News

Justin DeHart, and his long-time collaborator from California, Nick Terry, premiered Two Marimbas (2018), a three-movement work by composer Paulo C. Chagas (Brazil) in Indianapolis, Indiana as part of the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) New Music/Research day on the 9th of November. The annual event featured new works by Latin American composers this year.

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Sophie Yun and Raz Tripp won second and third place respectively in 2023’s Tertiary Japanese Language Speech Contest 2023. The event was organised by Japanese Studies Aotearoa New Zealand (JSANZ) and is sponsored by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Auckland Inc. “Nisui-Kai,” among other local organisations. Sophie, a Japanese major pursuing a Bachelor of […]

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The National Centre for Research on Europe (NCRE) has just completed the last of its series of HUI-EU workshops for early-stage doctoral students, funded with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The workshop, organised by Dr Mathew Doidge and Dr Serena Kelly, alongside Associate Professor Gosia Klatt (University of Melbourne), brought […]

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Patrick O’Sullivan (Classics) gave an invited paper at the University College & Classics Faculty Research Seminar, Oxford University, UK, on Thursday 26 Oct 2023. ‘Homer, the Sophists and Human Agency in Pindar’s Epinikian Odes’ Abstract: As widely noted, Pindar often invokes the notion of god-given aid and natural talent to explain the superiority of his athletic […]

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Mike Grimshaw(Sociology) has been invited to be a member of the panel discussion on Academic Freedom for  the Free Speech Union AGM in Christchurch this weekend (November 4 at the Town Hall). He will discuss past cases of Academic Freedom in NZ in the 1930s and 1950 and what are the issues Ademic Freedom faces […]

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Mike Grimshaw (Sociology) has four sole authored  articles and one co-authored article on the noted NZ philosopher Arthur Prior published in the Journal  Logic and Philosophy of Time (aau.dk) Vol. 5 No. 1 (2023): The History and Philosophy of Tense-logic His articles cover: Prior’s engagement with Calvinism as a route to logic; Prior and the […]

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Students of COMS 402 Public Diplomacy (course coordinator Professor Natalia Chaban) presented their original public diplomacy campaigns to the European diplomats – HE Nina Obermaier, the Head of the EU Delegation to New Zealand, and Nora Romanova, a member of the Young Professionals in Delegation Programme. The diplomats discussed and praised the campaigns designed by […]

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Patrick O’Sullivan gave the following invited seminar paper for a one-day colloquium October 13: ‘Death and its Afterlives in Ancient Greek Imaginings’, in Perspectives on Death; The Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit, Engelsberg, Sweden; The Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit is a private foundation with the primary purpose […]

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On Sunday, September 24th, in cooperation with The Christchurch City Libraries, and the New Zealand Chinese Language Teachers Association, CIUC hosted Chinese Immersion Day to celebrate the conclusion of New Zealand Chinese Language Week.  In collaboration with this event, the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Christchurch donated Chinese language books to […]

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This school holidays the Teece Museum is excited to be part of the Ōtautahi Spring Holiday Trail. The theme for the Spring Trail is time travel and is filled with fun activities designed to take you on a journey around the city (and back in time!) It is sure to be an exciting way to […]

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There are many connections between Greek and Roman myth and the Star Wars universe. There are courageous heroes, teachers with mysterious powers, epic journeys, and the struggles of good against the forces of darkness. This school holidays come along to the Teece Museum and have a go at finding all the Star Wars Characters hidden […]

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Following the success of our board game Olympic Odyssey we are pleased to announce that we now have eight sets of the game which can be loaned out to teachers for use in their classroom teaching from next year! The games are currently being tested for us by two different schools before they will be […]

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COMS 420 Public Diplomacy at UC Media & Communication (course coordinator Professor Natalia Chaban) continues with its annual tradition – hosting its Diplomatic Series featuring external relations, public diplomacy and international strategic communication practitioners.

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As part of their outreach projects, the Spanish Programme of the University of Canterbury invited all the schools in New Zealand that teach Spanish to participate in the Karaoke competition Cantemos juntos / Kia waiata tahi tātou and sing Bailan (Kotahitanga) by Oriana Setz featuring Jake Kīanō Skinner), a beautiful song with lyrics in Spanish […]

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The New Zealand Historical Association, in partnership with Kā Waimaero at the University of Canterbury, will be hosting their biennial conference at UC from 21st – 24th November 2023. This year’s event will feature well known Australian writer and journalist Peter FitzSimons. He holds the distinction of being the first Australian red-carded in a rugby […]

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Huge congratulations to Dr Rachel Williamson (ENGL / CINE / COME), whose book 21st-Century Narratives of Maternal Ambivalence has been published this week by Palgrave Macmillan in the series Palgrave Studies in (Re)Presenting Gender. The book is builds on Rachel’s Cultural Studies PhD thesis to consider how recent popular literary and film works about motherhood […]

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UC’s Media and Communication department hosted the annual Journalism Education Association NZ (JEANZ) conference earlier in September, with a cross-sector workshop focused on the challenges and opportunities for journalism education in a rapidly changing media landscape. The talanoa-styled summit, held at the Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora, brought together journalism academics from Aotearoa and […]

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Views

Mike Grimshaw (Sociology): My thoughts on Free Speech and Academic Freedom having attended the Free Speech Union AGM and been on the Academic Freedom panel. Both Free Speech and Academic Freedom are too important to be left to the Left or the Right- or the Liberal Centre – politically. For all positions hold within them […]

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Mike Grimshaw(Sociology) was interviewed by Dom George of REX Rural Exchange radio regarding on-line lectures, the state of the tertiary sector and wider societal issues of the broken social contract. This arose out his widely read article on the tertiary sector  https://plainsight.nz/the-broken-system-and-broken-social-contract-of-tertiary-education-in-new-zealand/ that has been reposted across of number of on-line sites and forums.

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Michael-John Turp published and article in the journal Sport, Ethics and Philosophy. The paper examines the relationship between meaning in life and morality through the case study of boxing. While sport is often pursued more for reasons of meaning than morality, philosophers have had far less to say about the former. How are the ends of […]

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Mike Grimshaw (Sociology) has a chapter on AI  & ethics in Technology, Users and Uses: Ethics and Human Interaction Through Technology and AI

The chapter is: Not thinking like a young, white, western, secular man: Some ethical questions of whose intelligence and what intelligence is being artificialized?

This chapter takes the form of a thought piece that raises some questions regarding issues of diversity in AI. Its starting point is that while there are myriad academic writings on this issue, most of the wider, educated, interested general public engage with the issues and wider questions of AI from non-academic sources. Therefore, this article, written from an interdisciplinary perspective and reading, engages primarily with these sources to consider how the issues of AI and diversity are presented, encountered and engaged with for such a general public.  The argument proceeds by engaging with two main issues. Not only is there a noted lack of diversity in the tech industry, especially as engaged with by more journalistic sources, there are also ethical questions needing to be raised as to what constitutes the “intelligence” in AI. In this chapter questions of “intelligence” are engaged with from considering primarily non-academic source AI discussions as this is the wider public context for questions of AI. As such, this is a deliberately ‘provocative’ reading and discussion, taking as its basis that we could – or rather need to – say: non-white, non-male, non-western minds matter.

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It’s not often a distinguished professor offers to explain the academic theory of ‘Bullshitology’ to the world, but a public talk at the University of Canterbury offers exactly that, livestreamed and free to attend.  In this upcoming free public lecture – titled Bullshitologically speaking … really? – the University of Canterbury’s Te Amorangi | Pro-Vice-Chancellor Pacific, Distinguished Professor […]

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Ahead of the pink tsunami of Barbie-mania from the new live-action movie, author of Heroines in History: A Thousand Faces, UC History Professor Katie Pickles talks about Barbie’s influence over the years. “This mass-produced plastic doll wasn’t like any of the ragdolls or baby dolls all through history. This one was teaching you how you should look, what body type and what body weight you should be.”

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Extraordinary events in Russia have led to a potential coup that petered out within 24 hours – but it has exposed Putin’s flank in Russia. UC Associate Professor of Russian History Evgeny Pavlov gives context on RNZ about what happened.

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Mass shootings in the United States are depressingly routine. As are the responses, that are generous on thoughts and prayers and miserly on anything meaningful. But the recent shooting in the mall in Allen, Texas, had an unusual element that confounded many.            

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The commitment to truth-telling has been pushed back as the news becomes more politicised in the US, according to UC Professor Donald Matheson. He spoke to 1NewsNZ about recent Fox News events and how it has been pulled further and further to the right as it competes with alternative media outlets.

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Massey university, on behalf of an all universities discussion group on air travel, is circulating this survey to try and gauge how people are feeling about air travel and how limits on air travel might impact different communities and stages of career development.

You might be aware that UC currently doesn’t offset air travel – they are developing a policy, I believe, to encourage staff to make real reductions in the amount we travel in a technical committee Professor Jan Evans-Freeman leads. This survey informs the wider debate for UC and all universities about how we as staff are currently thinking about our air travel. If you have time to fill it in, I know the organisers would appreciate this.

Is academic air travel affecting career development in the post-Covid-19 era? Assessing the impact of perceptions of climate change.’

 

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Events

The Arts Digital Lab | Te Pokapū Aronui ā-Matihiko invites you to our annual Student Reflections seminar, Wednesday 6 December at 10 am in Locke 104A.  In this rapid-fire series of five-minute talks, our students will reflect on the projects they’ve been working on in the Lab this year.  Coming from a wide range of […]

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The New Zealand Asian Studies Society (NZASIA) will hold its 25th Biennial Conference in Christchurch from 29 November to 1 December, 2023. This year’s conference will be hosted by the School of Language, Social and Political Sciences, University of Canterbury. We have put together a programme of events, including panel sessions, with more than 110 […]

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This is Ilam School of Fine Arts’ annual week-long event in which incredible works are on display from our 3rd, 4th, HONs and MFA studio-artists. The week will kick off with an opening event on Friday 24 November, 4pm. The studios will then be open daily 10am – 4pm, Sat 25 – Thurs 30 November. Free […]

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Join in the fun of the Block Party and celebrate the arts in Christchurch! To celebrate the first ‘Ōtautahi Year of the Arts’, the arts organisations located in the two blocks west of the Ōtakaro Avon River will be hosting a Block Party on Saturday 25 November 2023. This is a chance for the community to come together, reflect […]

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The Latin America Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence warmly invites you to celebrate the launch of Creative Collaborations, an online resource mapping the partnership between Aotearoa New Zealand and Latin America’s creative economies. Creative Collaborations reveals the projects, people, and institutions at the forefront of our creative engagement with Latin America. By showcasing the diversity and […]

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A selection of songs revolving around the colour red: expect roses, a shawl, a moon, and even some mills! Featuring items from the musicals The Red Mill, Red Feather, The Red Rose and Moulin Rouge alongside a collection of other cabaret-style pieces, join Consortia for an evening as we paint the town red! Thu 2 November, 7:30pm UC Arts at […]

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Come along to the Ngaio Marsh Theatre to see a selection of films from Ilam School of Fine Arts second, third and fourth-year students. Wed 25 October, 6pm $12 – tickets here Light refreshments will be available.

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School of Music faculty Justin DeHart and Reuben de Lautour perform Annea Lockwood’s 1975 work “World Rhythms” for 8 channels of taped environmental sounds and tam-tam. Lockwood notes, “These sounds are the aural aspect of energies of which one is only occasionally aware, but which powerfully influence and interact with even the smallest diurnal rhythms […]

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The UC Teece Museum and Classoc present… the Great Greek Pot Painting Night – where art and classics collide! The ancient Greeks sure knew a thing or two about painting vases. Want to try your hand at painting a pot, and be in to win prizes at the same time? Join us for the Great Greek Pot […]

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You are cordially invited to join us for the last Coffee and Classics session for 2023.  PACE Intern Ellie Rice will discuss her research into the provenance of the Fern Collection of 24 pre-dynastic Egyptian pots, donated to the Logie Collection in 2021. There will be an opportunity to see a sample of the pots […]

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You are invited to the next Philosophy Seminar Series on Tuesday 3 October, 3-5pm – Beatrice Tinsley 329, University of Canterbury ‘Philosophy in Historical Newspaper Archives: Content-First vs. Practice-First Labelling’ by Joshua Black, University of Canterbury Abstract: Historical newspaper archives represent a significant source of data for experimental philosophers and historians of philosophy. However, the […]

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In these ‘this is your life’ homecoming conversations hIn these ‘this is your life’ homecoming conversations host UC Ahorangi | Professor Katie Pickles will ask guests about memories of their time as a student, discuss their life since graduating and how history has proved useful and seek advice for those studying history today and in […]

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‘How neural networks have altered our philosophical theories of computation’ by Oron Shagrir (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Erskine Fellow, University of Canterbury) Zoom link: https://canterbury.zoom.us/j/95523745756?pwd=V0lmWFRRL0R6Tm56QTdRUHNoMWI3QT09  (passcode: 1).  

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In these ‘this is your life’ homecoming conversations host UC Ahorangi | Professor Katie Pickles will ask guests about memories of their time as a student, discuss their life since graduating and how history has proved useful and seek advice for those studying history today and in the future. Our next special quest will be […]

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To celebrate UC’s 150th anniversary the Department of History is welcoming back and honouring a diversity of our graduates from across the decades.  In these ‘this is your life’ homecoming conversations host UC Ahorangi | Professor Katie Pickles will ask guests about memories of their time as a student, discuss their life since graduating and […]

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Join the UC School of Music, Pandemonium and Percussive Arts Society for a full day of percussion performances and clinics by top performers from around the country. Guests include the NZSO timpanist and percussion section, percussionists from CSO, Pandemonium Percussion Ensemble, Ricardo Stuani (Latin Percussion), Doug Brush (Arabic Rhythms), and Jonathan Tressler (Fundamentals with Rudiments). More special […]

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