Events

Oct. 26, 2011 at 7:30 PM - Prof. Kathryn Denning will give a public lecture at the Ontario Science Centre on "Lost and Found in Space: All-Too-Human Adventures in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Intelligence, and the Colonization of Space." Scientists and engineers busily continue their efforts to detect the signatures of intelligent life far away, find less complex life in our own solar system, and dream up ways to colonize Mars or undertake interstellar journeys. The technological feats are impressive, and the science is fascinating. But what about the human aspects of these quests? How do we lose and find ourselves through the human problems of space exploration--deciding how to relate to other life forms, other intelligent beings, other worlds near and far, and our own past and future?

The Department of Anthropology at York University invites you to join us for our Fourth Annual Lecture:

Hugh Raffles: Rocks, Stones, and Other Vital Things

Tuesday, October 25, 2011 ::: 4:30 p.m. Founders College 305 (Senior Common Room)

Professor Raffles will speak about his new ethnographic project that explores the lives of rocks and stones. There are currently two central problems. One is familiar to anthropologists: What are the forms of life enacted by objects that, in "the Western philosophical tradition," are commonly considered inanimate? The second, although related, may be less familiar: What can we learn from stones? Professor Raffles explores these questions ethnographically, assuming that they are susceptible to empirical investigation. His research considers a limited set of cases, two of which are introduced in this talk: the ancient monuments of the British Isles and Chinese "scholar's rocks."

Brief respondents comments will follow the talk before discussion is opened to the public. All are welcome.

Hugh Raffles is Professor of Anthropology at Eugene Lang College, The New School for Social Research in New York City. His research and writing on the cultural and historical anthropology of “nature” explores connections among people, other beings and “inanimate” phenomena. He is the author of Insectopedia (Pantheon Books, 2010) and In Amazonia: A Natural History (Princeton University Press, 2002).

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, the Office of the Master of Founders College, The Faculty of Education, and The Faculty of Environmental Studies.

Follow the link for a video recapping his fascinating work "Insectopedia".

Oct. 14-16, 2011 Contextualizing Health Information Communication Technologies Workshop

Prof. Naomi Adelson will be co-convening this workshop, a closed CIHR-funded event, at Bethune College. The goal of the Workshop is to bring together Aboriginal and inter-disciplinary academic perspectives to advance the practical and theoretical domains of health ICTs in Aboriginal Canada towards integrative research designs and towards improving the questions we ask as community members, activists, practitioners and researchers.

July 29, 2011 Master Thesis Defence

Jessica Caporusso will be defending her master's thesis: "Tuning In: Sonic Atmospheres and Affective Labour in Recording Studio Life."