Serap Asar Brown (DMD, BA, M.Sc.) is a PhD candidate in Adult Education and Leadership Studies at the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria. She is a Water lover, an arts-based adult educator, a poet, a filmmaker, and a long-distance bicyclist along rivers from source to sea.
Raised in Istanbul, Serap developed a strong connection to Water during her childhood, spending time in the transparent waters of the Marmara Sea and in cold fountains and creeks with her family. Later, witnessing the crystal-clear waters turn cloudy gray and the fountains dry as part of the negative outcomes of modernity and urban development, Serap felt a strong sense of responsibility to better care for Water. Remembering relational values she had learned from her parents, such as care and gratitude, Serap aims to facilitate ways to (re)member, (re)imagine, and (re)story human relationships with Water.
Serap feels great honour to have met the Saltwater People and expresses her deepest gratitude to the Elders, particularly to J’SINTEN, COSINIYE, and SELILIYE, for sharing their kindness, wisdom, and stories with her. This has allowed Serap to experience good relations founded on guiding principles and values.
Serap’s fellowship awards include Climate Change Education Fellowship (2023-2024), Centre for Global Studies Fellowship (2024-2025), SSHRC Fellowship (2024-2026).
Collective Poetry
Asar Brown, S. (2025, August). Relational inquiry workshop, Wild Pedagogies, Ioannina, Greece:
I am Water.
To be Water is.
Asar Brown, S. (2021, March 24). Journeys with rivers at Cree Teacher Education Program. University of Saskatchewan, SK:
When I see Water.
Asar Brown, S. (2020, July 5). Guest poet at Creekside Concert Series in Victoria, BC:
When I walk by Bowker Creek.
Films
Asar Brown, S. (Producer). (2020). I am river. [Experimental].
Asar Brown, S (Producer). (2023). Humans are Nature, Nature as Teacher: An interview with Dr. Elin Kelsey. [Documentary].
