2023-24 Lecture Series

AI in Education: Promises and Pitfalls

Organized by Green College Leading Scholars

This Leading Scholars series brings together leading experts from diverse fields to explore the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the context of education at UBC. Through a multidisciplinary lens, this series aims to delve into the promises and challenges that AI presents, beginning with an introduction to generative models for text and images. Then, through a series of panels, organizers will probe into the incorporation of AI in future workflow, on how recent generative models have changed the concept of lifelong learning, the impact of AI on our interactions with images across disciplines, and AI’s potential for language learning, revitalization and reclamation from an Indigenous perspective.

Series Conveners: Anwar Ahmed, Language and Literacy Education; Tamara Etmannski, Civil Engineering; Christopher Hammerly, Linguistics; Giulia Toti, Computer Science; Lily Wenya Zhou, Neurology; Ignacio Barbeito, Forest Resources Management; Katherine Wagner, Economics; Shoufu Yin, History; Thomas Pasquier, Computer Science

Event Dates: Oct 5, Oct 24, Nov 15, Jan 31

China Logics

Co-hosted with the Centre for Chinese Research

This interdisciplinary series examines the future of global sustainability, economy and security through the many images and understandings of China, a compelling and sometimes puzzling place. If understanding China constitutes a rational, emotional or symbolic anchor from which one’s ideas, actions and strategies are derived, then there is a need to capitalize on the rich amount of evidence that allows us to examine “China Logics” across time, space and interactions.

Series Conveners: Timothy Cheek, History; Qiang Fu, Sociology; Julia Harten, Community and Regional Planning; Juliet Lu, Forest Resources Management | Public Policy and Global Affairs; Renren Yang, Asian Studies

Event Dates: Oct 25, Nov 1, Jan 24, Feb 28, Mar 27

Embodiment as Knowledge Translation

Organized by Green College Leading Scholars

Organized by Green College Leading Scholars, this series invites perspectives on how to locate, understand, experience, enact and care for embodiment. How is the body activated as a source and repository of knowledge? Where do we find generative inquiry into the affective and social dimensions of producing and exchanging knowledge? This series of lectures and roundtables explores the performance of care; relational accountability; and the emotional labour involved in archival work, storytelling, translation, healthcare, creative practices and teaching.

Series Conveners: Abdul-Fatawu Abdulai, Nursing; Irem Ayan, French, Hispanic and Italian Studies; Stephen Dabugblor, Journalism, Writing and Media; Julia Henderson, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy; Sara Ann Knutson, History; Jillian Lerner, Art History, Visual Art and Theory; Jasmin Ma, Kinesiology; Elif Sari, Anthropology; Rosanne Sia, Gender, Race Sexuality and Social Justice; Logan Smilge, English Language and Literatures; Helena Zeweri, Anthropology; and Mila Zuo, Theatre and Film

Event Dates: Sept 27, Oct 18,Feb 14, Feb 27, Mar 21, Apr 11

Psychological Trauma and Resilience                                    

Co-hosted with UBC Emeritus College

Presentations in the Emeritus College Series at Green College Intergenerational Effects of Psychological Trauma (2021-22) revealed an interest, appetite and need for further conversations related to the development of resiliency among individuals and groups, and how they can cope more effectively and recover from the impact of various traumas.

Building on this foundation, the six-part series Psychological Trauma and Resilience will embark on a journey to consider the many ways in which individuals and groups respond to trauma, possible approaches to coping with trauma and specific strategies for recovery.

Series Conveners: Marv Westwood, Counseling Psychology, with Judith Hall, Pediatrics and Medical Genetics; and Richard Vedan, Social Work

Event Dates: Oct 12, Nov 9, Jan 11, Feb 8, Apr 16

Resident Members' Series

Each week, the Green College Resident Members’ Series features a different presenter (or presenters) from among the Resident Members of Green College. Graduate students, Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholars offer talks and events on their areas of research or study and, as appropriate, bring in their research colleagues from outside the College. 

Series Conveners: Michael Carelse, Library and Information Studies; Michelle Kamigaki-Baron, Linguistics; and Ricky, Physics and Astronomy

Event Dates: Sep 25, Oct 16, Oct 30, Nov 6, Nov 20, Nov 27, Dec 4, Jan 8, Jan 15, Jan 22, Jan 29, Feb 5, Feb 12, Feb 26, Mar 4, Mar 11, Mar 18, Mar 25, Apr 8, Apr 15, Apr 22, Apr 29, May 6, May 13, May 20, May 27

The Russia-Ukraine War and Memory Politics

Co-organized with History, UBC

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has led to a heretofore unseen surge of international interest in Ukraine. A part of the Soviet Union for over 70 years, Ukraine achieved its independence in 1991, starting the process of its democratization. Over the next three decades, Ukrainians have brought about significant political and societal changes in their country. But what is the Ukrainian memory of the Soviet past? What was the role of civic society in re-shaping Ukrainian memory of its Soviet past? How do Russians view the Soviet period of Ukraine? And now, after Russia’s two invasions of Ukraine and the tragic wars that have ensued, what changes are taking place in the collective culture of remembering among the people of Ukraine?

This series of lectures series thus aims to consider how conflicts are shaped by memory, and how they affect the memory and psyche of a people under attack.

Series Conveners: Nataliia Ivchyk, Political Sciences, Rivne State University and John Grace Memorial Holocaust Historian in Residence at Green College; and Richard Menkis, History

Event Dates: Sep 26, Oct 17, Feb 7

Sound Silence Power

Co-hosted with the Sound and the Humanities Research Cluster, UBC

Attending to sound opens up myriad potentialities. While historically silence has been wielded as an instrument of oppression, and listening practices have served to categorize acoustic expressions into hierarchical binaries—sound/noise, melody/racket, speech/babel, human voice/animal howl—recent scholars, practitioners and ordinary people have become attuned to the ways in which sound and listening may prove a potent source of empowerment, resistance and care. This series attends to the decolonizing and disruptive potential of sound in its many manifestations. Through a speaker series with some of the most dynamic thinkers in humanistic sound studies, as well as reading groups and a capstone symposium, participants are invited to note the entanglement of sound, silence and power in our everyday lives, politics and dwelling.

Join us for invited speakers exploring the potentialities of sound from a diversity of disciplinary perspectives, including Black Studies, Indigenous Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, More-than-Human Geographies, Transpacific Studies, Decolonial Studies and Disability Studies. 

Series Conveners: Tamara Mitchell, French, Hispanic and Italian Studies; and Rosanne Sia, Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice

Event Dates: Sep 28, Oct 19, Nov 30, Jan 25, Feb 29

Special Lectures and Events

Talks and performances by visitors invited to Green College and UBC for the Cecil H. and Ida Green Visiting Professorships Program, the Richard V. Ericson Lectures and other endowed appointments, and by distinguished Visiting Scholars, Writers, Artists, Journalists, etc. in Residence at the College, and Early Music Vancouver among others.

Event Dates: Sep 21, Nov 16, Nov 21, Nov 28, Nov 29, Jan 9, Jan 16, Jan 17, Jan 23, Feb 6, Feb 15, Feb 26, Mar 5, Mar 6, Mar 11, Mar 12, Mar 19, Apr 9, Apr 24

Unearthing Environmental Injustices

Organized by Green College Leading Scholars

Social and environmental sciences converge in this interdisciplinary series as they explore how environmental inequality issues in society intersect with health, history, art, education, science, law, Indigeneity and more. Series conveners aim to delve into the complex nature of environmental injustice, exploring the factors contributing to these disparities and the communities disproportionately affected by them. Join them through this seminar series as they dig and unearth perspectives to promote awareness around environmental injustices.

Series Conveners: Hassan Ahmad, Law; Nadine Borduas-Dedekind, Chemistry; William Brown, Theatre and Film; Tim Frandy, Central European and Northern European Studies; Keunhyun Park, Forest Resources Management; and Tina Wilson, Social Work

Event Dates: Nov 7, Jan 10, Feb 1,  Apr 3

The Whole Cloth Reading Series

Co-organized with Creative Writing, UBC

An experience in deep listening, each Whole Cloth Reading Series event features a single poet who reads an entire book of poems from cover to cover. While poets devote immense craft to shaping a book, public readings tend to favor selections and excerpts. Uniting writer and audience in a celebration of expansive and unhurried attention, this series creates a rare environment for the investigation of poetry, sound, delivery and reciprocity. Each event features a transformative (short!) book and concludes in time for a cordial reception and conversation.

Series Conveners: Elee Kraljii Gardiner, poet; Bronwen Tate, Creative Writing

Event Dates: Nov 8, Feb 13, Apr 10