Dr. M. Elisa Vandenborn
Affiliations
Associate Professor
Werklund School of Education, Specialization, Counselling Psychology
Director, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Werklund School of Education, Academic Support Offices
Academic Coordinator, MEd in School Counselling Program
Werklund School of Education, Specialization, Counselling Psychology
Contact information
Phone number
Office: 403.220.3631
Location
Office: EDT632
For media enquiries, contact
Clayton MacGillivray
Content and Media Specialist
Email: clmacgil@ucalgary.ca
Twitter: @UCalgaryEduc
Preferred method of communication
elisa.vandenborn@ucalgary.ca
Background
Educational Background
Ph.D. Educational Psychology, Simon Fraser University, 2020
M.A. Educational Psychology, Simon Fraser University, 2014
B.A. Psychology, Simon Fraser University, 2010
Biography
Dr. Elisa Lacerda-Vandenborn was born and grew up in Curitiba, Brazil, making Canada home in 2004. At Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, BC), she completed a BA in Psychology (2009), and an MA (2014) and PhD (2020) in Educational Psychology.
Since joining the Werklund School in Education in 2018, Elisa has served as the Director of the Teaching Across Borders Program (2021-2023) and Academic Coordinator for several certificate and diploma program including Community Engagement: An Ethical Practice, Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools: Social Justice in Practice Certificate, and Foundations in School and Counselling Psychology Certificate (2021-2025).
Dr. Lacerda-Vandenborn is the Academic Coordinator for the MEd in School Counselling Program https://MEd in School Counsellling and Indigenous Wellness Certificate https://indigenous-wellness MEd.
Professional & Community Affiliations
- Board Member, Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board. University of Calgary
- Member, Research Advisory Committee - Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary.
- Editorial Board Member, Journal of Indigenous Social Development. https://ucalgary.ca/journals/indigenous-social-development
- Editorial Advisor. Canadian Journal of Child Psychology
https://journals.sagepub.com/home/cjs - Editorial Advisor. Children and Youth Services Review
- Editorial Advisor. Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education
- Member of the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology- Division 24 - American Psychological Association.
- Member of the International Society for Dialogical Science (ISDS).
- Member of the Indigenous Research Institute (IRI) - Simon Fraser University
Research
Areas of Research
Dr. Elisa Lacerda-Vandenborn is an Associate Professor in Counselling Psychology and the Director of Apoema Research Circle, an international interdisciplinary group devoted to community-led initiatives.
Dr. Lacerda-Vandenborn's research program closely aligns with the principles of DORA wherein meaningful engagement with communities, epistemic curiosity, and respectful engagement with plural systems of being, knowing, and doing are critical to enact impactful research, social action and reform. As a non-Indigenous scholar committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion, Elisa recognizes that the responsibility to decolonize and liberate psychological education, practice, and research rests heavily on non-Indigenous folks such as herself. In both her country of origin, Brazil, and Canada, she seeks parallel paths to honour Indigenous wisdom. Dr. Lacerda-Vandenborn leads several national and international projects with Indigenous communities in Brazil, Canada, and New Zealand to influence social institutional practices and legislation concerned with self-determination of mental health, child welfare, and youth justice.
Adopting liberatory and decolonial lenses, Dr. Lacerda-Vandenborn's scholarship is centred around epistemological and social justice matters, such as whose ethical principles are upheld in the academy and society, whose knowledges are offered as valid and consequently implemented in social institutional practice and legislation, which research methodologies count as evidence, and the implications of colonial and neoliberal thought for children, families, and communities.
Her current projects include these areas of study:
- communal selfhood and ethics
- ethical community engagement with minoritized communities
- culturally-safe and responsive practices
- anti-oppressive and liberatory psychological education, practice, and research
- Indigenous self-detemination of wellness, child welfare, and youth justice
- Indigenous-led trauma-informed care and practices
- intergenerational learning
- relational and decolonial qualitative methodologies
- equity, diversity, and inclusion
- liberatory approaches to graduate supervision
- Theoretical and philosophical psychology
- Critical cultural hermeneutics
- Communal selfhood
- Communal ethics
- Community-engaged scholarship
- Relational and participatory methodologies
- Intercultural understandings
- Social policy and social justice
- Equity, diversity, and inclusion
- Child welfare systems
- Indigenist philosophy and praxis
- Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations and collaborations
Courses
| Course number | Course title | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| EDER 655.20 | Ethics of Community Engagement. Community Engagement: An Ethical Practice Certificate | Fall 2021 |
| EDER 655.18 LEC 02 02 | Capstone Project in Indigenous Education | 2021 |
| EDER 655.15 LEC 02 02 | Making a Case for Decolonization | 2020 |
| EDER 655.16 LEC 03 03 | Decolonizing through Indigenous Arts and Media | 2020 |
| EDER 70306 LEC 01 01 | Special Topics in Educational Theory | 2021 |
| EDUC 450 SEC 05 S05 | Diversity in Learning | 2020 |
| EDUC 530 SEC 09 S09 | Indigenous Education | 2020 |
| EDUC 450 SEC 06 S06 | Diversity in Learning | 2021 |
| EDUC 520 SEC 03 S03 | Interdisciplinary Learning | 2020 |
| EDUC 530 SEC 08 S08 | Indigenous Education | 2021 |
| EDER 655.25 | Community Engaged Project | Spring 2022 |
Projects
- Mapping social service provision: Communal intercultural perspectives and insights. 2021-2022, Principal Investigator.
Funding: Werklund School of Education Office of Internationalization- Advancing Intercultural Capacity Grant ($2,500)
Co-Investigators: Dr. Patricia Danyluk & Dr. Tanya Mudry (Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary), Dr. Rita Helena Gomes & Dr. Denise Silva Vasconcelos (Community Psychology & Social Policy, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil), Dr. Marta Patrão & Dr. Teresa Forte (Social, Political, and Territorial Sciences, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal).
- The experiences of Indigenous school psychology trainees working with Indigenous communities. 2020- 2021, Co-Investigator.
Funding: MITACS Accelerate ($300,000)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Meadow Schroeder (Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary).
- What does reconciliation mean to me? 2020- 2021, Co-Investigator.
Funding: ii’ taa’poh’to’p Grant Competition ($10,000)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Liza Lorenzetti (Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary).
Co-Investigators: Dr. Yvonne Poitras Pratt & Dr. Patricia Danyluk (Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary), Mr. Mick Elliot (Industry).
- Relational Pedagogies for Engaging Students in Online Indigenous Education. 2019- 2021- Principal Investigator.
Funding: Taylor Institute Teaching and Learning- Development and Innovation Grant ($7,250)
Co-Investigators: Dr. Yvonne Poitras Pratt, Dr. Patricia Danyluk, Dr. Aubrey Hanson, Dr. Teresa Fowler, Dr. Jennifer Markides, & Jennifer MacDonald (PhD candidate) (Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary).
- Ethical community engagement: A cross-cultural and Indigenous collaboration between Canadian and Brazilian Indigenous teacher education programs. 2019-2020- Principal Investigator.
Funding: University of Calgary Research Grants (URGC) Development Stream ($9,975).
Co-Investigators: Dr. Yvonne Poitras Pratt (Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary), Dr. Denise Silva & Dr. Rita Helena Gomes (Community Psychology & Social Policy, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil).
- Walking Together: A mini-documentary of an Indigenous-non-Indigenous community-engaged research partnership to return children in care home (2019-2022- Principal Investigator.
Funding: Werklund School of Education- Community Engage Grant ($3,000).
- An Indigenist-based evaluation of Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata’s Family Group Conferencing Program. 2018- 2020, Co-Investigator.
Funding: ($70,000) Winnipeg Foundation, Manitoba Provincial Government and Government of Canada (2018-2020).
Principal Investigator: Dr. Michael A. Hart (Faculty of Social Work & Vice-Provost Indigenous Engagement Office, University of Calgary).
Co-Investigator: Don Robinson, MA (Ma Mawi WiChi Itata Centre, Winnipeg, MB).
- Apoema Project: Exploring a Communally-constituted Self Approach to Child Welfare. 2016- 2018, Principal Investigator.
Funding: ($40,000) SSHRC’s Doctoral Talent Award.
Awards
- Doctoral Talent Award, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 2016
- Graduate Fellowship Award, Simon Fraser University. 2014
- 10th Annual Awards, Douglas College. 2007
- University Transfer Program Award, Douglas College. 2006
- Erm Fiorillo - Hal Davis CKNW Award, Douglas College. 2006
Publications
- The tensions of adapting a mandatory Indigenous education Course to an online environment.. Lacerda-Vandenborn, E., Markides, J., Fowler, T.; Hanson, A., MacDonald, J., Poitras Pratt, Y., Danyluk, P.. In Woodley, X. & Rice, M. (Eds.), Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning Online through Theory, with Design and by Practice. Routledge Press.. TBD. (2022)
- The meeting of the selves. . Lacerda-Vandenborn. In Charlton, J. (Ed.) Decolonizing Mental Health: Embracing Indigenous Multi-Dimensional Balance (pp. ). Charlton Publishing.. 190-202. (2020)
In the News
- How Western psychology can rip Indigenous families apart: An interview with Elisa Lacerda-Vandenborn. Mad in America: Science, Psychiatry and Social Justice. (2021)
- Personal experience guides research: MEd child and school psychology students intern with Manitoba First Nations communities. UCalgary News. (2021)
More Information
Media:
- Lecture Series on Aboriginal Issues 2015: Over-representation of Aboriginal Children
- Zapata, K. (2020, February). Decolonizing mental health: The importance of an oppression-focused mental health system. Calgary Journal, pp. Page(s). Retrieved from https://calgaryjournal.ca/more/calgaryvoices/4982-decolonizing-mental-health-the-importance-of-an-oppression-focused-mental-health-system.html
Are you the profile owner?
Login to edit.