While everybody thinks we know our bodies well, graduate students at UBC’s Okanagan campus want us to reconsider that notion and our body’s relationship with its surrounding environment.

The Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies and the Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Association host their graduate conference this weekend. Researchers from across Canada have been invited to make presentations using this year’s theme Renewing/Re-knowing the Body.

“Presenters will ask what it means to relate to other bodies, both human and non-human, and what kind of ethics can be derived from more complex engagements with the body,” says Matt Husain, member of the organizing committee and a PhD student.

The conference, free and open to the public, takes place in the Arts Building and at the University Centre Students’ Union Theatre at UBC’s Okanagan campus on Friday, May 3, and Saturday, May 4. Along with student presentations, there will be panel discussions and opportunities to debate topics highlighted by the speakers.

For a full conference schedule, visit: www.ubc.ca/okanagan/fccs/news-events/ongoing/igs-student-conference.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
John Sorenson: A Confusion of Corpses: Lessons from the Horse Meat Scandal
Friday, May 3, at 4:45 p.m., University Centre Students’ Union Theatre, 3272 University Way.
Sorenson teaches Critical Animal Studies, globalization, and anti-racism programs at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont.  His current research concerns the exploitation of animals, representation of animals, and animal rights as a social justice movement.

Ashok Mathur: Re-Ignition/Corporeal Fire
Saturday, May 4, at 2:30 p.m., University Centre Students’ Union Theatre, 3272 University Way.
Mathur is Canada Research Chair of Cultural and Artistic Inquiry at Thompson Rivers University, where he directs the Centre for Innovation in Culture and the Arts in Canada. Mathur is a novelist, multi-media artist, and cultural critic.

What: Renewing/Re-knowing the Body
Who: Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Association and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies
When: From 10:30 a.m., Friday, May 3; and from 8:30 a.m., Saturday, May 4
Where: Arts Building, 1147 Research Way, and University Centre (UNC), 3272 University Way, UBC’s Okanagan campus, Kelowna

News from © iNFOnews, 2013