Prentice Post (Fall 2012)

Highlights the Prentice Institute's activities, initiatives and research affiliations.Director’s Note Inside this issue: Fall 2012 Volume 3, Issue 1 Accolades The Prentice Institute does research on the changing human population and its potential impacts on social and economic issues, and communicates its findings widely. The Prentice Institute and its research collaborators seek to understand long-term changes in the human and economic environments, within a historical context, with particular attention to the role human actions play in influencing those out-comes. We conduct and integrate research on the dynamics of Canadian and global demog-raphy and their impacts on economic well-being through migration, culture, trade and natural resource availability. We communicate widely the output of our work and that of others to stimulate fur-ther research and to enable individuals, governments, and corporations to make better-informed decisions. We educate students and future researchers. Director’s Note 1 Accolades 1 New Positions 2 Prentice Institute Staff 2 Prentice Research Affiliate Feature 3 Prentice Institute Outreach Prentice Institute and Community Co-sponsorship - Doug Saunders 3 Spotlight 4 Visiting Speaker—Miles Corak and Dr. Patricia Martens 5 Prentice Brownbag Seminars 5 Mission Statement 1 As 2012 draws to a close, the Prentice Institute is thriving and growing. We are gaining international recognition for our research with our Research Affiliates being invited all over the world to give lectures to students, and to consult on policy. Recent travels include China, Japan, Europe, Latin America, as well as Canada and the U.S. Plans for early 2013 include Aus-tralia, Taiwan and Africa. We have added breadth and depth with new Re-search Affiliates both at the University of Lethbridge as well as across Can-ada and the world. As well, we are developing collaborations with sister research institutes in Canada and in other parts of the world. The Prentice has created new ways for our research to reach wide audiences that include posters, videos and enhanced use of social media. Our Brown Bag series is becoming ever more popular with students, faculty and staff at the University and with community people. More than once, we have had to move the talks to a larger venue. In November 2012, we collaborated with two community groups to host the visit of Doug Saunders, International Bureau Chief for the Globe and Mail. See elsewhere in this newslet-ter for details. In early 2013, we will host the visit of Miles Corak, Economics, University of Ottawa, the author of comparative research on intergenerational mobility that has received much public and policy attention, including attention in the recent US elections. Our new Ph.D. concentration in Population Studies and Health has been approved to move forward to the Province. This new program, if all goes well, will join our existing Ph.D. in Demography by 2014. Prentice Post Congratulations to our Research Affiliates as they were awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Peter McCormick, Reginald Bibby and Constantine E. Passaris This medal is awarded to those who have made a significant contribution to a particular province, territory, region or community within Canada, or an achievement abroad that brings credit to Canada. Prentice Post Fall 2012 , Volume 3, Issue 1 Prent ice Inst itute Staf f Nancy Metz joined the Pren-tice Institute October of 2012 as the Adminis-trative Assis-tant. She works directly with Susan McDaniel and will as-sist in all day to day activities. Nan-cy brings over 10 years of Adminis-trative background and creative tal-ent which will assist her to fit in perfectly. She is conspiracy/ theorist junkie and an avid yoga participant, an Earthship living, or-ganic eating, making the world a peaceful place one fun-lovin one step at a time kinda gal. Dr. Abdie Kazemipur has been appointed as the first Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Culture Change in Rap-idly Developing Modern Societies, in the Faculty of Arts, the Memorial Univer-sity of Newfoundland. He remains a Prentice Re-search Affiliate. His research revolves around two main topics: Social trends in Canada, with a focus on the experiences of minorities and immigrants, and socio-cultural trends in the Middle East, with a spe-cial focus on Iran. 2 New Posit ions Dr. Lichun Willa Liu will join the Prentice Institute in January 2013 as a Post- Doctoral Fellow. Her Ph.D. (2010) is from the Universi-ty of Toronto in Sociology of Education and Equity Studies. Her research inter-est include population health particularly among Chinese immi-grants to Canada, food security and many conference papers. From 2010-12, she was lead researcher for a study funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation on Chinese Ontarians Living with Heart Disease and Stroke. Dr. Liu will work for the two years of her post-doctoral fellowship at the Prentice on her research project on health needs and practices among older Chinese immigrants. As well, she will collaborate on various ongoing research projects at the Prentice Institute. Welcome Dr. Liu! Leanne Little, BA, BEd, comes to the Prentice first as admin-istrative help and then agreed to stay on part-time as Editorial Assis-tant. She is an educator and communication specialist. Her interest in effective educational communication comes from both her own classroom expe-rience and her involvement in developing evaluation methods. Her scholarship is in the area of English and she also has exten-sive experience in the editing work in var-ious disciplines. Facilitating the clear and correct communication of science, making it accessible in the classroom and to the public, is of utmost importance to her. She has had a stellar academic career where she received many scholarships and awards including a prestigious SSHRC graduate scholarship. Congratulations to Research Affiliate, John Usher, elected President of University of Lethbridge Faculty Association Dr. Usher's research in-terests and activities are primarily in the area of organizational ecology, specifically niche-width theory, which examines the success of organizational fitness strategies (specialism, generalism and polymorphism) under various conditions of spatial and temporal environ-mental heterogeneity. Prent ice Research Af filiates Feature 3 Fall 2012 , Volume 3, Issue 1 Prentice Post Dr. Cheryl Currie is a new Assistant Professor, of Public Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Lethbridge, and our newest Prentice Institute Research Affil-iate. She is a social epidemiologist by training (Ph.D.– University of Alberta) and her re-search is oriented toward the social, economic, and cultural forces that shape public health in Canada with a particular focus on Aboriginal health, addiction psychiatry, community engagement, and healthy public policy. Firmly in public health, Dr. Currie recently completed a project examining social and cul-tural factors that might predict addictive disorders in the Aboriginal population. She orga-nized a collaboration with the Aboriginal Advisory Committee to set priorities, study and collect data by interviewing adult urban Aboriginal and Metis in Alberta. She will bring her empirical findings to the urban Aboriginal community for review. The research results suggest participating in Aboriginal culture increased the self-esteem of urban Aboriginal peoples. This helped to explain why engaging in Aboriginal cultural traditions was protective. But statistically, increased self-esteem did not explain the protective effect entirely. Aboriginal culture was also protecting urban Aboriginal peoples through additional mechanisms that remain unknown. Determining what these additional mechanisms are in collaboration and partnership with urban Aboriginal communities in Alberta will be a key fo-cus of my future research. To improve urban Aboriginal health, we need to start asking different questions and to start looking for different answers that are grounded in the knowledge of the community itself. Doug Saunders books can be found in the University Bookstore. Prent ice Inst itute Outreach On Thursday 15 November 2012, The Prentice Institute, Friends of the Lethbridge Public Library and Southern Alberta Council of Public Affairs collaborated in an evening with Doug Saunders titled: Lessons from the Arrival City: The Future of Poverty, Population and Environment in the Urban Landing Pad Doug Saunders, a Canadian born, world-renown journalist and author, came to us from London, England where he has been the Globe and Mail’s European Bu-reau Chief. His journalism won the National Newspaper Award on four occasions and he has received international recognition for investigative reporting on the state of the middle class around the world. For more information and to watch the podcast please go to the Prentice website at; www.uleth.ca/prenticeinstitute. Prentice Affiliate Glenda Bonifacio, a professor of women’s and gender studies at the University of Lethbridge, was recognized for the Immigrant Achievement Award. She is one of a small group of Lethbridge citizens born elsewhere who have made outstanding contributions to the Lethbridge community. The story was featured in the Lethbridge Herald, November 10, 2012 Susan A. McDaniel, Director of the Prentice Institute & Canada Research Chair in Global Population and Life Course, has a article featured on the Broadbent Institute website November 19, 2012 Fruits of the Earth: Not All Belong at the Top. Susan is also published in the book - Sociology Today: Social Transformations in a Globalizing World, written by a collection of internationally renowned sociologists, bringing up issues such as family changes, political turbu-lence, migration flows and social movements to name a few. In June of 2012, John and four other U of L researchers began producing an E-Book of New Media Research Methods and Practises, one of three funded projects through the Interdisci-plinary Research Development Fund (IRDF). Prentice Institute Research Analyst, Dr. A. Germain Boco attended the Canadian Conference on Global Health in October of 2012 where he presented the poster on Public Attitudes toward Health Care in Sub-Sahara Africa in a Shifting World Economy co-authored with Susan McDaniel. Two Prentice Institute Research Affiliates Collaborating on New Research Insti-tute. At the October 2012 Board of Governor's meeting, Dr. Heidi MacDonald and Dr. Jan Newberry, received approval for the New Research Institute for Child and Youth Studies (I-CYS). * More publications and accolades can be found on our webpage at www.uleth.ca/prenticeinstitute Prentice Post Fall 2012 , Volume 3, Issue 1 4 Spot light To be added or removed from the Prentice Institute Newsletter list please email prentice@uleth.ca Fall 2012 , Volume 3, Issue 1 Prentice Post Visit ing Speakers 5 Join the Prent ice as we int roduce Mi les Corak, a labour economist former ly of Stat istics Canada, cur - rent ly at the Universi ty of Ot tawa whose upcoming lecture wi l l take us Sl iding Down the Gatsby Curve: Social Mobi l i ty in Compar ison. Thursday 17 Jan 2013 7:00 pm, PE 250 First Choice Savings Centre, FREE Admission FREE Parking - Everyone Welcome Prent ice Brownbag Seminars and Café Conversat ions Friday 21 September 2012 Henning Bjornlund “Issues and Challenges in Alberta Water Policy” Friday 12 October 2012 Trevor Harrison “We’re All Greeks Now: Observations on the Crisis” Thursday 29 November 2012 Pascal Ghazalian “Regional Trade Agreements for Developing Countries: An Empirical Analysis Through the Gravity Model” Friday 11 January Kurt Klein Thursday 31 January 2013 Alexander Darku Friday 8 February 2013 Cheryl Currie Friday 1 March 2013 Pamela Winsor Café Conversation 2013 Friday 15 February 2013 James Byrne WATCH FOR 2013 Brown Bag Events * Podcast videos can be found on the website at www.uleth.ca/prenticeinstitute Dr. Patricia Martens On November 21, 2012 in the Markin Hall, the University of Leth-bridge, Faculty of Health Sciences held their annual Una Ridley Health Sciences Lecture inviting Dr. Patri-cia Martens, Director of the Mani-toba Centre for Health Policy and Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Fac-ulty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba to speak on the topic: Dress for Success: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy’s three successful pillars of Research, Repository and Knowledge Translation. The Prentice Institute was pleased to have Dr. Martens visit the morning of her lecture and was able to have an engaging round table discussion on potential research collabora-tions with some of our affiliates