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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

View the Recording

Co-sponsors

Emeritus College and Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies

Thursday, 11 May 2023 - 1:00pm
Zoom
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1
Canada
Loire Valley

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.

Watch the Recording

Thursday, 11 May 2023 - 3:00pm
Zoom
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
Canada
wine glass in front of grape vines

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
in-person
MCML BLDG room 158 (TBC)
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
Canada
Poster for Caroline Kumsta Lecture

Healthy Aging Program Seminar | May 17

Autophagy and Aging: Cellular Waste Management for Longevity
with Dr. Caroline Kumsta, Assistant Professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys

Dr. Caroline Kumsta is an Assistant Professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys since 2021 and her research focuses on studying the role of the cellular recycling process autophagy in hormetic stress responses, aging and neurodegeneration using the nematode C. elegans and human tissue culture. She received her Ph.D. from the Technical University in Munich, Germany, and her thesis research was performed at the University of Michigan in the lab of Dr. Ursula Jakob. She joined Sanford Burnham Prebys as a postdoc with Dr. Malene Hansen in 2009; and was then promoted to staff scientist, research assistant professor, and now assistant professor. In addition to her research, Dr. Kumsta is passionate about science education, scientific outreach, mentoring, and cultivating diversity and inclusion in science.

This lecture may be viewed in-person at the Rudy North Lecture Theatre in the Centre for Brain Health at UBC or over Zoom.

Register Here

Wednesday, 17 May 2023 - 11:00am
Zoom or Rudy North Lecture Theatre
Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3
Canada
Catalyst Program Callout Image

Wall Catalyst Program | May 18

Emeritus College Cohort 2022-2023 Lunch & Final Report

A Panel Discussion with members of the Emeritus College Catalyst Cohort

The PWIAS Catalyst Program offers opportunities for collaborations that address the scale and complexity of the Climate and Nature Emergency (CNE). By connecting scholars, students, artists, disciplines, sectors and communities the program hopes to activate new ways of knowing and acting in these challenging socio-ecological times.

This year the program welcomed a cohort of 9 inter-disciplinary members from the Emeritus College (ECC). The cohort met monthly as part of a continuing dialogue resulting in an official response to the UBC 2050 Vision which was subsequently added as an appendix to the Board of Governors (page 187). In addition to this the ECC hosted 8 public lectures with the goal of inspiring awareness and action on the CNE.

The specific objectives of the ECC were the following:

  • To explore transdisciplinary approaches to understanding the CNE and ways in which we should respond to it;
  • To demonstrate progress that has been achieved in understanding the CNE at city, regional and national scales;
  • To admit our collective failure to protect our global landscapes and seascapes from unnecessary harm; and
  • To enhance the visibility of, and intellectual exchange, between PWIAS and the UBC Emeritus College

The final session in this series will be an informal presentation of the findings of individual members of the ECC and will allow for other Emeritus College members to ask questions of the group. All ECC members are invited to act as witnesses to the ways in which their perceptions of the Climate and Nature Emergency have changed over the course of their careers and as a result of the PWIAS program that the Emeritus College has co-sponsored.

Format:

When: Thursday, May 18 at 12:00 pm, lunch will be served. Lecture will begin at 1pm.
Where: Zoom and in-person at Seminar Room at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies

 See the recording

Co-sponsors Emeritus College and Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies

Thursday, 18 May 2023 - 12:00pm
In-Person or Zoom
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1
Canada

Community Volunteer Group | May 23

Meeting Details: Dr. Deborah Buszard, interim UBC President and Vice-Chancellor

At the next Community Volunteer SIG of the Emeritus College on May 23 we are very pleased that  Dr. Deborah Buszard, interim UBC President and Vice-Chancellor will be joining us.  Dr. Buszard, a strong supporter of community outreach, will share her experiences with community volunteerism.  We will also hear about the amazing volunteer activities by a few members of our group and discuss plans/speakers/ activities for next year.  

Meeting Format: Zoom. Note that this meeting will be on a Tuesday.  
Before the meeting, those interested will be asked to confrim thier attendance in-person or online.

Join the Community Volunteer Group mailing list: Please email Nancy.Gallini@ubc.ca and express your interest.

Tuesday, 23 May 2023 - 4:00pm
Zoom
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
Canada

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