Previous Presentations
Fall 2014
SEPTEMBER 19, 2014
Waters That No Vessel Ever Sailed
Kathy Page, Department of Creative Writing and Journalism
The poet Edward Thomas died in 1917 during the Battle of Arras. While his life was minutely documented, the way he died is open to question. Novelist Kathy Page uses the available evidence to construct several possible versions of the poet’s last moments. What emotional necessities have turned his death into a story and have kept the poet alive in our imagination?
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OCTOBER 17, 2014
The Rise of the Drones: From The Great War to Gaza
Dr John Hill, Coordinator, VIU Writing Centre, and Dr Ann Rogers, School of Communication & Culture, Royal Roads University
Pilotless military aircraft seem the stuff of science fiction, but the extensive use of drones in the US’s war on terror and during Israel’s actions in Gaza has roots in World War I weaponry and Cold War spying tools. What difference, John Hill and Ann Rogers ask, do drones make?
NOVEMBER 28, 2014
Cultural Contact Zones: Wrocław, Poland
Terri Doughty, Department of English, and Dr Justin McGrail, Department of Art and Design
Poland was reestablished as a nation after World War I; the city of Wrocław (formerly German Breslau) became Polish after World War II. After massive population transfers of Germans and Poles and after Communist government efforts to erase memories of the region’s German past, Polish writers and artists today are recovering Wrocław’s multi-ethnic history and reinvigorating the region as a border zone where cultures meet and identities can multiply.
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For further information contact:
Katharine Rollwagen at Katharine.Rollwagen@viu.ca
