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Featured Events

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For this Big Thinking event author Kim Thúy will share her life’s journey, fleeing Vietnam as a young refugee with her family and eventually making Canada her home. Her tale is captured in her autobiographical, award-winning book Ru, which has made waves in her home province of Quebec and has recently been released in English Canada. In speaking about her novel, Thúy will explore the impact that war has on families, the role of memory in her story and the privilege of history.

Kim Thúy left Vietnam as a boat person when she was ten years old. She has worked as a seamtress, an interpreter, a lawyer, a restaurant chef-owner and a guest chef on various radio and television stations. Ru is her first novel, published by Libre Expression in October 2009. The rights have been sold in 20 countries. It was a finalist on different prizes and has won the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Grand Prix RTL/Lire 2010 and the Grand Prix du Salon du Livre de Montréal 2010

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Dans cet événement Voir grand, l’auteure Kim Thúy partagera le parcours de sa vie, la fuite du Vietnam comme jeune réfugiée avec sa famille et finalement son établissement au Canada. Son histoire est retracée dans le livre autobiographique plusieurs fois primé, Ru, qui a trouvé un grand écho dans sa province adoptive du Québec et qui vient d’être publié au Canada anglais. En parlant de son livre, Thúy évoquera l’impact de la guerre sur les familles, le rôle de la mémoire dans sa vie et le privilège de l’histoire.

Kim Thúy a quitté le Vietnam avec les boat people à l’âge de dix ans. Elle a été couturière, interprète, avocate, restauratrice et chef invitée sur différentes chaînes de radio et de télévision. Ru est son premier roman, paru chez Libre Expression en octobre 2009 et dont les droits ont été vendus dans 20 pays. Le livre a été finaliste de plusieurs prix littéraires et a obtenu le Prix littéraire du Gouverneur général 2010,  le Grand Prix RTL-Lire 2010 et le Grand Prix du Salon du livre de Montréal 2010.

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Addressing today’s complex, global issues effectively and equitably are well beyond the purview of any one discipline, sector or country. Working collaboratively and sharing the best knowledge available is the most effective strategy if true social innovation—that which affects behaviour and improves quality of life—is to be realized for the benefit of all citizens.
 
In this Big Thinking address of the 2012 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, will speak about the significance of scholarship and collaboration in today’s world. This discussion will illuminate the role of scholarship in society and the importance of collaboration across university, community and private sectors to solve today’s and tomorrow’s most pressing issues. His remarks will be followed by a moderated armchair discussion with public figures tackling key questions: how can we deepen university-community engagement, what are the impediments to effective coalitions and what tools or strategies do we need to overcome them?
 
His Excellency has served as professor, dean and president at several Canadian universities. He served as the president of the University of Waterloo before becoming Canada’s 28th governor general.

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Aborder les complexes enjeux mondiaux actuels de façon efficace et équitable est un défi qu’aucun pays, secteur ou discipline ne peut relever seul. Collaborer et échanger les meilleures connaissances disponibles est la stratégie la plus efficace pour arriver à une véritable innovation sociale – celle qui modifie les comportements et améliore la qualité de vie – qui profitera à l’ensemble des citoyens.

Dans sa causerie Voir grand du Congrès 2012 des sciences humaines, Son Excellence le très honorable David Johnston, gouverneur général du Canada, parlera de l’importance de l’activité savante et de la collaboration dans le monde d’aujourd’hui. La discussion mettra en évidence le rôle de l’activité savante dans la société et l’importance de la collaboration entre les universités, les collectivités et le secteur privé dans la résolution des problèmes les plus pressants d’aujourd’hui et de demain. Ses observations seront suivies d’une discussion informelle avec des personnalités qui répondront à d’importantes questions : Comment peut-on approfondir l’engagement entre les universités et les collectivités? Quels sont les obstacles à la création de coalitions efficaces? De quels outils ou de quelles stratégies aura-t-on besoin pour surmonter ces obstacles?
 
Son Excellence a été professeur, doyen et recteur de plusieurs universités canadiennes. Il était recteur de la University of Waterloo avant de devenir le 28e gouverneur général du Canada. 

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Sponsored by the Canada Foundation for Innovation

As governments embrace the goal of innovation and look to our national institutions for support, they are placing new demands on universities to play a larger role in the cultural, economic and social lives of the communities in which they operate. This expanded role is creating new opportunities for universities to serve their communities and stakeholders in more complex and dynamic ways.

What do we mean by “service,” and how is the meaning changing? How do we define “community,” and how can we understand how working academics relate to the communities in which they work?

This panel, sponsored by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, brings together Gilles G. Patry, President and CEO, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Reeta Tremblay, Vice-President Academic and Provost, University of Victoria, Jeffrey Keshen, Dean, Faculty of Arts, Mount Royal University, and Yves Mauffette, Vice-recteur à la recherche et à la creation, Université de Québec à Montréal. The panelists will  investigate new models of service in Canadian universities, looking specifically at how university leaders are defining “service” in their institutional, regional, national and global contexts.

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Parrainé par la Fondation canadienne pour l’innovation


À mesure que l’innovation devient un objectif pour les gouvernements qui font appel au soutien de nos institutions nationales, nos universités sont incitées à jouer un rôle accru dans la vie culturelle, économique et sociale des collectivités dans lesquelles elles sont insérées. Ce rôle élargi donne aux universités de nouvelles occasions de servir leurs collectivités et les intervenants du milieu de façons plus évoluées et dynamiques.

Qu’entendons-nous par « service » et quelle signification revêt-il au fil du temps? Que recouvre le terme « collectivité »? Comment les universitaires s’identifient-ils à leur collectivité?

Cette table ronde, parrainée par la Fondation canadienne pour l’innovation met en présence Gilles G. Patry, président-directeur général de la Fondation canadienne pour l’innovation, Reeta Tremblay, vice-présidente aux affaires universitaires et vice-rectrice, University of Victoria, Jeffrey Keshen, doyen, Faculty of Arts, Mount Royal University, et Yves Mauffette, vice-recteur à la recherche et à la création, Université du Québec à Montréal Les panélistes se pencheront sur les nouveaux modèles de services dans les universités canadiennes, et notamment sur le sens que les dirigeants des établissements universitaires donnent à la notion de « service » dans les contextes institutionnel, régional, national et international.

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Sidonie Smith is Martha Guernsey Colby Collegiate Professor of English and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan and was the 2010 President of the Modern Language Association of America. Her fields of interest include human rights and personal narrative, autobiography studies, feminist theory, and postcolonial literatures. Some of her recent books on these subjects include Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives (with Julia Watson, 2001), Moving Lives: Women’s Twentieth Century Travel Narratives (2001), and Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition (with Kay Schaffer, 2004). The second expanded edition of Reading Autobiography appeared in May 2010.

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Sidonie Smith est la Martha Guernsey Colby Collegiate Professor of English and Women’s Studies à la University of Michigan et était en 2010 la présidente de la Modern Language Association of America. Ses champs d’intérêt comprennent les droits humaines et les récits personnels, l’étude des autobiographies, la théorie féministe et les littératures postcoloniales. Parmi ses plus récents ouvrages sur ces questions on trouve Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives (avec Julia Watson, 2001), Moving Lives: Women’s Twentieth Century Travel Narratives (2001), et Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition (avec Kay Schaffer, 2004). La seconde édition de Reading Autobiography a été publiée en mai 2010.

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This Big Thinking lecture at Congress 2012 explores the role libraries and archives have played in the development of Jane Urquhart’s fiction. In her talk, Urquhart discusses how texts she accidentally discovered in libraries have affected the writing of her novels, including The Stone Carvers (2001) and Away (1993), winner of the Trillium Award and a finalist for the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She also delves into the ways in which intentional research works its way onto her page.

Jane Urquhart is the prize-winning author of seven internationally published novels, and is a Chevalier of the Ordre des arts et des lettres in France as well as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

She has been writer-in-residence on several occasions, and has received 9 honorary doctorates from Canadian Universities. During the winter and spring of 1997, she held the Presidential Writer-in-Residence Fellowship at the University of Toronto.


Photo credit: John Carter

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Cette causerie Voir grand au Congrès 2012 explore le rôle qu’ont joué les bibliothèques et les archives dans l’œuvre de fiction de Jane Urquhart. Dans sa conférence, Mme Urquhart discute de la façon dont certains textes, découverts par hasard dans des bibliothèques, ont affecté l’écriture de d ses romans dont Les Amants de pierre (2001) et La Foudre et le Sable (1993), gagnant du Prix Trillium et finaliste au prestigieux International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Elle aborde également la façon dont la recherche internationale s’immisce dans son écriture.

Jane Urquhart est l’auteure primée de sept romans pubiés internationalement, est chevalier de l’Ordre des arts et des lettres de France et officière de l’Ordre du Canada.

Elle a été écrivaine en résidence à plusieurs reprises  et a reçu neuf doctorats honorifiques d’universités canadiennes. Au printemps et à l’été 1997, elle a titulaire de la Presidential Writer-in-Residence Fellowship à la University of Toronto.

Photo: John Carter

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University faculty have specialized knowledge and a privileged position in society. But do they use that knowledge and privilege to inform their role as citizens, or are there constraints within the university that inhibit their full democratic engagement? Is it possible for idealism and a robust commitment to social justice to flourish, or even endure, in the modern Canadian university? Or are the roles of academic and citizen in fact contradictory? In her Big Thinking lecture at Congress 2012, Mary Eberts suggests that these questions hit hardest for junior academics who are dependent on the good opinion of colleagues for tenure and promotion, and on finding favour with funders.

Mary Eberts is currently the Ariel F. Sallows Chair in Human Rights at the University of Saskatchewan. In 2004–2005, she held the Gordon F. Henderson Chair in Human Rights at the University of Ottawa, and for the past several years she has taught in the summer program on International Women’s Human Rights at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). She was involved in the crafting of the equality guarantees of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is a co-founder of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), and has been litigation counsel to the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) for twenty years. Recognition of her work includes the Governor-General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons’ Case, the Law Society of Upper Canada Gold Medal and several honorary degrees.
 

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Les professeurs d’université ont un savoir spécialisé et une position privilégiée dans la société. Mais usent-ils de cette connaissance et de ce privilège pour asseoir leur rôle de citoyens, ou existe-t-il des freins au sein de l’université, qui limiteraient leur plein engagement démocratique? Un idéalisme et un engagement profond pour la justice sociale peuvent-ils naître, voire perdurer, au sein de l’université canadienne? Ou bien, les rôles d’universitaire et de citoyen sont-ils en fait contradictoires? Dans sa causerie Voir grand au Congrès 2012, Mary Eberts émet l’hypothèse que ces questions pèsent plus lourdement pour les jeunes professeurs, qui dépendent de la bonne opinion de leurs collègues pour la permanence et la promotion, et sur la bonne faveur des bailleurs de fonds.
 

Mary Eberts est présentement titulaire de la Ariel F. Sallows Chair en droits humains à la University of Saskatchewan. En 2004-2005, elle a été titulaire de la Gordon F. Henderson Chair en droits humains à l’Université d’Ottawa  et enseigne depuis plusieurs années au programme d’été sur les droits humains internationaux des femmes de l’Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). Elle a été impliquée dans la conception de garanties d’équité dans la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés, est cofondatrice du Fonds d’action et d’éducation juridique pour les femmes (FEJF) et a été avocate plaidante pour l’association des femmes autochtones du Canada pendant 20 ans. La reconnaissance de son travail comprend le Prix du Gouverneur général en commémoration de l’affaire « Personne, la médaille d’or du Barreau du Haut-Canada et plusieurs diplômes honorifiques.

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The world is continually evolving. Are we prepared for what lies ahead?

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) has embarked on a forward-thinking initiative to identify key future challenge areas for Canada, in an evolving global context. If our country is to continue to be a successful society in the 21st century, we need to think ahead and collectively imagine our possible futures in order to anticipate potential emergent issues, societal needs, and knowledge needs.

In this Big Thinking panel discussion, SSHRC invites you to join Don Tapscott, Dan Gardner and Diana Carney in an invigorating discussion on Canada’s future. Don Tapscott is one of the world’s leading authorities on innovation, media and the economic and social impact of technology; Dan Gardner is a best-selling author and award-winning columnist for the Ottawa Citizen; and Diana Carney is Vice-President, Projects at the think tank Canada 2020.

With their fingers on the pulse of Canadian and global issues, these leading thinkers are well-placed to help identify emerging issues and areas that matter to Canadians and to the world.

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Le monde change rapidement, mais sommes-nous prêts à ce qui nous attend?

Le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines (CRSH) a entrepris un projet axé sur l’avenir visant à définir les défis auxquels le Canada devra faire face dans 5, 10 ou 20 ans, et ce, dans un contexte mondialisé en évolution. Pour continuer à prospérer au 21e siècle, le Canada doit être proactif et réfléchir collectivement à ses possibilités d’avenir afin d’être en mesure d’anticiper ses besoins comme société et ses besoins en matière de connaissances, ainsi que les enjeux auxquels le Canada pourrait devoir faire face.

Dans le cadre de la série de conférences Voir grand, le CRSH vous invite à venir rencontrer Don Tapscott et Dan Gardner pour participer à une discussion dynamique portant sur l’avenir du Canada. Don Tapscott est une sommité mondiale en ce qui concerne l’innovation, les médias ainsi que l’impact économique et social de la technologie; Dan Gardner, qui est le chroniqueur pour l’Ottawa Citizen et auteur à succès et primé ; et Diana Carney est vice-présidente de projets dans le cadre du groupe de réflexion Canada 2020.
Dans le cadre de la série de conférences Voir grand, le CRSH vous invite à venir rencontrer Don Tapscott et Dan Gardner pour participer à une discussion dynamique portant sur l’avenir du Canada. Don Tapscott est une sommité mondiale en ce qui concerne l’innovation, les médias ainsi que l’impact économique et social de la technologie et Dan Gardner, qui est le chroniqueur pour l’Ottawa Citizen et auteur à succès et primé.

Ces chefs de file, qui étudient des enjeux canadiens et étrangers dans ce domaine, sont bien placés pour contribuer à déterminer de nouveaux enjeux et secteurs qui sont importants pour le Canada et le reste du monde.

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In partnership with the Royal Society of Canada

When Survival hit the stands forty years ago, Margaret Atwood was already a literary success. But it quickly became a game-changing book, in which she set out to define what is ‘Canadian’ about Canadian literature at a time when our country’s literary scene was still finding its ground. For this Big Thinking lecture Margaret Atwood will talk about the writing of Survival and will explore story as a key characteristic of human beings and code to cultures, including ours.

Margaret Atwood is a giant of modern literature who has anticipated, explored, satirized—and even changed—the popular preoccupations of our time. She is the rare writer whose work is adored by the public, acclaimed by the critics, and studied on university campuses around the world. Although her subject matter varies, the precise crafting of her language gives her body of work a sensibility entirely its own.

Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards including the prestigious Booker Prize. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction and non-fiction. Her 2008 non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, part of the CBC Massey Lecture series, is now the subject of a documentary film. Her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, was published in the autumn of 2009. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination is her latest non-fiction book.

 

Photo credit: George Whiteside

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En partneriat avec la Société royale du Canada

Lorsque Survival (La Survivance) parut il y a quarante ans, Margaret Atwood avait déjà connu le succès littéraire. Mais il devint rapidement un livre destiné à bousculer les idées reçues, dans lequel elle entreprenait de définir « l’identité plurielle » par laquelle se distingue la littérature canadienne à une époque où la scène littéraire de notre pays recherchait encore ses marques.  Dans cette conférence de la série Voir grand, Margaret Atwood évoquera l’écriture de Survival et la valeur de la narration en tant que caractéristique propre à l’être humain et au code d’accès aux cultures, la nôtre incluse.

Margaret Atwood est une icône de la littérature moderne qui a anticipé, exploré, tourné en dérision—voire changé— les préoccupations de notre époque. Elle est une des rares auteures dont l’oeuvre est apprécié par le public, encensé par la critique et étudié dans les universités partout dans le monde. Bien que ses sujets varient, son travail fin sur la langue donne à son œuvre une sensibilité distinctive.

Tout au long de sa carrière, Margaret Atwood a reçu de nombreux prix et diplômes honorifiques dont le prestigieux Booker Prize. Elle a écrit plus de 35 livres de poésie, de littérature pour enfants, de fiction et d’essais. Son essai publié en 2008, Comptes et légendes, la dette et la face cachée de la richesse, produit dans le cadre des Massey Lectures de la CBC, est aujourd’hui devenu le sujet d’un film documentaire et son plus récent roman, L’Année du déluge, a été publié à l’automne 2009. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination est son plus récent ouvrage non romanesque.

Photo: George Whiteside

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In partnership with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

The current global economic crisis is not just cyclical, but rather symptomatic of a deeper secular change. There is growing evidence that we need to rethink and rebuild many of the organizations and institutions that have served us well for decades, but now have come to the end of their life cycle. 

At the same time the contours of new enterprises and industries are becoming clear. With the Internet, society has at its disposal the most powerful platform ever for bringing together the people, skills and knowledge we need to ensure growth, social development and a just and sustainable world. And all around the world there is the first generation to “grown up digital” are entering the workforce and becoming citizens. These “digital natives” are a powerful force for change. 

People everywhere are collaborating like never before. From education, science and the humanities to new approaches to citizen engagement and democracy, sparkling new initiatives are underway, embracing a new set of principles for the 21st century -- collaboration, openness, sharing, interdependence and integrity.

Don Tapscott, for 3 decades arguably the world’s leading thinker about the impact of the digital revolution on business and society, argues that this is an age of participation where the humanities and social sciences have a central role to play.

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En partenariat avec le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada

L’actuelle crise économique mondiale n’est pas seulement cyclique, mais bien symptomatique d’une mutation durable et profonde.  La nécessité de repenser et de réformer un grand nombre d’organisations et d’institutions qui nous ont rendu de grands services pendant des décennies mais qui approchent désormais de la fin d’un cycle de vie est de plus en plus manifeste.

Simultanément, les contours d’entreprises et d’industries nouvelles se profilent.  À la faveur de l’Internet, la société dispose de la plus puissante plateforme jamais conçue pour rassembler les personnes, les compétences et les savoirs dont nous avons besoin pour favoriser la croissance, le développement social et l’avènement d’un monde juste et durable. Et l’on assiste tout autour du monde à la première génération de « jeunes de l’ère numérique » qui intègrent le marché du travail et qui deviennent des citoyens.  Ces jeunes « natifs du numérique » sont une force vive du changement.

 
Partout, une collaboration se noue comme jamais auparavant.  Du monde de l’éducation, de la recherche et des sciences humaines aux expressions inédites de l’engagement citoyen et de la démocratie, des initiatives brillantes se multiplient en adoptant un nouvel ensemble de principes pour le XXIe siècle -- collaboration, ouverture, partage, interdépendance et intégrité.

Don Tapscott, qui pendant trois décennies s’est illustré comme le penseur le plus universellement connu de l’impact de la révolution numérique sur le milieu de l’entreprise et la société, est d’avis que nous sommes bel et bien entrés dans l’ère de la participation où les sciences humaines ont un rôle central à jouer.

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In partnership with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation

Janine Brodie holds the Canada Research Chair in Political Economy and Social Governance at the University of Alberta. She earned a Ph.D. in Political Science at Carleton University in 1981, a year after accepting her first teaching position at Queen's University. In 1982, Dr. Brodie went to York University where within a decade she was appointed full professor, Faculty Fellow of the Institute for Social Research, inaugural director of the York Centre for Feminist Research, and John Robarts Chair in Canadian Studies. Dr. Brodie also held the University of Western Ontario’s Visiting Chair in Public Policy in 1995. From 1997 to 2004, she chaired the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. In 2002, Dr. Brodie was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in recognition of "the breadth of her scholarship and the strength of her academic leadership." Currently, she serves as director of the Royal Society’s Academy II Division 1. In 2011, the University of Alberta appointed her to the rank of Distinguished University Professor.

Dr. Brodie's research critically engages many of the core challenges in Canadian politics and public policy: citizenship, gender equality, political representation, social policy, globalization, and contemporary transformations in governance. Her influential and innovative work in these areas is substantial and extensive. To date, she has written or co-written eight books and edited or co-edited three others. Dr. Brodie publishes in a wide range of national and international scholarly journals, and she has written some seventy-five book chapters, most recently investigating the multiple and complex effects of neoliberal governing practices on citizenship, social equity and national governance. She co-edits Critical Concepts, an introductory political science text now in its fourth edition that has been widely adopted by political science departments across Canada. Dr. Brodie's current research focuses on contemporary social policies, provincial anti-poverty strategies, and challenges to democratic citizenship. She was named Trudeau Fellow in 2010.

Social Literacy and Social Justice

This lecture explores the relationship between social literacy, social justice, and the social sciences, historically and in the contemporary era of financial insecurity and public austerity.  Ongoing financial crises have undermined the legitimacy of the market-friendly governing assumptions, which have informed policy-making for more than a generation. Citizens and their governments have entered unchartered waters but pervasive uncertainty has not dampened popular demands for equity, voice and social justice, in fact these have intensified. The social sciences have been too timid in entering public debates in these uncertain times. They have been remarkably successful, however, in demonstrating the social and political costs of income disparities, financial insecurity and social inequality, three critical markers of this moment. The social sciences have a great deal to say about just societies amidst the growing uncertainties of in the early 21st century. It is time for social science to rediscover its original mission of imagining better societies and, with robust critique and social research, opening windows on different choices about what is equitable, politically possible, and socially responsible.

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Présenté en partenariat avec la Fondation Pierre Elliott Trudeau 

Janine Brodie est titulaire de la Chaire de recherche du Canada en économie politique et en gouvernance sociale à l'Université de l'Alberta. Elle a obtenu un doctorat en science politique de l'Université Carleton en 1981, soit une année après avoir accepté son premier poste d'enseignement à l'Université Queen's. En 1982, Mme Brodie accepte un poste à l'Université York où, dix ans plus tard, elle devient professeure titulaire, membre de l'Institut pour la recherche sociale, première directrice du Centre York de recherche sur les femmes et titulaire de la Chaire John-Robarts en études canadiennes. En 1995, Mme Brodie a été titulaire en résidence de la Chaire en politiques publiques de l'Université Western Ontario. De 1997 à 2004, elle a été directrice du Département de science politique à l'Université de l'Alberta. En 2002, Mme Brodie  a été élue membre de la Société royale du Canada pour « l'étendue de sa mission professorale et la force de son leadership en recherche », selon le bulletin d'annonce de la SRC. Elle est actuellement directrice de la division des sciences sociales de la SRC.

La recherche de Mme Brodie examine de façon critique plusieurs enjeux étroitement liés aux politiques canadiennes et aux politiques publiques : la citoyenneté, l'égalité des sexes, la représentation politique, la politique sociale, la mondialisation et les transformations actuelles en matière de gouvernance. Son travail novateur et influent dans ces domaines est substantiel et important. Elle a écrit ou coécrit huit livres et en a édité ou coédité trois. Mme Brodie a également publié dans de nombreuses revues scientifiques au Canada et à l'étranger. Elle a écrit environ soixante-dix-cinq chapitres de livres traitant, notamment, de la gouvernance nationale et des effets complexes des pratiques de gouvernance néolibérales sur la citoyenneté et l’équité sociale. Elle a coédité un texte d'introduction à la science politique, Critical Concepts, qui en est à sa quatrième édition et qui a été largement utilisé par les départements de science politique au Canada. La recherche actuelle de Mme Brodie porte sur les stratégies de politiques sociales et les stratégies provinciales de lutte contre la pauvreté, ainsi que sur les défis en matière de citoyenneté démocratique. Elle a été nommée lauréate Trudeau en 2010.

Littératie sociale et justice sociale

Cette conférence examine la relation entre la littératie sociale, la justice sociale et les sciences sociales, tant du point de vue historique que dans le contexte actuel d’insécurité financière et d’austérité publique. Les crises financières successives ont miné la légitimité des postulats de gouvernance favorables aux marchés qui ont éclairé la prise de décision politique depuis plus d’une génération. Les citoyens et les gouvernements se sont aventurés en terrain inconnu, cependant l’incertitude omniprésente n’a pas freiné les revendications en matière d’équité, de prise de parole et de justice sociale; en fait ces demandes se sont intensifiées. En ces temps d’incertitude, les sciences sociales n’ont pas encore pleinement participé aux débats publiques. Elles ont toutefois clairement démontré les coûts sociaux et politiques liés à l’écart dans les revenus, à l’insécurité financière et aux inégalités sociales, trois indicateurs d’importance dans le contexte actuel. Les sciences sociales peuvent jouer une rôle très important dans la quête d’une société plus juste en ce début du XXIe siècle marqué par le doute. Il est temps de redécouvrir leur mission, laquelle vise à penser de meilleures sociétés, à l’aide d’une critique judicieuse et de recherches poussées qui, ensemble, permettront d’ouvrir la porte à diverses notions d’équité, de politiques possibles et de responsabilité sociale.

 

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According to Chris Hedges, liberal institutions are to blame for the downward spiral of the American political system. In his Big Thinking lecture at Congress 2012, he argues that the liberal class—the press, universities, liberal religious institutions, labour unions and the Democratic Party—have forsaken their core values and sold out to corporate interests.

Chris Hedges was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio, and the author of such books as War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), American Fascists (2007), I Don’t Believe in Atheists (2008) and Empire of Illusion (2009). He is a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and has taught at Columbia University, New York University and Princeton University.

For more information on this Speaker/Performer please visit www.apbspeakers.com

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Selon Chris Hedges, les institutions libérales sont responsables de la dérive du système politique américain. Dans sa causerie Voir grand au Congrès des sciences humaines 2012, il soutient que la classe libérale—la presse, les universités, les institutions religieuses libérales, les syndicats et le Parti démocrate—ont délaissé leurs valeurs fondamentales pour se vendre aux intérêts corporatifs.

Chris Hedges a été correspondant à l’étranger pendant près de 20 ans pour The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor et la National Public Radio, et l’auteur de livres tels que and the War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), American Fascists (2007), I Don’t Believe in Atheists (2008) et Empire of Illusion (2009). Il est chercheur principal au Nation Institute et a enseigné au à la Columbia University, à la New York Universityde même qu'à la Princeton University.

 

Pour plus d'information sur ce conférencier, veuillez visiter le www.apbspeakers.com.

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Today’s social sciences have difficulty providing conceptual, analytic and predictive tools that help policy-makers and the public address contemporary global problems such as financial crises, energy shocks, food price spikes and climate change. In his  Big Thinking lecture at Congress 2012, Thomas Homer-Dixon provides some guideposts to understanding complexity science and its potential relevance to practical social science. He suggests that policy advice from the social sciences often assumes individual rationality, an aggregation of individual rational choice into group behavior, the progression of social systems towards equilibrium, and, ultimately, calculable risk. Homer-Dixon argues that humankind's most critical problems arise from emergent complex social and natural systems marked by deep uncertainty, positive and negative feedbacks and frequent instability.
Thomas Homer-Dixon holds the CIGI Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Canada. He is Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation and Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development in the Faculty of Environment. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, he received his PhD from MIT in international relations and defense and arms control policy in 1989. His books include The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization (2006), which won the 2006 National Business Book Award, The Ingenuity Gap (2000), winner of the 2001 Governor General’s Non-fiction Award, and Environment, Scarcity, and Violence (1999), which won the Caldwell Prize of the American Political Science Association. His recent research has focused on threats to global security in the 21st century and how societies adapt to complex economic, ecological, and technological change.

 

Thomas Homer-Dixon photo by Bryn Gladding

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Les sciences humaines d’aujourd’hui peinent à fournir des outils conceptuels, analytiques et prédictifs qui puissent aider les responsables des politiques et le public à faire face aux défis du monde contemporain, tels que les crises financières, les chocs énergétiques, la flambée des prix des denrées alimentaires et les changements climatiques. Dans sa causerie Voir grand au Congrès 2012, Thomas Homer-Dixon offre quelques balises pour comprendre les sciences de la complexité et leur  intérêt potentiel pour les sciences humaines pratiques. Il soutient que les conseils sur les politiques des gens en sciences humaines prennent souvent pour acquis la rationalité individuelle, une agrégation de choix individuels rationnels dans un comportement de groupe, la progression de systèmes sociaux multiples vers un équilibre et ultimement, un risque calculable. M. Homer-Dixon soutient que les problèmes les plus importants de l’humanité émergent de systèmes sociaux et naturels complexes, marqués par une grande incertitude, des commentaires, positifs et négatifs, et une instabilité fréquente.

Thomas Homer-Dixon est titualire de la CIGI Chair of Global Systems à la Balsillie School of International Affairs à Waterloo, Canada. Il est directeur du Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation et professeur à la School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development  à la faculté de l’environnement. Né à Victoria, en Colombie-Britannique, il a reçu en 1989 un doctorat du MIT en relations internationales, politiques de défense et de contrôles des armes. Il a entre autres écrit The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization (2006), qui a gagné le National Business Book Award en 2006, The Ingenuity Gap (2000), récipiendaire en 2001 du Prix littéraire du Gouverneur général dans la catégorie essais, et Environment, Scarcity, and Violence (1999), qui lui a valu le Caldwell Prize de l’American Political Science Association. Ses recherches récentes se concentrent sur les menaces à la sécurité mondiale au 21e siècle et la façon dont les sociétés s’adaptent aux complexes changements économiques, écologiques et technologiques.

 

La photo de Thomas Homer-Dixon a été prise par Bryn Gladding.

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May 26, 07:30 | Dining Hall (WLU), room Senate & Board Chamber A long journey Kim Thúy

For this Big Thinking event author Kim Thúy will share her life’s journey, fleeing Vietnam as a young refugee with her family and eventually making Canada her home. Her tale is captured in her autobiographical, award-winning book Ru, which has made waves in her home province of Quebec and has recently been released in English Canada. In speaking about her novel, Thúy will explore the impact that war has on families, the role of memory in her story and the privilege of history.

Kim Thúy left Vietnam as a boat person when she was ten years old. She has worked as a seamtress, an interpreter, a lawyer, a restaurant chef-owner and a guest chef on various radio and television stations. Ru is her first novel, published by Libre Expression in October 2009. The rights have been sold in 20 countries. It was a finalist on different prizes and has won the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Grand Prix RTL/Lire 2010 and the Grand Prix du Salon du Livre de Montréal 2010

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May 26, 10:15 | John Aird Centre (WLU), room Maureen Forrester Hall Democratizing knowledge: The key to progress His Excellency, The Right Honourable David Johnston

Addressing today’s complex, global issues effectively and equitably are well beyond the purview of any one discipline, sector or country. Working collaboratively and sharing the best knowledge available is the most effective strategy if true social innovation—that which affects behaviour and improves quality of life—is to be realized for the benefit of all citizens.
 
In this Big Thinking address of the 2012 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, will speak about the significance of scholarship and collaboration in today’s world. This discussion will illuminate the role of scholarship in society and the importance of collaboration across university, community and private sectors to solve today’s and tomorrow’s most pressing issues. His remarks will be followed by a moderated armchair discussion with public figures tackling key questions: how can we deepen university-community engagement, what are the impediments to effective coalitions and what tools or strategies do we need to overcome them?
 
His Excellency has served as professor, dean and president at several Canadian universities. He served as the president of the University of Waterloo before becoming Canada’s 28th governor general.

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May 26, 12:30 | Dining Hall (WLU), room Senate & Board Chamber Research, education and service to the community: New ideas for a world with new demands Gilles Patry, Reeta Tremblay, Jeffrey Keshen, Yves Mauffette Canada Foundation for Innovation

Sponsored by the Canada Foundation for Innovation

As governments embrace the goal of innovation and look to our national institutions for support, they are placing new demands on universities to play a larger role in the cultural, economic and social lives of the communities in which they operate. This expanded role is creating new opportunities for universities to serve their communities and stakeholders in more complex and dynamic ways.

What do we mean by “service,” and how is the meaning changing? How do we define “community,” and how can we understand how working academics relate to the communities in which they work?

This panel, sponsored by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, brings together Gilles G. Patry, President and CEO, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Reeta Tremblay, Vice-President Academic and Provost, University of Victoria, Jeffrey Keshen, Dean, Faculty of Arts, Mount Royal University, and Yves Mauffette, Vice-recteur à la recherche et à la creation, Université de Québec à Montréal. The panelists will  investigate new models of service in Canadian universities, looking specifically at how university leaders are defining “service” in their institutional, regional, national and global contexts.

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May 27, 10:15 | Modern Languages (UW), room Theatre of the Arts Toward a sustainable Humanities: Reconceptualizing doctoral education for the 21st century Sidonie Smith

Sidonie Smith is Martha Guernsey Colby Collegiate Professor of English and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan and was the 2010 President of the Modern Language Association of America. Her fields of interest include human rights and personal narrative, autobiography studies, feminist theory, and postcolonial literatures. Some of her recent books on these subjects include Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives (with Julia Watson, 2001), Moving Lives: Women’s Twentieth Century Travel Narratives (2001), and Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition (with Kay Schaffer, 2004). The second expanded edition of Reading Autobiography appeared in May 2010.

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May 28, 05:45 | Dining Hall (WLU), room Senate & Board Chamber Intertextuality or Easter egg hunt: A Canadian writer’s adventures in the library Jane Urquhart

This Big Thinking lecture at Congress 2012 explores the role libraries and archives have played in the development of Jane Urquhart’s fiction. In her talk, Urquhart discusses how texts she accidentally discovered in libraries have affected the writing of her novels, including The Stone Carvers (2001) and Away (1993), winner of the Trillium Award and a finalist for the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She also delves into the ways in which intentional research works its way onto her page.

Jane Urquhart is the prize-winning author of seven internationally published novels, and is a Chevalier of the Ordre des arts et des lettres in France as well as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

She has been writer-in-residence on several occasions, and has received 9 honorary doctorates from Canadian Universities. During the winter and spring of 1997, she held the Presidential Writer-in-Residence Fellowship at the University of Toronto.


Photo credit: John Carter

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May 28, 10:15 | Modern Languages (UW), room Theatre of the Arts Professor as citizen Mary Eberts

University faculty have specialized knowledge and a privileged position in society. But do they use that knowledge and privilege to inform their role as citizens, or are there constraints within the university that inhibit their full democratic engagement? Is it possible for idealism and a robust commitment to social justice to flourish, or even endure, in the modern Canadian university? Or are the roles of academic and citizen in fact contradictory? In her Big Thinking lecture at Congress 2012, Mary Eberts suggests that these questions hit hardest for junior academics who are dependent on the good opinion of colleagues for tenure and promotion, and on finding favour with funders.

Mary Eberts is currently the Ariel F. Sallows Chair in Human Rights at the University of Saskatchewan. In 2004–2005, she held the Gordon F. Henderson Chair in Human Rights at the University of Ottawa, and for the past several years she has taught in the summer program on International Women’s Human Rights at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). She was involved in the crafting of the equality guarantees of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is a co-founder of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), and has been litigation counsel to the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) for twenty years. Recognition of her work includes the Governor-General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons’ Case, the Law Society of Upper Canada Gold Medal and several honorary degrees.
 

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May 29, 07:30 | Dining Hall (WLU), room Paul Martin Centre Panel Discussion: Imagining Canada’s Future Dan Gardner, Don Tapscott, Diana Carney Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

The world is continually evolving. Are we prepared for what lies ahead?

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) has embarked on a forward-thinking initiative to identify key future challenge areas for Canada, in an evolving global context. If our country is to continue to be a successful society in the 21st century, we need to think ahead and collectively imagine our possible futures in order to anticipate potential emergent issues, societal needs, and knowledge needs.

In this Big Thinking panel discussion, SSHRC invites you to join Don Tapscott, Dan Gardner and Diana Carney in an invigorating discussion on Canada’s future. Don Tapscott is one of the world’s leading authorities on innovation, media and the economic and social impact of technology; Dan Gardner is a best-selling author and award-winning columnist for the Ottawa Citizen; and Diana Carney is Vice-President, Projects at the think tank Canada 2020.

With their fingers on the pulse of Canadian and global issues, these leading thinkers are well-placed to help identify emerging issues and areas that matter to Canadians and to the world.

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May 29, 10:15 | J.G. Hagey Hall of the Humanities (UW), room Humanities Theatre Bedtime Stories Margaret Atwood

In partnership with the Royal Society of Canada

When Survival hit the stands forty years ago, Margaret Atwood was already a literary success. But it quickly became a game-changing book, in which she set out to define what is ‘Canadian’ about Canadian literature at a time when our country’s literary scene was still finding its ground. For this Big Thinking lecture Margaret Atwood will talk about the writing of Survival and will explore story as a key characteristic of human beings and code to cultures, including ours.

Margaret Atwood is a giant of modern literature who has anticipated, explored, satirized—and even changed—the popular preoccupations of our time. She is the rare writer whose work is adored by the public, acclaimed by the critics, and studied on university campuses around the world. Although her subject matter varies, the precise crafting of her language gives her body of work a sensibility entirely its own.

Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards including the prestigious Booker Prize. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction and non-fiction. Her 2008 non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, part of the CBC Massey Lecture series, is now the subject of a documentary film. Her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, was published in the autumn of 2009. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination is her latest non-fiction book.

 

Photo credit: George Whiteside

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May 29, 17:00 | Modern Languages (UW), room Theatre of the Arts Macrowikinomics: Social Sciences and Social Change in the Age of Social Media Don Tapscott

In partnership with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

The current global economic crisis is not just cyclical, but rather symptomatic of a deeper secular change. There is growing evidence that we need to rethink and rebuild many of the organizations and institutions that have served us well for decades, but now have come to the end of their life cycle. 

At the same time the contours of new enterprises and industries are becoming clear. With the Internet, society has at its disposal the most powerful platform ever for bringing together the people, skills and knowledge we need to ensure growth, social development and a just and sustainable world. And all around the world there is the first generation to “grown up digital” are entering the workforce and becoming citizens. These “digital natives” are a powerful force for change. 

People everywhere are collaborating like never before. From education, science and the humanities to new approaches to citizen engagement and democracy, sparkling new initiatives are underway, embracing a new set of principles for the 21st century -- collaboration, openness, sharing, interdependence and integrity.

Don Tapscott, for 3 decades arguably the world’s leading thinker about the impact of the digital revolution on business and society, argues that this is an age of participation where the humanities and social sciences have a central role to play.

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May 30, 10:15 | John Aird Centre (WLU), room Maureen Forrester Hall Social literacy and social justice in times of crisis Janine Brodie

In partnership with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation

Janine Brodie holds the Canada Research Chair in Political Economy and Social Governance at the University of Alberta. She earned a Ph.D. in Political Science at Carleton University in 1981, a year after accepting her first teaching position at Queen's University. In 1982, Dr. Brodie went to York University where within a decade she was appointed full professor, Faculty Fellow of the Institute for Social Research, inaugural director of the York Centre for Feminist Research, and John Robarts Chair in Canadian Studies. Dr. Brodie also held the University of Western Ontario’s Visiting Chair in Public Policy in 1995. From 1997 to 2004, she chaired the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. In 2002, Dr. Brodie was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in recognition of "the breadth of her scholarship and the strength of her academic leadership." Currently, she serves as director of the Royal Society’s Academy II Division 1. In 2011, the University of Alberta appointed her to the rank of Distinguished University Professor.

Dr. Brodie's research critically engages many of the core challenges in Canadian politics and public policy: citizenship, gender equality, political representation, social policy, globalization, and contemporary transformations in governance. Her influential and innovative work in these areas is substantial and extensive. To date, she has written or co-written eight books and edited or co-edited three others. Dr. Brodie publishes in a wide range of national and international scholarly journals, and she has written some seventy-five book chapters, most recently investigating the multiple and complex effects of neoliberal governing practices on citizenship, social equity and national governance. She co-edits Critical Concepts, an introductory political science text now in its fourth edition that has been widely adopted by political science departments across Canada. Dr. Brodie's current research focuses on contemporary social policies, provincial anti-poverty strategies, and challenges to democratic citizenship. She was named Trudeau Fellow in 2010.

Social Literacy and Social Justice

This lecture explores the relationship between social literacy, social justice, and the social sciences, historically and in the contemporary era of financial insecurity and public austerity.  Ongoing financial crises have undermined the legitimacy of the market-friendly governing assumptions, which have informed policy-making for more than a generation. Citizens and their governments have entered unchartered waters but pervasive uncertainty has not dampened popular demands for equity, voice and social justice, in fact these have intensified. The social sciences have been too timid in entering public debates in these uncertain times. They have been remarkably successful, however, in demonstrating the social and political costs of income disparities, financial insecurity and social inequality, three critical markers of this moment. The social sciences have a great deal to say about just societies amidst the growing uncertainties of in the early 21st century. It is time for social science to rediscover its original mission of imagining better societies and, with robust critique and social research, opening windows on different choices about what is equitable, politically possible, and socially responsible.

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May 31, 05:45 | Dining Hall (WLU), room Senate & Board Chamber Death of the liberal class Chris Hedges

According to Chris Hedges, liberal institutions are to blame for the downward spiral of the American political system. In his Big Thinking lecture at Congress 2012, he argues that the liberal class—the press, universities, liberal religious institutions, labour unions and the Democratic Party—have forsaken their core values and sold out to corporate interests.

Chris Hedges was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio, and the author of such books as War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), American Fascists (2007), I Don’t Believe in Atheists (2008) and Empire of Illusion (2009). He is a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and has taught at Columbia University, New York University and Princeton University.

For more information on this Speaker/Performer please visit www.apbspeakers.com

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May 31, 10:15 | John Aird Centre (WLU), room Maureen Forrester Hall New tools for understanding a turbulent world: Complexity theory and the social sciences Thomas Homer-Dixon

Today’s social sciences have difficulty providing conceptual, analytic and predictive tools that help policy-makers and the public address contemporary global problems such as financial crises, energy shocks, food price spikes and climate change. In his  Big Thinking lecture at Congress 2012, Thomas Homer-Dixon provides some guideposts to understanding complexity science and its potential relevance to practical social science. He suggests that policy advice from the social sciences often assumes individual rationality, an aggregation of individual rational choice into group behavior, the progression of social systems towards equilibrium, and, ultimately, calculable risk. Homer-Dixon argues that humankind's most critical problems arise from emergent complex social and natural systems marked by deep uncertainty, positive and negative feedbacks and frequent instability.
Thomas Homer-Dixon holds the CIGI Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Canada. He is Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation and Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development in the Faculty of Environment. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, he received his PhD from MIT in international relations and defense and arms control policy in 1989. His books include The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization (2006), which won the 2006 National Business Book Award, The Ingenuity Gap (2000), winner of the 2001 Governor General’s Non-fiction Award, and Environment, Scarcity, and Violence (1999), which won the Caldwell Prize of the American Political Science Association. His recent research has focused on threats to global security in the 21st century and how societies adapt to complex economic, ecological, and technological change.

 

Thomas Homer-Dixon photo by Bryn Gladding

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