Faculty of Arts

Our Faculty

Department Chair

Dr. Shannon SmyrlChair - Communication and Visual Arts
Dr. Shannon SmyrlChair - Communication and Visual Arts

My advice to students is to bet on their future selves. Jump in to opportunities and trust yourself to meet your goals.

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Journalism, Communication and New Media

Richard AmanteAssistant Teaching Professor – Limited Term
Dr. Joceline AndersenAssistant Teaching Professor
Colleen FoucaultAssistant Teaching Professor
Dr. Heather MacLeodAssistant Teaching Professor
Dr. Shannon SmyrlChair - Communication and Visual Arts
Dr. Shannon SmyrlChair - Communication and Visual Arts

My advice to students is to bet on their future selves. Jump in to opportunities and trust yourself to meet your goals.

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Shawn ThompsonAssistant Professor

As a faculty member, I have continued to work as a freelance journalist for more than 20 years, publishing a book called Letters From Prison about the experiences of federal prisoners across Canada and the United States, and a book about orangutans called The...

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Dr. Mark WallinAssociate Dean - Curriculum Development
Dr. Piotr (Peter) ZakrzewskiAssistant Teaching Professor

University Instructors & Sessionals

Jenna CannSessional Instructor
Jennifer ChrumkaSessional Instructor
Lynda DaneliukSessional Instructor
Zeinab EsmaeiliSessional Instructor
Kallan LyonsSessional Instructor
Monica MacaulaySessional Instructor
Umme MansoorySessional Instructor
Dasha NovakSessional Instructor
Harmony RaineSessional Instructor
Mairi RichterSessional Instructor
Brandi SchierSessional Instructor
Jaskiran TiwanaUniversity Instructor
Heather WislaSessional Instructor
Clement YehSessional Instructor

Lab Technician

Luke RedgroveLab Technician

Visual Arts

Terryl AtkinsAssociate Teaching Professor

My main interest is the experiential place between what the mind thinks it sees as reality, the pictures it conjures through various methods – conscious or not – in order to bring sense (or nonsense) to that experience, the effects of embodiment, subjectivity and...

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Alan BrandoliAssociate Teaching Professor
Twyla ExnerAssistant Teaching Professor
Darlene KalynkaAssociate Professor

Darlene Kalynka, an Associate Professor in the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Thompson Rivers University (TRU), was born in Rosthern, Saskatchewan, and is of Ukrainian descent. She received her B.F.A. from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, and her M.F.A. from Concordia University, Montreal....

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Donald LawrenceProfessor

At TRU Donald Lawrence teaches Visual Arts courses in a wide range of studio disciplines, including drawing, foundation, photography and sculpture. He has complemented such discipline-specific offerings with Special Topics courses, including Art and Wilderness, Parade Float, and Shelters and the Art of Personal...

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University Instructors & Sessionals

Lab Technician

Lea BucknellLab Technician, Sessional Instructor