OPENING KEYNOTE
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Keynote Presentation: Dr. Rob Hancock, "Pulling Together: Decolonization, Indigenization, and Professional Practice"
We know that advising plays a key role in supporting student success, and that advisors engage with students across a whole range of identities and intersections. This presentation will introduce and explore ways that all members of UBC’s advising community can engage in processes of decolonizing and Indigenizing practice and policy, and link this work to other equity, diversity, and inclusion projects in individual units, across campus, and through professional organizations. Drawing on the BCcampus Indigenization guide for front-line staff, student services, and advisors it will introduce diverse perspectives on key concepts and make connections with professional competencies (such as those developed by NACADA, CACUSS, and ACPA/NASPA).
Like other leading post secondary institutions, UBC recognizes the importance of advising for inspiring and enabling students, highlights an intention to create a diverse culture that is infused through all of the university’s activities, and commits to an expansion of the full range of advising roles. The question of how remains open. Participants will be encouraged to identify their own points of engagement and the next steps required to move these projects forward.
About Dr. Rob Hancock
Dr. Rob Hancock (Cree-Metis) has worked in Indigenous student affairs since 2011, and is currently the LE,NONET Academic Manager in the Office of Indigenous Academic and Community Engagement at the University of Victoria. He was part of the team (along with Ian Cull, Stephanie McKeown, Michelle Pidgeon, and Adrienne Vedan) responsible for creating the BCcampus Indigenization guide for front-line staff, student services, and advisors, and is currently working with an international, multidisciplinary group of scholar-practitioners to write the first-ever CAS Standards for Indigenous student affairs. He has presented on aspects of this work at conferences, including the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education (WIPCE), the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA), and ACPA, and designed and delivered workshops for groups including the Western Canadian Senior Student Affairs Administrators, the British Columbia Council of Senior Student Affairs Leaders, and the Association of Canadian College and University Ombudspersons Western Region.