Resources for students
The Peer Academic Advisers offer advice and access to resources to incoming graduate students and lively, collegial exchanges with students from many countries and backgrounds. The Peer Academic Adviser at the Doctoral level is a significant source of information and support for incoming PhD students. Her role as a community builder is unparalleled in the Department. The Peer Academic Adviser at the Master’s level is devoted to attending to the concerns and questions central to the experiences of master’s students in EDCP. They stay tuned into what goes into building and sustaining collegial relations amongst diverse participants in the Department. The Peer Advisers are available for support and questions with respect to:
- Office space
- Day-to-day UBC logistical questions
- Technology resources
- Writing, research, and assignment related questions
- Relationships between students and their advisers
- Relationships between students and other students
- Adapting to life in Vancouver
Contact
Contact your Peer Advisers at edcpgradpeeradvisor@gmail.com.
The 2022-2023 team includes:

Ian Fraser Alexander
PhD Student
September 2022 – April 2023
Ian is a third year PhD student studying Social Studies education in international contexts. He is from Canada’s East Coast and has taught Social Studies and English in a number of schools in China and South Korea. He has taken multiple courses in four UBC departments and happy to help incoming students.

Gayatri Gopalan
PhD Student
January – April 2023
Gayatri Gopalan is a PhD student in Curriculum Studies at EDCP. Her scholarly interests lie in exploring questions of identity, subjectivity, and responsibility within dominant neoliberal, increasingly neoconservative, and (post/de)colonial discourses that frame curriculum and teaching practices, particularly in India. She enjoys (and agonises over) the provocations and entanglements of thinking as praxis, and is constantly attempting to exist more intentionally, hopefully, and communally in the liminal spaces she occupies (and/ or is accorded).

Yasaman Moussavi
PhD Student
September 2022 – April 2023
Yasaman is a PhD student in Art education. She holds an MFA with two emphases on Painting and Printmaking from Texas Tech University. She also holds a MA in Art Studies from Tehran University, Iran, and a BFA in Painting from Alzahra University Tehran, Iran.

Conan Lee
MA Student
September 2022 – April 2023
Conan is a MA student in science education. He is an international student from Hong Kong, and is passionate about science outreach and informal science learning. When he is not studying or working, he loves making science videos on YouTube!

Liya Ma
MA Student
September 2022 – April 2023
Liya is a MA student in Curriculum Studies. She is from Edmonton, Alberta, where she obtained her BEd and BSc degrees from the University of Alberta. Her research focuses on the professional integration of Chinese immigrant teachers in the BC school system, specifically how they adapt to pedagogy in BC K-12 schools.