天美mv天美

Arts Education |doctoral degree | Faculty of Education

Tell us a little about yourself, including what inspires you to learn and continue in your chosen field

Movement is, and has always been, my way of understanding the world. I was a former university athlete, and grew up playing sports. I eventually found myself in olympic weightlifting being coached by my father in law. As I grew into the practice of weightlifting, I found that embodying movement, and the sensuous movement of the sport had similarities in ballet. Interestingly enough, ballet was my first education in movement, before I started playing sports, I was a ballet dancer. So, I am in this intersection of figuring out my identity as something between being an artist and an athlete, and I am diving deeply into this in my doctoral studies.

I am a first generation immigrant from the Philippines. The experiences that led to being an immigrant in Vancouver shaped the way that I am today.  I owe a lot of my achievements to my  family because they have sacrificed so much to give me a brighter future.

Above all, I am married to beautiful human being who supports me in pursuing my doctoral studies. We have a toddler, so a huge part of who I am revolves around raising our family. I would not be here without them. They inspire me to see the world differently, to contribute to the future generation, and to the discourse around art, immigration, and the body.

Why did you choose to come to 天美mv天美?

I wanted to come home. I completed my master's degree at the School for the Contemporary Arts, and I am grateful for all of the  learning, teaching, mentoring, and researching opportunities that the school has offered me. More importantly, I鈥檝e heard about the incredible work that the faculty members Celeste, Ching, Lynn, and Vicki in Arts Education are doing, and Laura recommended that I look into their work. My research is in the intersection of ballet, embodiment, performance, and weightlifting. Therefore, going to the Faculty of Education felt like a natural extension of some of the projects that I have already been working on at SCA鈥攖his was the biggest draw in returning to 天美mv天美 for my doctoral studies.

How would you describe your research or your program to a family member?

My research is about understanding the lived experiences of my body, and by extension the migrant body. Our bodies hold and transmit knowledge, and we learn, at a young age, to disassociate ourselves from our very own bodies. We are taught to control our thoughts and feelings, but my view of the body is through the post-humanist lens, that gender, identity, and the body are dynamic, and are free of forms of control. In my research, I ask what happens when we give ourselves, or the migrant body, the physical and mental practice like ballet 鈥╰o pull ourselves higher? I place the humanist and post-humanist discourse in conversation with each other, and use ballet as embodied methodology to decolonize, or undo old learning making room for what is yet to come.

What three (3) keywords would you use to describe your research?

Ballet, embodiment, performance.

How have your courses, RA-ships, TA-ships, or non-academic school experiences contributed to your academic and/or professional development?

Because of my background in Art History, I was able to find teaching assistantships for courses in Classical Mythology and English, in addition to Contemporary Arts courses. These have enriched my academic and professional growth. My time at the School for Contemporary Arts gave me the opportunity to be a research assistant to Dr. Laura U. Marks, and a teaching assistant to Dr. Dorothy Barenscott, incredible professors who mentored me well. This prepared me to build a strong foundation, and be ready for the opportunities in the Faculty of Education. I am a currently a research assistant to Dr. Ching-Chiu Lin, she is phenomenal at what she does, and how she cares for, guides, and mentors me and my peers. Being in Arts Education feels like a natural transition from what I learned when I was in SCA. Arts Education places value on our lived experiences, that everything we come across contributes to our learning. Nothing is isolated in learning whether one affects the other directly or tangentially. My coursework in Arts Education has been nothing short of phenomenal, the biggest thank-you鈥檚 to Dr. Lynn Fels, Dr. Vicki Kelly, Dr. Celeste Snowber, and Dr. Lilach Marom for creating the jump-off points for my studies.

Have you been the recipient of any major or donor-funded awards? If so, please tell us which ones and a little about how the awards have impacted your studies and/or research

I am humbled and grateful to be the recipient of the Dean's Graduate Fellowship Award, and the Marela Dichupa Award. These awards have supported my studies and research by giving me the time and space that I need to research the body through ballet and weightlifting, diving into the immigrant experience, and exploring various theories and methodologies.

What have been the most valuable lessons you've learned along your graduate student journey (or in becoming a graduate student)?

One of the most valuable lessons I've learned in my graduate student journey is creating communities of support with our peers. When I was an athlete, my old mentality was to compete for anything and everything i.e. I needed to win the scholarship, I needed to publish this, and that is not healthy. So, I question this idea of scoring points in my graduate studies, and it opened up the space for me to grow, and create spaces for appreciation and love for my peers. There are five of us in our 2024 cohort, and we are a close-knit group. We are in each other鈥檚 lives by virtue of knowing our individual challenges outside of grad school, and we cheer each other on. It is through them, and the peers that I have come across in other courses that I value creating a community of learning because we each have unique experiences, talents, areas of expertise. Academic research, they say, can feel isolating, so I think that we are leaning onto each other to push and pull as needed.

How do you approach networking and building connections in and outside of your academic community?

I value genuine connections through conversations and open dialogue.

What are some tips for balancing your academic and personal life?

I like waking up early to do my academic work, and write. Ideally having balance means focussing my mental energy on intellectual work when my family is still asleep because I treasure my time with them. This doesn鈥檛 happen often, but this is what I find exciting鈥攕tructuring my days, and following through the setbacks. Sometimes, it doesn鈥檛 happen, sometimes it does. But, I believe that the habits that I build now will follow me in my academic life.

The other tip is prioritization. There is no such thing as a fully balanced academic and personal life as these bleed into each other. But, knowing what the priorities are鈥攆or me, that鈥檚 my family. So when my child is sick (we are always sick because they鈥檙e in school), my energy is focused on the health of my family, making sure that I am supporting my spouse the way that she takes care of me so that I can go to school.  It's giving and taking in the balancing act of dancing through life.

Contact: r_anzaburgess@sfu.ca

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