Political Science

POLI SCI FYI

Updated: March 12, 2010

Women's Studies Lecture by Dr. Lawrence Berg
This talk is generously co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology, the Department of Geography, and the Department of Political Science.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Noon - 1 PM
AH 100, Andy's Place

Dr. Berg is the Canada Research Chair in Human Rights, Diversity and Identity, and Associate Professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan. He is Co-Director of the Centre for Social, Spatial & Economic Justice, and Co-Leader of the BC Disabilities Health Research Network.

Banal Terrorism: Terror, Scale and White Supremacy
This paper theorizes the problematic ways that terror and intimate partner violence are produced in hegemonic discourses of 'the war on terror'. The paper draws on anti-racist, feminist and postcolonial approaches to explore the way that processes of racialization, scalar politics and gendered ideologies work in interlocking ways that socially construct particular understandings of terror and violence that must be responded to by the state. These racialized, classed, gendered and scaled processes work in ways that hide some forms of violence on some women's bodies, while simultaneously highlighting violence on other women's bodies. These discourses invoke territorializations that produce the West as morally superior and more civilized than the 'non-West' and construct men of colour as inherently misogynist and violent towards women. According to such hegemonic territorializations, the West is a space of whiteness in which white Westerners save women of colour. Perhaps just as importantly, such territorializations ensure that the pervasiveness of violence against all women in the West is erased. In focusing on these issues, the paper is an attempt to unsettle hegemonic definitions of both terrorism and intimate partner violence, and to question the problematic commonsense territorializations that arise from such definitions.

Refreshments served.

Thursday - March 18, 2010
3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
Room: B-543

Colonel Gregory D. Burt, OMM, CD
Col. Burt is currently Director of Future Security Analysis at National Defence. He recently returned from Afghanistan where he served from Feb. to Nov. 2009 as Commander of the Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT) in Kandahar Province. A proud native of Newfoundland, Col. Burt is a member of the Royal 22e Régiment du Canada. He has a Bachelor's degree from the Royal Military College in Business Admin. and a Master of Arts in Defence Studies from King's College, London. He also holds a Master's degree from the École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP) de Québec in public administration. Col. Burt has served Canada in Lahr (Germany), Somalia, former Yugoslavia and Bosnia. Within Canada, his postings have included: Commanding Officer and Chief of Staff of the Land Force, Quebec Area, Director of Land Strategic Concepts in Kingston and Defence Strategy Management, Department of National Defence.

TITLE: From Afghanistan's Front Line: The Complexity Facing Canadian Forces
This presentation will provide first-hand insight into the challenges of command during a demanding and complex mission, as well as the advances being made by Canadian soldiers and civilians in spite of the difficult conditions in the heart of Kandahar Province. The Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT) in Kandahar Province are comprised of about 200 Canadian soldiers. They are largely responsible for the training, development and mentoring of the Afghan National Army (ANA) 1st Brigade. Through experiences by the speaker, you will learn how Canadian Forces are assisting the Afghans in sustaining a more secure environment to facilitate development, reconstruction and law and order while preparing the ANA to assume responsibility for their own security as the NATO nations prepare to leave the scene.

OPEN TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES.

Dean's Honour List - Fall 2009

Spring 2010 timetable

Summer 2010 timetable - APPROVED

Fall 2010 timetable - APPROVED

Spring 2011 timetable - TENTATIVE

Course Sequencing

Major in Political Science

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