Hoi Cheu

Dr. Hoi Cheu is a theorist deeply interested in the philosophy of both arts and science; he is an interdisciplinary researcher and currently serving as the director of the Doran Planetarium.

With an interest in bibliotherapy -- the use of literature as a tool for mental and physical well-being -- he also studied systems therapy scholarly and clinically under Dr. Joseph Gold. He has been collaborating with various interdisciplinary health research teams from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine University (NOSMU), Toronto Sick Children’s Hospital, and the Centre for Rural and Northern Health. He currecnt holds a SSHRC Partnership Grant as a co-applicant of th project "Community-engaged Research in Education, Advocacy, & system Transformation for advancing health Equity (The CREATE)." The project is coordinated at NOSMU's Social Accountability Centre.

For knowledge dissemination, he makes documentary films and videos. He is currently collaborating with SNO+ Experiment team at SNOLAB to create a video series called "The Sciences of SNO+."  Collaborating with NOSMU's "Compassion Writing Group," he is the leading editor and contributor of a new book in progress on compassion and social accountability in medical education.  His book, Cinematic Howling: Women’s Films, Women’s Film Theory (2007), was nominated for the Canadian Women’s Studies Association Book Prize.

• Ph.D. (Literary Theory, Western University): thesis -- Zen and the Art of James Joyce
• M.A. (English Literature, University of Waterloo)
• B.A. (English Literature, University of Waterloo)

Full Professor, Laurentian University

Research Focus: Bibliotherapy, Arts-Based Research, Digital Storytelling, Literary Theory

Current Journal Projects: Literature as Tool for Environmental, Physical, and Mental Health, a special issue of Environmental and Social Psychology.

Current Team Projects: 

The Transformative Potential of Socially Accountable Education (Northern Ontario School of Medicine, funded by SSHRC New Frontiers, PI: Erin Cameron)

​Preparing Students for Rural Careers: Examining the Learning Processes and Outcomes in Rural Medical Education in Canada  (Northern Ontario School of Medicine, funded by SSHRC Insight Development Grant, PI: Erin Cameron)

Investigating the Implementation of an Arts-Based Mindfulness Group Program in Elementary and Secondary Schools, funded by SSHRC, Insight Development Grants. (PI: Diana Coholic, Laurentian; Co-investigators: Hoi Cheu, Laurentian; Mark Eys Wilfred Laurier; Robert Schinke, Laurentian).

Recent Video Project in progress: The Sciences of SNO+

Sample: 

Background Radiation and the Cloud Chamber: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyLtt_pWQTI&t=12s

Photomultiplier Tube (PMT): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2d6PksfU4o&t=17s

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hoi-Cheu

• Teaching Excellence (2011, Laurentian University)
  
• MacIntosh Lecture Award (1997, Western University)

Selected Publications and Media Productions

(from 1 Book, 4 chapters in book, 2 scholarly encyclopeida entries, 14 articles, 35 conference papers, 48 documentary films/videos as director or cinematograher) -- updated July 23. 2023

Sample Articles:

Cheu, Hoi et al.  "Teaching compassion for social accountability: A parallaxic investigation," Medical Teacher.  Oct 26, 2022.  Open Access: DOI: 10.1080/0142159X.2022.2136516

Strasser, Roger, Hoi Cheu.  “The Needs of the Many: NOSM Students’ Experience of Generalism and Rural Practice.  Canadian Family Physician.  2018 Jun: 64(6): 449-455. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29898937

Stories as a Scientific Method in Arts-Based Health Research,” Journal for Applied Arts and Health.  Vol. 8, No. 2  2017, pp. 209-224. https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=169/

Book:

Cinematic Howling: Women's Films, Women's Film Theories (UBC Press, 2007).  http://canlit.ca/reviews/a_good_story_about_womens_films

Chapter in Book:

"We Choose to Read: Bibliotherapy and Memories of Loss," in Gwendolyn Broadmore (ed.) Life Came to a Stand Still: True Accounts of Loss, Love, and Hope.  Friesen Press, 2017, pp. 197-203.  https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000047007987/Gwendolyn-Broadmore-Life-Came-to-a-Standstill

Collaborative Research: The Making of the Northern Ontarion School of Medicine (McGill-Queen's, 2009). http://mqup.mcgill.ca/book.php?bookid=2430

Films for Research:

Truly and Humbly: Memories of the First Apology (2017).  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORG18pfPYDo

The Rural Challenge and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (2015).  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU3LE3vPt_4