Roberta Buiani
Instructor
New One Coordinator
NEW103 – Digital technology and society / NEW113 – Unpacking Digital Technology
New media and technologies are constantly reshaped, they form complex networks and merge with all living and non-human forms, remaking themselves and becoming obsolete as we speak: it is crucial that we develop better tools to understand their functioning and that we interrogate their usage and significance in and outside the classroom. I am very thrilled to draw on my current interdisciplinary experience and research interests as an artist and media scholar, and as the artistic director of the ArtSci Salon at the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences (Toronto) to lead this course: my research focuses on how scientific and technological mechanisms translate, encode and transform the natural and human world, and how new interdisciplinary approaches may help comprehend its increasing complexity. My recently awarded SSHRC research creation project draws on feminist technoscience and on collaborative encounters across technoscience and the arts to investigate those newly emerging or newly created (biological or digital) forms exceeding the categories defined by traditional methods of classification. As an artist, I have presented site-specific, itinerant and collaborative installations at art festivals (Transmediale; Hemispheric Institute Encuentro; Brazil), community centres and galleries (the Free Gallery Toronto; Immigrant Movement International, Queens; Artscape Youngplace, for Myseum of Toronto), and science institutions (RPI; the Fields Institute). ArtSci Salon, Personal Website.
Alexandra Guerson
New One Coordinator
(Vice-Principal. Honorary Member)
A university degree can hold the key to many careers and yet our university years can be either a liberating time of self-discovery and learning or a dreary anxiety-filled time that we hope to forget. Having had both experiences, my teaching has always been infused with promoting engagement in and out of the classroom and ensuring my students have the tools they need to succeed. Having taught at New College’s International Programs for the past seven years, the needs of first-year students has been foremost in my mind for quite some time. I bring this interest to the New One Program, where our dynamic team of instructors are committed in helping New One students successfully transition into higher education and into their roles as global citizens.
Jade Kim
NEW102 – Exploring Multilingual Toronto / NEW112 Language Freedom and Power
Jade Kim’s teaching experience includes working with both undergraduate and graduate students. She is actively involved in teaching undergraduate courses on topics such as multilingualism and multiculturalism, power dynamics and language ideologies, and the intersection between language and gender. At the graduate level, she currently teaches in the Master of Teaching program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE).
Her research interests include identity development, students speaking English as an additional language, classroom interactions, and multilingual and plurilingual pedagogies. In addition to her focus on spoken participation, she is currently engaged in a study that explores multilingual and plurilingual approaches to academic writing and the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on academic writing in higher education.
Teresa Ascencao
Instructor
NEW104 – Creating Community: Art, Identity and Belonging / NEW114 – Art for Social Change
Teresa Ascencao is a multimedia artist and educator. Her artworks transgress notions of gender, seduction and class. As an advocate for social and environmental causes, she produces and facilitates interdisciplinary art residencies on the diversity of the human body and material and magical notions of water. She has spearheaded various citizen events towards sustainable and community-oriented goals, facilitated photo and media art workshops to economically and geographically disadvantaged youth, and led university student projects in accessibility and sustainability. Teresa was born in Brazil to Azorean parents. She graduated with an Honours B.A. with distinction from the University of Toronto and an M.F.A. specializing in media art from OCAD University. Her award-winning artworks have been exhibited internationally. Teresa is a member of the Ontario Art Education Association and A Space Gallery, where she previously served on the board.
Paul Whissell
Instructor
NEW 106 – Science, Health, & Social Justice / NEW116 – Science & Global Threats
Paul Whissell is a neuroscientist who teaches and researches in several academic departments at the University of Toronto. In NEW 106 and 116, Dr. Whissell promotes student engagement in the public dissemination of science and raises awareness about the important role science plays in the development of laws, policies, and guidelines key to our society.
Chris Ramsaroop
Instructor – Former Coordinator of CEL (Community Engaged Learning)
NEW 101 – The Everyday Politics of Food / NEW111 – Food, Ethics, and Sustainability
Chris Ramsaroop is working to complete his PhD at OISE/University of Toronto. His area of research examines the role of resistance by migrant farm workers in Canada. Chris is also an organizer with Justicia for Migrant Workers. He is an Assistant Professor at New College-U of T, and an instructor in the Caribbean Studies Program at the University of Toronto. Additionally, he is Co-Director of the Migrant Farm Worker Legal Clinic at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law. Recently he has joined the Advisory Group for the IPES (International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems – Food report on Labour, Migration & Food Systems. Justicia for Migrant Workers is a grassroots activist collective that has been organizing with migrant workers for nearly 20 years. Justicia’s work is based on building long term trust and relationships with migrant workers and includes engaging in direct actions, working with workers to resist at work, launching precedent setting legal cases, and organizing numerous collective actions. He is also on the executive of the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance. He previously served on the Board of the Food Chain Workers Alliance and is former Coordinator of the Community Engaged Learning Program at New College, U of T. Chris has written extensively on the issue of migrant labour. His opinion pieces have been featured in the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, CBC, Briarpatch, Canadian Dimension, Windsor Star, Hamilton Spectator, Starbroek News, and the Jamaica Gleaner., Scroll.In, Labornotes. In 2016, The Globe and Mail named Chris, one of the ’53 Most Influential People in Canadian Food.’