An abandoned boat in a swamp near Mumbai symbolizes how environmental histories, including colonialism resource extraction, may become irrelevant as climate change takes centre stage in global concerns.

History and Sociology Speaker Series returns for Futures Without a Past

What: UBCO History and Sociology Speaker Series
Who: Rohan D’Souza, Associate Professor, Kyoto University, Japan
When: Tuesday, September 17 starting at 6:45 p.m.
Where: Okanagan Regional Library, 1380 Ellis Street, Kelowna

If we want to save the planet from climate change, how do we protect the environmental histories of South Asian cultures?

Concepts such as the great acceleration—population growth, rapid consumption of energy and increasing greenhouse gases—only add to recent anxieties about climate change and threats on a planetary scale. But these anxieties, in particular the idea of the Anthropocene—or the age of humans—have begun to unsettle accepted interpretations of South Asian environmental histories.

These environmental histories, which include colonial resource extraction, have traditionally been preoccupied by efforts to explain the complicated and troubled relationships between ecological change and colonial rule.

Will saving the planet require society to ignore local and regional histories about South Asia’s experiences with European colonialism? Will a growing obsession with the problem of futurism make the past irrelevant and turn the present into a mere hostage of the future?

UBCO’s History and Sociology Speaker Series brings Kyoto University’s Rohan D’Souza to Kelowna for a special presentation on September 17. During his talk, Futures Without a Past, D’Souza will try to address some of these questions.

This is a free event, but pre-registration is required at: futureswithoutapast.eventbrite.com

UBC Okanagan’s History and Sociology Speaker Series, in partnership with the Okanagan Regional Library, brings leading thinkers from around the world to the Okanagan to discuss some of the big issues of today, tomorrow and the past.

About UBC's Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning in the heart of British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. Ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world, UBC is home to bold thinking and discoveries that make a difference. Established in 2005, the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca

The Okanagan Valley has seen a number of groups, including casino workers, walk off the job in protest of wages and working conditions.

Labour resurgence and injustices at work topics of discussion

What: Envisioning Labour’s Future in the Okanagan
Who: Unionists and worker activists
When: Saturday, May 18, starting at 10:30 a.m.
Where: Okanagan Regional Library, 1380 Ellis Street, Kelowna, BC

The Okanagan Valley has seen its fair share of labour disputes over the past few years. A number of groups, including casino workers and bus drivers have walked off the job in protest of wages and working conditions.

Similar to other areas in Canada, labour in the Okanagan has been challenged by a declining post-war economy and the emergence of a post-industrial economy based on service, information technology and the health and wellness sectors.

The majority of these sectors can be difficult to organize, prompting labour groups to invent campaigns to evolve their organization strategies.

Envisioning Labour’s Future in the Okanagan is the first event to publically discuss labour and its relevance to the community in the absence of a strike or protest.

This open-dialogue event invites unionists, worker activists and the public to come together to discuss the recent resurgence of labour in the Okanagan, and how workers are organizing to challenge injustices at work.

The event will feature multiple guest speakers throughout the morning, including:

• Scott Lovell, president, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1722
• Ian Gordon, president, North Okanagan Labour Council
• Gayle Furgala, vice-president, component 17 Okanagan casino workers, BCGEU

This is a free community event being hosted by UBCO’s History and Sociology Department, the North Okanagan Labour Council and the Okanagan Regional Library.

No advanced registration is required. To find out more, visit: www.eventbrite.ca/e/envisioning-labours-future-in-the-okanagan-tickets-61178983988

How mass mining changed people’s lives, moved entire towns

What: Four Towns that Moved: How Mass Mining Changed Life and Landscape in the 20th Century
Who: Eagle Glassheim, Professor and Head of Department of History, University of British Columbia
When: Monday, February 19 at 6:45 p.m.
Where: Okanagan Regional Library, Ellis Street Branch, 1380 Ellis Street, Kelowna

Without mass destruction mining, the mass production and consumption that became common for much of the world in the 20th century would not be possible.

In the early part of 20th century, construction and consumption vastly increased. In order to supply the raw materials required to feed this consumption, mining technologies had to keep pace. Highly-mechanized, high-throughput, mass-destruction mining resulted, and led to surges in production which fundamentally changed landscapes, labour and ways of life in mining regions.

On Monday, February 19, at a special event organized by UBC Okanagan’s History and Sociology department, Eagle Glassheim, a professor of History at UBC, explores these changes through case studies of mining towns in Europe, Canada and the United States.

His talk will explore what the recent history of mass destruction mining reveals about connections between ourselves, the materials of our consumption, and remote mining landscapes and communities.

Join the discussion at this free, public event.

UBC’s Okanagan History and Sociology department, in partnership with the Okanagan Regional Library, brings leading thinkers from around the world to the Okanagan to discuss some of the big issues of today, tomorrow, and the past.

About UBC's Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning in the heart of British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. Ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world, UBC is home to bold thinking and discoveries that make a difference. Established in 2005, the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

UBC hosts award-winning author who writes about Holocaust-era secret

What: Siberian Exile: Blood, War and a Granddaughter's Reckoning
Who: Julija Šukys, award-winning author and assistant professor at the University of Missouri
When: Thursday, February 8 at 6:45 p.m.
Where: Okanagan Regional Library, Ellis Street Branch, 1380 Ellis Street, Kelowna

There are certain things about our families that we know as fact. But what happens when what we thought we knew turns out to be only partly true?

This is the question author Julija Šukys struggled with when she began to write about a well-known, albeit dramatic, family history of her grandparents who were forcibly separated during the Second World War and not reunited for 25 years.

The family story is of a proud people forced from their homeland by soldiers. In mid-June 1941, three Red Army soldiers arrested Šukys’ grandmother and sent her to Siberia where she spent 17 years working on a collective farm, separated from her children and husband. The family story maintained that it was all a terrible mistake.

But when Šukys began digging into letters, oral histories, audio recordings and KGB documents, her research soon revealed a shattering Holocaust-era secret—a family connection to the killing of 700 Jews in a small Lithuanian border town. According to KGB documents, the man in charge when those massacres took place was Šukys’ grandfather.

Šukys will discuss this captivating story, and examine what happens when family truths become fiction and how forgiveness operates across generations and the barriers of life and death.

Join the discussion at this free, public event presented by UBC Okanagan. Register at siberianexile.eventbrite.com. Šukys’ book Siberian Exile will be available for purchase from the UBC Bookstore at the event.

This event is organized by the Remembering and Commemorating Trauma Research Cluster, a cross-disciplinary group of UBC scholars interested in the impact of traumatic events and in exploring ways in which our responses to trauma can be used to heal, reconcile and empower.

About UBC's Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning in the heart of British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. Ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world, UBC is home to bold thinking and discoveries that make a difference. Established in 2005, the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

Debate about the Life and Work of Jesus Christ continues

What: Public talk about history, science and religion and how it changed 19th century Britain
Who: Ian Hesketh, Australian Research Council Future Fellow with the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland
When: Tuesday, Nov. 28 from 2 to 4 p.m.
Where: Science building, room SCI 337 at UBC’s Okanagan campus

Ian Hesketh, an expert on the relationship between history, science and religion will discuss his research that examines the politics of publishing a sensational anonymous account of Christ’s life on November 28.

Hesketh is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow with the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland. He is the author of three books: Of Apes and Ancestors: Evolution, Christianity, and the Oxford Debate (2009); The Science of History in Victorian Britain (2011); and, most recently, Victorian Jesus: J.R. Seeley, Religion, and the Cultural Authority of Anonymity (2017).

“What gives this special interest is that Ian is one of our own,” says Assoc. Prof. of History James Hull. Hesketh is originally from Quesnel, BC, and completed a Bachelor of Arts in history at Okanagan University College in Kelowna before going on to earn a master’s degree and PhD at York University. “One of his earlier books is used as a text in a history course that he took from me as an undergraduate.”

When the book Ecce Homo: A Survey in the Life and Work of Jesus Christ was published in 1865 it created an absolute sensation, selling upwards of 20,000 copies in just over a year.

The subject of intense debate and analysis in the periodical and newspaper presses, Ecce Homo presented Christ not as a worker of miracles but rather as an enthusiast for humanity. While this was a provocative claim, the fact that the book was anonymously published added a further layer of intrigue to the book’s reception.

Hesketh’s talk will examine the varied reception of Ecce Homo as well as the politics of publishing a sensational anonymous account of Christ’s life.

“As in the mid-Victorian Britain described in Ian’s book and this talk, in an age of social media we are again in a time of controversial anonymous publishing of opinions,” says Hull. “Then as now, some found the cloak of anonymity liberating while others questioned the practice.”

Co-sponsored by the Department of History and Sociology in the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, the talk is open to the public. Refreshments will be served, and there will be an opportunity to meet Ian Hesketh following the talk.

About UBC's Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning in the heart of British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. Ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world, UBC is home to bold thinking and discoveries that make a difference. Established in 2005, the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

Canadian filmmaker Min Sook Lee will be visiting UBC Okanagan’s campus next week.

Award-winning Canadian filmmaker Min Sook Lee will be visiting UBC Okanagan’s campus next week.

Min Sook, a ground-breaking artist and Canadian filmmaker, will be a visiting scholar—meeting and working with students and professors in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies. She has a diverse and prolific portfolio of multimedia work and films and an interdisciplinary background in labour, border politics, documentary film/video, art, and social change.

"Min Sook’s powerful and wide-ranging work in the media arts will appeal to diverse audiences,” says Ruthann Lee, assistant professor of Cultural Studies at UBC’s Okanagan campus. “Her background in social and political justice combines issues of race, labour, sexuality, and gender in unexpected and profound ways.”

“We are absolutely thrilled to have Min Sook share her insights and award-winning film work during her stay as the FCCS Visiting Scholar," adds Lee.

Min Sook is an assistant professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design University where she teaches Art and Social Change.

Min Sook’s documentary The Real Inglorious Bastards (2012) was honoured with the Canadian Screen Award for Best History Documentary in 2013. Her latest documentary, Migrant Dreams (2016), a portrait of migrant workers in Canada, debuted at Hot Docs this spring.

Min Sook will spend a week on campus from February 19 to 25 working with students, faculty and participating in a series of free, public events. For details about upcoming events, contact: Ruthann Lee at ruthann.lee@ubc.ca

When: Monday, February 20, at 6 p.m.
What: Film Screening | Tiger Spirit: A Journey Through Korea's Divided Heart
Who: Min Sook Lee, filmmaker and visiting scholar
Where: Kelowna Forum, 1317 Ethel Street, Kelowna Hosted by the Okanagan Korean Culture and Knowledge Society

What: Research Seminar | Building Resistance Through Art
Who: Min Sook Lee, filmmaker and visiting scholar
When: Tuesday, February 21, 12:30 p.m. 
Where: ARTS 368, Arts Building, 1147 Research Rd, UBC Okanagan
Starting a Conversation Brown Bag Series Discussion, Hosted by the Institute for Community Engaged Research

When: Wednesday, February 22, at 3:30 p.m.
What: Film Screening | Badge of Pride: Gay Cops Come Out
Who: Min Sook Lee, filmmaker and visiting scholar
Where: University Theatre, Administration Building, ADM 026, UBC Okanagan

When: Friday, February 24, at 6 p.m.
What: Film Screening & Community Forum | Migrant Dreams: Migrant Workers Resist
Who: Min Sook Lee, filmmaker and visiting scholar
Where: Mary Irwin Theatre, 421 Cawston Ave., Kelowna
Hosted by the AlterKnowledge Discussion Series and the Cultural Studies Annual Visiting Speaker Program.

While this event is free, preregistration is required: migrant-dreams.eventbrite.ca

Min Sook's visit is sponsored by UBC's Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies; AlterKnowledge Discussion Series; Cultural Studies Annual Visiting Speaker Program; Equity and Inclusion Office; Institute for Community Engaged Research; Community Culture, and Global Studies; History and Sociology; University of Alberta Press; Okanagan Korean Culture and Knowledge Society; Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture.

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The Okanagan Research Forum will discuss changes this region is facing due to climate change, population growth, and land use changes.

What: Okanagan Research Forum
Who: UBC Okanagan Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience, and Ecosystem Services (BRAES) and UBC Okanagan Institute for Community Engaged Research (ICER)
When: Monday, December 5 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with keynote lecture 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Where: Kelowna Yacht Club banquet room, 1370 Water St, Kelowna

The Okanagan Research Forum invites the community to listen to experts and take part in an open discussion about the future of the Okanagan landscape.

Hosted by UBC Okanagan’s BRAES Institute and ICER Institute in collaboration with partner organizations, the forum will be about sharing information and encouraging conversation between members of the community, locally engaged organizations, government and academia. Event partners include the Okanagan Basin Water Board, Okanagan Nation Alliance, BC Wildlife Federation, City of Kelowna (Imagine Kelowna), and the Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Program.

The theme of this year’s event is resilience and will include plenary presentations and discussions by expert panelists to explore how the concept of resilience applies to social, cultural and ecological systems. The afternoon will include a facilitated working session and group discussions.

The evening keynote lecture on community resilience will be presented by Assoc. Prof. Kyle Powys Whyte, indigenous philosopher and activist from Michigan State University.

Both the daytime session and the keynote lecture are open to the public. There is a nominal registration fee for the daytime sessions to cover the cost of food and beverages. The keynote is free.

To register, or get more information visit okresearchforum.geolive.ca or contact Carolina Restrepo at carolina.restrepo@ubc.ca

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Seth Klein speaks in Vernon, October 11.

What: Climate Justice in BC: Re-Imagining a Good Green Life
Who: Seth Klein, BC Director for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
When: Tuesday, October 11, starting at 7 p.m.
Where: Schubert Centre, 3505 30th Ave., Vernon

The hot topics of equality, jobs, and climate justice will be the focus of a special presentation with Seth Klein in Vernon next week.

Klein’s talk, Climate Justice: How BC can be carbon-zero with more equality and thousands of good jobs, will share key findings and policy solutions produced by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative’s Climate Justice Project.

Klein is the BC director for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). Much of his research deals primarily with welfare policy, poverty, inequality and economic security.

His talk is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by UBC Okanagan, the Sustainable Environment Network Society, the Canadian Federation of University Women and the North Okanagan Shuswap Green Party.

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What: Annual Gathering of the BC Food Systems Network
Who: Farmers, ranchers, fishers, First Nations and community members who produce food
When: Friday, July 15, starting at 9 a.m. to Sunday, July 17
Where: En'owkin Centre, Lot 45 Green Mountain Road, Penticton, BC

The BC Food Systems Network (BCFSN) works to create healthy, just and sustainable food systems in British Columbia by strengthening connections, nurturing capacity, and supporting food policy at all levels.

BCFSN works with farmers and ranchers, fishers, First Nations, and people in communities working to rebuild their food systems from the ground up. This year, the three-day event will focus on Reconciling Cultures and Re-connecting Foodscapes.

The event is an opportunity for various cultures to come together with the Syilx and other Indigenous people to explore what it means to truly reconcile with the first peoples of the land and water and reconnect with and honour the lands and waters that are vital to food systems and community wellbeing.

This event is hosted by UBC’s Institute for Community Engaged Research, the BC Food Systems Network, the En’owkin Centre, and the Penticton Indian Band.

For more information or to register, visit: eventbrite.ca/e/bcfsn-annual-gathering-july-15-17-2016-tickets-19364150696

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Time with his dying father leads to new book, and profound new quality of life

Award-winning musician, journalist, and writer Wab Kinew will talk about his new book The Reason You Walk when he visits Kelowna September 30. Kinew is the next speaker in UBC Okanagan’s Distinguished Speaker Series. Photo courtesy of: Katelyn Malo

What: Distinguished Speaker Series: The Reason You Walk
Who: Wab Kinew, Canadian journalist, author, hip-hop musician
When: Wednesday, September 30 at 7 p.m.
Where: Kelowna Community Theatre, 1375 Water St., Kelowna 

A celebrated journalist, writer, musician, and hip-hop artist Wab Kinew knows what it’s like to be at a major crossroads in life. Growing up, initially on a reserve in northern Ontario and then in the inner city of Winnipeg, Kinew could have become a victim of circumstance and his family’s history. His father was raised in a residential school; stories of abuse, rape, alcoholism, and brutality were the constant shadows of his family’s background.

Kinew’s path could have taken any direction. He made mistakes. But he also asked questions. And he expected changes. When those didn’t come, he made his own changes and began speaking out about why Aboriginal people are treated differently than non-Aboriginals.

Already successful in his career, Kinew decided to spend time reconnecting with his dad shortly after his father was diagnosed with cancer. His book, The Reason You Walk, is the result of that time together and the conversations and healing that took place. This chapter in his life will be the main topic of Kinew’s talk when he visits Kelowna as part of UBC Okanagan’s Distinguished Speaker Series September 30.

Talented, passionate and smart, Kinew — who has a degree in economics — has become an accomplished journalist and a motivational speaker. He helped produce and host the acclaimed CBC series 8th Fire, has hosted Canada Reads, is an Aljazeera America correspondent, and at the same time is the Associate Vice-President of Indigenous Affairs at the University of Winnipeg. His hip hop music has won an Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Award, his journalism has won accolades, and he’s been nominated for a Gemini. Postmedia News has called him one of “nine Aboriginal movers and shakers you should know.”

Kinew will speak at the Kelowna Community Theatre, 1375 Water Street on Wednesday, September 30 at 7 p.m. His visit is part of the UBC Okanagan’s Distinguished Speaker Series which is presented by the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences. This event is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required.

To register, visit: www.speakers.ok.ubc.ca

The Reason You Walk will be published this fall and UBC’s Bookstore plans to provide the book for sale at the event.

The Distinguished Speaker Series brings to the Okanagan compelling speakers, with unique perspectives on issues that affect our region, our country and our world. The theme of the series is A Civil and Sustainable Society.

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