The Final Frontier Edition

CAPTAIN’S LOG – STARDATE 7.16.21

We have just received an important communication from Planet KPU.

All crew members are urged to click on this link immediately.

Dear Colleagues, 

Recent weeks have seen the human spirit uplifted by the spectacle of the “Billionaires’ Space Race:” the inspiring battle of the intrepid super-rich to hurl themselves into orbit before their peers do. A grateful humanity can only watch agog as its highest avatars, these veritable Overmen, strive, not to tackle such picayune challenges as homelessness or global warming, but rather to blaze new trails in monetizing space tourism. Perhaps the only fly in this oleaginous ointment is the unfortunate prospect of their successful return; for little did The Muppets know that their famous sketch “Pigs in Space” was in fact, a documentary.

Well, never fear. We in Arts may not be blasting into outer space any time soon – but to us falls the far greater challenge of traversing the infinite horizons of the mind. 

ENGAGE!

I’m a Scholar, not a Bricklayer: Another reminder here about the Arts Research Courses. These represent a “win-win” for faculty and students, affording students invaluable research experience, for credit, while offering faculty additional support for their scholarly work. If you have a project that might be suitable, please email anne.lin@kpu.ca And for more info, try wade.deisman@kpu.ca  

Resistance (to Brown Bags) is Futile: Fall may be a distant gleam on the horizon, but it’s still good to plan ahead; so please consider putting yourself forward for the Arts “Brown Bag Lunch” series this Fall. Unlike the Arts Speaker Series and other venues in which we typically share mature research projects, the Brown Bag Lunch series is intended to provide a space for faculty to discuss provisional ideas for projects, arguments in developments, or research at its earliest stages, soliciting interdisciplinary feedback from colleagues in a casual, exploratory milieu. If you have a project concept, or a project in development, and are interested in participating as a “Brown Bag Lunch” presenter, please e-mail greg.millard@kpu.ca. 

The Needs of the Many: As we move toward the highest-pressure time of the Summer semester, it’s worth re-circulating KPU’s go-to resource for helping Students in Distress, a.k.a. the “Green Sheet.” It’s attached to this email for easy reference.  

Energize! Needless to say, even with the worst of the pandemic seemingly behind us, online instruction remains very much a going concern. Some time ago, CRIM assembled a list of “frequently asked questions” about online delivery and Covid. Associate Dean Shelley Boyd led a collective effort to get answers. The result is attached here, as another useful reference; and we have also uploaded it to Sharepoint under “Teaching Resources” here.

Live long and prosper!

Diane, Wade, Shelley, Greg, and the whole Bridge Crew