Congratulations to Dr. Stephanie Glick for the recent publication her paper titled Where Flesh Meets Paper: Embodied Journaling as Antiracist and Decolonial Sites for Learning and Healing published in the Harvard Educational Review. Dr. Glick co-authored the article with former students, Micah Favel, Nina Gaind, and Arianna Valentino. Together, they unpack how university courses that focus on social (in)justice, (de)coloniality, and (anti)racism tend to engage students only cognitively, overlooking the fact embodied and spiritual dimensions of knowing. The study reflects on the value of engaging somatic and neurobiological practices. To this end, the paper focuses on an embodied journaling assignment that Dr. Glick developed. The goal of this assignment was to aid students in recognizing, interpreting, and recording their bodies’ signals in the process of learning about critical social issues. The study demonstrate how listening to signals that emerge in the body as we learn about social in/justice can also unearth our own hidden biases and liberations.
Dr. Handel Wright receives 2026 Emancipation Day Proclamation on behalf of Vancouver’s Black communities
The City of Vancouver held an Emancipation Day Proclamation and Reception on July 28th, 2026. In recognition of his work on international, national and local Blackness and especially his contributions to the equity work of the City, Vancouver City Council selected Handel Kashope Wright, Professor in Educational Studies and Director of the Centre for Culture, Identity and Education, to receive from the Mayor and Council, this year’s Emancipation Day Proclamation on behalf of Vancouver’s Black communities. Professor Wright’s work with the City has included membership on the Mayor of Vancouver’s Advisory Committee on Black History Month; membership of the City of Vancouver’s External Advisory Committee on Equity and Diversity; contribution to the City’s Anti-Black Racism Framework and Action Plan; and a study titled Historical Research on the Experiences of Black and African Diaspora Communities in Vancouver https://vancouver.ca/people-programs/addressing-and-redressing-anti-black-racism.aspx
M.Ed EDAL Online Info Session
May 5th and August 20, 2026
EDAL Fully On-line Intake Information Session Meetings
Tuesday May 5, 2026. 3:30 – 4:30pm PST
Thursday August 20, 2026. 1:30 – 2:30pm PST
Meeting ID: 682 5011 4489
Passcode: 717647
Blacktalk Podcast
To mark Canada Day (July 1st), the podcast BlackTalk released an episode in conversation with EDST Professor Handel K. Wright. Here’s the link to the episode:
“In this episode of BlackTalk, Professor Andy Knight (University of Alberta) is joined by Dr. Handel Wright. Their conversation begins with a clear and necessary discussion of anti-Blackness: what it means, how it operates, and how it appears not only in individual encounters, but also through institutions, education, public life, and history. They also discuss the denial, erasure, and forgetting of Black presence in British Columbia, the challenges facing Black youth in Canada, and the responsibilities that often come with Black leadership. This episode asks us to think seriously about what it means to build communities where Black young people can thrive. Not only through representation, but through history, belonging, solidarity, and a willingness to learn from Black youth themselves.”
“Professor Handel K. Wright, Director of the Centre for Culture, Identity, and Education at the University of British Columbia, specializes in cultural studies, anti-racism, and multicultural education. He co-edits the African and Diasporic Cultural Studies book series and serves on several editorial boards. A former Canada Research Chair, he has published extensively on African cultural studies, anti-racist education, and qualitative research and is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg.”
Campus Resident Summer Photo Contest Winner July 2026 – Mahfida Tahniat
Mahfida’s Tahniat, EDST PhD student, is the winner of the Summer Photo Contest for the month of July 2026 organized by the Campus Resident.
About the contest rules: https://thecampusresident.ca/enter-our-summer-vacation-photo-contest/
Brunner, Lisa
About
Research Interests
Adult education, Citizenship and democracy, Higher Education, International and Comparative Education, International migration, Post-colonial studies, Research methodologies
Bio
I study education and international migration, with a focus on how settler colonial states and institutions govern mobility and belonging. My areas of specialization include adult and higher education, Canadian immigration policy, international student mobility, temporary and multi-step migration, refugee resettlement, citizenship education, and newcomer settlement and integration from a critical perspective. My current research is part of the “Migrant Integration in the Mid 21st Century: Bridging Divides” Canada First Research Excellence Fund research program.
As a scholar-practitioner, I also engage in policy-relevant knowledge mobilization and contribute to professional communities of practice. I have over fifteen years of professional work experience in adult and higher education, including as an International Student Advisor, Strategic Initiatives & Special Projects Coordinator, and Curriculum Designer for cultural orientation and citizenship education programs. I am a Public Policy Consultant with the Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of British Columbia (AMSSA) and have been a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant since 2014. In 2025, I appeared before the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration to provide expert witness testimony for the “International Student Program and Study Permits” study.
Research and Education
Education
University of British Columbia, PhD (Educational Studies)
Simon Fraser University, MA (Geography)
University of Pittsburgh, BA (English Literature and Political Science)
Selected publications
Peer reviewed journal articles
Brunner, L. R., Streitwieser, B., & Bhandari, R. (2026). Classifications and clarifications: Rethinking international student mobility and the voluntariness of migration. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 24(2), 549–563. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2023.2261416
Brunner, L. R. (2025). International student mobility and the politics of distance education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 56(2), 870-889. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13543
Brunner, L. R., & McCartney, D. M. (2025). Colonial logics as public secrets of international student mobility. Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.6047
Brunner, L. R., Shokirova, T., Gamal, M., & Stein, S. (2025). Higher education’s care/control of refugee and displaced students. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 12(2), 11–33. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/2212
Brunner, L. R., Trilokekar, R. D., Morris-Lange, S., Liu, H., Laufer, M., El Masri, A., & Joshi, A. (2025). Magnets, gatekeepers, surveillants, and refiners: The emergence of higher education institutions as migration governance actors in Australia, Canada, and Germany, 1990 to 2019. International Journal of Educational Research, 129, 102490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2024.102490
Brunner, L. R., & Tao, W. W. (2024). Artificial intelligence and automation in the migration governance of international students: An accidental ethnography. Journal of International Students, 14(1), 269-288. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v14i4.5762
Brunner, L. R., Karki, K. K., & Valizadeh, N., Shokirova, T., & Coustere, C. (2024). Unfamiliarities, uncertainties, and ambivalent long-term intentions: Conceptualizing international student-migrant settlement and integration. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 25, 973–996. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-024-01116-1
Brunner, L. R. (2023). Settler nation-building through immigration as a rationale for higher education: A critical discourse analysis. Higher Education Research & Development, 42(5), 1086-1102. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2023.2193732
Brunner, L. R. (2023). Higher education institutions as eyes of the state: Canada’s international student compliance regime. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 21(2), 236-251. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2022.2037407
Brunner, L. R. (2022). Towards a more just Canadian education-migration system: International student mobility in crisis. Studies in Social Justice, 16(1), 79-102. https://doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v16i1.2685
Brunner, L. R. (2021). ‘Edugration’ as a wicked problem: Higher education and three-step immigration. Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, 13(5), 4. https://doi.org/10.32674/jcihe.v13i5S.4061
Brunner, L. R. (2017). Higher educational institutions as emerging immigrant selection actors: A history of British Columbia’s retention of international graduates, 2001–2016. Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 1(1), 22-41. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322969.2016.1243016
Other publications
Brunner, L. R., & Mehta, D. (2026). Pathway promises and policy realities: Lessons from the international student reset of Canada. Migration Policy Practice, XV(1), 43-50. https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0452544
Brunner, L. R. (2025). Canadian international student policy at a crossroads. Policy Brief No. 1, October 2025. Institute for Research on Public Policy. https://centre.irpp.org/research-studies/canadian-international-student-policy-crossroads/
Brunner, L. R., & Cervantes-Macías, M. E. (2025). Reflections on Canada’s first international student cap. Critical Internationalization Studies Review, 4(1), article 2. https://doi.org/10.70531/2832-3211.1043
EDST Activity
Courses taught
EDST 401: Education, School, and Social Institutions
EDST 493: Introduction to the Study of Higher Education
EDST 513: Current Issues in Higher Education
EDST 521: Foundations of Higher Education (Teaching in 2026/2027 Winter Term 1)
EDST 540B: Locating Oneself in Global Learning
With students from my EDST 401 course, awarded the Student Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization Funding Grant (Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia) for the project “Decolonization, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, and Teacher Identity: B.Ed. Self-Reflective Writing Project.” Check out our zine here!
Additional
Editorial board member, Comparative and International Education (2025-present)
