHASI's new research cluster, CALL, as they discuss the non-linear and unexpected paths students may encounter, and how the unknown element of AI may change the career calculus.

The CHASIcast is available to stream on your favourite podcast service – Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Google Podcasts, and Amaz...

As part of CHASI's ongoing series on the current realities of life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, we are honoured to welcome Fatema D. Ahmadi to the CHASIcast.

Ahmadi is a Fellow and Adjunct Professor at American University, School of Public Affairs in Washington, DC, and is dedicated to advocating for human rights, particularly women’s rights, in Afghanistan. Through her work, Ahmadi aims to spotlight the difficulties faced by vulnerable groups, gather data on human rights abuses, and advocate for transformative change.

In this episode, Ahmadi joins guest host and CHASI Lead Researcher Chelsea Kl...

What does support and care look like for gender diverse people today? On the latest episode of the CHASIcast, we spoke to Stacy (he/him), a registered social worker (MSW) and UFV Alumni (BSW – 2015) who has spent much of his social work career working within healthcare, along with offering private pay counselling. For almost two decades Stacy has dedicated much of his personal and professional time to supporting trans, Two-Spirit, gender diverse, and non-binary individuals — as well as their families— in accessing information and resources around the topic of gender identity.

A subject that seems to feel quite...

On this special Pride episode of the CHASIcast, we welcome four of the amazing students who work at CHASI: Lynsie Beaulieu, Ekat Marenkov, and Miranda Erickson, all research assistants, and Frankie Fowle, a graphic design intern.

After several months seeing targeted hate first hand with the repeated vandalism and theft of CHASI's Pride flags display on campus, they discuss what that experience felt like first-hand, what comes next for Pride on campus, and where they draw their hope and strength from.

Hosted by CHASI’s director Dr. Martha Dow and recorded in CIVL Radio’s stud...

Dr. Shelley Liebembuk, a UFV Assistant Professor of Theatre, dives into her upcoming project on the latest CHASIcast. Premiering Thursday, March 23, The Laramie Project is constructed from the transcripts of over 200 interviews, conducted in the aftermath of the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man, in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1998.

Dr. Liebembuk explains how the intimate setting of theatre can uniquely challenge an audience, how she worked with her cast to handle such challenging material, and the applicability of the play’s themes to our local community in 2023.

More information on the play, including sh...

We’re honoured to welcome Dr. Sarah Beaulieu back to the CHASIcast! As a conflict anthropologist, UFV professor, and CHASI faculty associate, Dr. Beaulieu’s work spans from the classroom to archaeological sites, with a focus on former internment camps and working with First Nations groups.

In this episode, Dr. Beaulieu explains her work with ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and how it intersects with Indigenous traditions, her approach to Indigenizing research work, and uncovering her family’s history for a chapter in a book recently released by UFV’s South Asian Studies Institute.

Content warning: This episode...

Dr. Sarah Beaulieu, a conflict anthropologist, UFV professor, and CHASI faculty associate, joins us on the latest episode of the CHASIcast. Her work spans from the classroom to archaeological sites, with a focus on former internment camps and working with First Nations groups.

In this episode, Dr. Beaulieu discusses how she found a passion for conflict anthropology, the range of ways to memorialize victims, and how she pieces together history using clues ranging from kitchen scraps to escape tunnels.

Hosted by CHASI’s director Dr. Martha Dow and recorded in CIVL Radio’s studio at the...

After a brief hiatus, the CHASIcast returns with Dr. Shelley Canning. As an associate professor in nursing, director of the Centre for Education and Research on Aging (CERA), member of UFV’s Board of Governors, and a CHASI Faculty Associate, Dr. Canning brings considerable knowledge to our podcast.

Dr. Canning’s efforts recently contributed to UFV becoming the first university in B.C. to receive Age-Friendly University status. Alongside celebrating that accomplishment, Dr. Canning and host Dr. Martha Dow discuss Canada’s aging population, how the nursing profession has perhaps lost it’s way, and Dr. Canning’s dream of...

On our latest episode of the CHASIcast, we have the pleasure of speaking with a critical member of the CHASI team: our very own Esther Jiménez Atochero. Esther is CHASI’s senior research assistant, a role that sees her heavily involved in everything from the day-to-day operation of the Hub to our biggest research projects. In the Fall, Esther will be leaving CHASI to begin her master’s program as Carlton University.

Throughout the podcast, Esther shares her insights on UFV and her experience as an international student finding her academic passion, her feedback for UFV on wh...

The CHASIcast is back! Continuing on our trend of speaking to great friends and colleagues of CHASI, like Dr. Jacqueline Nolte, we turn this time to Dr. Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra. Dr. Sandhra has been the coordinator for UFV's South Asian Studies Institute for over a decade, is the co-curator at the Sikh Heritage Museum, co-chair of UFV's Race and Antiracism Network, an instructor in UFV's history department, and most recently earned her PhD from UBC's history department on April 19!

Dr. Sandhra joined us and shared that wealth of experience and knowledge, speaking about her studies on museums...

Our debut episode features an interview with Dr. Jacqueline Nolte, who recently stepped down from her position as UFV's Dean of Arts. Dr. Nolte shares her thoughts on the role of universities as a space for dialogue, empowerment, and agency, on the recent protests in Ottawa, and how her understanding was shaped by years of active resistance against the apartheid state in South Africa.