Social Science in Action – making it real

Festival events will take place every day with speakers addressing a variety of topics, exploring issues of immediate concern, and sharing research techniques and the results of research projects. The aim is to illustrate what people trained in social science can accomplish, and how social science can indeed be put into action.

Vanier Humanities professor Dr. Sevak Manjikian will discuss Islamic Law in Canada as it touches on marriage and divorce; Dr. Frances Shaver, of Concordia University, will present findings from her research on people working in the sex industry in her talk on Prostitution portraits and sex work policy; and Dr. Bill Reimer from Concordia University will shed light on the complex interdependence of rural and urban places when he speaks on iPods, Algae, and Oil: your place in the future of rural Canada. Mass communications will be at the heart of the Ron Charbonneau Memorial Lecture when recently retired Vanier History professor, Dr. Jim Najarian explores propaganda and spectacle in Nazi Germany in his talk entitled Adolf Hitler and the Politics of Image. Other events will address Native and Aboriginal concerns, hooliganism at soccer matches, diversity, restorative justice, the profession of psychologist, and phobias.

Films will be the centre of attention when Maryse Legagneur presents her documentary film In the Name of the Mother and the Son, an intimate look at two Montreal youths of Haitian origin, and Ronit Avni presents Encounter Point, her film on people caught in the crossfire of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

An important component of the festival focuses on the environment. Well-known writer and journalist, Gwynne Dyer, will address the Geo-politics of climate change in his talk, “Climate Wars”. Geographer Alena Perout will define the much bandied about word “sustainability.” And in his talk, “Friday’s Footprints and the Triple Planets of Doom” Vanier College Geography professor, Ricardo Duenez, will help participants assess their individual footprints on the environment, “Because,” says Duenez, “if every person in the world “consumed” at the same rate as North Americans, we would need two additional planets worth of natural resources.”

Finally, Shelley Kath trained by Al Gore, will make a live presentation of the Al Gore slideshow entitled “Climate Change 101” based on the film “An Inconvenient Truth.” For information and the calendar of Vanier activities log on to: http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/events/socscifest07/ (Source: Vanier College)