Kaela Jubas

Originally from Toronto, I worked there and in Vancouver, BC for some 15 years in the community not-for-profit sector before returning to university for an MEd and a PhD at University of British Columbia's Department of Educational Studies (Adult Education). I joined the Adult Learning specialization at the Werklund School of Education (formerly Faculty of Education) at University of Calgary following my PhD in 2008. My scholarly work maintains my long-standing interest in and engagement with various issues related to social welfare and equity. I take up a neo-Gramscian, feminist, critical theory perspective. My research and teaching connect diverse subjects, including work-related learning, healthcare-related learning, consumption and popular culture, identity, globalization and internationalization, social change, and innovative approaches to qualitative inquiry.

I take a transdisciplinary approach in my research, drawing on methods and scholarship from adult education, cultural studies, women’s/gender/queer studies, and sociology. My research illustrates how adult learning occurs in the activities and processes of everyday life, and advances an understanding of adult learning as holistic.

Projects & Selected Publications

Bringing popular culture into the classroom to build a pedagogy of critical curiosity (2017-present)
Funding: University of Calgary SSHRC Enhancement Grant & SSHRC Insight Grant
Jubas, K., Ofori-Atta, E., & Ross, S. (2020, June). Recognizing and overcoming the real risks of fiction: Lessons about incorporating popular culture into professional education curriculum. In J. Egan (Ed.), Proceedings of Adult Education in Global Times: An International Research Conference (pp. 339-346). University of British Columbia.
Jubas, K. (2019, June 1-4). Developing a pedagogy of critical curiosity in professional education. In J. Egan (Ed.), Proceedings of the 38th Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE) Annual Conference (pp. 178-185). University of British Columbia.

How social movements move: Female post-secondary students' understanding and uptake of #metoo (2018-present)
Co-investigators: Drs. Christine Jarvis & Grainne McMahon, University of Huddersfield, England
Funding: Werklund School of Education Outbound Fellowship

The academy as safe space? Experiences of LGBT scholars and students at the intersection of equity and internationalization agendas (2014-17)
Funding: University Research Grants Committee
Jubas, K. (2018). Equity and internationalization on campus: Intersecting or colliding discourses for LGBTQ people? Brill | Sense.
Jubas, K. (2018, February 26). Ensuring equity for LGBTQ Canadians on the road. The Conversation.

Cultural constructions of health and citizenship: How American pop culture inserts itself into learning, debates and policies about Canadian healthcare (2011-15)
Co-investigator: Dr. Dawn Johnston, Communication and Cultural Studies, U of C
Funding: SSHRC Standard Research Grant
Jubas, K., Johnston, D. E. B., & Chiang, A. (2020). Public pedagogy as border-crossing: How Canadian fans learn about health care from American TV. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 35(1), 41-54. (Published online August 28, 2017)
Jubas, K., Johnston, D. E. B., & Chiang, A. (2014). Living and learning across stages and places: How transitions inform audience members’ understandings pop culture and health care. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 26(1), 57-75.

Examining the social organization of undergraduate nurse employees: An institutional ethnography (co-investigator) (2012-14)
Prinicpal investigators: Dr. Janet Rankin, Nursing, U of C and Dr. Margaret Quance, Nursing, Mount Royal University, Calgary
Funding: Faculty of Nursing/Uof C Endowment Award & Mount Royal University

Be(com)ing an academic in the neoliberal academy (2011-14)
Co-investigator: Dr. Jackie Seidel, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary
Jubas, K., & Seidel, J. (2016). Knitting as metaphor for work: An institutional autoethnography to surface tensions of visibilty and invisbility in the neoliberal academy. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 45(1), 60-84.

Drama and comedy of professional learning: Culture as a source of learning for healthcare workers (2009-12)
Funding: University of Calgary Starter Grant & SSHRC Standard Research Grant
Jubas, K. (2015). Giving substance to ghostly figures: How female nursing students respond to a cultural portrayal of "women's work" in healthcare. In K. Jubas, N. Taber, & T. Brown (Eds.), Popular culture as pedagogy: Research in the field of adult education (pp. 83-101). Sense Publishers.

Politics of shopping: What consumers learn about globalization, identity, and social change (2005-08)
Funding: SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, Special UBC Graduate Scholarship & Dean of Education Scholarship
Jubas, K. (2010). The politics of shopping: What consumers learn about identity, globalization, and social change. Routledge. ISBN-13: 978-1598746662

PhD, Univesrity of British Columbia (2009)
MEd, University of British Columbia (2004)
Master of Environmental Studies, York University (1990)
BA (Honours), York University (1984)

I engage with the following associations and networks:

• Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education
• European Society for Research on the Education of Adults
• Standing Conference on University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults (SCUTREA/UK)
• Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education

International Institute for Qualitative Methodology Dissertation Award, 2009
SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, 2006-2008
Dean of Education Scholarship, UBC, 2007
Special UBC Graduate Scholarship, UBC, 2004
Best Graduate Student Paper, Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education, 2007
Coolie Verner Prize, Adult Education/UBC, 2004