Dr. Rajdeep Gill

Dr. Rajdeep S. Gill is an interdisciplinary educator, scholar and curator. Rajdeep has extensive experience in teaching and curriculum development in academic, creative, experiential, arts-based and ecology-based university and public education. Rajdeep’s areas of academic and community engagement include decolonial and interdisciplinary methodologies, theories and practices, cognitive, social, ecological and ethical considerations of creativity, interdependence and interrelationality as well as ethical engagement with diverse Indigenous epistemologies, locally (Turtle Island) and globally (such as India, North Africa, Abya Yala, etc.). Central to Rajdeep’s purview and practice are the imperatives of transformative pedagogy, ecological and emotional literacy, transformative curatorial practice, and intersections of cognitive, social and environmental justice. Rajdeep has a long and active history of mentorship, supporting undergraduate and graduate students, artists, thinkers, educators and scholars active in a wide range of fields, including Arts Education, Indigenous Studies, Law, Visual Arts, Environmental Sciences, Archaeology, Journalism, Business, Political Science, Cognitive Neuroscience, Sociology, Social Work, Anthropology, Public Health, etc.

Rajdeep is a faculty member in the Interdisciplinary Expressive Arts (IDEA) department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) and has served as Chair of IDEA since 2017. Rajdeep also served as Chair of the Indigenous Studies program at KPU from January 2018 to August 2021. Rajdeep is actively involved in sustaining and expanding community-centred, decolonial and equity-enhancing efforts and initiatives. Rajdeep is continually inspired by KPU students and values the opportunity to support their intellectual and creative explorations, dreams and aspirations as well as social and ethical commitments. Rajdeep is honored to be the recipient of the Dean of Arts Teaching award in 2021 and the Faculty of Arts Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion award in 2022.

Rajdeep works to create democratic pedagogical environments where diversity of thought and practice, differences in experiences and worldviews, and creative self‐determination of learning and purpose are strongly supported. Rajdeep activates methodologies of teaching and learning that contribute to developing and deepening connections to the realities, histories and worldviews of diverse human and more-than-human communities. Rajdeep teaches creatively, compassionately, and integratively, embodying an ethic of care and curiosity that connects and extends across academic, professional, and community contexts and spaces.

Along with teaching an array of courses in IDEA at KPU, Rajdeep has developed curriculum and taught graduate courses in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC) for over a decade. Rajdeep currently teaches Methodologies of Crossing: Exploring Interdisciplinary Knowledges, Trajectories, and Worldviews in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate program at UBC.

Rajdeep has also taught undergraduate courses in the Critical and Cultural Studies Department at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and the Film and Art History program at the University of the Fraser Valley. In crossing of academic and public spheres, Rajdeep has engaged with many contexts and communities in varied capacities, including serving as a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar as well as Curator-in-Residence at the Vancouver Art Gallery.