Conference organizing committee:
(back) Mike Kennefick, Fabian Cid Yañez, David Kadish, Matt Husain, Juawana Grant, Ozgul Akinci, Nishat Tasnim. (front) Jeanette Angel, Kacie Auffret, Meghan Harper, Mathieu Aubin, Catherine Kyle
The 6th Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference Science, Culture and Society: Experiencing Engagement, Engaging Experiments will be held on May 1 & 2. The conference is a place for grad students to share their research and conceptual ideas across disciplines rather than in disciplinary boundaries; students have the opportunity to hear about methods that may be similar or different from their own, applied in a variety of ways, and to hear about ideas and insights that can provide links to their own research that may not have been thought about in a singular context.
The organization of this year’s conference is being coordinated by interdisciplinary graduate students at UBC Okanagan, who are quite diverse in terms of their research areas, and includes students from the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, Community Culture and Global Studies, Earth and Environmental Sciences and Health and Exercise Sciences.
“The way we have organized sessions and presenters sets this year apart, as it is truly pushing the boundaries on what it means to be interdisciplinary,” explains committee chair, PhD Candidate Jeannette Angel. “We have people from extremely different disciplines presenting their research together.”
For instance the session Community and Place presents topics that address how we come to understand collective and individual identity through place and how that changes depending on what is going on in that place. One presenter will discuss her research on women who are commuting to Ft. McMurray, another will talk about historical market gardening in Kelowna using GIS records and the other presenter will share his research on poetry readings and 1960s community protests in Vancouver.
The conference committee has receive assistance and support from a number of faculties and associations on campus, including a new committee that was formed through the UBCSUO, called the Graduate Student Committee who will be hosting the student banquet and organizing a panel, entitled Transitions, Where do We Go from Here?
Margo Tamez, Assistant Professor in Indigenous Studies at UBO Okanagan, is this year’s Keynote speaker. Her talk, “Methodologies for transitioning societies, beyond borders….” will consider how metaphors and stories sustain passion, creativity, innovation, and traction on the research journey. Professor Tamez (Nde konitsaaii, Big Water People, Lipan Apache Band of Texas) is an historian, poet, essayist, traditional knowledge keeper, Indigenous rights defender, and interdisciplinary researcher.
This year’s conference focuses on the ways in which we do research through both experimentation and experience, and will offer traditional panel discussions, walking tours, performance and art installations.
Turning, curated by Jeannette Angel, is an interactive exhibition with scheduled performances that features work by undergraduate and graduate students from Fine Arts and Computer Science programs. It will be held in the FINA Gallery during the conference and the interactive installations will continue to be exhibited until May 28.
For more information about the conference, the program, and the committee, visit igsconference2015.wordpress.com/