UBC Psychology Prof. Stanley Coren, whose insights into the canine
psyche have made his book on the topic a best-seller, Nobel Prize-winning
physicist Martin Perl, and Governor General and Pulitzer Prize-winning
author Carol Shields are among those speaking in the Vancouver Institute
spring lecture series at UBC, Jan. 31 to April 4.
These free public lectures, which mark the institute’s 82nd year,
take place at 8:15 p.m. in Lecture Hall 2 of the Woodward Instructional
Resources Centre. For more information call (604) UBC-INFO (822-4636).
Jan. 31: David Baines, “Lambs to the Slaughter: the VSE
and the Exploitation of Speculation”
Baines is a Vancouver Sun reporter and columnist. He has
earned national attention for his investigative pieces about the
Vancouver Stock Exchange and numerous awards for his business reporting,
including the National Newspaper Award, the B.C. Newspaper Award,
the Jack Webster Award and National Magazine Award.
Feb. 7: Wayson Choy, “The Importance of Story: the Hunger
for Personal Narrative”
Winner of numerous awards for his work, Vancouver-born Wayson Choy
is now writing the sequel to his best-selling book, The Jade
Peony. He volunteers for various community literacy projects
and AIDS groups. Since 1967, he has been a professor at Humber College
and a faculty member of the Humber School for Writers.
Feb. 14: Richard White, “History as the Enemy of Memory:
an Anatomy of Remembering”
White, a University of Washington history professor, has written
acclaimed historical studies of the Columbia River and the American
West, among others. His latest book, Remembering Ahanagran,
revolves around stories told to him by his mother of her girlhood
in Ireland, her emigration to the United States, and her life in
Chicago.
Feb. 28: Michael Church, “A River in Time: the Natural
History of the Fraser River”
A UBC geography professor since 1969, Church has studied some of
the world’s greatest rivers, including the Mackenzie, Peace and
Fraser. He is an expert on the interface between forestry and aquatic
habitats, and issues of resource management.
March 7: Kal Holsti, “War in the 20th Century: Can We
Do Better in the 21st?”
UBC Political Science Prof. Kal Holsti’s most recent book is The
State, War, and the State of War. The former president of the
International and Canadian Political Science Associations, Holsti’s
research interests lie in the areas of underdevelopment, international
relations and strategic theory.
March 14: Martin Perl, “What Einstein Couldn’t Have Known:
Very Small Particles at Very High Densities”
Einstein’s 117th birthday is a fitting occasion for a talk by an
eminent, engaging speaker who is involved in the search to find
what lies at the heart of matter. Stanford University Prof. Martin
Perl won a Nobel Prize in 1995 for his discovery of the “taon,”
a very massive relative of the electron and a key piece for our
present understanding of nature’s basic building blocks.
March 21: Angeliki E. Laiou, “Two Versions of Christian
Warfare: the Crusades and the Byzantine Empire”
A distinguished historian of medieval Byzantium, Laiou writes on
the remarkable complexity of this empire, including its heterogeneous
ethnic composition, economy, the condition and status of women at
all levels of society, and the power of ceremony and ritual in religious
and political life.
March 28: Stanley Coren, “Dogs and People: the History
and Psychology of a Relationship”
UBC psychologist Stanley Coren is author of a number of best-selling
books dealing with psychological topics, including Sleep Thieves
and The Left-hander Syndrome. His book on dog behaviour,
The Intelligence of Dogs, went into 18 printings in hardcover
and has been translated into 16 languages. His recent books include
What Do Dogs Know and Why We Love the Dogs We Love
which will be released in June.
April 4: Carol Shields, “Making Words / Finding Stories”
Pulitzer Prize and Governor General’s Award-winning author Carol
Shields is perhaps best known for The Stone Diaries. A novelist,
poet and playwright, Shields is also chancellor of the University
of Winnipeg and a professor at the University of Manitoba. Her books
include The Republic of Love, Coming to Canada, Thirteen
Hands, and the recently published Larry’s Party.
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