Upcoming Events
Travel Group | March 16
Travels in Ireland – what, where, why, when and how.
with Dr. Niamh Kelly, Professor Emerita, Faculty of Medicine
In this travelogue on Ireland Niamh will take us around the country pointing out the best ways to get around, where to go, where to stay, things to see, how to stay dry (impossible!); accompanied by historical insights, photos of the land and anecdotes that might allow you to better understand these Island people.
Format: Hybrid
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.
Co-housing Women's Group March 16, 2023
Baba Yaga House and other models for living for women retirees
Guest speaker: Ronaye Matthew, Cohousing Development Consulting
A board member of the Canadian Cohousing Network since 1996, Ronaye Matthew is the leading expert on what it takes to get cohousing built in Canada. As the primary consultant in Cohousing Development Consulting, Ronaye has supported the successful development of 11 Canadian cohousing communities. www.cohousingconsulting.ca
More Information on the Co-housing Women's Group
The recent crises in long term care as a result of the Pandemic have emphasized the need for coming up with new models for aging demographics. It remains a well-documented fact that women generally have fewer access to resources than men when it comes to this stage of their lives. The group is intended to comprise those who wish to delve further into the possibilities for self-governing models of group living that combine independent spaces with communal ones (co-housing, coop housing etc.). The Baba Yaga model set up in France has inspired people across the world: https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20130305-babayagas-house
We will share experts and expertise (including inspiring writers, artists and film directors) that exist in the field to see what is possible. It is anticipated that pooling our knowledge will provide a range of realistic models for the future and may even have direct practical outcomes. While the call to participate is initially directed at women only we will decide at the first meeting whether to stay with this model.
Join the Co-housing Women's Group mailing list: Please email sneja.gunew@ubc.ca and express your interest.
Meeting Format: Zoom. Group members will receive the Zoom links in advance of all meetings.
Thursday, 16 March 2023 - 4:00pm
Vancouver Institute Lecture | March 18
The Defense of Cultural Space
Mr. Brendan de Caires, Executive Director, PEN Canada
As head of PEN Canada for over a decade, Mr. de Caires defends freedom of expression, and helps exiled writers to establish in Canada. In this capacity Mr. de Caires has edited and co-authored country studies of Mexico, Honduras, India and Guatemala. He is the author of The Winter of a Hundred Books (2010), and A Country Worth Living In (2010). After writing Honduras: Journalism in the Shadow of Impunity (2013), he joined a PEN delegation to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for a special session on impunity in Honduras. He has been a contributor to the Literary Review of Canada and book reviewer for publications in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.
Saturday, 18 March 2023 - 8:15pm
General Meeting | March 22
Photo credits: Tereska, courtesy of David Seymour-Chim Estate/Magnum Photos
My Uncle, the Legendary Photographer David Seymour-Chim (1911-1956)
Ben Shneiderman, Adjunct Professor, Computer Science, UBC
Dawid Szymin was born in Warsaw to respected publisher Benjamin Szymin, whose home was a center for the Yiddish and Jewish culture of that time. He went to Paris in 1932 to study at the Sorbonne, but took up photography to report on the lively intellectual communities and the political activism of the Front Populaire. Then he became world famous for his coverage of the Spanish Civil War. He served in the US Army during World War II, taking the name David Seymour (see website), and then picked up his camera to photograph the post-war rebuilding efforts and the plight of the orphans of war for UNESCO.
He founded the celebrated Magnum Photos collaborative in 1947, with his close friends Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and George Rodger. Chim's capacity to connect with his subjects gave him the opportunity to photograph Hollywood stars like Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, and Kirk Douglas. Chim's work appeared regularly in LIFE Magazine, but his life was tragically cut short when he was killed while covering the 1956 Suez Crisis for Newsweek Magazine.
This talk will show his work and his impact, which continues to grow, most recently by the deeply researched and poetically written biography by Carole Naggar, Searching for the Light and the accompanying video.
SCHEDULE:
2:00pm Business meeting
2:15pm Talk by Ben Shneiderman
3:00pm Q&A
Vancouver Institute Lecture | March 25
Protecting Humankind’s Common Cultural Heritage: The Problem of Cultural Appropriation
Dr. Cécile Fabre, Senior Research Fellow in Politics, All Souls College, Professor of Political Philosophy, Oxford University
Dr. Fabre is a political philosopher whose research interests include theories of distributive and reparative justice, the philosophy of democracy, and the moral and political philosophy of cultural heritage. A prolific scholar, her most recent publications include Spying Through a Glass Darkly: The Ethics of Espionage and Counter-Intelligence (2022), Economic Statecraft: Human Rights, Sanctions, and Conditionality (2018), preceded by Cosmopolitan Peace (2016), The Morality of Defensive War, co-edited with Seth Lazar (2014), and Cosmopolitan War (2012). Her works have been published in journals such as the British Journal of Political Science, International Affairs, and the Journal of Political Philosophy. Dr. Fabre is a Fellow of the British Academy. She has also taught at the London School of Economics and the University of Edinburgh.
Saturday, 25 March 2023 - 8:15pm
Series at Green College | March 29
Trauma/Resilience Lecture Series
Challenge, Stress, Trauma: Pathogenesis and Salutogenesis
with Dr. Peter Suedfeld
The road of life is marked by many obstacles to success and happiness, peace and quiet. The emphasis of many experts in the helping professions is that these obstacles lead to psychological damage ranging from mild frustration to a shattered life. The presentation will assess these beliefs and propose a different perspective: how the threats are overcome, and how they may even be sources of psychological strength and growth.
Peter Suedfeld survived the Nazi Holocaust in Hungary. After emigration in 1948, he was educated in the U.S. (BA, Queens College, City University of New York, MA and PhD, Princeton). He is a veteran of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force Reserve and has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada. Prior to coming to UBC as Head of the Department of Psychology in 1972, he taught at the University of Illinois and Rutgers. His research deals primarily with adaptation and resilience during and after challenging, dangerous, and/or extreme environments and experiences. These have included restricted environmental stimulation, life and work in the two polar regions and space, high-level political and military decision-making and information processing under stress, and experiences in environmental disasters, solitary confinement, persecution, and genocide. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has received various Canadian, American, and international awards for his research. In 2019, he was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada.
HYBRID FORMAT
Join us in-person at Green College on the UBC Vancouver Campus or virtually. The session will be followed by a reception.
Co-Hosts
Emeritus College and Green College
Wednesday, 29 March 2023 - 5:00pm