Island Lecture Series continues…John Cousins presents Island Studies April Lecture: New London: The Island’s Lost Dream Tuesday, April 19 | 7 p.m. | SDU Main  Building Faculty Lounge The Island Studies Lectures Series concludes this season on April 19 with historian/folklorist John Cousins presenting a lecture entitled “New London: The Island’s Lost Dream,” tracing the rise and fall of the “Quaker” village of New London between the years 1773 and 1795. The talk – a sneak preview of a book to be published later this year by Island Studies Press – gets under way at 7 p.m. in the SDU Main Building Faculty Lounge on the UPEI campus. New London was unique in the history of Island settlements. It was begun not as a community of scattered farms but as a compact industrial village stretched along “Leadenhall Street,” the road leading to the harbour mouth. The villagers for the most part were woodsmen, mill workers, and artisans: shoemakers, blacksmiths, coopers and woodworkers like the famous Benjamin Chappell. There was even a village doctor: Dr. Cullshaw. The plan of Robert Clark, the London Quaker who owned Lot 21, was to exploit the sea and the forest of his Island properties and export fish and lumber to the Caribbean. In return, products from the Caribbean – rum and sugar, for instance – would be carried back to the Island. The village was unique in other ways. It was planned as a Quaker community and its core families were Quakers from London and from the southern and western counties of England – some of whose descendants still live in the area. Powerful Quaker industrialists in England, among them John Townsend, a London pewter merchant, and William Cookworthy, the founder of England’s porcelain industry, were Clark’s supporters. Yet, within 20 years, the settlement at New London’s harbour mouth had died. Using eyewitness accounts and correspondence from the time, Cousins examines the village’s birth, its middle years and finally the “perfect storm” of events which led to the end of Robert Clark’s dream: the American Revolution, the business failure of Robert Clark, and finally the machinations of Island politicians who seized part of Clark’s property. In the end the dream of New London and its founders died. However, the first-hand accounts of its early days recorded by Benjamin Chappell, Thomas Curtis and Joseph Roake demonstrate that the courage, grace and toughness of the first New Londoners outlasted the death of their dream. John Cousins was born in the fishing village of Campbellton, Lot Four, western Prince County in 1945. He has been a fisherman, a school teacher, a school administrator, a historian and a folklorist and has published a number of works on PEI history and folklore. He taught as a sessional professor of folklore in UPEI’s History Department from 2000 to 2014. He is descended from John Cousins and Mary Townsend, whose families were among the first settlers at New London. Admission is free and everyone is welcome to attend.

UPEI’s Senate Committee on the Enhancement of Teaching (SCENT), the Faculty Development Office (FDO), and the UPEI Faculty Association (UPEIFA) have invited Dr. Len Findlay to give a presentation Wednesday, April 27 at 11am in room 243 of UPEI’s Don and Marion McDougall Hall. Dr. Findlay is a distinguished professor of English at the University of Saskatchewan and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His talk is entitled “Pedagogical Authority or Consumer Sovereignty? Academic Freedom and the Academic Mission.” Dr. Findlay is past head of the academic freedom and tenure committee of CAUT. He is a staunch advocate for radical humanities, a strong critic of the contemporary university, and a steadfast defender of academic freedom. Dr. Findlay’s talk is the culmination of SCENT and FDO’s semester-long focus on academic freedom, pedagogy, and curriculum. 

UPEI Let's Talk Science will be putting on interactive displays and activities at the 6th Annual Family Earth Expo on Saturday April 23rd from 1:00 - 4:00 pm at the PEI Farm Centre, 420 University Avenue (next to CBC). For more information on UPEI Let's Talk Science, contact Hannah Gehrels at upei@letstalkscience.ca. The Earth Expo, presented by PEI Sierra Club, is an all-ages event with many family-friendly science-based activities including seed planting and watershed displays; information booths by green businesses and environmental groups; live music; art displays and activities; food; and other attractions. "It's always lots of fun and a great learning experience for young families and everyone interested in environmental action and awareness," states Tony Reddin, one of the Expo volunteer organizers. Admission is by donation. For more information on the Earth Expo check the Facebook event page or contact Tony Reddin at 902-675-4093, or by email at tonysierraclub@gmail.com.

The University of Prince Edward Island's School of Sustainable Design Engineering and Engineers PEI cordially invite you to attend the 2016 UPEI SSDE Design Expo. 12-4 pm is judging and tours of School of Sustainable Design Engineering first, second and third year student design projects. Everyone welcome!  

April 16, 2016 is World Voice Day. More than 500 events around the world are drawing attention to the importance of the speaking and singing voice in everyday life. Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS) UPEI World Voice Day Celebration, 4:00 pm  The first event is a series of short talks on research on the singing voice, followed by a short concert from members of the UPEI Multicultural Choir and Song Circle. This is all under the auspices of the AIRS project, supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Dr. Annabel Cohen, professor of psychology and the director of AIRS, will give a brief overview of the scope of AIRS research which has been ongoing for 7 years in PEI, across Canada, and in over a dozen countries world. Three of Dr. Cohen’s honours undergraduate students will also present. Jessica McKellar will talk on the recognition of popular music by members of three generations: university students, their parents and grandparents. Kyle Dutton and Eric DeSilva’s topic focuses on their study on a singing test (AIRS Test Battery of Singing Skills) completed by 40 UPEI student athletes. Following these presentations, members of the AIRS Multicultural Choir and Song Circle will sing songs from Britain, Japan, China, Kenya, and Ukraine, and will lead a few traditional rounds of singing for those who would like to join in. The event is in the SDU Main Building Faculty Lounge at 4:00 pm. A light pizza dinner will be provided to enable attendees to stay on campus and attend the second celebratory event.

Representatives from the PEI Office of Immigration and the Department of Workforce and Advanced Learning, and Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will be on campus for a presentation and question and answer session on the different immigration streams.

Come out and learn more about the WUSC UPEI Local Committee and how you can get involved! We will be recruiting volunteers for various positions within the organisation. -If you're passionate about global issues and development as we are, this is the right set-up to find out what we're all about! -Find out how to be involved with the WUSC as it is a great opportunity to foster and develop leadership skills as well as contributing to making a positive change in the world. -This is also a good opportunity to ask questions about the local committee.

Staff from the Department of State, USA Embassy in Halifax will be on campus on May 5th to do a presentation on applying for a USA Visitor Visa.

The evolving practices and technologies of Digital Humanities bring a plethora of challenges to would-be participants. In this talk, Dr. Michael Newton will discuss some of the experiences of the UNC Digital Innovation Lab around Digital Humanities projects and how they have informed the design decisions behind the data visualization collaboratory Prospect. It will also feature a demonstration of some of the key features and functionalities of Prospect that support the needs of Digital Humanities projects, and an outline of how to create a data set with it. Dr. Michael Newton has been the lead software developer in the Digital Innovation Lab at the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, since late 2013. He has a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego, which he earned while working at a popular computer game company. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in Celtic Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and has published extensively in that field. In 2007, he was awarded a Digital Humanities Initiative grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (US) to create a digital collaboratory for Celtic Studies. He is currently working on several projects at UNC, most notably the data visualization collaboratory Prospect.   Dr. Newton is the author of Seanchaidh na Coille / The Memory-Keeper of the Forest, published by Cape Breton University Press, which has been shortlisted for the Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing.

UPEI is proud to host the first-ever UPEI Entrepreneurship Bootcamp on May 2, 3, and 4, 2016. Designed for UPEI students and alumni, the Bootcamp will provide participants with three days of presentations, competitions, and site visits. Participants will talk with leading Island entrepreneurs, hear their stories, learn from their advice, access their business ideas, and profit from their feedback. Each day the Bootcamp will feature: IDEAS CAMP MENTOR CAMP FINANCING CAMP There is no cost to attend, but space is limited!  Reserve your place today by texting 902-394-2536 with your email address and BOOTCAMP in the subject line. Open to UPEI students and alumni from all academic disciplines. 2016 graduating students will have priority.