About CUFA BC

Dr. Kenneth Christie is the Program Head and a Professor of the Human Security and Peacebuilding graduate program at Royal Roads University. Christie is a political scientist, author, editor and international academic who has taught and conducted research at universities in the U.S., Singapore, South Africa, Norway, the United Arab Emirates and Canada. Working all over the world has given him a unique perspective on peace, development and human security. His work has focused on issues of human rights, security and democratization. He is widely published as an author and editor with eleven books to his credit. His most recent book, co-edited with Marion Boulby, Migration, Refugees and Human Security in the Mediterranean and MENA was published by Palgrave MacMillan (2018). Today, he is working on issues of human security and its links to ethnic and state formation/failure in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Christie is also working on issues of de-radicalization, terrorism and human rights as well as populism (historical and contemporary) and corporate social responsibility. The work he produces is truly interdisciplinary and collaborative in nature. Dr. Christie is also a frequent commentator in the international and national media including television, radio and print on a wide variety of international affairs topics.

Dr. Kumari Beck is Associate Professor, Co-Director for the Centre for Research on International Education, and academic coordinator of the Equity Studies in Education program in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. She serves as the President of the SFU Faculty Association and in that capacity is interested in issues relating to equity and academic freedom. Her research focuses on university internationalization including student, faculty, staff and administrator experiences. The courses she teaches reflect diverse and interrelated interests: intercultural and international education, contemporary issues in curriculum, multicultural and anti-racist education, the politics of difference, and teaching for social justice. Her work history includes teaching and program development in international education programs in Canada and abroad, adult community education in the Lower Mainland, and governance experience in the international cooperation sector.

Annabree has served as CUFA BC Executive Director since 2019. Annabree has worked in post-secondary academic labour relations union-side for over a decade in BC and Alberta. She has experience representing faculty rights in bargaining and labour disputes, as well as personal experience as a contract faculty member. Prior to her career in university labour, Annabree was a published researcher and a contract instructor at both the university and college level. She holds a Master of Science in experimental psychology and a double major Bachelor of Arts and Science in French and Psychology, as well as a Labour Relations-Management Certificate. Whenever she isn’t working, Annabree enjoys spending time with her wife and two children and distracting herself with hobbies, which include stone sculpture and playing piano. Email: [email protected]