Lecture Me! a series

 

Lecture Me logo

 

The UTM Office of the Dean, Experiential Education Unit and Mississauga Library System are proud to present Lecture Me! a series of lectures by UTM Faculty

The Lecture Me! series highlights research from different departments by UTM faculty members in a way that is approachable and fun for the whole family. This multidisciplinary series will feature a different faculty member each month who will deliver their presentation to the community about their research.

The events will be hosted virtually by the Mississauga Library System through their Virtual Library - Webex platform typically on the first Tuesday of each month from 7:00-8:15pm.  Starting in February 2024, Lecture Me! will be facilitated through a hybrid model, providing audience members with the option to attend the lecture in-person at the Mississauga Library or virtually through the Virtual Library - Webex platform.

Registration is required for all talks and can be found through the Mississauga Library. Registration links for each talk can be found in the table below. *An Active Net account must be created to register. However, you do not need to be a Mississauga resident to register for the Active Mississauga account.

For any issues relating to registration, please contact customer service at 905-615-4100 or email rec.info@mississauga.ca.

DateFaculty NameDescriptionEvent Registration

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

 

Sheliza Ibrahim Lecture Me! 2023-24

Professor Sheliza Ibrahim

Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy

Questioning the collective imagination of contemporary issues from a science and numeracy lens 

Contemporary issues are understood and shaped by the collective imagination. In this lecture, I introduced young scholars to the critical thinking required to navigate perspectives and positions through quantitative reasoning and socio-scientific understanding. They use the conceptual framework of critical visualization to capture images from local societies and analyse them using frames of reference grounded in critical pedagogy, actor-network theory and place-based education.  They question how socio-scientific values influence contemporary issues, and how quantitative reasoning and data interpretation validate our understanding of these contemporary issues. Some issues examined include, food security and local greenhouses, STEM careers for Black professionals, urbanization and wildlife preservation, and communication during the COVID19 pandemic.

REGISTER HERE!

SESSION RECORDING

 

Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Ken Derry Lecture Me! 2023-24

Professor Ken Derry

Department of Historical Studies 

“We Are Our Stories”: Healing and Indigenous Films

Stories are incredibly powerful. They tell us who we are. They can create, and destroy, entire communities. Indigenous storytelling has always taken many different forms, and one of the most recent forms is film. Movies have made it possible for Indigenous stories to reach, and affect, a much wider audience more quickly than ever before. In this lecture, I consider the ways in which a number of recent Indigenous films made in Canada connect with Métis scholar Jo-Ann Episkenew’s understanding of how stories can help with healing. These ways include giving voice to trauma; pushing back against colonial myths; affirming Indigenous histories and ways of knowing; and promoting joy.

REGISTER HERE!

SESSION RECORDING

 

Tuesday, November 7, 2023
Liz Coulson Lecture Me! 2023-24

Professor Liz Coulson

Department of Language Studies

Going Glocal:  Affordance in the use of VR and AI as teacher and leadership training tools in local and global classrooms

Advancements in the use of immersive technologies for teaching and learning are being described as the next revolution in how we deliver instruction.  From prompt engineering to learner customization in a 4D and 360 worlds, it’s exciting for us to continue to wonder what the use of new tools like Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality actually look like, sound like and feel like in a classroom? In this talk we will imagine the futuristic classroom together while reflecting on the warnings and cautions from the founders of the technologies themselves. How do we temper our excitement with a methodical analysis of human- centered design principles and values to inform the way forward? This talk describes a current research project underway to assess immersive technologies as they are used to support vulnerable learners. I will also share the promise of AI and VR environments as a safe training space for future teachers and leaders to rehearse, test and refine pedagogies in both local and global classrooms.

REGISTER HERE!

SESSION RECORDING

Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Andrea Olive Lecture Me! 2023-24

Professor Andrea Olive

Department of Political Science & Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment

 

Protecting the Prairies

Canada’s grassland prairie ecosystem is iconic but under threat. This talk, based on the new book Protecting the Prairies, explores the history of grassland conservation through the life of a farmer turned politician turned conservationist. The story illustrates how conservation is for everyone and how all Canadians should get involved in protecting the places and species they love.

REGISTER HERE!

 

Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Loren Martin Lecture Me! 2023-24

Professor Loren Martin

Department of Psychology

Pain and the Social Brain

Human health is inextricably linked to psychological and social factors within an individual's environment. Strong social bonds correspond with better health outcomes such as reduced stress, and lower rates of anxiety and depression, and are protective against the development of chronic pain. Increasingly, pain has been recognized to occur within a social sphere and is commonly communicated to and influenced by others. While our understanding of biological and psychological processes in pain is reasonably well developed, the social dimension of pain has received far less attention. It is of considerable surprise to many that social contexts and social interactions affect pain sensitivity in laboratory animals—but such observations have been made, and interest in the topic is growing. In this lecture, I will discuss recent work done by my lab using laboratory mice that examines how pain responses are changed by the presence of another individual and the brain circuits that control these changes. Understanding the influence of social context on pain will gives us fundamental insight into the mechanisms that engage empathy and pain circuits that are crucial for survival.

REGISTER HERE!

SESSION RECORDING

 

Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Lindsay Schoenbohm Lecture Me! 2023-24

Professor Lindsay Schoenbohm

Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences

The Big One: The Where, When, and How Bad of Earthquake Science 

The biggest earthquake you’ve never heard of happened in Chile on February 27, 2010. It was the sixth largest ever recorded, with a magnitude of 8.8. It caused three minutes of intense shaking, and the tsunami it generated resulted in damage as far away as Japan. Yet only 550 people died in this earthquake. Compare it to what happened in Haiti just a month earlier, on January 12, 2010. That earthquake you definitely remember because it was awful, and you and countless others donated to the rescue and recovery effort. As many as 220,000 people died. But this earthquake was only a magnitude 7.0, 500 times less powerful than the Chile earthquake. What’s the difference? Prediction and preparedness. This lecture will explore how and how well we can predict the location and timing of earthquakes. We’ll also discover what makes some earthquakes so deadly. And in case you are wondering, yes, a major earthquake is possible in southern Ontario. Come find out more so you can be prepared for the next big one! 

REGISTER HERE!

SESSION RECORDING