As the chief UVic faculty member in charge of this year’s Ideafest, psychology professor Michael Masson is especially looking forward to one event.
Masson, now acting associate vice-president for research at the University of Victoria, said the event, called What’s Truth Got to Do With It?, was in part inspired by politics in the U.S., where things that are demonstrably untrue seem able to gain significant acceptance.
But it will also examine the nature of evidence as verifiable proof of truth, and how various cultures can alter perceptions of evidence and its interpretations.
Delving into the issue will be a philosopher, a law professor specializing in Indigenous law and two historians, one of Nazi Germany and the other of U.S. politics.
Masson said the issue of truth interests him for a number of reasons. It’s important to academics, whether in science, arts or humanities. It’s important to anyone who wants to be a discerning citizen. But it’s also a chance to look at how evidence can lead people in new directions.
“When students first come to university, they are expecting to receive a simple truth — ‘Here is the right answer,’ ” said Masson. “But very quickly, they begin to learn in many situations, there is no single, correct answer.
“You might find evidence to favour one right answer over another. But we need to be ready to accept the possibility a different answer will become the right one when new evidence arrives.
“There is a kind of maturity in understanding how evidence accumulates to lead us in a new direction.”
What’s Truth Got To Do With It? is set for Wednesday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Victoria City Hall.
It’s one of the 35 events in the upcoming Ideafest, the ninth annual festival of research, ideas and informed opinions, set for Monday to Saturday.
It’s a festival where academic researchers are invited to strut their intellectual stuff. But instead of an academic committee sitting in judgment, the audience is the community at large. All events are free, but some can fill up quickly and might require a reservation. The only thing visitors are expected to bring is curiosity.
“The public will also have an opportunity to ask their own questions of the people who are making these presentations to help sharpen their understanding of the issues,” said Masson.
The academic researchers being showcased at Ideafest have been selected for their enthusiasm, their willingness to share with non-academics and the likelihood their topics of study will interest the public.
This year’s presentations cover a range of topics, but three themes have arisen: climate change, Indigenous issues and family health.
It’s not all heavy. There’s one presentation on sex and the academics who study it.
Everything you wanted to know about sex (research) but were afraid to ask! is set for Monday in the Bob Wright Centre, A 104, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
With issues of sex, gender, sexuality — not to mention fairness and consent — in the news, the event will include presentations from faculty from the schools of child and youth care, public health and social policy, and the departments of French, history and psychology.
Another session will examine how graphic novels are expanding into new areas, including journalism. Serious Comics is set for Monday from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Clearihue Building, Room A206.
Perspectives on new graphic works will be shared by faculty from the departments of English, French and Hispanic and Italian studies.
Masson said he can still recall a time, say 20 years ago, when academics had little interest in sharing their work with people outside their fields. But he said that has now changed and he is pleased to say UVic was in the early vanguard.
“Researchers are usually proud of what they are doing and they are excited to show what they have been able to discover,” he said. “I have seen that develop in academics generally but very much at UVic specifically.”
“I’ve also been around long enough to have seen an era when there wasn’t significant interest in revealing research activities with general audiences,” said Masson.
He recalls it started a change at UVic with the formation of the Speakers Bureau. Faculty and graduate students volunteer to talk off campus in places like coffee shops, high schools or seniors’ residences.
But Ideafest takes that willingness to share up to the level of community celebration.
It’s expected anywhere from 5,000 to 6,000 people will make their way to various Ideafest events mostly on campus. To reach even more people UVic has plans to use cameras and put some of its events on line.
Masson said the university is now even getting feedback from some visitors who repeatedly come to Victoria, year after year, specifically for Ideafest.
It’s believed no other university in Canada opens its doors to its community and invites all those with any interest to come in and take a peek.
“UVic is quite rare in Canada in that it has been able to develop and maintain a research festival.” said Tom Deas, Ideafest coordinator. “It also speaks to the enthusiasm and the willingness of the research community to share.”
Masson said a new recognition of partnership and responsibility has now emerged among faculty when thinking about the general public. The days of the university as an isolated, cosseted and protected ivory tower are gone.
“We can’t lose sight of the fact that much of the work that goes on in academia is funded by public money,” said Masson. “In a sense members of the general public are now the shareholders.”
“So faculty members now view it as their responsibility to report back to the folks who support what they do and tell them what they have accomplished,” he said.
It’s also become a new accepted challenge among academics to step outside their own communication comfort zone and speak the language of people in the street.
“For an academic at a conference there is a lot of short-hand you can use when you talk to your peers,” said Masson.
“But when you are talking to a general audience you want to show how the work you are doing and the discoveries you have made might affect different individual lives,” he said.
Masson said one of his responsibilities as the academic in charge of Ideafest is selecting the events to be staged.
This year when the word went out for volunteers over 60 came forward. Obviously not all were chosen. But those chosen were selected for their current status in news, breakthrough research or coffee-shop chatter.
One example is a coming discussion of climate change, a subject Masson and Deas said has now entered a new phase. The days when the question of whether the climate is actually changing as a result of human activity is no long considered relevant. Little evidence supports that position.
“Most of the Ideafest events that look at climate change are looking at solutions as opposed to whether the climate is changing or not,” said Deas.
One event is Food Sovereignty in the Era of Climate Change on Mar. 3, in the Harry Hickman Building, Room 105, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Researchers from the departments of Indigenous studies, geography, public health and social policy and history will examine how communities can manage food systems sustainably in times of climate change and economic inequality.
Masson believes the broad expanse of expertise on the panel will demonstrate some possible solutions to the issue of climate change reflecting a growing public desire for solutions.
“People are already experiencing how things are changing as they interact with the land,” he said. “How plants are behaving how they’re growing is no longer ‘just another bad season.’”
“So the questions have become ‘How can we adapt to these changes?’ or even ‘How can we slow these changes?’” said Masson.
Meanwhile, one event at Ideafest stands out as being a favorite among academics themselves as well as always getting huge cheers from the general public: The Three-Minute Thesis Competition on Thursday, March 5 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the MacLaurin Building, Room 144.
Masters and PhD students are asked to present and explain their theses using no more than one slide and 180 seconds.
Masson said the rules are strict, one word spoken after the bell rings immediately disqualifies an entrant. A panel of judges selects the winner and the audience always has lots of fun.
“We always pack the lecture hall with that one,” said Masson. “It’s just great.”
For a look at the Ideafest schedule, including lookouts for events that may require a reservation go online to uvic.ca/ideafest2020.
