Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. Mathabo Tsepa completed her PhD in Environmental Education with Dr. Nashon in the Dept of Curriculum & Pedagogy. Her work connected the National University of Lesotho and UBC to promote the exchange of cutting edge best practice research and policies about learning regions. She was also involved in the UBC Go Global program. By stressing Africa’s impact on western higher education, the Africa Awareness Initiative (AAI) hopes that the university realizes the necessity of a stable African Studies Program. The presence of such notable speakers on campus shows that the University of British Columbia shows its continued dedication to follow through with the complete and justified ‘creation of global citizens.’
The Student Leadership Conference took place on Saturday January 14, 2012. As UBC’s largest student-run conference, the SLC provides over 1100 delegates with the opportunity to achieve their personal breakthroughs through engaging workshops and speakers. Watch this UBC This Week video for more information.
The next concert in the Dodson Music Series will take place on Friday January 27th at 12:00 pm in the Dodson Room of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
“Entartete Musik – music suppressed under Nazism” will consist of music by composers who were suppressed during the Third Reich. “Entartete Musik” was a term used by the Nazis to defame atonal music, jazz, and works by Jewish composers as “degenerate”.
The targeted composers included Schoenberg, Webern, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Weill, Goldschmidt, and Waxman. Many of them emigrated to the United States, and some had illustrious careers as film music composers in Hollywood.
Students of the UBC School of Music will present a varied programme of vocal and instrumental music by Messiaen, Zemlinsky, and Schulhoff. They will offer a view into the musical world of Weimar Germany, and the artistry in defiance of oppression that was the musical world of Nazi concentration camps.
The concert series is directed by Leah Giselle Field. Admission is free.
From December 1 to January 31, 2012 you can provide feedback about IKBLC’s art exhibition, Rocks of Interest to a Young Geologist. “Rocks of Interest To A Young Geologist” By Ruth Beer
The photographs in this exhibition engage with ideas inspired by the formations and visible properties in geological rock samples. Many of the rocks presented in these photographs were collected by a young geologist last summer in the mountains of BC, Yukon and Nunavut. They were collected because they are tangible examples of time, material, form and events. From an artist’s perspective, in addition to formal and descriptive elements of color, texture and form, their intangible qualities are of interest as they reference dynamic shifts of contemporary experience juxtaposing our understanding of what we claim to know, the uncertainty of geological materials and forces that impact everyday life, and the romanticism of a future that is barely graspable.
Watch this webcast from Huddle 2011, as it features presenters who work and volunteer in the environmental sector in Vancouver, BC. This panel discussion, which featured experts from local media, political leaders, NGO and non-profit representatives and academics, engaged in roundtable discussion on their experiences engaging a diverse public in their work in the environmental sector. In addition, this discussion also explored how different sectors might better work together to further engagement.
Panelists include:
Arzeena Hamir, Richmond Food Security Society (Coordinator)
Claudia Li, SharkTruth (Founder)
Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega, Department of Political Science UBC (Instructor)
Tricia Sedgwick, World in a Garden (Founder)
Audrea Chan, Fairchild Television (Senior Reporter)
We are excited to announce that Kevin McNeilly and percussionist Nicholas Jacques will be performing from McNeilly’s latest work, Embouchere on January 26, 2012 – 2.00pm to 3.00pm at the Lillooet Room (Rm 301) of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
Kevin McNeilly’s debut poetry collection, Embouchure, compiles the intertwined lineages of trumpet players who came to prominence in the States during the “pre-bop” era, loosely defined as the period between 1890 and 1939. This series of vignettes betrays a broad and detailed knowledge of the players’ lives and work, yet reads like a collection of conversational anecdotes shared between the musicians and those around them. Rather than focusing on the solid facts of their lives, McNeilly brings to life the characters they inhabited and stories that surrounded them, all in a vibrant, slangy dialect that adeptly reproduces the feel of the period.
Within the course of Embouchure’s thirty-seven portraits, Buddy, Satch, Bix, Jabbo, Cootie, Cat and the rest are resurrected in their smoky, brassy, sepia-toned glory as figures deeply steeped in their own mythos. Despite embracing the fictional aspects of their lives, however, McNeilly styles these remarkable men and women with pure love and admiration, not only for their shared history and contribution to the evolution of jazz, but also for the pure, loud, messy beauty of the music itself. In this stunning and highly readable debut, McNeilly boasts finely honed poetic chops, proving that heart remains the first and finest ingredient in any truly virtuosic solo.
75 Years of Controversy: Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Awards, 1936-2010 Lillooet Room (301) Irving K. Barber Learning Centre THURSDAY, JANUARY 12 2 p.m.
Professor Dr. Andrew Irvine, UBC Philosophy
Lecture: 75 Years of Controversy – Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Awards, 1936-2010 (IBLC)
This talk reviews several of the most contentious and controversial episodes in the history of the Governor General’s Literary Awards.
Andrew Irvine received his Ph.D. from the University of Sydney for work in the Department of Traditional and Modern Philosophy on mathematical truth and scientific realism. Since then he has published and lectured on topics in the philosophy of mathematics, the history and philosophy of logic, and the philosophy of law. He is especially interested in the work of the twentieth-century philosopher, essayist and social critic, Bertrand Russell.
“Self-Managing your Chronic Conditions: The facts, the challenges and future directions” – November 19, 2011 – 2:00-3:30pm at Surrey Public Library’s City Centre Library
Presented by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and Woodward Library, the Health Information Series is an ongoing public lecture series that take place in the Lower Mainland community. The tasks that individuals must undertake to live well with one or more chronic conditions. These tasks include having the confidence to deal with medical management, role management and emotional management of their conditions. As an expert on chronic disease self-management supports, particularly health programs and everyday intervention techniques, Dr. Sue Mills from the School of Population and Public Health and Dr. Sharon Koehn from the Providence Healthcare delivers a lively presentation and discussion to the community of Surrey at its newly opened City Centre Library.
The purpose of the Health Information Lecture Series is to foster a better personal health management and a variety of health topics based on the expertise and research that happens at the University of British Columbia’s diverse medical and health sciences program. Through an innovative mix of cutting edge web technologies and important health topics, the Learning Centre offers not only a bridge for UBC faculty and the communities of BC, from the Lower Mainland to rural and remote areas, to create a dialogue around timely topics on the health care needs of British Columbians, but also an opportunity for the transfer and exchange of knowledge, experience and history with these local BC communities.
In my role as the Programming Assistant for IKBLC, I usually sit at the office and do miscellaneous data entry, upload webcasts on to the web, and install the art exhibits in the lobby/Ike’s… all interesting things but every once in a while I get to be a part of really exciting events!
Paul Cubbon and George Moen
In October, I got to help run the Small Business Accelerator event. I had the pleasure of hearing insights from business from Paul Cubbon (Sauder Prof) and George Moen (CEO of Blenz Coffee). As a student with a timetable that is royal to the Forest Sciences Centre, I learned so much about business that evening! Prof Cubbon and Mr. Moen are the dynamic duo. They balance each other perfectly. Mr. Moen was telling it like it is, sharing his personal stories on success and failures. (His sound advice can be found here). Prof Cubbon gave concrete examples of his past students who are now running super successful businesses, installing hope in the eager audience. Following their presentations, the audience got to ask them questions. I was given the role of the microphone girl, running around from one keen hand to another making sure the audience had a chance to ask their burning-business-related questions. My favourites from the night were: “Is it possible to do business with family?” and “Why did Blenz fail in China?” The answers to these questions as well as the full webcast is available here.
In November, I had the pleasure of assisting with another Robson Reading Series event. The featured author this time around was Michael V. Smith, a creative writing professor from UBC-O and a founder of the RRS! Michael read from his new novel, “Progress”. This reading was my first introduction to the novel. I can say that from the excerpts that he read, it made me want to ditch school, curl up with the book and a large cup of tea, and find out how this family drama unfolds. That being said, my biggest take-away from the event was the casual Q&A at the end. It is absolutely brilliant to hear an author do a reading of their own work, it’s even more fantastic is to hear about the author’s writing process. So one of the questions posed to Michael was “Do you believe in writer’s block?” Michael gave probably the best answer I have ever heard. He interprets writers block as “not giving yourself permission to write crap”. He says that a writer’s block can easily be overcome by giving yourself permission to play, to write crap, and not giving yourself crap. He elaborates, “It doesn’t have to be perfect until it’s done. Besides, writing imperfect stuff is fabulous because it means you only have room to improve. Everything you write doesn’t have to be precious. Just be ready to invest a lot in to the initial crap to turn it into something precious. Diamonds weren’t formed in a day, the Earth took eons to play with carbon. The Earth invested a lot in carbon”. Afterwards, I Wiki-ed “diamond formation”. It turns out the Earth invests up to 3.3 billion years to form diamonds. So dear readers, sorry if this blog entry isn’t a precious diamond yet. But hey, at least I gave permission to myself to write something.
Note: Michael V. Smith’s webcast will soon be uploaded on to our webcast page
Activists around the world are turning to social media tools usually used for more pedestrian purposes: the sharing of family videos and videos of cats flushing toilets. But these tools can be extremely powerful in the hands of activists, as they are pervasive, easy to use and difficult for governments to censor. Zuckerman looks at “the cute cat theory” of internet activism, as it helps explain the Arab Spring protests, aggressive internet censorship in countries like China and Vietnam, and the challenges for the corporate owners of social media platforms in an era of online speech. This event is a hosted by UBC Continuing Studies, UBC School of Journalism, Yahoo!, and the Laurier Institution.
ABOUT ETHAN ZUCKERMAN
Ethan Zuckerman is director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, and a principal research scientist at MIT’s Media Lab. His research focuses on the distribution of attention in mainstream and new media, the use of technology for international development, and the use of new media technologies by activists.With Rebecca MacKinnon, Ethan co-founded international blogging community Global Voices. Global Voices showcases news and opinions from citizen media in over 150 nations and thirty languages, publishing editions in twenty languages. Through Global Voices and through the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, where he served as a researcher and fellow for eight years, Ethan is active in efforts to promote freedom of expression and fight censorship in online spaces.
The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre will sponsor the webcasting of this lecture.
Minghui Yu
Allan
Simon Neame
Glenn Drexhage
Kyuwon Kim