Calgary Conference - What is a City?

CALGARY INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES
IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE
WESTERN HUMANITIES ALLIANCE CONFERENCE
"WHAT IS A CITY?"
October 19th - 22nd, 2006

University of Calgary

MacEwan Conference & Event Centre

For over 5000 years, cities have been a primary forum for meaning-making and place-making. They have been studied in artifacts, literature, and history, expressed in texts, visual and performing arts, and they have been analyzed in their social and physical settings. Cities have inspired imagination, signified aspirations, and they have demonstrated human limitations.

The world is rapidly moving to a new context characterized by profound influences of cities. For the first time in history, over half of the world lives in urban centers. No country is preventing urban migration and it is likely that populations will continue to grow in scale and complexity.

Sixty scholars representing 28 disciplines address the theme of the conference during this three-day conference. Program information is available on the Humanities Institute's web-site: www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/Others/CIH

Plenary Sessions

October 19 – “Street Walking” by Aritha van Herk, Author and Professor, English, University of Calgary.
van Herk is one of Alberta’s most talented authors, a University Professor, and twice-appointed Fellow at the Calgary Institute for the Humanities. Her novels have won provincial and national awards, and the “irreverent but relevant” history of Alberta – Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta won the Grant MacEwan Author’s Award.
Time & Location: 7:30 p.m . – Glenbow Museum - 130 - 9 Avenue S.E.

October 20 –“The Grid, the City & the Mind.” by William L. Fox, Author and Poet, Los Angeles, California.
Fox is a writer, independent scholar, and poet who deals with how human cognition transforms land into landscape. He has written books on Las Vegas and Los Angeles (forthcoming), as well as Terra Antarctica that reflects his experience as a National Science Foundation writer-in-residence in the Antarctic. His forthcoming book on the Arctic deals with cognition, culture and landscape.
Time & Location: 4:30 p.m. – Cassio room, MacEwan Conference and Event Centre

October 21 –“The Spectacular City.” By Lisa Rochon, Author (Up North: Where Canada's Architecture meets the Land) and Architecture critic for The Globe and Mail.
Rochon has been assigned as writer and on-camera host of a six-part television series titled “Six Cities Alive to Change: Lessons from the 21st Century” that deals with London, Barcelona, Chicago, Cairo, Shanghai, and Vancouver.
Time & Location: 11:00 a.m. MacEwan Hall A, MacEwan Conference and Event Centre

“What Is A City?” is held in conjunction with the Western Humanities Alliance and it is co-sponsored by the Alliance and the Faculties of Communication & Culture, Environmental Design, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Calgary.