Sheri Fabian

BIOGRAPHY

Sheri Fabian is a university lecturer in the School of Criminology. She has served as the School’s Associate Director of Undergraduate Programs, and is currently seconded as the inaugural Director of Educational Leadership and Teaching Inquiry at SFU. This role expands her ongoing leadership of Transforming Inquiry into Learning and Teaching (TILT), advancing educational leadership across the university by supporting instructor professional development, fostering communities of practice, and mobilizing the strengths of SFU's teaching community. Through this work, she mentors and supports instructors in examining and enhancing the impact of their teaching while advancing high-quality, evidence-informed approaches to teaching and learning.

Drawing on more than 15 years of experience validating residential school survivors' claims, Fabian is committed to decolonizing education, anti-racist pedagogy, and the respectful integration of Indigenous ways of knowing in higher education. Her contributions to teaching and educational leadership were recognized in 2019 when she was named a 3M National Teaching Fellow, Canada’s highest teaching honour for post-secondary instructors.

AREAS OF INTEREST

Educational leadership, scholarship of teaching and learning, qualitative research methods, academic integrity, equity-deserving populations and justice, and inclusive pedagogies.

EDUCATION

BA (UBC)
MA/PhD (SFU)

NOTE FOR POTENTIAL GRADUATE STUDENTS:

SFU teaching faculty cannot supervise graduate students.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Fabian, S. (2026). Twenty Years Teaching Criminology: Innovation, Resistance, and the Courage to Rethink Learning. The Western Criminologist, Spring 2026.
Dennett, B., Girme, Y. and Fabian, S. (2025). The Good, The Bad, and The Complex: Qualitative Accounts of How People Navigate Singlehood Benefits and Challenges. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075251351444
Rashed, F., Fouladi, R. and Fabian, S. (2024). Navigating Intimate Relationships of Iranians in the Context of Immigration: Insights from a Qualitative Systematic Review and Empirical Investigation. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 42(3), 818-848 https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075241307983
Woods, B. and Fabian, S. (2024). You’re never really safe”: Exploring UK Mothers’ and Young Women’s Perceptions of Sexual Violence Risk. Violence Against Women https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012241289434
Murdoch, D., Fabian, S., Love, H., O’Doherty, T., & Scott, M-A. (2023, March 14). Why is self-reflection core to decolonisation and antiracism in the Academy? Times Higher Education Campus. www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/why-selfreflection-core-decolonisation-and-antiracism-academy
Butler, A., Nicholls, T., Samji, H., Fabian, S., & Lavergne, M. R. (2024). Mental Health Needs, Substance Use, and Reincarceration: Population-Level Findings from a Released Prison Cohort. Criminal Justice and Behavior https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548241238327
Lam, V., King, S., Fabian, S., Anderson, G. (2023) Transnational Comparison of the Impact of COVID-19 on Medicolegal Death Investigations and the Administration of Justice: Early Stages of the Pandemic. Medicine, Science and the Law. https://doi.org/10.1177/00258024231182361
Schmitt, M., Neufeld, S., Fryberg, S., Adams, G., Viljoen, J., Patrick, L., Atleo, C., & Fabian, S. (2021). “Indigenous” Nature Connection? A Response to Kurth, Narvaez, Kohn, and Bae (2020). Ecopsychology, 13(1), 64-67. https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2020.0066
Fabian, S. C. (2014). Reconciling the Irreconcilable: Resolving Emotionality and Research Responsibility When Working for the Traumatizer. In J. M. Kilty, M. Felices-Luna, & S. C. Fabian (Eds.), Demarginalizing Voices: Commitment, Emotion, and Action in Qualitative Research (pp. 245-266). UBC Press.
Fabian, S. C. (2014). "If I Can’t Have You, No One Can,” and Other Gendered Constructions of Criminal Harassment. In J. M. Kilty (Ed.), Within the Confines: Women and the Law in Canada (pp. 144-173). Women’s Press, in Canadian Scholars Press.

SELECTED AWARDS AND GRANTS

2019 3M National Teaching Fellow, Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
2016 SFU Excellence in Teaching Award
2014 SFU Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Cormack Award for Excellence in Teaching
2019, SFU Institute for Study of Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines, Indigenous Student Experiences at Simon Fraser University: A Student-led Collaborative Study (Co-Investigator, Value: $10,000)
2016, SFU Institute for Study of Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines, Teaching About Victimization in Respectful and Inclusive Ways (Principal Investigator, Value: $12,000)
2013, SFU Institute for Study of Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines, Regular session, i>clicker and On-line Tutorials: Exploring Student Experiences and Learning Outcomes with Emerging Learning Technologies (Principal Investigator, Value: $10,000)

SELECTED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

Rethinking Course Design Workshop. Centre for Educational Excellence, SFU. May 2023
Blended Learning Design. Centre for Educational Excellence, SFU. Jan-Apr 2023
Facilitator Development Trainer Certification Workshop, Instructional Skills Facilitator Network, Simon Fraser University, 2022
Anti-Racist Pedagogies Program: Healing from Racism Journey. Centre for Educational Excellence, SFU. Summer 2021-Spring 2022

RECENTLY TAUGHT COURSES

CRIM 131: Introduction to the Criminal Justice System – A Total Systems Approach
CRIM 321: Qualitative Research Methods
CRIM 864: Advanced Qualitative Research Methods

Courses

This instructor is currently not teaching any courses.

School of Criminology