CAMPUS | COMMUNITY | CONNECTIONS
CAMPUS | COMMUNITY | CONNECTIONS
• December 2011
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Journalist Lisa LaFlamme speaks about media and world events on the Waterloo campus.
VOL. 1 | NO. 1 | APRIL 7,2008
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CAMPUS | COMMUNITY | CONNECTIONS
Meet Claire Bennett, Laurier’s sustainability coordinator, outdoor enthusiast and animal lover.
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VOL. 1 | NO. 1 | APRIL 7,2008 Lucy Lee’s research could slow the lobster’s declining population.
Raising the curtain on Congress 2012 Margaret Atwood, Thomas Homer-Dixon announced as speakers for event co-hosted by Laurier | | | CAMPUS CONNECTIONS COMMUNITY
VOL. 1 NO. 1 | APRIL 7,2008
CAMPUS | COMMUNITY | CONNECTIONS
itself, researchers in the social sciences and humanities can take stock of the significant Margaret Atwood, Thomas changes affecting Canada and the Homer-Dixon and Jane Urquhart world, from new technologies are among the people who will and environmental and political speak in Waterloo next spring changes to economic upheavals,” for the 2012 Congress of the said Laurier President Max Humanities and Social Sciences Blouw. “Congress 2012’s theme (Congress 2012). of ‘Crossroads’ and exceptional Organized by the Canadian roster of Big Thinkers will facilFederation for the Humanities itate discussion and collaboration and Social Sciences (CFHSS), on these complex global issues Congress 2012 is the largest across disciplines.” interdisciplinary conference in | CONNECTIONS | COMMUNITY CAMPUS The speakers were announced Canada. It will be co-hosted by at an after-work reception and Wilfrid Laurier University and presentation at the Communitech the University of Waterloo from May 26 to June 2, 2012. More than Hub in Kitchener that served as a “curtain raiser” for Congress 7,000 academics, practitioners 2012. Renowned social scienand policy-makers will assemble tists Darin Barney from McGill to discuss the conference’s theme University and Barbara Crow of “Crossroads: Scholarship for from York University were joined an Uncertain World.” by Kevin Tuer from the Canadian The Congress 2012 Big Digital Media Network. The Thinking lecture series is open to Congress delegates and the public. The series will highlight the importance of humanities and social sciences scholarship and the “Big Thinkers” will discuss issues of central importance to the community, society and the world at large. The speakers include: • Margaret Atwood, author of digital experts explored the topic more than 50 volumes of poetry, of “Canadians at the Crossroads: children’s literature, fiction and How technology challenges us to non-fiction. change.” • Thomas Homer-Dixon, chair “The [Congress 2012] conference of Global Systems at the Centre theme is Crossroads: Scholarship for International Governance for an Uncertain World, and Innovation and director of the tonight’s contemplation of where Waterloo Institute for Complexity Canada goes from here is an à and Innovation at the University propos taste of what is to come,” of Waterloo. Blouw said at the event. • Janine Brodie, Canada Research Several hundred volunteers Chair in Political Economy will be needed leading up to and and Social Governance at the during the eight-day event. If you University of Alberta. would like to help, contact Project • Chris Hedges, Pulitzer PrizeCoordinator Sheldon Pereira at winning American journalist, spereira@wlu.ca or ext. 4014. author and former war correCongress 2012 will bring spondent. together more than 70 scholarly • Jane Urquhart, author of seven associations in the humanities internationally acclaimed novels. and social sciences. Wilfrid • Mary Eberts, co-founder of the Laurier University and the Women’s Legal Education and University of Waterloo are Action Fund (LEAF), litigation co-hosting the 81st Congress counsel to the Native Women’s from May 26 to June 2, 2012. For Association of Canada and Ariel F. Sallows Chair in Human Rights more information, visit www. at the University of Saskatchewan. congress2012.ca. • Sidonie Smith, professor of English and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan. “Through this series of public For an event video, visit www. lectures and through Congress youtube.com/LaurierVideo.
Photo: Simon Wilson
By Mallory O’Brien
York University social scientist Barbara Crow speaks at a presentation at the Communitech Hub in Kitchener. The event was a precursor to Congress 2012, the largest interdisciplinary conference in Canada, which will be co-hosted by Laurier beginning in May 2012.
Joseph Boyden visits Brantford campus Author announces third novel in award-winning series By Sandra Muir
Photo: Mallory O’Brien
Laurier’s writer-in-residence Joseph Boyden likes to tell a good story. But he also wants to start a discussion about the cultural divide in Canada and the concern he has about the alarming number of teen suicides in the Aboriginal community.
Boyden is the author of Three Day Road and Through Black Spruce, the winner of the 2008 Giller Prize. While in Brantford Nov. 17 for public readings and a lecture, he announced he is working on the third novel in the trilogy, which will likely be out in spring 2013. He is also writing his first young adult novel.
Author Joseph Boyden signs copies of his books at the Brantford Public Library.
“When I set out to write, my number one priority is to write a good story that people want to keep turning the pages on,” said Boyden. “The teen novel is helping to cleanse my pallet from the big novel I’m working on.” Fans of his work attended a public reading at the Brantford Public Library Nov. 17. Boyden, who has a mixed heritage of Irish, Scottish and Métis, gave a public lecture in the evening at Laurier’s Brantford campus about the issue of teen suicide. “I’ve become a bit of an advocate for taking away the stigma of suicide,” Boyden said earlier in the day. “I made a serious attempt at 16, and rather than be a shameful thing and a stigma I think we need to talk about it. Even if one youth hears about it and changes his or BOYDEN page 4