Bryan Wee
- Associate Professor
- DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
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Institutional Affiliation
University of Colorado Denver
Education
Digital Humanities Fellowship | National Library Board, Singapore | 2022-23
Post-doctoral Fellowship | Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden | 2014-15
PhD Science Education | Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA | 2007
MS Conservation Biology | Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA | 2001
BA Economics | University of Washington, Seattle, USA | 1996
Profile
As an immigrant in the U.S., and a child of Chinese diaspora in Singapore, I am perpetually in and out of place. What does it mean to belong? How do we meaningfully represent emotions, nostalgia, and other felt connections to places? These are some of the questions that inform my scholarship.
As a cultural geographer, I use visual narratives to understand and represent place attachments. In particular, photo essays and story maps can sensitize us to people’s sense of belonging, identity formation, etc. that are critical to how societies interpret and respond to change. Elevating the importance of place attachments in areas such as urban planning and heritage preservation promotes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), deepens our appreciation of different (even opposing) worldviews, and nurtures empathy in the research process.
To teach is to understand self in relation to others, to teach is to cultivate humility and compassion, to teach is to learn. I embrace these focal points of a humanistic pedagogy in my classes, always striving to be wholly present in mind, body, and spirit. Teaching is informed by learning theories, but its practice involves a passion and perspective that is deeply personal. As Walt Whitman so aptly described in Leaves of Grass, "wisdom is not finally tested in schools, wisdom cannot be pass’d from one having it to another not having it, wisdom is of the soul."