Public Presentation - 2019 Archives
Public Presentation 2019 - Archives
Winter 2019 Lineup
What do we know about and what don’t we know about the unique qualities of our species, based on our evolutionary genetics compared to other primates and mammals? Modern genomics does not seem to explain our unique brain power including language, reasoning and abstract thought when examining the DNA differences between our closest relatives and us. Why do they not talk, write books, build planes, play music, ski, grow pot and brew beer – to name a few human pastimes?
A groundbreaking look of the lives of transgender children and families, with book signing and discussion invited after the presentation.
Some “boys” will only wear dresses; some “girls” refuse to wear dresses at all. In both cases, as Ann Travers shows in this fascinating account of transgender kids, these are often more than just wardrobe choices. From very early ages these children find themselves to be different from the sex category that was assigned to them at birth. How they make their voices heard—to their parents and friends, in schools, in public spaces, and through the courts—is the focus of this talk and the book on which it is based.
Based on over five years of research in Canada and the U.S., and interviews with trans kids and their parents, The Trans Generation offers a rare look into what it is like to grow up as a transgender child. Illuminating the day-to-day realities of trans kids who regularly experience crisis as a result of the many ways traditional sex categories regulate their lives, Travers offers an essential and important new understanding of childhood.
- Archive - video.UNBC.ca
- April 4: 2:00pm - 3:00pm - Oxford Debate - "Charity is Unethical" (Special Date & Time!)
ENVS 414 Students (Kara, Charlie, Anthony, Eden) will engage in an Oxford-style debate; audience participation is invited!
- April 17: Maureen Atkinson & Ed Harrison - “ Channeling Histories – The Dynamic Past of the Georgetown Sawmill”
Where and what was Georgetown Mills? Georgetown was one of the first lumber mills on the North Coast of British Columbia. Located near Lax Kw'alaams this water-powered mill provided lumber to many of the small communities and fish packing plants on the coast for almost 100 years. In this presentation we will explore the many facets of the community as it struggled for a place in the history of the peoples of the North Coast.
Fall 2019 Lineup
This presentation builds on the authors’ close engagements in the Collaborative Fiscal Policy Process (CFPP) to offer an insider’s view of the approach established by Canada with selfgoverning Indigenous governments (SGIGs). The discussion will look at some of the changing attitudes among certain departments within the federal system and speak to the importance of relationships and the respect required to collaborate effectively. More broadly, the presentation examines more cooperative approaches in negotiating concessions between Canada and Indigenous Governments, and as a means to avoid dispute resolution and court.
- No recording available.
While climate change, ecotoxicity, and biodiversity loss are keystones of modern human land-use, we know that humans have not always negatively influenced the environments they inhabit. Using a suite of historical-ecological and archaeological methods, I explore anthropogenic impacts in the Skeena watershed over the last 5,000 years. I highlight how we untangle past cultural and biophysical processes that have resulted in functionally diverse and resilient ecosystems observed today. Examples drawn from the Coast to the Interior emphasize the important role of historical ecology in contemporary land-use practices and Indigenous rights and title.
- November 4 (Special Date!): Francis E. (Jack) Putz - "Defining Sustainable Forest Management in the Tropics: A Disaggregated Landscape Approach"'
Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) has become the guiding paradigm for forestry around the world, but all too often it is not clearly defined. While I accept that SFM is more than sustained yield timber management, I worry about the consequences for nature of broad interpretations of “sustainability” that allow exchanges of natural for other sorts of capital (i.e., built, financial, social, and human). Elsevier’s JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE MINING is a case-in-point. I take a nature lover’s approach to reclaiming the concept of sustainability, and explore its application in the context of forested land-uses in the world’s tropics. - Archive - Video.UNBC.ca
- Presentation Slides