Kedrick James

Director

Education

Other Titles: Professor of Teaching
Office: EME 3139
Phone: 250-807-8119
Email: kedrick.james@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Arts-Based Research; Digital Literacies; Digital Research Methods; English Language Arts; Environmental Theory and Practice; Literacy Education; Literature and Poetry; Teacher Education

Biography

Dr. James is a Professor of Teaching in the Department of Language and Literacy Education in the Faculty of Education at UBC Vancouver. On July 2, 2024, he assumed the role of interim Director of the School for a two-year term. His diverse background, including roles in education, language consultancy, the arts and small business ownership, informs his interdisciplinary approach to scholarly research, teaching and service.

His leadership and multiple advisory roles within the UBC Faculty of Education underscore his dedication to academic excellence and mentorship.

Driven by a commitment to decolonize education, Dr. James’ research explores the intersections between language and various ecologies, aiming to promote ecological and social justice in educational settings. He also conducts digital arts-based research on the automation of literacy and its socio-cultural impacts.

A pioneer in educational software development, Dr. James founded PhoneMe, a social media app dedicated to user-curated place-based poetry, and Singling, a text-sonification qualitative data analysis software designed to aid individuals with visual impairments in skim reading text. Additionally, he is dedicated to environmental preservation, focusing on the wild grasslands of Boundary Country in southern British Columbia.

Websites

Kedrick James: https://kedrickjames.net/

Research Interests & Projects

Digital Literacy Centre, a collective of researchers/academic/artists that explore approaches to literacy and digital media research: https://dlsn.lled.educ.ubc.ca/

PhoneMe Project, a social network for place-based, spoken poetry: https://www.phonemeproject.com/explore

SINGLING: Text Sonification, a software that combines Natural Language Processing and Musical Instrument Digital Interface: https://dlsn.lled.educ.ubc.ca/wordpress/singling/

The Patch: Digital Methods of Arts-based Research, a project that explores: https://dlsn.lled.educ.ubc.ca/wordpress/the_patch/

Selected Publications & Presentations

Ahn, C., Balyasnikova, N., Horst, R., James, K., Morales, E., Takeda, Y., & Yung, E. (2023). Enhancing relationality through poetic engagement with PhoneMe: Transmodal contexts and interpretive agency, Language and Literacy 25(2), 57-83.

Gladwin, D., Horst, R., James, K., Sameshima, P. (2022). Imagining futures literacies: A collaborative practice. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 22(7), 27-39. https://doi.org/10.33423/jhetp.v22i7

James, K., Horst, R., Takeda, Y., & Morales, E. (2021). A patch-work of pedagogical potential: A syn(aes)thetic approach to technologically enhanced multimedia text production. McGill Journal of Education.

Morales, E., James, K., Horst, R., Takeda, Y., & Yung, E. (2021). The sound of our words: Singling, a textual sonification software. In Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD). https://icad2021.icad.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ICAD_2021_38.pdf

Horst, R., James, K., Morales, E., Takeda, Y., & Yung, E. (2021). Skunk Tales: A collaborative, multimodal, futures narrative. In Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies Celebration of Scholarly and Artistic Works.

James, K., Morales, E., Horst, R., & Yung, E. (2020). Singling: Text sonification and the literacoustics of language-to-MIDI transformations. In A. Klobucar (Ed.), The Community and the Algorithm. 20 pages. Vernon Press.

Peña, E., & James, K. (2020). Raw harmonies: Transmediation through raw data. Leonardo, 53(2), 183-188.

Horst, R., James, K., Takeda, Y., & Rowluck, W. (2020). From play to creative extrapolation: Fostering emergent computational thinking in the makerspace. Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability, 15(5), 40-54.

Balyasnikova, N., & James, K. (2020). PhoneMe poetry: Mapping community in the digital age. Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Engaged Research, Teaching and Learning, 6(2). 107-117. https://doi.org/10.15402/esj.v6i2.69984

Karasick, A., & James, K. (2020). To breath poetry among the neighbors: Two essays on Anerca, a journal of experimental writing (1985-1990). Among the Neighbors ,13, 1-39.

James, K., Peña, E., Takeda, Y., & Digital Literacy Centre. (2020). Transmedia: An improvisualization. In B. Gervais & S. Marcotte (Eds.), Attention à la Marche! Mind the Gap!: Thinking Electronic Literature in a Digital Culture | Penser la Littérature Électronique en Culture Numérique (pp. 85-102). Les Presse De l’Écureuil.

James, K. (2019). Mapping sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) through curriculum and practice in a Canadian teacher education program. Canadian Journal of Education 42(4), 957-991.

James, K. (Writer / Producer) (2019). TEFA Interview Findings on SOGI Inclusion [Podcast]. Teacher Education for All Curriculum Mapping Project Interviews. University of British Columbia. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/tefainterviews/2019/08/23/

James, K. (2019). Spring. In B. White, P. Sameshima, & A. Sinner (Eds.), MA: Materiality in teaching and learning. (pp. 221-232). Peter Lang.

Selected Grants & Awards

Murray Elliott Service Award for Outstanding Contributions to Teacher Education, 2018