The GSA, in co-operation with the Graduate House, will be once again holding our Pub Lecture Series, sponsored by Beau's.
The GSA would like to welcome Dr. David Porreca as our first Pub Lecture Series this term. It will be taking place at the Grad House, October 23rd at 2pm. Details below:
Yardsticks of Decline, Yesterday and Today: How One Measures, and How One Experiences Civilizational Decline
Aims of this talk include:
- describe the various ways historians go about measuring the decline and fall of civilizations, with a particular focus on the Roman Empire, since it is both a direct cultural ancestor of our own society, and is also one of the ancient societies that resembles our own in many ways.
- highlight the role of widespread literacy, the widespread availability of high-quality mass-produced goods, and the levels of occupational specialization; from the perspective of changing levels of resource availability and the phenomenon of diminishing returns on the increases in societal complexity that seem to be the favoured problem-solving mechanism of human societies.
- illustrate how someone living through the various crises suffered by the Roman Empire would have experienced those events, and draw analogies to current events in our global civilization.
Please join us for a beverage and our first informal lecture at the Graduate House this term! Our next talk will be given by Dr. Ray Laflamme from IQC, November 6th at 4pm. Details to come!
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