The UPEI community is invited to join our 2018 graduates with their families and friends at a Mass of Thanksgiving to celebrate their accomplishments and to wish them well. His Grace Richard Grecco, Bishop of Charlottetown will preside. 

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Carol Evans (Chair in Higher Education at the University of Southampton, UK National Teaching Fellow, and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy) and Dr. Martina Doolan (Senior Blended Learning Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and UK National Teaching Fellow) for an afternoon of workshops and discussion on university teaching. On May 7, 2018 two concurrent workshops will be offered at 2:00 pm in Don and Marion McDougall Hall:Workshop A: “Pedagogical Framework For Collaborative Learning in a Social Blended E-Learning Context: an Overview of the Dialogic Shamrock” with Dr. Doolan (MCD 328).Workshop B: “Enhancing Assessment and Feedback: a Pragmatic, Research-Informed Approach: EAT” with Dr. Evans (MCD 329). The workshops will be followed at 3:30 by a panel, including Dr. Srinivas Sampali (Dalhousie), on the topic “What Makes you Hopeful for the Future of Higher Education?” Please register by May 2 with Shannon Murray (smurray@upei.ca) and indicate which of the two workshops you plan to attend. This event is sponsored by the Vice-President Academic and Research and the Faculty Development Office. All are welcome!

The Faculty of Science wishes to announce Sean Landsman, PhD candidate from the Department of Biology, will be defending his thesis entitled "Movement, Behaviour, and Marine-Derived Nutrients: A Comprehensive Assessment of Issues Related to Fish Passage in Atlantic Canada" on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 at 9:00 am. All PhD defences are open to the public and you are welcome to attend. Please note seating may be limited.

Sacred Water: Standing Rock is the first in an 8-part documentary series that showcases Indigenous activists across the Americas rising up to protect their ancestral homelands and the environment. There will be a public screening of the documentary on Monday, April 23 on the UPEI campus (7:00 pm) in honour of Earth Day 2018. The people of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation of North and South Dakota are fighting to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline from being built on their ancestral homeland. The pipeline would snake its way across four states, bisecting sacred Indigenous sites and burial grounds along the route. The 45-minute film was shot towards the beginning of the Standing Rock protests in 2016, and ends just as new protestors and allies join them, responding to desperate social media calls for support. It is a moving examination of a protest movement on the brink of gaining international attention. The film will be introduced by Eliza Starchild Knockwood. Eliza has recently released her own film, The Water Protectors Journey - Along the Sipekne’katik River, which she will be premiering at City Cinema on May 6. Hosted by the UPEI Aboriginal Student Association, Sierra Club PEI, Cinema Politica Charlottetown and the UPEI Environmental Society. Admission by donation, all are welcome!  

Sisters Elizabeth and Carolyn Epperly will be launching Summer in the Land of Anne, an illustrated children's book, on Wednesday, May 2 at the Faculty Lounge in SDU Main Building at 7 pm. All are welcome to attend. From the Acorn Press website: Six-year-old Elspeth’s mother has a surprise in store for her daughters. She’s taking Elspeth and her eleven-year-old sister on a surprise vacation. When she starts reading Anne of Green Gables aloud to the girls, they catch on—they’re going to Prince Edward Island! Elspeth proudly dons her Anne hat on the ferry, ready to explore the Land of Anne. Although she knows she’s really visiting Lucy Maud Montgomery’s house, she feels like she recognizes everything from the books and is thoroughly enchanted. At first devastated that Montgomery’s first house was torn down by Montgomery’s uncle, Elspeth sees signs of life—chipmunks living in the old cellar. Elspeth’s imagination is ignited. No longer satisfied with pretending to be Anne, Elspeth is instead inspired to become more like Montgomery: famous writer Elspeth of Cavendish, writing about the world she loves. Summer in the Land of Anne is a celebration of the books we love and all the ways they inspire us. Author: Elizabeth R. EpperlyIllustrator: Carolyn M. Epperly

A special guest lecture in the Island Studies Lecture Series takes place Thursday, May 3, at 7 p.m. in the SDU Main Building Faculty Lounge on the UPEI campus. It features David Earl from Alderney, in the Channel Islands, speaking about Alderney: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats! Alderney is the third largest of the British Channel Islands, which are UK Crown Dependencies. According to the results of a Census carried out in 2013, 50 per cent of the population (less than 2,000) is now aged 55 or over, while the number of young working-age persons on the Island has dropped by 47 per cent since 2001. More worrying, the number of children under 15 has dropped by 50 per cent over the same period. Despite a 17 per cent drop in the Island’s population in the period 2001‒2013, the States of Alderney (the Island's government) has, so far, failed to reverse the decline. The aim of this lecture is to paint a picture of the island and its people, as well illustrating its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The lecture will be followed by an opportunity for questions, answers, and suggestions! David Earl began his working life in the world of advertising and marketing but has spent much of his professional life in broadcast television and communications. He was recently awarded an MA in Modern War Studies from the University of Buckingham. David is visiting Prince Edward Island in order to learn more about the Island, and the work of the Institute of Island Studies. Admission to the lecture is free and everyone is welcome to attend. For more information, please contact Laurie at iis@upei.ca or (902)-894-2881.

The regular May 2018 Island Studies Lecture takes place on Tuesday, May 15, at 7 p.m. in the SDU Main Building Faculty Lounge on the UPEI campus and will feature L.M. Montgomery scholar Dr. Kate Scarth speaking about “Anne of Charlottetown and Summerside: L.M. Montgomery’s Urban PEI.” This presentation follows Anne of Green Gables to urban PEI: to Charlottetown and Summerside. In Anne of Green Gables, Anne goes to Queen’s College—a fictional version of Prince of Wales College—and in Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne is the principal of Summerside High School. Of course, Anne of Green Gables and its author L.M. Montgomery usually conjure up images of rural Avonlea and Cavendish, the beaches and farms of PEI’s north shore. Montgomery’s rural island is reflected in her own writings, and later film and TV adaptations and the many tourist sites like Green Gables that celebrate the author. While the rural looms large in her life and work, Montgomery was also a chronicler of urban Canada. She wrote journals and letters about her life in Charlottetown, Prince Albert, Halifax, and Toronto, while three novels, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars, and Jane of Lantern Hill, have significant urban settings. How does one of the most insightful writers of PEI and Canada’s literary landscapes grapple with the tensions between modernizing, globally linked, growing towns and a traditional rural, agriculturally based island? The presentation offers an urban dimension to a writer usually steeped in rural tradition, but who was writing about a Canada starting to become the urban nation it is today. Dr. Kate Scarth is the Chair of L.M. Montgomery Studies and Applied Communication, Leadership, and Culture (ACLC) at UPEI. Her research focuses on English and Canadian literature written from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century and she is particularly interested in fiction about urbanism and the environment. Her book, Romantic Suburbs: Sensibility, Ecology, and Greater London, is under contract with the University of Toronto Press. She is also leading a digital humanities, public engagement project about literary Halifax, Nova Scotia. Admission to the lecture is free and everyone is welcome to attend. This concludes our regular lecture series for the spring ― unless something too good to pass up comes our way! Watch for the series to resume in the fall. For more information, please contact Laurie at iis@upei.ca or (902) 894-2881.

The Atlantic Veterinary College is excited to host this annual event that celebrates graduates of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program.  

The Faculty of Nursing is excited to host this event that celebrates class of 2018 graduates. The cost is $40 per person. Please RSVP to Julie Grant (jugrant@upei.ca) or Molly Tingley (mtingley@upei.ca).

Dean Juergen Krause, faculty and staff invite graduating business students to attend the Faculty of Business 2018 Undergraduate Graduating Class Reception. Bring your family and friends (up to two guests per student) to celebrate and acknowledge all the great things you have done as individuals and as a class throughout your time at UPEI. Hors d’oeuvres will be provided and there will be a cash bar. Dress: Business Attire RSVP by Tuesday, May 8th (business@upei.ca)