Langara’s Aboriginal Studies department struggles due to staff shortages

Scarcity of qualified faculty forces the department to offer only two courses

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By JEAH DINO

Langara’s Aboriginal studies department has limited course offerings due to a staff shortage.

In the spring 2025 semester, the department is offering two courses: Canadian Aboriginal Experience and Canadian Aboriginal Policy. Both classes are offered online and taught by Adolfina Miranda-Barrios.

The wait list for Canadian Aboriginal Experience has 47 students while the other course offering, Canadian Aboriginal Policy, has a wait list of 26 student as of Nov. 27.

The Musqueam House Post, a 14-foot welcome figure at the Langara College campus. Photo by Jeah Dino

 

Catharine O’Brien-Bell, an instructor in Langara’s photography department, said she wanted to learn something that will help her professionally and as an individual.

“I was beginning to recognize that I had a very distinct white privileged background, and I wanted to kind of go right back to the beginning and learn how to do things differently and be more respectful, both in terms of being able to support my own students but also in work,” O’Brien- Bell said.

The limited course offerings in the upcoming semester were not due to low registration rates but because of staff shortages, according to Melissa Roberts, interim department chair of Aboriginal Studies.

Currently, there is only one active teaching faculty in the Aboriginal Studies department who is teaching four courses a year.

“There are limited offerings of Aboriginal Studies courses at this moment as the department has faced significant issues trying to hire in the department,” Roberts said in an email.

Another instructor is currently on secondment to Langara’s Applied Research Centre.

“I have tried very hard with a committee to hire a few times unsuccessfully,” she told The Voice.

 

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