2008-2009 PROGRAM
SOLD OUT
Course Fee: Three Lectures for $15
September 12, 2008
The Underground Railroad
Karolyn Smardz Frost B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
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This lecture will highlight the lives of two American slaves in antebellum America who ultimately escaped to Toronto, Upper Canada in 1834. It will reveal the prevailing social attitude toward blacks in the U.S.A. and Canada, and the political situation that gave rise to the growth of the Underground Railroad.
Karolyn Smardz Frost is an archaeologist, historian and past Executive Director of the Ontario Historical Society. Currently, she lectures part-time at York University. Her book, I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad, won the Governor General’s literary award for non-fiction in 2007. Karolyn lives in Collingwood.
September 19, 2008
World Crisis: Potable Water
Ronald Denham MBA, Ph.D.
Billions of people lack access to safe water and safe sanitation. The United Nations has targeted a reduction of 50% in the number of people without these essentials by the year 2015. This lecture will describe the challenges in facilitating the changes to attain this goal.
Ron Denham has had careers in academia, business and community including teaching, management consulting, and service to professional organizations. With Rotary International, his expertise turned to projects such as the Water Resources Task Force and the Water & Sanitation Rotarian Action Group. A winner of Rotary’s highest service awards, his current mission is for all 32,000 Rotary Clubs to become involved in water and sanitation projects around the globe.
September 26, 2008
Climate Change:
Bandwagons, Boondoggles & Boundless Hot Air
Bruce Pardy LL.B., LL.M.
If climate change is happening as fast as scientists report, it seems obvious that even modest measures should be taken right away. But what seems obvious is not always correct. This lecture offers a hard look at environmental orthodoxy on greenhouse gas emissions.
Bruce Pardy, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, has taught environmental law in New Zealand, the United States and Canada, and has written extensively on ecosystem management, water law, climate change, and environmental governance and liability.
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SOLD OUT
Ethical Dilemmas of the New Genetics
various
Oct. 17, 24, 31, Nov. 7, 14, 21, 2008
Course Fee: $30
The development of new tools in medical science has given rise to continuing debate around the ethical and legal issues that emerge from their application. Six experts from across Canada and the U.S.A. discuss some of these vital issues.
| Oct. 17: |
Reading the Future?
Legal & Ethical
Challenges of Predictive Genetic Testing
Trudo Lemmens, Lic. Jur., LL.M., DCL |
Human genome mapping will lead to useful applications in medicine, genetic testing technology and whole genome scanning. However, the potential for unregulated commercialization gives rise to many ethical concerns. This presentation will elaborate on some of the most critical issues and suggest some regulatory and legal tools to address them.
Trudo Lemmens is an Associate Professor of Law and Medicine at U of T. He specializes in health law and policy bioethics, currently focusing on the regulation and ethics of medical research and the new biotechnology.
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| Oct. 24: |
Synthesizing Life: Genesis to Doomsday
Lori P. Knowles LL.B., B.C.L., M.A., LL.M. |
Synthetic genomics offers the possibility of synthesized DNA creating life and/or novel organisms not existing in nature. We could synthesize microbes that create scarce compounds, or crops that produce vaccines. But we could also reconstruct deadly viruses able to evolve and replicate themselves. Synthetic genomics is neither good nor bad; but it must be used for enhancing the public good.
Lori Knowles is a lawyer, professor and consultant in biotechnology (law, policy, and ethics). She is a Research Fellow of the Health Law Institute of the University of Alberta and lives in Boston.
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| Oct. 31: |
Genetic Counselling: View from the Front Line
Cheryl Schuman, MS, CGC |
This session incorporates cases from the clinical setting to illustrate how complex genetic information and testing can affect patients and their families. Ethical and counselling challenges will be highlighted as well as anticipated issues arising from emerging technologies.
Cheryl Shuman is the Director of Genetic Counselling at the Hospital for Sick Children and an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto.
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| Nov. 7: |
Race & the Race to Market Genetic Tests
Tim Caulfield LL.M. |
Is race more social construct than biological reality? New research in genetic variation has re-ignited the race debate. This lecture will explore if and how the media, market forces, clinicians and the research community contribute to the reification of biological views of race.
Tim Caulfield is a Professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Health, University of Alberta. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy and is a Research Director at the Health Law Institute, University of Alberta. His research centres on two general areas: biotechnology, ethics and law; and the legal implications of health care reform in Canada.
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| Nov. 14: |
Stem Cell Research: An Ethical Way Forward?
Bernard Dickens Ph.D., LL.D. |
Research on human stem cells may lead to therapies for diseases. What are the ethical and policy issues around the use of human embryos and therapeutic cloning? Where do conscientious objection of the researcher and public funding of research enter the discussion?
Bernard Dickens is Professor Emeritus of Health Law and Policy in the Faculties of Law & Medicine, and the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. He is also Chair of Health Canada’s Research Ethics Board, a Member of its Science Advisory Board and an Officer of the Order of Canada. He co-authored the book, Reproductive Health and Human Rights: Integrating Medicine, Ethics and Law.
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DATE CHANGE: The following lecture has been changed from Nov. 21 to Nov. 28
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| Nov. 28: |
The Patent Paradox: Patents and Access to Medical Discoveries
Richard Gold, B.Sc., LL.B, S.J.D, LL.M. |
Patents provide incentive for the creation of new products, and enable innovators to charge a monopoly price during the patent period. The pharmaceutical industry, although profitable, has been developing fewer new drugs while these products remain at monopoly prices. In developing countries, essential medicines are often unaffordable or unavailable. Is there a problem with the patent system? This lecture draws on the newest studies to examine this Patent Paradox.
Richard Gold, Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, is President of ‘The Innovation Partnership’, a not-for-profit consultancy in the areas of technology transfer, innovation systems, intellectual property policy and development. He is the Principal Investigator, Intellectual Property Modelling Group, a transdisciplinary research team investigating intellectual property regimes.
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SOLD OUT
Stories in Our Lives: The Ways and Whys of Narrative
Gary Draper, Ph.D.
Jan. 16, 23, 30, Feb. 6, 13, 20, 2009
Course Fee: $30
This course examines the important roles played by narrative in literature, entertainment, and our lives. It covers a range of story forms, with consideration of their histories and their effects. Why do we tell stories? Why do we listen? And what is it we’re looking for?
| Jan. 16: |
Once Upon a Time |
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From our earliest connections in life, stories are part of how we understand ourselves and our world. We’ll look at the variety of ways stories touch our lives and explore the special pleasures of having them read to us. We’ll consider some of the sources of oral stories, and pleasures of spoken texts.
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| Jan. 23: |
Narratives in Literature, 1: The Novel |
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In Western literature, the novel has been for several centuries the single most important literary source of narrative. We’ll discuss some of the variations on the form, from its inception up to the present.
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| Jan. 30: |
Narratives in Literature, 2: The Short Story |
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Since the nineteenth century, the short story has been an important literary form of narrative. Given the speed of life in the 21st century, it’s a more appealing form than ever: we take a look at some of the starting points, and some of the current versions of the short story.
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| Feb. 6: |
Narratives in Literature, 3:
Poems and Plays - and a Word about the Movies |
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We go back to classical civilization for the Western origins of story, and there find both drama and epic poetry. We’ll consider some of the notable embodiments and values - then and now - of stories in verse, stage and screen.
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| Feb. 13: |
Words and Music |
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Folksongs, pop songs, opera, and Broadway: one way and another, they all have a story to sing - or tell. We’ll examine some examples of each, and think about the difference a tune makes to a tale.
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| Feb. 20: |
Getting the Picture - and Reaching the End |
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Visual stories can appear in the most unexpected places from cartoons to high art: we’ll take a look. Then we’ll wrap up the story by examining the wrap-ups of stories. What - or how - does the ending mean? Do stories ever end?
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Gary Draper was so popular when he lectured to GTLLI in the spring of 2007 on Canadian Literature, he was asked to return. Gary has recently retired as a professor of English at St. Jerome’s University, University of Waterloo. He continues to edit poetry for Brick Books (London, ON) and edits for New Quarterly (Waterloo, ON). Gary was the founding editor of Trout Lily Press (Waterloo, ON).
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SOLD OUT
Technological Innovations:
A Wolf
in Lamb’s Clothing?
Mar. 27, Apr. 3, 17, 24, May 1, 8, 2009
Course Fee: $30
The past has seen far-reaching scientific innovations that seemed to be mostly beneficial to human society. This course will present in easily understood, non-mathematical language the wonders of some of these inventions. From this base, the political and economic impacts of major technological innovations with implications for the future environment of our planet will be discussed.
| Mar. 27: |
Electricity Lights Up our Lives |
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The Greeks first observed static electricity in about 600 B.C. In the 17th century, conduction and storage were attempted. Without electricity, our standard of living today would be medieval – able to sustain only a much smaller population. |
| Apr. 3: |
Electronics: Telegraph Clicks to Microchips |
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Electronics began with telegraph signals which could travel only about 25 miles without amplification. Vacuum tubes, invented in the early 1900’s carried electronics to the 1940’s. The transistor drastically shrank the space required for equipment. Do we know where all the microcomputers are hidden in everyday use?
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| Apr. 17: |
Electromagnetic Radiation: Waterless Waves |
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Radio, cell phones microwaves, X-rays, magnetic resonance imaging – all use electromagnetic radiation traveling at the speed of light. The difference is wavelength. Find out how these waves work and how they have affected society.
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| Apr. 24: |
Robotics: Where Humans Fear to Tread? |
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Used in moon exploration and the Canadarm, robots have enabled more efficient manufacturing processes while at the same time improving quality. Discover what has made robots possible.
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| May 1: |
Nuclear Technology: Fission Confusion? |
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Nuclear reaction and decay were first identified in the early twentieth century. Good or bad, it is present in our everyday life. How concerned should we be about nuclear energy?
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| May 8: |
Global Warming |
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Can technology help global warming? This lecture will discuss the earth’s thermodynamic balance and look at some proposed solutions – solar cells, wind turbines, hydrogen and geothermal energy.
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John Smith, a retired Physics Professor, University of Waterloo, now concentrates on helping people in the community gain a better understanding of the technology that they encounter in their lives. He won a 1996 University of Waterloo distinguished teaching award and for three years was on Maclean’s ‘most popular Professor’ list.
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