Sharon Karsten

Sharon Karsten is a cultural and community development researcher/practitioner. She completed her PhD through Simon Fraser University’s School of Communication – focusing on cultural policy, cultural mapping, and community transformation. Her interest in cultural mapping has led to participation on various research teams. She currently serves as co-investigator / Project Director (Comox Valley) for the ‘Walk With Me’ project (2019-present), focused on developing small-city responses to the rising drug poisoning and housing crises. This work has received funding through NSERC, Vancouver Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, Island Health, and others. Previously Karsten was engaged in a SSHRC-funded cultural mapping initiative through Vancouver Island University – ‘Where is Here – Small Cities, Deep Mapping, Sustainable Futures’ (2016).

Karsten is an Open Learning Faculty Member at Thompson Rivers University, where she teaches in Communication. Recent publications include: Walking on Ice: A Call to tread carefully, think reflexively, and cultivate dialogic sectoral and institutional inquiry in the enactment of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR). In K.P. Goessling, D.E. Wright, A.C. Wager, & M. Dewhurst (Eds.), Engaging Youth in Critical Arts Pedagogies and Creative Research for Social Justice. (Routledge, 2021); and: Utopian Visions of Small City Transformation: The challenge and potential of enacting small city cultural sustainability agendas in an age of globalization (dissertation, 2018); and ‘Rewalking the Path: Community Video, Deep Cultural Mapping and Sustainable Canadian Cities’. In: Community Filmmaking: Diversity, Practices and Places. Eds: S. Malik, C. Chapain, R. Comunian. (Routledge, 2017). Throughout the past 15 years, Karsten has served in leadership roles within cultural organizations. Here, she championed and developed programs rooted in anti-oppression principles, including, at the Comox Valley Art Gallery, the 'Youth Media Project' (2014-present) - a media-based community action project for underserved youth.