Theme: Conspiracy Theories and Misinforamtion

Featuring Dr. Paul Budra, Anjali Appadurai, and Wes Regan

SPA church (Surrey Pentecostal Assembly)
16870 80 Ave
Surrey, British Columbia, V4N 5A1
Canada

Anjali Appadurai

Climate Justice advocate

Anjali Appadurai is a climate justice organizer and campaigner. As a young activist, she worked with youth movements from around the world to build a strong civil society voice at the UN Climate Convention and to ensure that social movements' demands were heard in the halls of power. She runs the Padma Centre for Climate Justice, a project that brings together diasporic communities to build power around issues of climate and economic justice, and she works as Campaigns Director at the Climate Emergency Unit.

Dr. Paul Budra

Professor, Department of English at Simon Fraser University

Dr. Paul Budra is a Professor of English at Simon Fraser University. He has published seven books and numerous articles on Shakespeare, early modern literature, and contemporary popular culture. He is a past president of the Pacific Northwest Renaissance Society, former Chair of the English Department, former Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and winner of the SFU Excellence in Teaching Award for 2004. Every summer he lectures on Shakespeare at the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival in Vancouver, BC.

Wes Regan

Regional Lead for Practice, Research & Evaluation at Vancouver Coastal Health Office of the Chief MHO

Wes has worked in urban planning and public health since 2009. During the COVID-19 pandemic he experienced and observed how misinformation and conspiracy theory beliefs were undermining the response to the pandemic. This led him to devote his Ph.D. research to examining the impacts social media, digital misinformation, and conspiracism are having on public policy discourse and formation today. In 2023 he was the recipient of the Bombardier Sustainable Transportation Fellowship and awarded a coveted placement in the UBC Public Scholars Initiative.