Presented by the Institute of Island Studies at UPEI, the Lecture Series on March 26 will island-hop across the northern North Atlantic to see who lives there and how they got there. Biogeography is the three-way crossroads of history, biology, and geography. For most of these islands; the Shetlands, the Faeroes, Iceland, and many others; this history started when bare land emerged from under melting ice about 10,000 years ago, with creatures soon arriving by wing or wind. Humans came too, some by primitive boats that we know almost nothing about. But history can also have recent beginnings, such as the explosive birth of Surtsey Island, off Iceland, in 1963. This talk recounts the rich biological traditions of island biogeography, and shows that their insights apply equally well to people.
Born with a bang: Surtsey Island emerges from the sea
Meet the Speaker:
David Cairns was born, surrounded by winter ice, on Prince Edward Island. Deliberately seeking out cold, barren, and dangerous places, especially if they are islands, he found them during his early research career in northern seabirds. He is now a Scientist Emeritus with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, an Adjunct Professor with the UPEI Biology Department, and an Arctic expedition naturalist with Lindblad Expeditions and Aurora Expeditions.
Presented by the Institute of Island Studies at UPEI, the Lecture Series on February 27 will celebrate the launch of The Bridge Effect: Critical Reflections in the Age of Technological Solutionism co-edited by Laurie Brinklow and Andrew Jennings. This event will feature a discussion of the effect of bridges—be they physical or digital—on island life and culture. The lecture and launch will be held from 7-8:30 pm in the Faculty Lounge, Main Building, UPEI campus.
Presented by the Institute of Island Studies at UPEI, the Lecture Series on February 27 will celebrate the launch of The Bridge Effect: Critical Reflections in the Age of Technological Solutionism co-edited by Laurie Brinklow and Andrew Jennings. This event will feature a discussion of the effect of bridges—be they physical or digital—on island life and culture. The lecture and launch will be held from 7-8:30 pm in the Faculty Lounge, Main Building, UPEI campus.
Brinklow will present a humorous look at ferry crossings and how the various stages of the journey from the race to the dock to chatting with neighbours in the lineup can define island life. Jennings, beaming in from Shetland, Scotland, via a technological bridge will discuss the long-lasting impacts of two small bridges on island populations in the Scottish archipelago. While PEI contributor, Janice Pettit will share her interviews with island residents on how the Confederation bridge has affected “the island way of life” twenty years later. The event is free, all are welcome to attend. Books will be available for purchase.
Laurie Brinklow is a writer, editor, Assistant Professor, and the Coordinator of the Master of Arts in Island Studies (MAIS) program at the University of Prince Edward Island. She is the author of My island’s the house I sleep in at night and Here for the Music. Andrew Jennings lives in Shetland, Scotland’s most northerly islands. He is an Associate Professor of Island Studies based at UHI Shetland, where he works with the Institute for Northern Studies. Janice Pettit was an adjunct professor at University of Prince Edward Island where she taught the Introduction to Island Studies course for seven semesters. She now works for the PEI Public Service Commission.
The Bridge Effect was published by Island Studies Press with the support of a SSHRC Exchange Publication Award from the Office of the Vice-President, Academic and Research at UPEI.
Meet the Speakers
Laurie Brinklow is a writer, editor, Assistant Professor, and the Coordinator of the Master of Arts in Island Studies (MAIS) program at the University of Prince Edward Island. Her research focuses on islandness and island identity, including the power of place and story. She is the author of My island’s the house I sleep in at night and Here for the Music.
Andrew Jennings lives in Shetland, Scotland’s most northerly islands, famous for their Nordic cultural inheritance that inspires his research and teaching. He is an Associate Professor of Island Studies based at UHI Shetland, where he works with the Institute for Northern Studies.
Janice Pettit holds a Diploma in Public Administration, a Bachelor of Business Administration, and a Master of Arts in Island Studies (MAIS). She was an adjunct professor at the University of Prince Edward Island where she taught the Introduction to Island Studies course for seven semesters. She is currently a Staffing and Classification Consultant with the PEI Public Service Commission. Her research interests continue to focus on bridge impacts on islands and islanders.
Presented by the Institute of Island Studies at UPEI, the Lecture Series on February 27 will celebrate the launch of The Bridge Effect: Critical Reflections in the Age of Technological Solutionism co-edited by Laurie Brinklow and Andrew Jennings. This event will feature a discussion of the effect of bridges—be they physical or digital—on island life and culture. The lecture and launch will be held from 7 to 8:30 pm in the Faculty Lounge, Main Building, UPEI campus.
Brinklow will present a humorous look at ferry crossings and how the various stages of the journey from the race to the dock to chatting with neighbours in the lineup can define island life. Jennings, beaming in from Shetland, Scotland, via a technological bridge, will discuss the long-lasting impacts of two small bridges on island populations in the Scottish archipelago. PEI contributor Janice Pettit will share her interviews with island residents on how the Confederation bridge has affected “the Island way of life” 26½ years later. The event is free and all are welcome to attend. Books will be available for purchase.
Media contact: Bren Simmers Island Studies Press 902-566-0386 ispstaff@upei.ca
Charlottetown, PEI (January 9, 2024)—
Presented by the Institute of Island Studies at UPEI, the Lecture Series on February 27 will celebrate the launch of The Bridge Effect: Critical Reflections in the Age of Technological Solutionism co-edited by Laurie Brinklow and Andrew Jennings. This event will feature a discussion of the effect of bridges—be they physical or digital—on island life and culture. The lecture and launch will be held from 7 to 8:30 pm in the Faculty Lounge, Main Building, UPEI campus.
Brinklow will present a humorous look at ferry crossings and how the various stages of the journey from the race to the dock to chatting with neighbours in the lineup can define island life. Jennings, beaming in from Shetland, Scotland, via a technological bridge, will discuss the long-lasting impacts of two small bridges on island populations in the Scottish archipelago. PEI contributor Janice Pettit will share her interviews with island residents on how the Confederation bridge has affected “the Island way of life” 26½ years later. The event is free and all are welcome to attend. Books will be available for purchase.
Media contact: Bren Simmers Island Studies Press 902-566-0386 ispstaff@upei.ca
Based on his new book, Time Flies, Dr. MacFadyen will show that development in the coastal zone and along rural roads is accelerating on Prince Edward Island, just as the province is experiencing sustainability challenges in both areas. The talk will offer a unique combination of aerial photographs, historical maps, and more traditional sources, as it describes the province’s journey into modernity.
Based on his new book, Time Flies, Dr. MacFadyen will show that development in the coastal zone and along rural roads is accelerating on Prince Edward Island, just as the province is experiencing sustainability challenges in both areas. The talk will offer a unique combination of aerial photographs, historical maps, and more traditional sources, as it describes the province’s journey into modernity.
Meet the Speaker
Josh MacFadyen is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Geospatial Humanities in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Prince Edward Island. He teaches in the Applied Communication, Leadership & Culture Program, and he leads the GeoREACH lab at UPEI which supports Geospatial Research in Atlantic Canadian History.
Island Lecture Series | “Authentic Prince Edward Island Tourism Experiences: What Locals Have to Say” with Dr. Susan Graham
7 pm, November 21st, 2023, SDU Faculty Lounge, UPEI
Authenticity in tourism is a hot topic. Can tourism experiences ever really be authentic and truly reflect the character, history, and people of a place? One underrepresented voice in the authentic tourism is that of locals. Using a research panel of 600 islanders, we asked Prince Edward Islanders if it was possible for visitors to experience the ‘real’ PEI, and if so, what kinds of experiences best reflected the place that locals call home. Over 400 respondents enthusiastically proclaimed that indeed it was possible for visitors to glimpse the ‘real’ Prince Edward Island and they identified myriad ways that could happen in areas such as culinary-, cultural-, historical-, and Anne of Green Gables-based experiences. Come on out to the Island Speakers Series on November 21st at 7pm to hear more about this research project.
Dr. Susan Graham Dr. Graham is an Islander, born and raised (in Summerside). She is an Associate Professor of Marketing with UPEI’s Faculty of Business, where she teaches intro to marketing, integrated cases in marketing, brand management, and the future of marketing. Her research program spans two distinct themes: marketing islands as tourism destinations and 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion in business/management education. Dr. Graham lives in Charlottetown with her husband and son. She is a passionate traveler, reader, hiker, chef, and Starbucks fan.
Join us on October 17th, at 7 PM in the Faculty Lounge of UPEI’s SDU Main Building for a lecture from PEI historian, Dr. Ed MacDonald! The historical literature on camping in the Western world has been preoccupied with the period between the mid-1800s and the Second World War. It maintains that well-heeled city dwellers camped in order to escape summers in North America’s dirty, polluted, high-stress cities and connect physically and emotionally with the wild Nature. But it was the postwar era and the gradual democratization of tourism that brought camping to the masses. And the experience on Prince Edward Island tells a different story about the motives behind, and the experience of, camping. Focusing particularly on the Island’s provincial parks, “Camping in the Backyard” will unpack the rise and fall (and rise again) of camping in terms of the Island’s tourism industry.
Meet the Speaker
Dr. Edward MacDonald teaches in the History Department at UPEI. His research focus is the social, cultural, and environmental history of Prince Edward Island. Along with Josh MacFadyen and Irene Novaczek, he is co-editor of Time and APlace: An Environmental History of Prince Edward Island, co-published by Island Studies Press and McGill-Queen’s University Press. The best known of his seven books is If You’re Stronghearted: Prince Edward Island in the 20th Century (October 2000).
Kicking off this season’s Island Lecture Series Tuesday, September 19th, are two guests who are NOT talking about islands, but rather something that resonates with islands and islanders from the North: Sami culture from Lapland.
Pigga Keskitalo will present “Sami Educational Viewpoints From the Past and Present.” In this presentation, Pigga Keskitalo will review Sámi education history and current practices. Currently, there is need for innovative solutions so that everyone can reach education in their Indigenous languages. Endangered Sami languages have developed distance education since the 1990’s, so that children and language learners – despite their location – can learn Sami languages. In Finland, there is a Sami language distance education project. The Academy of Finland-funded research project, ADVOST concentrated on developing this distance education in a small children’s context. The research project also implemented land-based education, storytelling, and playful learning into distance education. Keskitalo will present this project and core results in addition to the new research project LINCOSY (funded by the Finnish Research Council, former Academy of Finland), which concentrates on Sami language teaching in Nordic level.
Laila Nutti will present her PhD project about pedagogical use of yoik with the title: “The Use of Yoik, Traditional Sami Singing, in Education”
Pigga Keskitalo and Laila Nutti are on Prince Edward Island as part of the ConnectED Scholar Exchange, which aims to create connections between early career scholars and researchers across the Arctic. Hosted by Dr. Kathy Snow (Education), David Varis (Education/IKERAS), and Dr. Laurie Brinklow (Island Studies), our guests will be meeting with graduate students and educators across the Island from September 18-21, 2023.
Pigga Keskitalo Pigga Keskitalo holds a PhD in Education and is a Professor of education, specifically in Arctic perspectives in education, at the University of Lapland, Faculty of Education, Rovaniemi, Finland. She is also an Adjunct Professor (Title of Docent) at the University of Helsinki. Keskitalo has participated in various national and international research and development projects regarding topics of socially sustainable development, education, and equity in global and Arctic communities, as well as, more specifically, in Sami education and language teaching. She has previously worked for 20 years in Norway as a teacher educator. Learn more…
Laila Nutti Laila Nutti is a PhD Candidate at the Sami University of Applied Sciences
The Bridge Effect: A Case Study of Prince Edward Island, Canada, with Some Implications for Gozo Laurie Brinklow, Island Studies, University of Prince Edward Island May 24th, 2023 at, 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. ADT (4:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. CEST)
The idea of a permanent link joining the mainland to Prince Edward Island, on Canada’s Atlantic coast, goes back to 1887 when a Canadian Senator suggested the government lay an iron subway across the floor of the Northumberland Strait; the price tag was $5 million. A few years later, they suggested a $12 million tunnel. Neither came to fruition, but over the next century, the conversation continued until 1989, when a plebiscite was held to determine whether or not Islanders wanted a “fixed link.” The vote was close: 59% in favour, 41% against. Thus the way was paved to build the Confederation Bridge, a $1 billion 12-9-kilometre-long bridge across the Northumberland Strait. It opened on May 31, 1997, as the world’s longest bridge over ice-covered waters.
Bridging an island is often a polarizing subject: an islander can cherish the bounded flavour that an island provides or can valorize the benefits of a link―for instance, the convenience and monetary benefits of transporting people and goods on- and off-island. A permanent link might even allow an island to remain a viable place to live. This presentation tells the story of Prince Edward Island’s bridge and its socio-cultural, economic, and political impacts on the Island in the 25 years since it opened. A conversation about how these lessons might apply to Malta and Gozo will follow.
Dr. Laurie Brinklow is an Assistant Professor of Island Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada, where she is the Coordinator of the Master of Arts in Island Studies (MAIS) Program and Chair of the Institute of Island Studies. A writer, editor, and former book publisher, she is a graduate of the MAIS program (2007) and has a PhD in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Tasmania (2015). She is particularly interested in the power of place, story, and identity in creating vibrant island communities. She has published in several academic journals and books and is the author of two books of poetry, Here for the Music (Acorn, 2012) and My island’s the house I sleep in at night (Island Studies Press, 2021). She is the Government of Iceland’s Honorary Consul for Prince Edward Island and President of the International Small Island Studies Association (ISISA).
