WIDEN (Workshops for Inter-Discipline Exchange and Novelty)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 00:27:22 -0500
From: Jessica Duffin Wolfe
To: Jessica Duffin Wolfe
Subject: WIDEN: On Walls, Monday Nov. 9 (fwd)


In commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the
Berlin Wall, WIDEN (Workshops for Inter-Discipline Exchange and
Novelty) is delighted to announce its second meeting of 2009-10:

On Walls, a WIDEN symposium
3:30-5:30 pm, Monday, November 9
Grad Room at Grad House, 66 Harbord St.
All are welcome. No advance registration is required.

Directions
To get to Grad Room in Grad House, enter through the coffee shop on
the North-East corner of Spadina and Harbord and then go down the
stairs at the back. An elevator to the room is accessible through the
main entrance of the Grad House Residence.

Program:

Architectural Meat
Hayley Imerman, Architecture
Though seemingly elementary and self-evident, the role of the wall in
architecture is far from uncontested. The idea of the wall has been
the conceptual catalyst for a long lineage of architectural builders
and thinkers. From the wall-less-ness of Richard Rogers and Renzo
Piano's Centre Pompidou in Paris, to the wall-house 'paper projects'
of John Hejduk, this presentation considers the wall as creator, the
wall as destroyer, the wall as moderator between past and future.

Demarcating the City: Contemporary Beijing's Missing Walls
Elizabeth Parke, Art

My research examines the connection between urban space and walls in
contemporary Beijing. By approaching the city walls through the
stairs at the back. An elevator to the room is accessible through the
main entrance of the Grad House Residence.

A Chink in the Wall : Cross-Cultural Communication through Theatrical
Gestures
Jennifer Heywood, Drama

“And such a wall, as I would have you think, / That had in it a
crannied hole or chink." -spoken by WALL, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Presenting research on the dramaturgy of performance, I will argue
that while physical gestures do not contain synonymous meanings in
differing cultures (hence creating a wall that blocks communication)
the theatre, and more specifically the art of the actor’s gestures,
and most specifically Eugenio Barba’s theory on pre-expressivity,
offer a ‘chink’ in such a wall. The research behind this paper hopes
to find a place, in art, where diverse cultures can understand the
intentions and desires behind movement, offering a clearer
understanding of each other’s visions and perspectives.
BREAK

Penetrating the Myth of the Vaginal Hymen
Bronwyn Singleton, Philosophy

The vaginal hymen is a mythic wall that marks the inside and outside
of woman, acting as alleged guarantor of chastity and virginity.
Resounding medical evidence agrees that the hymen is an unreliable
arbiter of virginity, and yet it continues to have a persistent hold
on the imagination. I argue that while the hymen cannot guarantee
virginal purity, it serves all too effective at protecting us from
the dangerous confusion and contamination of sexual-erotic love. A
smidge of Derrida grounds this work.

Photodynamic Therapy for the Treatment of Cancer
Emma Henderson, Medical Biophysics

Homeostasis, the tendency of living organisms to maintain internal
stability, is largely achieved through barriers, the breakdown of
which can lead to disease or death. In cancer therapies, however,
the goal is death – at least of the tumour cells. Photodynamic
therapy (PDT) is one such treatment for cancer and its effectiveness
relies heavily on the properties of these dynamic physiological
walls. This presentation will be an introduction to PDT and how it
works in the human body.


WIDEN (Workshops for Inter-Discipline Exchange and Novelty)

WIDEN aims to reveal the shared projects and symbiotic insights
emerging from the diverse inquiries of graduate students at the
University of Toronto. Each workshop consists of three (and sometimes
more) 10- to 15-minute presentations of research on a common theme by
graduate students working in three different disciplines at U of T,
followed by a half-hour (or so) of discussion.

Upcoming Workshops

On Women, December 4, 4-6pm, Grad Room
Upcoming Workshops

On Women, December 4, 4-6pm, Grad Room
On Colour, January, date TBA

Call for Presenters

WIDEN welcomes proposals on any theme on an ongoing basis, but right
now we would especially like to fill the last spots on our upcoming
workshops on Mining, Movement, and Spirit. Presentations may consist
of original research, or may address how a particular discipline
responds to the theme at hand. Proposals need only describe an idea
in brief, and announce the discipline and program in which the
student is working. Please contact Jessica Duffin Wolfe at
j.wolfe@utoronto.ca to submit a proposal or to join our mailing list.

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