March 8, 2021 — MAIS THESIS DEFENSE: IAN MCISAAC Master of Arts in Island Studies student Ian McIsaac recently defended his thesis, “Factors influencing change in the Prince Edward Island Lobster Fishery” via Zoom. The session was recorded and is now available to stream on the Institute of Island Studies YouTube channel.
Background: In 2015, the PEI Marketing Council created the Lobster Fishers of Prince Edward Island (LFPEI) Commodity Board after holding a plebiscite. Ian conducted research to better understand what factors led to the decision, and to discover if any aspect of islandness may have influenced this independent group of Island business men and women who compete with each other to catch the same fish.
MAIS Info Session: Master of Arts in Island Studies @ UPEI
March 1, 2021—
Have you ever thought of completing a Master’s degree in, among other things, island tourism, sustainability, or international relations, all while staying on the Island? If so, please join us on March 4th, 20201, for an information session on UPEI’s Master of Arts, Island Studies programs!
Master of Arts in Island Studies Information Session Thursday, March 4, 2021 12:00 – 1:00 pm via Zoom Everyone is welcome! Please email Laurie Brinklow at brinklow@upei.ca to receive the Zoom link if you would like to attend.
ABOUT THE MAIS PROGRAM
In addition to the traditional thesis-based option, you are now able to take one of three course-and work-study-based Masters specializing in Island Tourism, Sustainable Island Communities, or International Relations & Island Public Policy. Sessions will be delivered using a combination of face-to-face classes, video link and online, starting in September. Entrance Scholarships for these and the thesis version of the program are available.
February 10, 2021 — New report from IIS Research Associate Graeme Robertson: One year timeline of COVID-19 pandemic impacting islands worldwide
IIS Research Associate Graeme Robertson has compiled a report titled One year timeline of COVID-19 pandemic impacting islands worldwide, which features over 600 articles documenting the impacts of COVID-19 on islands around the world from January 26, 2020 to February 10, 2021. The purpose of the report is to act as a resource enabling all those who are interested to undertake further research. Learn more | Download PDF
Charlottetown, PEI (January 18, 2021) — Getting the word out: How knowledge gets shared on islands New research from UPEI’s Institute of Island Studies and UNESCO Chair in Island Studies and Sustainability highlights knowledge mobilization in island contexts. More here.
You might think a conversation at your local coffee shop or at the hockey rink is just something you do in passing, but recent research done by the Institute of Island Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) says there is more to it than that.
In January 2020, the Canadian Commission for UNESCO (CCUNESCO) asked Canada’s network of 27 UNESCO Chairs to contribute papers on Knowledge Mobilization (KMb): how research gets into the hands of people who can use it. UPEI’s UNESCO Chair looked at how knowledge is mobilized on islands across Canada. Knowledge on islands was one of six submissions selected for CCUNESCO’s final report Imagining the future of Knowledge Mobilization: Perspectives from UNESCO Chairs.
Too often, informal and local knowledge on islands is thought of as being less important than the formal knowledge that we get from government, researchers, or other organizations. It turns out that what really creates resilience on islands is informal knowledge that we share in our day-to-day lives when we get together. The research also shows that if this knowledge is not valued and included in planning and decision-making by those in positions of power, they risk making communities more vulnerable.
Dr. Jim Randall
In the words of Dr. Jim Randall, UNESCO Chair in Island Studies and Sustainability at UPEI, “I think most islanders know the value of what they might learn at the local coffee shop, but it doesn’t necessarily register for decision-making bodies, especially those not on the island, such as a federal government department. This knowledge-sharing is not just important in the day-to-day lives of people, but also in how they address more significant challenges such as climate change or a pandemic.”
Randall was joined by the Institute of Island Studies’s Dr. Laurie Brinklow and UPEI Master of Arts in Island Studies student Marlene Chapman to complete the project. Their research included focus groups in Atlantic Canada, the Great Lakes, and British Columbia’s west coast. They wanted to find out if knowledge-sharing is different on islands, and they found that, yes, it is. Their chapter in the report details these differences, and makes recommendations on how islands might make use of this information to make their communities more sustainable in the future.
Island Lecture Series January Lecture: “Music-making and the experience of community life on an Irish island” with Rory McCabe
Dr. Rory McCabe with Clare Island in the background
Charlottetown, PEI (January 6, 2021)— The Island Lecture Series January session will feature Irish researcher Rory McCabe (Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway) joining us live from Clare Island, Ireland, to discuss the role and importance of music-making in island community life and vitality. Following his presentation, Rory will be joined in conversation by Dr. Laurie Brinklow (Institute of Island Studies, UPEI), with an opportunity for questions from the audience. This session will be held virtually via Zoom on January 19, 2021, at 1 p.m. AST.
This lecture presents an ethnographic account of music and social life on Clare Island (pop. 159), a small community off the west coast of Ireland. The details of music-making on Clare Island in the twenty-first century suggest that, against a changing social, economic, and technological environment, the universal themes of social bonding persist as core values in the island experience. Through this presentation, Rory McCabe will describe how music-making is a fundamental process in island community life and an important measure of island health or vitality. Rory McCabe recently completed his PhD at the Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway. His doctoral research examined music-making and islandness within his home community of Clare Island. In March 2020, Rory was an Ireland Canada University Foundation visiting scholar at the Institute of Island Studies at UPEI.
This virtual event is free and everyone is welcome to attend. The event will be hosted on Zoom, and advance registration is required – please visit bit.ly/islandlectureseries to reserve your spot. For more information about the Island Lecture Series, please visit islandstudies.com/islandlectureseries or contact Maggie Henry (Interim Coordinator, Institute of Island Studies) at mjhenry@upei.ca.
Institute of Island Studies launches the COVID-19 Island Insight Series
Series will examine how islands around the world have performed during the pandemic
November 19, 2020 —
The Institute of Island Studies at UPEI is pleased to announce the launch of the COVID-19 Island Insights Series, an initiative led by the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law & Governance (SCELG) and the Institute of Island Studies, in collaboration with Island Innovation. The series aims to bring together critical assessments of how specific islands around the world have performed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the extent to which their recovery plans are able to promote long-term resilience and sustainability.
The COVID-19 Island Insights Series will lead to a series of “thematic primers” aimed at assisting policy-makers and wider island-related stakeholders to encourage islands to move to a more resilient and sustainable future.
Every two weeks, Island Innovation will release COVID-19 Island Insights Series reports from two different islands via their website (islandinnovation.co/blog).
The first two instalments of the series were launched on November 2, and feature insights from Malta and the Egadi Islands (Italy). The next installments, released on November 16, focus on Grenada and Trinidad & Tobago.
For more information about the COVID-19 Island Insights Series, to read the reports, and for a full list of the islands the series will cover, head to islandstudies.com/island-insights-series
Two UPEI Faculty Members Win SSHRC Exchange Publication Awards
June 29, 2020—
Two faculty members at the University of Prince Edward Island, Laurie Brinklow and Lori Mayne, have been awarded SSHRC Exchange Publication Awards. Two $5,000 awards are given out annually to support the publication of manuscripts written or edited by UPEI faculty in the social sciences and humanities.
Both of these books will be published by Island Studies Press in 2021. Island Studies Press would like to congratulate the award recipients and thank the University of Prince Edward Island for supporting faculty publications.
Lori Mayne‘s manuscript, co-authored with Mo Duffy-Cobb, is The Chemistry of Innovation: Regis Duffy and the Story of DCL, which shares the story behind one of Prince Edward Island’s most successful companies and brilliant entrepreneurs.
Laurie Brinklow‘s manuscript is a collection of poetry titled, My island’s the house I sleep in at night. Drawn from interviews with writers, artists, and musicians from Newfoundland and Tasmania, the manuscript weaves their words with her own poetic imaginings and explores the theme of ‘islandness’.
Vital Signs report provides snapshot of the quality of life on Prince Edward Island
November 19, 2019—
A new report from the IIS in partnership with the Community Foundation of PEI (CFPEI) provides a snapshot of the quality of life and well-being on Prince Edward Island. Vital Signs brings together publicly available research data, the analysis of subject experts, and focus group feedback from private, public, and not-for-profit sectors from different regions of the Island. The result is an easy-to-digest, comprehensive look at a wide range of interconnected topics from health to housing to education and the environment.
UPEI’s UNESCO Chair in Island Studies and Sustainability and the University of Aruba co-host the 1st International Island States/Island Territories Conference: Sharing Stories of Island Life, Governance and Global Engagement
The theme of the conference was “Island States/Island Territories: Sharing Stories of Island Life, Governance and Global Engagement.” The conference appealed to scholars, policy-makers, NGO representatives, students and members of the general public who networked and shared knowledge on Sustainable Development on islands. In total, the conference had approximately 100 participants. Several geographic regions were represented, including the Caribbean, Pacific and Africa, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and South China Sea (AIMS), Australasia, and the North Atlantic.
There were 18 local conference presenters, with a multi-disciplinary participation, which included local lecturers from three University of Aruba faculties: the Faculty for Accounting, Finance and Marketing of the University of Aruba (FEF), the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS), and the Faculty of Hospitality & Tourism Management Studies (FHTMS).
The conference also awarded 6 international Student Travel Scholarships and 20 local University of Aruba students joined the sessions as part of their curriculum. Scholarship winners included Owen Jennings, a graduate of the UPEI MAIS program and now a PhD student at the University of Hawai’i; and Patrick Lévêque, a current student in the UPEI MAIS program.
The international participants enjoyed an “Aruban Welcome” with a conference dinner at the Old Cunucu House and a field trip to Aruba’s San Nicolas district, where they also visited the Industrial Museum to get to know about Aruba’s island history.
Scholarship award-winners with Conference chair Jim Randall: (l-r) Joris Sylvie, Université des Antilles; Zhannah Voukitchevitch, University of Ottawa; Kristin De Kroon, University of Waterloo; Azell Francis, Georgia Institute of Technology; Owen Jennings, University of Hawai’i; and Patrick Lévêque, University of Prince Edward Island.
Additionally, the hosts were very proud to have had two female Heads of Government as keynote speakers addressing integrity in governance and the resilience of islands; both the Honourable Evelyna C. Wever-Croes, Prime Minister of Aruba & Minister of General Affairs, Integrity, Energy, Innovation, & Government Organization, as well as the Honourable Leona Romeo-Marlin, Prime Minister of Sint Maarten & Minister of General Affairs, graced us with their insights.
The community enjoyed a free public lecture by Dr. Godfrey Baldacchino organized alongside the conference on the evening of March 28, whereby the University was honoured to receive the attendance of the Governor of Aruba.
The conference’s international planning committee is chaired by UNESCO co-chair, Dr. Jim Randall of the University of Prince Edward Island. Local co-hosts included Deborah Alexander from the Centre for Lifelong Learning at University of Aruba, Glenn Thodé, Rector of the University of Aruba, Patrick Arens, Business Director of the University of Aruba, and Arno Boersma and Francielle Laclé from the COE. The planning committee comprises scholars from several academic institutions including the University of the West Indies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, University of Malta, Leiden University, and the University of the West of England.
Jim Randall noted that this was a wonderful opportunity to showcase the intellectual capacity and hospitality of the University of Aruba and the island in general. “Several first-time international delegates said to me that this will not be the last time they plan on visiting Aruba,” he said.
The Planning Committee is grateful for the contributions made by the sponsors to this event. These include The Dutch Ministry of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations, Guardian Group Fatum, the University of the West of England, Aruba Tourism Authority, the Think to Do Institute, Smit&Dorlas, and Aruba Aloe.
In December, the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) and the University of the West Indies (UWI) signed their first ever Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), to pursue collaboration in teaching and research to inform social and economic development in developing countries.
The collaboration is to be implemented through the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) at The UWI and the Institute of Island Studies (IIS) at UPEI and may involve activities such as joint research, collaborative development of academic programmes, joint teaching and supervision of students, student and faculty exchange, joint publications, and staging of joint seminars and conferences.
The UWI, which is rated in the top five percent of universities globally by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, was established in 1948 and currently serves 17 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean, all of them with the exception of one being island states. With eight faculties across its campuses in Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and an Open Campus with a presence in all 17 countries, The UWI’s vision is to be an excellent global university rooted in the Caribbean. SALISES is a research and graduate teaching entity located within The UWI’s School of Graduate Studies and Research. It aims to be an internationally renowned institution for graduate education and research-based solutions in development. Its mandate is to conduct training and research of a regional, multidisciplinary and policy-oriented nature to serve the needs of small developing countries like those in the Caribbean.
Prof. Henry-Lee
Remarking on the collaboration, Professor Aldrie Henry-Lee, University Director of SALISES, said, “We at SALISES are pleased to collaborate with colleagues at the Institute of Island Studies. We share similar research and teaching interests. This collaboration will enhance our publication, research and teaching on sustainable development for small and vulnerable economies.”
Prof. Randall
For his part, Professor James Randall, Chair of the Executive Committee under the direction of which IIS operates and co-chair of a UNESCO Chair in Island Studies and Sustainability, said, “The IIS and its affiliated academic programs at the University of Prince Edward Island have established research and post-graduate learning networks with island-based colleagues and institutions around the world. We are pleased to start developing productive research and exchange relationships with the world-class scholars and graduate students at SALISES and The UWI.”
