Interdisciplinary Research Collectives

Members of the faculty are involved in a number of research collectives, including the following. Details on all of these can be found below.

 

Collectives Based in the Faculty of Humanities

 

ASIAN CANADIAN WORKING GROUP

(Jo-Anne Lee, Department of Women's Studies and John Price, Department of History)

The University of Victoria Asian Canadian working group is open to scholars, students and community activists who have interests in transnational, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary studies of Asia, ethnic Asian groups in Canada, and the Pacific Rim of Canada.

Its provisional purpose is to promote curriculum development, community activities and scholarly research on these subjects by organizing workshops and sumposia and facilitating communications and colloborative works within and beyond the University of Victoria.

We are still pondering the meaning and doing of Asian Canadian studies. For now, it is a point of departure, not a fixed destination already known. Our travels, interests, and identities might entail journeys crisscrossing "far, central, middle, south, southeast, and east" Asia and points in, beyond and around the Pacific and Canada.

To date, members have contributed to the Tri-university Community Conference on The 1907 Race Riots and Beyond: A Century of TransPacific Canada, Sept. 7, 2007, http://www.anniversaries07.ca/ And the Deconstructing Empire conference www.deconstructingempire.org

We also organized the visit of Dr. Henry Yu, who spoke on "White Victoria, Chinese Vancouver? Empire, Migration, and Trans-Pacific History" on June 15, 2007. We invite anyone sharing this interest to join us. For more information and to get on the email list, contact John Price

 

 

CRITICAL THEORY

(Emile de Rosnay, Department of French)

Construing its topic broadly, this group comprises participants from all over the humanities and fine arts, as well as social sciences. The primary activity of the group is to read closely and together primary texts of especial interest to the majority of the participants. The focus is on very contemporary works, rather than background texts.

We welcome new participants and do not assume competence in previous texts we have read as a prerequisite for participating in whatever we're currently reading. By drawing on the linguistic competencies of the various members, we hope to be able to compare translated versions of these texts with the originals in Russian, French, German and Italian.

The texts will change according to the interests of the group. We will meet at least once a month, though more frequently if the will is there.

Past readings: La Visible et L'invisible (Merleau-Ponty), Idea of Prose (Agamben). Current readings: Homo Sacer (Amamben). Next up: Parallax View (Zizek).

 

 

EARLY MODERN

(Sara Beam, Department of History)

The Early Modern research collective meets monthly to discuss the research in progress of its more than forty faculty members. Guest speakers from other universities are invited to speak to the group once or twice a year. Collaborative projects among members are also being developed. Website: Early Modern Research Collective

 

 

EDITOR! EDITOR!

(Helene Cazes, Department of French)

"Auteur! Auteur!" À la fin de la représentation, il arrive que le public interrompe ses applaudissements pour appeler sur scène l'auteur de la pièce, resté dans l'ombre des coulisses ou les abîmes du silence. Au cri d'Éditeur! Éditeur!, nous appelons au front du livre et du texte, la figure discrète de celui qui publie, met en lumière ou en forme, donne à lire, établit, annote, rassemble, reprend: se faire oublier est son plus glorieux rôle dans l'aventure du texte. Editor! Editor! se réveille après un long sommeil d'une année. Il se réunira en 2008-2009 certains samedis et se consacrera à l'édition, pour les Presses de l'Université Laval, du traité d'Alphonse Leroy: Recherches sur les Habillements des Femmes et des Enfants (1772). En tant que collectif de recherche, le groupe participera au Congrès National de la Fédération Canadienne des Sciences Humaines, à Ottawa, du 26 au 29 mai 2008. Ouverte aux chercheurs et étudiants, l'équipe dispose d'un site Internet: http://web.uvic.ca/~editeur/ et accueille toute personne intéressée par le projet. Merci de contacter la coordinatrice, Hélène Cazes: hcazes@uvic.ca

 

 

HISTORY OF MEDICINE

(Helene Cazes, Department of French and Helga Thorson, Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies)

The UVic History of Medicine research collective is interdisciplinary and interdepartmental, with the goal of joining ideas and work that pertain to history of medicine and to the definition of the discipline. The collective welcomes students, professors, researchers and members of the community. It coordinates existing work at and around UVic in History of Medicine, including presentations and debates. Our next event, in collaboration with REACH (Research on Early Childhood Health and Education), will listen to Baby Talk (HistMed Symposium, April 2011). Visit our webpage for more information and subscribe to our mailing list, if you have not yet done so!  http://web.uvic.ca/~histmed/         

 

 

HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION AND THE 'BOOK'

(Ray Siemens, Department of English) ~ Funded by the SSHRC Strategic Research Cluster Grant Development Program, 2005-6; SSHRC Major Collaborative Research Initiative Development Grant, 2007; SSHRC MCRI application submitted 2007.

Comprised of some 35 local, national, and international researchers and over 20 academic and 20 industry stakeholders at the forefront of computing in the humanities, text analysis, information studies, usability, and interface design -- those who are best-poised to understand the nature of the human record as it intersects with the computer -- this working group has begun to identify the central issues relating to the digitisation of the human record and to act on that identification, to the end of:

- understanding and describing the basic principles of humanistic interaction with knowledge objects (digital and analog alike),

- articulating core strategies for the design of humanistic knowledge objects, especially electronic books, based on this understanding, and

- suggesting basic principles necessary for evaluating and implementing current technologies, and exploring future ones.

Possibilities for human-computer interaction and the electronic book may be examined from a range of interrelated perspectives, which are approached in several essential ways: [1] via processes that seek the identification, quantification, and evaluation of print and electronic books in terms of their features and their uses; [2] via processes that explore the material, symbolic and formal aspects of the book, toward the end of computational modeling; and [3] via a process of prototyping computational models and simulations of the book, both literal models and metaphoric.

 

 

HUMAYMA EXCAVATION TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AND MUSEUM DISPLAY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE

(John Oleson, Department of Greek and Roman Studies)

Since June 2003 Professor John Peter Oleson has been coordinating a group of Canadian and Jordanian scholars, diplomats, and non-governmental organizations working on the enhancement of tourism in the Hisma, the spectacular desert region around Humayma, where he has been excavating. This project is an excellent example of the important role archaeology can play in the social and economic progress of a developing country, and the leverage that a relatively small grant can exert in eliciting government funding to assist that development. Staff from the Maltwood Gallery have been involved, along with faculty at Queen's and Guelph Universities, the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, the Tourism Division of the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority, the Canadian Embassy and the Canada Fund in Jordan, and the Friends of Archaeology in Jordan. This is a project dear to the heart of His Majesty King Abdulla, who visited Humayma in April 2004 and expressed his strong support for tourism development at the site and in the region (Jordan Times Thursday, April 14 2005). A list of publications, photographs, and an account of the site of Humayma, and the excavations can be seen at http://web.uvic.ca/~jpoleson/#Humayma. For a more detailed account of the tourism development collective, please go to web url:http://web.uvic.ca/humanities/research/olesonhumaymaexcavation.htm

 

 

INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN COMMUNICATION, ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY

(John Esling, Department of Linguistics)

We are an interdisciplinary Research/Work Group sharing an interest in the modalities of communication. These include speech, gesture, music, playing an instrument, or human-machine interfaces. We have members in several departments and faculties, including Linguistics, Psychology, Electrical Engineering, Music, Computer Science, Education, and Biology. Our priorities are to stimulate and advance collaborative research and to provide an interdisciplinary venue for graduate students to carry out their research projects.

We propose to create a research facility with high-resolution audio-video processing that can be used by a diverse group of interdisciplinary researchers to capture, process, synchronize, analyze, synthesize, and recreate human communicative and artistic activity. The ultimate research plan is to use the highest levels of technology to study events in music, speech, gesture, and other aspects of human communication and collaborative activity. Our research topics include all of the motor components of human behavior (such as music performance, speech and language, movement and movement disorders) as well as their cognitive control.

Through the considerable overlap and complementarity of our research interests, we seek to promote an interdisciplinary approach to undergraduate and graduate teaching, informal and regular contact between graduate students and faculty members from different disciplines, and joint graduate student supervision and interdisciplinary graduate student research and courses.

 

 

LATIN AMERICA RESEARCH GROUP

(Beatriz De Alba-Koch, Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies)

The Latin America Research Group is a forum for scholars pursuing research on Latin America. It promotes interdisciplinary research projects, organizes conferences, and develops curricula. It supports the University's Latin American Studies Program. LARG's website and mailing list provide information regarding relevant academic and cultural events. For information on the research group and its activities see web.uvic.ca/hispanital/latin/latingroup.htm

 

 

MIDDLE EAST AND ISLAMIC STUDIES RESEARCH COLLECTIVE

(Andrew Rippin, Department of History)

A forum for researchers and graduate students interested in broad issues stretching across the Islamic world. Occasional lectures and meetings are featured, often in collaboration with other British Columbia universities. For future information on the members of the collective and its activities see http://csrs.uvic.ca/Programs/meicon-bc.php.

 

 

LAW, CULTURE AND HISTORY

(Gregory Rowe, Department of Greek & Roman Studies (gdrowe@uvic.ca), Timothy Haskett, Department of History, and Hamar Foster, Law)

A forum for researchers whose work lies at the intersection of law and other disciplines, such as anthropology, gender studies, history, or literature. We invite students and professors from all departments and faculties to meet for information discussions of pre-circulated works in progress. This year, we plan to meet twice per term. In future, we hope to invite outside speakers and perhaps hold a small colloquium.

 

 

LINGUISTIC STUDIES: INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE OF THE NORTH/WEST

(Leslie Saxon, Department of Linguistics)

Since 1992 the group has sponsored workshops and colloquia bringing together researchers in the Victoria-Vancouver-Seattle area investigating language structures of Indigenous languages of the North/West.

 

 

MEDIEVAL ART RESEARCH GROUP

(Catherine Harding, Department of History in Art)

The Medieval Art Research group has been organizing events for the past eight years. Thanks to donor support, faculty projects through the Medieval Studies Program can be encouraged, along with aide to students who wish to travel to see works of art in the original, or visit archives and libraries abroad.

 

 

PRE-DIGITAL BOOKS

(Hélène Cazes, Department of French and Erin Kelly, Department of English)

Pre-digital Books invites researchers, instructors, students, and members of the community at large to explore and share the holdings of the Special Collections of McPherson Libraries. Since the collection includes manuscripts, early printed books, rare books, maps, magazines, and records, there is lots of material to investigate.

Organized as a seminar, the Pre-digital Books Research Collective will meet monthly in the library for show-and-tell presentations followed by discussion. It will work in close collaboration with the librarians and the community of book lovers in Victoria. Anyone interested in becoming a member of this group -- whether to present, attend all sessions, or attend when the topic is of particular interest -- should send an e-mail message to Helene Cazes (hcazes@uvic.ca) or/and Erin Kelly (ekelly@uvic.ca). The presentation program and other information will be posted on our website: http://web.uvic.ca/~predigit/

 

 

SEMINARIUM

(Hélène Cazes, Department of French and Gaelan Gilbert, Department of English)

Seminarium is devoted to the discovery and practice of Medieval Latin on campus. Members meet once a month and translate together a piece of literature.


 

SPEECH PERCEPTION

(Sonya Bird, Department of Linguistics)

The speech perception group brings together faculty and students conducting experimental research on how various groups of people (e.g. second language learners) perceive speech. The primary goal of the group is to provide a venue for discussing work in progress, in order to receive and provide feedback on all aspects of speech perception experiments, from setting up the stimuli to interpreting results. Although we are currently all in the department of Linguistics, we welcome new members and drop-ins from other departments as well.

 

 

TRUTH: TEACHING AND RESEARCH USING TECHNOLOGY IN THE HUMANITIES

(Catherine Caws, Department of French or Ulf Schuetze, Department of Germanic & Slavic Studies)

This research collective sets out to share information and experience, and critically reflect on the use of technology in the Humanities. Our focus is on practice and research, and we would like to develop a network of people from the Faculty of Humanities who are using or are interested in using technology (from creating a website to using wikis, blogs, podcastings, etc), and invite them to share their experience and research on creating new learning environments and communities.

We meet once a month to discuss practices, research and share books and plan on organizing a workshop with an invited speaker once a year.

Everyone interested in reflecting on his or her practices in the classroom and research and discussing learning, instruction and curriculum and development is welcome to join us.

 

 

URBAN STUDIES RESEARCH COLLECTIVE

(Jordan Stanger-Ross, Department of History)

The University of Victoria has both distinguished senior and promising junior scholars whose research and teaching focus on cities. This concentration of scholars presents exciting opportunities to benefit our students, encourage innovative research, and connect with the wider community of Victoria. The urban studies research collective proposes to organize regular discussions of the prospects and challenges that face cities, both large and small. The collective will organize a annual speaker series, actively encouraging both student and public participation. It also proposes to organize a smaller reading group that will bring specialists together to discuss seminal theoretical and empirical research in urban studies.  With cities looming ever larger on political and academic agendas, the urban studies research collective aims to encourage engagement in the most pressing and fascinating facets of urban life. For more information, contact Jordan Stanger-Ross (jstross@uvic.ca) in the history department.

 

 

VICTORIA COLLOQUIUM ON POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND LEGAL THEORY

(Cindy Holder, Department of Philosophy & Colin Macleod, Department of Philosophy)

The Victoria Colloquium on Political, Social and Legal Theory is a forum for regular interdisciplinary exchanges on topics in political, social and legal philosophy. Each year the colloquium brings six theorists to UVic to speak on a work in progress that is circulated in advance. A pre-seminar is held in the week before each visit to discuss readings from the theorist's canon that are relevant to the upcoming talk. Participants in the seminar include faculty, graduate students and law students. The colloquium's website is:http://www.law.uvic.ca/demcon/victoria_colloquium/index.htm

 

 

VICTORIAN STUDIES

(Lisa Surridge, Department of English)

The Victorian group is an informal colloquium for graduate students and faculty working in 19th-Century British Studies. The Victorian era is an exciting and dynamic research area at UVic; for example, members of the group have editorial and advisory board roles with Victorian Review, Canada's only Victorian Studies journal, and the group is organising the 2007 North American Studies Association conference in Victoria. We have members from History, Art History, and English, and would warmly welcome those from other disciplines. The primary function is to serve as a sounding board for work in progress by grad students and faculty (conference papers, articles in preparation) in order to offer constructive criticism in a collegial setting. We also are keen to promote and support interdisciplinary research in the field. New members and drop-ins are welcome. Website:http://web.uvic.ca/~vstudies/

 

Research Groups with members from Humanities

BC INSTITUTE FOR CO-OPERATIVE STUDIES

(Ian MacPherson, Department of History)

 

 

FLORE: FRENCH LEARNING OBJECT REPOSITORY FOR EDUCATION

(Catherine Caws, Department of French: ccaws@uvic.ca)

A collaborative development and research project by faculty members from the University of Victoria, Faculté St Jean (University of Alberta) and Simon Fraser University.

FLORE is a Web portal that provides organized access to over 1500 French resources for teaching and learning. This repository will provide multiple ways to extract the resources it provides access to: by subject, by popularity or frequency of use, and by patterns of application by registered repository users. The FLORE project focuses on the needs for researching and evaluating applications of technologies in teaching and learning languages.

 

 

 

SSHRC-CURA Programs

CURA VANCOUVER ISLAND SALISH LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION PROJECT

(Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins, Department of Linguistics)

A five-year community-driven grant to study and support projects associated with the revitalization of SENÇOÏEN and Hul'q'umi'num' and to assist the development of resources, materials, and programs that will help with revitalizing these two languages. SENÇOÏEN and Hul'q'umi'num' are two Salish languages spoken on the Southern part of Vancouver Island.

 

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