Upcoming Events
Groves of Academe | April 25, 2023
READING: Elif Batuman, The Idiot
If you would like to join the group please contact convenor, Graeme Wynn (wynn@geog.ubc.ca).
*Details of this in-person event will be confirmed through the group's email communications closer to the date. Please contact the convenor for more information or to be added to the group. By nature of the intimate sharing format of the group, membership size is limited.*
Learn more about the group and the format of thier activites here
Tuesday, 25 April 2023 - 3:30pm
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
Wall 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.
LECTURE - PANEL DISCUSSION
with Dr. Jessica Dempsey, Associate Professor, UBC Geography, Dr. Rashid Sumalia and Guests
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 to 3:00pmWall 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 - 1:00pm
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: 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.
A zoom link will be sent out before each meeting.
Thursday, 11 May 2023 - 3:00pmAnnual General Meeting | May 17
Join us at our Annual General Meeting
Ethnopolitical violence: Views of a child Holocaust survivor/psychiatrist
with Dr. Robert Krell, Child and Family Psychiatrist and UBC Professor Emeritus
Dr. Krell's presentation will explain that his perspective is not a theoretical one but a deeply personal one from his experiences with Holocaust education and remembrance. The linkage to ethnopolitical violence will be clear.
Schedule:
1:00pm Business Meeting
1:30pm Awards Ceremony
2:00pm Speaker
3:00pm Q&A
3:30pm End of Meeting
Agenda and Draft Minutes: tbc
Wednesday, 17 May 2023 - 1:00pm to 3:30pm