International poetic inquiry symposium takes place in Charlottetown October 15 to 18
The second biannual International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry will be held in Charlottetown from October 15 to 18.
The three-day symposium, called 'Poetry as a Way of Knowing,' brings together international poets and scholars from different disciplines and countries. Over 35 presenters from the United Kingdom, Tasmania, Japan, United States and throughout Canada will explore the role of poetry in research. They will discuss the art of poetry as a literary genre and inquiry practice during academic sessions, presentations, poetry readings and informal discussions.
'We are excited that the symposium builds partnerships and brings together local and international poets, scholars and the community at large, in a vibrant gathering and celebration of poetic voices,' says ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï education professor Suzanne Thomas. She is co-chairing the symposium with Arda Cole of OISE at the University of Toronto.
Many of P.E.I.'s literary scholars and poets, including current poet laureate David Helwig, former poet laureate John Smith and Governor General Award winner Anne Compton, will be showcased with international poets and scholars, creating a culturally rich, international event.
The keynote speaker is Dr. Pete Hay, of the University of Tasmania's School of Geography and Environmental Studies. He has inspired a generation concerned with the preservation and protection of Tasmania as a unique place in the world. His poetry is informed by his academic work, his vast knowledge, his reflection on Tasmanian issues, and his deep sense of 'island' as place and as unique heritage. His political incisiveness and ability to explain his beliefs in accessible language make him one of Tasmania's most important writers and thinkers.
A poetry gala will be held on Friday, October 16, from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Haviland Club in Charlottetown. This event is open to the public, and admission is free.
The symposium is being co-hosted by the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï Centre for Education Research and the Centre for Arts-informed Research, OISE at the University of Toronto, in co-operation with the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï faculties of Arts and Education, Confederation Centre of the Arts, League of Canadian Poets, ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï Department of English, PEI Writers' Guild, Writers' Union of Canada, Canada Council for the Arts and Canadian Society for the Study of Education.
For detailed information about registration and the program, including the various venues where events will be held, please contact Christine Gordon Manley (cgmanley@upei.ca or (902) 566-6784), or visit the symposium's .
ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï introduces PhD in Educational Studies
As the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï continues to build its reputation for research excellence, it is also expanding its portfolio of graduate degree programs. ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï has just reached a significant milestone in graduate studies development with the introduction of a new PhD program in the Faculty of Education.
The degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Educational Studies is a new research degree requiring a dissertation on original and significant research within traditional educational and community-based educational contexts extending from early childhood through mature adulthood. It is the first doctoral program to be offered at ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï outside the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
'I am delighted to announce that our new doctoral program in Educational Studies will begin in September 2010,' says Dr. Tim Goddard, ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï Dean of Education. 'This high-quality thesis-oriented research degree will continue the intellectual growth of education graduates and foster the development of a vibrant extended educational research community in PEI and beyond.'
Acceptance into the new program will be highly competitive. ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï will accept just four doctoral students a year. They will be required to complete a full-time residency of three semesters at ºÚÁϳԹÏ. Students will typically complete their degrees within four years if they are enrolled full-time or within seven years on a part-time basis.
The announcement of the new PhD program coincides with the opening this fall of the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï Office of Graduate Studies and the appointment of Dr. Brian Wagner in the new position of Assistant Vice-President of Graduate Studies.
An information meeting about the PhD in Educational Studies and other education graduate programs will take place at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, November 10, in Room 305 of Memorial Hall at ºÚÁϳԹÏ, prior to the Faculty of Education's Open House at 6:30 p.m. The deadline for applications for the September, 2010 start-up is January 15, 2010. More information is available from Dr. Miles Turnbull, Co-ordinator of Graduate Studies for the Faculty of Education, at mturnbull@upei.ca or (902) 566-0341.
ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï public forum to launch Sustainability Week on October 19
To launch Sustainability Week on October 19, the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï Office of Sustainability and Energy Management is organizing a public forum about sustainability initiatives at post-secondary institutions in the Atlantic region. Speakers from six institutions will highlight their efforts and initiatives around sustainability.
Their presentations will be followed by a panel discussion on how institutions can work together to improve sustainability across the region. The forum is open to the public. It takes place in the MacKinnon Lecture Theatre, McDougall Hall, ºÚÁϳԹÏ, beginning at 7:00 p.m.
On October 20, at 6:00 p.m. in AVC Lecture Theatre A, the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï Graduate Students Association will host a movie night and discussion on water use and abuse. It will start with the award-winning film FLOW (For the Love of Water).
Students in residence at ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï are also developing an energy challenge initiative to encourage students on other campuses in the region to reduce energy consumption. This is being planned for January.
For more details on Sustainability Week activities at ºÚÁϳԹÏ, contact David Taylor at (902) 566-0673 or dctaylor@upei.ca.
Author Deirdre Kessler publishes first poetry book
What are afternoon horses? The phrase comes from a poem in Deirdre Kessler's poetry book, Afternoon Horses, which will be launched on Tuesday, October 20, at Beaconsfield's Carriage House, from 7 to 9 p.m.
Though Kessler has been writing poetry for more years than she has been writing fiction and nonfiction and has had poems published in chapbooks and in a number of collections and journals, Afternoon Horses is her first book of poetry. The book is published by Acorn Press.
"Deirdre Kessler enfolds us in her sense of wonder for friendship, for history, for the endless revelations of nature," writes poet and ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï professor Richard Lemm. "Fierceness and sadness also appear, when a desert is sown with land mines, when we slaughter other species. Yet, so much of life surprises with beauty, and our 'hands find the right places / in dark rooms or under
stars in middle of nowhere.' These are poems that find the right places, that surprise us with us joy."
Poet Laureate David Helwig writes: "Deirdre Kessler's Afternoon Horses...pays its homage to the bright images and shapely tales collected in travel. It goes abroad, but it also follows the vital rhythms of language inward. Then her lean, taut lines offer lessons in how to take flight while standing perfectly still."
Peter Hay, Taswegian poet and visiting scholar to ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï this fall, says: "Here is a poetry of quiet power, a poetry of deep, all-gathering compassion, a poetry that reaches out in love to all that swims and swarms upon the face of the earth."
Deirdre Kessler is the author of a dozen novels and picture books for children, including Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice Award-winning Brupp Rides Again, a children's novel, and Lobster in My Pocket, a perennially best-selling picture book. Her Island history book, a work that combines a fictional narrative with informational text, Exploring the Island, is now part of the P.E.I. grade six curriculum.
Kessler is recipient of the Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Literary Arts on Prince Edward Island and a P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation Writing Award for A Century on Spring Street. She has freelanced for CBC Television and Radio. Her poetry has appeared in several collections, including Landmarks: An Anthology of New Atlantic Canadian Poetry of the Land (Acorn 2001).
She lives in Charlottetown and teaches children's literature and creative writing with the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï Department of English.
Wondering what afternoon horses are? Come to Beaconsfield's Carriage House on Tuesday evening, October 20, 7 to 9 p.m., and all will be revealed. There will be a poetry reading, music, refreshments, book signing, and one terrible joke.
Journalist and novelist Linden MacIntyre gives reading at Confederation Centre on October 27
Linden MacIntyre, distinguished Canadian journalist, broadcaster and novelist, will read from his new novel, The Bishop's Man, on Tuesday, October 27, at 7:30 p.m., in Studio One at the Confederation Centre of the Arts.
His reading is sponsored by the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï Department of English and Confederation Centre Public Library, with support from The Canada Council for the Arts. A reception and book signing will follow, and admission is free.
MacIntyre has won nine Gemini Awards, an international Emmy, an ACTRA Award and numerous other honours for writing and journalistic excellence. Born in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, and raised in Port Hastings, Cape Breton, he began his career in 1964 with The Halifax Chronicle-Herald as a parliamentary bureau reporter. He joined the CBC in 1976. In 1990 he was appointed co-host of The Fifth Estate, with which he is still involved. For three decades, he has produced documentaries and stories from all over the world.
His first novel, The Long Stretch, was published in 1999, and his 2006 memoir, Causeway: A Passage from Innocence, won the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction and the Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-Fiction.
The Bishop's Man, short-listed for the 2009 Giller Prize for fiction, 'centres on a sensitive topic-the sexual abuses perpetrated by Catholic priests on the innocent children in their care. Father Duncan, the first person narrator, has been his bishop's dutiful enforcer, employed to check the excesses of priests and, crucially, to suppress the evidence. But as events veer out of control, he is forced into painful self-knowledge as family, community and friendship are torn apart under the strain of suspicion, obsession and guilt. A brave novel, conceived and written with impressive delicacy and understanding.' (Giller jury citation)
John Acorn, aka The Nature Nut, to speak at ºÚÁϳԹÏ
John Acorn, aka The Nature Nut, will share his passion for natural history and entomology during two presentations at the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï on Monday, October 26, in the KC Irving (KCI) Chemistry Centre.
Acorn will give a presentation called "It's natural to be a naturalist (and it pays too!)" at 1:30 p.m. in the KCI Wanda Wyatt Lecture Theatre (Room 104). And at 7 p.m. he will give another talk called "Life, Ladybugs, Nature Nuts and Nativeness," also in the KCI lecture theatre. Members of the public are welcome to attend both presentations.
'Introduced species are often seen as ‘alien invaders,'' says Acorn, 'and indeed some have done great harm after arriving in new places. This pattern, however, is not universal, and biologists are beginning to rethink the science we have called ‘invasion biology.'
Using examples from ladybugs and other animals, Acorn will explore this theme and ask questions about ideas such as nativeness, naturalness, and ecological integrity.
Born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1958, Acorn has been fascinated with animals his entire life. He is perhaps best known as the writer and host of the television series "Acorn, The Nature Nut," a family-oriented, how-to-be-a-naturalist show. He also hosted "Twits and Pishers," a travel show for bird watchers, and is the video host for the galleries of the Royal Tyrell Museum, where he has also served as a research associate.
Currently he teaches at the University of Alberta and travels widely as a public speaker. To date, he has written 17 books, including many well-received field guides.
Acorn is the recipient of NSERC's 2007 Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion, the University of Alberta's 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award, two 'Rosies' for best host from the Alberta Motion Picture Industry Awards, and two nominations for Canada's national television award, the Gemini. Both the Entomological Society of Alberta and the Canadian Society of Zoologists have also recognized his contributions to public education.
Acorn's presentations are sponsored by the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï Faculty of Science and the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï NSERC representative as part of National Science and Technology Week.
Light Up Papua New Guinea fundraiser November 7
Musicians Lennie Gallant, Richard Wood, Michelle Wright and friends will donate their performances in a concert on November 7 for , a project to honour Captain Nichola Goddard who was killed in 2006 in Afghanistan while serving with the Canadian Forces.
Nichola's parents, ºÚÁϳԹÏ's Dean of Education Tim Goddard and Sally Goddard, will attend the event. Nichola was born in Papua New Guinea when her parents were CUSO teachers there. The Light Up Papua New Guinea project brings solar lights to rural first aid posts and birthing centres in Papua New Guinea.
A dinner preceding the concert will feature a keynote address by CTV News journalist Lisa LaFlamme who was imbedded with Nichola's battalion in the weeks preceding her death. One of Canada's top journalists, LaFlamme regularly unravels complicated political events and national issues for viewers. She covered the inauguration of President Barack Obama in January 2009 and the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. In 2007 she examined two of the biggest legal cases in North America: the murder trial of Robert Pickton and the fraud trial of Conrad Black.
True to her hard news journalism roots, LaFlamme has made multiple trips to Iraq and Afghanistan to cover ongoing military activity. Outisde of broadcasting, she avidly supports Plan International, formerly known as Foster Parents Plan. Traveling to remote areas for the last several years, she highlights child poverty throughout the world.
The concert will begin at 8 p.m. at the Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre at ºÚÁϳԹÏ. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at
The dinner will start at 5 p.m. with a reception in the W.A. Murphy Centre's McMillan Hall at ºÚÁϳԹÏ. Tickets are $125 which includes dinner, the concert, commemorative t-shirt and a post-concert reception. Cheques can be made out and sent to Light Up Papua New Guinea, c/o 45 Parkside Drive, Charlottetown, PE, C1E 1N1. Call (902) 569-5665 to purchase dinner tickets or for further information.
Tickets for the dinner and the concert may also be purchased from Kate Graham, ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï Department of Education, at (902) 566-0731 or kegraham@upei.ca.
For further information, contact Sue Platts at suesue00118@hotmail.com or
RBC executive to give public talk at ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï October 29
Doug MacGregor, chairman and co-CEO of RBC Capital Markets, will give a public talk at the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï on Thursday, October 29, from 6 to 7:15 p.m.
MacGregor's talk, entitled Canada's Economy and Canadian Banks' Performance through the Financial Crisis and into the Recovery, will take place in the Alex H. MacKinnon Auditorium (Room 242), McDougall Hall.
He will review the impact of recent market events on the global and Canadian economies, and provide an outlook for select economic indicators.
As chairman and co-CEO of RBC Capital Markets, McGregor is responsible for driving client relationships, and managing the firm's investment banking, equity agency trading and credit businesses. He is also is a member of the Group Executive of RBC, and he heads RBC's North American real estate brokerage, financing, capital markets and advisory business. He holds an Honours BA (Business) and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario. He is currently chairman of the Board of Directors of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC).
'The School of Business is pleased to work with RBC to present this top-tier management speaker,' says Dr. Don Wagner, coordinator of ºÚÁϳԹÏ's executive-style MBA program. 'WE welcome members of the campus community and the general public to this event.'
This event is presented by and RBC Dominion Securities. Tours of McDougall Hall and a reception in Schurman Market Square will follow the lecture. For more information, please email Grace McCourt or call (902) 566-6474.
Author of City Wolves to speak at ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï November 3
Members of the public are invited to attend a talk called "Creating City Wolves ... From Dogs" by Canadian author Dorris Heffron on Tuesday, November 3, from 12:30-1:20 p.m., in the AVC Lecture Theatre D at ºÚÁϳԹÏ.
Heffron is the author of City Wolves, a novel that imagines the life of Canada's first female veterinarian, the Klondike gold rush, and the evolution of the dogs that would come to be known as Alaskan Malamutes.
A native of Noranda, Quebec, Heffron earned an Honours B.A., M.A. in Literature and Philosophy from Queen's University. While teaching in England from 1968 to 1980, she wrote three novels about teenagers that are considered pioneers in the genre of young adult fiction. The novels were translated and included in high school courses in Europe, Japan and Canada. She taught creative writing at the University of Malaysia, and wrote and taught in Holland, France and Cape Breton Island. She has served on the national council of The Writers' Union, the board of directors of PEN Canada, The Writers Trust of Canada, the Toronto Arts Council and the board of directors of the Native Men's Residence.
Heffron's talk is presented by the Chinook Project which brings essential veterinary care to isolated communities in the Canadian Arctic. The project was created by Jane Magrath, Associate Professor of English at ºÚÁϳԹÏ, and Lisa Miller, Professor of Pathology and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at AVC.
Each summer, four veterinary students in their final year of study and two AVC clinicians, along with essential equipment, go to a community in the Canadian Arctic where they give free veterinary treatment to animals, including spaying/castration, parasite control and vaccinations, and they educate the local population in animal care.
The project visited Kimmirut (Southern Baffin) in 2006 and 2008, Cambridge Bay (Western Arctic) in 2007, and Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay (Western Arctic) in 2009. In 2010 the project will go to Northern Labrador.
A Celebration of New Literary Voices at ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï on November 10
The Winter's Tales Author Reading Series will feature and celebrate 13 talented Island writers, most of them new voices, several of them familiar to Island audiences, at a public reading on Tuesday, November 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Building Faculty Lounge at ºÚÁϳԹÏ.
The writers are currently participating in a creative writing master class offered by the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï Department of English. They will give short readings from their work in progress. They are: Meaghan Blanchard, Lisa-Marie Brunnen, David (Lobie) Daughton, Orysia Dawydiak, Neil Fraser, Jeremy Gaudet, Laura Morrell, Amanda Morrison, Fiona Papps, Katie Rankin, Billy Rose Hannah Visser and Richard Snow.
The public is invited to hear tantalizing excerpts from fantasy and science fiction novels, one-act plays, poetry, memoirs, short fiction, novellas and novels. Admission is free. For more information, please contact the Department of English at (902) 566-0389.
