I am a Canadian educator-practitioner, adjunct faculty at Toronto Metropolitan University, and Co-Principal Investigator (PI) on SSHRC-funded research on the pedagogical affordances of specialised environments, tools, and materials that contribute to tacit, physically embodied, and multimodal learning in domains of informal education and skilled practice.
Research Focus
My research program focuses on the pedagogical affordances of specialised environments, tools, and materials that contribute to tacit, physically embodied, and multimodal learning in domains of informal education and skilled practice. More critically, my work examines how materially-contingent and physically embodied practices, such as the applied arts, physical education, craft, and skilled trades have literally gone ‘missing in action’ from today’s info-centric paradigms of educating-as-credentialing.
Building on my graduate studies and over 20 years of teaching experience in secondary, post-secondary, graduate, and professional programs, I have observed quite directly how the erasure of tacit forms of learning reflects a shift towards increasingly screen-biassed and info-centric orientations to curriculum, instruction, and assessment. This reflects a one-size-fits-all business model of education as a collection of products and services favoured for ‘fast’ credentialing, rather than high quality, experiential learning with-and-through practice and process.
I argue that this shift, from process to products/services, is consequential for tacit, situated, and physically embodied modalities of learning that require access to specialised environments, tools, materials (i.e., infrastructure and resources) and applied instructional expertise that are inconvenient for cheap, one-size-fits-all, ‘canned’ content models favoured by institutions. As with the status of ‘endangered’ crafts I argue that many uniquely human ways of knowing, communicating, and making are at a similar risk of pedagogical ‘extinction’ in educational paradigms that short-change learners and learning for speed and profit.
To call attention to the significance of tangible and tacit ways of knowing-as-doing, myself and my colleagues are mobilizing knowledge from our ongoing research on informal learning in domains of physically embodied and multimodal practice to develop more process-focused and individualized approaches to experiential learning, literacy, and assessment that move beyond the one-size-fits-all paradigms of fast-credentialing. Myself and my colleagues draw on practices as varied as electronic music, adaptive design, wood working, wine education, and perfumery to examine what they contribute to specifically multimodal, tacit, and physically embodied ways of knowing with-and-through materials, environments, and skilled practices. Please see my publications and speaking pages for further context on my institutional and domain-specific contributions to knowledge mobilization.
Knowledge Mobilisation
My Masterclass for The International Cool Climate Wine Symposium (ICCWS). Brock University.
In addition to my research and teaching experience, I have many decades of professional speaking experience, which includes peer-reviewed academic conferences, symposiums, and colloquia, and guest lectures, along with industry events, and have facilitated many hands-on workshops locally and internationally.
I have led experiential and materials-centered workshops and Master classes on sourcing and working with aromatic materials as reference standards for sensory evaluation, with university, industry, and community partners including Brock University’s International Cool Climate Wine Symposium, The Independent Wine Education Guild (IWEG), The Canadian Association of Sommeliers (CAPS), Soif Bar à vin, and as an invited guest-speaker for wine education certification courses at George Brown’s Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts (CHCA).
Aroma Inquiry Lab
In 2014, I conceptualised a theoretical and methodological framework for the Aroma Inquiry Lab, a satellite project within Toronto Metropolitan University’s Responsive Ecologies lab, intended for collaborative research on tacit, inquiry-based learning with-and-through aromatic materials. The lab, while small, is home to a collection of varied aromatic reference standards in a variety of forms (raw, processed, natural, and synthetic), aromatic cultural artifacts that is not limited to a single domain of aromatic practice.
The Aroma Inquiry Lab is neither a ‘perfumery studio’ (for ‘fragance’ applications) nor is it a sensory psychology/olfaction lab. Accordingly, the lab is not underwritten by either functional or ‘affective/emotional’ orientations to scent (at the point of consumption) that reduce the sense organs to ‘playback’ devices for memories and emotions, which is an orientation to perception and scent that my work explicitly critiques.
Instead, this lab is concerned with the material, ecological, and structural “contingencies” of learning ‘with and through’ aromatic environments and substances, which are afforded through a physical proximity that is bound to place, space, and specific resources to access, perceive, and use in practice. These material contingencies, and the costs associated with them, also reflect the political economies of aromatic practices that are often concealed or obscured by a relation with scent that begins and ends with consumption (rather than production).
The aroma lab is focused on literacy and learning with and through authentically situated ecologies, materials, and applied practices that are specific to individual learners rather than any one-size-fits-all curriculum or program of study. This focus reflects an extra disciplinary orientation to aromatic learning and making that is not tethered to specific disciplinary, trade, or commercial interests. My deliberate choice of the cultural term aroma, as opposed to the scientific ‘olfaction’ or commercially oriented ‘fragrance,’ reflects my interest in the pedagogical affordances of aromatic materials and environments as a resource for learning, communicating, and making. The use of the term inquiry reflects my research focus on informal and inquiry-based learning practices associated with authentically situated environments and communities of practice.
Following my research on aroma as a ‘missing modality’ of learning and communication, my own practice with aroma is focused on the creation of custom learning and ‘reference standards,’ outdoor inquiries of scent, and custom scent design for research interactions and exhibits. Accordingly, I refer to myself as a researcher-practitioner with a focus on mixed media scent design, rather than perfumer or ‘olfactory artist.’ This is closer to a craft practice, which is focused on process (versus products) involving a class of related raw materials (i.e., woodworking), rather than the formulation and marketing of “fragranced” products for consumers (I do not make commercial fragrance for the body/skin).
My orientation to aromatic learning and scent design engages multiple ways of knowing with-and-through aromatic environments and materials that I term “aroma inquiries.” I characterize my aromatic practice as ‘extra-disciplinary’ in that it is not tethered to a specific discipline but informed by varied forms of practice that do not necessarily ‘belong’ to a particular industry or academic field. My practice draws on experience as both a collaborator on a sensory research project led by Dr Kate McLean in Marseille and as a facilitator of my own custom smell walks in Toronto and Vancouver. I have created “aromatic inquiry” workshops for academic symposia, and Master Classes for the wine and spirits trade, wine education certification courses, and university oenology and viticulture programs. I have also designed custom scents and scent ‘features’ for collaborative research projects, conference workshops, prototypes, and exhibits. Most recently, I collaborated with the Art Gallery of Ontario to create four unique and historically-themed scents for the Making Her Mark Exhibit, which you can read about in my interview with Foyer Magazine.
Please see the Aroma Inquiry lab page for a detailed overview on my aroma-related projects and practices.
Industry Background + Teaching
After completing my undergraduate degree, I studied online writing and information design at Centennial College with an interest in interactive storytelling. For many years I worked as a freelance writer, editor, and content producer, including contributions to the award-winning CBC Digital Archives, international museum exhibits for Toronto’s Mystus Interactus Exhibits, and educational and training content for government and trade clients, along with consulting for the Canadian magazine industry. This experience led to opportunities to teach post-secondary and post-graduate courses in interactive writing, digital journalism, and professional communications at Centennial College’s School of Communications, Media and Design.
Education
I have a B.A. (Specialist) in English literature from the University of Toronto, a B.Ed. (Intermediate/Secondary) from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto), and an M.A. and Ph.D. from York University’s joint program in Communications and Culture. After completing my doctorate, I was awarded a Post-doctoral Fellowship from the Faculty of Education, York University to investigate the missing modality of scent from text-bound curricula.
Educational Qualifications
- Ph.D., Communications and Culture, York University (2018)
- M.A., Communication and Culture, York University (2013)
- B.Ed., Bachelor of Education (Intermediate/Secondary), Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto (2007)
- B.A. Hons., Bachelor of Arts, English Literature, University of Toronto (2000)
Additional Training + Professional Qualifications
- Natural Perfume Certifications (Introductory and Intermediate), in-studio classes with American perfumer Mandy Aftel (2017-2019). I also have certification to teach Aftel’s ‘Basic’ natural perfumery class.
- Additional Teaching Qualifications (AQ): Media I and II, York University/Ontario College of Teachers (2009)
- Post-Graduate Certificate in Online Writing and Information Design, Centennial College, School of Communications (2001)
- Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) certified secondary school teacher (Ontario College of Teachers), 2008 [current status: “Inactive/Non-Practicing”]
Press
My work, ideas, perspectives are cited in scholarly articles and books, television, radio, and print media, interviews, and trade blogs. Please see my speaking page for further detail, or visit my contact page for inquiries related to my research and practice.