Arts Lecture Series - Scholarship for an Uncertain World

[James Skidmore]

People of Arts!

Scholarship for an Uncertain World - A Series of Public Lectures by Professors in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo

The Winter 2012 Arts Lecture Series begins this coming Monday.  This year the series is borrowing the theme from the upcoming Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (www.congress2012.ca<http://www.congress2012.ca>): Scholarship for an Uncertain World.  Six Faculty of Arts colleagues will be presenting lectures on how they are exploring uncertainties of the present age.

This lecture series is open to one and all.  Please take some time out of your day to attend and support your colleagues.  And bring friends and students with you!   For a snappy webpage giving information on all of the lectures, go to www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301<http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts301>.  The lectures are listed below.

Monday 13 February 2012, 3:30pm, HH 110
Chris Eliasmith / Philosophy and Systems Design Engineering
How Brains Reason: The Mechanisms of Inference
I demonstrate large-scale biologically realistic networks reasoning about complex cognitive tasks. I will discuss the importance of understanding biological cognition, and the central role that uncertainty plays in human reasoning.

Monday 27 February 2012, 3:30pm, HH 1101
Mathieu Doucet / Philosophy
Should the Numbers Count?
What should we do when faced with a hard choice between helping (or harming) two groups of people, one smaller and one larger? Should we prefer the larger group? This question, it turns out, goes to the heart of some very difficult issues in moral philosophy.

Monday 5 MAR CH 2012, 3:30pm, HH 1101
Martin Cooke / Sociology and Legal Studies
Social Policy for 21st-Century Risks
Welfare, employment insurance, health care, pensions, education and other systems of social provision are facing major challenges. High unemployment and an ageing population are increasing demands on state finances while economic pressures are reducing resources. Thinking about social policy from the perspective of the life course may help countries meet the challenges of increasing income inequality, changes to families and caregiving, and other demographic and social changes.

Monday 12 MAR CH 2012, 3:30pm, HH 1101
John H. Smith / Diefenbaker Memorial Chair in German Literary Studies
How to Think Differently: On Dialogue, Dialectics, and Open Questions
We often hear about the importance of "thinking outside the box." But how do we break through the walls of the box that surrounds us? How can we overcome the comfort of our box and enter into the uncertainty of a world without recognizable walls? I will argue that we only engage in novel thinking when we are open to dialogue, questions, and the experience of contradiction.

Monday 19 MAR CH 2012, 3:30pm, HH 1101
Andrew McMurry / English
The Role of Humanities in the Time of Climate Change; Or, What to do as the World Burns
Why aren't more humanists alarmed about environmental catastrophe, as if their own lives hung in the balance, which maybe they do? Could the answer be that ecocide looks to be the business of the other disciplines (e.g., "Sure, I know the oceans are dying but my gig's Shakespeare!")?  This lecture considers obstacles to the development of an "environmental humanities."

Monday 26 MAR CH 2012, 3:30pm, HH 1101
Marcel O'Gorman / English
Don't Just React - Transform!  Critical Media for a Digital Culture
The Critical Media Lab (CML) is a UW research/creation unit that investigates the impact of technology on the human condition. I will demonstrate how the CML moves beyond philosophy to develop digital media projects designed to transform the role of technology in our lives. The talk will include a sneak preview of the CML mobile unit. http://criticalmedia.uwaterloo.ca


Podcasts of interviews with the lecturers will be available during the series.  Details to be released as the podcasts come available.

Carry on,
Skid

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

Academic Co-Convenor, Congress 2012
www.congress2012.ca<http://www.congress2012.ca>

E | skidmore at uwaterloo.ca<mailto:skidmore at uwaterloo.ca>
W | www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~skidmore
W | www.germanicandslavic.uwaterloo.ca
T | 519.888.4567, x33687
F | 519.746.5243

[Wordmark_Line_Web_or_Email_ARTS]

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://artsservices.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/artsannounce/attachments/20120209/2e45e182/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 1679 bytes
Desc: image001.gif
Url : http://artsservices.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/artsannounce/attachments/20120209/2e45e182/attachment.gif