STS Seminar Series features UBC speaker Candis Callison, Nov. 27

The Department of Science & Technology Studies (STS) will present the third event in its 2018-19 STS Seminar Series on Nov. 27 with guest speaker Candis Callison of the University of British Columbia.

In her presentation, UBC Associate Professor Candice Callison will examine how and where journalism might contribute to communal resilience, historical understandings of adaptation and climatic shifts, and reflect robust civic spaces and imaginations among global and regional audiences that include Indigenous publics

Now in its 17th year, the series has hosted more 500 speakers from Canada and around the world. It is open to the public, and STS majors are especially encouraged to attend.

The Nov. 27 event, titled “Arctic Journalisms, Civic Spaces, and Indigenous Places,” will run from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in 203 Bethune College (Norman’s).

Mobilizing Indigenous experiences with and narratives about climate change through various media provides important insight for broad global publics about what it means to live with climate change both in the observable present and the predicted future.

Representing and reporting on diverse Indigenous Peoples, however, can be extremely challenging given that mainstream media narratives have often tended to reproduce stereotypes, ignore Indigenous Peoples and knowledges, erase the ongoing impacts of colonialism, and/or frame Indigenous people as proxies, victims or heroes.

Drawing on research related to media from and about the Canadian Arctic, this talk examines how and where journalism might contribute to communal resilience and historical understandings of adaptation and climatic shifts, and reflect robust civic spaces and imaginations among global and regional audiences that include Indigenous publics.

Callison is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC and the Chair of the Bachelor of Media Studies program. Her research and teaching are focused on changes to media practices and platforms, journalism ethics, the role of social movements in public discourse, and understanding how issues related to science and technology become meaningful for diverse publics.

All STS seminars take place on Tuesdays from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in 203 Bethune College (Norman’s), unless otherwise noted, and are open to the public. A light lunch will be provided.