Media to mountains subjects for Vancouver Institute fall lecture series

Globe and Mail Editor-in-Chief William Thorsell and Stanford
University education expert Prof. Larry Cuban are among the speakers
participating in The Vancouver Institute fall lecture series at
the University of British Columbia which begins Sept. 20 and continues
until Dec. 6.

All but one of the free public lectures take place at 8:15 p.m.
in Lecture Hall 2 of the Woodward Instructional Resources Centre
at 2194 Health Sciences Mall. For more information call 822-4636
(UBC-INFO).

Sept. 20: William Thorsell, “Good News, Bad News: Power
in Canadian Media and Politics”

Thorsell was appointed editor-in-chief of the Globe and Mail
in 1989. Prior to that time, he engaged in a range of activities,
serving as head of protocol for Canada at Expo ’70 in Japan, co-founder
of a film production company, and editor of the Edmonton Journal.
He currently writes a regular column for the Globe and Mail
in addition to his editorial duties.

Sept. 27: Bruno Messerli, “Mountain Ecosystems: The Last
Frontier”

Messerli, former rector of the University of Bern, has established
an international reputation for the study of climate change and
environmental hazards associated with human occupation of mountain
areas. He has pursued research in the mountains of the Sahara, the
Alps, Himalayas, Andes and Mount Kenya and has acted as scientific
adviser to several major international environmental research programs.

Oct. 4: Anthony B. Atkinson, “Can Welfare States Compete
in a Global Economy?”

Atkinson, warden of Nuffield College, Oxford, has a keen interest
and concern for poverty, inequality and social policy, spending
much of his time advising governments, royal commissions and community
groups on matters of pressing social concern. He has served as president
of the International Economics Association and has published numerous
books including Economics of Inequality and Social Justice
and Public Policy
.

Oct. 18: Larry Cuban, “What Are Good Schools and Why
Are They So Hard to Get?”

Throughout his career, Cuban has been intimately involved in the
educational process at all levels, from teaching in urban ghetto
schools to acting as superintendent of the Arlington public school
system. Trained as a historian, he has been voted teacher of the
year six times at Stanford where he teaches in the Faculty of Education.

Oct. 25: Moura Quayle, “Urban Countryside; Rural Metropolis”

Quayle, a landscape architect and dean of Agricultural Sciences
at UBC, is deeply committed to the application of her disciplinary
training for community betterment. She has served as chair of the
Urban Landscape Taskforce for the City of Vancouver, and has won
several teaching, public service and professional awards. The focus
of much of her current research is on addressing the extraordinary
problems and challenges facing our urban and rural areas.

Nov. 1: Jonathan Dollimore, “From Homosexual to Bisexual:
Erotic Dissonance at the End of the Century”

Dollimore is considered one of the English-speaking world’s most
important and provocative scholars in both Renaissance and gay studies.
He is author of several seminal works, including Sexual Dissidence:
Augustine to Wilde, Freud to Foucault
. His work is characterized
by brilliance, clarity and political energy and, in many respects,
has revolutionized our view of both the history and politics of
sexuality and English Renaissance literature.

Nov. 8: David Kennedy, “Immigration: What the U.S. Can
Learn from Canada”

A native of Seattle, Kennedy has published widely in the areas
of American history, society and politics, including such works
as Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger;
A History of the Republic; and Power and Responsibility:
Case Studies in American Leadership
. Kennedy, a professor in
Stanford University’s Dept. of History, has served as visiting professor
at Oxford and advised PBS’s Boston station, WGBH, on its recent
television series, The American Experience.

Nov. 15: Harry Arthurs, OC, “Globalization and its Discontents”

Former dean of Law at Osgoode Hall and president of York University,
Arthurs has taught law at the University of Toronto, McGill, Cambridge,
Oxford and University College, London. He has served as arbitrator
and conciliator in numerous labour disputes, president of the Canadian
Civil Liberties Association, member of the Economic Council of Canada
and chair of the Ontario Council of Universities. A fellow of the
Royal Society of Canada, he has published extensively in the areas
of labour relations law, civil liberties, administrative law, legal
history and education.

Nov. 22: Bruce Pullan, “The Human Voice”

Pullan has served as president of the Vancouver Academy of Music
since 1993, and made several recordings as music director of the
Vancouver Bach Choir, a position he has held since 1985. From 1985-91,
he was chair of the Dept. of Music at Western Washington University.
He is co-author of the book The Management of Voice Disorders
and is considered an expert on the power and frailty of the human
voice.

Nov. 29: Heribert Adam, “Contradictions of Liberation:
Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in South Africa”

Adam joined Simon Fraser University in 1968. He has held fellowships
at Berkeley, Yale, the American University in Cairo and since 1987
lectures regularly at the University of Cape Town. He specializes
in the comparative analysis of ethno-nationalism, particularly in
South Africa. He is the author of Ethnic Power Mobilized
and co-author of South Africa Without Apartheid.

Dec. 6: Robert Silverman, “On Performing Beethoven” (pecial
Lecture and Concert at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts)

A native of Montreal, Silverman appeared in recital at the age
of five, and made his debut with the Montreal Symphony when he was
14. A professor of Music at UBC, he has performed throughout the
world with such renowned orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, the
BBC Symphony, the Sydney Symphony, the Boston Pops, and the St.
Petersburg Philharmonic. His discography numbers close to 20 albums.
His recording of Liszt’s piano music won a Grand Prix du Disque
from the Liszt Society of Hungary.

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