Tuesday, October 4, 2005

the peace of art.

We went to the Margaret MacMillan lecture at the Myer Horowitz Theatre at the U of A yesterday evening. The lecture, which was titled "The Art of Peace," was enjoyable and from what we understand was basically a recap of her Paris 1919 book (which we have yet to read).

But it was an entertaining history lesson none the less.

The pre-lecture period was particularly interesting. It included a number of introductions.... the first began with the introduction of U of A Provost & VP Academic Carl Amrhein by an academic whose name escapes us. In turn, Dr. Armhein introduced history Professor and past-Provost of the U of A, Dr. Doug Owram, who in turn introduced Dr. MacMillan (if we missed an introduction, we apologize, it was slightly overwhelming). The post-lecture period included a somewhat lengthy 'donation pitch' from a Professor Emeritus whose name escapes us. We aren't quite sure on whose behalf he was soliciting, but after paying our tuition fees last week, we were quite happy that the lecture was free.

Interestingly enough, Dr. MacMillan, who is also the Vice-Chancellor and Provost at Trinity College at the University of Toronto has posted office hours: "available to all members of the Trinity community to discuss any subject they wish." This left us wondering whether we would be able to get an appointment to meet with Dr. Armhein if we called his office at U-Hall. hmmm....



And by the way, only 43 more days until Walk the Line is released in theatres! Huzzah!

8 comments:

  1. Any topic? I would like to discuss the Bilderberg Meetings with Mags.

    LINK

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  2. I love Doug Owram.

    (I am a total history geek so I can say that without being teased right?!? LMAO)

    I highly recommend his book, "Born at the Right Time". The book explores the impact that the Baby Boomers had on Canadian society right down to the development of certain baby foods, the creation of suburbs, the teachings of Dr.Spock (and the ramifications of those teachings), and the cult of the teenager. It is a very interesting read. I saw him speak a number of years ago as a guest lecturer and really enjoyed it.

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  3. yeah, Dr. Owram is a great lecturer. We're taking his History of Canadian Foreign Relations course this semester.

    and yes... we're also a history geek...

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  4. We missed that lecture do to intense crammage, but would also appreciate it if the Daveberta staffers would kindly keep us informed of other relevant speakers and events at the University of Alberta.

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  5. "...but would also appreciate it if the Daveberta staffers would kindly keep us informed of other relevant speakers and events at the University of Alberta."

    we will do our best, jim. Keep your eyes on the "what's up in edmonton?" calandar on the sidebar for further one's we find interesting. Irene Khan from Amnesty Intl is coming up on Oct 26 and should be cool.

    Cheers,

    D

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  6. MacMillan's 1919 is excellent. I think her description of the Albanian delegation is worth the price of the book alone.

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  7. The 1919 book was wonderful. Too many history books dealing with Versailles omit the Entente betrayal of China and the offering of Shandong to the Japanese to prevent a racial equality clause from being entered into to treaty.

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  8. I think we're going to read 1919 at some point now...

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