Media releases

• Brock marks 100th Convocation ceremony Saturday

  Wednesday, October 12, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA ADVISORY: R00219 – 12 October 2016

  When nearly a thousand students cross the stage this Saturday during Brock’s Fall Convocation, they will be part of the 100th graduation ceremony in the University’s history.

  Unlike the first convocation celebration in 1967, Brock’s centennial ceremony won’t take place under the open skies of “The Podium” in front of the Schmon Tower. Instead, the ceremony will be held in the climate-controlled and bright confines of the Ian Beddis Gymnasium.

  During two ceremonies at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, 955 undergraduate and graduate students will be conferred. Combined with the Spring Convocation held in June, a total of 4,468 students will have graduated in the 2015-16 academic year at Brock University. That’s a far cry from the 34 people who comprised Brock’s first-ever graduating class May 30, 1967.

  Of this Saturday’s 955 graduands, 293 are grad students, 196 are international students and 41 are varsity athletics student-athletes.

  The morning ceremony will see students from the faculties of Applied Health Sciences, Math and Science and the Goodman School of Business receive their degrees. The afternoon ceremony is for students from the faculties of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences.

  Among the awards to be handed out Saturday will be the Governor General’s Silver Medals, handed out the two students with the highest academic standing out of all graduates in a first honours degree. Math and Computer Science student Stacey Van Herk finished with a 97 per cent average and Medical Sciences student Cameron Giles had a 95 per cent average.

  Also being awarded Saturday are six Spirit of Brock medals to students who best represent the spirit of Maj.-Gen. Sir Isaac Brock, two Faculty of Health Sciences Research Excellence awards, a Distinguished Researcher award and a Distinguished Teaching award.

  Research Excellence award recipient David Gabriel, professor in the Department of Kinesiology, will deliver the morning convocation address and Distinguished Teaching award recipient Nicola Simmons, professor in the Department of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies in Education will deliver the afternoon address.

  Saturday will also mark the first Convocation ceremonies for Interim President and Vice-Chancellor Tom Traves.

  Both convocation ceremonies are open to the public and media.

  NOTE: Please see the attached infographics of: A comparison of the 1967 and 2016 Brock Convocations; and a By the Numbers of this year’s Fall Convocation.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Top Canadian authors coming to Niagara for Two Days of Canada conference

  Wednesday, October 12, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA ADVISORY: R00218 – 11 October 2016

  Award-winning authors from across Canada will be in downtown St. Catharines this week for the annual Two Days of Canada conference and the new Festival of Readers.

  Two Days of Canada is an annual conference hosted by Brock University’s Centre for Canadian Studies. The conference turns 30 this year, making it the longest-running Canadian Studies conference series in the country.

  This year’s theme is Concepts of Vancouver, which looks at Vancouver’s “unique confluence of art, politics, and cultural policy,” says Brock English professor Gregory Betts, who is a conference co-organizer. Brock PhD students Julia Polyck-O’Neill and Andrew McEwan, whose dissertations examine Vancouver’s arts and authors, are assisting in organizing the conference.

  More than 100 delegates from across Canada and around the world will listen to 40 presenters explore such topics as Indigenous rights in Vancouver and its region, that area’s unique openness to experimentation in the arts, and how Vancouver uses its class-consciousness to build inclusive urban communities.

  The conference and accompanying festival will feature authors who have won such prestigious awards as the Governor-General’s Award, the Griffin Prize and the Trillium Prize. Two poet laureates will also be in attendance.

  The keynote speaker for the event is George Bowering, the former Niagara resident who was Canada’s first Parliamentary Poet Laureate, and a two-time Governor-General’s Award winner. Since leaving Niagara, Bowering has lived mostly in Vancouver, where he has cultivated a world-class literary culture and become, as Betts says, “one of the giants of Canadian literature.”

  Authors Richard Cavell, Roy Miki, Lisa Robertson, Michael Turner and Rita Wong will also deliver plenary addresses.

  This year also sees the addition of the Festival of Readers to the conference, where award-winning authors will present their academic scholarship during conference sessions and share their literary work in the evenings.

  Festival of Readers events run from Thursday, Oct. 13 to Saturday, Oct. 15 and include a public lecture by Bowering, a poetry reading and poetry slam, and a story illustration workshop by Rodman Hall.

  Gary Barwin, who is on the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist, will be speaking at St. Catharines Public Library as part of the festival.

  There will also be a special screening of “Hard Core logo” at The Film House, with an introduction by the author Michael Turner.

  A complete guide can be found at http://www.festivalofreaders.com/the-festival-of-readers.

  Festival of Readers events are free and open to the public.

  Two Days of Canada: The Concept of Vancouver is being held at Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts and the nearby Niagara Artists Centre visit the conference website for more information.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases