College of Arts Friday News, Celebrations, and Events
March 3, 2023
Happy snowy Friday!
The university is closing today at 6 pm due to incoming inclement weather. Campus buildings and facilities will be inaccessible after 6 p.m., with limited exceptions. The University aims to reopen at 6 a.m. on Saturday, March 4. For more information and updates, please visit https://uoguel.ph/x32og.
Dylan White, Phd student, and Gus Skorburg, Associate Professor, both in the Department of Philosophy recently published an article in The Conversation. The article explores the unique set of challenges and opportunities posed by ChatGPT for education and assessment : https://theconversation.com/chatgpt-killed-the-student-essay-philosophers-call-bullshit-200195
Philosopher Rowan Bell explores the complicated relationship between gender, authenticity and ethics on the podcast Examining Ethics. Rowan is joining the College of Arts this summer. They’ll be teaching in Philosophy and in our new interdisciplinary program Sexualities, Genders and Social Change (SXGN). The podcast is available on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1M3Pv8SaEEsMzweYanTUfK
The Week Ahead
How do you make a book move? Move to depart and return to the diverse homes of Black African diasporic women… move in the word-sound-mood tones of the jazz they perform… move readers to resonate and sense their experiences beyond static pages of academic prose?
In her presentation Thinking Spaces: Rashida K. Braggs, “Black Women Who Move Jazz Methodologies” Rashida Braggs discusses her methodological moves that mix dance ethnography, songwriting, and playwriting in her book-performance in progress on the migrations of black women jazz performers to Paris, France. Braggs guides us through an early chapter where she weaves her material and embodied research on the Malagasy-Senegalese singer MFA Kera and Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo as they first migrate to Paris in 1969 and 1983 respectively.
For more information about the presentation which is on Monday, March 6th 1-2:30pm in-person at MacKinnon 103, online via Zoom see : https://improvisationinstitute.ca/event/thinking-spaces-rashida-k-braggs/. Registration is required to attend: https://forms.gle/ej2a3HcVhVSwmmvH7
And Tuesday is Arts Career Night. This fully virtual event is an opportunity to hear the career stories of College of Arts Alumni! Learn about their successes and challenges, how their degree has helped pave their way, and what they are doing now. Ask Alum questions and move from room to room to catch a little of all the panels, or sit tight for one that stokes your fire. Nicola assures us that faculty are invited and as well she asks us to be sure to share this invite with our students.
“Arts students are the pollinators of the work world. They have the ability to harvest knowledge, see patterns, synthesize information, and create meaning through a myriad of career pathways. In this special event, you are invited to connect with College of Arts Alumni and learn from their career journey successes and challenges and support your own possible-selves career exploration.
Date: Tuesday, March 7, 2023
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Location: Zoom
The evening includes a brief welcome and concurrent breakout rooms featuring theme-based panels showcasing alumni working in various industries.
• Welcome, Alumni Panels and Q&A: 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
o Visual and Performance Arts Panel and Q&A
o Social Enterprise Panel and Q&A
o Multimedia in Gaming and Technology Panel and Q&A
Thanks Nicola Edwards of the Education Team|Experiential Learning Hub|University of Guelph for organizing!
Due to the snow closure of the university, the School of Language and Literature event in honour of their dear colleague Joubert Sartye has been moved to Friday, March 10th.
Here’s a reminder that SETS professor Troy Hourie will be presenting his current long-term research project, Odditorio | A Performative Art Installation – an experimental mediated artwork with puppetry – in our new Arts Performance Theatre on March 11th. It is a full day exhibition with two performances with Troy’s collaborators, The Misfits Collective (3 collaborators are U Guelph THST alumni).
“Odditorio is a performative art installation. It exists both as an art installation to be viewed in an exhibition space and as a performative work that is viewed by an audience. Therefore, we have built the following schedule for both exhibition and performances. Prior to both performances audiences are welcome to come view the space as an artwork before seeing the scheduled performance.”
We have two free tickets available to the 3 pm show for the first people to email me asking for them.
And finally, on Sunday, March 12, the Guelph Classics Society is holding a Symposium 10 am-4 pm in the Arboretum. All are welcome. More details here, https://www.instagram.com/p/Co-rV4kv4m1/?igshid=MWMzM2Q4ZmE=
That’s the week ahead of us. In the meantime, I hope you have a relaxing weekend. I’m off to the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus with Associate Deans Andrew Bailey and Ruediger Mueller to judge the Ontario High School Ethics Bowl this Saturday and Sunday. Prof. Joshua (Gus) Skorburg (Philosophy) is also giving a talk to the students on Sunday morning, called “If Animals have rights, should AI robots have rights too.” If you’d like to get involved in judging the Ethics Bowl, as part of the U of G College of Arts contingent next time around, please drop me a line. There’s more information here, https://www.ontarioethicsbowl.com/2022-2023-details.
Cheers, Samantha
(Standing in for the Communications Team)