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 2010 Roberta Bondar Postdoctoral Fellow to Deliver Public Lecture March 3FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Dr. Scott Heyes to Discuss Vision for Protected Areas and Visitors Centres in Arctic Quebec during First of Two Public Lectures Thursday, February 25, 2010, Peterborough Dr. Scott Heyes, the 2010 Roberta Bondar Postdoctoral Fellow in Northern and Polar Studies at Trent University, will deliver the first of two public lectures on Wednesday, March 3 at 7 p.m. in the Champlain College Lecture Hall, room CC307. During his presentation, entitled Mingling with the Ancestors: A vision for protected areas and visitor centres in Arctic Quebec, Dr. Heyes, a lecturer from the University of Melbourne in Australia and northern Indigenous researcher, will use the Inuit village of Kangiqsualujjuaq as a case study, where a visitor centre is intended to be built as a gateway to the nearby and proposed Kuururjuaq Park, to introduce a vision for the centre and park that considers Inuit conceptions of place. The design vision is based on fieldwork and interviews that have been carried out with Inuit experts on myths, legends and hunting knowledge, as well as their notions of parks and protected areas. A concept design of the Kangiqsualujjuaq visitor centre has been generated for this presentation as a way to discuss the opportunities offered by such centres as meaningful places of learning for local Inuit and park visitors. With the form and function of the building based on local stories, the proposed centre offers a way to mingle with the ancestors and for Inuit knowledge to be shared through design. Dr. Heyes, who holds a Ph.D. in geography from McGill University, is a lecturer in landscape architecture at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has been conducting research on Indigenous conceptions of landscape for nearly a decade, including fieldwork with the Inuit of Arctic Quebec. In his current research, Dr. Heyes is developing a dictionary of sea-ice terms for an Inuit community as part of a knowledge preservation project, and is investigating how Aborigines in Southern Australia have historically modified the land to facilitate fishery enterprises. He is also investigating how Inuit have been involved in the design and determination of Arctic parks in Northern Quebec. Dr. Heyes arrived at Trent on February 1, 2010 to begin one-year residency, during which he will teach an undergraduate course at the University and deliver two public lectures. During his time at Trent as the Bondar Fellow, he will pursue studies of Inuit conceptions of the land and sea, and Inuit's sense of attachment to the environment in the face of changing social and physical settings. Dr. Roberta Bondar was pleased to learn of Dr. Heyes’s appointment and the public lectures that are planned. “These lectures are an important way in which Trent University can bring to the community at large insight into Canada's commitment to protecting vulnerable environments,” she said. “The insights to be gained during Dr. Heyes’s residency will build on the University’s knowledge and experience at a time when our environment is changing in unprecedented ways, challenging our various conceptions of place.” The Roberta Bondar Fellowship in Northern and Polar Studies is a postdoctoral teaching and research award. The fellowship is intended to attract up-and-coming northern scholars to Trent for the period of one academic year. The fellowship named in honour of Dr. Roberta Bondar, renowned space scientist, neurologist, astronaut and former Trent University chancellor, is intended to foster interest in Northern Studies at Trent, and is based in the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies. Dr. Heyes is the second Bondar Fellow. The inaugural fellow was Dr. Derek Mueller, Trent alumnus and renowned polar scientist. -30- For more information, please contact: |
