Interdisciplinary Centre for Culture & Creativity

Feb 17

Wendy Wilson wins the Sylvia Wallace Sessional Lecturer Award

Women’s and Gender Studies and Sociology are pleased to announce that Wendy Wilson has won the Gwenna Moss Sylvia Wallace Sessional Lecturer Award. The nomination, prepared by Marie Lovrod, WGST Coordinator, and Carolyn Brooks, Assistant Professor of Sociology, almost wrote itself; colleagues from both units were more than happy to contribute glowing letters in support of the nomination. Comments from student evaluations added substantial evidence affirming Wendy’s contributions as a superior and committed teacher serving both Women’s and Gender Studies and Sociology students for almost twenty years.

Generous and engaging, Wendy has a strong reputation for providing an exceptional learning experience for her students. Student evaluations emphasize her caring investment in their development and well-being, her inspirational teaching methods and her scintillating classroom presence. “Wendy for Prime Minister!” was one of our favorites.

Wendy is that rare individual who can combine tough analytical skill development with both humor and sensitivity. Keeping her classroom ever current and on the cutting edge of the field, Wendy has contributed to the achievements of a substantial proportion of the students who have taken Women’s and Gender Studies and Sociology courses over the years. Her colleagues in Women’s and Gender Studies and Sociology, her students, family and friends all appreciate the ways Wendy has invested the prime of her life’s energy into the continued success of the University of Saskatchewan.

Please join us all in congratulating Wendy on this richly deserved recognition of her role as a stalwart member of our academic community!

Feb 16

ICCC Brewing Ideas - Cultural Artifacts and Interdisciplinary Approaches

When: Thursday, February 16th
Time: 3:00pm
Where: DRC, Arts 145

The ICCC is proud to launch a new conversation series, “Brewing Ideas”. The interdisciplinary sessions are designed to promote conversation about creative and culturally relevant topics. The monthly sessions are open to all faculty and students. Everyone is welcome to join us for freshly brewed coffee, snacks and interesting discussion.

The monthly series will be offered the last Thursday of every month at 3:00. (Due to Reading Week, the first session of this series will offered on the third Thursday of February.)

David Parkinson is hosting our first conversation of the series. David will be seeking feedback about interdisciplinary opportunities related to cultural artifacts unique to our university. These opportunities may introduce a specific problem for research in courses or the creation of a course itself. In turn, this work may offer new understandings about the origins, physical properties, meaning, function and value of an artifact through various cultural, disciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses. To begin, the conversation will focus on a concrete example of this idea by exploring opportunities related to the Amati Instruments and current expressed interest in the instruments from faculty in Medical Imaging. David will lead a discussion about this concept as a whole including, but not limited to, ideas for how to conduct this type of exploration and potential artifacts to examine, events related to these opportunities, etc.

We hope you can join us for an interesting conversation!

Stay tuned for more details of our March 29th session!

Jan 14

THE OBITUARY: A Reading by Gail Scott

Wednesday Janaury 26th, 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Windows Room, Faculty Club

University of Saskatchewan

Jan 13

The Women’s& Gender Studies Program and the Interdisciplinary Centre
for Culture& Creativity invite you to the inaugural lecture in the

New Feminist Research Lecture Series

Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Lecture 7pm, Wine& Cheese Reception to follow
Gordon Snelgrove Gallery
Room 191, Murray Building
University of Saskatchewan

Dr. Ilya Parkins
University of British Columbia, Okanagan

“Timing Femininity in Christian Dior’s Self-Fashioning”

Drawing on contemporary feminist theory, modernist cultural criticism, and theories of nostalgia, Ilya Parkins reads Christian Dior’s autobiographical writing and other self-representations as this fashion legend’s relational forging of a self through others. Parkins argues that Dior’s self-narration occurs through the feminine: both living women and an iconic, figural femininity. For Dior the nostalgic subject, women become the bearer of the wished-for past, but they do so in a domain, fashion, that is perpetuated through its relationship to the present and the future. The temporal burden that Dior’s self-representation places on women foregrounds the foundational question of modern fashion in the twentieth century, one that haunts Dior’s work and his self-conception: the conflict between art and industry. Women, thoroughly present and visible in Dior’s self-representation, thus paradoxically establish its central narrative as the masculine subject’s anguished relationship with industrial modernity.

Ilya Parkins is an Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator of Women’s& Gender Studies at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. She is the co-editor (with Elizabeth M. Sheehan) of _Cultures of Femininity in Modern Fashion_, forthcoming from University Press of New England in 2011, as well as numerous articles and book chapters on feminist social and cultural theory, fashion and dress, and theories of modernity.

The New Feminist Research Lecture Series is hosted by the Women’s & Gender Studies Program and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Culture & Creativity. This series aims to raise the profile of feminist research at the University of Saskatchewan and to showcase the work of dynamic early-career (pre-tenure) scholars in WGST and its related fields. This series also seeks to foster connections within the various feminist communities at the University of Saskatchewan, and to support the development of feminist research in Canada.

This Lecture has been generously supported by the President’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women& the USSU Women’s Centre.

For more information, please contact T.L. Cowan, Assistant Professor
Women’s& Gender Studies and English: tl.cowan@usask.ca

Dec 13

On behalf of the ICCC Executive Committee and staff, Keith Carlson, Interim Director and Sabrina Kehoe, Associate Director would like to invite you to celebrate the season at an ICCC Open House.

Please join us on:
Tuesday, December, 14th
At 3:30 in Arts 1007
Refreshments will be served

Gerry Klein, Saskatoon Star Phoenix, had great things to say about ICCC

December 2, 2010 - Gerry Klein from the Saskatoon Star Phoenix’s editorial had great things to say about the ICCC and it’s commitment to “connect disciplines within the University… forge links with the broader community…”.

Sep 1

The arts are frequently seen as possible agents of transformation – as catalysts for
neighbourhood revitalization and urban development, for example, or tools to introduce social capital and heighten community identity. This talk will focus on what is possible when we think of artistic practice as forms of engaged inquiry in the “ordinary everyday,” and the transformative knowledge that emerges.

This is a free public lecture and everyone is welcome to attend.

Jun 28

Exploring Culture - Call for Proposals

The ICCC is seeking applications from faculty in the division of Humanities and Fine Arts who want to form ICCC Working Groups. In each such group, interdisciplinary scholars and artists will plan and initiate research or engage in other scholarly exchanges. Each group should be led by a faculty member in the Division. Student representation is encouraged.

Each Working Group will receive a grant of up to $4,000 to be used over a 2-year period. This grant can be used to support visitors, collaborators or students, and cover related costs.

Possible activities include initiating collaborative links within the University and community organizations, developing national or international alliances, producing a joint publication, or developing new interdisciplinary programming.

For information on how to apply, see the Research tab on the ICCC website, or contact the ICCC at i.ccc@usask.ca.

Jun 18

Nurture - Reshaping the Process: The Convergence of Art & Science

Nurture poster

An interdisciplinary art exhibition exploring the dialogues between Art & Science. Monday, June 21st 10am - 4pm, Room 1E80, Agriculture Building, University of Saskatchewan.

May 6

Ideas to Ivory Tower (I2I)

May 6, 2010 – The second discussion in the Ideas to Ivory Tower (I2I) series was led by speakers Patricia Roe, Leader for Communications and Public Relations at Sherbrooke Community Centre, and Anne Simpson the 2009-10 Writer-in-Residence at the Saskatoon Public Library.

Sherbrooke Community Centre is not only a home for elders, but a thriving community which is enriched by community partnerships. Increasingly, opportunities have arisen for meaningful exchanges between Sherbrooke and the University of Saskatchewan. In 2010, as her assignment in English 496.3 (Career Internship), an undergraduate student assisted Anne Simpson in the Writing Program at Sherbrooke. In February 2010, students in Interdisciplinary Studies 298.3 (Dynamics of Community Involvement) participated in an Open Mike session of readings by residents of Sherbrooke.

The discussion opened up possibilities for connections between Sherbrooke’s Arts Program, undergraduate courses such as Career Internship and Dynamics of Community Involvement, and the ICCC’s new MFA in Writing. Also considered in the light of Sherbrooke’s experience were prospects for the employment of artists and for developing technologies of communication.

The Sherbrooke Community Centre is embarked towards becoming a centre for creativity - a place of learning and a lab where students from elementary, high school and university can develop new projects and programs to help create full and abundant lives for institutionalized and community-based elders, and individuals with disabilities. The May 6th discussion helped set the collaborative wheels in motion.