Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies
Jen Marchbank’s community activism guides teaching philosophy
Jen Marchbankās stellar teaching record has earned the professor in the Department of Gender, Sexuality and Womenās Studies a 2019 911³Ō¹Ļ Excellence in Teaching Award.
Marchbank considers teaching to be a privilege and wants her students to leave her classroom informed, excited, and enthusiastic to learn more.
āIāve always been a strong advocate that an academicās job is to teach, because if we donāt teach, we donāt have students and we donāt have revenue, so thereās no place for us to conduct our research,ā she says. āIām also a strong advocate for putting our most talented teachers in the early classes so that students get a sound grounding across the board.ā
One studentās comments sum up the general tenor of responses to Marchbankās approach to teaching, describing her as āpatient, understanding, enthusiastic, accessibleāone of the best profs Iāve ever had.ā
Rather than separating teaching, research and community activism into silos, Marchbank intertwines the three. Her own community-based research into the politics of care, gendered violence, refugee settlement, LGBTQ history and gender variant youth informs her teaching and helps her students to realize the potential of experiential learning and action for social justice.
For example, graduate students in one of her courses conducted a commissioned research project that resulted in the commissioning agency, DIVERSEcity, receiving funds to create a new service for LGBTQ refugees in Surrey, B.C.
She has also involved her graduate students in a series of LGBTQ oral history exhibits that she spearheaded for Surrey City Hall. And as director of She Talks, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering young women, she asks her students to help with programming for a weekly radio talk show she produces.
Marchbank is always seeking ways her students can demonstrate successes beyond just exams and essays.
āIf I can get students to engage, thatās what itās all about,ā she says. āIām not about students rote learning. I try to devise my courses and assignments in ways that students can show off what they do understand.ā
Her creative course content and assignment options include film analysis, short-answer final exams, art work, poetry and zinesāeven videos of interpretive dance. Given that students live in a multi-media world, she uses a range of media to enhance their learning. One innovative method saw her send lecture slides to classes in advance via Twitter so students could listen to her rather than take notes.
āIt was my attempt to get my lecture material into their phones so when theyāre looking at their phones they might actually one day also look at my lecture materials,ā she jokes.