Vancouver Institute - Mohamed Fahmy Lecture

Vancouver Institute – Mohamed Fahmy Lecture

November 30, 2015

Mohamed Fahmy is an award-winning journalist and author. He covered the Iraq war in 2003 for the Los Angeles Times, and published Baghdad Bound based on his experiences. He has done extensive work in the Middle East for CNN, Dubai TV, and Foreign Policy. In 2011, he received the Peabody award for his coverage of the Arab Spring and the Tom Renner Investigative Reporting Award for producing the documentary Death in the Desert. In 2013 he accepted the title of Al Jazeera English Bureau Chief in Egypt, where he was arrested along with two other Al Jazeera English journalists. Mr. Fahmy was sentenced to seven years of incarceration, but was granted a retrial and release in June of 2015 but reconvicted in August of this year. Earlier this year, he founded the Fahmy Foundation for Free Press to help journalists imprisoned world-wide. In 2014, Fahmy received the Canadian Commission World Press Freedom Award and a certificate from UNESCO.

About the Vancouver Institute

The Vancouver Institute, a free public educational forum, has been in existence since 1916. Lectures are held on the campus of the University of British Columbia during the fall and spring academic terms. The lectures are in Lecture Hall No. 2 in the Woodward Instructional Resources Centre, University of British Columbia. When necessary, neighbouring overflow halls in the Centre, with closed-circuit TV, are used, and the speaker visits each hall during the question period.

Select Articles and Books Available at UBC Library

Cohen-Almagor, R. (2001). Speech, media, and ethics: The limits of free expression : Critical studies on freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and the public’s right to know. New York;Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire;: Palgrave. [Available at Koerner Library stacks – KM204 .C645 2001]

Committee, P. J. (2013). Attacks on the Press: Journalism on the World’s Front Lines Bloomberg Press [Imprint]. [Link]

Kesterton, W. H. (1967). History of Journalism in Canada McGill-Queen’s University Press. [Link]

Seib, P. M. (2012). Al Jazeera English: Global News in a Changing World (1st ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. [Available at Koerner Library stacks – PN1992.92.A393 A43 2012]

UBC Library Research Guides

Journalism

Newspapers and News Sources

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Earth’s Astonishing Climate History

November 27, 2015

Watch this Brock Talk online:

Click here!

Title

Earth’s Astonishing Climate History

Talk Abstract

Since the time of the French Revolution, physicists and geologists have challenged each other to understand the inner workings of the climate system. The unexpected discovery of the Pleistocene Ice Ages prompted the recognition of global warming, the radiative energy balance and the greenhouse effect. The nonsensical distribution of Carboniferous glacial deposits led to the theory of continental drift. Recently, the implausible theory that the Earth is susceptible to total glaciation, reversible only through tens of millions of years of greenhouse-gas buildup, has been stunningly confirmed by geologists and climate dynamicists. As the 82 million year pan-glacial period corresponds with the first appearance of multicellularity in animals, the challenge of Earth’s astonishing climate history must now engage more deeply evolutionary biology.

Speaker

Professor Paul F. Hoffman, Harvard University and University of Victoria. Paul Hoffman is a known as “one of the most inspiring and charismatic geologists of our time, inspiring a wealth of new research fields…” (Wollaston Medal citation, 2009). Hoffman’s academic career spans nearly half a century. Paul is best known for his penetrating work to verify Snowball Earth, an enigmatic period between 600 and 800 million years ago during which Earth was entirely covered by glacial ice. He has demonstrated that forerunners for the diverse and complex life, which characterizes our planet today, emerged when Earth thawed. His current work explores a connection between snowball Earth and the biodiversity of our current world. Paul’s career has made seminal contributions to our understanding of plate tectonics, Earth’s climatic and glacial histories, the origins of complex life and the philosophy and history of science including elucidating key ingredients for scientific revolutions in Earth science.

PFH_Harvard_'98

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Vast Ocean, Vast Heaven: A multi-site exhibition at IKBLC, Asian Centre/Library, Rare Books & Special Collections

November 27, 2015

December 3, 2015 – January 31, 2016

As part of the Nitobe Memorial Garden Concepts and Prospects symposium, the research curators of the Collective for the Advanced and Unified Studies in the Visual Arts (CAUSA) present a multi-site exhibition at UBC. Locations include:

Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (Level 2, Main Foyer art gallery)
Rare Books and Special Collections (IKBLC level 1)
Asian Centre and Library

Developing from affiliations with the Free International University for Creativity and Interdisciplinary Research (as initiated by Joseph Beuys and Heinrich Böll), CAUSA – Collective for Advanced and Unified Studies in the Visual Arts – aims to develop autonomous scholarly analysis and interpretation of visual culture (including problems of intelligibility) within specific historical contexts. CAUSA functions in association with a ‘global village’ network of independent and institutional scholars – in tandem with a pluralistic community of socially engaged contemporary artists.

In its affiliation with the University of Manitoba Asian Studies Centre, CAUSA sustains a continuative process of philosophical reflection by connecting its programme of research to an expansive glimmering that was first formulated by Marshall McLuhan. He advises us, assuredly: “We may be drowning. But if so, the flood of experience in which we are drowning is very much a part of the culture we have created. The flood is not something outside our culture. It is a self-invasion of privacy. And so it is not catastrophic. We can turn it off if we choose, if we wake up to the fact that the faucets of change are inside the ark of society, not outside.”

– CAUSA Curators

Upcoming Events

About

CAUSA (Collective for the Advancement of Unified Studies in the Visual Arts) has functioned, since 2003, with the aim of opening channels of communication concerning aspects of cultural memory in relation to independent curatorial research. CAUSA strives to develop autonomous scholarly analysis and interpretation of visual culture (including problems of intelligibility) within specific historical contexts. Recent curatorial initiatives have been realized by CAUSA in collaboration with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery (University of British Columbia), Walter Phillips Art Gallery (The Banff Centre), Presentation House Gallery (North Vancouver), the West Vancouver Museum, Artspeak, Vancouver and North Vancouver City Library

Curatorial Component from the multi-site exhibition VAST OCEAN / VAST HEAVEN –a CAUSA research project.

” … ‘VAST’…”. [Image: M. Cynog Evans.]

IAIN BAXTER& / CAUSA … UNTIL THE AND OF TIME …. [Photo: M. Cynog Evans.]

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Public Talk: Personal Health Data Sharing for Personalized Medicine

November 21, 2015

Personal Health Data Sharing for Personalized Medicine:
Facts, Opportunities, Security and Ethics

Leaders come together for conversations about types of personal health data, opportunities that arise from integrating these data for health and economic benefits, and issues in secure and ethical storage and sharing of these data.

‘Conversationists’

Dr Elodie Portales-Casamar, Clinical Informatics Specialist, Child & Family Research Institute
Dr Nancy Meagher, Executive Director, Population Data BC
Dr Larry Lynd, Professor, UBC Collaboration for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE)
Dr Zsuzsanna Hollander, PROOF Centre
Dr Paul Terry, President & CEO, PHEMI Health Systems Inc.
Dr Alice Virani, Clinical Ethicist, Children’s and Women’s Hospital of BC

Moderator:
Dr. Jehannine Austin – Associate Professor, UBC Psychiatry/Medical Genetics

Discussion Document: Roadmap for Bringing Personalized Medicine to British Columbians available for download here {PDF} for those interested. Not required reading for Public Talks attendance.

Select Articles and Books Available at UBC Library

Bartlett G, Bartlett G, Rahimzadeh V, Longo C, Orlando L. Personalized medicine: The future of genomic testing in primary care: the changing face of personalized medicine. Future Medicine; 2014;11:477. [Link]

Cullis, Pieter. The Personalized Medicine Revolution: How Diagnosing and Treating Disease Are about to Change Forever. Vancouver: Greystone, 2015. Print. [Available at Biomedical Branch Library – QZ50 .G88 2015]

Mapping BC’s path to personalized medicine. Marketwired. 2015. [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

Medicine

Family Practice

IKBLC_Blue_w_text_2014
UBC_Faculty_of_Medicine

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"Just Google it": Algorithms of Oppression

November 12, 2015

Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble discusses her research into Google, a technology commonly thought of as a public resource free from commercial interest, and the ways in which it mediates public access to information in biased ways and permits problematic racial and gender misrepresentations.

Speaker bio

Safiya Noble is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Her research focuses on socio-cultural informatics, and feminist, historical and political-economic perspectives on computing platforms and software in the public interest. Her research is at the intersection of transnational culture and technology in the design and use of applications on the internet. She is currently writing a book about Google and Information bias (forthcoming from NYU Press).

This event took place on December 8, Tuesday 2015 | 2:00-4:00pm at Douglas College.

Select Articles and Books Available at UBC Library

UBC Library Research Guides

Sponsored by the Douglas College Faculty Professional Development Committee

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Asian Canadian & Asian Migration Studies Community Project Showcase

November 10, 2015

Are you interested in learning about some of the amazing research that Asian Canadian & Asian Migration Studies (ACAM) students are doing? Do you want to see what collaboration looks like between students and Asian Canadian communities? Thinking of taking an ACAM course next term but not sure what kind of projects you can do? Join the Asian Canadian & Asian Migration Studies faculty, staff, and students at the Community Project Showcase event where you can chat with ACAM students, community members, and professors and learn about current projects. This is your chance to see what kinds of research is happening!

Format: This is similar to a science fair where students are the main presenters of their work.

Presenters

Dominique Bautista – ACAM Centennial Alumni Project: Retelling UBC’s History from an Asian Canadian Lens
Born and raised in Vancouver, Dominique proudly calls this city her home: a place with intersecting spaces that continuously challenge her to consider who she is and where she’s “really from”. As a cultural hybrid, she has always been intrigued by identity politics complicated by experiences of migration, largely based on her family’s narrative and ties to the transpacific. Growing up engulfed by diversity and difference have inspired her guiding passions and principles of learning from various communities and uncovering untold stories.
Dominique completed her undergrad from UBC in 2015 with a background in English Literature and Sociology to compliment her ACAM degree. As she begins her journey as a humanities educator, she looks forward to continuing to engage with local and global communities. If not desperately seeking sunshine, she loves to share stories over a cup of tea! (Twitter: @_DBAUTISTA)

Christy Fong – ‘Save Chinatown, Support Chinese BBQ Meat Products’: Racialised Legislation, Community Activism, and Oral Histories in Vancouver’s Chinatown
Christy Fong is an English Literature Honours student in the last year of her undergraduate degree, which has been supplemented by the ACAM program. She works at the academic journal Canadian Literature as the web and communications assistant and at Arts ISIT as content editor and help desk staff. These experiences have increased her interest in digital humanities and new information technologies, which informs her research on social justice movements in Vancouver’s Chinatown. As a literature student, Christy is inspired by narrative medicine and embodied discourses, especially those centered around marginalised bodies and diasopric/migrant experiences.

Eleanor Munk – The Pacific Canada Heritage Centre – Museum of Migration (PCHC – MoM) Society
Eleanor Munk is a recent graduate from Mount Allison University with a degree in Honours English Literature. In the years following her graduation, she has worked and volunteered with Pan-Pacific and Asian-Canadian communities and organizations such as Ricepaper Magazine and the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop. She is currently Marketing and Event Coordinator with the PCHC-MoM Society and Coordinator with the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society.

Nicole So – #ThisisChinatown campaign
Nicole So is a UBC alumni (2015) with a BA in English Literature and a minor in Asian Canadian and Asian Migration studies. Her recent work and involvement in Chinatown began with making the video “4 Reasons Why You Should Care about Vancouver’s Chinatown” for class. Since the launch and positive receptions of the video, Nicole has committed her summer to working on the Hong Kong-Canada Crosscurrents Project with Dr. Henry Yu, helping Heritage BC organize workshops to assess the intangible heritage of Vancouver’s Chinatown, and interning at Hua Foundation, a non-profit start up organization for Chinese-Canadian youth. She is also a Chapman & Innovations Grant 2015 recipient, for co-founding and directing “Project Young and Classy” in partnership with Strathcona Community Centre. Nicole enjoys indulging in good films and travelling in her spare time, and is a self-proclaimed bubble tea connoisseur.

Joanna Yang – Canadians that Never Arrived: The Komagata Maru and Our Absent History (documentary film)
Joanna is a first-generation Canadian born Chinese settler on the traditional and ancestral lands of the Coast Salish First Nations peoples. She graduated from the UBC Human Geography and Migration/Globalization Studies program in 2014 – just one year before the UBC ACAM program was approved. An aspiring visual storyteller, Joanna considers herself to be a life-long learner, constantly curating her storyboard.

+ more TBA

Event Details

When: November 20, Friday 2015 | 12:00-1:00pm
Where: Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, Lillooet Room (301), unceded Musqueam territory

Registration: RSVP now to save your seat as there is a limited capacity

Accessibility info: From East Mall, enter the Learning Centre through the main doors. The Lillooet Room is on level three in the Chapman Learning Commons.

There are two good-sized elevators on the lobby level (East Mall entrance) that access all levels of the Learning Centre.

Washrooms are located on all levels near the elevators. Each washroom has a modified stall, although they are not labelled. The designated washrooms on levels 3 and 4 can be accessed by contacting campus security (604-822-2222). The designated disabled washroom on level 2, which is equipped with a specialized lift and harness, can be accessed by contacting Access & Diversity (604-822-5844).

Lunch: (meat and vegetarian options) will be provided for those who RSVP. Please let us know if you have any special dietary needs.

If you have any questions, please email acam.events@ubc.ca

We hope to see you there!

This event will be taking place on the traditional, unceded, ancestral homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nation

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Master Mind Master Class featuring Dr. Samantha Nutt, LLD’10

November 9, 2015

On Monday, November 16^th, join fellow UBC students and award-winning humanitarian, bestselling author and acclaimed public speaker, Dr. Samantha Nutt, LLD’10, in a moderated conversation about the impact of war – the truth, the lies, and the reality on the ground – and the major events currently shaping our world.

Master Mind Master Class is a new alumni UBC event series, offering both alumni and students an unprecedented look into the minds of modern masters making a unique impact on the world, and the lessons they’ve learned.

Event Details

Monday, November 16, 2015
3:00 – 4:00 pm

Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre
Jack Poole Hall
6163 University Blvd.
UBC’s Vancouver campus

This event is free of charge.

SPEAKER – DR. SAMANTHA NUT, LLD’10

Dr. Nutt is a medical doctor and a founder of the renowned international humanitarian organization War Child, Dr. Nutt has worked with children and their families at the frontline of many of the world’s major crises – from Iraq to Afghanistan, Somalia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone to Darfur, Sudan. A leading authority on current affairs, war, international aid and foreign policy, Dr. Nutt is one of the most intrepid and recognized voices in the humanitarian arena and is amongst the most sought-after public speakers in North America. With a career that has spanned more than two decades and dozens of conflict zones, her international work has benefited hundreds of thousands of war-affected children globally.

Moderator – Professor Kathryn Gretsinger, UBC School of Journalism
Kathryn is the lead instructor in the School’s Integrated Journalism program. She also contributes to the International Reporting program and the Reporting in Indigenous Communities course. She also runs the School’s Internship program. Kathryn’s career in journalism began in the late 80s when she joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Canada’s public broadcaster. Kathryn is committed to public service journalism and she has worked to develop her journalistic skills to reflect the technological change in the industry. Kathryn’s commitment to the industry is reflected in her approach to the internship program. She has helped to place students in professional practicums across the country and around the world.

Event Coordinator:

Karolin Konig
karolin.konig@ubc.ca
604-822-8939

Registration

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Japan’s International Contribution through Innovation in the Field of International Health

November 9, 2015

kurokawa_lecture image

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WordPress and Wiki Clinic (Drop In)

November 8, 2015

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Pertaining to a structure: a conversation in six parts

November 5, 2015

Pertaining to a structure: a conversation in six parts – Works from the UBC Rare Books and Special Collections and the Artists’ Books Collection at Emily Carr University Library will be on display on level 2 of the Irving k. Barber Learning Centre from November 2-30, 2015.

The exhibit is curated by Beth Howe and Larissa Beringer.

The Artists’ Book collection encompasses books crafted, published, produced or altered by an artist or artist collective. In addition to self-published artists’ books, the collection also includes limited editions resulting from collaborations with art organizations, artists’ books from both independent and mainstream press, and a growing collection of artists’ audio works. Emily Carr University (ECU) also currently collects contemporary, limited edition print publications that exemplify the international collaboration occurring between designers, typographers, visual artists, poets, writers + curators and publishers. The collection is international in scope with an emphasis on the 1960s to present.

This exhibition aims to generate a conversation between books from two institutional collections. The show has been curated by a visual arts faculty member and an art librarian who regularly teach with these collections, using them to illustrate interdisciplinary practices, the history of the artists’ books, graphic design, form, print history, materiality, and diverse publishing practices.

The six conversations organize categorically around intuitive themes and create a visual and conceptual narrative between artists’ books selected from the collection at Emily Carr University Library with works selected from UBC’s Rare Books and Special Collection. Each arrangement acknowledges mutual affinities such as literary source, design, and color.

Ulises Carrion, Clive Phillpot & Cornelia Lauf, and Lawrence Weiner are key figures invested in the discourse around artists’ books and each has addressed structure as a central element in the consideration of book work. Conceptual artist and publisher Ulises Carrion writes “To understand something is to understand the structure of which it is a part and/or the elements forming the structure that that something is.” The properties of structure became a guiding factor across the practices of many conceptual, avant-garde artists already exploring the role of text, language and form in their practices. The exploration of structure in relation to form, typography, graphic layout, materiality and image-making spans across all genres of artists’ books and other print publications dedicated to emmeshing the materiality (form) with the information (idea). Librarian Phillpot and art historian Lauf build a system for categorizing artist books based on on what they term ‘genre’, like albums and inventories or reproductions and sketchbooks. Artist Lawrence Weiner – whose publication of the same name is the title of this exhibit – is particularly invested in the structure of language as material for making sculpture. As the Guggenheim catalog descriptions for his works states, the works’ medium is ‘language + the material referred to’.

Pertaining to a Structure starts six conversations between original works and their references within contemporary artists’ publications around the following associative themes: Typographical Territory; Notes and Correspondence; Livre d’Artiste; The Naturalist; Minimalism, Conceptualism, and Modernist Utopias; and Literary Hybrids.

The Emily Carr University’s Artists’ Book collection is a part of the library’s non-circulating, Special Collections and items must be requested for viewing in library only. The books are fully catalogued and searchable in the catalogue with the by doing a subject search for “artists’ books”. Here are some other ways to browse this collection.

On display on level 2 of the Irving k. Barber Learning Centre from November 2-30, 2015

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