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Hi there - I'm a journalist and an academic.

Currently, a third-year student at The University of British Columbia pursuing an honours degree in English literature. I have been covering UBC and Vancouver arts and culture events for The Ubyssey for a year and a half and I have also written about heritage projects for Canada's National History Society. 

Social Media and Content Creation

As Canada's History's Online Engagement Coordinator, I manage their social media platforms most of the time. I post regularly and make posts engaging to get more newsletter subscriptions and drive traffic to our website.

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My Work

The Ubyssey •

Grammy winner Sandeep Das transcends musical borders to perform at UBC this Saturday

Grammy-winning tabla player Sandeep Das is coming to Chan Centre on Saturday, February 18 to perform with his frequent collaborators, the HUM ensemble, as well as students from the UBC School of Music.

His most recent project Delhi to Damascus is a mix of North Indian and Middle Eastern classical music. It is part of a bigger project called Transcending Borders: One Musical Note at a Time, which brings instruments like tabla (a pair of drums with different pitches), sitar, Indian santoor and Sy

Not Just Immigrants - Canada's History

Since the beginning of the twentieth century when South Asians first arrived in British Columbia, their population has grown to over three hundred thousand. However, until recently, there was not much done to preserve the community’s history.

South Asian Canadian Legacy Project (SACLP) seeks to fill the gap with a set of six independent projects that each has a different goal and audience. The six projects include a collection of educational resources, a South-Asian history book, a travelling m
The Ubyssey •

Travelling through the portal: Imaginarium brings perspective on the climate crisis

Tucked in a corner of Granville Island, a literary reading and discussion event called Imaginarium took place on July 9 as part of Vancouver’s annual Indian Summer Festival. The event included critical discussions and literary readings which centred on the subtitle of the book The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables of a Planet in Crisis, the most recent work of author Amitav Ghosh.

With conversations between Ghosh and other well-loved writers and eccentric music performances, the evening was thought-prov

Being Kaur - Canada's History

In 1908, Canadian government attempted for the first time to prevent South-Asian immigrants from settling in Canada by imposing a $200 tax on every incoming Asian immigrant. This prevented the wives and families of South-Asian Canadians — mostly Sikhs who hailed from the Indian subcontinent — from settling in the country. The laws were relaxed only in 1919 to allow women and children to immigrate from India. Since then, many Sikh women have migrated to Canada to live with their husbands and rais
The Ubyssey •

Grammy winner Arooj Aftab's experimental Sufi music melds into a minimalist blur

2022 Grammy Award winner Arooj Aftab performed at the Chan Centre on July 13 as part of the Indian Summer Festival. Though Aftab’s performance of her experimental jazz-influenced Sufi music created a distinct mystical atmosphere, the minimalist chain of long notes blurred together endlessly.

Occupying a small part of the stage for her entire performance, Aftab stood in a dramatic goth look — an all-black outfit with feathery sequined shoulder pads — accompanied by Gyan Riley on guitar and Daria
The Ubyssey •

AMS celebrates 100 years since Great Trek, digs up 50-year-old time capsule and buries new one

The AMS unearthed a 1972 time capsule and put a new one in its place celebrating the Great Trek this Friday. The event took place at the Great Trek Cairn on Main Mall and included speeches from notable former AMS executives on the importance of student activism.

The event marked the 100 year anniversary of the Great Trek, a protest organized in 1922 by the AMS to push the government to start construction on UBC’s current campus. Students gathered 56,000 signatures before the AMS president at th
The Ubyssey •

UBC student’s short film, Imran and Alykhan brings bittersweet queer romance to Muslim youth camp

Third-year Sauder student Shakil Jessa’s short film Imran and Alykhan debuted on May 12 at this year’s Crazy8s Gala, a competitive opportunity for emerging filmmakers to showcase their work.

Crazy8s is an eight-day filmmaking challenge — three days to shoot and five days to edit — which gives 6 filmmakers out of 150 applicants the support to produce their short films.

Imran and Alykhan is the story of a teenage boy, Imran (played by Moheb Jindran), who hopelessly falls in love with another boy
The Ubyssey •

Decolonize the Chan: Moe Clark reconnects the Chan to the land through storytelling and song

“And with the earth as my mother, we began to sing a song,” sang Métis Two-Spirit artist Moe Clark.

Clark closed the three-show Decolonize the Chan series on March 26 with Feast Of The Invisible, an immersive performance that blended ceremonial storytelling, têwêhikan (hand drum) and musical genres from jazz to throat singing.

Clark’s performance was dramatic and anthemic. Her music was a mix of spoken word, throat-singing and gospel singing. The echoing effect created through background vocal
The Ubyssey •

Candidate profile: Romina Hajizadeh, senator-at-large

Second-year arts student Romina Hajizadeh is running to be a senator-at-large on a platform of improving student engagement, advocating for recorded lectures and increasing transparency within the Senate.

Hajizadeh is currently the chief AMS representative for the Arts Undergraduate Society and the chair of the AMS HR Committee.

As for what has gone well in the Senate over the last year, Hajizadeh said she appreciated Student Senate Caucus co-chairs Eshana Bhangu and Dante Agosti-Moro’s drafti
The Ubyssey •

Shakespeare’s First Folio was gifted to UBC Library; Here’s why you might want to see it

UBC recently purchased Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies Histories and Tragedies — also known as The First Folio — through Christie’s auction house in New York. The Folio was published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death. It is said to be the most expensive work of literature ever auctioned; a copy of the Folio was bought by a private collector for nearly 10 million dollars in 2020. It took two years of consistent efforts by Associate Professor and English Honours Coordinator Dr. Gre

Skills & Interests

I have extensive experience in arts and culture journalism and have also worked on sports and news articles. Having taken a wide variety of humanity courses has taught me to appreciate diverse perspectives and to understand every subject in its individuality. I apply a similar approach to my articles. Writing for The Ubyssey has helped me improve my editing and research skills exponentially. 

Additionally, my last co-op (Summer 2022 and 2023) at Canada's National History Society as their Online Engagement Coordinator has taught me to multitask and efficiently execute a range of tasks such as curating and sending out weekly newsletters (using MailChimp),  publishing articles online, photo editing (using Photoshop) and posting regularly on social media channels.

About Me

As an international student, I have found community in and through arts and culture events. I remember attending Moe Clarke's concert -- which was also my first concert ever -- with very limited knowledge of indigenous culture but when I was leaving, I knew I would have missed out on something special if I had not attended it. That also became my first entry point into indigenous culture.

It is no surprise that Canada has a huge Indian population. However, the perspectives with which Indian immigrants have always seen Canada and what brings them here seem a little lost in the popular media. Through my work, I hope to uplift and represent Indians, who are as much part of the Canadian fabric now as any other settler community. 

Apart from that, I like to read (talk to me about your favourite books!), look at art, cook, go to the beach and walk around Vancouver!

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

Arundhati Roy