Jean Mitchell

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Slide - 50 Years, 50 Voices - Jean Mitchell - 00:00 
My name is Jean Mitchell, and I was a student at UPEI in the 1970’s, and
then I joined the Faculty in 2000. 
Slide - Student Life & Academic Advancement - 00:14 
Grew up in the North Shore, and I was a product of the Island Development
Plan, so, so coming to university was a really important event for me as a
human being, and I wouldn't be the same person now or have the same way of
looking at the world if it were not for UPEI, so for me, having professors
who were critical thinkers opened up a world to me. I can't explain how
profound it was, to have, to learn about social criticism, social critique,
political critique, social and cultural change because it located me, as a
young person, within that whole theory and practice of social and cultural
change. 

Slide - An Interactive Education - 01:05 
I was studying Sociology, Anthropology, and Philosophy, and it was such an
interesting, group, and so there was a lot of discussion, a lot of
animation, a lot of interaction between professors and students who got
invited to parties at their houses, routinely as students and so it was a
really informal way of learning, but also a very rigorous approach to
learning as well there were big questions asked and so, I felt you know,
it's so much smaller than in the 70’s, and it was a new Institution, but
it was a really marvellous Institution and it generated a feeling of
inclusivity, and meeting other people although we didn't have so many
international students, of course but we had students from other provinces,
and even coming from a rural area, I met Islanders from other places, so,
the relationship between my teachers at that time, and students, was a very
friendly, informal and yet a provocative relationship, so I enjoyed it, I
was here at a great, I hope every student says here that they were here at
a great time, because I surely was. 

Slide - Working with young people - 02:22 
I've worked a lot with young people for example, when I went to Vanuatu to
do my PhD, I didn't intend to work with young people, but I lived in a
slum, I chose to live in a slum because the South Pacific was the fastest
growing urbanizing area in the world, and I had worked in India in urban
programs, so I was really curious what's happening on these islands, so I
lived in a slum, but I wanted to talk to elders about cultural change, but
what happened was that this slum was full of young people, and they weren't
even mentioned in any of the literature, so I then started a project with a
cultural centre there I'm training young people to do research and so I
spent 4 years I worked with CUSO for part of this to train young people to
do research, and it was really, really amazing. I think imparting young
people to, with skills to think about their world and to do to answer some
of the not only to ask questions, but to find ways to answer their own
questions, is very important to me, but I also feel they need to know the
history of ideas, so that's the less fun part in lots of courses, but think
ideas like society; it has a genealogy, the way we think about the social;
it has a
genealogy; culture has a genealogy; power relationships have a genealogy so
there has to be a mix of I think, of rigorous study and reading, and also
actually doing things and applying those ideas, so strangely enough, I tend
to work, always include youth in every project I have, because I think we,
that experiential learning is important. 

Slide - Teaching at UPEI - 04:12 
As a teacher here, I teach Anthropology and we teach Sociology and
Anthropology courses, so we have a combined program, you can do a Sociology
degree, an Anthropology degree or a combined degree, which is a wonderful
thing to have and so we've seen our students go off and do all kinds of
things; social work of course, law, research, teaching, a number of them
have gone on to do PhDs so I see that, you know, for me...this was so
foundational in my life, this experience at UPEI, and I hope that we can
make it foundational for other people too, but at the same time I'll say
over 19 years, the student is changing there's a lot of new developments in
student lives, and so we have to continuously try and readjust our teaching
to connect, so that's a big challenge, and I have no ready answers for that
but doing field work in unexpected and serendipitous situations helps a
little bit. 

Slide - Internationalizing and Indigenizing UPEI - 05:24
It's amazing to see the University internationalize and indigenize and I
think those are you know, very important aspects of UPEI at the moment, and
having lived overseas quite a lot, I certainly know what a big adjustment
it is for students to come here and to settle into a new place especially
when they are so young. And so I think students need a lot of support,
maybe it's in language training for some, maybe it's just social support in
other ways, so that we don't have to so that we can really benefit from
getting to know, for example, international students. And I'm also really,
really committed to the notion of indigenizing curriculum, decolonizing
curriculum, from my years overseas, I think that's absolutely essential and
so, it's a very exciting time for people in social and cultural studies,
diversity studies, social justice. So yes, I'm very excited about those
possibilities but at the same time I realize the supports are very much
necessary and it will make the University much more vibrant, and make the
Island ever so much vibrant too, because that comparative perspective
certainly enriches the classroom. It's wonderful to go into a classroom and
to ask someone from India about their experience, someone from Nigeria
about their experience or someone from the Mauritius, so it really
enriches, I think, our lives.

Slide - Island Studies and L. M. Montgomery - 07:03 
So, when I lived in India, and I decided to leave, it was one of the
hardest decisions I ever made in my life because I was so, I loved my work
so much, but I just had to these you know, I had to do more research, I had
to do more studying, and so I thought, where can I go that's totally
different from India? Of course, the South Pacific, Archipelagos you know,
all these islands and atolls and…So I went to Kiribati, and that begun my
work in the South Pacific, and so I've been working in the South Pacific
now for over 24 years, doing research in various countries I could you know
it will never be enough, I'm always plotting how to get back, and how to do
more and it has brought me to the Island I was so excited through
Montgomery studies I was able to connect Prince Edward Island and Vanuatu,
and that has been such a treasure because... you know, Montgomery was a
very strong Presbyterian, among other things, and Presbyterian missionaries
from Prince Edward Island were very instrumental in bringing, in
Christianizing the South Pacific, but particularly Vanuatu, so I've been
doing research on the Gordon Brothers, who were killed there, and so I
couldn't really believe that...that link was made, because they seemed so
far away. So Island Studies, I've been very involved with Island Studies, I
think it's a marvelous program,it  offers opportunities for students to do
master's and my colleague Udo Krautwurst and I, are co-supervisors of
students and so Island Studies, it was very, again, very important for me.

Slide - Education and the Changing World - 09:08 
Learning is such a privilege. My experience overseas says so few people get
an opportunity to study, at an advanced level, and it's made a world of
difference for me, and I think it does make a world of difference for
people, so I think that transformative aspect of education, that idea that
you know Socrates said, education is jogging a memory and so, when we
approach education in that way, is the recognition that everybody knows
something important, so that kind of respectful learning, understanding
that everybody brings something into the classroom, and I think as a
teacher, and as an institution, it's building that confidence and that
courage in young people to face the kind of world that they are now facing,
because it's very challenging for young people; the environmental crises
it's hard to imagine what a difference it was for me as a young person
coming here, where I never had to worry about the environment; I never had
to worry about the economy, there were jobs available, I was very fortunate
with the opportunities I’ve had in my life and now young people are very
worried about the environment, they are very worried about the economy, and
that transforms a classroom, so we have to be very sensitive to that larger
context of the world that they are going to inhabit, and try to navigate,
and what we expect in the classroom. So, really, this requires intense
thinking how should we approach teaching? recognizing the big picture, and
yet building skills locally, so I think that's a conversation that we were
having here, and I want to contribute to it.

Slide - Jim Rodd - 11:07 
So when I started teaching I never taught formally, except as a teacher’s
assistant during my PhD so Jim Rodd had started teaching at the same time,
so that was of course, very meaningful for me, we became very good friends
and we became partners and he was a marvellous teacher, he just was so
committed to teaching and he was doing this PhD here as well, in Education,
and he, he was an undergraduate here too, and I know how formative had been
for him, as a young person he came back to school in his late 20’s and
so, he did his Masters and he worked full time he used to bring the bunker
oil here, and he would drive over to Dartmouth at night and bring it back,
and then he'd change and come and go to school and Dr. Dasgupta admired him
so much for doing that, and he ended up having one of the highest averages
in the Arts, I think he was in the top 3 but he was doing that kind of work
in order to study, and he did his Master's he's got a scholarship to do
that and then his prestigious PhD, and then he got seriously ill, he was
detected a bone it was a, sorry, it was a brain tumor, and so but he taught
here for a number of years, and so that was a great gift to our department
and to me personally, and again, a great loss.

Slide - Final Thoughts - 12:54 
When I went away, and when I studied again, I felt so prepared, and that's
the thing that now as a University Professor that's what I want to impart
to my students, that we have so much to offer here as a small university,
and that analytical, critical thinking and reading for joy just pure joy,
pure escapism is a fantastic way to enter into the world and the various
dialogues and conversations that we become a part of, and so I have, I owe
a huge debt to UPEI, as an individual, as a young really a very young
person, coming from a rural area without very much experience of the world,
but wanting to learn, and I had so much freedom here as a young person, to
learn, so I love UPEI, I owe it so much, and I wanted to only to teach
here, I never really wanted to teach anywhere else, because there's just so
much to learn and to relate to in terms of experience in social and
cultural theory.