Controversies Week 7 - The University Myth with Ken Coates

[James Skidmore]

Controversies - A Series of Public Lectures by Professors in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo

Ideas can be upsetting, divisive, challenging.  This lecture series explores ten controversies that have erupted in various disciplines.  By clicking on www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301<http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301> you can see the full list of lectures being offered this term.  All of these lectures are open to students, staff, faculty, and the public.  They take place Mondays, 4:30-5:50pm, in AL 113.

I encourage you to attend one or more of these lectures; you would be supporting your colleagues and learning more about the controversies they're investigating.  And please circulate this message to all of your students, friends, family, lawn bowling club members, etc. - let everyone know about the thought-provoking scholarship being produced by Waterloo's Faculty of Arts.

Upcoming Lecture

Monday, 7 March 2011, 4:30pm, AL 113
Ken Coates (Dean of Arts)
The University Myth: The Truth Behind the World's Trillion Dollar Gamble on Post-Secondary Education
There is near universal agreement that post-secondary education is important. But the expansion of university enrolment has left a major question unasked: Will personal and national investments in career oriented post-secondary education secure a better future for graduates and their societies?
A podcast of an interview with Ken Coates will be available soon at www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301<http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301>.
As you know, Prof. Coates finishes his term as Dean of Arts this coming summer.  Yet in just a few days his new book, Campus Confidential: 100 Startling Things You Don't Know about Canadian Universities (co-written with Bill Morrison), will be hitting bookstores everywhere.  Come hear our Dean explain what he thinks universities should be doing!

Recent Lectures

Monday, 28 February 2011, 4:30pm, AL 113
Grit Liebscher (Germanic and Slavic Studies)
Tie Your Tongue: Should  You Use a First Language to Learn a Second One?
There have always been different ideas about how to learn a second or foreign language best. Recently, one kind of debate is about which role the mother tongue or first language should play. Ban it? Allow it? Direct its use?
A podcast of an interview with Grit Liebscher will be available soon at www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301<http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301>.

Monday, 14 February 2011, 4:30pm, AL 113
Tracy Penny Light (Sexuality, Marriage, and Family Studies, and History)
Is Medical Science Really a Science?
How does medical science shape our understanding of health and how is that understanding represented in, and/or appropriated by, popular culture? This lecture explores scientific authority in history and questions whether medical science is actually scientific and, therefore, reliable.
A podcast of an interview with Tracy Penny Light is now available - www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301<http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301>.

Monday, 7 February 2011, 4:30pm, AL 113
Shannon Dea (Philosophy)
Spinoza's Monstrous Hypothesis
Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza argued that the universe is one, and only one, thing - God. For this, he was billed an atheist and proponent of "the most absurd and monstrous hypothesis." We'll consider his view, and why it's still controversial.
A podcast of an interview with Shannon Dea is now available - www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301<http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301>.

Monday, 31 January 2011, 4:30pm, AL 113
Robert Ballard (Speech Communications)
Buying Children or Saving Orphans? Controversies of International Adoption
Is international adoption a legitimate way of building a family or glorified human trafficking? This lecture will examine the complexities of international adoption including corruption, celebrity adoptions, and the call for more ethical and  transparent adoption practices.
A podcast of an interview with Robert Ballard is now available - www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301<http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301>.

Monday, 24 January 2011, 4:30pm, AL 113
Kathryn Plaisance (Philosophy/Knowledge Integration)
The Nature of Nurture: Debates about Parental Influence
Judith Harris argues for the "idea of zero parental influence" on "who children turn out to be."  She bases this largely on findings from behavioral genetics research, which, I argue, Harris has misinterpreted.
A podcast of an interview with Kathryn Plaisance is now available - www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301<http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301>.

Monday, 17 January 2011, 4:30pm, AL 113
Geoff Malleck (Economics)
Mistakaphobia: A Certain Path to Economic Destruction
Effective mistake-making can be a conduit to success.  So why are we so afraid to promote mistake-making?  This lecture explores an attitude that is bringing economic peril to our once prosperous nation.
A podcast of an interview with Geoff Malleck is now available - www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301<http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301>.


Carry on,
Skid

James M. Skidmore
Chair, Germanic and Slavic Studies
Faculty of Arts / University of Waterloo
Waterloo, ON  N2L 3G1  CANADA

T | 519.888.4567, x33687
W | www.germanicandslavic.uwaterloo.ca<http://www.germanicandslavic.uwaterloo.ca>
W | www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~skidmore<http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~skidmore>
E | skidmore at uwaterloo.ca<mailto:skidmore at uwaterloo.ca>

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