Under Western Skies: Climate, Culture, and Change in Western North America (October 2010)
Under Western Skies 2010 focused on the lands of western North America and saw 432 registrants coming from every part of the globe. The conference is generally recognized as the largest to date in the history of the university.
Gualala, CA (S. MacPherson)
UWS 2010 won funding from the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) and the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NICHE), and planning occurred in partnership with Mount Royal’s Legacy of Ideas Speakers Series led by Lara Unsworth. The UWS steering committee, made up by faculty, administration, students, and support services, was nominated for and received Mount Royal’s Effective Team Award for 2010-11. Over 200 post-secondary students from Calgary and beyond participated in and/or presented at the conference. Keynote moments were marked by renowned speakers, including environmental historian Richard White (Stanford), seed-saver and author Vandana Shiva (India), water expert and author Maude Barlow (Council of Canadians), and environmental journalist Andrew Nikiforuk (Calgary). The steering committee established a website for the conference at skies.mtroyal.ca, and secured a contract with Wilfrid Laurier University Press for a collection of edited essays stemming from UWS 2010 (forthcoming with prefaces by keynotes Bron Taylor and Maude Barlow).
UWS 2012: Environment, Community, and Culture in North America
With a new website and organizing committee, UWS 2012 moves beyond the inaugural mandate, with a comprehensive focus on North America. Slated for October 10 – 13 in 2012, the conference will take place in the Roderick Mah Centre for Continuous Learning, MRU’s LEED Gold certified building that housed the inaugural conference. The bilingual Call For Papers has been posted electronically around the globe, and six keynote speakers have been secured as of November 1, 2011:
City Edge (R. Boschman)
•environmental historian Donald Worster (University of Kansas);
•2011 Gemini Award-winning filmmaker and Arctic anthropologist Niobe Thompson (co-director Tipping Point: The Age of the Oilsands);
•award-winning First Nations poet Louise Halfe (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan);
•climatologist Scott Denning (Colorado State University);
•environmental journalist Alanna Mitchell (author of Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis);
•ethnobotanist and MacArthur Recipient Gary Paul Nabhan (University of Arizona).
As happened at the inaugural UWS, keynotes will gather for a public roundtable on the afternoon of the final day of UWS 2012. Like the other keynote events, the roundtable finale will be ticketed as a standalone event that anyone can attend simply by purchasing a ticket at MRU’s ticketmaster (linked to the conference website).
Strategic goals for UWS2 include:
1. Public Outreach
2. Student Participation
3. Interdisciplinarity
4. Conference Innovation
UWS 2014: Beakerhead and Environmental Technologies
Roderick Mah Centre for Continuous Learning (LEED Gold), MRU
In conjunction with the dates for Calgary’s innovative Beakerhead Festival, UWS 2014 will be moved to September 2014. The Under Western Skies conference for 2014 will play a key role in Mount Royal’s strategic partnership with Beakerhead organizers Jay Ingram and Dr. Mary Ann Moser. By this time, the university’s new conservatory will be erected next to and conjoined with the Roderick Mah Centre. The conservatory will also be LEED certified and will hold almost a thousand people in its central hall, where UWS organizers envision major keynote speakers and events taking place. These buildings will themselves signify the 2014 conference theme of environmental technologies. Keynote speakers will be renowned environmental technology experts with global profiles. Social anthropologist Timothy Ingold (University of Aberdeen, Scotland), author of the watershed The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill (Routledge 2000), has already agreed to speak at UWS 2014.