An unofficial AU advocate at large, Jason never misses a chance to recount the merits of an Athabasca education. Jason’s studies began alone in front of a rustic rural fireplace in December of 2003 and carried on through various brick and mortar college classrooms yet always with Athabasca as part of his journey. In 2014 he completed his BA in Sociology and in 2022 graduated with an MA in Cultural Studies. To this end, his columns seek to explore edifying moments of learning how to learn within the challenging ideological terrain of that great bugaboo facing students everywhere: the real world!
Being here on earth, ideally for a good time and not only a brief time, means that the hours we spend doing things by choice matter deeply. For humans, as for all beings, play is core to our socialization and sense of self. The reason for this is arguably quite simple: creatures who succeed at… Read more »
On International Women’s Day (IWD) we pause to appreciate the issues affecting women’s lives and the heartfelt gratitude we appreciate for womanhood. We can never say enough thanks to the woman who birthed us—thanks Mom! Plus, there’s my dear social work professor sister and many friends, both erudite and effusive, possessing uplifting intellectual abilities. And… Read more »
There’s nothing quite like a noisy outburst of protestation: upset voices bursting forth as a rhetorical freshet drenching all in the vicinity with a cold shower of unhappiness. Conflicts trigger us to misery so effectively because there’s unpleasant noise everywhere in society adding to the turmoil of grinding gears within our mind. These inner dialogues… Read more »
A baseline finding of social science is that we are not only independent producers of our consciousness, we’re also literally subjected to reams of external and coercive influences. Even when we imagine another possible world, a better one, our forms of thought come from the prevailing circus of our culture. The raw reality that we… Read more »
Every cognitive absence contains the presence of our mind; rushing floodwaters of thought gush into our awareness whenever a vacuum prevails. Sounds illustrate the social world of me and you. While the bucolic sound of silence contains a certain valour, most everything that we humans enjoy emits some sort of, if you will, auditory odour. … Read more »
The notion of receiving something for nothing invokes a tricky psychological algebra. Whether its investing in extraterrestrial acreages in hope of becoming a lunar landlord or raising one’s kilt in glee after having purchased some Scottish highland peat bog (the better to become an exclusive member of a landed gentry, any gentry), the promise of… Read more »
Strapping on virtual reality headgear allows a person to enter worlds ranging from aquatic utopias to hideous warzones. Students equipped with the mightiest of weapons, our keyboard-typing fingertips, may not find a game that matches that part of our minds. On the other hand, war-torn roadsides littered with the smouldering hulks of tanks and jeeps… Read more »
There’s a meme out there with the caption “no talk before coffee”. And yet, miraculously, instances occur where a person will pound back that morning cup of joe and breezily go about their day, only later to realize that they’d consumed decaf. What?!? Herein lies somewhat of a mystery: how the placebo effect of something… Read more »
We can be forgiven for feeling as though we live in a world on fire. Literal firestorms engulf swathes the size of a small province each summer, and an El Nino year like 2024 makes forest fire fears a top story even in the depths of winter. Meanwhile, global tensions have reached our back door… Read more »
What better time to really release ourselves, Scroogelike, from the weight of our past existential attachments, than with the advent of a new year. After all, the phrase new year/new you, wasn’t coined for nothing. Looking ahead can involve blinders; greatness and spontaneity do require somewhat of a short memory. At the same time, we… Read more »