The festive season is upon us and researchers at the University of British Columbia are available to shed light on:
FEASTING, HEALTH, MERRYMAKING
Gwen Chapman, Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Tel:604.822.6874 (not available after Dec. 15)
Email: gwen.chapman@ubc.ca
- Food practices, social roles, meaning of festive food rituals
Kevin Allen, Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Tel: 604.822.4427
Email: kevin.allen@ubc.ca
- Food microbiology, food safety
- E. coli contamination, foodborne illnesses
Tamar Kafka, Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Tel: 604.827.5762
Email: tamar.kafka@ubc.ca
- Nutrition and healthy eating
- Holiday eating, including tips on how to avoid eating too much
MARKETING, CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
JoAndrea (Joey) Hoegg, Sauder School of Business
Tel: 604.827.4541
Email: joey.hoegg@sauder.ubc.ca
- What triggers our senses when we’re shopping?
- Impact of product design
Katherine White, Sauder School of Business
Tel: 604.827.3711
Email: katherine.white@sauder.ubc.ca
- Why fashionistas steer clear of copycats
- Consumer psychology – what makes us choose certain items
Darren Dahl, Sauder School of Business
Tel: 604.822.8346 (available starting Dec. 13)
Email: darren.dahl@sauder.ubc.ca
- Advertising, consumer behaviour, crowd sourcing
- Shoppers’ response to sales person’s flattery or similarity
Juliet Zhu, Sauder School of Business
Email: juliet.zhu@sauder.ubc.ca (currently in China so email is best method of contact)
- Effects of shopping environment, consumer psychology
- Impact of colours on brain, receptivity to advertising
SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE HOLIDAYS
Christopher Schneider, Sociology
Email: christopher.schneider@ubc.ca (best method of contact)
Web: http://www.chrisschneider.org/
- Social media do’s and don’ts for Christmas parties
- How social media is changing social expectations around global holidays and events
- The emerging phenomenon of “e-Grinches,” people who refuse to participate in virtual holiday cheer
CHRISTMAS TREES
Steve Mitchell, Faculty of Forestry
Tel: 604.822.4591
Email: stephen.mitchell@ubc.ca
Forestry Undergraduate Christmas Tree Farm: Cultivating Forest Stewardship at the UBC Farm
- Christmas trees in British Columbia
- UBC student-run Forestry Undergraduate Christmas Tree Farm
Sean Macalister, Faculty of Forestry alumnus
Tel: 604.438.6771
Email: sean@evergrow.ca
Website: http://evergrowchristmastrees.ca/
- Started EVERGROW Christmas Trees Company with UBC alumnus Jeff Ferguson – a business that rents live, potted Christmas trees and then picks them up after Christmas and plants them so they can be used again the following year, offering consumers a sustainable Christmas tree solution.
CHRISTIANITY AND CHRISTMAS
John Stackhouse Jr.
Regent College at UBC
Email: jgs@regent-college.edu
- Is “Buy Nothing Christmas” a Christian idea, or an anti-Christian one?
- Should Christmas be a statutory holiday?
- What does Santa Claus have to do with Jesus?
- Why is actually the true meaning of Christmas?
- Why do the birth narratives in the Gospels not agree with each other? The Nativity and questions like: did the shepherds and wise men arriving on the same night?
TRAVEL
David Gillen, Sauder School of Business
Tel: 604. 822.8352 (NOT available Dec. 14 – 21)
Email: david.gillen@sauder.ubc.ca
- Travel trips and risk planning for holiday travel, i.e. choose flights that depart from hub airports
WORKPLACE DYNAMICS
Karl Aquino, Sauder School of Business
Tel: 604.822.8378 or 604.786.9384
Email: karl.aquino@sauder.ubc.ca
- Awkward Christmas office parties? What are some of the dynamics with coworkers vis a vis domination, envy, isolation?
- Stories about uncommon acts of goodness make good people even better