Spring 2020 webinars are now complete. Stay tuned for Fall and special events. If you are subscribed to our email list, you will be notified of all events/webinars.
Webinar April 23, 2020 (2 pm)
O Brothers, Where Art Thou: The Films of Joel and Ethan Coen
by Adam Nayman
In this lecture, film critic and teacher Adam Nayman, author of The Cohen Brothers: This Really Ties The Films Together, narrates the remarkable career of Joel and Ethan Coen, whose transition from acclaimed independent filmmakers to Oscar-winning Hollywood auteurs represents one of the most significant trajectories in contemporary American cinema. Using clips from films ranging from Blood Simple to No Country For Old Men, Adam will analyze the Coens' style. themes, and creative evolution, as well as discussing their recent work for Netflix. A Question and Answer period will follow during which audience members can share their own thoughts and observations on the Coens' work.
Adam Nayman is a critic, lecturer and author based in Toronto. He writes on film for the Ringer and teaches at the University of Toronto. He has written three books on cinema; his fourth, Masterworks: The Films of Paul Thomas Anderson, will be published this October by Abrams. Check out Adam’s book The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together
Webinar April 30, 2020 (2 pm)
Spy vs. Spy
Espionage is often a very delicate balance of "legal" professional intelligence officers with diplomatic immunity working out of an embassy or consulate and "illegals" who are deep-cover operatives working under a false identity who have infiltrated a target nation and assumed an identity of a citizen.
Sometimes male-female pairs of illegals even produce children while on assignment abroad in an adversary's nation, as two Russian illegals did recently in Canada.
Mixed into this are "spies" or "secret agents" who spy for pathological motives and are often psychologically unbalanced and unreliable, endangering the legals and illegals running them.
Finally there are the "counter-espionage" professionals whose job is to catch all three: the legals, illegals and the secret agents.
This lecture looks at how these four interact in the world of espionage.
Peter Vronsky, PhD, is a former television news and documentary producer, investigative historian and author. In the 1980s he infiltrated for CBC's The Fifth Estate the Ku Klux Klan and witnessed their attempt to overthrow a government in the Caribbean ("The Bayou of Pigs 1981".) During the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, he worked undercover for a series of investigative documentaries on the "new" KGB in Russia and nuclear weapon materials smuggling in Chechnya.
He holds a Ph.D (2010) in the history of espionage in international relations from University of Toronto. His most recent bestselling book on the history of serial homicide, Sons of Cain: A History of Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present was a New York Times ‘Editors’ Pick.’ Vronsky lectures at Ryerson University in the History of Espionage, History of Terrorism, International Relations History, and other history courses taught in Ryerson's History Department.
Peter Vronsky is currently advising as a forensic historian the N.Y.P.D. Cold Case Homicide Squad and the North Jersey Cold Case Homicide Task Force (Bergen, Passaic and Essex Counties) on a series of cold case murders in their jurisdictions from 1963-1980 and is debriefing the serial killer Richard F. Cottingham who has been incarcerated in the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton since his arrest in 1980.
Webinar May 7, 2020 (2 pm)
Moving Forward: the Future of Transportation
The future of ACES transportation: Automated, Connected, Shared and Electric mobility ahead
By Josipa Petrunic
Mobility has changed radically over the past two hundred years, from horse and carriage to autonomous, electrified, and on-demand vehicles. This transformative revolution in mobility in the 21st century will change the way people and things move around our cities, our country and the world. In many ways, it will become as fundamental to human life as was the computing revolution of the 20th century, which transformed the way people communicate locally and globally through computers, mobile phones and smart devices.
This talk will:
explore the history of transportation from the 18th to the 20th century, including the commercial interests that gave us the car and cities built around the gasoline engine.
explain why “car culture” is changing, and why some transportation and urban designers are aiming for it to be displaced entirely by high-speed, mass transit that is “smart enabled”, “low carbon” and “autonomous” – getting you from point A to point B faster, cheaper and greener than cars ever could.
Leading us all to say, "Goodbye cars. Hello ACES mobility."
Dr. Josipa Petrunic is the Executive Director & CEO of Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC). She is leading the formulation of several national transportation technology trials related to zero-emissions transportation and “smart vehicles” innovation, including the Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration & Integration Trial, the Pan-Canadian Hydrogen Fuel Cell Demonstration & Integration Trial, and the National Smart Vehicle Demonstration Project.
Dr. Petrunic continues to lecture in Globalization Studies at McMaster University. She currently sits on the Board of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) Foundation and Women's Transportation Seminar - Toronto (WTS Toronto). In 2018, she was named as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 by Bloomberg News and Canada's Top Clean 50. In 2019, she was named Aspioneer Top 10 Influential Women Leaders.
Webinar May 14, 2020 (2 pm)
COVID 19: How Canada Compares to The World
By Dr. Steven Hoffman
Having learned harsh lessons from the 2003 SARS outbreak, Canada was an early actor to the COVID-19 pandemic, funding much-needed research earlier than any other country and implementing physical distancing measures when there were fewer than 1,000 cases confirmed nationally. In this lecture, Professor Steven J. Hoffman will detail Canada’s response to COVID-19, draw comparisons to other countries, and discuss what’s next in our efforts to end this pandemic and start a gradual return to normalcy.
Dr. Steven Hoffman holds an MA in Political Science and a Juris Doctor from the University of Toronto, a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University, and a Doctorate in Law from Sciences Po Paris. He is currently:
Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance & Legal Epidemiology and a Professor of Global Health, Law, and Political Science at York University,
Director of the Global Strategy Lab,
Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Global Governance of Antimicrobial Resistance, and
Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Population & Public Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Steven holds courtesy appointments as a Professor of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics (Part-Time) at McMaster University and as an Adjunct Professor of Global Health & Population at Harvard University. He is an international lawyer licensed in both Ontario and New York who specializes in global health law, global governance and institutional design. His research leverages various methodological approaches to craft global strategies that better address transnational health threats and social inequalities. Past studies have focused on access to medicines, antimicrobial resistance, health misinformation, pandemics and tobacco control.
Steven recently advised the World Health Organization on development of a global strategy for health systems research and was lead author on the background paper that provided the strategy's conceptual underpinnings.
He was previously an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa (2014-2017) and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford (2018-2019).
In May 2020, Dr. Hoffman spoke to The Agenda with Steve Paikin on COVID-19 on developing countries: https://www.tvo.org/video/pandemics-in-developing-countries.
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Pilot Webinar April 2, 2020
The Opium Wars (1839-1860): When England and France Humiliated China
presented by Dr. Olivier Courteaux
The "Opium Wars" (1839-1860): why did Great Britain and France wage war on China, twice, between 1839 and 1860? Was it really about opium? Did they fight in the name of free trade? In China, the two conflicts came to be seen as the prelude of a "century of humiliation" at the hands of Western powers, which only the republic, then the Communists manage to stop. The reality is far more complex, but the "Opium Wars" and the way they are perceived remain to this day at the core of China's diplomatic discourse.
A Q&A will follow the presentation.
Date/Time: Thursday, April 2, 2020, 2:00 PM
Location: In your home by computer, laptop, tablet or phone (you will not be seen on screen)
How to Register for the Webinar
Click this link to Register Here
Deadline for registration is Wed, Apr 1, 2020 at 2:00 PM
You will receive a confirmation email and reminder emails with information and tips about how to use Zoom.
Dr. Courteaux received his M.A. in war and conflict studies and Ph.D. in contemporary international relations from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. He has lectured at various Canadian universities, including Ryerson and the Royal Military College of Canada. He is the author of The War on Terror: the Canadian Dilemma (2009), Canada Between Vichy and Free France, 1940-1945 (2013) and Quatre Journées qui ébranlèrent le Québec on Charles de Gaulle’s famous 1967 “Vive le Québec Libre” (2017). His latest book, The Empress Eugenie at Suez, 1869: France and Egypt during the Second Empire is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2019
Spring 2020 Lectures
Cancelled due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Cancelled
Sleep and the Rhythm of Life:
Why we and other living things sleep and the powerful influence of the body clock
April 23, 2020 1:30 to 3:30 PM
Human brains are stunningly complex examples of biological machinery, and they have a peculiar property. Our brains shut themselves off from the outside world each and every day, for hours on end. Why?
This presentation identifies why sleep exists in us and other living things and informs the need to prioritize sleep health in society. We also identify that all living things on the planet are hardwired for daily (‘circadian’) rhythms of rest and activity.
Our conditions of living, however, can trick our natural biology and disrupt sleep. Appreciating our biology informs additional discussion of broader sleep issues such as sleep and mental health, sleep and aging, sleep aids, shift work, jet lag, etc.
Richard L. Horner, PhD, FCAHS is Canada Research Chair in sleep science, Professor of Medicine and of Physiology at the University of Toronto, and elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Professor Horner’s research identifies brain mechanisms of sleep, sedation and anesthesia, and their impact on vital functions such as breathing.
He has authored over a hundred research papers on sleep science and the book The Universal Pastime: Sleep and Rest Explained. He regularly engages with the media (radio, television and print) on sleep health. Richard leads undergraduate and graduate teaching on sleep science in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
He received his undergraduate and PhD in the UK (University of Sheffield, and University of London respectively) followed by research fellowships at the University of Toronto and University of Pennsylvania, prior to taking up his faculty position at the University of Toronto in 1997.
Cancelled
Think You Don’t Have Biases? Think Again
April 30, 2020 1:30 to 3:30 PM
How do we create a more inclusive community in our work place, social institutions and communities? Research shows that a 'sense of belonging' is key to success. Feeling like you belong, knowing that you will be included - matters. How do we achieve this sense of community and belonging? What may we be doing that hinders it?
This session will examine some of the ways in which we consciously and unconsciously include/exclude others. Participants will better understand some of the biases they may be holding that affects their decisions, their friend-groups and where they choose to volunteer, who we have lunch with, where we vacation and where we choose to live. This will be an introspective and challenging session.
You will not leave with a sheet of answers and how to’s but you will leave with an understanding of:
unconscious bias, gender bias and racial bias
how we make choices, and
how we select strategies for tackling unconscious bias
Tanya (Toni) De Mello, LL.B., has a background in finance, management consulting and law. She has spent much of her career focusing on and researching, unconscious bias. She is a human rights lawyer and a certified coach and mediator. In her current role, she teaches at Ryerson University and is the Director of Human Rights there.
In addition to founding two NGOs, Tanya has served in the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the World Food Programme in Geneva (Switzerland), Senegal (West Africa) and Colombia (South America).
Tanya holds a dual Bachelor of Economics and Political Science from the University of Waterloo; a double Master in Public Policy and Urban and Regional Planning from Princeton University; and a dual law degree from McGill University. She is currently completing a PhD at the University of Toronto on access to the legal sector.
Rescheduled as Webinar
Moving Forward: the Future of Transportation
The future of ACES transportation: Automated, Connected, Shared and Electric mobility ahead
May 7, 2020 1:30 to 3:30 PM
Mobility has changed radically over the past two hundred years, from horse and carriage to autonomous, electrified, and on-demand vehicles. This transformative revolution in mobility in the 21st century will change the way people and things move around our cities, our country and the world. In many ways, it will become as fundamental to human life as was the computing revolution of the 20th century, which transformed the way people communicate locally and globally through computers, mobile phones and smart devices.
This talk will:
explore the history of transportation from the 18th to the 20th century, including the commercial interests that gave us the car and cities built around the gasoline engine.
explain why “car culture” is changing, and why some transportation and urban designers are aiming for it to be displaced entirely by high-speed, mass transit that is “smart enabled”, “low carbon” and “autonomous” – getting you from point A to point B faster, cheaper and greener than cars ever could.
Leading us all to say, "Goodbye cars. Hello ACES mobility."
Dr. Josipa Petrunic is the Executive Director & CEO of Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC). She is leading the formulation of several national transportation technology trials related to zero-emissions transportation and “smart vehicles” innovation, including the Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration & Integration Trial, the Pan-Canadian Hydrogen Fuel Cell Demonstration & Integration Trial, and the National Smart Vehicle Demonstration Project.
Dr. Petrunic has built up CUTRIC’s consortium to include more than 100 private and public sector companies and organizations across Canada. Previously, she served as the lead researcher in electric vehicle policy studies at McMaster University, and as a senior research fellow in the history and philosophy of mathematics at University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom in Science and Technology Studies.
Dr. Petrunic continues to lecture in Globalization Studies at McMaster University. She currently sits on the Board of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) Foundation and Women's Transportation Seminar - Toronto (WTS Toronto).
In 2018, she was named as one of Canada’s a Top 40 Under 40 by Bloomberg News and Canada's Top Clean 50. In 2019, she was named Aspioneer Top 10 Influential Women Leaders.
Cancelled
Behind Impressionism: Real Life of Women in 19th Century France
May 14, 2020 1:30 to 3:30 PM
Baron Hausmann’s redesign of Paris from 1850 to the 1920s, brought radical transformations to city life. The new grand boulevards induced the populace to stroll, to see and be seen, and to window shop at the new department stores.
But what of the lives of the women who produced and sold and washed the fancy finery? Poor people who poured in from the countryside found life precarious and impoverished.
We will look into the back story of women as portrayed by the major impressionists Degas, Renoir, Manet, Monet, Morisot and Pissarro.
Elizabeth Legge studied at Cambridge University, the University of London and the University of Toronto, where she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art History. She has written books on the Surrealist artist Max Ernst and the influence of Freudian psychoanalysis; and on Michael Snow’s radical New York film of the 1960s, Wavelength.
She has been a visiting professor at the Humanities Centre at Johns Hopkins University. Most recently, she has written on boredom and cuteness, and is working on contemporary artists’ representations of children.
Rescheduled as Webinar
Spy vs. Spy
May 21, 2020 1:30 to 3:30 PM
Espionage is often a very delicate balance of "legal" professional intelligence officers with diplomatic immunity working out of an embassy or consulate and "illegals" who are deep-cover operatives working under a false identity who have infiltrated a target nation and assumed an identity of a citizen.
Sometimes male-female pairs of illegals even produce children while on assignment abroad in an adversary's nation, as two Russian illegals did recently in Canada.
Mixed into this are "spies" or "secret agents" who spy for pathological motives and are often psychologically unbalanced and unreliable, endangering the legals and illegals running them.
Finally there are the "counter-espionage" professionals whose job is to catch all three: the legals, illegals and the secret agents.
This lecture looks at how these four interact in the world of espionage.
Peter Vronsky, PhD, is a former television news and documentary producer, investigative historian and author. In the 1980s he infiltrated for CBC's The Fifth Estate the Ku Klux Klan and witnessed their attempt to overthrow a government in the Caribbean ("The Bayou of Pigs 1981".) During the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, he worked undercover for a series of investigative documentaries on the "new" KGB in Russia and nuclear weapon materials smuggling in Chechnya.
He holds a Ph.D (2010) in the history of espionage in international relations from University of Toronto. His most recent bestselling book on the history of serial homicide, Sons of Cain: A History of Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present was a New York Times ‘Editors’ Pick.’ Vronsky lectures at Ryerson University in the History of Espionage, History of Terrorism, International Relations History, and other history courses taught in Ryerson's History Department.
Peter Vronsky is currently advising as a forensic historian the N.Y.P.D. Cold Case Homicide Squad and the North Jersey Cold Case Homicide Task Force (Bergen, Passaic and Essex Counties) on a series of cold case murders in their jurisdictions 1963-1980 and is debriefing the serial killer Richard F. Cottingham who has been incarcerated in the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton since his arrest in 1980.
Cancelled
Tales from the Organ Trade: Film Screening & Discussion
May 28, 2020 1:30-3:30 PM (or possibly until 4:00)
Note the different format for this lecture
TALES FROM THE ORGAN TRADE is a gritty and unflinching descent into the shadowy world of black-market organ trafficking: the street-level brokers, the rogue surgeons, the impoverished men and women who are willing to sacrifice a slice of their own bodies for a quick payday, and the desperate patients who face the agonizing choice of obeying the law or saving their lives.
Every year, tens of thousands of human organ transplants are performed around the globe. Most transplanted kidneys come from cadavers or relatives of the patient. But demand for this organ far exceeds the supply. So thousands are bought and sold on a flourishing black market.
With unprecedented access to all the players – the buyers, sellers, surgeons and brokers - the film explores the legal, moral and ethical issues involved in this life and death drama. This is not a black and white story of exploitation, but rather, a nuanced and complex tale of survival for both the buyers and sellers. This is a world where the villains often save lives, while all too often, a helpless medical establishment watches people die.
Ric Esther Bienstock is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker best known for her groundbreaking investigative documentaries. Her films, including “The Accountant of Auschwitz”, “Tales From the Organ Trade”, “Sex Slaves” (aka “The Real Sex Traffic“), “Ebola: Inside an Outbreak” (aka “Plague Fighters”), “Boxing: In and Out of the Ring”, “Penn & Teller’s Magic and Mystery Tour” and “Ms. Conceptions”, have screened at over 80 international festivals and aired in over 60 countries
In July 2019 she was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour. In 2015, she was awarded the Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism from the Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television for her body of work. Bienstock was also honoured by the Toronto International Film Festival with the Birks Diamond Tribute to the Year’s Women in Film as one of Canada’s leading women filmmakers.
Bienstock currently serves on the Board of Directors of Toronto’s Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival and has been on the Executive of the Board of the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) since 2014.
With a passion for social issues, her films, often years in the making, stand out as the definitive films on whatever topic she tackles. As a result, she has been asked to speak before governments, international organizations and law enforcement the world over. Bienstock gave a TEDx talk about her body of work (entitled “How Ebola, Porn and the Human Organ Trade Led Me to the Ordinary”). She was also a featured speaker at Toronto’s IdeaCity and she has given talks at numerous Universities both at home and internationally including Princeton, UCLA, Columbia, the New York Academy of Medicine, Concordia, Simon Fraser University, Carleton and others.
Her work has garnered dozens of prestigious awards, including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Dupont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism, a British Broadcast Award, a Distinguished Achievement award from the IDA in Los Angeles, 4 Canadian Screen Awards, 2 Donald Brittain Awards for Best Documentary, 2 Geminis, a Genie, a Royal Television Society Award and 2 Amnesty International Awards among many others.
She speaks 3 languages, none of which her children listen to.