Coming up next week at SFU Vancouver:

 

Thursday, June 11: SFU Students in Conversation with Maggie Ip
Time: 10:30am   Place: Rm. 1425, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free with registration.

Maggie Ip, is an award-winning teacher and volunteer who is the founding chair and now patron of S.U.C.C.E.S.S., one of Canada’s largest multilingual and multicultural social service organizations.

The SFU David Lam Centre invites students to meet and learn from Maggie Ip about her experiences as a young newcomer to Canada who started as an international student.

 

Thursday, June 11: Corporate Governance and the Value of Diversification: Evidence from Japan
Time: 2pm   Place: Rm. 2300, Segal Graduate School, 500 Granville St.   Cost: Free with registration.

Finance literature has documented that markets value multi-divisional firms less than a theoretical portfolio of single division firms. In this talk, we reexamine the question of whether, and when, corporate diversification adds value to a firm. Using data from over 3,000 Japanese firms for the period 1999 – 2014, we find that there is a large variation in market values of diversified firms. Market values of diversified firms are low only when corporate governance is weak, consistent with capital misallocation where funds are transferred from high- to low-productivity divisions.

 

Thursday, June 11: Information Session: SFU’s Human Resources Management Certificate
Time: 6pm   Place: Rm. 7000, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free with registration.

Master the human resources management concepts and techniques you need to move your career ahead. Certification from SFU will prepare you for management positions, validate your qualifications, and position you for promotion.

When you graduate from the program, you’ll be well-positioned to pursue (CHRP) certification, which will set you apart from other HR managers.

 

Friday, June 12: Abrupt Climate Change - Is there still time to act? A Discussion with Guy McPherson
Time: 12pm   Place: Rm. 2270, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free. No registration required.

The majority of mainstream environmental organizations are not engaged with the root causes of climate change. There are many other more radical groups, networks and mobilizations who explicitly locate climate change as a symptom of the capitalist system. Many of these activists view all climate discourses as co-opted by corporate, state and reformist NGO rhetoric. At the same time, there are others who share a radical analysis, but have concluded based on climate science that we have already passed tipping points and that trying to “stop climate change” is now irrelevant. Guy McPherson is the most recognized figure in North America to represent the latter viewpoint.

 

Friday, June 12: Eyewitness Report from the War Zone of Eastern Ukraine
Time: 7pm   Place: Rm. 1700, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free. No registration required.

The war in eastern Ukraine is at a crossroads. A ceasefire has been in place since February 12, 2015, but violations of it are frequent and the underlying political and economic issues that sparked the war are unresolved. The parties do not talk. Governments of the NATO counties are pushing a ‘blame Russia’ narrative, and three of them—the U.S., UK and Canada—have landed soldiers in western Ukraine in order to provide training to the Ukrainian army.

 

Friday, June 12: Shaping Vancouver – Our Main Streets  
Time: 7pm   Place: Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free with registration.

Our main streets are at the heart of our communities, and have often played a key role in the history and evolution of Vancouver’s neighborhoods. Main streets can be seen as cultural landscapes, which evolve and change over time. The panel discussion for this event will address questions such as: What features contribute to the character of main streets? How can this character be maintained, while allowing our main streets to evolve?

 

Saturday, June 13: 21st-Century Perspectives: Identity: Who Are We in the 21st Century?
Time: 10:30am   Place: Rm. 1800, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St.   Cost: $24.15.

“We are unknown to ourselves, we seekers after knowledge.” When Nietzsche wrote these words at the end of the 19th century, he conveyed the challenge of human experience in the 20th century. As the 21st century unfolds, humans continue to experience uncertainty about the nature of our consciousness. How can we understand consciousness and identity in the 21st century?

 

Saturday, June 13: 21st-Century Perspectives: Digital Photography: A Brave New World of Image Creation?
Time: 1pm   Place: Rm. 1315, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St.   Cost: $24.15.

The 21st-century digitization of artists’ tools such as the camera and post production software has opened up artistic production to everyone. We will examine if the mass production and reproduction of the digital image threatens to undermine the quality of art.

 

Monday, June 15: Creability – The Science and Practice of Team Creativity
Time: 1:30pm   Place: Rm. 2800, Segal Graduate School, 500 Granville St.   Cost: Free with registration.

Osborn’s Brainstorming technique is still the most widely used team creativity technique in organizations today, and this in spite of dozens of studies that show that it does not work.  In this talk Martin J. Eppler, chair of communications management at St. Gallen University, will summarize the research that suggests that we ban brainstorming from our meetings. He will show experimental evidence for the value of visual alternatives that exploit the power of images for group creativity. These techniques can be as simple as Brainstorming but avoid some of its shortcomings.

 

Tuesday, June 16: Information Session: SFU's Dialogue and Civic Engagement Certificate
Time: 6pm   Place: Rm. 1510, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free with registration.

Learn concepts and emerging best practices for creating effective, strength-based community engagement processes in your organization or community.

With a cohort of other civic engagement professionals, you’ll learn a range of possible models for improving policy, programs, and services. You'll also discover how and when to use these models to create real and lasting change.

 

Tuesday, June 16: In Conversation With Harry Leslie Smith: The Canada We're Losing, And How To Get It Back
Time: 7pm   Place: Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 West Hastings St.   Cost: $25.

Where Canada is heading, and the dark history we may be unknowingly repeating? Come for a rousing speech by 92-year old anti-austerity campaigner and occasional Guardian columnist Harry Leslie Smith, and stay for the conversation with The Tyee’s lead sustainability reporter, 29-year old Geoff Dembicki.

 

Wednesday, June 17: Lunch Poems at SFU with Kevin Spenst & Louis Cabri
Time: 12pm   Place: Teck Gallery, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free. No registration required.

 

Kevin Spenst is the author of Jabbering with Bing Bong (Anvil Press), a coming-of-age narrative of growing up “post-Mennonite” in Vancouver’s suburb of Surrey. 

Louis Cabri is toastmaster of the booklength poem Posh Lust, of the style guide Poetryworld, and of the custom rubber stamp collection The Mood Embosser. 

 

Wednesday, June 17: Information Session: SFU's Chinese/English Interpretation and Translation Diploma
Time: 6:30pm   Place: Rm. 1600, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free with registration.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to facilitate cross-cultural communication in a variety of professional settings such as a company boardroom, a hospital emergency waiting room or even a courtroom?

This FREE session is a great opportunity for you to learn how to use your bilingual language skills and cultural understanding.

 

Wednesday, June 17: Justice, Peace and Social Movements: Session 5 on Faith and Social Action
Time: 7pm   Place: Rm. 2200, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free with registration.

Building on past events , the Interfaith Institute for Justice, Peace and Social Movements invites you to the 5th session in the series of conversations on faith and social action. The fifth of these conversations will ask: In the current rise in Hindutwa (Hindu Fundementalism, particulary with the rise of Narendra Modi and the BJP in India) and Christian fundamentalism.

 

Thursday, June 18: Information Session: SFU NOW (Nights or Weekends)
Time: 5:30pm   Place: Rm. 1325, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free with registration.

Learn more about how to complete your degree without disrupting your career.

SFU NOW: Nights or Weekends is a pathway for you as a working adult to earn a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in the evenings and on weekends in Vancouver or Surrey. 

 

Thursday, June 18: Information Session: SFU's Applied Business Analysis Certificate
Time: 6pm   Place: Rm. 7000, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free with registration.

If you're pursuing or wish to pursue a career in business analysis, this program will provide a solid foundation. Likewise, it will appeal to experienced business analysts requiring formal recognition through certification.

 

Thursday, June 18: Reel Causes: Screening Of Pirates Of Salé
Time: 7:15pm   Place: Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 West Hastings St.   Cost: Admission $15. Reel Causes members $10.

On Morocco’s old pirate coast, in the city of Salé, a new generation of pirates are setting sail in Morocco’s first professional circus. For the hundreds of teenagers that audition each year, Cirque Shems’y represents an escape from the difficult life in the poorest slums in Morocco.

ArtQuake is a Vancouver-based youth-led movement that is using art to shake up the roots of democracy, and Reel Causes is thrilled to support them with a screening of the Pirates of Salé.

 

Friday, June 19: Launch Festival 2015
Time: 7pm   Place: Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 West Hastings St.    Cost: General admission $20. $10 for youth under 25 years of age (with ID).

LAUNCH! is a cabaret-style showcase of innovative artists selected for their dedication and outstanding talent. Ten original works of music, film, theatre, dance, and spoken word will be presented to a panel of top industry experts. Hosted by acclaimed R&B singer Warren Dean Flandez, LAUNCH! Festival promises to be an unforgettable evening, and a celebration of our city’s preeminent emerging talent.

 

June 9 - 12: Convocation
Time: 9:45am   Place: 8888 University Drive, Burnaby   Cost: Free. No registration required. Webcast available.

Simon Fraser University will hold its 2015 Spring Convocation ceremonies at its Burnaby campus. These ceremonies include the conferring of academic degrees as well as honorary degrees and feature the visually stunning procession of graduands, faculty and dignitaries across the reflecting pond and down the grand stairway to Convocation Mall led by the world class SFU pipe band. All ceremonies, which last about two to three hours, take place outdoors on the Convocation Mall. 

 

June 10 - 11: Together ( ) Apart Workshop
Time: 10am   Place: 4th Floor, SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free with registration.

This movement workshop offers a lens into Isabelle Kirouac's current research on dance improvisation, somatic explorations and social experiments focused on borders. The workshop will investigate the space in-between bodies, entrance and exit points, movement trajectories, zones of tensions, the edge of balance, the premutable envelop of the skin, intention, presence, perception, empathy... Each session will include a physical warm up, guided movement explorations and focused conversations between the participants. 

 

June 3 – August 1: Through A Window: Visual Art And Sfu 1965-2015
Time: 12am   Place: Audain Gallery, SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free. No registration required.

Through a Window looks at visual art production at SFU since 1965. Literally considering the window at each of SFU’s campuses as a social, spatial and material symbol, the exhibition takes up Henri Lefebvre’s Rhythmanalysis (1992), particularly the chapter “Seen from the Window,” as a framework for reflecting on the rhythms of the past fifty years. The polyrhythms within aesthetics, theory, pedagogy, technology and politics inform the movement of artists’ through the classroom, the studio, the gallery and the city – locally and internationally, in linear and cyclical, continuous and punctuated circuits.

 

February 5 – July 23: Woodward's Community Singers 2015 Workshops
Time: 6pm, every Thursday evening    Place: 131 West Hastings St. at PHS Woodward's, 10th floor, entrance is two doors east; Goldcorp Centre for the Arts entrance at 149 West Hastings St.   Cost: Free. No experience or auditions required, no cost, no obligation, drop-ins welcomed.

This is a free, drop-in, non-auditioned community choir.  All voices are invited to join us in song. Together we sing music from gospel, folk, popular, and contemporary traditions. It's informal, fun, playful and profound. We're a friendly gang of welcoming people who live or work in the area, go to school at SFU or come from around the city to gather here and enjoy the community we build through music. There are usually 25 to 35 singers each week and always a handful of new singers joining us for the first time. Participants are also welcome to come, drink a cup of tea and just listen.

 

Philosopher’s Cafes

 

Friday, June 12: Love/Fear

Thursday, June 18: Purpose of Art