Robin Attas

Robin is an educational developer in The Centre with a focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion (often abbreviated EDI) in teaching and learning. She supports faculty, staff and graduate students with campus-wide and custom workshops and individual consultations. Robin also leads workshops within the Graduate Teaching Program (GTP) and Teaching and Learning Certificate (TLC). She frequently collaborates with Indigenous Initiatives Educators within The Centre and with Indigenous and EDI-focused faculty and staff across the university.

Robin (she/her/hers) is a white settler who has worked in educational development since 2018. She joins The Centre after three years at the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Queen’s University. Prior to joining the educational development community, Robin was a full-time music theory professor with positions at institutions including Mount Allison University, Elon University, and the University of British Columbia. She remains active as a music theory instructor and researcher, presenting and publishing on topics in music theory pedagogy including social justice, decolonization and Indigenization, and inclusive pedagogies. Robin also maintains an active research agenda in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), focusing on educational development practices, specifically the “disruptive interview,” meant to encourage faculty to take steps towards decolonization, Indigenization, and more inclusive pedagogies.

Recent publications include:

“The Many Paths of Decolonization: Exploring Colonizing and Decolonizing Analyses of A Tribe Called Red’s “How I Feel.” Music Theory Online 28.2 (2022). https://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.22.28.2/mto.22.28.2.attas.html

 “Institutional structures and individual stories: Experiences from the front lines of Indigenous educational development in higher education.” Jessica Raffoul, Jennifer Ward, Stryker Calvez, Arief Kartolo, Aisha Haque, Trevor Holmes, Robin Attas, Jaimie Kechego, Erika Kustra, & Julie Mooney. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 18, vol.1(2022): 163-172. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801211062617

“Nitawahsin Nanni and Disrupting Journeys.” 2021. Robin Attas, Gabrielle Lindstrom, Lee Easton, Michelle Yeo. Transformative Dialogues 14(1).

Decolonizing Music Pedagogies: A special issue of Intersections: Canadian Journal of Music. 2019 (released 2021). Guest edited by Robin Attas and Margaret E. Walker. Intersections 39(1). https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/is/2019-v39-n1-is05836/

“Strategies for Settler Decolonization: Decolonial Pedagogies in a Popular Music Analysis Course.” 2019. Canadian Journal of Higher Education 49(1): 106-120.

“Music Theory As Social Justice: Pedagogical Applications of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly.” 2019. Music Theory Online 25(1).
 

Educational Developers Grants for Exchanges (EDGEs). 2019. “Disruptive Interviews for Decolonization”. With Tim Yearington, Gabrielle Lindstrom, Michelle Yeo, Roberta Lexia, and Lee Easton.

Ph.D. (Music Theory), M.A. (Music Theory), B.Mus.