Prof Makes Headlines!

Stone Parliament of Art has featured drama professor Judith Thompson before on the blog and we're thrilled to bring more good news. Today she appears on the front page of the Review section of the Globe and Mail praising her three decades of drama in words and photographs. Thirty years ago, her first play, The Crackwalker, debuted at Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. Her new show, Such Creatures, opens this week at the same theatre where she started her career.

For those unfamiliar with Thompson, she's been a U of G professor since 1992, is an award-winning playwright and is known for her complex and sometimes disturbing plays that give voice to human failings and accomplishments. In 2009 she won the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award for her political play Palace of the End. In 2008, she was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Awards and was the first Canadian to win the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

She has also been nominated for a Genie Award twice, was a finalist for the inaugural Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and won the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award. She was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 2005, considered the country’s highest honour of lifetime achievement, for her outstanding contributions in arts and writing.

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* Congratulations once again Judith! We're very proud of you!

*Image: here
*NEW YORK TIMES reveiw of JUDITH THOMPSON'S ''Crackwalker'' (at the Hudson Guild Theater)

U of G students know what's BEST! The REPORT card is in!

The Report Card is out! And the University of Guelph is a straight-A institution when it comes to student satisfaction and quality, according to a national survey published today by the Globe and Mail.

U of G earned an A+ for having the most satisfied students — the only school among Canada's small, medium and large-sized universities to receive that mark. It also received an A+ for campus atmosphere and an A for overall quality of education in the University Report Card. Read more HERE.

“It’s gratifying that our students, year after year, reward us with top marks,” said president Alastair Summerlee.
“It tells us that we are succeeding in our primary mission: providing our students with the most unique, engaging and satisfying learning experience possible. Simply put, students come first at Guelph, and this continues to distinguish us.”

In addition to overall quality of education and student satisfaction, U of G was ranked No.1 in its division or tied for the top ranking in several key areas, including teaching, course availability, student services, food services, buildings and facilities, and campus technology.

New this year is the category “environmental commitment,” and Guelph received an A-minus, the highest grade awarded. U of G was one of only four schools in the country to earn that mark.

Photos: FSC

Gregory Levey is an Assistant Prof in Professional Communication at the University of Ryerson who wrote an interesting essay called "LAMENT for THE iGENERATION" .

"The simple fact is that universities are going to have to radically change. They’ll need to find ways to accommodate students with ever-shrinking attention spans, who are used to instantaneous and interactive communication and not one-way lecturing. Not all of my students are like this, of course. Some read books for pleasure and are able to write lucidly. They’re as sociable in real life as they are adept at pointing and clicking; they’re able to retain new information; and some aren’t even particularly tech-savvy. In my experience, however, these students are the minority."

Stone Parliament of Art is thrilled! Melding of artistic and scientific disciplines!

Stone Parliament of Art is VERY EXCITED!! We'd like to announce an upcoming art show of evolution-inspired works that provide diverse views of ideas contained in Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. An art installation that will meld SCIENCE & ART under one roof!

John Collier's 1883 portrait of Charles Darwin
Major artists have always been heavily influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Read more HERE.

"This View of Life: Evolutionary Art in the Year of Darwin, 2009"

Runs from Oct. 9 to 30 th.

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University of Guelph's Science Complex Atrium
Also be housed at Ed Video Media Arts Centre in downtown Guelph.

Reception held Oct. 16 from 5 to 7 p.m.

The Atrium
Photo:Rebecca Kendall

Billed as a melding of artistic and scientific disciplines, the exhibit will include painting, drawing, sculpture, video and even "deviant taxidermy" contributed by 10 artists from Guelph and area. U of G is a major reseach/teaching university when it comes to biodiversity for scientists and students world wide. ( June '09 U of G received $12.5 million for world-class research) Artists were asked to interpret Darwin’s ideas & related concepts such as biodiversity. “The artists were free to do what they liked, inspired by evolution and Darwin’s ideas,” said integrative biology professor Ryan Gregory, co-organizer of the show.

Above Photo: Dr.Ryan Gregory Vist The Gregory Lab HERE and GENOMICRON blog HERE.

Contributors to the exhibition include:

U of G studio art graduate Stephen Wicks
Guelph artist Alison Judd
Burnaby Orbax, a sessional lecturer in the Department of Physics
U of G MFA graduate Jenn Norton
Prof. Jean Maddison, Fine Art and Music.

Earlier this year, Gregory and departmental colleague Prof. Beren Robinson organized a Darwin-themed colloquium on evolutionary science and a workshop on teaching evolution for high school teachers. The Peter Yodzis Colloquia In Fundamental Ecology touches me deeply because it's named in memory of my dear friend Sue's husband Peter Yodsiz. This years colloquium looked for another way to mark Darwin’s 200th birthday and his book’s anniversary, they hit on the idea of an art show. A beautiful 'merger indeed. ART & SCIENCE!

“The act of science begins with the observation of nature,” said Robinson, referring to the five-year round-the-world voyage aboard the Beagle that helped hone Darwin’s skills as a natural historian. “That’s what artists do first, they look.” Art and science also meet in their use of metaphors for interpreting and teaching, he said. “One of the most powerful teaching tools is to find an apt metaphor for an idea. There’s an opportunity to share metaphors here.” The lone illustration in Darwin’s 1859 book — a branched diagram depicting his concept of species’ descent with modification — is echoed in the signature “tree of life” in the science complex atrium, said Robinson. “It’s a metaphor with unbelievable power.”

OTHER EVENTS

Two public lectures on aspects of evolution will also take place this fall on campus - free talks both begin at 7:30 p.m. in the science complex atrium.

* Oct. 13, Paul Ewald, director of the evolutionary medicine program at the University of Louisville, presents “Evolutionary Insights Into the Causes and Prevention of Cancer: It’s Not Just About Mutations Anymore.”

* Dec. 1, Niles Eldredge, curator at the American Museum of Natural History and author of books on evolutionary theory, will discuss “Darwin: Discovering the Tree of Life.” His lecture is organized by ASTRA.


More information is available online.

Stone Parliament of Art is thrilled!! Melding of artistic and scientific disciplines!

Stone Parliament of Art is VERY EXCITED!! We'd like to announce an upcoming art show of evolution-inspired works that provide diverse views of ideas contained in Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. An art installation that will meld SCIENCE & ART under one roof!

John Collier's 1883 portrait of Charles Darwin
Major artists have always been heavily influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

"This View of Life: Evolutionary Art in the Year of Darwin, 2009"

Runs from Oct. 9 to 30 th.

University of Guelph's Science Complex Atrium
Also be housed at Ed Video Media Arts Centre in downtown Guelph.

Reception held Oct. 16 from 5 to 7 p.m.

The Atrium
Photo:Rebecca Kendall

Billed as a melding of artistic and scientific disciplines, the exhibit will include painting, drawing, sculpture, video and even "deviant taxidermy" contributed by 10 artists from Guelph and area. U of G is a major reseach/teaching university when it comes to biodiversity for scientists and students world wide. ( June '09 U of G received $12.5 million for world-class research) Artists were asked to interpret Darwin’s ideas & related concepts such as biodiversity. “The artists were free to do what they liked, inspired by evolution and Darwin’s ideas,” said integrative biology professor Ryan Gregory, co-organizer of the show.

Above Photo: Dr.Ryan Gregory Vist The Gregory Lab HERE and GENOMICRON blog HERE.

Contributors to the exhibition include:

U of G studio art graduate Stephen Wicks
Guelph artist Alison Judd
Burnaby Orbax, a sessional lecturer in the Department of Physics
U of G MFA graduate Jenn Norton
Prof. Jean Maddison, Fine Art and Music.

Earlier this year, Gregory and departmental colleague Prof. Beren Robinson organized a Darwin-themed colloquium on evolutionary science and a workshop on teaching evolution for high school teachers. The Peter Yodzis Colloquia In Fundamental Ecology touches me deeply because it's named in memory of my dear friend Sue's husband Peter Yodsiz. This years colloquium looked for another way to mark Darwin’s 200th birthday and his book’s anniversary, they hit on the idea of an art show. A beautiful 'merger indeed. ART & SCIENCE!

“The act of science begins with the observation of nature,” said Robinson, referring to the five-year round-the-world voyage aboard the Beagle that helped hone Darwin’s skills as a natural historian. “That’s what artists do first, they look.” Art and science also meet in their use of metaphors for interpreting and teaching, he said. “One of the most powerful teaching tools is to find an apt metaphor for an idea. There’s an opportunity to share metaphors here.” The lone illustration in Darwin’s 1859 book — a branched diagram depicting his concept of species’ descent with modification — is echoed in the signature “tree of life” in the science complex atrium, said Robinson. “It’s a metaphor with unbelievable power.”

OTHER EVENTS
Two public lectures on aspects of evolution will also take place this fall on campus - free talks both begin at 7:30 p.m. in the science complex atrium.

* Oct. 13, Paul Ewald, director of the evolutionary medicine program at the University of Louisville, presents “Evolutionary Insights Into the Causes and Prevention of Cancer: It’s Not Just About Mutations Anymore.”

* Dec. 1, Niles Eldredge, curator at the American Museum of Natural History and author of books on evolutionary theory, will discuss “Darwin: Discovering the Tree of Life.” His lecture is organized by ASTRA.


More information is available online.