2007-2008 PROGRAM
Course Fee: Three Lectures for $15
September 14, 2007
The Great Lakes Treaty:
Threats to the Great Lakes
and What We Can Do About Them
Timothy Morris and Mary Muter
The Great Lakes are coming under increasing pressure from a
range of sources including global warming, urban development
and sprawl, pollution and invasive species. Given these pressures,
a massive effort is required by citizens and governments to keep
the lakes clean and protect their dependent ecosystems. This
lecture will discuss some of the most pressing concerns. It
will focus particularly on Lake Huron-Georgian Bay and highlight
actions that can be taken to conserve this truly unique environment.
Timothy Morris is the National Campaign Manager, Sierra Club of
Canada. Sierra Club of Canada is a national non-profit, volunteer
organization with about 10,000 members, supporters and youth
members across Canada. Protection of our fresh water resources
has been a high priority of Sierra Club for more than 40
years. Tim’s work for Sierra Club focuses on Great Lakes
water issues and national water policy. Tim is also a Ph.D.
candidate at the University of British Columbia. His graduate
research looks at how policy can be designed to address the
impact of climate change on water resources.
Mary Muter is Vice President of the Georgian Bay Association and
Chair of its Environment Committee. The Georgian Bay Association
is an umbrella organization representing 22 cottage associations from
Port Severn to the North Channel and some 18,000 individual
residents. Mary, on behalf of the GBA, has spearheaded much of
its advocacy work in such areas as water quality, water levels, air
quality, invasive species, and wetlands protection, bringing to the
attention of government many hitherto unacknowledged problems.
September 21, 2007
Canada’s Role in Third World Aid
Nancy Gordon
Foreign-development aid since WWI has followed two waves: the
first consisted of charitable donations from the west; the
second relied on aid from state and multinational institutions
(such as CIDA and the United Nations). These have often produced
mixed results. A new, third wave is attempting to bring small-scale
farmers, retailers and shop owners into the formal market and to
provide them with access to capital, property rights and
opportunity. This latest wave is transitional and is a new
approach to helping micro-entrepreneurs start and succeed
in their business ventures. This lecture will examine the
evolution, theory and practice of making markets work for
the poor by looking at successes and failures and discussing
the implications of this approach for Third World economies
as well as First World donors.
Nancy Gordon retired from CARE Canada in 2006. She served
that organization in positions including Director of
Communications, Marketing Unit Leader and, finally,
as Senior Vice-President. From 2002 – 2006 she was also
the National President of the United Nations Association
in Canada. Educated at Queen’s University, Nancy joined
the Dept. of Foreign Affairs in 1963 and from 1985-1992
was Director of Public Programs at the Canadian Institute
for Peace and Security.
September 28, 2007
The Auto Sector
Dr. Peter Frise
The automotive industry is Canada’s largest business sector providing
thirteen per cent of manufacturing GDP and more than 500,000
jobs. This lecture will give a non-technical overview of the
educational and research initiatives that support this industry
and will describe how the industry affects the lives of all
Canadians. It will examine the future of automotive technology
and give some insight into the automobile of the future.
Dr. Peter Frise is Professor of Automotive Engineering and
Executive Director of Automotive Research and Studies at the
University of Windsor. In 2000, Dr. Frise became the head
of AUTO21 – a federally supported Network of Centres of
Excellence. NCE has more than 230 researchers, nearly 500
students, in excess of 40 universities and around 120 industrial
and public sector partners working on a wide range of issues that
will affect the automobile of the future.
A Year in China
Judy and Ken Thomson
October 12, 19, 26, November 2, 9, 16, 2007
Course Fee: $30
Oct. 12: Lots of History
A
view of the Great Wall of China inspires the Thomsons to
appreciate five thousand years of China's history.
Oct. 19: The Chopstick Challenge
Chinese cuisine reflects the variety and history of Chinese culture.
Oct. 26: Snapshots
Intimate descriptions of everyday street scenes give added insight
into the daily life of contemporary China.
Nov. 2: Doing the ESL Thing and Enjoying It
An inside look at education in China today and its effect on China's
role in the new global structure.
Nov. 9: The Arts of China – Patience, Perfection and Detail
An examination of many aspects of Chinese art – including architecture
, painting, calligraphy, porcelain, theatre – proves to be a unique
insight into ancient and contemporary culture.
Nov. 16: Modern China
A personal insight into modern China and how it was influenced by the cultural
revolution, the one child policy, modern economics and foreign affairs.
Judy and Ken Thomson are both graduates of the University of Toronto
and are both retired from long and distinguished teaching careers.
Ken was Head of English at West Hill Secondary School in Owen
Sound. Judy taught history and writing at Georgian College,
Owen Sound, for 19 years and was recognized with the Faculty
Award for Teaching. In 2004, she was appointed Professor
Emeritus of the college. In the winter of 2005, she
presented a Canadian Art Course to GTLLI.
Together, they have lectured to lifelong learning groups in the Georgian
Bay area and at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Together they have
created this course on their year in China where they taught in
a Chinese secondary school in 2003-04.
Responses to Evil
Dr. David Seljak
Jan. 11, 18, 25, Feb. 1, 8, 15, 2008
Course Fee: $30
Jan. 11: Evil in the Modern World
We will examine the basic structures that allow modern society to
produce unprecedented abundance and freedom as well as evil, such
as global imperialism, the ecological crisis, total war, and genocide.
Jan. 18: Jewish Responses to the Holocaust
The Holocaust has awakened people to the demonic possibilities of the
modern world, whereby a popular government used industrial means to
pursue a previously unimaginable goal, the elimination of a human
"genus." We examine Jewish responses to the Holocaust and other evils.
Jan. 25: Colonialism, Nationalism and Hinduism
In the face of British imperialism, Mohandas Gandhi inspired Indians
to turn to their Hindu roots to create a non-violent movement of
resistance to evil. This spiritual program asked them to search
for evil not only in British imperialism but also in Indian society,
the Hindu religion and their own hearts.
Feb. 1: Martin Luther King Jr. and Racism
Martin Luther King Jr. understood that racism hurt both victim and
victimizer and called for a response that would restore the human
dignity of both. We examine King's Christian response to both formal
or legal "apartheid" as well as informal or socio-economic segregation.
Feb. 8: Thich Nhat Hanh and the Ecological Crisis
Human beings tend to separate themselves from "nature" - acting
as if they can have clean, healthy humans and a dirty, polluted
world. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist monk, suggests a modern
form of Buddhism that focuses on mindfulness as a response
to the ecological crisis.
Feb. 15: The Globalization of the Free Market
Pope John Paul II wrote that, no less pernicious than Marxism,
fascism, ethnic chauvinism and religious fanaticism, a runaway
Western consumerism could lead to great evil. Does a free market
that expands without concern for the good of the poor or the
health of the natural environment, become a source of
death-dealing powers? Do we (knowingly and unknowingly)
participate in this evil?
David Seljak is Associate Professor of Religious
Studies at St. Jerome's University and Chair of the
Dept. of Religious Studies at U. of Waterloo. He
recently published a research report entitled, "Religion
and Multiculturalism in Canada: The Challenge of Religious
Discrimination and Intolerance." In 2005, David gave one
lecture in a course on Democracy at GTLLI that was
extremely well received.
SPRING COURSE
Astronomical Thinking:
From
the First Astronomers
to
the Big Bang and Beyond
Mar. 28, Apr. 4, 11, 18, 25, May 2, 2008
Course Fee: $30
March 28: Our Place in the Universe - Prof. John Percy
An exploration of the content of the universe, terminology, size, distance
and time scales, telescopes and other tools, that will help you extend
your knowledge of astronomy.
Apr. 4: A Matter of Gravity: Understanding Motions in the Sky - Prof. John Percy
A look at astronomy from prehistoric times to modern-day
relativity - Classical Greek astronomy, Islamic astronomy,
Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei,
Isaac Newton, William Herschel and Albert Einstein.
Apr. 11: Light and Spectra - Prof. John Percy
Discover how analysis of the light coming from stars enables
astronomers to determine distances and the chemical composition
and life cycles of stars and galaxies.
Apr. 18: Modern Cosmology: The Observational Basis - Prof. Roberto Abraham
This lecture looks at the current theories on galaxies, the expansion
of the universe and its size and age. It explains how we
can see back in time and why the Big Bang theory developed.
Apr. 25: Cosmology: Theory and Simulation - Prof. John Dubinski
A computer model of the birth and evolution of the universe will be
presented - an awesome time-lapse view. How does it compare
with observations? What does it predict for the future?
May 2: Cosmology: Putting it Together - Prof. John Percy
"Dark matter" and "dark energy" - What are they? How
did "we" get here anyway? Are other civilizations,
elsewhere in the universe, asking the same questions
that we are?
Professor John R. Percy, Department of Astronomy and
Astrophysics at the University of Toronto is the designer
and main lecturer of this course. In 2006, he was one of
five recipients of the newly established President’s Teaching
Award and was honoured, along with his wife, by having a pair
of co-orbital asteroids named after the two of them.
Professor Roberto Abraham is an award-winning researcher and
teacher in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of
Toronto. He uses the world’s largest telescopes to observe
the evolution of the universe.
Professor John Dubinski, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
University of Toronto, creates computer simulations of the
evolution of the universe. These simulations have both
scientific and aesthetic power.
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