“What does being a scholar mean to you?” How do we create learning communities that offer participants the agency to thrive? This question is at the heart of our “Beyond the Academy” research initiative in partnership with researchers Andrea Webb and Jillianne Code at the University of British Columbia. Through qualitative and quantitative methods, we have gathered insights from professional learners who know firsthand what it means to teach, be taught and co-create knowledge: PhD Students and alumni. In this episode, we share some of our findings, implications, and next steps for this ongoing work.  Topics covered in this episode include:  What does being a scholar mean to you?  Professional agency within and beyond the academy  Communities of practice and the benefits of building a constellation of communities   Dr. Andrea Webb spent a decade as a classroom teacher and department head before returning to higher education as a teacher educator. Her research interests lie in teaching and learning in higher education and she is involved in research projects related to Threshold Concepts, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and Social Studies Teacher Education.   Dr. Jillianne Code is a Canadian researcher, educator, and learning scientist specializing in learner agency, online learning technologies, and the impact of social media on student success and well-being. As the Director of the ALIVE Research Lab at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Code studies agency ‘unbundled’ from formal education, including video games, virtual reality, technology education, and social media communities.

"Everybody wants to be heard. They have a story to tell." Music is a universal language that can activate a community. In this episode, Dwandalyn Reece discusses her work examining the material culture of music, telling stories across contexts, and making knowledge accessible to general audiences.   Topics covered in this episode include:  Telling the stories behind the objects of music to reach people  How to determine whether what you’re doing has an impact  How listening better helps build relationships  Dr. Dwandalyn R. Reece is Curator of Music and Performing Arts at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and curated the museum’s permanent exhibition, Musical Crossroads for which she received the Secretary’s Research Prize in 2017. Reece has collaborated with other SI units on such programs as the 2016 NMAAHC Grand Opening Festival, Freedom Sounds: A Community Celebration and the 2011 Folklife Festival program, Rhythm & Blues: Tell it Like It Is. She is chair of the SI pan-institutional group Smithsonian Music and is currently working on the NMAAHC and Smithsonian Folkways collaboration, The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap, and serving as co-curator of the Smithsonian Year of Music. 

"It's that interconnectedness that really defines Indigenous ways of knowing." In this episode, we share highlights from our Hikma Office Hours event about Indigenous ways of knowing and how to work with partners and collaborators in a meaningful and respectful ways to drive change. Camille Callison brings expert knowledge and lived experience to our conversation about Indigenous knowledges, reconciliation, and building relationships in library, archival and cultural memory praxis.  Topics covered in this episode include:  Getting comfortable talking about truth, reconciliation, and “Indigenous ways of knowing” Better practices for collaboration and partnership with Indigenous communities  Connecting scholarship with local knowledge to advance better policies, practices, and tools

"I don't break things without consequence." In this episode, Brittany Brathwaite discusses her willingness to break the rules in order to change the world, our society, or ourselves for the better. Brittany shares insights from her work interrupting health inequality for women and girls of color, supporting women and non-binary owned businesses, and creating a community of practice for youth workers. We cover topics such as: What is a worker-owned co-operative business model Countering the idea of disruption in innovation Advice for building more humanity into business and operationalizing your values both externally and internally

“The practice of entrepreneurship is the ‘how,’ and the social is the ‘why.’” In this conversation, author and social entrepreneur Madeleine Shaw invites us to reimagine the landscape of entrepreneurship. She shares insights about how we are all unlearning something, how flexibility is the new balance, and how we can create the conditions for social change using empathy, storytelling, and community. Topics covered in this episode include: Employing the tools of entrepreneurship to build the scaffolding for social change, The importance of nurturing relationships, How to communicate productively with people who might not share the same values, and Encouragement and advice for people just starting out and for those who want to start doing better Speaker Bio: Madeleine Shaw is a social entrepreneur and author based on unceded Coast Salish territory (Vancouver BC). She is best known as the co-founder of Aisle (formerly Lunapads), one of the first groundbreaking ventures in the world to commercialize reusable menstrual products. In 2014 she founded G Day, an event series for girls, and in 2018 she launched Nestworks, a family-friendly coworking community. In her first book, The Greater Good: Social Entrepreneurship for Everyday People Who Want to Change the World, she offers encouraging tips and reflections for aspiring impact-based entrepreneurs. Check out The Greater Good: https://madeleineshaw.ca/the-greater-good/

“It’s a way of honoring the knowledge and experience that’s in the room.” Generative questions are a way of entering a conversation with a new or existing partner and honouring the knowledge and experience that’s in the room. To kick off Season 3, Hikma’s founder Erica Machulak shares 3 tips for asking generative questions to spark authentic conversations with your potential partners and collaborators. These tips will help you: Start collaborative projects on the right foot, Surface potential connections that may not always be intuitive or visible, and Maintain relationships over time. In the episodes that follow in this season, we talk with some of our dream mentors and show firsthand how we use generative questions to leverage our empathy and curiosity to move conversations forward.

In this episode, Dr. Farinaz (Naz) Havaei discusses her research in the long-term care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. She shares some of the findings that emerged from a series of dialogues with key stakeholders about new policies that were implemented during the pandemic. She also shares recommendations for improving these policies to help build resilience in the sector and improve quality of life and conditions for long-term care residents, families, and health care workers.  Topics discussed in this episode include: How and why Naz pivoted her research focus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some unintended consequences of new policies implemented in the long-term care sector during the pandemic, how they revealed existing systemic issues, and recommendations for addressing these issues. Who these recommendations are for, what the next steps are, and why this work will remain relevant long after the COVID-19 pandemic. And the incredible resilience and power of nurses! Dr. Havaei is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia (UBC). UBC is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam First Nation. This episode was produced by Hikma Strategies. It includes original music composed by Matthew Tomkinson, the 2022 Hikma Artist in Residence. Recording Date: May 5, 2022

In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk with Brian Hunt about his research with herring around Denman Island, how microplastics can enter the food web, and why tackling microplastics requires a multi-directional approach and all levels of action. Brian also shares his story about how an obsession with fish and an opportunity to join an Antarctic voyage helped shape his career, and how he (somewhat reluctantly) joined the research effort to help tackle the microplastics problem. Topics discussed in this episode include: What a research study in microplastics looks like, from the perspective of a marine biologist who never planned to be a marine biologist How to navigate the vast systems involved in the plastics problem by identifying a place to start and working outwards The exciting potential of the UBC microplastics cluster to bring together different disciplines and partners to solve complex problems And the many benefits of doing this work in British Columbia! Dr. Brian Hunt is a member of the UBC Cluster for Microplastics, Health and the Environment, which brings together a highly interdisciplinary group of scholars aiming to ultimately support the development of informed policies regarding plastics pollution. UBC is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam First Nation on the Point Grey campus, and the Syilx Peoples on the Okanagan campus. This episode was produced for the UBC Cluster for Microplastics, Health and the Environment by Hikma Strategies. It includes original music composed by Matthew Tomkinson, the 2022 Hikma Artist in Residence. This score interweaves musical notes and the crunching and clicking of plastic to evoke the omnipresence of microplastics throughout our ecosystem. Matthew holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from the University of British Columbia.  Recording Date: Apr 1, 2022

Erica Machulak, founder of Hikma, shares three of her top tips for planning an effective and manageable funding strategy for the next year. This episode provides a taste of what you can expect in Hikma's 'Funding Strategy' masterclass. For more information visit www.hikma.studio/masterclass

A conversation with Bill Neill about building relationships, keeping your work in perspective, opportunities in the tech sector, and what we mean when we say "coding." Topics discussed in this episode include: Finding the right career path based on what things you enjoy doing and defining what you are good at. Insights, tips, and questions to ask yourself when starting a business. How to ask for advice and the value of your network. The importance of staying grounded and preserving your own wellbeing. Since graduating with his Bachelor of Science from UPenn’s Wharton School of Business, Bill Neill has held leadership and consulting roles at some of the biggest names in software and healthtech — Epic, Hyland, and Nordic Consulting, to name a few. His robust knowledge of healthtech — and the needs when it comes to hiring for these types of specialized companies — translates well to the recruiting world and co-founding of Carex Consulting Group, a staffing company that helps match companies with top talent. Originally from San Francisco, Bill witnessed the tech boom of Silicon Valley right outside his door, and the free flow of ideas and innovation ecosystem of the Bay Area is something that’s stuck with him throughout his career, which is evident in his passion for startups and entrepreneurial ventures. In addition to loving a good dad joke, he’s the one we go to when we’re looking to buy our next gadget — headphones especially. Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-neill-8b944845/ https://www.carexconsulting.com/