Kaela Jubas

Dr. Kaela Jubas

Pronouns: she/her

Positions

Associate Professor

Werklund School of Education, Specialization, Adult Learning

Contact information

Email

kaela.jubas@ucalgary.ca

Phone number

Office: 403.210.3921

Location

Office: EDT612

For media enquiries, contact

Clayton MacGillivray
Content and Media Specialist

Email: clmacgil@ucalgary.ca
Twitter: @UCalgaryEduc

Background

Educational Background

PhD Educational Studies, University of British Columbia, 2009

MEd Adult Education, University of British Columbia, 2004

Master of Environmental Studies Environmental Studies, York University, 1990

BA (Honours) Psychology, York University, 1984

K Jubas academic CV (abbreviated)

Biography

Originally from Toronto, I worked there and in Vancouver, BC for some 15 years in the not-for-profit sector before undertaking an MEd and a PhD at UBC, where I researched critical shopping as a source of informal learning about globalization, identity, and social change. Following completion of my PhD, I joined the Adult Learning specialization here at Werklund. I employ a feminist neo-Gramscian perspective to pursue my interest in and engagement with questions about work-related learning and post-secondary professional education, learning related to equity and social change, the pedagogical function of cultural practices and texts, globalization and internationalization, and innovative approaches to qualitative inquiry.

Professional & Community Affiliations

I served as Co-President of the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education for three years (2013-16) and I am a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of Adult Education Quarterly and the International Journal of Lifelong Education. I am a member of or engage with the following scholarly organizations:

Research

Areas of Research

Scholarly Activity

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

Adult education and community development; adult learning; public pedagogy; cultural studies; feminist theory/research; gender studies; social justice; work and learning; Gramsci; comparative and international education

Participation in university strategic initiatives

Human dynamics in a changing world

Projects

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
Selected associated publications:
Jubas, K., Rooney, D., & Patten, F. (2023). Entertaining tensions: Teaching with and learning from popular culture in professional education. Pedagogy, Culture & Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2023.2205415
Jubas, K. (2022). Using popular culture in professional education to foster critical curiosity and Learning. Studies in the Education of Adults. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/02660830.2022.2114690 
Jubas, K., Ofori-Atta, E., & Ross, S. (2020). Building a pedagogy of critical curiosity in professional education: The power of popular culture in the classroom. In B. Merrill, C. Vieira, A. Galimberti, & A. Nizinska. (Eds.), Adult education as a resource for resistance and transformation: Voices, learning experiences, identities of student and adult educators (pp. 109-118). Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra.

Learning contagion: Masking as critical public pedagogy (2023-present)

Conference paper:
Jubas, K. (2024). (Un)Masked learning: Life lessons from a pandemic practice. In E. Dobritch (Ed.), CASAE 2024 Annual conference: Conference proceedings (pp. 183-190). Concordia University.

How social movements move: Female post-secondary students' understanding and uptake of #metoo (2018-20)

Co-investigators: Drs. Christine Jarvis & Grainne McMahon, University of Huddersfield, UK
Funding: Werklund School of Education Outbound Fellowship
Selected associated publications:
Jubas, K. (2022). More than a confessional mo(ve)ment? #MeToo’s pedagogical tensions. Adult Education Quarterly, 73(2), 133-149. https://doi.org/10.1177/07417136221134782  
Jubas, K., Jarvis, C., & McMahon, G. (2020). Hopefulness, solidarity and determination for me too: Impacts of a globalized social movement on female post-secondary students’ emerging professional identities and aspirations. In B. Merrill, C. C. Vieira, A. Galimberti, & A. Nizinska (Eds.), Adult education as a resource for resistance and transformation: Voices, learning experiences, identities of student and adult educators (pp. 25-34). Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra.

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
Selected associated publications:
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.
Jubas, K., & White, M. (2017). Marketing equity: “Diversity” as keyword for internationally engaged post-secondary institutions. Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies, 39(4), 349-366. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2017.1344507
Jubas, K. (2015). Discursive inconvenience: The dis/appearing rhetoric of LGBT rights in post-secondary internationalization texts. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 173, 50-72.

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
Selected associated publications:
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.

Be(com)ing an academic in the neoliberal academy (2011-14)

Co-investigator: Dr. Jackie Seidel, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary
Selected associated publications:
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.
Jubas, K. (2012). On being a new academic in the new academy: Impacts of neoliberalism on work and life of a junior faculty member. Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor, 21, 25-35.
 

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
Selected associated publications:
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.
Jubas, K., & Knutson, P. (2013). Fictions of work-related learning: How a hit television show portrays internship, and how medical students relate to those portrayals. Studies in Continuing Education, 35(2), 224-240. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2012.738659

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
Selected associated publications:
Jubas, K. (2010). The politics of shopping: What consumers learn about identity, globalization, and social change. Routledge. ISBN-13: 978-1598746662

Awards

  • Qualitative Dissertation Award, International Institute for Qualitative Methodology. 2009
  • SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (2006-08), SSHRC. 2006
  • 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, UBC Department of Educational Studies/Adult Education. 2004

Publications

  • Popular culture, pedagogy, and learning: Links made in the field of adult education. Kaela Jubas & Siyin Liang. In S. Brigham, R. McGray, & K. Jubas (Eds.), Adult education and learning in Canada: Advancing a critical legacy. Thompson Educational Publishing. 104-113. (2021)
  • Adult education and lifelong learning in Canada: Advancing a critical legacy . Susan Brigham, Robert McGray, & Kaela Jubas (Eds.). Thompson Educational Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-55077-275-3. (2021)
  • Adult learning through everyday engagement with popular culture. Kaela Jubas, Jennifer A. Sandlin, Steven J. Burdick, & Robin R. Wright. In T. S. Rocco, M. C. Smith, R. C. Mizzi, L. R. Merriweather, & J. D. Hawley (Eds.), 2020 Handbook of adult and continuing education. Stylus Publishing. 168-176. (2021)
  • Popular Culture as Pedagogy: Research in the Field of Adult Education. Kaela Jubas, Nancy Taber, & Tony Brown (Eds.). Sense Publishers. (2015)

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