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Andrew Coyne – The First Spike: A Reconstruction of Canadian Nationalism

October 5, 2011

National editor of Maclean’s, Andrew Coyne was an original member of The National Post, where he was their national affairs columnist. He has established himself over the last two decades as one of this country’s most thoughtful, passionate and articulate commentators on political and economic issues. Coyne has been an editorial writer, columnist and contributor for The Globe and Mail, The Financial Post, Saturday Night, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Time magazine. He is the winner of two National Newspaper Awards, and the Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism. He is also a member of the “At Issue” Panel on CBC’s The National, appears on TVO’s The Agenda, and once co-hosted Face-Off on CBC. (September 22, 2011, 4:00-5:30pm, Great Hall at Green College, Building just across the Coach House)

Select Articles Available at UBC Library

Coyne, A., & Canadian Publishers Collection – non-CRKN. (2014). Irresponsible government: The decline of parliamentary democracy in Canada. Lancaster; Toronto: Dundurn. [Link]

Coyne, A. (1990). Canada’s competitive role. The Financial Post, S40. [Link]

Coyne, A. (1989). Meech lake drama’s final act. The Financial Post, 83(17), 16. [Link]

Coyne, A. (1990). Unanimity, not Quebec, is basis for dissension on Meech lake. The Financial Post, 84(1), 6. [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

Political Science

Canadian Studies

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Sarah Mustillo – Earlier Obesity and Later Depressive Symptomotology in Adolescence: The Lingering Effects of Stigma

October 5, 2011

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Green College as part of its “Health and Population Series”. As a stigmatizing condition, obesity may lead to the internalization of devalued labels and threats to emotional well-being. Modified labeling theory suggests that the effects of stigma may outlive direct manifestations of the discredited characteristic itself. This talk considers whether obesity in late childhood and early adolescence has effects on depressive symptomatology later in adolescence, and, if so, if the effects are mediated by fat labeling from family and friends. Using longitudinal data from the National Growth and Health Study on 2206 black and white girls, they estimated path models to test the direct effects of obesity and the indirect effects of labeling on CESD score. The researchers found that obesity in late childhood was significantly associated with depressive symptoms in late adolescence and that the effect was completely mediated by parent labeling. Further, obesity in middle adolescence was also associated with later depressive symptoms, but the effect was mediated more by friend labeling than parent labeling, suggesting that girls may be vulnerable to different network members during different developmental periods.

UBC Library Resources

Loftus, J., Kelly, B., & Mustillo, S. (2013). Predictors of entry into age-discordant relationships among adolescent girls. Deviant Behavior, 34(7), 513-533. doi:10.1080/01639625.2012.735905. [Link]

Morton, P., Mustillo, S., & Ferraro, K. (2014). Does childhood misfortune raise the risk of acute myocardial infarction in adulthood? Social Science & Medicine, 104, 133-141. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.11.026. [Link]

Mustillo, S. A., Budd, K., & Hendrix, K. (2013). Obesity, labeling, and psychological distress in late-childhood and adolescent black and white girls: The distal effects of stigma. Social Psychology Quarterly, 76(3), 268-289. doi:10.1177/0190272513495883. [Link]

Mustillo, S. A., Hendrix, K. L., & Schafer, M. H. (2012). Do the psychological effects of stigma linger after obese adolescents transition to normal weight? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 53(1), 1. [Link]

UBC Research Guides

Psychology

Pediatrics

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Reading of the "Blue Light Project"

October 5, 2011

In a very near future that is both familiar and troubling, three lives intersect in a time of crisis. A controversial talent show involving children is midway through taping when a man storms the television studio and takes over a hundred hostages. He’s armed with an explosive device, but expresses no motive and makes just one demand: an interview with journalist Thom Pegg. It’s a strange request, everyone agrees. A disgraced former investigative journalist, caught fabricating sources, Pegg is down on his luck and working for a lowly tabloid. Reluctant, but pressured by federal authorities, Pegg agrees to meet the hostage taker. So it is that Pegg learns why he was chosen and the horrifying truth of what the hostage taker is trying to achieve.

Crowds of people congregate near the studio, anxiously waiting along with the outside world. In the confusing perfect storm of news and rumor, two people meet and forge an immediate connection. Eve is a former Olympic gold medalist and much loved local daughter, who jogs the streets at night, running from her own past glories. Rabbit is a secretive street artist working to complete a massive street art project, which involves installations on the rooftops of hundreds of buildings throughout the city.

It’s a frightening time. Yet rising to its heart-stopping climax, The Blue Light Project surprises the city, and the reader, with the power of beauty and the unexpected sources of faith and light that may be found in even our darkest hours. For a full transcript of this program, please find here.

Biography of Author

Timothy Taylor is the author of three best-selling novels, a collection of short stories, and two nonfiction books. His most recent publication was the novel The Blue Light Project, “a breakneck literary thriller” (National Post) which won the 2011 CBC Bookie Prize. Taylor won the Journey Prize in 2001, becoming the only writer ever to have three stories included in the same edition of the Journey Prize Anthology. He has since been nominated for the Giller Prize, the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize, as well as both the British Columbia and Vancouver Book Awards. Timothy Taylor is also one of Canada’s widest published writers of non-fiction magazine and newspaper features. His work has appeared in Harpers, Walrus, Eighteen Bridges, Cooking Light, Vancouver Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business and numerous other publications. He’s been nominated for over two dozen magazine awards, winning 12 in the past 10 years. Timothy Taylor is Assistant Professor at the UBC Creative Writing program.

Author’s Titles at UBC Library

Taylor, T. (2011). Blue Light Project. Toronto: Alfred Knopf. [Link]

Tayor, T. (2001). Stanley Park. Toronto: Alfred Knopf. [Link]

Taylor, T. (2002). Silent Cruises: Stories. Toronto: Vintage Canada. [Link]

Taylor, T. (2006). Story House. Toronto: Alfred Knopft. [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

English

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Timothy Taylor author reading webcast online

October 5, 2011

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and as part of the Robson Reading Series. Timothy Taylor is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. The Blue Light Project, his most recent novel, was published in 2011. Born in Venezuela, he was raised in West Vancouver, British Columbia and Edmonton, Alberta. Taylor’s short story “Doves of Townsend” won the Journey Prize in 2000. He had two other stories on the competition’s final shortlist that year, and is to date the only writer ever to have three short stories compete for the prize in the same year. His debut novel, Stanley Park, nominated for the Giller Prize and chosen to be the 2004 One Book, One Vancouver, was followed by Silent Cruise, a collection of eight stories and one novella. (September 29, 2:00-3:00pm, Chilcotin Board Room, Room 256, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre)

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Worlds of Wonder: Weather and Other Phenomena by Willa Downing

October 4, 2011

The Worlds of Wonder: Weather and Other Phenomena art exhibition by artist and Emily Carr University’s instructor Willa Downing is front and centre at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. For photography of this exhibit, please find them on our Facebook page.

The exhibit will be from October 1 to November 30, 2011.

As Willa Downing asserts of this exhibit:

To make sense of the universe, we use a combination of disparate faculties that give us different forms of insight. As a scientist and artist, Willa Downing can view the world through profoundly different lenses. A powerful way of looking at Nature, science can reveal the immense complexity and extravagant beauty of natural phenomena down to the level of atoms and molecules. However, art’s connection is more primeval and evocative. Downing’s work reflects an intellectual and visceral response to the natural world. Although different, art and science share some characteristics. Both are creative. Fed by a sense of wonder, intuition and imagination play important roles. The ‘spaciousness of wonder’ creates new possibilities for the imagination, new geographies for the creative process. This body of work, about the weather and other related phenomena, includes box assemblages and mixed media on wood panel.

The ‘boxes of curiosity’ are inspired by Cabinets of Curiosity from the16th-17th centuries. Popular before modern science became prominent, these displays of natural and man-made objects reflected the interests, whims and idiosyncrasies of the collector. This spirit of wonder, serendipity and playfulness inform this work. Other pieces in this exhibition include maps of weather phenomena such as solar wind, heat islands, and storm clouds. Downing hopes to create work that accommodates feelings and intellectual ideas, work that will enrich one’s perspective of our natural world. (Artist – Willa Downing – www.willadowning.ca)

To sign the virtual guest book, please click here

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SBA Events for Small Business Month 2011

October 3, 2011

October is Small Business Month , and this year, the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre’s Small Business Accelerator will be out hosting and participating in a number of major events. Here’s a rundown of where (and how) you can connect with our program in October.

October 17
Join SBA at UBC Robson Square (Vancouver) on Monday, October 17th 2011 for two compelling speakers, Paul Cubbon: Marketing Instructor at UBC’s Sauder School of Business and George Moen: President of Blenz The Canadian Coffee Company. They will be speaking on start-up success, and will be taking audience questions. This engaging speaker event is FREE to attend – and can be attended live via webcast if you aren’t in the lower mainland – but be sure to RSVP to attend very soon (before October 13), as seating is limited. For full details on Smart Business, Small Business: An SBA Speaker Series – Vancouver follow this link: http://www.sba-bc.ca/biztalk or view the full EVENT POSTER.

October 19
Join us in Kelowna at the UBC-O campus (Arts Atrium) for Smart Business, Small Business: An SBA Speaker Series – Okanagan. This event will run from 5:30 – 7:30 and will feature two exceptional small business speakers: Norine Webster and Scott Coleman, a Q&A session and a networking session to close. More detailed information for this event will be released very shortly.

For more information, please contact Community Engagement Librarian (Business Services) Aleha McCauley.

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IKBLC Celebrates Culture Days 2011 at Richmond Public Library

October 1, 2011

Culture Days is a collaborative pan-Canadian volunteer movement to raise the awareness, accessibility,participation and engagement of all Canadians in the arts and cultural life of their communities.
On October 1, 2011, the Richmond Public Library, Richmond Art Gallery, the Learning Centre, and UBC Library offered sessions to the public on basic techniques of oral history interviewing. Participants consulted with an expert digitization librarian on how to scan old photos and manage them digitally. Chinese Canadian Stories provided professional scanning equipment on hand to preserve treasured family photos, offering 15-minute scanning sessions on a first-come, first-serve basis.

For more information, please contact Allan Cho

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Featured Place at Learning Centre: Mackenzie Seminar room

September 30, 2011

This week, our featured room in the Irving K Barber Learning Centre, is the Mackenzie Seminar Room, room 112, located in Rare Books and Special Collections. The Mackenzie seminar room is a bit different from the other rooms in that it is not named after a place, but an explorer: Sir Alexander Mackenzie.

Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820), completed the first recorded transcontinental crossing of North America by a European north of Mexico. On July 20, 1793, Mackenzie and his party arrived at Bella Coola, where he first reached saltwater at South Bentinck Arm, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean.

Image credit: Alexander Mackenzie painted by Thomas Lawrence (c.1800), courtesy National Gallery of Canada.

In Rare Books and Special Collections, we have many historical maps documenting Mackenzie’s explorations. For example, in the Dr. Andrew McCormick map collection, there are a number of maps that illustrating Mackenzie’s travels. For example, McCormick map 106, A map of America, between the latitudes 40 and 70, and longitudes 45 and 180 West, exhibiting Mackenzie’s Track from Montreal to Fort Chipewyan & from there to the North Sea in 1789, & to the West Pacific Ocean in 1793 (London: Alexander Mackenzie, 1801). On this map, Mackenzie’s exploration routes of 1789 and 1793 are highlighted in red and yellow, respectively.

Image credit: Dr. Andrew McCormick collection, mccormick_106

In Rare Books and Special Collections, the Mackenzie seminar room is a multi-functional space.

Image credit: UBC Library

The reference collection (e.g. bibliographies, dictionaries, city directories, encyclopedias, etc) is arranged on the shelves in the room. As well, Rare Books and Special Collections librarians and archivists use this space to teach students, faculty, staff and community members about our collections. Since it is a room connected to the Fort Fraser Reading Room, we are able to bring out a variety of material and examples for class participants to use. If you are interested in arranging a class or tour using materials from Rare Books and Special Collections, please send an email to Rare Books and Special Collections.

Cross-posted at Rare Books and Special Collection at UBC Library

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Smart Business, Small Business: An SBA Speaker Session

September 29, 2011

Join us on Monday, October 17th 2011 to celebrate BDC’s Small Business Week with two compelling speakers:

WHEN: 5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. October 17, followed by networking reception.
WHERE: HSBC Hall (C680), UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson Street, Vancouver
REGISTRATION: No cost and open to the public – but make sure to reserve a space!
Please follow this link to RSVP your attendance by Thursday, October 13.
LIVE WEBCAST:Not in Vancouver? No problem – tune in to our live webcast to engage with the speakers at http://bit.ly/biztalk_sba. Please note that this will not be active until the event night.

About our Speakers

Paul Cubbon (Website)

Paul Cubbon is a Marketing Instructor in the Sauder School of Business at UBC. He teaches marketing in the MBA programs, and has been a member of the core Faculty team since 2005. He also teaches in a range of Executive programs, and many Bachelor of Commerce courses.

His interests are in marketing communication, customer behaviour, innovation and competition, and e-business – and how these combine to influence management practice so organizations can be truly customer serving. In all aspects of his work, Paul is interested in helping others become curious about learning, looking at situations in different ways, facilitating improved teamwork and linking theory to action.

Paul has taught a wide range of courses, focusing on advertising, digital/Web marketing, innovation and entrepreneurship – but also including an emphasis on branding and reputation, consumer behaviour and customer experience.

Paul has designed/re-designed a number of courses, and uses different approaches to engage learners more effectively. He recently led the design and team implementation of Comm101 (dubbed “the un-lecture.”) This course provides an engaging, interactive and applied introduction to business for all first-year Sauder undergraduates.

Paul’s teaching and training philosophy involves a high level of interaction (both face-to-face and online) and the use of many real and current examples to illustrate good and bad practice. In this way, learners are encouraged to develop their own toolkit that they can take away and put into use immediately.

In 2011, he was awarded the Sauder “Talking Stick” for pedagogical innovation. Paul has been a student short-listed nominee for the MBA teaching excellence award in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Paul’s career in industry includes three years in advertising, working for J. Walter Thompson, and 10 years with Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods multinational, where he undertook major assignments in marketing and sales. He played lead roles in several substantial organizational change initiatives, including the establishment of a global innovation centre. His portfolio responsibilities grew progressively to include Europe and substantial interaction with Latin America and North America.

Paul continues to consult in industry, where his work involves using his customer-orientation and problem-solving skills to facilitate change-management programs for organizations facing major challenges or opportunities. These include high-tech start-ups, traditional manufacturing or service organizations, and government agencies. He is involved in a wellness start-up and a social media agency focused on the travel sector.

Paul holds a B.A. Honours degree from Oxford University, and an MBA from Simon Fraser University.

George Moen (Website)

George Moen proudly describes himself as a Serial Entrepreneur. With more than 30 years of experience in food and franchising, he specializes in transitioning small businesses into big business success stories.

George entered into his first business venture while still a student at UBC studying marketing and commerce. With a couple of classmates, George launched the Sandwich Tree chain of restaurants. While this venture has morphed significantly over the years, he still maintains interest in the chain.

As a technically inclined individual, his curiosity was piqued as the Internet gained a foothold in the business realm. As a result of that curiosity, George managed to successfully experience both the Dot.Boom and the Dot.Bomb. He continues to maximize the potential of the Internet today with growing success in social media and its marketing opportunities.

As a sports aficionado, he also built a partnership with a computer programmer and a prominent professional hockey player/coach and developed a coaching program that is in use by minor hockey league coaches.

As a socially motivated and motivating individual, George learned that his successes could most often be attributed to support from his long-time friends and business contacts. Recognizing that people do business with people they know and trust, he became a proponent of the philosophy that by sharing your Rolodex, you have the potential to build deep trust-based relationships. Again, within a strong partnership, he built a business networking organization that grew to over 500 members in its first year, and has continued to prosper.

George was appointed President of Blenz The Canadian Coffee Company in February 2007. His mandate is to support the original three founders of Blenz to transition towards strategic planning and directorship of the popular coffee retail chain. “The founders of Blenz had the courage to start, the commitment to keep going and the discipline to constantly innovate,” George says. “It’s allowed us to be able to grow a successful business in the biggest coffee market in the world. It’s a pleasure to work in an environment that is properly capitalized and to participate in pioneering the next great stage of expansion for Blenz.”

The final word from this Serial Entrepreneur: “I’ve always had an unquenchable thirst for learning – new ways to think about the world we work in and better ways to respond to an ever-changing marketplace. When you act only out of necessity, you’ll only achieve what’s necessary. I encourage everyone to pay attention, read, network and stay connected to local, national and international mediums. Then pick your passion and pursue it.”

On the personal side, George lives in Vancouver with his wife, Sarah Moen, who is one of the co-founders of Blenz The Canadian Coffee Company, and is very proud of his two successful adult children.

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Timothy Taylor

September 29, 2011

Timothy Taylor is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. The Blue Light Project, his most recent novel, was published in 2011. Born in Venezuela, he was raised in West Vancouver, British Columbia and Edmonton, Alberta. Taylor’s short story “Doves of Townsend” won the Journey Prize in 2000. He had two other stories on the competition’s final shortlist that year, and is to date the only writer ever to have three short stories compete for the prize in the same year. His debut novel, Stanley Park, nominated for the Giller Prize and chosen to be the 2004 One Book, One Vancouver, was followed by Silent Cruise, a collection of eight stories and one novella.

The Blue Light Project, his most recent novel, was published in 2011. Born in Venezuela, he was raised in West Vancouver, British Columbia and Edmonton, Alberta. Taylor’s short story “Doves of Townsend” won the Journey Prize in 2000. He had two other stories on the competition’s final shortlist that year, and is to date the only writer ever to have three short stories compete for the prize in the same year. His debut novel, Stanley Park, nominated for the Giller Prize and chosen to be the 2004 One Book, One Vancouver, was followed by Silent Cruise, a collection of eight stories and one novella.

Timothy Taylor read at the Chilcotin Room of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre on September 29.

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