My name is Med Kharbach. I have a Ph.D. in educational studies from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Canada. I was a K-12 teacher for over a decade before I made the move to higher education. I have always nurtured a deep passion for educational technology (EdTech) and for reading books. To share these passions with the world I created two blogs: one for EdTech and the other for bibliophiles like you and me.

As for the earlier, I launched Educational Technology and Mobile Learning (ETML) in 2010 to help my fellow EFL (English as Foreign Language) teachers integrate technology into English language teaching. Fast forward to 2022, ETML became among the top EdTech blogs with over 7000 published blog posts. ETML has been referenced in a wide variety of academic research journals, books, and news outlets including the New York Times, Huffpost.com, Hubspot.com, among others.

As for this blog, Selected Reads, the story is a little bit different!

I was born into a house filled with books. Mom used to be a voracious reader and her favourite titles filled the shelves around the house. When I was a kid, she used to introduce me to books and used to tell me stories about their authors. I would spend hours going through pages searching for comics and cartoons.

To this day, the smell of old books instantly triggers a stream of wonderful childhood memories. It was with this early discovery of books that my lifelong love for reading began. Little did I know that my passion for books would eventually grow to be the same as Mom’s.

In 2013, I launched selectedreads.com to share this love with other readers, but due to the pressures of academia (I was working on my Ph.D. at the time), I was forced to put this project on hold for some time.

In June 2022, after having successfully defended my doctoral thesis, I felt compelled to revive Selected Reads once again. By this point in my life, my appreciation for books had grown exponentially due to two major developments: firstly, since 2013, I had read hundreds of books; secondly (and more importantly) in 2019, I had begun listening to audiobooks, obsessively!

In the first two years of using Audible, I listened to over 300 books. I did so during what would normally count as dead time, that is, while engaging in activities where traditional reading as we know it is out of the question such as while running, walking in the park, commuting, you get the point. Audiobooks have put my reading passion on steroids!

The second reason that inspired me to relaunch Selected Reads is deeply personal. Towards the end of 2019, my mum suffered a brain injury which left her quadriplegic and comatose ever since. Books (along with running) have been instrumental in helping me cope with this trauma. Reading stories around mum’s bedside while holding her hand has provided me with immense solace and brought about a sense of comfort in knowing that she is not alone.

Selected Reads for me is not only a blogging experience but also a healing experience. It is a way of honoring my mother’s passion for reading and allowing her presence to live on through me.

My mission is simple: I want to provide readers with access to books that are worth their time and resources; books that will make them think critically about life and inspire them to take action. With Selected Reads, I hope to create an inclusive culture of readership where everyone is encouraged and inspired by each other’s stories.

I invite you all to join me on this journey! Together, let us explore what books can do for our lives- and for the world.

As a scholar, my academic research interests include curriculum studies, discourse analysis, language learning/teaching, language and identity, new (emerging) literacies, educational technology, and research methodologies.

I have presented at numerous national and international conferences and have published in different academic peer-reviewed journals including:

My professional affiliations include: 

  • The International Society for Research on Identity
  • Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE)
  • Canadian Committee of Graduate Students in Education (CCGSE)
  • Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies (CACS)
  • Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security, and Society .

You can find an overview of my academic publications on these platforms:

Happy Reading! 📖✨🤗

One book at a time, one page at a time, and one story at a time. 📚❤️😊