Academic Appetizer Hour with Green College Leading Scholars

• Friedrich Götz, Matias Margulis, Chris Patterson and Bronwen Tate
  Livestreamed
  Thursday, February 3, 5-6:30pm 

  in the series
  Green College Leading Scholars' Series
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• Bite-sized research presentations by recently appointed UBC Faculty Members across disciplines. Faculty presentations in this third session by the 2021-23 Leading Scholars Program cohort include:

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  How Places Differ Psychologically and Why it Matters
  Friedrich Martin Götz, Assistant Professor, Psychology

  I am a social-personality and geographical psychologist, pursuing an interdisciplinary Big Data approach to investigate the causes and consequences of spatial differences in psychological characteristics (e.g., personality traits and values). Applying classic interactionist theories from social and personality psychology to real-world settings, I adopt two integrated streams of research: On the micro-level, I study how distinct regional psychological profiles emerge and shape individual cognitions, behaviours and emotions (e.g., personal spending and well-being). On the macro-level, I research how regional psychological profiles shape an area’s social, political and economic climate and affect relevant macro-level outcomes (e.g., suicide prevalence, election results and start-up rates).

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  How the United Nations' Agencies Shape the Rules of the World Trade Organization
  Matias Margulis, Assistant Professor, Public Policy and Global Affairs

  My research centres on the global governance and politics of food security. Food is recognized by the United Nations as a fundamental human right, yet nearly one billion people suffer from hunger and that number is rising. The impacts of climate change on food production, a new global land rush, and the rising use of foodstuffs to produce renewable energy are all transforming the global food economy and creating new challenges for ensuring equitable access to food. I seek to understand the role of global economic and political institutions in facilitating food insecurity as well as providing potential solutions.

Of Floating Isles
Chris Patterson, Assistant Professor, Social Justice

My friends call me Kris. I am a gender/genre fuzzy dad, a taro-and-potato mash of Filipino and white, and the agnostic grandson of two fervent Christian preachers. My research on race, literature, queer erotics and video games manifested in the books Transitive Cultures: Anglophone Literature of the Transpacific (Rutgers 2018) and Open World Empire: Race, Erotics, and the Global Rise of Video Games (NYU 2020). I also write creative works under my matrilineal name, Kawika Guillermo, like the novels Stamped (2018) and All Flowers Bloom (2020). I've lived in Las Vegas, Seattle, Gimhae, Nanjing, Hong Kong, and now I'm here.

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  The Last Three Years of an Experimental College
  Bronwen Tate, Assistant Professor, Creative Writing

  My areas of interest and accomplishment include poetry, literary criticism, creative nonfiction and scholarship on the teaching and learning of creative writing. I’m currently at work on a book of creative nonfiction that explores the power and traps of stories and storytelling against the backdrop of the final years of an experimental college in crisis. As faculty in UBC’s Educational Leadership stream, I’m also investigating teaching strategies that invite students to experience the deep process and sustained attention necessary for art-making, which are often in tension with social pressures towards efficiency and distraction.

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• Unless otherwise noted, all of our lectures are free to attend and do not require registration.