Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Mini Town Hall talks space tomorrow

Space will be the final frontier at the mini town hall meeting scheduled for tomorrow on the subject of Teaching, Learning and Community Space.

Among the speakers at the Strategic Plan town hall event will be Associate Provost, Students Chris Read, Associate Vice-President Academic Mario Coniglio, Director, Graduate Academic Services Sarah Hildebrandt, Graduate Student Association President Maya D'Allesio, and Federation of Students President Chris Lolas.

Each town hall offers attendees the opportunity to ask questions about Waterloo's strategic priorities, learn details of the action plans that support each strategic priority area, hear from expert advisors committed to building a better university, and deepen understanding of what the Strategic Plan means to the University community.

The event will take place from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in QNC 0101.

The mini town hall will be livestreamed.

More information is available on the Strategic Plan Town Hall page.

A Tale of Monstrous Extravagance

by Paisley Cozzarin

Award-winning playwright, author, and musician Tomson Highway will give a free public lecture at the Theatre of the Arts on Thursday September 24 at 2:00 p.m.

Highway is from the Barren Lands First Nation in Nunavut and much of his work draws from his experiences growing up in this multi-lingual community of Cree, Dene, French, and English, as well as his recent life as an international artist. Among other awards and distinctions, he is the recipient of the Order of Canada, the National Aboriginal Achievement Award, and is the holder of 10 honorary doctorates.

Famously born in a snow bank on the Manitoba/Nunavut border, Tomson Highway was the 11^th of 12 children in a family of nomadic caribou hunters. When he was just six years old, the Canadian government enrolled him at Guy Hill Residential School, where he stayed until he was 15. He later studied music and English literature at the University of Manitoba and the University of Western Ontario. Highway emerged as one of Canada’s foremost Indigenous voices as a gifted storyteller, performer, and musician. His best known works are his award winning plays, The Rez Sisters, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, Rose, Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout, and the critically acclaimed novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen.

Members of the University community are also invited to a special evening performance at the Registry Theatre in Kitchener. Accompanied by Peruvian/Canadian singer Patricia Cano and saxophonist Marcus Ali, Highway will perform a cabaret, derived from his recent musical theatre creation, The (Post) Mistress.  Tickets are only $20 and $15 for students.

For more details and tickets for the evening show visit the event website.

The Aboriginal Education Centre at St. Paul’s University and the Department of History are thrilled to bring this important Indigenous artist to Waterloo. These events are also sponsored by the Faculty of Arts, Silver Birch Projects, the Impact Theatre Festival, WPIRG, and LSPIRG.

Photograph by Sean Howard.

An undiluted talk about the origins of homeopathy

by Lori Straus

In mainstream media and scientific circles, homeopathy has earned the reputation as this century's figurative snake oil. It has left many people scratching their heads, wondering how such a system for healing ever came into being.

“Homeopathy as it’s practiced and commercialized today makes little sense without knowledge of 19^th-century Germany, when it first emerged,” says Alice Kuzniar, Professor of German and English. Homeopathy was created by German doctor Samuel Hahnemann around 1800. Culturally and historically, that falls into the German Romantic period, one of Kuzniar’s areas of research.

Professor Kuzniar will give a presentation based on her book The Romantic Art of Homeopathy on Friday, September 25 at 7:00 p.m. in HH1102 as part of the Waterloo Centre for German Studies’ annual Jacob-&-Wilhelm Grimm Lecture series.

“Judging homeopathy by our current medical and scientific standards doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look back to that period. Let me give you a couple of examples. If, as a scholar of that period, I can historically account for the claim that an infinitesimally diluted substance can heal, then it’s important for me to do so. Or, can I explain what scientific objectivity meant at the time?” says Kuzniar.

Professor Kuzniar will review numerous ways in which homeopathy is a product of its era. Referencing German philosophers, poets, physicists, and physicians from around 1800, she will look at the pervasive notion in Romantic science of a “vital life force” and how it informed homeopathy’s concepts of healing and the infinitesimal dose.

The talk is for anyone interested in mainstream or alternative medicine, general health, or European intellectual history. It is being presented in partnership with the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies. Visit the Waterloo Centre for German Studies site for more information.

Sessions, lectures, receptions and so on

The Centre for the Advancement of Co-operative Education (WatCACE) is hosting a seminar on co-operative education analytics featuring Yuheng Jiang, a graduate student in Management Sciences, today at 2:00 p.m. in TC 2218.

The talk will discuss two recent data-driven projects relating to co-operative education and will be livestreamed.

As part of Science Literacy Week across Canada, the University of Waterloo in partnership with the Kitchener Public Library is holding a timely public lecture discussing transportation with two leading researchers. The lecture, taking place today, is entitled "Transportation Solutions for the Future" and will be held at 7:00 p.m. at the Kitchener Public Library

Associate professor David Hawthorn of the Department of Physics and Astronomy will discuss the technology behind superconducting trains that are currently used in Japan and under development in several other countries. Associate professor Jeff Casello from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering will explore Waterloo's intricate solution regarding several different methods of transportation in our city.

As conversations on the topic continues to expand, these experts will explore Waterloo’s several methods of transportation, including the technology behind superconducting trains, and the implications that could arise from increasing the sophistication of transportation in our city.

The event is free, but please register to attend.

The University of Waterloo Retirees Association will be holding its annual fall reception on Wednesday, September 23 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the University Club. The reception's guest speaker is Vice-President, Academic & Provost Ian Orchard, and other invited guests include senior administrators, representatives from Human Resources, the faculty and staff associations' presidents, and the 2015 UWRA executive.

Complimentary cheese, cold canapés and hot hors d’oeuvres will be served.  All paid up members of the UWRA will receive two free tickets for “on-the-house” beverages (wine, beer, soft drinks). New and renewal annual memberships can be purchased at this event and you will then receive your complimentary bar tickets.  Annual membership is $12.00 or you can purchase a Lifetime Membership for $120.00.

Anyone with questions is invited to contact Sue Fraser, social events co-chair, at fraser@uwaterloo.ca.

The Pension Team from Human Resources will be offering a Lunch and Learn Pension session on Thursday, September 24 in RCH 101 from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. This session is entitled “Forms of Pension and Other Considerations”. 

The Registrar's Office has sent a message to undergraduate students reminding them that the last day to add classes for fall 2015 is Friday, September 25.