Researchers from the Faculty of Arts and the Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS) will be holding their annual Celebration of Research on Monday, March 6 at the Timms Centre for the Arts. This year's theme - Exploring Intersections - is about the points of connection that reveal and contribute to the public good. Whether it's between university and community researchers, across disciplinary boundaries, or the social, political, creative and cultural identities that define us, these seven thought-provoking presentations will examine the relationships that bring us together.
"When the planning committee was brainstorming themes, we found ourselves returning, time and again, to the importance of research that exists at the intersection," says Steve Patten, lead organizer and Arts' Associate Dean of Research. "Also, the interconnected and overlapping nature of social power relations that produce uneven power and unequal privilege. The title 'Exploring Intersections' was selected because it would create space for all these ideas."
Each of the seven researchers will have three minutes to present his or her research and respond to the topic question. Anthropologist Kisha Supernant is researching the daily life of the Métis across Western Canada, identifying signatures common to Métis settlements, such as beads and other material artifacts. Her presentation, Mapping Identities through Time and Space, will explore how she uses digital maps to explore identity and belonging. "I use maps and material culture," she says, "to understand the rise of the Métis as a distinct people on the landscape of the Canadian West."
Susanne Luhmann, associate professor & chair of the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, is also researching how the past speaks to us in the present. Her presentation, Domesticating the Nazi Past, explores how the German cultural memory of the Nazi period has moved from a shared, historical memory to a more direct, ancestral memory. "It's about bringing home national history as familial history and, in the process, domesticating or taming the difficult feelings that loving a perpetrator grandparent or parent involves," she says. "As a gender studies scholar, the gendered dynamics of memory and representation play a central role in my analysis."
When the University of Alberta adopted a new institutional strategic plan in 2016 -For the Public Good - it empowered the UAlberta community to think and act in terms of societal benefit. Patten says that the 2017 Celebration of Research is a realization of the plan's goals of valuing excellence in teaching, research and creative activity that enriches learning experiences, advances knowledge, inspires engaged citizenship and promotes the public good.
"With this in mind," he says, "we are hoping that this year's Celebration of Research will demonstrate this scholarship, but is also make clear the social relevance of that scholarship."
The Celebration of Research will begin at 3:30 p.m. at the Timms Centre for the Arts with seven, fast-paced presentations, followed by a musical performance by John Tessier with piano accompaniment by Shannon Hiebert. There will also be a formal announcement of the recipients of the 2017Kule Research Cluster Grants. A reception will follow the presentations. The event is free and open to the public. To RSVP,please visit EventBrite.
To read more about the presenters and their research, visit the 2017 Celebration of Research home page.
Presenters:
Ingo Brigandt (Philosophy): Engaging with Values in Science
Adam Gaudry (Political Science/Native Studies): A Métis People's History
Susanne Luhmann (Women's & Gender Studies): Domesticating the Nazi Past
Donia Mounsef (Drama): W.E.T.- Water Ecologies in Theatre
Fiona Nicoll (Political Science): The Public Art of Intersectionality
Mark Simpson (English & Film Studies): Energy Impasse and Energy Transition
Kisha Supernant (Anthropology): Mapping Identities through Time and Space