Archive for category Events
Annual General Meeting (AGM) – April 1
Posted by admin in Events, MFA Website on March 23, 2010
We will be having our 2009/10 Annual General Meeting to wrap up the year. Details of the meeting are below:
Date: Thursday, April 1, 2010
Time: 5:00 pm
Place: Room 250 (Lounge), Student Centre
This meeting will include: A review of this years events, financial review, plans for next year, and voting in of new executive members!
We are looking for bright, outgoing, organized, and enthusiastic people to continue running the Mississauga Freethought Association. The following executive positions are available for the 2010/11 year:
- President
- Vice President
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- Publicity and Media Relations
- Community Relations
If you are interested in running for an executive position, send us an email with your name, year of study at UTM, position you’re interested in, and a brief (3-5 sentences) statement on why you would be the best person for the job.
Some reasons to consider being part of the MFA executive:
- Great way to get involved in Campus Life!
- Great way to meet new people!
- Looks great on a resume!
- Ability to bring important issues to the student body!
- Encourage critical thinking!
- Promote science!
- All the cool kids are doing it!
We hope to see you there!
Tom Ulanowski,
President
Killing Us Softly 3
Posted by admin in Events, Uncategorized on March 3, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Killing Us Softly 3
In Partnership with the UTM Women’s Centre
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Jean Kilbourne continues her groundbreaking analysis of advertising’s depiction of women in this most recent update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series. In fascinating detail, Kilbourne decodes an array of print and television advertisements to reveal a pattern of disturbing and destructive gender stereotypes. Her analysis challenges us to consider the relationship between advertising and broader issues of culture, identity, sexism, and gender violence.
Questions addressed are: Does the beauty ideal still tyrannize women?
| Does advertising still objectify women’s bodies? | Are the twin
themes of liberation and weight control still linked? | Is sexuality still presented as women’s main concern? | Are young girls still sexualized? | Are grown women infantilized? | Are images of male violence against women still used to sell products?
We look forward to viewing the video and then having an informal discussion on the information presented..
This is a free event.
Brought to you by the Mississauga Freethought Association (www.freethoughtcanada.ca) and the UTM women’s Centre (http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3women/uwomhis.html)
Third Annual Darwin Day Lecture!
Posted by admin in Events, Science and Technology on February 20, 2010
Join the MFA and the Halton-Peel Humanist Community this Monday, February 22, 2010 for our third annual Darwin Day lecture, celebrating the 201st birthday of Charles Darwin!
Dr. Jason Head will be giving a lecture on “Natural selection and adaptations as logical theories in studying evolution”.
Details of the event:
Monday, February 22, 2010
6:30 pm
Room 2080, South Building, UTM
FREE ADMISSION
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Jason Head is a vertebrate paleontologist and biologist who studies the evolutionary histories of reptiles, primarily from 66.5 million years ago to the present. He received a B.S. in biology from the University of Michigan in 1995, a Ph.D. in geology from Southern Methodist University in 2002, and has conducted field research in Pakistan, Tanzania, Mali, India, Jordan, and North America. While collecting Miocene reptile fossils in Pakistan, Jason developed an interest in the relationship of reptile diversity and body size to climate change, especially in snakes. His subsequent research includes quantitative analysis of skeletal morphology in modern and fossil lizards and snakes in order to reconstruct historical patterns of genetic control and development of the reptile axial skeleton, as well as continuing studies of paleoecology and paleoclimate, inferred from the fossil record. In 2009, Jason described the Worlds largest snake, Titanoboa cerrejonensis, and developed a method for estimating paleotemperature from body size in fossil reptiles. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, a research associate and the Royal Ontario Museum, and an Adjunct Assistant Curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Celebrate Water Awareness Week at UTM
Posted by admin in Environment, Events on January 26, 2010
We have teamed up with the UTM Green Team (Facebook Link) and the Ministry of Environment to bring two more engaging events to the UTM community as part of Water Awareness Week 2010.
1. Public Lecture
“Freshwater – Challenges Facing Mexico in the 21st Century”
Dr. Harvey Shear
Thursday, February 11, 2010
11:45 am
North Building, Room 134
Free Admission
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Mexico presently has an uneven distribution of freshwater across time and
space. Per capita water availability has been declining since 1900 and is
predicted to become worse due to climate change and population growth.
This talk by Dr. Harvey Shear will explore some of the major freshwater issues facing Mexico in the 21st Century, and will include a case study of a small lake in western Mexico.
2. Documentary Screening
“Flow: For The Love of Water” (2008)
Irena Salina
Thursday, February 11, 2010
3-5 pm
Student Centre, Presentation Room
Free Admission
Upcoming Lecture by Dr. Christopher diCarlo
Posted by admin in Events, Philosophy on January 3, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The New Ethics: A Synthetic Approach to Understanding Good and Evil
A Public Lecture by Dr. Chris diCarlo
Student Centre, Presentation Room
7:00 pm
FREE ADMISSION!
If humans, like all other animate or inanimate things in the universe function as a product of a complex series of causal events, wherein lies their virtue or their vice? How much control does any one of us have over our actions? Are people ‘good’ simply because they have been lucky enough to be able to control their volitions, desires, and intentions in ways that are approved by a given society? And are others ‘bad’ simply because they have not been so lucky? How much control did Tiger Woods have over his actions? How much control does an alcoholic have? Or a serial killer? Or you?
Read the rest of this entry »
Event Update: Film Screenings
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Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Movie Screening – Religulous (Bill Maher) (Repeat Screening)
FREE PIZZA + POP @ 5:00 pm!
Student Centre – Presentation Room, Lower Level
5:30 – 7:00 pm (Followed by a discussion on topics relevant to the film).
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Monday, November 23, 2009
Film Screening “A Brilliant Madness” – The Story of John Nash (PBS)
Student Centre, Presentation Room
5:00 pm
A Brilliant Madness is the story of a mathematical genius whose career was cut short by a descent into madness. At the age of 30, John Nash, a stunningly original and famously eccentric MIT mathematician, suddenly began claiming that aliens were communicating with him and that he was a special messenger. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Nash spent the next three decades in and out of mental hospitals, all but forgotten. During that time, a proof he had written at the age of 20 became a foundation of modern economic theory. In 1994, as Nash began to show signs of emerging from his delusions, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Economics. The program features interviews with John Nash, his wife Alicia, his friends and colleagues, and experts in game theory and mental illness.
Join us in delving into the mind of arguably one of the greatest mathematicians in recent history, and a discussion on how mental illness can alter the quality of a persons life.
We are back in business!
A big hello to all of our dearest supporters!
After a long summer hiatus, the Mississauga Freethought Association is back up and running in full swing for this academic year. We have a number of interesting events planned for the upcoming year, including lectures, documentary screenings, and of course, our third annual Darwin Day Event in February.
We will be releasing details shortly as to what to expect for this year. Come back and visit our website, or perhaps send us an email at free...@gmail.com and ask to be put on our periodical e-mail list.
As always, suggestions for events are always welcome!
Tom Ulanowski,
President
Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Religulous Movie Screening! Thurs, April 2, 5:00 pm
It’s that time of the year when exams are approaching, and we are all wrapping up another school year.
As most of the on-campus clubs, we want to take this time and prepare for the upcoming 2009/10 school term. However, we would also like to put on a final event that will be thought provoking and encourage discussion. So, we have decided to hold our AGM and Movie Screening event on the same day. Here are the details of what we have planned for Thursday, April 2, 2009:
1. Annual General Meeting (AGM)
Student Centre – Presentation Room, Lower Level
5:00 – 5:45 pm
The MFA is looking for enthusiastic and committed executives for the 2009/10 school term. If you are interested in being a part of the MFA Executive Committee, and have some exciting new event ideas or initiatives, then feel free to come out and get involved. The following positions are available:
President
Vice-President
Secretary
Treasurer
Media/Promotions
Community Relations
If you are interested, please send an email with a short blurb about yourself and the position that you are interested in undertaking to free...@gmail.com
We will also do a quick review of this years financial statements and success of our past events, as well as discuss some ideas for next year!
2. Movie Screening – Religulous (Bill Maher)
Student Centre – Presentation Room, Lower Level
5:45 – 7:00 pm (Followed by a discussion on topics relevant to the film).
“A range of views on the various world religions are explored as Bill Maher travels to numerous religious destinations, such as Jerusalem, the Vatican, and Salt Lake City, interviewing believers from a variety of backgrounds and groups, including a former member of Jews for Jesus, Christians, Muslims, former Mormons, and Hasidic Jews. He travels to Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, London and satirically preaches Scientology beliefs.”
This movie is very funny, but does cover some topics that may be controversial to some. We only ask that you come with an open mind, watch the movie, and then discuss the arguments presented in a respectful manner.
Website: http://www.lionsgate.com/religulous/
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0815241/
Darwin Day ’09 Recap
I am pleased to inform everyone that our February 12th Darwin Day event, held to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, was a success! More than fifty UTM students, faculty and local supporters came to hear Dr. Vincent Di Norcia give an interesting and enlightening discussion on Darwin’s lesser known views on social ethics. The hour long talk was followed by a lengthy and interesting question and answer period.
I would like to thank everyone who came out to support the event, the MFA, and of course one of science’s greatest minds! We will be putting on one more event before the school year is done, so stay tuned!
- Tom Ulanowski, President
Darwin Day at UTM – February 12
Posted by admin in Events, Religion, Science and Technology on February 4, 2009
We are pleased to announce another lecture to celebrate Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
5:30 pm
SE 2072 – South Building, UTM
FREE ADMISSION
We are celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth in 1809, a man who is on any account one of greatest scientists since Newton. The aim of the talk will be to celebrate Darwin by describing his wide-ranging mind, his extraordinarily observant and meticulous work in geology, botany, and biology. Darwin is deservedly renown for his epochal achievement in developing the revolutionary notion of the origin and evolution of species through natural selection. Less well known, however, is his equally innovative and revolutionary, if largely unacknowledged, view of the intimate relations between the ‘social instinct’ and the ‘moral sense’ both in humans and in animals, as his words above indicate. Dr. Di Norcia will communicate the grandeur and beauty of Darwin’s view of social ethics as well as of evolution. In both the matters of natural history and social ethics, he suggests that Charles Darwin’s scientific work to this day represents a ground-breaking intellectual and scientific achievement. And, unfortunately, still largely ignored or ignorantly opposed.