Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Green College. Richard Carpiano’s interests centers on the sociology of health and illness, particularly community and individual socioeconomic influences on physical and mental health. Research- and policy-related concern with how community social and physical conditions serve as determinants of health has necessitated improved measurement of these contexts. Consistent with this need, there has been increased interest in “ecometrics”—the scientific approach to measuring ecologic settings—for creating reliable and valid measures of community context derived from survey-based ratings of community conditions by local residents. Existing research using ecometric techniques, however, has been conducted in a limited number of (mostly urban and non-Canadian) contexts. This talk will discuss an interdisciplinary study that applied ecometric approaches to creating several measures of community social cohesion and social capital. Using survey data collected from residents of 100 British Columbia communities, we evaluate separately for urban and rural communities: (a) the degree to which the reliability of specific ecologic measures is contingent upon the number of “raters” in a community who are providing information and (b) the validity of the resulting measures. The implications of these findings for guiding future studies of community context—for population health and other areas of focus—is also discussed.
Relevant Books and Articles at UBC Library
Carpiano, R. M. (2006). Toward a neighborhood resource-based theory of social capital for health: Can Bourdieu and sociology help? Social Science & Medicine, 62(1), 165-175. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.05.020 [Link]
Carpiano, R. (2014). When should one (dis)trust trust measures? Response to Lindstrom and Sawada. Social Science & Medicine, 116, 239-240. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.06.032 [Link]
Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by SLAIS. Joan S. Mitchell is Editor-in-Chief of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system at OCLC. There is a rich ecosystem associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification beyond what is visible in the iconic library shelf application of the system. Dewey numbers are associated with physical and digital content in collections around the world, with MARCXML-encoded content in current DDC translations, and with controlled vocabularies in English plus a host of other languages. The publication of DDC 23 in 2011 and Abridged Edition 15 in 2012, the introduction of a generic WebDewey interface and a new model for distributing and ingesting Dewey data in a variety of formats, and the emergence of several Dewey linked data initiatives will serve as the springboard to look at Dewey’s value proposition as a knowledge organization system in the current information environment.She has been closely affiliated with the DDC since 1985, when she became a member of the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee. She chaired the committee from 1992 until her appointment as Dewey editor in 1993.
Select Articles Available at UBC Library
Dewey, M., & Mitchell, J. S. (1997). Abridged edition 13 Dewey decimal classification: Relocations and reductions, comparative tables, equivalence tables, reused numbers. Albany, NY: Forest Press.
Mitchell, J. S., & Panzer, M. (2013). Dewey linked data: Making connections with old friends and new acquaintances. JLIS.it: Italian Journal of Library and Information Science, 4(1), 177-199. doi:10.4403/jlis.it-5467 [Link]
Chan, L. M., & Mitchell, J. S. (2003). Dewey decimal classification: Principles and application. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC.
In this talk, Dr. Bob Kull reflects on and shares his experience of spending a year in deep wilderness solitude, and how he shaped the experience into a doctoral dissertation. He explores the process of transformations of consciousness, and discusses how such transformations can affect our relationship with ourselves, with other people and with the non-human world. He will also offer thoughts on how we can integrate our personal spiritual explorations into academic work. Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Green College.
Speaker
Dr. Kull has spent years wandering North and South America, working as a scuba instructor, wilderness guide, construction worker, dishwasher, truck driver, bartender, painter, firefighter, and professor. He began undergraduate studies at age forty and now holds a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia.
Select Articles and Books from UBC Library
Long, C., & Averill, J. (2003). Solitude: An exploration of benefits of being alone. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 33(1), 21-21. doi:10.1111/1468-5914.00204 [Link]
Repko, A. F. (2012). Interdisciplinary research: Process and theory. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications.
Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Common Energy UBC’s NOW (No Other World) Forum. Dr.George Hoberg specializes in environmental and natural resource policy and governance. He received a BS from UC Berkeley, and his PhD from MIT. A political scientist by training, Dr.Hoberg taught public policy and American politics at UBC for 13 years before joining the Faculty of Forestry full time in 2001.His research interests include energy policy, forest policy, and more generally the design of policies and institutions to promote sustainability. In this lecture, Dr.Hoberg speaks about his transformation from an academic to an activist, a transformation that was guided as the gravity of the climate crisis has become more apparent. As he tried to come to a deeper understanding about humanity’s failure to act yet on climate change, he came to an insight that transformed his stance: “When you consider the structure of the climate challenge as a public goods and public choice dilemma, you can see that if we are guided by short term material thinking we will simply be incapable of rising to the challenge of taking the concerted action sufficient to avoid dangerous climate change. The logic of the climate policy analyst is dominated by this economic rationality that can’t generate the necessary solutions. To envision a capacity to act you need to take a leap of faith that enough citizens and leaders are willing to act on moral, not economic grounds. You take climate action not because it is in your or your nation’s interests, but because it is the right thing to do.” He convinces us that we need to start acting that way ourselves. He can be followed on twitter @ghoberg or on his blog, http://greenpolicyprof.org/wordpress.
Relevant Books and Articles at UBC Library
Hoberg, G., Scholars Portal Books: Canadian Electronic Library, & Canadian Publishers Collection. (2002). Capacity for choice: Canada in a new North America. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. doi:10.3138/9781442672697 [Link]
Hoberg, G., British Columbia Government EBook Collection, & British Columbia. Ministry of Forests. (2002). Government’s response to public consultation report. Victoria, B.C.: Ministry of Forests. [Link]
Hoberg, G., & Canadian Public Policy Collection. (2011). Export question: Designing policy for British Columbia electricity trade. Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, University of Victoria. [Link]
Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Green College.This event will explore issues of practical wisdom and deliberation, including the problem of how, in the context of democratic deliberation and inclusive democracy, humans might attend to the needs and standpoints of nonhuman animals. On each panel, each speaker will speak for 15 minutes followed by 30 minutes of discussion.
Select Articles Available at UBC Library
Ormandy, E. (2010). The lifecycle of the farm pig. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 13(3), 273-275. doi:10.1080/10888705.2010.483898. [Link]
Ormandy, E. H., & Schuppli, C. A. (2014). Public attitudes toward animal research: A review. Animals, 4(3), 391-408. doi:10.3390/ani4030391. [Link]
Ormandy, E., Dale, J., & Griffin, G. (2011). Genetic engineering of animals: Ethical issues, including welfare concerns. Canadian Veterinary Journal, 52(5), 544-550. [Link]
Ormandy, E., Dale, J., & Griffin, G. (2013). The use of genetically-engineered animals in science: Perspectives of canadian animal care committee members. Alternatives to Laboratory Animals, 41(2), 173-180.
Ormandy, E., Schuppli, C., & Weary, D. (2012). Factors affecting people’s acceptance of the use of zebrafish and mice in research. Alternatives to Laboratory Animals, 40(6), 321-333.
Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Green College.
Robert Majzels is a novelist, playwright, poet and translator, born in Montréal, Québec, and is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Calgary. He has published four novels: Hellman’s Scrapbook, City of Forgetting, Apikoros Sleuth, and The Humbugs Diet. In 2007, he was awarded the Alcuin Society Prize for Excellence in Book Design for the limited edition of his book, Apikoros Sleuth. This Night the Kapo, an award-winning full-length play, was produced at the Berkley Street Theatre in Toronto, in March 2004. He was attributed the Governor General’s Award of Canada for his translation of France Daigle’s Just Fine in 2000. With Erín Moure, Robert has translated several books of poetry by Nicole Brossard, including Notebook of Roses & Civilization, for which they were nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Translation and the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2008. With Dr. Claire Huot, he has produced a series of translations of Chinese classical poetry into visual texts, which will appear in book form in 2011.
Erín Mouré writes mainly in English, albeit multilingually. She considers translation to be part of her practice, and has translated Nicole Brossard (with Robert Majzels), Galician poet Chus Pato, Chilean Andrés Ajens, as well as the famed modernist Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, among others. In her own most recent books, O Cadoiro and O Resplandor (both from Anansi), poetry becomes hybrid and even the author’s name and signature are altered and invented in the process of dealing with grief, with love, with language. Here, names of the poets blur, sexes are indeterminate, modern and ancient levels of language co-exist, the palimpsest is pockmarked, and we sometimes don’t know any more who sings to us: it must be the book.
Brossard, Nicole. (2007). Cahier de roses & de civilisation, English Notebook of roses and civilization. Translated by Rober]t Majzels and Erin Mouré. Toronto, Coach Book House. [Available at Koerner Library – PR9257.R586 C3413 2007]
Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and funded by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Distinguished Scholar in Residence Program, Green College, and the UBC Centre for the Study of Democratic Institution. Barry Schwartz is Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action, Swarthmore College. Schwartz studies the link between economics and psychology, offering startling insights into modern life. Lately, working with Ken Sharpe, he’s studying wisdom This talk is part of a Series on Practical Wisdom organized by Maxwell Cameron, UBC Political Science and 2011 Wall Distinguished Professor.
Select Articles Available at UBC Library
Grant, A. M., & Schwartz, B. (2011). Too Much of a Good Thing The Challenge and Opportunity of the Inverted U. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(1), 61-76. [Link]
Dar-Nimrod, I., Rawn, C. D., Lehman, D. R., & Schwartz, B. (2009). The maximization paradox: The costs of seeking alternatives. Personality and Individual Differences, 46(5), 631-635. [Link]
Schwartz, B. (2000). Self-determination: The tyranny of freedom. American psychologist, 55(1), 79. [Link]
Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Green College. Dr. Benjamin C. Amick III is scientific director and senior scientist at the Institute for Work & Health. He is also a professor of behavioral sciences and epidemiology in the School of Public Health af the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Amick completed his doctorial training at the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, The Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland in 1986. Amick’s current research interests include the social epidemiology of work and health; labour markets and worksite intervention research; occupational health services; outcomes assessment and the measurement of work disability and productivity; ergonomics and musculoskeletal disorders; the prevention of work-related illness and injury; and social inequalities and social change.
Select Articles Available at UBC Library
Amick, B. C., Canadian Health Research Collection, Institute for Work & Health, & Canadian Electronic Library (Firm). (2011). Benchmarking organizational leading indicators for the prevention and management of injuries and illnesses final report. Institute for Work & Health.
Amick, B. C., & Canadian Health Research Collection. (2008). Systematic review of the role of occupational health and safety interventions in the prevention of upper extremity musculoskeletal symptoms, signs, disorders, injuries, claims and lost time. Institute for Work & Health.
Amick, B. C., & Canadian Health Research Collection. (2006). Interventions in health-care settings to protect musculoskeletal health: A systematic review: Full report. Institute for Work & Health.
Amick, B. C. (1995). Society and health. New York: Oxford University Press.
On April 9, 2011, Professor Lawrence Krauss’ gave a talk titled, “Life, the Universe, and Nothing: A Cosmic Mystery Story.” Krauss’ work has been primarily in theoretical (as opposed to experimental) physics, and he has published research on a great variety of topics within that field. Krauss is a renowned cosmologist and popularizer of modern science and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. Hailed by Scientific American as a rare public intellectual, he is the author of more than three hundred scientific publications and 8 books, including the bestselling The Physics of Star Trek, and the recipient of numerous international awards for his research and writing. He is an internationally known theoretical physicist with wide research interests, including the interface between elementary particle physics and cosmology, where his studies include the early universe, the nature of dark matter, general relativity and neutrino astrophysics.
His soon to be published book, A Universe From Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing is already garnering strong reviews. Exploring the scientific advances that provide insight into how the universe formed, Krauss ultimately tackles the age-old assumption that something cannot arise from nothing by arguing that not only can something arise from nothing, but something will always arise from nothing. One review of this book says:
Lawrence Krauss’s provocative answers to these and other timeless questions in a wildly popular lecture now on YouTube have attracted almost a million viewers. The last of these questions in particular has been at the center of religious and philosophical debates about the existence of God, and it’s the supposed counterargument to anyone who questions the need for God. As Krauss argues, scientists have, however, historically focused on other, more pressing issues—such as figuring out how the universe actually functions, which can ultimately help us to improve the quality of our lives.
– Amazon Book Review
Questions For Discussion:
One of the classic arguments for the existence of God is known as the “First Cause” argument. It works from the premise that in the universe every event is the effect of a cause. As a result, the events that caused today’s events must have had causes for themselves, and those causes in turn must have had their own causes, and so forth, creating a chain. Many religious proponents argue that First Cause is itself the strongest evidence for the existence of God. So do scientists, such as Stephen Hawking, who argue it is the laws of physics themselves brought the Universe into being, rather than God. What are your thoughts to this debate?
In what is now a classic debate, Christian apologist Dr. William Lane Craig recently debated Lawrence Krauss in North Carolina in an attempt to address the question: “Is there (sufficient) evidence for God? How does one try to prove their hypothesis against a belief? Is there evidence for God based on what we know about the universe?
In the past decade, there have been a number of best-selling books by proclaimed atheists and scientists regarding the existence of God. Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great), and Sam Harris (The End of Faith) all point out the flaws of religion and the harmful effects of it. Can religion be equated with God? Is religion the same as God?
One of the most prominent theologians of our time, Alister McGrath, once said “As a child I never had any interest in Christianity,’ he says. ‘I went through the motions of going to church with my parents but neither my heart nor my head was in it. It was while I was at the Methodist College, probably aged around 15 or 16, that I became an atheist – somebody who deliberately and intentionally does not believe in God and thinks that anyone who does believe in God is mentally deficient or seriously screwed up.” There are a number of famous theologians who had converted from atheism to being proponents of Christianity, such as C.S. Lewis. In your opinion, what does this say about religion, faith, and reason?
Agnosticism is the view that the existence of God is unknown or unknowable. Agnosticism is criticized from a variety of standpoints. Some religious thinkers see agnosticism as a limitation of the mind’s capacity. Some atheists criticize that agnosticism is indistinguishable from atheism. What are your thoughts about this issue? What do other world religions have to say about this argument?
What are some online webpages you think might be relevant to the topic of the science, the universe, and the question of God’s existence.
Based on a survey and interviews with scientists at more than 20 elite U.S. universities, Ecklund’s book argues that other scientists must step up to the table of dialogue and that American believers must embrace science again. Both science and religion are at stake if any less is done.
Universe or multiverse? edited by Bernard Carr [UBC Okangan Library QB981.U557 2007]
Recent developments in cosmology and particle physics, such as the string landscape picture, have led to the remarkable realization that our universe – rather than being unique – could be just one of many universes.
Cosmic beginnings and human ends: Where science and religion meet edited by Clifford N. Matthews, Roy Abraham Varghese [UBC Koerner Library BL241.C588 1995]
Science and religion meet in a fine series of statements by thinkers ranging from scientists to philosophers. This isn’t just a Christian collection: opinions range across and board and are based on a variety of beliefs; but all consider the basics of connections between science and religion; and all provide interesting reviews of human spiritual and scientific evolution.
Vancouver Institute lectures are free and open to the public. The Vancouver Institute was established in 1916 to serve as a liaison between “town and gown” in providing lectures of general public interest. For more information about the Vancouver Institute, please visit its homepage at http://vaninst.ca