Call for Nominations – Canadian Academy of Health Sciences Fellowship in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS) is one of the highest honours that can be awarded for lifetime contributions to the health sciences in Canada.  CAHS has recently put out a call for new nominations. Dr. Andrew Tasker, one of only two CAHS fellows at UPEI, will provide an overview of the Academy, it's role in providing guidance to policy makers, and will describe the process for preparation and submission of new nominations.  This information session will take place from 12:00-13:00 on Friday, January 27th in AVC 280N, Learning Commons. All UPEI faculty are welcome to attend.  For those who are interested but cannot attend a copy of the presentation can be obtained from Dr. Tasker by request to “tasker@upei.ca”

Career Services is hosting the Campus Job Fair on Wednesday, February 15, 2017. Departments and faculties that hire students throughout the year will be promoting their current and upcoming opportunities. Students are encouraged to attend and meet with potential on-campus employers.

The Future City Competition starts with a question – How can we make the world a better place?  To answer it, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future that showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue. Past topics include stormwater management, urban agriculture, and green energy.  This year’s theme is “The Power of Public Space”.  This year’s competition will be taking place on Saturday, January 21st at UPEI’s new School of Sustainable Design Engineering. The students submitted an essay, worked with Sim City computer software, make a working model and present to a team of judges. The public are welcome from 12:30-3:00 pm to come see some of the cool designs by students from eight Prince Edward Island Schools. 

Career Services will be hosting the UPEI Career and Summer Job Fair on March 8, 2017 in Schurman Market Square in McDougall Hall from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to attend and develop networks with on- and off-Island companies, organizations, and businesses. Our hope is that these networks will inspire our students and provide career opportunities in the future.

Island Studies February Lecture PEI and the Maggies: Long-standing Connections The February Island Studies Lecture is Thursday, February 23, at 7 p.m. in the SDU Main Building Faculty Lounge on the UPEI campus, featuring Island historian Georges Arsenault, speaking about connections between Prince Edward Island and the Magdalen Islands. Arsenault has explored links going as far back as 250 years to the pre-Deportation years when Islanders sailed to the Maggies to participate in the walrus hunt. In more recent times, when the Magdalen Islands were part of the Catholic Diocese of Charlottetown, many PEI priests served in the Maggies while priests from there were posted in Island parishes. Later, over 30 young Acadian women from the Island studied at the Havre-aux-Maisons Normal School and came back home to teach, mainly in Acadian schools. Since the early 1900s, young people from the Maggies have been coming to work and study on the Island. In the last decade or so, the PEI Acadian and Francophone community has cooperated with the Magdalen Islands to develop projects in both the cultural and economic fields. Arsenault will explore the many connections that have been forged over the centuries between these insular communities. A native of Abram-Village, Georges Arsenault lives in Charlottetown. He is the author of many publications on Acadian history and folklore and a well-known lecturer. He is the president of the Sister Antoinette DesRoches Historical Society. Georges was recently made a member of the Order of Canada. Watch for details for another lecture about islands – near and far – Tuesday, March14! For more information, please contact Laurie at iis@upei.ca or (902) 894-2881.

The Difficult Dialogues are academic, student driven conferences that highlight issues that may be considered difficult to have conversations around.  Free, everyone welcome. For more information about presentations and conference schedules, see the Facebook event page or the Difficult Dialogues conference website.

Dr. Alexandre Baril will present the Difficult Dialogues conference keynote presentation "Rethinking Disabled and Trans* Embodiments: Cripping trans* and 'transing' disability." Free, everyone welcome. The Difficult Dialogues are academic, student driven conferences that highlight issues that may be considered difficult to have conversations around.  For more information about presentations and conference schedules, see the Facebook event page or the Difficult Dialogues conference website.

The PEI History of Medicine Society presents Erika Dyck, Professor of History and a Canada Research Chair in Medical History at the University of Saskatchewan. Psychedelics fell from medical grace nearly half a century ago, but recent activity suggests that some researchers have “high hopes” for their return. Are we at risk, however, of facing the same historic challenges with a new generation of psychedelic enthusiasts, or have the circumstances changed sufficiently to allow for a new path forward? The twenty-first-century incarnation of psychedelic research resurrects some anticipated hypotheses, and explores some of the same applications that clinicians experimented with fifty years ago. On the surface, then, the psychedelic renaissance might be dismissed for retreading familiar ground. A deeper look at the context that gave rise to these questions, though, suggests that, while some of the questions are common, the culture of neuroscience and the business of drug regulation have changed sufficiently to warrant a retrial. Historically, LSD and its psychedelic cousins were not simply victims of unsophisticated science; drug regulators arguably squeezed them out of legitimate existence based on assumptions about their perceived dangers, side effects, and potential for abuse. I examine the historical clinical uses of LSD in Canada, including the facility that led to the coining of the term “psychedelic,” and the infamous Hollywood Hospital that offered psychedelic treatments for addictions, to explore some of the lessons that a close reading of LSD’s past has to offer.  

Speaker:  Kim Foote, Pathology and Microbiology Title:  Erythrophagocytic Histiocytic Sarcoma - a diagnostic dilemma?

The Atlantic Council for International Cooperation (ACIC) will hold the 27th annual International Development Week (IDW) February 6-11. UPEI is a proud member of the ACIC and will host two events for IDW. IDW brings together the PEI members of the ACIC and development groups from across the country. 2017 also marks the 42nd anniversary of the ACIC. Cinema Politca Charlottetown will screen The Real Thing: Coca, Democracy and Rebellion in Bolivia Monday, February 6 at 6:00 pm in room 246 of UPEI’s Don and Marion McDougall Hall. The film explores the United States’ “war on drugs” and how it has affected the people of Bolivia. The screening is free, but donations will be accepted in support of student Fallon Mawhinney’s forthcoming trip to Bolivia with Uniterra and WUSC. There will also be a raffle basket and popcorn for sale. For more information, see the ACIC website or contact Selvi Roy at selvi@acic-caci.org.