The interview was conducted by undergraduate research assistant Fyza Azam.
Fyza Azam: Could you tell me what you currently do or study?
Bella Szwender: I’m currently in my third year of law school at Lakehead University, and I’m hoping to specialize in Indigenous Law, an area that our school offers.
Fyza Azam: What is/was your role as a research assistant in the Racialized Ecologies project?
Bella Szwender: I was there when Dr. Cheryl Lousley had just begun the project. I conducted background research on a key paper shaping the project’s theoretical framework, then worked backward by examining its sources to develop the periods of racialization in Canada. I was essentially developing the periods of racialization in Canada and finding literature to support these periods.
Then, also because we were in the early days of the project, I helped look at different collaboration platforms to see which would be best for developing the project further. That was mainly what I was doing: background research and working on potential collaboration tools.
Fyza Azam: Are there any specific skills that you learned working as an RA that have been useful in your own studies or in your professional work?
Bella Szwender: I think the biggest one was learning about the “backwards method” from Dr. Lousley. I basically follow this every time I do research now: instead of finding different papers through search engines, I usually find one paper, look at all its sources, keep working backwards, and that usually gets me useful, relevant information. I guess that was something I could have learned in undergrad, but I just never really employed that method until after this Master’s Research Assistant position. Also, I think using different platforms taught me different ways to organize my thoughts, which was very helpful going into law school and gave me more unique ways to approach research and build my organizational skills.
Fyza Azam: Do/did your own studies intersect with the topic of Racialized Ecologies? If so, in what ways?
Bella Szwender: I would say yes, because when I was a research assistant, I was in the Master’s program in Social Justice at Lakehead University and taking Dr. Lousley’s environmental justice course. I think they all intersected because many of the project’s topics overlapped with my own work and research, including social justice and environmental issues we discussed across my classes, along with my own research, which focused on Indigenous histories and racialization in Canada.
Fyza Azam: Is there anything else you would like to tell me about the experience of being a research assistant?
Bella Szwender: I’m glad I was a research assistant instead of a teaching assistant. I like researching a lot. It was really rewarding to see this large project working toward a unique way of thinking and to watch it grow from the ground up during my time working with Dr. Lousley. I enjoyed that whole process, and it made me think about research differently, such as how to offer nuanced perspectives through research rather than just regurgitating the same things, so I liked that aspect of it.
Fyza Azam: That was the last question. Thank you for your time.