Webs of knowledge at faculty book launch

The Centre for Interdisciplinary Collaboration in the Arts and Sciences (CICAS) recently hosted a book launch, celebrating recent faculty publications. Titled Webs of Knowledge: Reflections on Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Print, the event featured a panel of scholars speaking to their recent book publications and their relationship to collaborative and interdisciplinary facets of their work.

A total of nine books were on display ranging from an Environmental Science textbook to literary criticism and social and historical analysis.

Dr. Harley d’Entremont, provost and vice-president research and academic welcomed the 30 attendees. He spoke about how Nipissing markets itself as a primarily undergraduate institution with a strong research culture.

“As is evidenced here, we can do both at a very high level, and this is a wonderful thing to celebrate,” he said, before offering congratulations to all of the published authors.

Dr. Pavlina Radia, associate dean of arts and science and director of CICAS, discussed an important question: why do we publish books?

“We live in the digital age where most of our encounters—personal and professional—increasingly happen online. As social media like Facebook and Twitter have become a virtual gathering place, where people “meet” to speak about various issues, books, research, scholarly insights are more important than ever,” she said. “They serve as webs of knowledge and understanding, challenging us to engage in a process of critical inquiry. To ask questions…to have courage to probe into well-established ideas and modes of existence.”

Here’s a list of the authors who spoke, and their most recent books:

• Dr. Rob Breton: The Oppositional Aesthetics of Chartist Fiction: Reading against the Middle-Class Novel
• Dr. Laurie Kruk: Double-Voicing the Canadian Short Story
• Dr. Dave Hackett: Living in the Environment: Fourth Canadian Edition
• Dr. James Murton, Dr. Dean Bavington, and Dr. Carly Dokis, eds: Subsistence Under Capitalism: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
• Dr. Brian Thorn: From Left to Right: Maternalism and Women's Political Activism in Postwar Canada
• Dr. John Allison: A Most Canadian Odyssey:  Education Diplomacy and Federalism, 1844–1984
• Dr. Pavlina Radia: Nomadic Modernisms and Diasporic Journeys of Djuna Barnes and Jane Bowles: “Two Very Serious Ladies”
• Dr. Pavlina Radia: Ecstatic Consumption: The Spectacle of Global Dystopia in Contemporary American Literature