Past Events

Senior Scholars' Series

Sinking, Swimming, or Just Treading Water? Meeting the Challenges of an Academic Career in the Humanities
The son of refugees from Nazi Germany, Herbert Rosengarten grew up in a post-war Britain that saw radical changes to public health and education, and that offered new opportunities to the children of the working class through state funding. A sound, if somewhat conventional education led him to Vancouver and the English Department at UBC, just at the time when universities in North America were experiencing the first stirrings of student challenges to traditional authority. Rosengarten experienced the impact of such unrest at UBC, both in the changing attitudes and expectations of students, and in the workings of his department, which became a battleground between liberal and conservative factions, each striving to impose its notions of academic governance. The latter part of his career has been spent largely in administrative posts, which have given him some interesting, if not always positive, insights into the intricacies of academic politics.

Co-sponsors: Emeritus College and Green College; organizer Emeritus Professor Ken Carty. For more, see www.greencollege.ubc.ca. Come at 4:30 for tea and coffee in the Green College Piano Lounge and stay for refreshments after the talks. To attend dinner, please make a reservation no later than noon on the business day before the day on which you want to dine. Without prior reservation, we cannot guarantee that you will be served. Pay for your meal at the servery counter by cash, debit or credit (MasterCard, Visa). For reservations call 604-822-0912, or email kitchen@gcdining.ca. 

Photo Group

The theme for this meeting is "Getting Older". Meetings are a mix of showing member images and informal discussions of particular photographic issues. We welcome both newcomers and seasoned photographers. Everyone welcome whether you wish to submit images or just look and socialize.
Contacts: Derek Applegarth (derek.jenny@shaw.ca) and Mike Whitfield.

Film Group

Series Ten: With their supposed idiosyncratic personalities, yet paradoxically broad-based fandom, artists (across all disciplines) have been frequent subjects of the popular cinema since its early days.  For example, Vincent Van Gogh has had numerous films produced about his life, continuing even in recent years.  Because they seem above the ordinary, artists fascinate us: their specialness offers a glimpse of a more brilliant existence for ourselves.  Such a glimpse, however, can be a trap not only for us, whose dreams of a more intense life are easily exploited by a consumerist society eager to fulfill them, but especially for the artists themselves, whose humanity as well as their artistic contribution can be cheapened.