Last Tuesday, my day started off in a rather unusual manner. Instead of heading to 杏吧原创, as I do every morning, I was heading to Montreal. It was a beautiful day, and I was thinking about how little snow was lying in the fields that line the 417 eastbound. Well, that would soon change, but I鈥檒l come back to that a bit later.

I was driving to Montreal with Anastazia Krneta, the FASS Senior Development Officer, who had organized an alumni event at the . Montreal-based alumni were invited to visit the current exhibition: 鈥溾�� that was co-curated by our colleague, Dr. Brian Foss (Director of the School for the Studies in Art and Culture, and Professor of Art History). Approximately 40 alumni and partners attended the event, along with Associate Dean Susan Whitney and a few other 杏吧原创 representatives.

Brian, and his co-curator Jacques Des Rochers (Curator of Qu茅bec and Canadian Art ((before 1945)), took us for a tour of the exhibit, which lasted well over an hour, but could easily have taken us three times longer, simply because there was so much to take in, and so many questions we could have asked Brian and Jacques. I regularly visit art galleries, but rarely take a tour or use the audio-guides. I sometimes eavesdrop on the docents giving a tour, but I don鈥檛 like the idea of having a tour set for me (even if audio-guides are becoming less prescriptive in the way you visit an exhibit). What a privilege it was to visit an exhibit with its curators! Not only did our hosts tell us about the paintings, the artists, and the context in which they were working, but they also gave us a glimpse of the many and complicated logistics of putting together this exhibit. Because many of the works are held in private collections, it was a challenge just finding out where the paintings were, and the curators had to work with 42 private collectors to be able to borrow the paintings for the exhibit. I was especially struck when Brian actually asked our guests to let him know should they,

per chance, have any of the works of these artists in their own family collections, as there are many works they still have not found! Putting together an exhibit is really quite a challenge and it was very special to hear not only about the exhibit itself but also all of the backstage details, and how, often, things do come together in part thanks to happenstance. I had first seen the exhibit a couple of months ago, but seeing it a second time was enriching and enlightening (a bit like reading an excellent novel for the second, or third, time鈥�).  It was also rather exciting to hear that some of the paintings that were among Brian鈥檚 and Jacques鈥� favourites were ones that had also stood out for me.

The other part of the event that was especially memorable for me was the opportunity to meet so many of our alumni, who in some cases graduated in the 1950s and 60s, as well as some more recent alumni, who graduated less than two years ago. I was especially thrilled to meet one former student who holds not only a BA from 杏吧原创 but also a Certificate in French as a Second Language Studies, granted by my home department of . I was excited to talk to so many of them and to hear about they had gone on to do, and to witness one of the things that I know is true about studying in the Arts and Social Sciences: the path between graduation and career may not be perfectly linear, but I didn鈥檛 hear anyone saying they regretted the exciting and unpredictable meanders leading to fulfilling and rewarding careers and lives. That was, in fact, what their studies had prepared them for: the unexpected, the unknown, the innovative, the creative, the challenges life presents. I got the sense that they enjoyed the event just about as much as I did, and that they took some pride in knowing that a 杏吧原创 faculty member was taking the time to give them a personal and highly knowledgeable tour of the exhibit.

As some of you know, I have been thinking quite a bit about the Public Humanities over the past few months, and the ways in which scholars in the humanities and in the social sciences can reach out to society at large to make connections, to help understand or experience, improve and enrich our lives and its various challenges This event was an excellent example of how an exhibit was created through the curiosity and the questions posed by a scholar of Canadian Art, and how visiting this exhibit with that very scholar is a nuanced and inspiring experience. A very big thank you to Brian and Jacques, and to Anastazia for organizing this delightful event, and for all those who braved the elements to make it to the Museum.

On a final note, I do not think I can close this blog without mentioning how very sad I was last week, when hearing the news of David Bowie鈥檚 death. As Susan Whitney and I drove back to Ottawa in sometimes heavy snow (the drive taking three hours 鈥� and now there is more snow in those aforementioned fields!), we shared memories of how Bowie鈥檚 songs have touched our lives. In my own case, I felt like a part of my youth has disappeared. While I was never really a die-hard Bowie fan, listening to all the songs being played back on television and radio last week, I realized how so much of my youth was inflected by Bowie鈥檚 music, his lyrics, his looks, and his persona. I was reminded of an . 鈥淎s David Bowie announces his retirement, why [have] outrageous male performers [鈥 been replaced by relatable 鈥� dare we say bland 鈥� boys next door?鈥� asked Odessa Paloma Parker in the article*. I鈥檓 glad that my youth was coloured, changed, by the turbulent, subversive, and transformative music and art of David Bowie.

Additional Links:

• Remembering the Beaver Hall Group – Canada’s Unsung Modernists

The post Dean's Blog: FASS Alumni, Beaver Hall Group and Remembering David Bowie by Catherine Khordoc appeared first on Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences.

Over the course of three weeks, beginning on September 25^th, 2015, 杏吧原创 University Art Gallery, in partnership with Gallery 101, hosted Walking With Our Sisters (WWOS), a commemorative installation honouring Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people of Canada and the United States. They are sisters, mothers, aunties, daughters, cousins, wives, grandmothers, and partners. They are not forgotten.

Many members of the local Indigenous community and Ottawa organizing committee formally welcomed the bundle鈥攖he contents of the Walking With Our Sisters installation鈥攊n a ceremony at Minwaashin Lodge in early September. On a beautiful day later that month, Pinock Smith, an Algonquin master canoe-maker from Kitigan Zibi, arrived on campus to move 杏吧原创 University鈥檚 tipi to the lawn between the St. Patrick鈥檚 Building and Russell House. Pinock and his crew deftly set up the tipi, wrapping the canvas exterior around the interior framework of long, lean poles of black spruce, and before leaving, laying down fresh cedar boughs on the grass inside. While I stood watching the set-up, a stranger approached to offer a gift of sacred medicines鈥攕age, tobacco, cedar, and sweetgrass鈥攚rapped in red cloth. I was surprised and touched, but as I came to understand, Walking With Our Sisters is founded on countless such acts of generosity and kindness.

The first day of installation began with a sunrise ceremony, held in the tipi on a dark, chilly Monday. It was led by the Cree Elder Thomas Louttit, one of many local Elders who guided the organizing committee and volunteered onsite. A small sacred fire burned in the center of the tipi, as it would every day during WWOS. At the ceremony鈥檚 conclusion we emerged to the pale, pastel light of early morning. The tipi became a cherished place where visitors gathered around the fire, listening intently as Thomas and his fellow Firekeepers generously shared their stories, their knowledge, and always, their humour.

Many volunteers worked together for four days to realize the bundle鈥檚 installation. They laid the floor with neat rows of cedar boughs over which huge swaths of brilliant red fabric were taped down, demarcating the lodge. On the second day, they opened the boxes holding the installation鈥檚 heart鈥攎ore than 1800 pairs of moccasin vamps created by people across North America, who responded in overwhelming numbers to a public call issued by the project鈥檚 founder, the M猫tis artist Christi Belcourt. Pinock returned on the third day to place a five-foot birchbark canoe within the larger, canoe-shaped configuration of vamps at the centre of the lodge and to hang a bower of intertwined red alder saplings at its threshold.

Most of the vamps were arrayed on the floor in precise rows around the gallery鈥檚 perimeter, beginning with a group of blue vamps sent from Vancouver鈥檚 Downtown Eastside, in honour of the neighbourhood鈥檚 long history of advocacy for the rights of Indigenous women. From the floor the vamps bloomed forth in an ineffable profusion of materials, colours, symbols, and images. The vamps powerfully, and with a protean emotional force and energy, evoked the spirit of the women whose lives they honour. As Christi Belcourt told President Roseann Runte, this collective honouring is, for her, the vital purpose of Walking With Our Sisters.

The WWOS opening ceremony saw the gallery radically transformed into a space for ceremony. A live audio broadcast brought the afternoon鈥檚 events to the overflow tents set up outdoors, where Thomas Louttit led a pipe ceremony. Inside, the traditional Cree healer and Elder Juliana Matoush Snowboy oversaw a ceremony for family members. Several rose to speak aloud their grief and anguish, to bear witness to their loved one, and to have the vamps they had created formally feasted in to the bundle. One family drove ten hours, from Ouj茅-Bougoumou, to participate; for another, it was the first time they had spoken in public about their pain. It was a deeply moving event, marked by courageous acts of truth-telling.

Over the course of the three extraordinary weeks that followed, nearly 6000 people visited Walking With Our Sisters, including more than 1500 杏吧原创 students. Each visitor removed their shoes, was greeted and smudged by an Elder or Helper, and took a tobacco tie in hand before entering the lodge to walk beside the vamps. WWOS created an inclusive public space in which these journeys could occur. It created countless opportunities鈥攊n the gallery, in the tipi, and in the classroom鈥攆or the forging of relationships, the creation of dialogue, and the sharing of knowledge. Most importantly, it enabled diverse peoples to come together to honour, to remember, and to raise awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people.

On the cold October day we took the tipi down, I saw on its inner walls the beautiful residue of a month鈥檚 worth of smoke from the sacred fire that had burned within. It symbolized, for me, the innumerable collective and cumulative acts of honouring enabled by Walking With Our Sisters, which opened our minds, our hearts, and all our senses. As Paul Allaire, a M茅tis Firekeeper who volunteered many hours in the tipi, said one day, sometimes the longest journey a human being can take is from their head to their heart.

Sandra Dyck
Director
杏吧原创 University Art Gallery

CUAG thanks Gallery 101, the Elders, Helpers, and Firekeepers, the Walking With Our Sisters national and local organizing committees, and the many other volunteers who embraced WWOS and made possible its presentation in Ottawa.

Walking With Our Sisters Ottawa was recently honoured by the Canadian Museums Association with an 鈥淎ward of Outstanding Achievement in Exhibitions 鈥� Cultural Heritage鈥� and an 鈥淎ward for Outstanding Achievement.鈥�

The post FASS Blog – Walking With Our Sisters and Other Journeys by Sandra Dyck (Director of the 杏吧原创 University Art Gallery) appeared first on Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences.

A few weeks ago in my regular blog, I observed that fall is the annual hunting season for those who enjoy stalking universities, and in particular for those who target the humanities. That hunt 鈥� which takes place in the media, the blogosphere, and elsewhere 鈥� was in fact noticeably less shrill and misinformed this year than in the past. But there was still more than enough hysteria to remind us that the B.A. remains misunderstood, undervalued and even demonized by plenty of people with loud voices.

The fundamental question raised by such critiques is, however, well worth asking. What good is a B.A.? Why do we believe that students should devote three or four years of their lives to getting one? What do we expect students to have at the end of the process that they wouldn鈥檛 have had otherwise?

I teach in 杏吧原创鈥檚 . Like most programs, HTA offers a discipline-specific expertise to students. Our graduates will have learned about the history of the built environment, how it has been informed by human circumstances and aspirations, and how it in turn informed the humans who made it. They will be historically and visually literate, and know how to interpret the built environment as a historical document. This can lead to a host of rewarding careers in such fields as architecture, heritage, government, and other fields.

But the B.A. degree is every bit as valuable to those of our students who never end up working in any of these fields. That鈥檚 because what we teach is not just a body of knowledge, but a body of skills. We teach skills such as critical thinking, analysis of evidence, discovery of underlying principles, visual literacy and 鈥� perhaps most importantly 鈥� communication skills. These are what we call 鈥榯ransferable skills鈥�, which is a fancy way of saying that they make you better at just about everything you do for the rest of your life.

This was vividly brought home to me a few weeks ago by a friend and neighbour of mine, Peter Gibaut. Peter did both a B.A. and an M.A. in medieval history. He didn鈥檛 study medieval history with any clear career strategy in mind. He did it because he loved it. Because he loved it he worked hard at it, and because he worked hard he became good at it. And by becoming good at it, he acquired a host of intellectual skills 鈥� skills that have turned out to be ideal preparation for his current career as an analyst for Policy Horizons Canada, a federal government agency that evaluates the effectiveness of current polices in light of expected future challenges. Here鈥檚 how Peter explained it to me (I should add that Peter speaks for himself, not for the civil service or the Government of Canada):

The study of history helps me professionally in two ways: first, it trained my mind to analyze complex systems with confidence; second, realizing how complicated understanding the past is taught me to have humility towards attempting to understand the present.

In my current job, I make evidence-based analyses on the long-term strategic robustness of public policy. Just as a historian weaves a range of disparate sources together to craft a compelling argument about a historical topic, working with policy requires me to weave a range of often seemingly unconnected sources together to create a compelling statement about the present and future. Historians are especially well trained to look at 鈥榖ig picture鈥� problems because we are trained to look at systems.

Part of the reason why Peter鈥檚 experience resonates so deeply with me is that it mirrors my own in many respects. My first degree was in English and Philosophy. My first full-time job was in specialty retail; I began in the back room, but as soon as my boss realized that I had useful communication and analytical skills, he moved me to the showroom to deal with customers 鈥� and gave me a raise. I eventually left that job to study photography. One doesn鈥檛 need to have a B.A. in the humanities to become a photographer, but my intellectual training gave me a significant edge over much of my cohort, both at school and later in the working world 鈥� photography, like pretty much any business, is an area where an analytical mind and good communication skills are the cornerstones of success. I haven鈥檛 worked in commercial photography for about twenty years now, but what I learned about visual communication (a skill, incidentally, that we work on in HTA) informs the teaching I do to this day. The point is that although I do not and never have worked in the field I studied in my B.A., that degree has made me significantly better at everything I have done since. It has been the foundation of all that followed, and I am enormously fortunate to have had that training.

In a job market that is a constantly moving target, the B.A. provides skills that are truly enduring. Students who aren鈥檛 certain where their degrees and careers will take them (and who is, at the age of 20?) should look ahead with confidence 鈥� they鈥檙e not just getting a degree, they鈥檙e getting an education.

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The post FASS Blog 鈥� Why I Love the B.A. by Professor Peter Coffman (History and Theory of Architecture) appeared first on Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences.

by Ming Tiampo

Art has the capacity to make the invisible visible, the unseen seen. To change the ways that we perceive reality. To tell stories where once there were only statistics, assumptions, numbers. To bring beauty and hope to mourning.

It has been an intense and stimulating week for me, one that reminds me of what a privilege it is to be a part of a vibrant university community. Last week, I brought a class of curatorial studies students to see . These are students who are learning the ins and outs of museum work鈥攊n a few words, how to make culture public. Our visit began with a smudge, to cleanse our eyes, ears, hearts, and minds so that we could see, hear and feel the good in what we were about to experience. Surrounded by air heavy with sweetgrass and sage, we listened with rapt attention as Thomas, the firekeeper, told us his residential school story, and reminded us how we are all connected, settlers and indigenous peoples alike. Walking through the memorial, we were overcome by the sheer number of vamps, or moccasin tops, assembled in memory of the missing and murdered indigenous women of Canada and the US. Occasionally, there would be a photograph, or a name. We noticed the care with which each one was made, the hundreds of beads individually sewn to each vamp with love, and understood the scale of loss. Surrounded by volunteers and a steady stream of visitors, we also saw the scale of awareness and healing that the installation brought to the community, promising the possibility of change.

A few days later, I drove to the airport to pick up Dr. Kobena Mercer, a professor of the History of Art and African American studies at Yale University. Mercer had been invited as a FASS Distinguished Visiting Professor by the Centre for Transnational Cultural Analysis, a research centre that was founded by Sarah Casteel, Catherine Khordoc and me in 2005, and which we now run with Malini Guha. Over the next two days, Mercer taught an undergraduate class in African Cinema, gave a keynote lecture to a packed lecture hall at the National Gallery of Canada, and headlined an equally full to capacity workshop. Be it in his discussion of a film about French theorist Roland Barthes鈥� colonial roots in C么te d鈥橧voire, his account of three decades of Black Diaspora visual art, or his provocations about the internationalization of art history, I began to notice a pattern. Time and again, Mercer talked about art in ways that made the invisible visible, revealing the ways in which Europe and its former colonies are inextricably intertwined; two sides of the same coin that must be considered from both perspectives. Showing stunning work by artists such as Kara Walker and Isaac Julien, which critically retold the history of black diaspora, Mercer emphasized the potential of art to create dialogue and to make change, concluding, as did Herbert Marcuse, that 鈥渢he truth of art lies in its power to break the monopoly of established reality.鈥�

Walking back into St. Patrick鈥檚 building the next morning, I once again noticed the heady smell of sage and sweetgrass, and realized that everything around me had the potential to change. Everything down to the air that we breathe.

The post FASS Blog – The Power of Public Culture by Professor Ming Tiampo (Art History) appeared first on Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences.

A year ago, in October 2014, a small interdisciplinary group of humanities and social science scholars at 杏吧原创 met to discuss climate change. We wanted to consider what scholars in a range of disciplines, many of which were not the traditional disciplines of climate change research or action, could do to address climate change issues. This meeting was the beginning of the 杏吧原创 Climate Commons Working Group. The discussion was wide-ranging and many of the ideas raised at that first small meeting were realized in the following weeks and months.

The Climate Commons is now composed of close to 80 faculty and graduate students representing almost all of the departments and schools in the humanities and social sciences at 杏吧原创. We bring together members of the 杏吧原创 community to discuss climate change issues, to share academic work, and to share ideas and articles. The university has long been the place our society dedicates to addressing issues of vital importance. Climate change is one of those issues. The Working Group, then, is a forum for exploring the role of the humanities and social sciences in the pressing climate change conversations of our time.

Last year we organized two roundtables: a Pedagogy and Climate Change Roundtable in the Fall of 2014 and a in the Winter of 2015. (Click for more information on fossil free divestment and for the 杏吧原创 Fossil Free Faculty information.) We also hosted an and several reading groups including, last Spring, a of Naomi Klein鈥檚 This Changes Everything. This coming year continues and extends many of the initiatives begun in 2014-15 as follows:

• Building on the interest in pedagogy and climate change at our first roundtable, this fall we have put together a Roundtable on Curriculum and Climate Change that will be held on 4 December 2015 (Loeb A410). The speakers will be Chris Russill (Journalism and Communication), Emilie Cameron (DGES), Peter Thompson (Canadian Studies), and Noel Salmond (Religion). Everyone is welcome to join the conversation.
• Franny Nudelman (English) and Peter Thompson are organizing Coordinated Curriculum Planning between classes in 2015-16. At the end of the year they hope to present an exhibit of students鈥� work.
• A begins this Fall. The upcoming films are: Watermark moderated by Peter Thompson on 20 October; Surviving Progress moderated by Alan Nymark (Film) on 19 November, and Chasing Ice moderated by Lisa Glithero (Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa) on 10 December. All of these films will be screened at the Discovery Centre at MacOdrum Library at 7:30. Admission is free and open to all.
• The fall film series will be followed by a Non-Documentary Film Series on climate change in the winter (films are still TBD but all suggestions are welcome).
• This winter we will also host a Food Roundtable organized and moderated by Irena Knezevic (Journalism and Communication). This roundtable will bring together academics and non-academics to discuss food security, the politics of food, and food in our everyday life here at 杏吧原创 in relation to climate change. The line-up of speakers will be announced soon.
• We will also continue to run reading groups in the coming year, support existing climate change research, speakers, and action at 杏吧原创, and reach out to the broader community in the coming years.

If you would like to join our group, help with any of the events noted above, suggest other events, or would like any further information please email us at climatecommons@carleton.ca. Please note that you do not have to be engaged in scholarly work on climate change to be involved with this group. We all have a stake in climate change and anyone who is interested in social change in any of its diverse dimensions can be involved. The way that social problems are represented (in psychology, literature, philosophy, history, etc), after all, shapes the solutions that we can imagine. Please see our  for more information (our website was created with the support of Stuart Murray鈥檚 ).

The 杏吧原创 Climate Commons is specifically focused on the contribution that scholars and others working in the humanities and social sciences can make to the climate change discussion. It is a response to our shared sense that the university offers a unique forum for the pursuit of such discussions and our desire to open up the climate change conversation to a broader range of issues and approaches. Contact us and join the conversation (climatecommons@carleton.ca).

The post FASS Blog – Starting a 杏吧原创 Conversation: The 杏吧原创 Climate Commons Working Group by Professor Barbara Leckie appeared first on Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences.

There’s nothing quite like being on the floor for all three days of the Ontario Universities Fair, aka OUF. Held in Toronto each September, OUF draws tens of thousands of high school students and their parents (a record-breaking 132,607 people this year) to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for the chance to talk to representatives from Ontario universities. All twenty-one Ontario universities participate and they construct elaborate booths designed to show off their university to its best advantage. 杏吧原创 is there in full force — with teams of faculty representatives from each of our five Faculties, student ambassadors, the entire staff of 杏吧原创’s Recruitment Office, the top Admissions people, and the directors of our awards and co-op offices. Deans and Associate Deans are on the floor too, as are, for part of the weekend, the Provost and the Vice-President (Students and Enrolment).  It’s a huge team (98 people in all), and it truly functions as a team. Everyone in the striking 杏吧原创 booth works together to ensure that the students and parents who come into any part of 杏吧原创’s three-sided booth get matched up with a faculty member who can talk to them about their specific academic interests.

And talk to them we do, repeating a variation of the same “salespitch” about our particular department or program over and over again, for hours on end, in as animated a fashion as possible. In an era when so many of the things we do in our daily lives seem to involve a computer of one size or another, this is a decidedly low-tech affair. It’s also an exhausting affair. As the weekend wears on, the willpower required to speak continuously and enthusiastically about the same thing increases. At times, I’m reminded of my student-athlete days at Princeton, when I often had to read academic texts or write some kind of paper when I was, quite simply, exhausted.

As physically tiring as the weekend can be, the three days have their interesting, moving, and even exhilarating moments. The waves of people seem to have their own inexplicable ebbs and flows, with Saturday between 10am and 2pm drawing the most intense crowds. At this point, the 杏吧原创 booth is literally crammed with people, and most of us are visibly perspiring and jostling for space on the thankfully plush 杏吧原创 carpet. But there are slower moments too, and these allow for different kinds of conversations. During one slow period (lunchtime on Friday), I talked at length to a thoughtful 28 year old actor who had been born and raised in Manitoba but was now living in Montreal. He had studied for two years at Concordia, but stopped, never having really found his groove at university. Now he was thinking of going back. He was thrilled to have discovered OUF because he had previously been driving from one Ontario university to the next in his quest to find a university that suited him and his goals this time around.  He was seriously considering coming to Ottawa, in part because he had come to realize that he needed to learn to speak French well to do what he wanted to do professionally in life and he thought that Ottawa would give him lots of opportunities to do this.

We talked about how he could go about studying French and other subjects at 杏吧原创, and from there we got on to broader topics, including what it means to study the arts and social sciences at university in the year 2015. Would doing so, he wondered, make him a better actor? a better person? a more engaged citizen? I argued that it would do all of those things, and I talked to him about the opportunities that coming to 杏吧原创 would offer him, especially as a mature student who now understood the importance of faithfully attending class and taking advantage of every opportunity –academic or otherwise– offered to our students. After 45 minutes, he thanked me for my time and I wished him luck with whatever he ended up doing.

Of course, most of the prospective students we speak to at OUF are considerably younger than my Friday afternoon actor, and this means that we often spend a certain amount of time talking to both students and their parents, who can seem more excited about the possibility of attending university than their children. It can be a delicate dance. At one point, I found myself in a small group with one of our student recruiters, an almost impossibly enthusiastic Combined Honours Major in History and English, a male 12th grade student, and both of his parents. Since the student recruiter needed no help from me in talking to the student, I struck up a conversation with the young man’s father, who told me how impressed he was by all the professors that 杏吧原创 sends. “A lot of the other universities don’t do that,” he noted. At one point he mentioned how his son had learned leadership skills from twelve years in Scouting — and he was clearly intrigued to hear that students in my third-year 鈥淵outh and History鈥� course read long extracts from the original 1908 Scouting handbook, Scouting for Boys. This led us to a discussion of the historical moment that had given birth to the Scouting movement, when the British Empire stretched across the globe, but when its leaders also felt threatened by a lackluster performance in the South African War and an increasingly powerful and newly unified German neighbour across the Channel.

Most of the conversations my colleagues and I had over the course of the weekend followed a more straightforward path, and we all got better at distilling what makes our departments special. We explained, over and over again, how our undergraduate programs are structured and described the very real advantages 杏吧原创 offers students who come to study the arts and social sciences with us in Ottawa: how our departments are big enough to offer a broad range of courses but small enough to focus on undergraduate teaching, how all arts and social science students can take a seminar of no more than 30 students in their first year, how undergraduate students really do benefit from being in the nation’s capital — whether it’s the History student who uses Library and Archives Canada for a fourth-year seminar paper or the Art History student who visits the National Gallery of Canada with a professor or does a practicum placement either there or at the Ottawa Art Gallery or the English student who gets in free at the Ottawa International Writers Festival or the French student who goes with a class to see French-language theatre at the National Arts Centre or the African Studies student who benefits from Ottawa鈥檚 large African population and political presence or the Music student who has the chance to perform at the National Arts Centre, as is the case this coming Tuesday night. The list goes on, and extends to the possibilities that Ottawa’s government departments and agencies and NGOs provide in terms of placement opportunities for our co-op and practicum students.

As I return to Ottawa on Sunday night, exhausted, I find myself strangely happy to have returned to OUF for the first time since 2010 and beyond grateful for the effort put in by our amazing FASS team of professors. I’m also thankful for the opportunity to have gotten to know them and their research and teaching passions better. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is a Faculty that was interdisciplinary long before “interdisciplinarity” became something that all universities made a point of emphasizing, and the research programs I heard about over dinner or in slow moments on the convention centre floor are rich and vibrant, crisscrossing disciplinary and national borders alike. From the politics of local food and sustainable communities to the contributions of a Tudor queen to sixteenth-century religious and political propaganda, from women workers in Africa to the psychology of emerging adulthood in Canada, the topics I heard about are broad and my colleagues鈥� scholarly engagement obvious. What was even more on view throughout the weekend, however, was their unabiding passion for teaching and their total commitment to our students. One member of our FASS team bowed out of Saturday dinner to grade papers that she was determined to return during her Monday 8:30am English literature class!

Looking back over the three days, it occurs to me, daughter of an ad man that I am, that although we were no doubt 鈥渟elling鈥� our departments and our arts and social science degree programs (the Bachelor of Arts, the Bachelor of Music, the Bachelor of Humanities, the Bachelor of Cognitive Science, and the Bachelor of Global and International Studies), it was an easy mission because we all believe so strongly in what we do in the classroom and what we have to offer students who come to study with us in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at 杏吧原创.

The post FASS Blog – Arts and Social Sciences at the OUF by Dr. Susan Whitney (FASS Associate Dean, Associate Professor of History) appeared first on Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences.

, Assistant Professor and a health geographer in the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, is this week鈥檚 FASS blogger. In his entry, Professor Mkandawire writes about an exciting opportunity for 杏吧原创 students to participate in an study abroad course in Malawi. This spring 2016 course will focus on global inequalities in health care, specifically those related to HIV/AIDS.

In the spring of 2016 the will offer a study abroad course that will focus on the challenges of addressing global inequalities in health through the lens of HIV/AIDS. This course will take place in Malawi (former British colony), a small landlocked country in Southern Africa with a landmass of 11800km² (ten times smaller than the size of Ontario). In tourist travel guidebooks Malawi is popularly known as the Warm Heart of Africa. Renowned for its genuinely friendly local population, it is common for locals to wave and greet visitors as if they know them. Curious children often come by to say 鈥榤oni鈥� (hello) and 鈥榸ikomo鈥� (thank you) in the national language (Chichewa). Malawi is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, with a majestic lake that stretches almost the entire length of its eastern border. Lake Malawi itself, with remarkably clear waters, exceptionally splendid beaches, and mountainous backdrop, is a . There are over 1000 fish species in Lake Malawi, making it a site of immense global importance for biodiversity conversation.

Malawi鈥檚 natural beauty and scenic landscape, however, stands in sharp contrast to its high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. Since the HIV virus was first officially reported in 1985, the spread of HIV/AIDS has accelerated to its current prevalence of 10.2% in the adult population. This course will expose students to the actual realities of HIV/AIDS with the aim of helping them to develop a critical understanding of the concatenation of adverse economic, political, and economic factors that continue to fuel the spread of HIV/AIDS and create obstacles to effective response.

Early cases of HIV in Malawi in the late 1980s were concentrated amongst the wealthy, and one of the high profile cases included a former beauty queen. Most of these individuals were thought to have been infected abroad. Because HIV/AIDS was until then unknown to the average Malawian, a major challenge in crafting the first national response was choosing an appropriate local name for the disease. Valuable time was lost to nip the disease in the bud as the government wavered to acknowledge the full extent of the problem, and as scientists demanded more time to grasp of the pattern of the epidemic. In addition, the under-developed healthcare system, which had suffered underinvestment during the colonial and postcolonial era, was ill-equipped to deal with such an epidemic. As the young, educated and beautiful began to succumb, witchcraft-related jealousy was often cited as the cause. Minimal action by the government in these early days created an atmosphere of confusion and panic, especially amidst reports that HIV/AIDS was a disease without a cure.

In a context where more than 60% of the population lives below the poverty line, HIV/AIDS quickly moved down the economic fault-line, and the poor began to quickly fill the ranks of those infected and affected. To talk about the rich-poor divide in a country with a per capita income of US$300 might seem a little farfetched, but vast extremes of wealth and poverty do exist in Malawi, and there is ample evidence to indicate that these imbalances have in fact worsened over the years: stunning resorts and flimsy fishing villages; skyscrapers and steaming sweatshops; bountiful supermarkets and widespread hunger; state of the art medicine and traditional medicine; magnificent forests and degraded pastures; sumptuous mansions and sprawling shantytowns. In other words, the spread of HIV/AIDS in Malawi also has profound international dimensions. It is deeply intertwined with the rise of neoliberal austerity. Thus even Malawi, a small landlocked country which one could hardly locate on the world map has not been able to escape the long hand of neoliberal globalization facilitated by Northern donors, international financial institutions, and a cosmopolitan governing elite.

This course is a great opportunity for students to critically examine the interwoven nature of structural violence and HIV/AIDS, and to see firsthand how these deeply inequitable political, economic and social realities fuel the spread of the epidemic and hamper effective national and international response. Particular attention will be paid to the specificities of historical experiences and how they relate to larger themes scoped in the foregoing outline. Supported by 杏吧原创鈥檚 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, this course will be facilitated by Canadian and Malawian instructors and will combine classroom presentations with field visits to key public health institutions, civil society organizations, communities, and other relevant establishments in Mzuzu, Northern Malawi. Based at , the 杏吧原创 students will gain incredible insights, knowledge, and life experiences to help them learn and appreciate the intricate interrelationships between health and illness and political and economic conditions at the local, national and global levels.

– Dr. Paul Mkandawire

There will be two information sessions about the course:

Friday 2 October @ 2:30 pm: 433 Paterson Hall (History Lounge)
Wednesday 7 October @ 6:00 pm: 433 Paterson Hall (History Lounge)

For more information about this and past courses, please go to:

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(Note that this blog is a modified and shortened version of the welcome address delivered on Friday, September 11, to the FASS Faculty Board and FASS staff)

Since accepting the position of Interim Dean, I鈥檝e been giving considerable thought about what my mission should be while filling this role for a year. How much can one really accomplish in one year? How much should someone try to accomplish, in one year, when she is mainly providing a bridge from one dean to the next? Is this a year when I should be satisfied simply holding down the fort? While I don鈥檛 feel it is my role to commit the faculty to any radical new initiatives or directions, I would like to make a contribution over the course of the year that is beyond the one of simply saying, 鈥淥kay, you can have a new Contract Instructor position鈥�, or yes, 鈥淔ASS will support the organization of this conference鈥︹��

A few weeks ago, Associate Dean Susan Whitney and I met with our Recruitment team, including a large number of recent graduates who are working as student recruiters for the fall. They鈥檒l be criss-crossing the province and indeed the entire country, telling high school students about the great programs that are offered at 杏吧原创, and all the fantastic reasons why they should consider applying to, and attending 杏吧原创. There are many messages that I want our recruiters to take to prospective students, but I would also like them to inspire and encourage students who are considering studying in the Arts and Social Sciences. I would like our recruiters to talk to prospective students about the value of studying in the Arts and Social Sciences, and to move beyond the question of 鈥淲hat can I do with a BA?鈥� or, 鈥淲hat I can do if I study Music, or Sociology, or History鈥�?鈥�

We all know that there are plenty of things that you can do with a BA, and in fact, the vast majority of BA graduates do find fulfilling and meaningful careers. I would like our student recruiters to tell prospective students a few other things:

First, you have to discover what you are passionate about. What are your recurring questions and long-standing interests? If you are excited about what you are studying, you will succeed in your studies, and you will then also be interested in seizing opportunities in and around this area 鈥� research opportunities, coop placements, part-time work, even something as simple as talking with your professors. These are some of the pieces that help students build up the experiences, skills, and interests that gradually give shape to a career path.

Second, going to university isn鈥檛 only about getting a job. Of course, getting a good job is important. We want young people be productive citizens, and we certainly do not want them to be unemployed after they graduate. However, studying, especially in the Arts and Social Sciences, is about more than just getting a job. It is about exploring our humanity, in all of its dimensions, it鈥檚 about understanding our past, our present, our future, our ways of thinking through problems, and evolving socially, culturally, and politically. I do believe that when students come out of university with a degree in the Arts and Social Sciences 鈥� and in other disciplines as well, they are better citizens, who will contribute in diverse ways to all aspects of society 鈥� as neighbours and community builders, as parents, as volunteers, as organizers of political, social, and cultural programs and activities, as writers of op-eds pieces, as organizers of protests, and the list goes on鈥�

So when some people suggest that the STEM disciplines have value because they train students for particular jobs or career paths, I would like to argue that the Arts and Social Sciences are of value indeed because they do not train you for any one specific job or career, but that they educate for the very broad range of challenges that life will bring you, including obtaining diverse jobs and careers.

Shortly after our meeting with the Recruiting team, I came to realize that what I would like to work towards, during my one-year term as Interim Dean, is changing the currently dominating message that questions the value of the Arts and Social Sciences. I鈥檝e also started to see how, over the past several years, this is indeed what I鈥檝e been trying to do in different ways. While chairing the BA Panel — Phase II, a few years ago, one of the most important things we concluded is that the BA is not broken, and we stated this explicitly right at the start of our report. What needs to change, we determined, is the dominating messaging that surrounds the BA these days. Too often, we鈥檝e been hearing in the media and from our elected officials that it is a waste of time and a waste of money to study in the Arts & Social Sciences.

That tide is slowly changing and we are seeing the occasional headline and article asserting the importance of the Arts and Social Sciences. Only a week ago, the . It is crucial, at this stage, to ensure that the tide fully changes, and not assume that the change has sufficient momentum to keep swinging in the right direction. So while I am hoping that our student recruiters will help us change the discourse, and being at the front lines, speaking to students and parents on a daily basis, they are, well-placed to do so, I feel that it is also my responsibility to pursue and promote this objective of changing the message that unfairly judges the value of the Arts and Social Sciences. A year is not a very long time, but it seems to me that it is by taking small steps, like stating unambiguously that the BA is not broken, or by telling our student recruiters that the BA is not just about a job, by disseminating our research not only to our peers, but also to different audiences, by talking to our students, current and future, and keeping in touch with our alumni (to name only a few strategies, though of course, there are many more), that we might just be able to make some change that will slowly build up into a real change in how our disciplines are perceived by the public and decision-makers.

Without a doubt I鈥檒l continue to talk and write more about this issue, either here in this blog, or elsewhere.

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September has always been, for me, the true start of the new year. When I was in school, it was certainly a time when I made resolutions: to keep a tidy desk, to have nice, neat handwriting (back in the day when that seemed to matter!), to do my homework carefully rather than rushing through it at the last minute. And typically, like most resolutions, they went out the window a couple of weeks into the start of the school year. Even though, when I was an undergraduate student, I lamented the end of summer 鈥� as I am doing right now, as I write my first blog 鈥� I would always look forward to my new courses, new profs, and new challenges. The few years when I was working at CBC Radio, between my undergraduate degree and the start of my graduate studies, I felt out of sorts around Labour Day, when I was not looking at a new class schedule and new book lists! And ever since returning to graduate studies and, later on, an academic position, I have welcomed September as a time of transitions and new rhythms, new classes, and new students. While I always wonder how it is that summer seems to disappear so fast, why I didn鈥檛 get some article finished, or why I didn鈥檛 manage to read the books I had planned on reading, I still feel the excitement of the fall, or what in French we call la rentr茅e scolaire.

And now, it is my additional pleasure to be able to welcome all of our new students — in the B.A., the B. Hums, B. Mus., the B. Cog.Sci., the brand new B.GINS, and of course, all of our graduate students -, our new faculty members 鈥� in Philosophy and Cognitive Science, Women鈥檚 and Gender Studies, Child Studies, Sociology and Anthropology, Psychology, Centre for Initiatives in Education, Linguistics and Language Studies, Canadian Studies and Environmental Studies, Film Studies -, and this year, our new Vice-President, Research and International, Dr. Nimal Rajapakse. A very warm welcome to all of you and hoping that your time at 杏吧原创 is productive and enriching! Really, how can January 1^st compete with Labour Day, given everything going on in any educational institution, and 杏吧原创 University in particular?

For the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, this new year also marks a transition, as this is the first year in 10 years that Dr. John Osborne is not our Dean. I have accepted to step in for the year, as Interim Dean, while the Decanal Search Committee continues its work of finding the right person to take over as Dean, leading our faculty and our students over the next five years or so. My own engagement with 杏吧原创 is a long-standing one, in that I was an undergraduate student here, studying Journalism, French and Political Science (back in the day when Journalism was in the Faculty of Arts!). A few years after graduation, I returned to 杏吧原创 to study for my Master鈥檚 in French literature, studying with some of the same professors that my father had, when he did his M.A. in French literature, a few decades before me. As a high school student, growing up in Ottawa, I had even participated in a Mini-Enrichment Course offered to high school students at 杏吧原创. So when I was offered a faculty position at 杏吧原创, I was delighted to have the opportunity to return not only to my hometown but also to my alma mater. And now, as I look forward to this year as Interim Dean, I know both that this will be a very busy year and that it will also be (and has already begun to be) a very exciting one. It is a privilege to meet new and returning faculty, to discuss research projects, collaborations, teaching initiatives, and new ideas. It is an honour to be invited to welcome our new students, and to have the excuse to visit our First-Year Seminars, which I will do over the course of the year. It is with pride that I represent our Faculty and 杏吧原创 at recruitment, research, and cultural events, and at various meetings with students, other deans and academic administrators, on campus, in Ottawa and further afield.

One of the frequent questions people have been asking about my term as Interim Dean is whether I will maintain the tradition of the Dean鈥檚 Blog. The answer is both yes and no. We will continue to have a blog, but it will not be exclusively the 鈥淒ean鈥檚 Blog鈥� in that I will not be the one blogging every week. This is partly a question of time management 鈥� I do not know how Dean Osborne managed to write a blog every week over the past 9 years. I think he values his sleep less than I do!! But I also do feel that there are some very exciting things happening around FASS and I prefer to leave it to those individuals who are immediately involved with FASS initiatives and events to relate those stories to you. So this year, we will be bringing to you the various voices of FASS to tell you about what is on our minds and what we鈥檙e busy doing. I do intend to be a regular contributor to the FASS blog, but I also look forward to reading the different voices and styles of my colleagues from across the Faculty.

To all of you, new and returning students, faculty and staff: I wish you a very happy new year, and all the best with your own resolutions for 2015-16.

– Dr. Catherine Khordoc, Dean (Interim), Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences – Associate Professor, Department of French

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The question I seem to get most often these days is 鈥淲hat happens after July 1st?鈥� The answer is easy: administrative leave, and lots of writing.  At least two books, I hope, and some shorter things; and a chance to decompress a bit. The past ten years have been the most interesting and fulfilling of my professional life, but also the most exacting, and the long days have certainly taken a toll.  Much as I love the job, I need to stop, for the sake of both my physical and mental health.

Last week a reporter came by from The Charlatan, asking what I felt I had accomplished over the last decade. My first response was that anything that has been accomplished has been a collective effort. Deans can鈥檛 just make things happen. There are no magic wands in Paterson 330. Deans can suggest, negotiate, cajole, and of course assist with the financial and other resources 鈥� but things only happen in universities when there is consensus on the direction to be taken. We are not a corporation, and 鈥渢op-down鈥� management doesn鈥檛 work, especially at the Faculty level. I then went on to mention five broad areas where I believe that good things have happened: (1) finances 鈥� currently firmly under control, with base budgets in place for all continuing faculty and staff positions; (2) faculty renewal 鈥� with something like two out of three tenured or tenure-track faculty members in FASS hired during my time, representing both replacements for those retiring and many 鈥渘et new鈥� positions; (3) new academic programs 鈥� including African Studies, Disability Studies, Global and International Studies, Greek and Roman Studies, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Religion, and Sexuality Studies to name but a few at the undergraduate level, along with new masters programs in areas such as Cognitive Science, Music, Religion, and Women鈥檚 and Gender Studies, and doctorates in subjects such as English and Anthropology; (4) new and upgraded facilities, from the labs in Geography to the new Language Centre in St Pats, the Patrick Cardy Studio in music, and so on; and (5) the plethora of partnerships with organizations and groups off-campus, coupled with a dramatic expansion of co-op and practicum opportunities. And this list doesn鈥檛 include the introduction of 杏吧原创 courses taught at locations outside Ottawa, including one each year somewhere in Africa, nor the exciting developments in pedagogy using the latest technology (the MOOC in Psychology, the 鈥淰irtual 杏吧原创鈥� campus developed for SLaLS), the dramatic expansion of our research enterprise, including the engagement of undergraduate students in that process, the creation of a FASS endowment 鈥� and I could go on and on. It has indeed been a dramatic decade for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and I am truly very grateful for having had the opportunity to play a small role in that success. But none of it would have happened without the efforts of many outstanding members of faculty and professional staff. The accomplishments are theirs.

The other question I am asked is whether I shall use the remaining blogs to say all the things about which I have been biting my tongue over the last many years 鈥� and I have to confess that there are days when that seems very tempting. One of the disadvantages of being in the dean鈥檚 office is that you very quickly lose your rose-coloured spectacles, and become painfully aware of the shortcomings of our faculty, staff, and students 鈥� of our institution, and indeed of the larger PSE system in Ontario. But attractive a possibility as that may be, if you are looking for the 杏吧原创 equivalent of Wikileaks I am afraid that you will be sorely disappointed. This university is a place for which I have had considerable affection for some 47 years, since I first set foot on campus in July of 1968. And for all its faults … and yes, there certainly are some 鈥� on balance it is a truly wonderful place, and not one that any of us would trade in lightly. Nor is it one that I would ever seek to harm. I am comforted in the knowledge that I leave FASS in reasonably decent shape, and in the hands of those who also truly care.

Various colleagues have asked if I have started to count down my remaining days 鈥� and I have to confess that the answer is affirmative. Last week that number ticked down from three digits to two, and I don鈥檛 know if that is good or bad. Some days I can鈥檛 wait for the end of June, and on others I wish that the passage of time would just come to a crashing halt. I also know that I shall experience severe withdrawal come August, when my incoming E-mail declines from 100+ a day to perhaps a half dozen at best.

I have lost count of how many weekly musings I have posted over the years 鈥� certainly in the hundreds 鈥� and it is sad to think that this will be the very last one. But that time has come.  I am truly grateful to the many readers who have followed this blog so faithfully.  Thank you all!

And the very last words go, as the more perspicacious of you may already have predicted, to the Beatles, who have also been an important part of my life for more than a half century:

Close your eyes and I’ll close mine
Good night, sleep tight
Now the sun turns out his light
Good night, sleep tight
Dream sweet dreams for me
Dream sweet dreams for you

Good night, good night everybody
Everybody everywhere
Good night

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