Thursday, October 18, 2012
UBC and Stó:lō community members will celebrate the return of eleven ancestral remains from UBC’s Laboratory of Archaeology (LOA) on October 19, 2012 at 12:30 p.m. at the Stó:lō Resource Centre, 10 – 7201 Vedder Road, Chilliwack, BC. This repatriation represents a milestone in the Journey Home Project undertaken in collaboration amongst UBC LOA, Stó:lō Nation, Stó:lō Tribal Council, Coqualeetza Cultural Education Centre, and Sts’ailes First Nation.
Discussions and planning for this event began in 2006 when Sue Rowley, current Director of LOA, initiated the project by asking Stó:lō representatives if their communities had an interest in the return of ancestral remains which had ended up in LOA’s care, some since the 1950s.
LOA was a prior repository for the ‘found archaeological human remains.’ The locations of the recovered remains from the central Fraser Valley, including the Abbotsford-Sumas area, Chilliwack, and Agassiz, triggered the involvement of the Stó:lō. The Stó:lō House of Respect Care-taking Committee, a group of Stó:lō elders, cultural advisors and staff, formed to facilitate repatriation cases and issues on behalf of the Stó:lō community, played a lead role in the planning.
On October 19, vibrant Stó:lō songs will mark an important part of the physical return of the ancestors’ remains. Additional scientific analyses, continuing to be overseen by the Stó:lō Committee, will be carried out following their return home. Biographies of each of the eleven individuals and a set of community guidelines for the treatment of ancestral human remains are to be produced as outcomes of the collaboration between UBC LOA and the Stó:lō Committee.
UBC Film Production alumna Nimisha Mukerji’s Blood Relative was voted most popular Canadian documentary by Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) audiences. Blood Relative is a cinéma vérité documentary that follows the story of Indian activist Vinay Shetty, who is fighting to save two children dying from the rare disease, thalassemia. It is Mukerji’s second feature documentary and was produced in association with the Knowledge Network.
Mukerji’s debut feature 65_RedRoses was selected for Oprah Winfrey’s Documentary Club on OWN USA and won prizes at the Hot Docs International Film Festival, at VIFF and at the 2010 Banff World Television Awards following its broadcast premiere on CBC’s “The Passionate Eye”. She also received the 2009 Artistic Merit Award from Women in Film Vancouver and a 2010 Gemini nomination for Best Direction in a Documentary Program. Her short film The Arrival Hour won TIFF’s 2012 Audience Choice Award at the RBC Emerging Filmmakers Competition.
For more information, read the Oct. 13 Vancouver Sun article or visit http://www.bloodrelative.net/.
UBC staff are invited to join a cross-campus team competition to raise awareness for the United Way. Teams of four to 10 will go head to head with other departments and units across campus to compete for the United Way Cup of Victory. Registration deadline is November 13.
Date: November 14
Time: 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
Place: Golden Jubilee Room, IKBLC
Info: Register and more information.
For the tenth consecutive year, UBC Library and the Alma Mater Student Society are running their Food for Fines Campaign. From October 22 – November 4, $2 will be waived for every non-perishable food item (up to a maximum of $30). Donations also welcome. Food items will be distributed to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank and the AMS Food Bank.
For more information visit: http://about.library.ubc.ca/2012/10/16/food-for-fines-returns-oct-22-nov-4/.
UBC Library is once again offering its Innovative Dissemination of Research Award, a $2,000 award honouring UBC faculty, staff and students who are expanding the boundaries of research through the creative use of new tools and technologies. For more information about the award and to apply, visit http://scholcomm.ubc.ca/award/
Professor Jeff Young, P.Eng, has been named the new director of the Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory (AMPEL) for a three-year term effective July 1, 2012.
Young, of the UBC Department of Physics and Astronomy, is internationally recognized for his condensed matter physics research in photonics and nanostructures. He has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels and has held several administrative appointments including Acting Director of AMPEL (1997), Director of the Engineering Physics program (1996-2003), and Head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy (2004-2008).
For more information, visit: http://apsc.ubc.ca/apsc-eng/news/2012/10/ampel-welcomes-new-director.
The work of Asst. Prof. Kiley Hamlin of UBC’s Dept. of Psychology and other Canadian researchers will be featured in the documentary “Babies: Born to be Good?” which broadcasts on The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, on CBC Television, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT).
“A great deal of the breakthrough research in the area of moral development is being done by Canadians,” ” explains Eileen Thalenberg, director-writer of “Babies”. “As we travelled around Canada, the U.S. and China, we watched them at work with children from a few months old and up. What they are discovering is providing a whole new way of looking at the complexity of what even the youngest babies may be thinking.”
For more information, visit: http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/Shows/The+Nature+of+Things/Extras/ID/2289827492/.
Four UBC Engineering students were among 24hrs’ “ Top 24 Under 24″ list.
• Chemical and Biological Engineering student Michael Peters for his innovation and design of “The Actuator”, a wheelchair adaptation that prevents deep vein thrombosis.
• Mechanical Engineering student Andrea Palmer for her work as the technical lead and captain of the UBC Thunderbots, the autonomous soccer-playing robot team. She is also a councillor for the Women in Engineering student council, providing support and raising awareness of the role of women within the faculty.
• Engineering Physics student Patrick Wong for his commitment to figure skating and his leadership role as a skating coach to youth in his community.
• Computer Engineering student Harshanvit Singh Chhatwal for creating a community within UBC for international students while maintaining academic excellence.
For more information, visit: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/topic/top24.
A UBC undergraduate team has been awarded second place in the Plant Design project competition at the 62nd annual Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference. The award was presented to Cherie Tan, Paul Kim, Heather Kempthorne, Yvonee Hsieh, Kesly Gerbrandt, and Wendy Cheng. For more information, visit: http://blogs.apsc.ubc.ca/chbenews/2012/10/16/ug-award/.
The IEEE UBC branch received the Region 7 Exemplary Student Branch Award, which recognizes exemplary IEEE Student Branch operations. IEEE UBC chairperson Saba Ardeshiri accepted the award at the IEEE Canada Student Congress held in September in Mississauga. For more information, visit:
http://www.ece.ubc.ca/news/201210/ieee-ubc-branch-receives-award-exemplary-performance.
UBC Faculty of Applied Science announces its annual call for nominations for the UBC Engineering Alumni Awards.
Awards are presented to the UBC Engineering community in the following categories:
• Lifetime achievement (alumni)
• Community service (alumni)
• Young alumnus (alumni under 35 years)
• Future alumnus (current UBC Engineering students)
• Emeriti faculty (retired or emeriti)
Nomination deadline is December 14, 2012. For more information, visit: http://apsc.ubc.ca/apsc/awards/engineering-alumni-awards.
Pardon: Is Accountability for Past Wrongs Necessary for a Person or Nation to Move Forward?
Lecture Series: Canada Council Writer-in-Residence at Green College
Panelists: Madeleine Thien, novelist; Rawi Hage, writer, visual artist, and curator; Dana Claxton, Visual Arts, UBC
Date: October 18, 2012
Time: 5 – 6:30 p.m.
Place: Coach House, Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road
Info: www.greencollege.ubc.ca/whats_on/index/events712/2012-10.php
Vulnerability and the Human Condition: A Different Approach to Equality
Lecture Series: Annual Richard V. Ericson Lecture, Law and Society Series
Speakers: Martha Fineman, Cecil H. and Ida Green Visiting Professor, Green College; Prof. Robert W. Woodruff, Emory University School of Law
Date: October 25, 2012
Time: 4 – 5:30 p.m.
Place: Room 101, Law at Allard Hall,1822 East Mall
Info: www.greencollege.ubc.ca/whats_on/index/events719/2012-10.php
The Asia Pacific Memo series publishes short text memos or video interviews on current issues in Asia and across the Pacific. Subscribe to the twice-weekly published series at http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/.
Most recent memos:
• Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize in Literature – Interview with Dr. Christopher Rea of the Department of Asian Studies, UBC
• Change in Democratic Mongolia – Video Interview with Dr. Julian Dierkes of the Institute of Asian Research, UBC