Lab Manager
Sarah Cipes
Affiliation: The SpokenWeb Project
Sarah was the 2022 AMP Lab PRC fellow and is a PhD student in the IGS Digital Arts & Humanities theme at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Her research combines audio digitization, vocal studies and humour philosophy, and incorporates recorded comedic performances. She has contributed to digitization efforts with the British Columbia Regional Digitized History project. Sarah graduated with a master’s degree in information science (Archives and Record Management focus) from the University of Toronto in 2021 and holds a BA in English from UBC Okanagan. She acknowledges that she lives and works on Syilx Okanagan territory.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Austyn Bourget-White
Affiliation: Press Play
Austyn is a first-year BFA student who is focusing on fiber arts and digital media. She is from Edmonton, AB, and moved here for the Fine Arts program to enhance her art skills. She’s been crocheting since she could walk and loves being creative while experimenting with many different styles. She loves her cat unconditionally and is quite sure her cat thinks she’s the coolest person in the world. Her goal is to establish herself within the community and create an artistic identity that attracts open-minded and cool people.
Kai Hagen
Affiliation: Press Play
Kai is a Bachelor of Media Studies student whose interests lie mainly in sound based art and design. He has had experience in music production and audio engineering and his dream is to work in the realm of sound somewhere in the film, game, music or marketing industry. Kai enjoys exploring new ways to experience music and sound and has created an exploratory sound experience in VR. He is also minoring in visual arts and enjoys film production and creating digital graphic art.
Matthew Kenney
Affiliation: Press Play
Matthew is a Bachelor of Media Studies student with a Minor in Visual Arts studying at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus. He has been creating graphic art since 2019 and working as a freelance designer since 2020. His main interests lie in the deconstruction and breakdown of visual forms using texture and digital distortion paired with digital painting. Matthew is pursuing a career as an art and creative director and has worked on a number of projects in this regard such as lookbook shoots, catalog designs, and album covers.
Rowan Pickard
Affiliation: The SpokenWeb Project
Rowan Pickard is a settler on the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Syilx/Okanagan People and is completing a Bachelor of Arts in English and Cultural Studies at UBC Okanagan. They are currently holding an executive position in the Cultural Studies Course Union and works for The Phoenix News, UBC Okanagan’s student newspaper. In 2022, Rowan had the honour and privilege of receiving an Undergraduate Research Award and the Sharron Simpson Family Community Engagement Endowment Fund, providing them with an opportunity to pursue their interests in oral histories and sound by researching and creating a multimedia digital edition of The Pocket Desert radio documentary under the supervision of Dr. Emily Murphy and Dr. Kerrie Charnley as well as a series of blog posts documenting their findings, learning, and research. Rowan is thrilled to be joining the AMP Lab and the SpokenWeb team as an Undergraduate Research Assistant.
Ains Reid
Affiliation: Press Play
Ains is a trans man born and raised in Winfield, BC. He is working on his Bachelor of Fine Arts at UBC’s Okanagan campus. Ains’ heart lies with ink drawing and illustration, but he also enjoys sculpting with clay, metal, and wood. He dreams of writing and illustrating a graphic novel. Outside of art, Ains enjoys skiing, cycling, and fountain pens. Exploring the beauty that British Columbia has to offer with his family is one of Ains’ favourite ways to spend his days off.
Graduate Research Affiliates
Tara Nicholson
Affiliation: The SpokenWeb Project
Tara Nicholson is an artist and SSHRC-funded PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies (IGS), Digital Arts & Humanities theme. Her research documents Arctic extinction and permafrost studies through a more-than-human lens. She has exhibited across Canada and internationally while receiving funding from the BC Arts Council and Canada Council. She attended ‘Earthed’ an international eco-art residency at the Banff Centre and was awarded the Künstlerhaus Dortmund Artist-in-Residence Award. She teaches at the University of Victoria and holds degrees from Toronto Metropolitan and Concordia University. Her work was recently part of the UBC & Exeter University Catalyst Grant and will exhibited at the Lake Country Art Gallery this fall.

Erin Scott
Erin Scott is a poet/performer, artist/scholar, Scottish/Canadian living on the unceded territory and ancestral lands of the Syilx/Okanagan Peoples (Kelowna, BC). She holds an MFA in Writing and Performance from UBC Okanagan. Erin is a PhD student in IGS Digital Arts and Humanities whose research-creation work contemplates a ‘both/and’ identity in relation to cultural, geographical, and traditional belonging through the creation of digital poetic texts and dialogic performance. Erin is a founding member of the literary arts organization Inspired Word Café. Their performance work has presented at festivals across Canada, she has won the John Lent Poetry/Prose Award and the Okanagan Short Story Contest, and is a graduate of the Banff Centre’s Writing Studio program. They have two chapbooks, two spoken word albums, two cats, four kids, and one incredible partner. She held the 2023 PRC Fellow position.
Jordanna Marshall
Jordanna is a Master’s student and Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Her ethnographic research explores the intersections of animal welfare and conservation from the perspectives of wildlife rehabilitators in the Thompson-Okanagan. Jordanna received her Bachelor of Arts at the UBC Okanagan campus in 2019, where she held an Undergraduate Research Assistant position on the Disruptive Technologies and Negative Heritage Project. This project investigates the use of digital technologies as a conservation strategy for the archaeological site of Palmyra. Jordanna has since resumed working on the project and is eager to contribute to informing policy making and best practices concerning the conservation of heritage sites.
Postdoctoral Research Associates
TBA
Former Principal Investigators
Constance Crompton
Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa.
Professional Link: https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/3039
Personal Link: http://constancecrompton.com/
AMP Lab Alumni
SpokenWeb Project (PI: Dr. Karis Shearer)
Undergraduate Research Assistants
- Atmaza Chattopadhyay (2022-23)
- Rowan Pickard (2022-23)
- Nour Sallam (2019-20)
- Lauren St. Clair (2019-20)
- Amy Thiessen (2018-21)
- Megan Butchart (2018-20)
- Evan Berg (2018-19)
- Stephen French (2018-19)
- Emma Smith (2018)
- Cole Mash (2013-14)
- Justin Kroeker (2013-14)
- Eric Huang (2013-14)
- Lee Hannigan (2012-13)
Graduate Research Assistants
- Xiaoxuan Huang (2021-23)
- Erin Scott (2022-23)
- Judith Burr (2020-22)
- Yasaman Lotfizadeh (2019-22)
- Ahlam Bavi (2020-21)
- Craig Carpenter (2020-21)
- Caitlin Voth (2018-19)
- Mathieu Aubin (2018-19)
- Deserae Gogel (2018-19)
- Cole Mash (2014-16)
The Confluence of Religious Cultures in Medieval Historiography (PI: Dr. Francisco Peña)
Undergraduate Research Assistants
- Nyshaya Leck (2018-19)
Graduate Research Assistants
- Saifullah Mafuz (2019-21)
- Cassidy Acheson (2019-20)
Postdoctoral Fellows
- Miguel Las Heras Calvo (2022-23)
Digital Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage (PI: Dr. Lindsay Der)
Undergraduate Research Assistants
- Shanneen Chiu (2019-20)
- Jordanna Marshall (2018-20)
- Haley Seven-Deers (2018-20)
Lesbian and Gay Liberation in Canada (PI: Dr. Constance Crompton)
- Caitlin Voth
- Cole Mash
- Cole Smith
- Rebecca Desjarlais
- Candice Lipski
- Seamus Riordan-Short
- Nikita Gush
- Reba Ouimet
- Raymon Sandhu
- Sabrina Schoch
- Travis White
- Juawana Grant
- David Lacho
- Maggie Shirley
- Nishat Tasnim