معرفی
Mark Currie is a PhD Candidate and Part-time Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, where he teaches history education courses including PED 3183 (Teaching History at the Intermediate Division) and PED 4183 (Teaching History at the Senior Division). His academic work bridges educational theory with practical applications in antiracist pedagogy and sociohistorical space analysis.
His educational background includes:
- MA in Island Studies with focus on Postcolonial Small Island Education from University of Prince Edward Island (2016)
- Master of Teaching with emphasis on In-class Student Motivation from Griffith University (2010)
- BA (Hons.) in History with Concentration in English from University of Ottawa (2007)
Currie's research centers on public pedagogies, sociohistorical spaces, and enacting antiracisms. His doctoral work specifically examines how the Ontario Black History Society's walking tour in downtown Toronto functions as an educational tool for engaging and reshaping sociohistorical spaces as antiracist geographies. His scholarly interests reveal a strong commitment to examining how racialized histories are commemorated and taught, particularly through his detailed analysis of the Oro African Methodist Episcopal Church National Historic Site. Currie approaches these topics through interdisciplinary lenses that combine critical race theory, postcolonial studies, and spatial analysis, with specific attention to how historical narratives evolve through commemorative markers from 1947 to 2015.
His publication record demonstrates consistent engagement with antiracist education and sociohistorical space analysis. Recent works like "Cracking the Colonial Bedrock: (Re)creating Antiracist Sociohistorical Geographies" (2022) and "Indigenous Peoples in Toronto: An introduction for newcomers" (2023) show his evolving focus on practical applications of critical spatial theory in educational contexts. His scholarship consistently addresses how educational spaces and practices can challenge colonial narratives and promote more equitable understandings of history and place, with particular attention to racialization, urban heritage, and Canadian cultural studies.
Currie's work has appeared in journals such as the Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing, with his 2017 article "ELLE of an Opportunity: Student Writers, Civic Audience, and Auction Genre" co-authored with Sutherland and Chalmers. His research interests as listed in university profiles include:
- Living Environment, Planning and Appropriation of Human Spaces
- Community Political Culture, Society and Ideology
- Racialization, racial profiling and racism
- Antiracism Education
- Postcolonialism and Canadian Cultural Studies
- Equity and Social Justice
- Urban heritage
His research methodology often combines qualitative analysis with autoethnographic approaches, as seen in works like "A collaborative autoethnography on challenging sociohistorical constructions of gender in teacher education" (2021). The geographical scope of his research includes Toronto, Ontario; Dominica (October-December 2014); and Cape Town, South Africa (January-April 2010), reflecting a transnational perspective on education and historical memory.
