KPU English hosts journal launch highlighting students’ work

Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s English department launched its second volume of its Alight journal, featuring undergraduate essays of English major students during an event on Feb. 5 at the Surrey campus library.

Hosting a launch provides an opportunity to celebrate and showcase some of the exemplary work students produced during their English courses, says English instructor Gavin Paul.  

“We’re hoping, as the English department continues to grow, it becomes a space that other students can visit to get an idea of the kinds of classes you can take, the kinds of books you’re reading, and the kind of work you can do,” Paul says.

The volume featured writing from 15 student authors. Swann Tsai wrote an essay titled “The Power of Creativity: Systemic Harms and Indigenous Reclamation,” which received an Intersectional Social Justice Essay Award.

The piece is a learning resource in which Tsai uses stories from her life and highlights Indigenous art pieces that create space for Indigenous Peoples to show creativity and thrive beyond their trauma.

“I use different stories from my life, about my cousin, who’s half Indigenous [and] passed [away], and I talk about art pieces that kind of go into how systemic harm truly affects [and] … how creativity decentres those narratives of Indigenous people, trauma, and residential schools.”

Tsai says the piece being published gives an opportunity to expand knowledge and officially publish works for the public to read.

Jackson Choi, a fourth-year student, wrote an essay titled “The Panopticon of Japanese Collectivism in The Screw People,” for his critical theory course. 

In the paper, Choi explores the reinterpretation of Louis Althusser and Michel Foucault’s western critical theories in a comic called “The Screw People,” by Japanese author Tamiki Wakaki.

“These are influential social theories about the nature of communication and relationship and how society and the observation of it creates social control among people,” Choi says.

Choi adds the comic, written in a Japanese cultural context, twists and changes these ideas.

Choi raises the theme of social control created not only by institutions and rules, but also a  collective pressure towards “idealized good,” in the paper.

“We often think of the idea that people are being controlled by society or by expectations around them as a negative thing,” Choi says.

“But in this context, the work talks about how it is a complicated thing, because we also have our own beliefs and ideals that we want people to succeed. We want them to be fulfilled and happy … and that sort of goes against the idea of the freedom of true individualism.”

Shyrah Barnaby, a fourth-year student, published an essay titled “‘I want what it hides’: The Role of Imperialist Imagination in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.”

Her piece explores the idea of imperialism that teaches us “the truth and what is correct and right,” Barnaby says. 

“One of the characters in the book [shows] how she is a foil to these imperialist imaginings. Even though the book doesn’t end happily because she has stayed within her truth, we see how Jean Rhys foils that understanding of only one way to do this.”

Barnaby says it is a big accomplishment for everyone to have their work published and helps build a nice community.

Creative writing student Lydia Doerschlag wrote “Reading and Watching Henry IV, Part One: Connection and Understanding,” which compares the experience of viewing and reading the play.

“I talk a little bit about how the differences between those two affects character and how the audiences see and how they connect with the character,” Doerschlag says.

She adds that while performances appeal more to viewer’s emotions, reading is better for deeper studying and understanding. 

“I’m really proud of myself for being able to publish something on Shakespeare and finally be able to engage with Shakespeare in a way that I understand and works for me.”

To read the students’ essays, visit journals.kpu.ca/index.php/alight.