Moustapha Fall
Why did you choose your program at UBC?
Before I came to North America and enrolled at UBC, I was nurtured in a fertile teaching environment in Senegal where I developed a love for acquiring knowledge and sharing it with others.
I have always been interested in studying the underlying mechanisms that govern first language learning and second language acquisition. After seeing the close relationship between mother tongue literacy and second language learning through the writings of my high school students, I became more curious about the concept of cross-linguistic transfer and the idea of interdependence between learned languages.
I decided to enroll at UBC thanks to conversations with a former high school student of mine who attended UBC after graduating. He paid me visits at the high school during his reading breaks and shared his personal experiences having to do with attending UBC and enjoying the university’s campus.
Following our conversations, I conducted additional research on UBC and inquired more about doctoral programs at the Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies (FHIS). In 2009, I applied to the Graduate Program in French Studies and was awarded a full four-year scholarship which covered my tuition and gave me the great opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant (TA) throughout my studies.
What were some of your most meaningful experiences at UBC?
Nothing was more meaningful than the times I shared with my graduate student peers in the PhD program.
Some of our best moments included traveling together to national conferences and holding long TA gatherings during which we would ponder over our respective teaching duties, share our doctoral research projects and discuss how to successfully complete our studies. In our gloomiest moments, we found both comfort and resilience in one another, drawing from this perfect union of graduate students from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
What choices did you make at UBC that contributed to your career success / journey?
What I metaphorically call my “teaching-research fire” was lit by my parents. Despite having limited financial means, they always pushed me to pursue what I love. After I left the parental cocoon, several people continued to add logs to my “teaching-research fire,” providing me with tools to question my own limits and fears in order to maximize my human potential.
With respect to research aspect of this fire, I had the opportunity to be co-supervised by two great individuals at UBC: Dr. Gloria Onyeoziri-Miller and Dr. Samuel Navarro Ortega. They added more logs to my “research fire” by helping me discover endless possibilities of potential greatness when I often doubted my abilities to flourish and prosper throughout my PhD program. For instance, Dr. Onyeoziri-Miller not only went beyond her supervising duties to provide me with immeasurable moral support, she also taught me compassion, humility and self-sacrifice for others. Besides laying the path for a bright future in my academic career, FHIS could not have bestowed a more exceptional gift upon me than these great human qualities which have since been guiding principles governing my personal and professional life.
With respect to the teaching aspect of the fire, the opportunity to work as a TA during my doctorate program allowed me to be very active in teaching committees and participate in teaching workshops with other professors. Thanks to the professors who took the time to evaluate my teaching and provide me with great tools in the classroom, I have been able to look at the ac(r)t of teaching from various angles and perspectives. For adding more logs to my “teaching fire” with rigor, grace and compassion, I thank these professors: Dr. Brianne Orr Álvarez, Dr. Sylvia Bascou-Vallarino, Dr. Alessandra Santos, Dr. Robert A. Miller, Dr. Anne Scott, Dr. Stephanie Spacciante, Dr. Juliet Obrien, and Dr. Maria Carbonetti.
What was your first job after graduation and what other jobs did you have before your current position?
I was fortunate enough to land my first teaching position at the University of Southern Illinois right after graduating with my PhD in 2014. This was a one-year term position and I managed to return to Canada to hold another limited term position at the University of Calgary in 2015, before finally obtaining a full-time teaching position at the Department of French and Francophone Studies, now amalgamated under the new School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics (SLLC), at the University of Victoria (UVic).
Since then, my career has been progressing very well and has opened up academic horizons by allowing new opportunities for research and teaching collaborations. In this respect, I recently became a participating faculty member in UVic’s Cultural, Social and Political Thought interdisciplinary program. In addition, I founded UVic’s Inclusive Pedagogical Cluster and co-created le Cercle Philologique de Victoria with Dr. Hélène Cazes. I am also President of the University of Victoria Association of Black Professors and Academics.
Is your current career path as you originally intended? What challenges did you face in launching your career?
One of the challenges I have been facing lies in understanding and navigating the dichotomy between research and teaching that is often present in academia. I believe teaching and research are complementary and not dichotomous. As someone who has an active research agenda and a strong teaching record, I can fit in either category and I am not alone in this regard. This can make navigating a university system that considers the two as separate challenging.
One of the ways I am trying to overcome this “double yolk” is to focus on teaching during fall and spring sessions and to maintain a full research agenda during summer sessions. My summers give me the opportunity to work with several universities in Latin America and Africa to conduct research on African leadership, inclusive pedagogies and the impact that colonial language legacies have on language education among language minority communities. I have been doing quite well in maintaining both an active research agenda while teaching seven courses a year, in addition to carrying out various other services to my department and for the university.
What do you like about your current job and what do you find challenging? How does it relate to your degree?
My responsibilities as an associate teaching professor include 70% teaching, 20% scholarly activities and 10% service to my respective unit and to the university at large. In some cases, it also involves the supervision and training of TAs.
I love all aspects of this job, but being in the classroom with students has been one of the highlights of my teaching career. The amount of time I spend in the classroom engaging in intellectual discussions and de-constructing knowledge with students with higher order thinking mechanisms has provided me a lot of intellectual joy and a tremendous opportunity to not only teach to transform, but to also learn to be transformed in the process.
The various cultural backgrounds, world perspectives and different learning styles I encounter in the classroom keep me motivated and always remind me of the fact that the ac(r)t of teaching can be a fun and exciting process of self-discovery rather than merely a painful transmission of knowledge.
It was very nice and humbling to receive a teaching excellence award after students nominated me in April 2024. When I received this award, I was very moved and at a loss for words to express what I really felt at the time. It was heartwarming to see one of the six students who wrote letters to nominate me attend the ceremony. I personally think most of the credit should go to the students and the award committee members for having gone beyond racial and cultural considerations to focus exclusively on teaching performance in the classroom. I hope this award inspires more students to nominate BIPOC faculty members who have a strong teaching record, and that it encourages more institutions to look into why some BIPOC faculty members are still struggling to receive these types of awards despite being strong teachers in their respective areas.
What advice would you give to students and alumni interested in breaking into your industry?
Never engage in academia if you do not have a strong passion for conducting research and teaching. Otherwise, it can be a very painful, stressful, and challenging process, simply because both research and teaching require a lot of energy, passion, and patience.
Some people find academia to be a lonely, stressful, energy-draining environment that feels like an uphill battle, completely out of touch with the lived realities of our respective communities. Others find it to be a fun and exciting environment where they discover a lot about people’s research interests and meet interesting, dynamic, intelligent, and loving people.
Ultimately, what I have learned over the years is that academia, like any other career path, is simply what you make of it. Yet, if you ever decide to pursue a career in academia, or if you are already in academia, always be aware of this: If academia ever makes you feel like you’re not good or smart enough…it’s not you, it’s academia.
Moustapha Fall
Why did you choose your program at UBC?
Before I came to North America and enrolled at UBC, I was nurtured in a fertile teaching environment in Senegal where I developed a love for acquiring knowledge and sharing it with others.
I have always been interested in studying the underlying mechanisms that govern first language learning and second language acquisition. After seeing the close relationship between mother tongue literacy and second language learning through the writings of my high school students, I became more curious about the concept of cross-linguistic transfer and the idea of interdependence between learned languages.
I decided to enroll at UBC thanks to conversations with a former high school student of mine who attended UBC after graduating. He paid me visits at the high school during his reading breaks and shared his personal experiences having to do with attending UBC and enjoying the university’s campus.
Following our conversations, I conducted additional research on UBC and inquired more about doctoral programs at the Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies (FHIS). In 2009, I applied to the Graduate Program in French Studies and was awarded a full four-year scholarship which covered my tuition and gave me the great opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant (TA) throughout my studies.
What were some of your most meaningful experiences at UBC?
Nothing was more meaningful than the times I shared with my graduate student peers in the PhD program.
Some of our best moments included traveling together to national conferences and holding long TA gatherings during which we would ponder over our respective teaching duties, share our doctoral research projects and discuss how to successfully complete our studies. In our gloomiest moments, we found both comfort and resilience in one another, drawing from this perfect union of graduate students from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
What choices did you make at UBC that contributed to your career success / journey?
What I metaphorically call my “teaching-research fire” was lit by my parents. Despite having limited financial means, they always pushed me to pursue what I love. After I left the parental cocoon, several people continued to add logs to my “teaching-research fire,” providing me with tools to question my own limits and fears in order to maximize my human potential.
With respect to research aspect of this fire, I had the opportunity to be co-supervised by two great individuals at UBC: Dr. Gloria Onyeoziri-Miller and Dr. Samuel Navarro Ortega. They added more logs to my “research fire” by helping me discover endless possibilities of potential greatness when I often doubted my abilities to flourish and prosper throughout my PhD program. For instance, Dr. Onyeoziri-Miller not only went beyond her supervising duties to provide me with immeasurable moral support, she also taught me compassion, humility and self-sacrifice for others. Besides laying the path for a bright future in my academic career, FHIS could not have bestowed a more exceptional gift upon me than these great human qualities which have since been guiding principles governing my personal and professional life.
With respect to the teaching aspect of the fire, the opportunity to work as a TA during my doctorate program allowed me to be very active in teaching committees and participate in teaching workshops with other professors. Thanks to the professors who took the time to evaluate my teaching and provide me with great tools in the classroom, I have been able to look at the ac(r)t of teaching from various angles and perspectives. For adding more logs to my “teaching fire” with rigor, grace and compassion, I thank these professors: Dr. Brianne Orr Álvarez, Dr. Sylvia Bascou-Vallarino, Dr. Alessandra Santos, Dr. Robert A. Miller, Dr. Anne Scott, Dr. Stephanie Spacciante, Dr. Juliet Obrien, and Dr. Maria Carbonetti.
What was your first job after graduation and what other jobs did you have before your current position?
I was fortunate enough to land my first teaching position at the University of Southern Illinois right after graduating with my PhD in 2014. This was a one-year term position and I managed to return to Canada to hold another limited term position at the University of Calgary in 2015, before finally obtaining a full-time teaching position at the Department of French and Francophone Studies, now amalgamated under the new School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics (SLLC), at the University of Victoria (UVic).
Since then, my career has been progressing very well and has opened up academic horizons by allowing new opportunities for research and teaching collaborations. In this respect, I recently became a participating faculty member in UVic’s Cultural, Social and Political Thought interdisciplinary program. In addition, I founded UVic’s Inclusive Pedagogical Cluster and co-created le Cercle Philologique de Victoria with Dr. Hélène Cazes. I am also President of the University of Victoria Association of Black Professors and Academics.
Is your current career path as you originally intended? What challenges did you face in launching your career?
One of the challenges I have been facing lies in understanding and navigating the dichotomy between research and teaching that is often present in academia. I believe teaching and research are complementary and not dichotomous. As someone who has an active research agenda and a strong teaching record, I can fit in either category and I am not alone in this regard. This can make navigating a university system that considers the two as separate challenging.
One of the ways I am trying to overcome this “double yolk” is to focus on teaching during fall and spring sessions and to maintain a full research agenda during summer sessions. My summers give me the opportunity to work with several universities in Latin America and Africa to conduct research on African leadership, inclusive pedagogies and the impact that colonial language legacies have on language education among language minority communities. I have been doing quite well in maintaining both an active research agenda while teaching seven courses a year, in addition to carrying out various other services to my department and for the university.
What do you like about your current job and what do you find challenging? How does it relate to your degree?
My responsibilities as an associate teaching professor include 70% teaching, 20% scholarly activities and 10% service to my respective unit and to the university at large. In some cases, it also involves the supervision and training of TAs.
I love all aspects of this job, but being in the classroom with students has been one of the highlights of my teaching career. The amount of time I spend in the classroom engaging in intellectual discussions and de-constructing knowledge with students with higher order thinking mechanisms has provided me a lot of intellectual joy and a tremendous opportunity to not only teach to transform, but to also learn to be transformed in the process.
The various cultural backgrounds, world perspectives and different learning styles I encounter in the classroom keep me motivated and always remind me of the fact that the ac(r)t of teaching can be a fun and exciting process of self-discovery rather than merely a painful transmission of knowledge.
It was very nice and humbling to receive a teaching excellence award after students nominated me in April 2024. When I received this award, I was very moved and at a loss for words to express what I really felt at the time. It was heartwarming to see one of the six students who wrote letters to nominate me attend the ceremony. I personally think most of the credit should go to the students and the award committee members for having gone beyond racial and cultural considerations to focus exclusively on teaching performance in the classroom. I hope this award inspires more students to nominate BIPOC faculty members who have a strong teaching record, and that it encourages more institutions to look into why some BIPOC faculty members are still struggling to receive these types of awards despite being strong teachers in their respective areas.
What advice would you give to students and alumni interested in breaking into your industry?
Never engage in academia if you do not have a strong passion for conducting research and teaching. Otherwise, it can be a very painful, stressful, and challenging process, simply because both research and teaching require a lot of energy, passion, and patience.
Some people find academia to be a lonely, stressful, energy-draining environment that feels like an uphill battle, completely out of touch with the lived realities of our respective communities. Others find it to be a fun and exciting environment where they discover a lot about people’s research interests and meet interesting, dynamic, intelligent, and loving people.
Ultimately, what I have learned over the years is that academia, like any other career path, is simply what you make of it. Yet, if you ever decide to pursue a career in academia, or if you are already in academia, always be aware of this: If academia ever makes you feel like you’re not good or smart enough…it’s not you, it’s academia.
