Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by UBC Reads Sustainability. Captain Charles Moore, a scientist and activist, discusses “The Greatest Infection of the Sea” detailed in his acclaimed new book Plastic Ocean. Learn the shocking truth about the unintended consequences of the “Age of Plastics”, how we got here, & what we must do to stop adding to the millions of tons of plastic choking the world’s oceans. In 1997, Captain Charles Moore discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch– a whirlpool of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean. Since his discovery, Moore has been analyzing the giant litter patch and its disastrous effects on ocean life. Through the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, he hopes to raise awareness about the problem and find ways to restrict its growth. He’s now leading several expeditions to sample plastic fragments across thousands of miles of the Pacific.
Relevant Books and Articles at UBC Library
Gross, M. (2015). Oceans of plastic waste. Current Biology : CB, 25(3), R93-R96. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.01.038 [Link]
Marris, E. (2014). Fate of ocean plastic remains a mystery. Nature, doi:10.1038/nature.2014.16508 [Link]
Ecklund, E. (2005). The ocean’s plastic plague. California Coast & Ocean, 21(4), 25-25.
Plastics in oceans decompose and release hazardous chemicals. (2009). Clean-Soil Air Water, 37(9), 682-682. [Link]
Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Green College. Bioethics was born of the problem of “lifeboat ethics,” the situation in which resource limits insist some must die that at least some others might live. The idea of scarcity as a natural condition is fundamental to current economic theory and to the ethics that has driven bioethics since the 1960s. In this lecture, we consider this idea and its medical application in law and history and medicine. It begins with the problems of the lifeboat and the great index case of US v Holmes in 1842. The relation of assumptions of scarcity to medicine and in ethics are critiqued through a reinvestigation of that case. Those lessons are then applied, in the end, to the general problems which are assumed to be resource-defined in medical ethics today as an example.
UBC Library Resources
Koch, T. (2002). Scarce goods: Justice, fairness, and organ transplantation. Westport, Conn: Praeger. [Link]
Koch, T. (2011). Disease maps: Epidemics on the ground. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Koch, T. (2000). Age speaks for itself: Silent voices of the elderly. Westport, Conn: Praeger.
Koch, T. (1998). The limits of principle: Deciding who lives and what dies. Westport, Conn: Praeger.
In our ongoing series of blog posts featuring the B.C. places used in the Irving K. Barber Centre room names, this week we will take a look at Kitimat. Kitimat was established as a company town in the truest sense. It was established when the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) built a hydroelectric dam and smelter in the area in the 1950′s. Its entry in B.C. Geographical Names shows the name Kitimat was used for a village in the area in the early 20th century, but was rescinded mere years before Alcan established the new town.
Rare Books and Special Collections has an excellent source of primary materials related to the planning and establishment of Kitimat by Alcan in the Thomas McDonald fonds. McDonald was an urban planner who worked primarily in Greater Vancouver, but the fonds also contains files that appear to be from the Alcan offices related to the establishment of Kitimat. As examples, the two images below show plans for the city:
Overall perspective of city center, Kitimat B.C., Thomas McDonald fonds file 2-5
Master plan of townsite, Kitimat B.C., Thomas McDonald fonds file 2-5
The files also contain a wealth of textual records including agreements between Alcan and the Province of B.C., promotional material, and office documents regarding the plans for town development.
For help using our archival resources, check out our research guide for archival material.
Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. Zimbabwean author, NoViolet Bulawayo, has won the annual £10 000 Caine Prize for African Writing, as announced at the Bodleian Library in Oxford this evening. Bulawayo wins the 2011 prize for her short story, “Hitting Budapest”, which Chair of Judges, Hisham Matar, described as being “reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange.” NoViolet Bulawayo is the pen name of Elizabeth Tshele, who is currently a Truman Capote Fellow at Cornell University in America. For a full transcript of this program, please find here.
Select Articles and Books Available at UBC Library
Bulawayo, N. (2011). In america.Callaloo, 34(3), 730-739. [Link]
Bulawayo, N. (2013). We need new names. London: Chatto & Windus. [Link]
Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Green College’s Thematic Series: Bringing the Collective Together: Nonhuman Animals, Humans and Practice at the University. This series probes the questions of the value for humans of medical research on nonhuman animals, the value for nonhuman animals, and the role of culture and corporate interests in discourses on human disease and security. Each speaker will speak for 15 minutes followed by 30 minutes of discussion. This talk features: Fabio Rossi, Canada Research Chair in Regenerative Medicine, Medical Genetics, UBC; Bill Milsom, Zoology, UBC; Nelly Auersperg, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, UBC; Dan Weary, Animal Welfare Program, UBC.
Speaker Biographies
Dr. Nelly Auersperg is a pioneer of gynecological cancer research who has focused her career on advancing the medical community’s ability to detect ovarian cancer at its early stages. In 1974, when she received the first of many research grants from the Canadian Cancer Society, few others were studying the disease. Nelly’s work continued long after her official retirement from UBC in 1994. In fact, she held research grants and carried out experiments for another 15 years, and published her most recent article in early 2011. She remains an honorary professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UBC, a trailblazing figure in ovarian cancer research, and a trusted mentor to a new generation of researchers.
Dr. Bill Milsom is a Professor and the Head of the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia. His research involves determining the physiological basis of biodiversity in vertebrates. He studies respiratory, cardiovascular, thermoregulatory and metabolic adaptations for life in environments with low / high levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide, temperature, food and water. He is also particularly interested in the neural control of these processes and their function in unanesthetized, freely behaving animals.
Dr. Fabio Rossi is currently a faculty member in the Department of Medical genetics and a member of the Biomedical Research Centre at the University of British Columbia. His main research interests at The Biomedical Research Center span embryonic and adult stem cell physiology, and in particular how multiple types of stem cells coordinate their actions to regenerate complex tissues.
Dr. Daniel Weary is a Professor and NSERC Industrial Research Chair at The University of British Columbia. Dan co-founded UBC’s Animal Welfare Program and co-directs this active research group now consisting of over 25 visiting researchers, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers. Dan’s research focuses on developing behavioral measures for the objective assessment of animal welfare and developing practical methods of improving the welfare of farm animals, lab animals and wildlife. He has published hundreds of articles and is one of the most highly cited authors in animal welfare science.
Select Articles Available at UBC Library
Lehnertz, B., Northrop, J. P., Antignano, F., Burrows, K., Hadidi, S., Mullaly, S. C., Rossi, F. M., & Zaph, C. (2010). Activating and inhibitory functions for the histone lysine methyltransferase G9a in T helper cell differentiation and function. The Journal of experimental medicine, 207(5), 915-922. [Link]
Maines-Bandiera, S., Woo, M. M., Borugian, M., Molday, L. L., Hii, T., Gilks, B., … & Auersperg, N. (2010). Oviductal glycoprotein (OVGP1, MUC9): a differentiation-based mucin present in serum of women with ovarian cancer.International Journal of Gynecological Cancer, 20(1), 16-22. [Link]
Shelton, G., Jones, D. R., & Milsom, W. K. (2010). Control of breathing in ectothermic vertebrates. Comprehensive Physiology. [Link]
Weary, D. M. (2011). A Good Life for Laboratory Animals–How Far Must Refinement Go?. and Animal Use in the Life Sciences, Montreal 2011, 11. [Link]
Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Green College’s Thematic Series: Bringing the Collective Together: Nonhuman Animals, Humans and Practice at the University. This series probes the questions of the value for humans of medical research on nonhuman animals, the value for nonhuman animals, and the role of culture and corporate interests in discourses on human disease and security. Each speaker will speak for 15 minutes followed by 30 minutes of discussion. This talk features: Fabio Rossi, Canada Research Chair in Regenerative Medicine, Medical Genetics, UBC; Bill Milsom, Zoology, UBC; Nelly Auersperg, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, UBC; Dan Weary, Animal Welfare Program, UBC.
Speaker Biographies
Dr. Nelly Auersperg is a pioneer of gynecological cancer research who has focused her career on advancing the medical community’s ability to detect ovarian cancer at its early stages. In 1974, when she received the first of many research grants from the Canadian Cancer Society, few others were studying the disease. Nelly’s work continued long after her official retirement from UBC in 1994. In fact, she held research grants and carried out experiments for another 15 years, and published her most recent article in early 2011. She remains an honorary professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UBC, a trailblazing figure in ovarian cancer research, and a trusted mentor to a new generation of researchers.
Dr. Bill Milsom is a Professor and the Head of the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia. His research involves determining the physiological basis of biodiversity in vertebrates. He studies respiratory, cardiovascular, thermoregulatory and metabolic adaptations for life in environments with low / high levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide, temperature, food and water. He is also particularly interested in the neural control of these processes and their function in unanesthetized, freely behaving animals.
Dr. Fabio Rossi is currently a faculty member in the Department of Medical genetics and a member of the Biomedical Research Centre at the University of British Columbia. His main research interests at The Biomedical Research Center span embryonic and adult stem cell physiology, and in particular how multiple types of stem cells coordinate their actions to regenerate complex tissues.
Dr. Daniel Weary is a Professor and NSERC Industrial Research Chair at The University of British Columbia. Dan co-founded UBC’s Animal Welfare Program and co-directs this active research group now consisting of over 25 visiting researchers, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers. Dan’s research focuses on developing behavioral measures for the objective assessment of animal welfare and developing practical methods of improving the welfare of farm animals, lab animals and wildlife. He has published hundreds of articles and is one of the most highly cited authors in animal welfare science.
Select Articles Available at UBC Library
Auersperg, N. (2011). The origin of ovarian carcinomas: a unifying hypothesis.International Journal of Gynecologic Pathology, 30(1), 12-21. [Link]
Joe, A. W., Yi, L., Natarajan, A., Le Grand, F., So, L., Wang, J., Rudnicki, M. A, & Rossi, F. M. (2010). Muscle injury activates resident fibro/adipogenic progenitors that facilitate myogenesis. Nature cell biology, 12(2), 153-163. [Link]
Porteus, C., Hedrick, M. S., Hicks, J. W., Wang, T., & Milsom, W. K. (2011). Time domains of the hypoxic ventilatory response inectothermic vertebrates.Journal of Comparative Physiology B, 181(3), 311-333. [Link]
Schuppli, C. A., & Weary, D. M. (2010). Attitudes towards the use of genetically modified animals in research. Public understanding of science,19(6), 686-697. [Link]
Animal research is an intriguing yet controversial area of research in academia. The IKBLC recently sponsored a webcast of this lecture, “Who Benefits From Animal Research?” hosted by Green College’s Thematic Series: Bringing the Collective Together: Nonhuman Animals, Humans and Practice at the University. This talk probes the questions of the value for humans of medical research on nonhuman animals, the value for nonhuman animals, and the role of culture and corporate interests in discourses on human disease and security. Each speaker will speak for 15 minutes followed by 30 minutes of discussion. This talk features: Fabio Rossi, Canada Research Chair in Regenerative Medicine, Medical Genetics, UBC; Bill Milsom, Zoology, UBC; Nelly Auersperg, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, UBC; Dan Weary, Animal Welfare Program, UBC.
Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the Department of Education. This presentation explores the use of procedural poetics to enhance language and literacy education, in particular the teaching of writing, by developing strategic pedagogical interventions to direct language study while simultaneously providing students with opportunities to create remarkable literary works. Drawing on the range of rules and constraints utilized by the influential French movement called Oulipo, and in particular a schematic for potential literature suggested by Marcel Benabou (1986), an overview of possible writing strategies will be presented, with examples of processed poems performed. The liberating aspect of this form of creativity comes from focusing concentration on formal constraints thereby dislodging the self-conscious ‘blocks’ that can arise under pressure to be original and inspired. Instead, directed language play engenders mastery of difficult genres of composition by reinforcing linguistic understanding and giving aesthetic experience to the acquisition of new vocabulary. Aspects of personal preference and style become actively engaged in procedural writing and constraints can be used to strategically guide writing development with important implications for literacy and writing pedagogy.
Relevant Books and Articles at UBC Library
James, K., & Petrina, S. (2006). After-lifelong learning: A eulogium. Taboo, 10(2), 5. [Link]
James, K. (2012). Mobility and literacy: Development of the public network concept. Language and Literacy, 14(2), 6. [Link]
James, K. (2007). Poetic terrorism and the politics of spoken word. Canadian Theatre Review, 130(130), 38. [Link]
Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Green College. Patricia S. Churchland is professor emerita of philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, and an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute. Her books include Brain-Wise and Neurophilosophy. In 1991, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. What is morality? Where does it come from? And why do most of us heed its call most of the time? In Braintrust, neurophilosophy pioneer Patricia Churchland argues that morality originates in the biology of the brain. She describes the “”neurobiological platform of bonding”” that, modified by evolutionary pressures and cultural values, has led to human styles of moral behavior. The result is a provocative genealogy of morals that asks us to reevaluate the priority given to religion, absolute rules, and pure reason in accounting for the basis of morality.
Moral values, Churchland argues, are rooted in a behavior common to all mammals–the caring for offspring. The evolved structure, processes, and chemistry of the brain incline humans to strive not only for self-preservation but for the well-being of allied selves–first offspring, then mates, kin, and so on, in wider and wider “”caring”” circles. Separation and exclusion cause pain, and the company of loved ones causes pleasure; responding to feelings of social pain and pleasure, brains adjust their circuitry to local customs. In this way, caring is apportioned, conscience molded, and moral intuitions instilled. A key part of the story is oxytocin, an ancient body-and-brain molecule that, by decreasing the stress response, allows humans to develop the trust in one another necessary for the development of close-knit ties, social institutions, and morality.
UBC Library Resources
Churchland, P. S. (2002). Brain-wise: Studies in neurophilosophy. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Churchland, P. S. (2011). Braintrust: What neuroscience tells us about morality. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. [Link]
Churchland, P. (2011). Free will matters. AJOB Neuroscience, 2(3), 1. doi:10.1080/21507740.2011.588905. [Link]
Churchland, P. (2013). Exploring the causal underpinnings of determination, resolve, and will. Neuron, 80(6), 1337-1338. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2013.12.005. [Link]
Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the Robson Reading Series at IKBLC. Kevin McNeilly is an associate professor in the Department of English at UBC. He has been interested in poetics and philosophy since graduate school: he wrote his Master’s thesis on the poetry of Robert Bringhurst, and his doctoral dissertation on the later work of William Butler Yeats. He has written and published scholarship and critical essays on a variety of literature, media and music, including work by writers, thinkers and performers such as Charles Mingus, Elizabeth Bishop, Jan Zwicky, Miles Davis, and Robert Creeley. He is a member of the “Improvisation, Community and Social Practice” research initiative. In addition to his academic publications, he has had poems published in Canadian Literature and The Antigonish Review. Embouchure (Nightwood Editions, 2011) is his debut poetry collection. He lives in Vancouver, BC.
Selected Articles and Books At UBC Library
McNeilly, K. (2011). Embouchure. Gibsons, B.C: Nightwood Editions. [Link]
