YORK UNIVERSITY LAUNCHES PREMIER LECTURE SERIES, SHOWCASING ECLECTIC SUBJECTS, EXCELLENT SPEAKERS
TORONTO, October 8, 1997 -- York University is launching a weekly lecture series, sharing with the public compelling academics who will speak on a wide range of subjects -- from galaxies and the Milky Way, to Canadian Prime Ministers, to sustainable development, to women and the law, all the way to Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness."
"With the Premier Lecture Series, York is opening up its doors and inviting everyone to enjoy what our students have been enjoying for years: lively and fascinating teaching by some of the country's leading academics," said Steve Mason, a professor of humanities and the director of York's Centre for the Support of Teaching, the sponsor of the series. "These professors have a real passion for their subject matter, and the lectures give them the opportunity to pass that passion and enthusiasm on to others," he said.
The Premier Lecture Series begins October 16, and runs Thursday evenings. A complete schedule is attached. The following is a small sample of what's ahead:
October 23 -- Does learning two languages make children confused? Or enriched? Ellen Bialystok, a professor in the psychology department, discusses how a bilingual education affects the way kids learn.
October 30 -- On the day before Hallowe'en, history professor Tom Cohen takes us on a wild and woolly journey into the lives of a 15th century Italian family, in which murder, intrigue and a talking corpse all play a part. Cohen will tell this story as a play, speaking in the voices of more than 20 characters.
November 27 -- Until almost the end of the 19th century in Canada, women were prevented from becoming lawyers because their "nature" was said to be unsuitable for legal work. Law professor Mary Jane Mossman takes a look at women's progress in the legal professoin in the past 100 years.
January 15, 22 and 29 -- Jack Granatstein, a professor emeritus at York and one of Canada's best-known historians, gives three lectures on "Three Prime Ministers and the Canada They Made: New Perspectives on William Lyon Mackenzie King, John Diefenbaker, and Lester B. Pearson."
February 26 -- Acclaimed Canadian author and York professor Susan Swan looks at James Bond novels, Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, and Bret Easton Ellis novel American Psycho, to discover whether we should put up with politically incorrect art.
March 19 -- When humans mess with the ecosystem and it results in too many snow geese, some people suggest "depopulating" -- killing them with the help of the military, or through the introduction of deadly disease. Biology professor Dawn Bazely explores how humans have contributed to herbivore overpopulation, and talks about some of the more controversial proposals to put the ecosystem back in order.
March 26 -- York's Grammy-winning musicologist Rob Bowman compares Otis Redding and Bing Crosby's versions of "Try a Little Tenderness," and finds that the two renditions are a world apart.
Lectures run Thursdays, 7 to 8:30 p.m. Fall lectures will be held in Curtis Lecture Hall G; winter lectures in Stedman Lecture Hall A.
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For more information, please contact:
Sine MacKinnon
Senior Advisor for Media Relations
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22087
email: sinem@yorku.ca
Steve Mason
Centre for the Support of Teaching
(416) 736-5754
email: smason@yorku.ca
Alison Masemann
Media Relations Officer
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22086
email: masemann@yorku.ca
YU/085/97
YORK UNIVERSITY'S PREMIER LECTURE SERIES SCHEDULE
Lectures run Thursdays, 7 to 8:30 p.m. Fall lectures will be held in Curtis Lecture Hall G; winter lectures in Stedman Lecture Hall A.
October 16 -- David Bell, the director of York's Centre for Applied Sustainability and a specialist in the politics of environmental sustainability, will talk about how the "experts" can work together with individual citizens and decision makers to make our planet sustainable. Bell will look at how we can move from knowledge to action, translating what we have learned about sustainability problems into changes in public policy and private behaviour.
October 23 -- Does learning two languages make children confused? Or enriched? Ellen Bialystok, a professor in the psychology department, will reveal what she has discovered about kids who are raised to be bilingual. Bialystok, whose research concentrates on 4-to-6 year-old children, will pay special attention to how knowing two languages influences how quickly children learn to read.
October 30 -- History isn't all about memorizing names and dates. History professor Tom Cohen likes to tell his students about the ordinary people who lived 500 years ago, and some of the "wild and woolly" things that happened to them. This lecture, entitled "Bad Blood. Hot Blood. A Talking Corpse? A Detective Examines a 500-Year-Old Soap Opera," takes us into the lives of an unhappy family in Renaissance Rome and uncovers some of the mysteries behind the death of their teenage daughter. Cohen will tell this intriguing story as a play, speaking in the voices of more than 20 characters.
November 6, 13 and 20 -- Marshall McCall is York's galactic expert. In fact McCall, a professor of physics and astronomy, knows so much about galaxies that the two galaxies he and a colleague discovered in 1995 are named after them. McCall will give three lectures in November, entitled "What are Galaxies?", "What is the Milky Way?", and "Discovering New Galaxies." McCall will look at how galaxies are formed, and will show us how the Milky Way came to be where it is, and how it has moved through the universe. McCall will also examine how galaxies evolve; how stars are born and how they die.
November 27 -- Until almost the end of the 19th century in Canada, women were prevented from becoming lawyers because their "nature" was said to be unsuitable for legal work. In "Portia's Progress: 100 Years of Women in Law," law professor Mary Jane Mossman will mark the 100th anniversary of women's entry into the law with a look at how they have transformed and continue to transform the profession.
January 15, 22 and 29 -- Jack Granatstein, a professor emeritus at York and one of Canada's best-known historians, will give three lectures on "Three Prime Ministers and the Canada They Made: New Perspectives on William Lyon Mackenzie King, John Diefenbaker, and Lester B. Pearson." Granatstein, who has written more than 30 books about Canadian history, foreign and defence policy, the military, politics, and universities, will bring his encyclopedic knowledge to these lectures, offering a revealing look at three of Canada's leaders.
February 5 and 12 -- How do the arts, and theatre in particular, help a country stake out its cultural territory? In her first lecture, "I am a War, my Voice is a Weapon: Five Statements on the Importance of Voice, Identity and Otherness in Canadian Culture, and How They Are Reflected in Contemporary Canadian and Cuban Theatre," York theatre professor Judith Rudakoff will examine how theatre can be the last line of defence in the war against cultural obliteration by allowing us to adopt our own unique voice and our sense of identity.
Rudakoff's second lecture, on February 12, deals with contemporary Canadian women playwrights how they use imagery and what that imagery means. Rudakoff wants to encourage theatre enthusiasts to analyze the plays they see and recognize the symbols (specifically those dealing with gender and patriarchal myths) that permeate theatre.
February 26 -- The "girls" in the James Bond novels and movies aren't usually very multi-dimensional characters. Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew could be criticized as anti-feminist. In this lecture, acclaimed Canadian author and York professor Susan Swan will look at Bond novels, The Taming of the Shrew, and Bret Easton Ellis' novel American Psycho, and will tackle the issue of whether we should put up with politically incorrect art.
March 5, 12 and 19 -- Animals are vegetarians too! In her first lecture, York biology professor Dawn Bazely will tell us that although herbivores, the vegetarians of the animal world, often appear surrounded by abundant food (after all, the world is green, especially in summer), much of the vegetation contains too little protein. This lecture will examine how sheep and insects "see" the world of plants around them, and how they detect what is good and not so good to eat.
In her second lecture, on March 12, Bazely will look at how plants defend themselves from their predators -- herbivores -- using weapons such as thorns, poisonous leaves, and insects to avoid being eaten. Bazely will talk in particular about an intriguing case in which an invisible fungus has joined forces with a grass plant to outwit herbivores.
Finally, on March 19, Bazely will look at how humans play a role in herbivore overpopulation (a situation that can have a devastating impact on the environment and contributes to human overpopulation as well.) How do we deal with "too many herbivores"? Bazely will probe some of the more controversial solutions that have been proposed to deal with this problem, including killing off herbivores with help from the military or introducing deadly diseases into herbivore populations.
March 26 -- What does "Try a Little Tenderness" mean to you? In this lecture, York's Grammy-winning musicologist, Rob Bowman, will explore two very different renditions of this famous song -- one by Otis Redding, the other by Bing Crosby. He will ask, "how can the same song have two very different meanings, merely because of who's singing? And what is the role of culture in influencing that meaning?"
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