According to Chris Hedges, liberal institutions are to blame for the downward spiral of the American political system. In his Big Thinking lecture at Congress 2012, he argues that the liberal class—the press, universities, liberal religious institutions, labour unions and the Democratic Party—have forsaken their core values and sold out to corporate interests.
Chris Hedges was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio, and the author of such books as War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), American Fascists (2007), I Don’t Believe in Atheists (2008) and Empire of Illusion (2009). He is a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and has taught at Columbia University, New York University and Princeton University.
For more information on this Speaker/Performer please visit www.apbspeakers.com
Close Add to My Schedule TweetOrganized by the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE), the Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG) and Run for Life, the Crossroads Across the Region Scavenger Hunt involves collecting clues about the educational community and geography of the Kitchener-Waterloo region in teams of two to four people throughout the duration of Congress. The hunt, which will take participants through the two campuses, uptown Waterloo and downtown Kitchener, is self-scheduled, so delegates can complete it at their leisure. All of the locations are accessible on foot or by transit.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetThroughout Congress, the University of Waterloo’s newest high-tech accelerator, REAP (Research Entrepreneurs Accelerating Prosperity) is showcasing some of the latest interactive digital display technologies from its new ‘sandbox for serious play’ – the FELT Lab. Young talent from SSHRC disciplines involved in REAP will be on hand to show and tell.
www.reapwaterloo.ca
This round table shows how information technologies can facilitate communication by demonstrating the value of collaborative projects in developing media accessibility for the deaf and hard of hearing. Representatives of WebSourd, an accessibility services provider, INTERPRETIS, a collective of sign language interpreters and CETIM, a school of interpretation and translation in Toulouse, France, discuss their experiences producing bilingual Web content in written French and French Sign Language.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetWhether you're a grad student, a postdoc, or a faculty member, you'll be writing research grant proposals. This session will review the main parts of the typical grant or fellowship application, discuss how the adjudication process works and what that means for you, and suggest strategies to help you pitch your project to your best advantage.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetThe Canadian Language Museum was established in 2011 to promote an appreciation of all of the languages spoken in Canada and of their role in the development of this nation. Its first project is the traveling exhibit Canadian English, Eh? which focuses on Canadians' distinctive use of English. This exhibit explores variations in Canadian English across the country, as well as influences from French and Aboriginal languages. The exhibit will be available for public viewing at several locations in 2012.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetA display of selected artifacts, papers, photographs, and memorabilia from Wilfrid Laurier University’s Maureen Forrester Archives.
Partially funded by the host universities, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo.
The Canadian Communication Association and the University of Waterloo Critical Media Lab (CML) invites Congress participants to visit its mobile exhibition (in a truck parked on WLU campus). Delegates can examine and experiment with recent interactive projects completed by the CML collaborators in the field of mobile computing and augmented reality.
Partially funded by the host universities, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo.
Take a tour of Uptown Waterloo’s “Power Corner” and witness how the site of Seagram’s original whiskey distillery and associated barrel works have been transformed into new major academic and research facilities. While you’re there, get an insider look at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and the Balsillie School of International Affairs.
Departure Location: In front of the Laurier Bookstore, in the Concourse of the Arts Building
Attention Congress 2012 delegates and families!
Visit THEMUSEUM in Kitchener from May 26 to June 2, 2021 and save! Delegates and their families pay $10 per person (regular price is $13). Admission includes all THEMUSEUM’s permanent exhibitions as well as DINOSAURS and ADD COLOUR | A Yoko Ono Exhibition. DINOSAURS is a robotic adventure of dinosaur life and ADD COLOUR invites you to play an active role in the creative process.
http://www.themuseum.ca/main.cfm
Matthew Erickson (Director, Conflict Management and Human Rights Office at uWaterloo) will take you through a step-by-step process to plan and conduct effective communications related to difficult issues that you may be experiencing with your supervisor.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetRotten with Perfection is a short filmic exploration of our nature, as symbol-using and symbol-misusing animals. The film will be displayed in a viewing room designed for one: you.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetSociology is conventionally understood as one of several social scientific disciplines that complement each other in comprehending the human condition. Yet since the 1970s, the 'cultural turn' to constructivism and the deepening crisis of capitalist modernity have subverted the conventional view. In this lecture, William K. Carroll proposes a re-visioning of sociology and its relationship to the late-modern world it inhabits.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetUncertain World is a group exhibition developed in response to the theme of Crossroads: Scholarship in an Uncertain World. The exhibition features the works of four mid- career Canadian artists. Using the landscape as a familiar perceptual backdrop, the artwork addresses themes ranging from environmental degradation to urban sprawl, and from First Nations land claims to the Occupy movement. Uncertain World will be a timely visual complement to Congress 2012.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetToday’s social sciences have difficulty providing conceptual, analytic and predictive tools that help policy-makers and the public address contemporary global problems such as financial crises, energy shocks, food price spikes and climate change. In his Big Thinking lecture at Congress 2012, Thomas Homer-Dixon provides some guideposts to understanding complexity science and its potential relevance to practical social science. He suggests that policy advice from the social sciences often assumes individual rationality, an aggregation of individual rational choice into group behavior, the progression of social systems towards equilibrium, and, ultimately, calculable risk. Homer-Dixon argues that humankind's most critical problems arise from emergent complex social and natural systems marked by deep uncertainty, positive and negative feedbacks and frequent instability.
Thomas Homer-Dixon holds the CIGI Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Canada. He is Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation and Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development in the Faculty of Environment. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, he received his PhD from MIT in international relations and defense and arms control policy in 1989. His books include The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization (2006), which won the 2006 National Business Book Award, The Ingenuity Gap (2000), winner of the 2001 Governor General’s Non-fiction Award, and Environment, Scarcity, and Violence (1999), which won the Caldwell Prize of the American Political Science Association. His recent research has focused on threats to global security in the 21st century and how societies adapt to complex economic, ecological, and technological change.
Thomas Homer-Dixon photo by Bryn Gladding
Close Add to My Schedule TweetJoin Chad Gaffield, president of SSHRC, and Budd Hall, UNESCO Chair of Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, University of Victoria, for a dialogue on new approaches to campus-community research collaboration. Moderated by Michael Hall, Vice-President of Research at the YMCA.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetLearn best strategies to prepare for your next academic interview and hear from professors about what they are looking for in candidates.
Facilitator: Elisabeth Adrian
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Globalization is most commonly seen as a process in which cheap labour in the Global South undercuts the social standards that workers in the North have achieved over long periods of organizing and struggle. Sharit Bhowmik introduces us to the realities of workers in the South and asks how the labour and living conditions of workers all over the world can be improved.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetCo-sponsored by the OISE/University of Toronto and the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies and organized in partnership with the Canadian Disability Studies Association (CDSA) and the Canadian Philosophical Association (CPA)
How do Disability Studies reflect a need to rethink the “essentials of being human”? How does taking a disability studies approach offer innovative and creative ways to re-think ordinary knowledge production? The Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences Equity Issues Portfolio has invited a group of leaders from disability studies to reflect on their experience and theorize what the future will hold for disabled peoples. Chaired by Jay Dolmage (Waterloo), this panel will feature Tanya Titchkosky (Toronto), Michael Prince (Victoria) and Rod Michalko (York).
A reception will follow.
Get a feel for being “down on the corner, out in the street” while learning about the history and architecture of Uptown Waterloo’s main street and its transformation into a vibrant, albeit sometimes contested, public space.
Departure Location: In front of the Laurier Bookstore, in the Concourse of the Arts Building
Your graduate studies can lead to many satisfying careers outside academia. Learn how to transfer your skills from an academic to a business or government environment. Plus, discover how to successfully use your network.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetCo-sponsored by Canadian Sociological Association (CSA) Equity Subcommittee
This panel highlights race, racialization and indigeneity in the Canadian academy. Based on a 3-year SSHRC-funded research project that uses a multifaceted methodology including personal interviews, surveys and site visits to selected universities, this panel will explore issues of race and indigeneity within the academy. Panelist will include: Ena Dua, (York), Frances Henry (York), Carol Tator (York), Carl James (York), and Malinda Smith (Alberta).
Interdisciplinary scholarship in media theory has started to grapple with the complex materiality of the technologies that mediate a broad range of contemporary social, cultural and artistic practices. In this lecture, Jussi Parikka addresses the aesthetic and technical history of emerging media through contemporary trends in media archaeology and German media theory.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetUncertain World is a group exhibition developed in response to the theme of Crossroads: Scholarship in an Uncertain World. The exhibition features the works of four mid- career Canadian artists. Using the landscape as a familiar perceptual backdrop, the artwork addresses themes ranging from environmental degradation to urban sprawl, and from First Nations land claims to the Occupy movement. Uncertain World will be a timely visual complement to Congress 2012.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetIn her keynote address, Karen Houle discusses philosophy, fiction and poetry. She takes up her abiding concern with our destruction of the natural environment and the way in which we have thus rendered the world uncertain.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetJoin us for hands-on “Thinkering” (Thinking +Tinkering) with interactive display technologies at the University of Waterloo’s newest high-tech business accelerator REAP (Research Entrepreneurs Accelerating Prosperity). During the 30-minute session, you will be introduced to – and do some ‘serious play’ with – new interactive displays that may transform the way you teach and the way you present ideas to students. The display’s venue in St. Jacob’s is a 10-minute drive from Waterloo, or you can take the train from Waterloo’s Clay and Glass Gallery and the Perimeter Institute (16:15 departure; $15 round trip).
Please register: http://reapwaterloo.eventbrite.ca
Close Add to My Schedule TweetA reception to announce the winner of the 2012 Dalton Camp Award will take place at 6 pm, Thursday, May 31st at the Clay and Glass Gallery, 25 Caroline Street North, Waterloo. The Award consists of a cash prize of $5,000 as well as a bronze cast medal by the late Canadian sculptress Dora de Pédèry-Hunt.
Sponsored by Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, the goal of the Award is to encourage young Canadians to reflect and express themselves through original essays on the link between democracy and the media.
Congress delegates welcome! Cocktails and canapés will be served.
Close Add to My Schedule TweetThe Multicultural Cinema Club will hold its spring film festival during Congress and will showcase international films focusing on the theme of “uncertain worlds.” A local film buff will introduce the films and a short discussion will follow each screening.
Free. The Registry Theatre, 122 Frederick Street, Kitchener.
Partially funded by the host universities, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo.
Join us for hands-on “Thinkering” (Thinking +Tinkering) with interactive display technologies at the University of Waterloo’s newest high-tech business accelerator REAP (Research Entrepreneurs Accelerating Prosperity). During the 30-minute session, you will be introduced to – and do some ‘serious play’ with – new interactive displays that may transform the way you teach and the way you present ideas to students. The display’s venue in St. Jacob’s is a 10-minute drive from Waterloo, or you can take the train from Waterloo’s Clay and Glass Gallery and the Perimeter Institute (16:15 departure; $15 round trip).
Please register: http://reapwaterloo.eventbrite.ca
Close Add to My Schedule TweetAs part of the very full and rich schedule of concerts for attendees for the duration of Congress, QuartetFest 2012 features concerts and Chamber music workshops. Hosted by the Penderecki String Quartet, QuartetFest brings together two world-renowned members of the Tokyo String Quartet, Martin Beaver (violin) and Clive Greensmith (cello), and young artists from Canada and abroad to perform concerts and participate in Master classes.
Penderecki String Quartet with the members of the Tokyo String Quartet, Martin Beaver, violin /viola and Clive Greensmith, cello.
Program: Zoltan Koday, Duo for violin and cello Op. 7 (Beaver/Greensmith)
Reinhold Gliere, String Sextet No. 3, Op. 11
Johannes Brahms, String Sextet No. 2, Op 36 in G
Co-produced with the Kitchener Waterloo Chamber Music Society (KWCMS). For tickets, please call 519-886-1673.
The Canadian University Music Society and QuartetFest present the Penderecki String Quartet with members of the Tokyo String Quartet performing Brahms’ Sextet No. 2 in G, Kodaly’s Duo for Violin and Cello, and Gliere’s String Sextet No. 3.
Reception to follow.
Partially funded by the host universities, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo.
PENDERECKI QUARTET is joined by Martin Beaver (Violin) and Clive Greensmith (Cello) of THE TOKYO QUARTET.
Together, they play two splendid sextets: Brahms no 2 in G, and Gliere, no. 3; and Kodaly Duo for violin and cello.
Tickets can be purchased at the door, at WordsWorth Books (100 King St South), or online (http://www.ticketscene.ca/kwcms)
More info at www.k-wcms.com
Presented by the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society in association with Wilfred Laurier University’s Faculty of Music
Tickets can be purchased at the door, at WordsWorth Books (100 King St South), or online (http://www.ticketscene.ca/kwcms)
More info at www.k-wcms.com
Presented by the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society in association with Wilfred Laurier University’s Faculty of Music
Queer Bathroom Monologues is a performed ethnography by Sheila Cavanagh. Giving life and form to the oral testimonials about homophobia and transphobia, the performance is inspired by interviews with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender interviewees about their experiences in public toilets. Queer Bathroom Monologues was the winner of the Audience Pick at the Toronto Fringe Festival in July 2011. Donations will be accepted at the door.
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