Truth in Art, Imagination in Science

In its 25th anniversary year (1993-2018), Green College reaffirms it commitment to “university thinking at large” with a program of public lectures and discussions designed to encourage multidisciplinary conversation, test the limits of disciplinary and professional expertise, and build cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral capacity. This year there is a particular focus on blurring the traditional boundaries in art and science. #truthInArt #imaginationInScience #25yearsandcounting

The following series will run through the coming year. As always, unless otherwise noted, all Green College events are free of charge and open to all.

Interdisciplinary and Cross-Sectoral Lecture and Discussion Series

Critical Nationalisms, Counterpublics
Critical Nationalisms, Counterpublics addresses our shared situation of living amongst resurgent and competing nationalisms at a time when our critical and community discourses refuse or redefine the category of ‘nation’ or use other categories entirely. In a context saturated with resurgent populism, white supremacy and colonial settler violence what do our forms and communities of resistance offer as a counter to the renewed circulation of nationalist language, feeling and action? How do we enact our critical and creative capacities against or despite this daily reality? Confirmed speakers in the series will address the topic from their groundings in black studies, critical theory, anti-colonial resistance and the psychic life of power, with areas as far flung as the Caribbean, North Africa and Latin America. Their disciplinary homes range widely and include: literature, political economy, philosophy and anthropology. The series leads up to a conference in March on CNCP with international keynotes and participants. Series poster available soon.

Transforming Silence: the Creative Power of Quiet     
People around the world cultivate silence as a source of ingenuity, equanimity, and creative transformation. This series offers an expansive perspective that differs from the current scholarly focus on oppressive and destructive silences. Our speakers will consider the role of silence in various cultural contexts, including Coast Salish healing practices, acoustic ecology and rainforest conservation, Buddhist meditation, eighteenth-century French pantomime, and temple rites that respond to current rapid urbanization in China. A film screening and director’s discussion of In Pursuit of Silence (2017) will highlight the contemporary world-wide dilemma of noise pollution and the history of humanity’s attraction to aural minimalism. Together these speakers explore how varieties of sociocultural silence act as fruitful catalysts for renewal and reconfiguration of aesthetic, experiential, and intellectual worlds. Series poster available soon.

Truth in Art, Imagination in Science     
Can art help us navigate a “post-truth” age? Is there a resonant truth within dance, music, sculpture, architecture, colour or sound, and what role does truth play in an artist's work? How do we trust and recognize truth in a time when the very concept is being so boorishly vandalized? In Term 1 of this double series, Green College’s 16th Writer in Residence, Alison Wearing, brings together some of Vancouver’s finest artists—multidisciplinary artists, installation artists, a composer, a choreographer, an actor, a singer and a writer—to discuss, explore and demonstrate answers to these questions and others. Each of the three events that she will host will feature three different artists, with wide-ranging perspectives, manners of expression and robust senses of humour. In addition to the panels in Alison’s series, the College will host several other presentations in both Term 1 and Term 2 on the theme of Truth in Art and its natural congener in an interdisciplinary academic setting, namely: Imagination in Science. Contributions under the second heading will include talks by Cecil H. and Ida Green Visiting Professor in Residence, Andrei Barvinski, a leading Russian quantum physicist, and Hewitt Bostock Lecturer in Residence, Corey Cerovsek, who is a concert violinist and polymath. Series poster available soon.

Early Music Vancouver at Green College     
Early Music Vancouver is pleased to return this season for the seventh successive year with a series of talks and chamber music concerts, featuring artists who will be appearing also in its Main Winter Series. These concerts will offer Green College residents and friends an opportunity to hear and discuss early music repertoire in an intimate and informal setting.

Green College Leading Scholars Series     
In the fall of 2017, Green College appointed its fourth cohort of Leading Scholars from among recently appointed faculty members at UBC. Those scholars represent the following fields: Anthropology and First Nations Languages, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Computing Science, Educational Studies, English, Global Environmental Change and Food Security, Law, Neurology and Psychology. Over the past year, these scholars have shared ideas and developed connections across disciplinary and field boundaries. This series provides opportunities for the rest of the Green College community to share in their cross-disciplinary conversations. ​Series poster available soon.

Green College 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 John V. Clyne Lectureship, the Dal Grauer Memorial Lectureship and other endowed appointments, and by distinguished Visiting Scholars, Writers, Artists, Journalists, etc. in Residence at the College, among others.

Resident Members' Series     
The Green College Members' Series each week features a different presenter (or presenters) from among the Resident Members of Green College. Graduate students and Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholars are encouraged to offer talks on their areas of research or study and, as appropriate, to bring in their research colleagues from outside the College too. Like all academic programming at the College, these talks are open not just to Green College members, but to the community at large both within and beyond UBC. ​

Senior Scholars' Series: The Passions that Drive Academic Life     
This series is convened on behalf of Green College and the UBC Association of Professors Emeriti. It provides opportunities for senior academics to describe their personal experiences and journeys through their own academic careers. Presenters will distil a lifetime of scholarly work. Some will examine the new projects that have grown out of that work; others may reflect upon their changing attitudes to university life. The series is multidisciplinary and gives expression to the speakers’ mature and personal insights. The speakers hope to engage graduate students with senior faculty, to expose the academic community to UBC’s most experienced academics, and to welcome the greater UTown/Point Grey neighbourhood to the richness of academic life at UBC. ​Series poster can be downloaded here.

Additional programming details are in the “What’s on…” section of the College’s home-page or you scan our full listing of events here. Subscribe to our weekly Green List newsletter here.

How to Attend Dinner:
Guests are welcome to join Resident Members for dinner at the College ($16 students, $20 others). Dinner is served in the Great Hall of Graham House from 6:15 to 7:30pm, Sunday to Thursday. Dinner includes three courses with usually a meat or vegetarian option and coffee/tea/juice. Wine and beer may be purchased with dinner.  Note, however, that the kitchen cannot guarantee a full array of menu-choices for those who arrive after 7:15pm. Reservations are required. For information on how to make a reservation, click here.