Faculty of Arts & Science

SAMWAK means to 'announce' in Waray dialect (Philippine). This series aims to showcase new projects and ideas from students, faculty and the community twice every semester. SAMWAK is sponsored by the Department of Women & Gender Studies and organized by Dr. Glenda Bonifacio.

Film 3: Political entrapment (October 23 – November 18) 

No (Chile, Pablo Laraín, 2012)

René Saavedra is a fashionable young advertising executive who is solicited for an unusual and desperate project in 1988: defeating the Chilean dictator Pinochet in a plebiscite referendum. A “Yes” vote would extend Pinochet’s rule for eight years; but with René’s brash plan, the “No” side hopes to defy political threats and free their country. (In Spanish with English subtitles) Watch the film

Zoom Discussion Meeting: Wednesday, November 18 @ 6 p.m.

A new professorship created at the University of Lethbridge honours the legacy of one of the most influential figures in establishing the study of neuroscience and neuropsychology. It’s first appointee is a rising star who continues to push the boundaries of the field.

Dr. Majid Mohajerani has been named the first recipient of the Dr. Bryan Kolb Professorship/Chair in Neuroscience, which carries a five-year term that may be renewed once for a second five-year term.

The award is an endorsement of the outstanding research Mohajerani has conducted since joining the U of L as part of the Government of Alberta’s Campus Alberta Innovation Program (CAIP) Chairs plan in 2014. At the time, Mohajerani had been serving as a research associate at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy and at the University of British Columbia, and selected the U of L above a number of suitors.

The University of Lethbridge Alumni Association (ULAA) is thrilled to honour Julian SpearChief-Morris (BA ‘13) with the 2020 Young Alumnus of the Year award.

“So early into his career, Julian has made incredible strides towards building more equitable and just communities,” says Jason Elliott, president of the ULAA. “Julian’s impact stretches far beyond the reaches of southern Alberta, and he always makes a point to connect with his roots here. We’re so honoured to celebrate Julian and we can’t wait to see what’s next for him.”

Throughout his burgeoning career, Julian SpearChief-Morris (BA ‘13) has demonstrated the heights a sharp mind and strong work ethic can achieve. An associate attorney with the law firm Jenner & Block in Washington, D.C., SpearChief-Morris represents businesses, tribal governments and individuals navigating complex and interconnected legal, political and policy challenges. His work includes involvement in all aspects of litigation on matters ranging from corporate finance to human rights law, as well as providing strategic advice on government relations and policy issues. Most recently, his efforts have been focused on helping clients navigate the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drs. Bruce McNaughton and Robert Sutherland, neuroscientists from the University of Lethbridge’s Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, will explore a hypothesis about memory formation thanks to a grant of $918,000 over five years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

“The U of L’s nexus of research and academic programming in neuroscience is internationally renowned,” says Dr. Robert Wood, vice-president (research). “Our University’s reputation and impact in this area is a direct reflection of foundational and novel research being conducted by talented neuroscience colleagues such as Dr. McNaughton and Dr. Sutherland. The strength and importance of this project is further reflected in the fact that only about 15 per cent of applications in the national CIHR competition were successful.”

As age-related memory problems are on the rise, McNaughton and Sutherland are looking to unlock some of the mysteries of the memory-making process and, if successful, their research could open up new avenues for therapeutic treatments.

An innovative concept developed by the University of Lethbridge’s Astronomical Instrumentation Group (AIG) was recently published in the prestigious Review of Scientific Instruments, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP) now in its 90th year. Although published by the AIP, the Review of Scientific Instruments is unique in that it reports on novel instrumentation from all branches of science and, as a result, has a high acceptance threshold.

The paper, titled An angle-scanned cryogenic Fabry-Pérot interferometer for far-infrared astronomy, by Dr. Ian Veenendaal (BSc ’13, MSc ’16, PhD ’20) et al, presents a novel design for a Fabry-Pérot Interferometer (FPI). An FPI is a spectrometer that is able to obtain high-resolution spectral images of distant astronomical sources, allowing astrophysicists to look back in time to study the formation and evolution of galaxies.

Long-term goal is to inhibit interactions between small RNAs and ribosomal RNAs thereby depriving cancer cells of protein factories.

Understanding one of the fundamental building blocks of life may also hold the key to unlocking new targets for the treatment of cancer. The University of Lethbridge’s Dr. Ute Kothe and her team will look to unravel the complex process of forming ribosomes, the body’s protein factories, through RNA research in a new five-year project that has received $642,600 in funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR).

Identifying Critical RNA-RNA Interactions during Ribosome Biogenesis is the title of the project that will be based at the U of L and within the Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute (ARRTI), but also include collaborators at the Universities of Sherbrooke and McGill University in Quebec, as well as three German institutions.

Recognized as one of the world’s most influential contributors to paraconsistent (inconsistency-tolerant) logic, Dr. Bryson Brown has been named the winner of the 2020 University of Lethbridge Speaker Research Award.

Brown, professor and Chair in the Department of Philosophy, is regarded as a key contributor to an area of logic called paraconsistent logic, which allows non-trivial reasoning from inconsistent premises; he has also made influential contributions to the application of such logics in the history and philosophy of science.