Previous Presentations
Fall 2013
SEPTEMBER 27, 2013
Back Before We Got There: North American Back-to-the-Land Narratives
Dr Anna Atkinson & Dr Toni Smith, English Department
Today, leaving the city for a rural life may appeal to people striving for sustainability. Yet narratives of “returning” to a simpler life in harmony with nature often recycle colonial ideas, including those arising from religion. Are these narratives still useful?
OCTOBER 18, 2013
Amundsen Then and Now: The End of the Age of Heroic Exploration 1912
Jay Ruzesky, English Department and Department of Creative Writing and Journalism
One hundred years after Roald Amundsen set foot on the South Pole, his descendent Jay Ruzesky followed his ancestor to Antarctica and returned to write a memoir about his experience. How have the Pole and its exploration changed?
NOVEMBER 22, 2013
BC’s 1983 Solidarity Movement 30 Years on: Something for the Left to Celebrate or Best Forgotten?
Dr Gordon Hak, History Department
Thirty years ago unionists, community groups, and political activists marched and went on strike against the Social Credit government’s neo-liberal legislative agenda: B.C.’s massive Solidarity movement was born. Why does Solidarity still conjure up mixed reactions? What is its place in the history of the left?
For further information contact:
Katharine Rollwagen at Katharine.Rollwagen@viu.ca
