Past Events
Wine Appreciation Group | May 11
A Tasting Seminar to Explore How Wine Quality Changes as Wines Age – Improvements? Problems?
Expertise level: all levels.
Dusty bottles in old stone cellars, wine styles steeped with tradition and with lingering, mysteriously enticing aromas, sometimes sold at auctions for 20 times their release price. What “new” aromas/attributes are in these aged wines and how do they compare with those in the young wines?
A (just retired) UBC wine science instructor will pour 4 matched pairs of quality wine and help you apply basic wine appreciation techniques to evaluate “young" wines & their corresponding (same vineyard/producer) “aged" wines. Wines will be mainly from international sources; however, will include a BC source. The age differences for each pair will be 10-15+ years apart. Discussion will be on what “science” says about how wines age and tips on pairing these wines with food will be provided “enroute”.
Cost to participate: $28.00 ($20 + $8 for two ISO glasses)
The Wine Appreciation Group has a limited number of drop-in spaces available for the April and May sessions. Please reach out to David MacArthur at david.mcarthur@ubc.ca to register.
Thursday, 11 May 2023 - 6:30pm
Travel Group | May 11
The Loire Valley: Orléans to Tours
with Paul Steinbok, Professor Emeritus Surgery
This presentation will describe a road trip in May 2022 from Paris to the Loire Valley. Our first stop was Orléans, where Joan of Arc led the French army to victory over the English in 1429. From there we travelled to Blois, with stops en route in Beaugency and Villeny. We toured some of the grand châteaux for which the region is famous: Chambord, Cheverny and Chenonceau. We visited Amboise and the château of Clos Lucé, home of Leonardo Da Vinci, before continuing to the city of Tours, our final destination in the Loire valley. Our trip was within the central Loire valley, which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As UNESCO has noted: “The Loire Valley is an outstanding cultural landscape of great beauty, containing historic towns and villages, great architectural monuments (the châteaux), and cultivated lands formed by many centuries of interaction between their population and the physical environment, primarily the river Loire itself.” I will only add to that description - good food.
Format: Zoom
If you wish to receive the zoom link for the meeting and are not already on the EC Travel group list, please contact Paul Steinbok at psteinbok@cw.bc.ca.
A zoom link will be sent out before each meeting.
Thursday, 11 May 2023 - 3:00pm
Wall Catalyst Program | May 11
The Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and the UBC Emeritus College have assembled a cohort of Emeriti to participate in the 2022-23 PWIAS Catalyst Program.
The Wall Catalyst Emeriti cohort will meet monthly to share research experience and engage with guest lecturers on the topic of the "Climate and Nature Emergency".
For more information on this program and the list of participating Emeriti click here.
Members of the Emeritus College are invited to attend speaker lectures throughout the year.
Tipping Points: Climate Change, History, and the North
In this talk, Langston explores tipping points, caribou/reindeer restoration, and the possibility of hope in the Anthropocene. In climate models, tipping points are critical thresholds that, if crossed, can lead to self-perpetuating, runaway warming in an ecosystem. Societies may contain social tipping points, where small changes in behavior can trigger—or possibly slow--runaway warming. Reindeer (which are the same species as caribou in North America) are critical partners in the effort to prevent runaway Arctic warming, because their browsing can reduce brushy shrubs, increasing albedo effects and cooling local climates. But now, across the Arctic, reindeer and caribou populations are crashing. They have retreated from roughly half their 19th century range, and their populations have dropped by 56% in the past decade. Restoring them across the north may be critical for resilience in a warming world. Langston examines the history of caribou/reindeer translocations across the global north as a controversial tool for a green transition. She argues that moving wildlife about the world has never been just about taking an individual or herd and putting is somewhere else. Rather, it has always involved questions of power, social relations, and visions of a desired future. Langston ultimately asks: what can we learn from the past to sustain our fellow creatures and ourselves in a warming, politically-fractured world?
Nancy Langston is a Distinguished Professor of Environmental History at Michigan Technological University. In 2021, she was awarded the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Society for Environmental History, and she is the author of five books on climate history, Great Lakes history, forest and wetland history, and toxics history.
Langston's most recent book is Climate Ghosts: Migratory Species in the Anthropocene (Brandeis University Press), based on her 2019 Mandel Lectures in the Humanities at Brandeis University. You can find more information on her work on her website.
FORMAT Zoom
Co-sponsors
Emeritus College and Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies
Thursday, 11 May 2023 - 1:00pmWall Catalyst Program | May 4
The Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and the UBC Emeritus College have assembled a cohort of Emeriti to participate in the 2022-23 PWIAS Catalyst Program.
The Wall Catalyst Emeriti cohort will meet monthly to share research experience and engage with guest lecturers on the topic of the "Climate and Nature Emergency".
For more information on this program and the list of participating Emeriti click here.
Members of the Emeritus College are invited to attend speaker lectures throughout the year.
Political economy of extinction
with
Dr. Jessica Dempsey, UBC Geography
Dr. Rashid Sumaila, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs
With guests
Dr. Louise Teh, Research Associate. Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries
Audrey Irvine-Broque, Graduate Student, UBC Geography
In this session, members of the UBC community will deliver short presentations on the political economy of biodiversity loss with a focus on underlying drivers of biodiversity loss, species decline, overfishing and harmful fishing subsidies. Speakers include Jessica Dempsey (Geography), Audrey Irvine-Broque (Geography), Rashid Sumaila (Oceans and Fisheries), Louse Teh (Oceans and Fisheries). Discussion will follow.
Jessica Dempsey, Associate Professor, UBC Geography.
My research and teaching focus on environmental politics. In geography this often goes under the label of political ecology, which refers to much more than the government or the state. It includes consideration of how environmental politics is shaped by and shapes
economics, science, culture, history, gender, racism, colonialism, social movements and more.
Rashid Sumaila, Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Interdisciplinary Ocean and Fisheries Economics at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, UBC.
Rashid Sumaila's research focuses on bioeconomics, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, marine protected areas, illegal fishing, climate change, marine plastic pollution, and oil spills. Sumaila has experience working in fisheries and natural resource projects in Norway, Canada and the North Atlantic region, Namibia and the Southern African region, Ghana and the West African region and Hong Kong and the South China Sea.
Dr. Sumaila received his Ph.D. (Economics) from the University of Bergen and his B.Sc. (Quantity Surveying) from the Ahmadu Bello University. Sumaila is widely published and cited. He won the 2017 Volvo Environment Prize and was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2019. His interest in the environment started early in life when his grandfather used to say people should “walk as if the ground feels pain” – this is sophisticated environmentalism! His specific interest in ocean and fisheries was picked in Norway. Sumaila enjoys exploring novel ideas and mentoring future thinkers. He loves waking up each day thinking of how best to contribute to ensuring that we bequeath a healthy ocean to our children and grandchildren so they too can have the option to do the same.
FORMAT: IN-PERSON AND ON ZOOM
Members of the UBC Emeritus College and the general public are invited to attend a lecture by the guest speaker. There will be a question period following the presentation.
Location: Seminar Room at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies
University of British Columbia, University Centre, 6331 Crescent Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
CO-SPONSORS
Emeritus College and Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies
Co-sponsors Emeritus College and Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies
Thursday, 4 May 2023 - 1:00pm
UBC Retirement Seminar | May 3
May Retirement Seminar for UBC faculty and librarians. Let your colleagues know about this informational session.
When: Wednesday, May 3, from 8:30 to 12:30 pm
Where: Zoom
This seminar is hosted by Faculty Relations. Please refer to the link below for the most up-to-date information.
Wednesday, 3 May 2023 - 8:30am to 12:30pm
University of Manitoba Symposium | May 1
Centre on Aging 40th Annual Spring Research Symposium
This year's sessions will reflect on the Centre's history at the University of Manitoba over the past 40 years. Additional sessions will focus on cannabis and the older adult, COVID's effects on older people and in personal care homes, and cohort studies in aging. Sessions will take place in person and will simultaneously be streamed live online.
Scheduled presenters:
Dr. Daniel Sitar, Professor Emeritus, Max Rady College of Medicine University of Manitoba
Dr. Sandra Webber, College of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Manitoba
Dr. Jamison Falk, College of Pharmacy, University of Manitoba
Dr. Megan Davies, Professor Emerita, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Department of Social Science, York University
Dr. Laura Funk, Faculty of Arts, Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Manitoba
Dr. Mary Shariff, Robson Hall Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba
Dr. Philip St. John, Max Rady College of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Manitoba