Arts Matters Spring & Summer 2014 Volume III PSYC: 33rd annual student research conference a success Each year the Department of Psychology hosts a major conference for students. The Prairie Undergraduate Research Conference, as it’s called, provides undergraduate students of psychology an opportunity to present research conducted as part of their Honours thesis or independent-study projects in a professional, yet friendly, environment. Approximately 60 people attended more conservative. The experiences presentation skills while they speak this year’s conference which was of those who publicly report a and respond to questions. Students held on Friday, April 25 and mental illness was another issue who may be planning to do an featured spoken presentations in addressed in another presentation. Honours program in the near future sessions in the fields of social These and the other topics examined have the opportunity to learn about psychology, cognition, and the brain issues of importance in today’s the research process and the thesis and cognition. There was also a world. experience. poster session. Faculty members in psychology There were 28 presenting students The topics researched were varied from the University of Winnipeg from the Universities of Winnipeg, and compelling. One student and the University of Manitoba, Manitoba and Regina, according to considered the attentional abilities most of whom are thesis supervisors Carolynn Smallwood, Department of athletes who sustained mild to the students, chaired the sessions. Assistant in Psychology. traumatic brain injury. Another Keynote Presentation Smallwood, who along with Karen questioned if those moving up in Barkhouse, coordinated the responsibility and authority became This year’s keynote speaker was Dr. Conference, noted that the Victoria Esses of Western Conference ran smoothly and was a University (UWO). Dr. Esses’ work success, with many students is in the field of experimental social commenting on how grateful they psychology, and she is the Director were for having the opportunity to of the Centre for Research on attend and/or present. Migration and Ethnic Relations at UWO. Her talk, entitled “The Role The Department wishes to of the Media in the Dehumanization acknowledge the faculty members of Immigrants and Refugees,” was that were involved in organizing the well received by approximately 40 conference: Drs. Steven Smith, students in attendance. Harinder Aujla, Danielle Gaucher, and Jeremy Frimer. Opportunity for Students Dr. Victoria Esses of the University This conference matters. of Western Ontario, keynote speaker Participating students have an opportunity to hone their at this year’s conference To read about other conferences and 1 events in Summer 2014, go to page 6. PHIL: Skywalk Concerts & Lectures As part of the Skywalk Concerts & Lectures at the Millenium Library, leading UWinnipeg faculty present on topics of broad historical, polical or scienfic interest. On Feb. 26, Dr. Sandra Tomsons, Associate Professor of Philosophy, gave her talk “The Sancty of Life and Medically Assisted Death.” See page 4 for a list of other presentaons given in Winter 2014 by Faculty of Arts professors. Dr. Tomsons began by explaining that the talk was to medically assisted death. After briefly analyzing the show that Socrates was correct,- the unexamined life is notions of sanctity and life, Dr. Tomsons provided not a worthwhile life. Those present were invited to reasons for believing that the sanctity of life value reflect with her about some of their unexamined beliefs actually provides as much, if not greater, support for that are relevant to making decisions about this regarding medically assisted death as morally important moral question. The sanctity of life is a value acceptable. that is typically employed by those who object to REL: Colloquium Series January 30 work of philosophers, Giorgio Agamben and Adriana Jane Barter Cavarero, and the literary work of Craig S. Womack, this paper argued that the narrations of identity of the Moulaison stolen sisters by their loved ones are a lived protest Dept. of Religion and against the biopolitical identities ascribed to them by Culture their assailants, the media, and the justice system. Instead of identifying these women with bare life, family Beyond Bare Life: members insist on both the singularity of the women lost and their collective and specific victimization Narrations of as Aboriginal women. Singularity by Families of Missing and Through an analysis of the work of family of members Murdered Aboriginal of victims in remembering their “stolen sisters,” Barter Moulaison’s paper made a case for the exemplariness Women and courage of female family members as feminist and Indigenous activists, but also as those who Dr. Barter Moulaison’s demonstrate how identity might be reinstated without paper offered an exploration of the enactment of being reified in political action. ontological reasoning on identity of murdered and missing Aboriginal women in Winnipeg. Drawing on the February 24 contrasting idealized Jennifer Selby presentation of a desirable secular female body. Memorial University Selby argued that these What Niqab Bans Tell Us about Sex and Secularism reports and debates construct normative Restrictions have been introduced in France and Québec, versions of sexual Canada. In both cases, the undesirability of face-covering liberation and gender veils (burqas and niqabs) in the public sphere has been parity are equally worth stressed. discussing. Dr. Selby’s talk outlined recent niqab-wearing women’s cases in Paris and in Montréal and the subsequent REL Colloquium Series - government discussions that led to restrictions to consider Continued on page 3 how these sites have, at the same time, generated a 2 REL: Colloquium Series March 28 framework employed in Aria Nakissa such research. In particular, he suggested - cont’d from p. 2 Dept. of Religion and that existing studies are Culture mistaken in assuming February 28 that international human Jason Hannan Studying the Local rights discourses are Dept. of Rhetoric, Appropriation of grounded in fixed Writing, and Global Human Rights concepts rather than in Discourses: A Critical formalized but Communications indeterminate patterns Assessment of Justice Implicit: The of argumentation. Prevailing Nakissa explained why Pragmatism of Amartya Sen Anthropological this issue matters, as well as its broader Dr. Hannan’s paper provided a Hannan’s paper centred on one Frameworks implications for the pragmatist reading of the of the principal weaknesses of The past two decades anthropological study of political thought of Sen's alternative approach to have seen an explosion human rights. the philosopher and economist justice: the lack of a viable Amartya Sen. In his recent of anthropological model of public deliberation. interest in the study of book, The Idea of Relying on the thought of the Justice (2009), Sen argues human rights. Recent pragmatist philosopher Robert research has sought against transcendental theories Brandom, this paper of justice (e.g. Rawls) to account for the argues that the ongoing and diverse ways that in favour of a comparativist indeterminate process approach that differentiates international human of working out the details of an rights discourses what is “more” from what is imperfect and evolving idea of “less” just. Sen’s project bears are transformed justice through public reason is when they are a strong affinity to pragmatism, an example of what Brandom the American philosophical transplanted calls “making explicit in to various non- tradition that similarly rejects principle what is implicit in the transcendental and accords Western locales. Dr. practice.” He then Nakissa’s a primacy to the social, the offered some suggestions for practical, and the everyday. presentation how Sen’s project could be provided a critical Reading Sen in a pragmatist strengthened through more light helps us better appreciate assessment of the concrete principles of dominant analytic the nature, strengths, rhetoric and and weaknesses of his project. public deliberation. PSYC: Talks in Feb for Psychology Month February is Psychology Month in Canada. To promote that “Psychology is for everyone” (Canadian Psychological Association) and to recognize the importance of mental health in people’s lives, the Psychology Department hosted a series of talks. Feb. 5 - Psychology and the Universality of Science with Jim Feb. 26 - Values and Traits Associated with Frequent Texting Clark, Professor and Chair of the Psychology with Lisa Sinclair, Professor, Psychology Department Department This series is an event so look for it to repeat next Feb. 12 - Self-Compassion and Well-Being with Michael February. McIntyre, Professor, Psychology Department 3 Guest Speakers in IS January 21 May 5 Kevin Fitzmaurice His Highest Laurentian University, Excellency Mr. Sudbury Edgar Torrez Mosqueira Indigenous Research and Plurilnational State of Urban Aboriginal Bolivia Communities: Trends, Intentions, and Challenges Evo Morales and Indigenous Peoples of Dr. Fitzmaurice’s talk explored research trends in urban Bolivia Aboriginal communities in Canada including research Mr. Torrez has served in practices and power relations, the Bolivian public service the role of scholarly research as an expression of for more than 20 years, colonization and current efforts to decolonize through working as Adviser, Indigenous control. The tensions and challenges involved in Director and Deputy the negotiation/struggle