Coffee House Controversies

Coffee House Controversies is an ongoing public lecture series presented by the Faculty of Arts and in cooperation with Chapters Bookstore. Each event is a 20 minute, informal 'hot topic' discussion by a University of Regina Faculty of Arts professor, followed by 20 minutes of audience questions. All are welcome to attend!

All Coffee House Controversies talks take place at Chapters Bookstore, Southland Mall, 2625 Gordon Road, selected Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.

• View the Fall 2010 Coffee House schedule!

The next installment of the Fall 2010 season of Coffee House Controversies is on Thursday, November 4, 7:30pm:

Invisible Cities: Visiting Twenty-first Century New York and Berlin
Dr. Michael Trussler (Department of English)

"I recently had the good fortune of visiting New York and Berlin. These two cities arguably had the greatest influence of Western cultural and historical experience in the past one hundred years. My talk offers some observations on several things: how major events such as World War II and 9.11 have left their mark on these cities; what it's like to walk extensively in both places as a visitor (as opposed to being a resident) during the twenty-first century; the way that both Berlin and New York use conceptual and abstract art to create monuments in response to their often traumatic histories".

Previous Coffee House talks:

"Walk to Work: The Regina Downtown Neighbourhood Plan, adopted by City Council in 2009, has charted a new direction for the heart of our city. But will it succeed, given the fact that Reginans' rush to the suburbs over the past 60 years has squeezed most of the life out of our once-thriving downtown core? Dr. Bill Brennan will critically examine the evolution of Regina's downtown, outline the key features of this new plan, and offer some comparisons with what other mid-sized cities are doing to revitalize their downtowns.

This talk airs on Access7 on November 3, 2010 at 3:00pm.

October 7, 2010
"Is the Grass Really Greener Over There? The Unexpected Impact of Climate Change on the Native Prairie" by Dr. Joe Piwowar (Department of Geography)
 
"The Earth's climate is changing. Globally, the Earth's temperature has increased by 1.5 degrees celsius over the past century. The years 2000-2009 were the warmest on record. In Saskatchewan we have experienced even greater warming, with some places like Swift Current showing temperature increased of up to 3 degrees celsius since 1900. Climate scientists tell us to expect even more warming and increased aridity over the next century. How will all this affect our environment? Geographers are looking to the past to see if there is anything we can learn from the environment's reaction to similar changes that might help us predict what we might expect in the future. Amongst our findings is an unexpected increase in native vegetation productivity in the mixed-grass prairie...and it has nothing to do with this wet year." 

This talk airs on Access7 October 20, 2010 at 1:30pm.