< ECU Directory

Pat Vera

Lecturer

Availability:

Bio

Pat is a Paraguayan-Canadian Mestiza architect, designer, researcher and educator whose practice bridges South America and Canada. Their work explores the intersections of systems thinking, service design and climate action, with a focus on land-based design, sustainability and social innovation. Pat’s industry experience spans architecture, exhibit and experiential design, visual communication, placemaking and wayfinding for airports and transportation systems. A PhD candidate at RMIT University in collaboration with Parsons School of Design, their SSHRC-funded research investigates technology’s role in equitable design futures. Pat teaches Design and Critical Studies at ECU and received the 2023 Ian Wallace Award for Teaching Excellence.

Courses

Course Name Department Course Code Term
Humanities HUMN 307 26/SU

Description

Mounting concerns about a variety of environmental issues, from pollution to global warming to the extinction of species, have begun to inform the practices in art, design and media. Those concerns imply forms of action being taken about those issues. But what ethical assumptions underlie various actions. Is it a concern for human well-being? For animals? For all life? Or, even more broadly, for ecosystems? In other words, which things count ethically? The primary goal of this course is to prepare students to understand and to critically evaluate various ethical perspectives on human beings' interactions with nature and these perspectives' applications to environmental issues. An important secondary goal is to provide students with tools to integrate those perspectives into their practice as cultural workers.

Pre-requisites

No prerequisites.

Foundation Studio Courses FNDT 115 26/SU

Description

This foundational course introduces students to Indigenous peoples, worldviews, cultures, and ways of knowing through the lens of contemporary Indigenous artists and their cultural expressions. Situated within a basket of Indigenous values, this curriculum privileges Indigenous presence and the gifts that Indigenous cultures have contributed and continue to contribute to the social, ecological, cultural and political fabric of Vancouver, British Columbia and Canada. Through thematic based lessons, presentations, interviews, readings and films, we will trace important moments in Indigenous histories emphasizing the diversity of Indigenous peoples in Canada and North America. This course will also track the impacts of Indigenous-settler relations as they inform our current historical moment and aims at decolonizing our lenses and developing an understanding and validation of a plurality of knowledges and alternative histories. A central tenet of this course is understanding the spirit of place and the importance of the local, and the ways in which place informs us as artists, designers, guests and community members. By fore-fronting place and the land, we are situated, as teachers and learners, in a reciprocal, responsible relationship with the Indigenous ethos of "all my relations." An integral part of this course will teach Indigenous values through Indigenous material workshops that may include beading, brush-making and working with natural ochres. This course may also include field trips on the land and attending local Indigenous cultural events like powwows or Hoobiyee (New Year Festivals). Indigenous Presence can be taken as an elective in any of the four years of a program. All students are welcome in this course.

Pre-requisites

No prerequisites.