CAPCON Schedule

Wednesday, April 2nd, 10:00am – 3:00pm

As in years past, today’s CAP conference is taking place on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nation, and on the coastal and mountain land that makes up the unceded and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. CAPCON concludes a year of exciting events that have taken place in CAP, on this land, and the work that you’ll hear and see today reflects the fact that many of these events have been closely tied to the commitment in our program to the importance of learning, working from, and developing a greater understanding of the land that we study on as students at UBC and in Vancouver. From papers that address the colonial roots of contemporary inequality on Vancouver’s streets, to those reflecting on the changing faces of the workforce and class struggle in today’s global marketplaces, this year’s conference looks at what it means to belong somewhere, anywhere, and nowhere, and what it takes to forge new definitions of community and belonging and to recover long-suppressed ways of being with each other and with the land.

10:00am – 10:20am: Welcome to 2025 CAPCON! Opening Remarks

10:20am – 11:30am: Session 1


Panel A: Gender, Race, and Representation (IBLC 385)

Moderators: Jordana Waugh (LS), Meredith Fowke (P&P)

  • Kashish Chavda (MS) – Ringlets and Rotis: A Study on South Asian Women’s Relationship with Curly Hair on Social Media
  • Ava Danaei (LS) – The Role of Captivity Metaphors in Shaping Islamophobic Rhetoric and Veiling Policy in France
  • Sasha Sundstrom (MS) – So Kamala: Gen Z Humor, Gender Stereotypes, and the Generational Divide in the 2024 U.S. Election
  • Yi Ran Yang (LS) – Paradox of Protection: The Journey of International Law in Abolishing Sexual Slavery and its Branches

Roundtable: Seeing the World through Judith Butler’s “Frames”: Vulnerability, Grievability, and 21st Century Media (IBLC 380)

Moderators: Erica Kwong (P&P), Leean Wu (LS)
Claire Beleutz (IS), Quentin Tasset (IS), Opal Stevanovic (IS), Jean Du Preez (IS), Victoria Reina (IS) and Audrey Zwagerman (IS)


11:30am – 12:20pm: Session 2

Panel B: States and Revolution (IBLC 385)

Moderators: Zahabia Khan (PPE) & Chloe Son (LS)

  • Emmanuelle Young - "Haiti and Caribbean and Slave Revolts as Leading Forces for an Anti-Slavery World" (L&S)
  • Elina Villemin - "Crossroads of Empires: Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and the Western Powers in the 19th Century" (L&S)
  • Rebecca Wosk - “The Paradox of Sovereignty: Proxy Warfare and the Evolution of International Law” (L&S)

Panel C: Popular Culture and Gender” (IBLC 380)

Moderators: Zoe Chen (IS) & Melana Cosentino (IS)

  • Alina Wang - “Analyzing Cultural Values & Practices in Popular Culture: The Case of Coco (2017)” (L&S)
  • Mady Boniface - “Indigenous Authorship in The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open” (MS)
  • Kate Ang - “The Rise and Fall of the Honest Celebrity: How Honesty Creates Relatable Celebrities” (MS)


12:20pm – 1:00pm: Showcase

Showcase

Moderators: Minhal Hasnain (MS), Indra Sharma (IS), Silis Hui (IS)

  • Akos Vigh, “Regulations Against Mass Digital Platforms”
  • Zarah Abraham, “Last Bond”
  • Sophie Curran, “Reimagining the Downtown Eastside”
  • Allison Lee, “Environmental Justice in the Therapeutic Inner City”
  • Journey Cyr-Ivey, “How TikTok Exploits Extremism in Young People”
  • Song-ah Clarke, “The Results of Social Media and Political Polarization Within the BLM Movement”
  • Anja Webster, “Environmental Justice in the Therapeutic Inner City”
  • Cherry Wang, Grace Marotta, and Marcus Lo, “Politics of Care Infographic”
  • Hanna Buchanan Breit, Tanveer Mehta, Annika Palleson-Mcloed, and Spencer Randall, "Decriminalization or police mission creep?"


1:00pm – 2:00pm: Session 3

Panel D: Social Media and Engagement (IBLC 385)

Moderators: Ben Chinnik (GPS), Kaasvi Bhatia (MS)

  • Adanna Meehl (PPE) – Governmental institutions and digital platforms; consumer data and protecting privacy
  • Declan Butler (MS) – Media Strategies and their Moral Implications
  • Sapphira Cohen (LS) – Trump’s Truth: Rhetorical Analysis of Donald Trump's Use of Framing Metaphors During His Indictments
  • Mariajosé Perales Ruiz (LS) – Spotify & Emotions

Panel E: Urban Planning and Ecology in Vancouver” (IBLC 380)

Moderators: Akuol Riak (GPS) & Aditi Bedarkar (GPS)

  • Bernice Wu (ES) – Restoration Through Reclamation of False Creek
  • Lia De Dios De Los Santos (ES) – Incorporating Indigenous Stewardship: Rethinking Vancouver’s Urban Planning Beyond Edge City
  • Heidi Craiggs (ES) – Colonial Structures Polluting Vancouver Water


2:10pm – 3:10pm: Session 4

Panel F: Crime and Punishment (IBLC 385)

Moderators: Maria Martinez Arriaga (LS) & Amanda Woodruff (PPE)

  • Lily Vinch (LS) – Metaphors of Punishment vs. Compassion: The Effect of Political Rhetoric on Drug Decriminalization
  • Rebecca Zhang (PPE) – Neoliberal Urbanism and the Marginalization of Street Skateboarders in Vancouver
  • Stacy Abazi (LS) – Transforming Incarceration: The Role of Embodied Cognition in Shaping Rehabilitation
  • Atessa Showrai (LS) – Metaphorical Framing in Drug Addiction and Disease: An Analysis of British Columbia's Overdose Crisis

Panel G: Choice and Accessibility in School and the Workplace” (IBLC 380)

Moderators: Keisha Liu (IS) & Soniya Tagirova-Sirotkina (PPE)

  • Karen Rianika Tanuwijaya (PPE) – Chains of Circumstance: Can We Choose Success Despite Poverty?
  • Ana Paola Alba (MS) – Trigger Warnings: Do They Enhance or Diminish Undergraduate Students' Experience?
  • Dalaynie Conn (LS) – Representation of Disability and Workplace Discrimination
  • Vincy Lee (MS) – The nightmare of Hong Kong students: Research on high stress level among Hong Kong students


3:10pm – 3:30pm: The Capsule, Closing Remarks & Cake