Andrea Jonahs

Associate Professor, Teaching Stream
Andrea Jonahs

PhD, Communication Studies, University of Calgary
MFA, Nonfiction Writing, University of Iowa

BS, Clinical Lab Science, Andrews University

Extension: 4
6887
Email: ajonahs@uwaterloo.ca

Biography

I was born and raised in the Metro Vancouver area, moved to Winnipeg for high school, and then to Michigan for university. I began my academic journey in the hard sciences and trained as a medical technologist. After a few years of analyzing body fluids on the midnight shift in the dingy basement of a lab, I turned to writing out of desperation. I was especially drawn to memoir and the personal essay, which led me to pursue an MFA in Nonfiction Writing.

After living in the United States for 13 years, I returned to Canada in 2010 to begin a PhD in Communication Studies at the University of Calgary. My dissertation explored everyday discourses on race within the context of interracial relationships, contributing to our understanding of racial ideologies.

In 2017, I began teaching at the University of Waterloo as part of the Undergraduate Communication Requirements initiative.  My teaching areas include professional communication, academic writing, and creative writing.

Selected publications

Scholarly Publications

Jonahs, A., & Olumo, A. (2024). Building science identity through mentorship vision boards. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 15(3). https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotlrcacea.2024.3.17966

Jonahs, A., & Olumo, A. (2024). Building engineering Identity through mentorship vision boards. Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA). https://doi.org/10.24908/pceea.2024.18516

Jonahs, A. (2024). Review of the book Permanent racism: race, class and the myth of postracial Britain by P. Warmington. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 1–3.https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2024.2389298

Jonahs, A. (2022). Everyday anti-racism and (un)common sense in discourses about romantic interracial relationships. Journal of Critical Race Inquiry, 9(1), 1-20. https://jcri.ca/index.php/CRI/article/view/15093

Jonahs, A. (2021). Colorblind and colorbound: Everyday neoliberalism in the discourses on romantic interracial relationships. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 18(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2020.1854801

Jonahs, A. (2011). Infrastructural strangeness in virtual spaces. Graduate Journal of Social Science, 8(3). https://gjss.org/sites/default/files/issues/chapters/papers/Journal-08-03--06-Jonahs.pdf

Literary Publications

Jonahs, A. (2010). Missing persons. Cold Mountain Review. Spring 2010.

Jonahs, A. (2008). Pronounced ‘ch’ with an ‘eye’ at the end. Gastronomica, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2008.8.1.92 

Jonahs, A. (2006). Waking us all. Marginalia, 2(3).

Grants & Awards

University of Waterloo Outstanding Performance Award, 2o21

University of Waterloo Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) Grant, 2021

Current Research

Currently, I'm working on articles and a book proposal related to my doctoral research.

Research Areas

  • Science identity
  • Critical discourse analysis
  • Critical race theory
  • Race and new media