School of Journalism welcomes new chair Dr. Ravindra Mohabeer

Dr. Ravindra Mohabeer has been selected as the new Chair of the School of Journalism at The Creative School. His term begins on July 1, 2022. 

Mohabeer is currently a faculty member in the media studies department at Vancouver Island University where he recently completed his term as Chair and currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. For most of his 13 years at the university, he held the role of Director of the Media Research Lab. He provided expertise, assistance and infrastructure to support media-related research and creative projects in the university and throughout the region.

Mohabeer is looking forward to his new role and learning from others at the school. “I'm looking forward to walking around with students and faculty together but also separately, so that they can all show me what their experiences are to figure out if there’s a bridge, or if there are gaps that can be bridged,” he says. “If there aren't, I'd like to look at them as opportunities.”

He adds that his appointment is a good opportunity to look at what parts of the program need some updating or tweaking. “Moments of change like this are opportunities to revisit where things started, where they intended to go, and where they fit now,” he says.

Working with a student-first decision-making process is one of his top priorities. “When you're a student and you're in a program, you're there for as long as you're there, but it stays with you for life,” he says. “Students are central to my way of working."

Mohabeer says Vancouver Island University is a very Indigenous-focused institution. "I've had a lot of really thoughtful and careful opportunities to learn about my own understandings and contributions to working with Indigenous people towards truth and reconciliation, but also to recognizing absences and figuring out ways in which to respectfully approach creating new possibilities.”

His previous university is relatively small so he’s been able to have a hand in a range of university environments, from the departmental level through to university-wide initiatives. He says he will bring an understanding of how institutions function along with his understanding of the centrality of students.

His teaching includes a mix of analytic and practice-based areas including media and audience, image-based research, multi-modal storytelling, television and society and emerging digital communication. He has taught at the undergraduate level and contributed to graduate supervision. In 2021, he won a university-wide Provost’s award for excellence in teaching design and practice. He holds a PhD in Communication & Culture from York University and a Master of Arts from the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University.

Mohabeer moved to Toronto in the early 1970s and grew up in the city before moving to Vancouver in 2009. This trip back from the West Coast will mark Mohabeer’s sixth cross-country move in just over 25 years.

Asmaa Malik and Gavin Adamson, both associate professors at the School of Journalism, have been serving as the Interim Co-Chairs since March 2021. 

Charles Falzon, Dean of The Creative School thanked both Malik and Adamson for their dedication and hard work as Co-Chairs. He also thanked Janice Neil for her years of leadership as the former Chair of the School of Journalism.