Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi - Islam and the Contest of Faculties in Iran

Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi – Islam and the Contest of Faculties in Iran

February 5, 2011

Global Islam: Past, Present and Future is presented by UBC Continuing Studies, the Department of Asian Studies at UBC, the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and the Laurier Institution. It is part of UBC Continuing Studies’ Lifelong Learning Series. Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi is Professor of History and Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Since 2002 he has served as Editor-in-Chief of Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. With Homa Katouzian, he is also coeditor of Iranian Studies. Tavakoli is the author of Refashioning Iran: Orientalism, Occidentalism and Nationalist Historiography (2001) and Tajaddud-i Bumi [Vernacular Modernity] (2003); he has authored numerous journal articles and chapters. Born and raised in Tehran, Tavakoli is the recipient of numerous awards. He was an Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford (2005), a recipient of the prestigious Iranian Fellowship, St. Anthony’s College, University of Oxford (1998), and Outstanding University Teacher, Illinois State University (2000-2001). He was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (1992-93). He is currently working on a visual account of modern Iran, and completing a monograph tentatively titled, “All that was Holy in Iran.”

Select Articles Available at UBC Library

Tavakoli-Targhi, M. (2001). Refashioning iran: Orientalism, occidentalism, and historiography. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK; New York: Palgrave.

Tavakoli-Targhi, M. (2002). From Patriotism to Matriotism: A Tropological study of Iranian Nationalism, 1870-1909. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 34(2), 217-238. [Link]

Tavakoli-Targhi, M. (1999). Contested memories of pre-Islamic Iran. The Medieval History Journal, 2(2), 245-275. doi:10.1177/097194589900200203. [Link]

Tavakoli-Targhi, M. (1996). Orientalism’s genesis amnesia. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 16(1), 1-14. doi:10.1215/1089201X-16-1-1. [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

Persian Studies

Islamic Art and Architecture

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Dave Montgomery – Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations

February 3, 2011

Author David Montgomery has discovered that the three-foot-deep skin of our planet is slowly being eroded away, with potentially devastating results. In this engaging lecture, Montgomery draws from his book ‘Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations’ to trace the role of soil use and abuse in the history of societies, and discuss how the rise of organic and no-till farming bring hope for a new agricultural revolution. Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

Relevant Books and Articles at UBC Library

Montgomery, D. (2014). Blue water ditching. Business & Commercial Aviation, 110(10), 40. [Link]

Montgomery, D. (1972). Air-born new Texas metropolis. City : Review of Urban America, 6(4), 27-231.

UBC Library Research Guides

Sustainability

Urban Design

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Trevor Pinch – Listening and Participating in AcidPlanet: A study of An Online Music Site

January 27, 2011

Trevor Pinch is Professor of Science and Technology Studies and Professor of Sociology at Cornell University. Pinch has a degree in Physics from the Imperial College London and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Bath. He taught sociology at the University of York before moving to the USA. Together with Wiebe Bijker, he started the movement known as Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) within the sociology of science. He is the coeditor of How Users Matter: The Co-Construction of Users and Technology (MIT Press, 2003) and the coauthor of Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer and other books. He is a significant contributor to the study of Sound culture, and his books include a major study of Robert Moog. This talk addresses the topic of digital music through a two year ethnographic study of the users of the website ACIDplanet.com. ACIDplanet.com is a website where musicians can upload and download their own musical creations. Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. For a full transcript of this program, please find here.

Select Articles Available at UBC Library

Pinch, T. (2010). On making infrastructure visible: Putting the non-humans to rights. Cambridge Journal of Economics,34(1), 77-89. [Link]

Pinch, T. (2010). The invisible technologies of Goffman’s sociology from the merry-go-round to the Internet. Technology and culture, 51(2), 409-424. [Link]

Pinch, T., & Swedberg, R. (2013). Wittgenstein’s visit to Ithaca in 1949: on the importance of details. Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 14(1), 2-29. [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

Arts, Media and Entertainment Industries

Sociology

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"Eddigton, Ryle, and Hoyle: How a Major 20th Century Discovery was lost in Confusion and Noise" Webcast Available

January 25, 2011

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the Physics and Astronomy Department. The Steady-State vs Big-Bang controversy of the 1960s, also known as the source-count controversy, was almost unparalleled in bitterness and rancour. The very personal struggle between Ryle and Hoyle changed the course of the lives of both men. It resulted essentially in the loss from the record of a major cosmological discovery which astronomers and cosmologists finally recognized and revisited far too late. Wall was directly involved in the fight and its resolution, and came to know both Ryle and Hoyle as friends. From this perspective he describes what happened, together with the flow of consequences into current astrophysics and cosmology. Dr. Jasper Wall is professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UBC.

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Andrew Goudie – Drivers of environmental change: the case of the drylands

January 20, 2011

This webcast is sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by St. John’s College. Andrew Goudie was Professor of Geography and a Fellow of Hertford College from 1984 to 2003. A distinguished physical geographer, he was awarded the DSc by the University in 2002, a Royal Medal from the Royal Geographical Society in 1991, the Prize of the Royal Belgian Academy for 2002. From September 2005 – 2009 he was President of the International Association of Geomorphologists. He has recently been President of the Geographical Association, President of Section E of the British Association, and Chairman of the British Geomorphological Research Group. He is a former Delegate of the Oxford University Press and a former Pro-Vice Chancellor. Professor Goudie became Master of St. Cross College, Oxford, in October 2003, but continues to lecture at the School of Geography and the Environment. He was awarded the Geological Society of America’s Farouk El-Baz Prize for desert research in 2007, and the David Linton Award of the British Society for Geomorphology in 2009. Goudie’s main research interests include desert geomorphology, dust storms, weathering, climatic change in the tropics, and the impacts of humans on the environment. He is also undertaking work on the landforms of Dorset and the Cotswolds. He is continuing his experimental weathering work using an environmental cabinet and a Grindosonic. Ongoing field work includes, a study of sandstone geomorphology in deserts, a study of weathering phenomena and tufas in the Namib, work on dune morphology and age in the United Arab Emirates, and studies of dust storms with Nick Middleton and Richard Washington.

Relevant Books and Articles at UBC Library

Goudie, A. (1982). The human impact: Man’s role in environmental change (1st MIT Press — ed.). Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Goudie, A. (1995). The changing earth: Rates of geomorphological processes. Cambridge, Mass; Oxford [England]: Blackwell.

Goudie, A. (1973). Duricrusts in tropical and subtropical landscapes. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

UBC Library Research Guides

Sustainability

Geography

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Michael Byers – African Leadership on International Human Rights

January 19, 2011

Dr. Byers’ work focuses on the interaction of international law and politics, particularly with respect to human rights, international organizations, the use of military force, the Arctic, and Canada-United States relations. He has published six books, dozens of academic papers and more than 100 op-ed articles in international newspapers, the Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star and Ottawa Citizen. Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

Select Articles Available at UBC Library

Byers, M. (2005). War law: International law and armed conflict. London: Atlantic.

Byers, M., & Canadian Publishers Collection – non-CRKN. (2009). Who owns the arctic?: Understanding sovereignty disputes in the north. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre. [Link]

Byers, M., Ebrary Academic Complete (Canada) Subscription Collection, & Canadian Publishers Collection – non-CRKN. (2008). Intent for a nation – what is Canada for?: A relentlessly optimistic manifesto for Canada’s role in the world. Vancouver; Jackson: D&M Publishers Incorporated. [Link]

Byers, M., & Ebrary Academic Complete (Canada) Subscription Collection. (1999). Custom, power, and the power of rules: International relations and customary international law. New York; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

International Law

Political Science

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Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi – Africa and Global Leadership

January 18, 2011

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the Africa Awareness Initiative. Geraldine Fraser Moleketi is a South African Politician. Former Minister of Public Service and Administration (1999 – 2008). Former member of the ANC National Executive Committee of the (2007). Following the resignation of President Thabo Mbeki in September 2008, Fraser-Moleketi was one of ten ministers who submitted their resignations. Fraser-Moleketi left South Africa to join the ANC in exile in 1980, then spent eight of ten years in exile in Zimbabwe. She returned to South Africa to set up the first legal National Office of the SACP after it’s unbanning in February 1990, where she played a central role in policy development on the transformation of welfare systems and mainstreaming of gender into government programmes. Fraser-Moleketi led the process that culminated in the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women by the SA Government, and participated and delivered papers at numerous events and conferences on social development, gender quality and transformation of public services.

Select Articles Available at UBC Library

Fraser-Moleketi, G. (2005). The world we could win: Administering global governance. Amsterdam: IOS Press. [Link]

Fraser-Moleketi, G. J. (2012). Democratic governance at times of crisis: Rebuilding our communities and building on our citizens. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 78(2), 191-208. doi:10.1177/0020852312438524 [Link]

Fraser-Moleketi, G. (2009). Towards a common understanding of corruption in Africa. Public Policy and Administration, 24(3), 331-338. doi:10.1177/0952076709103814. [Link]

Fraser-Moleketi, J.G. (2003). Quality governance for sustainable growth and development: Introduction. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 69(4), 463-470. doi:10.1177/0020852303694003 [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

Public Policy

Population and Public Health

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Joan Chiao – Cultural Neuroscience: Bridging Cultural and Biological Sciences

January 17, 2011

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The study of culture and biology has long stood stratified within the social and natural sciences, a gap that physicist C.P. Snow (1959) famously called “the two cultures.” To examine the bidirectional influence of culture and genes on brain and behavior, cultural neuroscience is an emerging, interdisciplinary science examining how cultural values, practices, and beliefs shape brain function and how the human brain gives rise to cultural capacities and their transmission across micro- and macro-timescales. In this talk, Chiao presents the aims and methods of cultural neuroscience, highlights recent empirical findings in the field, and discusses the potential implications of this field for bridging the social and natural sciences. She also discusses its broad relation to public policy (e.g., interethnic ideology, environmental policy, philanthropy) and population health concerns. Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

Biography of Speaker

Joan Chiao is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University. She studies how cultural and biological forces give rise to everyday emotion and social interaction. Research in her lab also examines how high-level factors, such as race, gender and age, affect basic cognitive, perceptual and emotional processes.

UBC Library Resources

Chiao, J. Y., & Blizinsky, K. D. (2010). Culture–gene coevolution of individualism–collectivism and the serotonin transporter gene. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1681), 529-537. [Link]

Chiao, J. Y., Harada, T., Komeda, H., Li, Z., Mano, Y., Saito, D., … & Iidaka, T. (2010). Dynamic cultural influences on neural representations of the self.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(1), 1-11. [Link]

Chiao, J. Y., Harada, T., Komeda, H., Li, Z., Mano, Y., Saito, D., … & Iidaka, T. (2009). Neural basis of individualistic and collectivistic views of self. Human brain mapping, 30(9), 2813-2820. [Link]

UBC Research Guides

Population and Public Health

Psychology

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Natasha Ivanova – Formation of low-mass X-ray binaries with a black hole accretor

January 17, 2011

Ivanova is an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Alberta. She completed a M.Sc in mathematics and astronomy at Saint-Petersburg State University, then was an astrophysics graduate student at the University of Oxford. Ivanova has received numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, and most recently is the ninth recipient of the Beatrice D. Tremaine Postdoctoral Fellowship, given by the CITA council for outstanding research by a postdoctoral researcher. Her research on interacting compact binaries, and in particular on studies of neutron stars in globular clusters, lead to a significant advance in our understanding of neutron star formation channels, as well as provided the link between the theory and observations for millisecond pulsars and low-mass X-ray binaries both in our and distant galaxies. Of particular interest to Ivanova are stellar and high energy astrophysics, stellar populations, stellar dynamics, and hydrodynamics. Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

Select Articles Available at UBC Library

Woods, T. E., & Ivanova, N. (2011). Can we trust models for adiabatic mass loss?. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 739(2), L48. [Link]

Chaichenets, S., & Ivanova, N. (2011). Common envelope: enthalpy consideration. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 731(2), L36. [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

Astronomy and Astrophysics

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Ilsoo Kyung McLaurin art exhibit “The Beauty of Nature” (January 5-Feb 28, 2011)

January 6, 2011

With references to the tradition of landscape painting that captures the beauty of the land and trees, Kyung’s art pieces have a surrounding landscape that serves as a backdrop to her daily life within her adopted homeland of Canada. However, through her works, she also illustrates the darker side of the landscape. Through confronting the troubling aspects of environmental pollution that threatens nature, Kyung’s art challenges the ways how habitants should intervene on the land they live on, while still allowing the appreciation of facing these societal challenges together. (Artwork featured in IKBLC Foyer & Ike’s Café Gallery). Ilsoo’s work has been featured in a number of articles, including Senior Living Magazine, the Delta Optimist, and the Chinese Canadian Artists Federation in Vancouver.