Games Without Frontiers - UVic's “pop-up idea arcade”
March 9, 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
David Strong Building
It can teach people with autism, explore the ocean floor, raise money for children’s art, educate about disaster-relief efforts, possibly improve journalism — and be a lot of fun besides.
Gaming — yes, gaming.
Along with hip hop, video games are the most important cultural innovation of the past 25 years, says David Leach, an associate writing professor at UVic and organizer of what will likely be one of the most popular events at IdeaFest.
The day-long session will see everyone from local game designers to professors and high school students examine all aspects of video-game technology. The aim is to come up with more ways to use game tools in culture and society, and all ages have something to offer.
“To ignore or disparage gaming is to be Rip Van Winkle: you’ve slept through the most important cultural shifts of the last two generations and it’s time to wake up,” Leach said.
The Microbial Arms Race: How Drug Resistance Happens in Influenza and What to Do About It
Friday, March 8, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Elliott building, room 168 and the foyer
The influenza virus is crafty. And it’s becoming increasingly adept at outfoxing the drugs we have to fight it. That worries UVic synthetic chemist Jeremy Wulff, who is working on a molecule to combat a pandemic flu that could hit at any time.
Influenza is a “pretty big” problem now, and stands to get bigger, said Wulff. While current drugs are still effective, a second line of defence is needed to deal with growing resistance to current treatments.
“We need some better drugs,” Wulff said. “Viruses are able to mutate in response to whatever molecule we develop for them, away from the flu shot vaccine that we give people.”
Every year, the flu virus infects about 10 per cent of the world’s population and causes hundreds of thousands of deaths. And an outbreak resistant to current antivirals isn’t out of the question: Wulff said such pandemics happen every couple of generations, with the last in 1918 — one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.
Prof. Fraser Hof will also give a lecture at the same location called The Mighty Methyl: How One Carbon Atom Controls Your DNA (and might lead to a cure for your cancers). 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Capturing the Modern Zombie: A Visual Die-ary
Open Tuesday, March 12, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
UVic library, room A003
Noam Kaufman is used to people doing a double-take when he tells them he’s studying zombies as part of his graduate degree in English at UVic. But people can learn a lot about modern culture — and themselves — from the way the creatures are depicted in movies, television and pop culture, he said.
“We’re looking at how these depictions of zombies have mimicked the cultural anxieties throughout history,” said Kaufman.
Capturing the Modern Zombie: a Visual Die-ary will relate how zombies are portrayed in modern culture.
“What we’re trying to do is take prominent examples of zombie films throughout history and in broad strokes, give an understanding of how they functioned as metaphors for our own culture,” Kaufman said.
The visual display will have numerous posters, art and screenshots showing the zombie in film, literature, television and video games, from 1930 to now. It will take about 20 minutes to go through. Kaufman and fellow grad students Jamie Witham and Nicole Birch-Bayley will guide guests.
Debate: “It would be better if everyone spoke English”
March 7, 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
SSM A102
Québécois language police have the right idea — just the wrong tongue, according to some of these debaters.
“It would be better if everyone spoke English,” is the controversial resolution at the centre of a faculty of humanities debate. Expect arguments that explore the realities of globalization and the Internet, versus the measured and qualitative benefits of a multilingual and culturally rich world.
“One of the things that humanities education does is look at these interesting social issues and say, ‘Let’s talk about it. Let’s see what the arguments are and make informed decisions,’ ” said dean of humanities John Archibald.
Faculty members Claire Carlin (French) and Serhy Yekelchyk (Germanic and Slavic Studies) will defend diversity in language, against Gordon Fulton (English) and Laurel Bowman (Greek and Roman Studies), who will argue in favour of the resolution. Audience members also have an opportunity to give one-minute arguments for or against the resolution in the parliamentary-style debate.
Big Data PechaKucha
March 14, 5 to 7 p.m.
University Club
When political blogger Nate Silver correctly predicted the winners in all 50 states during the U.S. presidential election using statistical calculations, the words “big data” were on many tongues.
But what is big data?
“We’re learning how to collect huge amounts of data and we’re learning how to analyze it,” said Sue Whitesides, chairwoman of the computer science department.
Everything from Safeway Club cards to astronomical stats is telling us new things about human and environmental behaviour.
“It’s all data that somebody can use and look for patterns in, to try to understand behaviour. Maybe it will be behaviour of pine needles, earthquakes, stars or voters in an election. There are enormous possibilities,” she said.
A host of community members will give fast-paced presentations on how big data affects them, as well as how they’re using it to their advantage. In PechaKucha style, presenters talk about 20 slides for 20 second each.
“We thought it was a great opportunity to bring as many people in Victoria as we could into one room at one time and just see what kind of connections and community we can build,” said administrative officer Heather Croft.
Lecture: Can money buy happiness?
March 7, 12:30 to 1:20 p.m.
MAC D103
How many times have you imagined what you’d do with a lottery jackpot? Did you imagine yourself happier?
This talk promises to break down mountains of current research about the relationship between income and happiness.
“The main finding is that within a country, richer people tend to be happier. But if you look across countries over time, the relationship is not as strong,” said economics professor Pascal Courty, who will speak alongside fellow economics professor Merwan Engineer.
Aside from fuelling your lottery musings, the data could have implications for public policy. It’s important to take into account the “happiness” benefits of some policies, as well as the costs of others — such as urban planning that results in long commute times.
“Market prices and market outcomes do not reveal the true social cost of these policies,” Courty said. Governments tend to focus on GDP, a measure of income generated by a country, while happiness and well-being deserve more attention. “Knowing that the two are not the same opens a debate about what kind of policy we should conduct.”
Religion, Rights and Political Upheaval: Global Currents
March 5, 7 to 9 p.m.
Hickman 105
From the imprisonment of Russian punk-rock band Pussy Riot to the resurgence of religious protests in Northern Ireland, religion plays a central role in conflicts around the world.
Canadians tend to want to separate religion from politics. But according to Paul Bramadat, director of the centre for studies in religion and society, it’s difficult to find a conflict in which religion does not play some kind of role — as an instigator, solution or means of sustaining it indefinitely.
“The point is that it is impossible — or not very fruitful — to pretend that we can address many serious problems without also addressing the many serious religious features and expressions of these problems,” he said.
A panel of UVic scholars will give short, punchy talks offering regional contexts for some of those conflicts, in Israel, India, Europe, Russia and Canada. But most of this public forum is dedicated to dialogue with the audience. “My hope is that people will come away from the event with a greater appreciation of the many ways religion and politics intersect in Canada and abroad,” Bramadat said.
Lifestyle Cross-Training: A Healthy Living Track to Cognitive Fitness
March 12, 6:30 p.m. (doors at 5:45 p.m.)
Sticky Wicket Pub, Maple Room
Loss of memory and mental sharpness are natural parts of aging — but what can we do to slow the process?
Plenty, according to associate professor of psychology Stuart MacDonald.
Just as athletes mix long-distance running with weight-training and yoga, our brains benefit from cross-training, he said.
“I’m going to talk about what one can expect in general, in terms of cognitive aging — both normal, as well as pathological,” he said, referring to diseases like Alzheimer’s. “But more importantly, I’m going to talk about the research relating to things that you can do.”
Don’t expect cognitive-exercise software like Lumosity to be the best answer, either, he said. Blending cognitive activities with physical ones, as well as social engagement and positive lifestyle behaviours all help keep brains healthy. And while his research focuses on ages 55-plus, the lecture applies to all ages.
“They’re fun things you can engage in and enjoy life — and at the same time, really be stacking the cards in a way that you maximize the likelihood of aging well.”
Forest biology: guided tree walk
March 7, noon
First Peoples House, outside the entrance lobby
Years of teaching tree-biology courses have given Patrick von Aderkas a good idea of what surprises people about campus flora. So while this is only a one-hour walk, you may not look at trees in the same way again.
“It’s the tree as an idea,” the biology professor said. “It’ll feature interesting facets of tree growth, culturally important trees and a different way of looking at trees.”
Among the trees he’ll highlight are the Finnerty apple — the last apple tree from the Finnerty farm, the property that became UVic’s campus: “It’s a very scruffy little tree, but it’s important,” he said.
Others include the big-leaf maple — “The big leaf maple has got a very unusual stem growth, really unusually, like when you see it you’ll go, ‘Oh my god what’s that” — and the arbutus: “It grows differently in the sun than it does in the shade — completely different,” he said. “When someone [knows that], they’ll never look at it the same again.”
Does our health-care system need fixing?
March 12, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Bob Wright Centre, B150
Anyone who has been misdiagnosed, waited hours for hospital treatment or had trouble finding a family doctor knows that our health-care system isn’t perfect.
“While we are intoxicated with health care, we don’t seem very interested in health,” Michael Hayes, director of social dimensions of health, wrote in an email. “If we were, we would be investing our public resources very differently.”
But what’s at the root of those problems and how do we fix them? Join a panel of UVic experts as they debate what’s working and what’s not in B.C.
Researcher Alan Cassels offers the example of drug policy — especially related to antidepressants, cholesterol-lowering drugs and a variety of pre-disease drug treatments. “Too much of what we take for granted in medicine, especially when it comes to deciding on coverage for treatments, is not based on good evidence — and hence, there is far too much waste, inappropriate use of resources and patient suffering.”
A major source of misinformation, he said, is the pharmaceutical industry. Another problem is incomplete and misleading information about drug safety, which leads to poor prescribing.
Walking Shakespeare’s London
March 6, 7 to 9 p.m.
Hickman 110
Ever wanted to take a walk in Shakespeare’s shoes? Associate professor of English Janelle Jenstad did — and now she’s sharing the historical journey.
Walking Shakespeare’s London is a guided tour of late 16th- and early 17th-century London with maps, illustrations and readings. It’s the result of many walks Jenstad took as a student in England — one of the most formative experiences of her graduate work.
“When the libraries closed at 4:45 p.m., I’d head out into the darkness of the English winter and trace the route that playgoers would have taken from their homes within the city, up Gracechurch Street, out Bishopsgate and into Shoreditch, where Shakespeare’s plays were performed in the theatre,” she said.
A few years later, Jenstad created The Map of Early Modern London (mapoflondon.uvic.ca), which aims to give a sense of the living environment at the time. It includes a digitized version of the Agas, a long-sheet map of 1560s London that showed buildings, the river and people in the fields outside the walls.
“Shakespeare’s cultural resilience is well established,” Jenstad said. “And yet we’re still curious about the playwright’s own historical moment and the material circumstances that gave rise to these plays.”
