Though she’s taught communications and worked in not-for-profit, Dr. Jennifer Long, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, Economics and Political Science, says teaching at MacEwan is her unicorn job. 

“It’s my husband’s saying – we moved here for this position,” says the 2026 Teaching Leadership Award recipient.

Dr. Long is an applied anthropologist – a type of anthropologist who addresses change by working directly with community partners. The opportunity to work beyond the university, and the additions of learning-centred teaching and universal design to her work, makes this job such a perfect fit. 

“I get really excited by things that are game-like,” she says, referring to her ANTH 444: Applied Anthropology course, which includes workshops with Wayne Williams, associate professor in the Department of Design. Students are tasked to create products or design solutions for issues in the community. In an upcoming workshop, for example, students work with the City of Edmonton archivist to help bring historically absent voices into the record and provide a more fulsome, holistic understanding of the people who made Edmonton. 

She says that pushing students to ask questions about systems and inequality is the true work of an educator.  

“It’s not just about making our students employable. It’s about creating a better world while doing so.”

Welcome to Dr. Long’s office

Creating that world happens one connection, one student at a time – and not always formally. Dr. Long says she didn’t often attend office hours when she was a student. 

“I see a lot of myself in my students,” she says. “So, I want to be approachable. I think that I would have had an easier road if I had been able to reach out to my instructors. ” 

One of the ways she does this is through humour. “I don’t go up to the front of the class to be funny,” she says. But gifts from two students are evidence that it’s making an impact. 

Dr. Long says that these jars – gifts from students – are a reminder of how creative, dedicated and unique students are. They also remind her that students find joy – even when things get challenging. 

“I teach courses that are very serious, lectures that are difficult and uncomfortable to sit through and that have significant outcomes. And yet there is still joy.”

That’s because Long and her students to create a learning space where everyone can be present for each other through that discomfort. 

“We live in a really precarious and anxious time. So finding the humour is really important. It’s a part of the process of learning.”

Dr. Long has a framed piece of art from a former colleague who calls her a unicorn friend. 

“I think part of that is because during the course of my schooling – from undergrad to PhD – I stopped many times to figure out if this was what I really wanted to do.”

During those times, she held positions at Proctor and Gamble and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and participated in community-facing work with non-profis and for-profit organizations, including teaching communications at McMaster's School of Engineering Practice and Technology. 

“And so she calls me a unicorn. She always props me up for my dedication and passion and tells me my work is unique and interesting. 

“To me, this drawing symbolizes to me the ways in which faculty support one another. And that’s really powerful.”

Dr. Long says the art on her walls is very important to her and the message they convey is no coincidence. 

“Being an anthropologist is kind of like stepping into somebody else’s shoes or opening a window or a door into their world. But it’s not seeing something exactly from their perspective. It’s about trying to understand, be curious and learn. It’s a humble place to come from. And so I think these doors and windows help me understand the importance of curiosity as a starting point.”

Thoughts about receiving the Teaching Leadership award?

“I was so grateful to be nominated,” says Dr. Long. “To win was just out of this world. And it’s one of the ways in which, as colleagues, we help each other.”