SOPR Stories

SOPR Stories
A collage of colourful artwork created by SOPR students using mixed media.

    About SOPR Stories

    Welcome to SOPR Stories! This is a space for students in the Social Practice and Transformational Change program to share our stories and introduce you to the SOPR community. Here we share our experiences with social practice and transformational change; reflections on our research, teaching, and everyday practices; our community, scholarly, and classroom creations; and our ideas, hopes, and plans for the future. Ultimately, this space is a living archive documenting student experiences in the SOPR program, for us and others to engage with, witness, and build from.  

    Announcements

    Congratulations, Aimee Copping!

    First year SOPR student, Aimee Copping, has received a Canada Council for the Arts – Explore and Create Grant. This grant “funds Canadian artists, artistic groups and organizations committed to the creation and dissemination of innovative, vibrant and diverse art”. Aimee will be using the grant to complete her novel, Promise, which explores the story of a dysfunctional Canadian family caught in the earliest—and darkest—years of the Cold War. Congratulations, Aimee! 

    Congratulations, Dr. Amy Kipp!

    On January 28, 2025, Dr. Amy Kipp successfully defended her thesis, entitled Practicing for more care-filled futures: Exploring the possibilities of collective artmaking, community care, and a caring research praxis through research-creation. Amy is the second SOPR student to successfully complete the program. 

    Amy’s work is a community-based research project focused on building knowledge about community care and artmaking in the context of our ongoing pandemic recovery. This project is focused on the experiences of individuals who participated in a series of online and in-person workshops facilitated by Art Not Shame, Social Artist Melanie Schambach, and the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition to create individual art pieces that form a large-scale mural. The mural, Art in a Just Recovery, is housed in the Guelph Farmer’s Market. 

    Amy is also the recipient of the 2025 Erin Angus Graduate Student Engagement Award, an annual award which honours a graduate student who has made significant contributions to graduate and all student life through their engagement within the campus community. Amy was nominated by SOPR students and faculty in recognition of the contributions she has made to help create a caring culture in the SOPR program. 

    Welcome to Dr. Safdar, the new SOPR Program Director!

    In September 2024, we welcomed Saba Safdar as the new Program Director for SOPR! From Tehran to Toronto, Saba is an academic advocate and a social explorer. Learn more about Saba.

    The 2024-2025 SOPR Steering Committee

    We are pleased to share that the SOPR Steering Committee for the 2024-2025 includes Saba Safdar, Deborah Steinstra, Adam Davies, Leah Levac, and Elizabeth Jackson. SOPR Students are also welcomed and encouraged to join these meetings. Thank you all for your leadership within the SOPR program and beyond!

    Congratulations, Dr. Fowlie!

    Congratulations to Dr. Hannah Fowlie, the first SOPR graduate! Hannah recently defended her thesis, Grief Refracted: Digital Storytelling as Liberatory Praxis. Hannah explored disenfranchised grief (Doka, 1989) and created a film that incorporated interviews with poetic, visual, and sonic explorations of grief and loss, accompanied by a written reflection. Thanks to Hannah for all your contributions to the SOPR community and we look forward to staying connected!

    Contact Information