UFV Research Showcase

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Agriculture Research — BerriesTom Baumann

UFV Research ShowcaseCultivating new ideas and fresh perspectives

Tom Baumann

The BC berry industry funds an extensive berry-breeding program together with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and the Lower Mainland Horticulture Improvement Association. Working collaboratively with the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Tom Baumann and several of his students deliver the grower field-testing of these advanced selections.

The testing entails collecting performance data at various locations throughout BC, as well as in Washington and Oregon. It is an ongoing project that has produced now-common new varieties such as the Stolo strawberry and Chemainus raspberry. The BC breeding program strives to meet the needs of industry and the field-testing has proven invaluable for variety acceptance.

With recent funding policy changes, industry has become the driver of priorities for the program. The new berry varieties are resistant to various diseases and pests; are adapted to local growing conditions; and provide the locally grown, healthy, nutrient-laden sources of vitamins and antioxidants that consumers demand and appreciate.

To further our knowledge of how our berries grow, how growers can manipulate them for optimum growth, and how we can encourage healthy food-production while remaining competitive in an international marketplace, Baumann and his students embarked on a six-year project to manipulate plant growth of three of our major berry crops.

By changing and experimenting with plant-spacing, varieties, naturally occurring plant-growth regulators, raised-bed and plastic-mulch growing methods, and high tunnels that protect crops from the elements, various goals were achieved for the berry industry, including:

• An extended growing season for all crops, so that customers may enjoy tasty and healthy crops from local fields and greenhouses for a longer time period.

• Higher-quality berries, where plants and berries are off the ground.

• Vastly more efficient irrigation systems that save water and keep water off the plants and berries, reducing fruit rot.

• Recommendations for each variety under each growing system

• Sustainable and internationally competitive fruit-production techniques.

Eric Gerbrandt, who graduated from UFV Science (B.Sc.), Livestock (Diploma) and Horticulture (certificate) has also participated in the research with berries and is now pursuing a Ph.D in Saskatchewan in berry breeding, with a possible future in BC’s breeding program. He will be collaborating with the on-going research during his studies. Current agriculture diploma student Brad Alexander is joining the team for the 2010 field season.

Agricultural Research — Berries

UFV Agriculture students touring a strawberry farm in California and learning about the plastic-tunnel planting approach.

Tom Baumann (right) with student Garion Loehndorf, who was a researcher on the strawberry prototype development project.

For more information:

Saanich Red Raspberry: http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/bitstream/10113/17761/1/IND43891548.pdfStrawberry Season Extension: http://en.scientificcommons.org/4483483Variety Descriptions: Monterey, Portola, San Andrea, Palomar: http://www.cc.mala.bc.ca/ce/brochS04.pdfWestern IPM Center Grants Program Report: http://www.wrpmc.ucdavis.edu/CenterProjects/Peeerbolt_SFWG_Final_Report_12-06%5B1%5D.pdfSmall Lot Agriculture: http://www.fraserbasin.bc.ca/publications/documents/SLAinKentRptDec04.pdfResources for Berry Growers: http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/berries/publications/document/2007update_resources.pdfUFV Press Release: http://www.ufv.ca/MarCom/newsroom/strawberry.htmGardener Talk on Berries: http://www.southburnabygardenclub.org/Bulletin%20PDF/Bulletin%20MAR%202010.pdfNorth American Strawberry Growers Association: http://www.nasga.org/members/professionals/canada/baumann.htmContact to Agriculture Advisory Committee membership Fraser Valley Regional District: http://www3.fvrd.bc.ca/archive/Agricultural%20Advisory%20Committee/2003/AAC%202003%2006%2002/Item%206%20AAC%20Contact%20List.PDFCommunity Education (Duncan): http://www.cc.mala.bc.ca/ce/brochS04.pdfBerry Field Day announcement: http://www.peerbolt.com/archive/2009/6-30-09.html2010 Annual Growers Shortcourse: http://www.agricultureshow.net/pdf/LMHIA2010SCP.pdfContact: [email protected]

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Researchers Dr. Rita Dhamoon (left), Satwinder Bains (centre), and Dr. Nicola Mooney (right) with guests of the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies at UFV.

Indo-Canadian families in Canada: then and now

Satwinder Bains, the Director of the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies at UFV, focuses her research on the Indo-Canadian family and some of the cross-cultural stresses these families encounter. Specific areas of focus have included child-protection issues as they present themselves to the BC Ministry of Child and Family Development and access to services and programs for families with special-needs children. The 100-year immigration history of Indo-Canadian pioneers and their struggles is also a current area of her research. Bains is also currently studying the new ‘Canadian Diaspora’, looking at the foreign and domestic policy implications for Canada in terms of Canadians of Indian origin who have settled in India.

Identity/difference politics

Dr. Rita Dhamoon’s research program centres on contemporary issues of identity/difference politics. As a political scientist, she also focuses on marginalized groups and anti-racist politics. She has written about the limits of multiculturalism and culture as an analytic concept. This work has led to case studies on the kirpan (specifically through an examination of the Multani legal case), constructions of Muslim and Arab women in the post-September 11 context, immigration and the ‘model minority’ South Asian citizen, and security. She is currently developing a new research project, which will include a study of how Sikhs and Muslims have been comparatively constructed as threats to the Canadian nation.

Environmental sustainability and community development

Human geographer Dr. Garry Fehr investigates the relationships between environmental sustainability and community development. Most recently he has evaluated the effectiveness of economic reforms and decentralization of the non-timber forest-product sector in the state of Madhya Pradesh. This work shows that the reforms and restructuring have been implemented in a highly uneven manner that has resulted in unexpected stresses on forest resources and diminishing livelihood assets for the rural poor.

In Janta Colony, a slum pushed up against the walls of Chandigarh, the NGO ‘Developing Indigenous Resources’ (DIR) has a number of programs to promote nutrition, sanitation, and basic health in the community. One of these programs is Child Activists for Social Empowerment (CASE), which uses peer-to-peer methods to educate the community. Young health promoters are taught basic health practices and then go out and use games and activities to pass their knowledge on to the other children of the community. These health promoters provide basic nutritional education and show mothers healthy recipes to meet the nutritional needs of their children. This reinforces what the children learn through the games and activities, and helps meet the basic health needs of the children.

Canada-IndiaSatwinder Bains, Rita Dhamoon, Garry Fehr, Nicola Mooney, John Belec, Ding Lu, & Summer Pervez

Identity and modernity among Jat Sikhs

Dr. Nicola Mooney’s research is focused on Jat Sikhs, members of an agrarian Punjabi caste, and their experiences of the transitions from rural to urban and transnational life. Her book, Rural Nostalgias and Transnational Dreams: Identity and Modernity among Jat Sikhs (forthcoming, University of Toronto Press), broadly concerns ethnicity, urbanization, and migration, and their impacts on Jat Sikh history and memory. It also examines the influences of gender, class, and other forms of social difference, as well as the nation-state, post-coloniality, and modernity on Jat Sikh identities. While she continues to research and write in these areas, she also works on popular cultural production and representations of the Jat Sikh community in cinema and other media, and is in the formative stages of a project on the practices and meanings of Sikh religiosity.

Institutional borders and human activity

Geographer Dr. John Belec’s research focuses on the impact that international borders have on human activity. For the past decade he has joined with a colleague at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, to study the Fraser Lowland cross-border region. In the past few years, Belec has made contact with scholars in Amritsar, Punjab, in order to extend his border research to South Asia. His goal is to develop a greater understanding of how communities in two very different political contexts develop the resiliency necessary to survive despite the existence of an international boundary.

Canada–India–China trade and investments

Dr. Ding Lu’s research interests include international trade and investment, regional economic development, and comparative economic systems, with a geographic focus on Asian economies. He is currently working on a study of immigrants’ roles in international trade links between Canada and source countries

Canada-India

such as India. His recent works also compare the demographic changes between India and China, the two largest emerging economies.

South Asian literature

Dr. Summer Pervez’s research is in the area of world/comparative literature, with emphasis on South Asia: the colonial/postcolonial and diaspora studies. She workswith the South Asian novel, short story, and film as well as with literary theory and criticism focused on the colonial/postcolonial. Currently she is working on a book entitled Postcolonializing Deleuze: Transnational Identities and Horizontal Thought in the British South Asian Diaspora, and an edited collection of essays called States of Violence in South Asian Fiction and Film. She has recently published a chapter on Kwaja Sarfraz’s film Zinda Laash in Draculas, Vampires, and Other Undead Forms and an article titled “Literature as Arduous Conversation: Terrorism and Racial Politics in Hanif Kureishi’s Borderline, My Son the Fanatic, and The Black Album.”

Integrating research with teaching is an important part of Summer’s approach in the classroom; as such, she has also designed an introductory course to Partition literature and film that ties in with her previous research, and has also taught an independent study centred on Middle Eastern Literature (chiefly from Afghanistan and Pakistan). Such courses are useful as they offer insight not only into the local South Asian community that we serve in the region, but also the South Asian subcontinent and its global diasporas.

All of these different projects create links between local communities and larger, transnational zones of cultural production. All of them tie research to teaching. Such projects help UFV to define its place in the global network of universities and cultural institutions and they offer UFV students passage to that network.

Publications/For more information:

Fehr, G & Véron, R. (2007) “Cashing in India’s Forests: Globalisation, reform, and medicinal plants in Madhya Pradesh” in Bhabbani Nishankar (Ed.) Natonalising Crisis: The political Economy of Public Policy in Contemporary India. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributers p.283-308

Rita DhamoonDangerous (Internal) Foreigners and Nation-Building: The Case of Canada, co-authored with Yasmeen Abu-Laban. International Political Science Review. (30: 2, March 2009).

Identity/Difference Politics: how difference is produced and why it matters (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2009).

Nicola Mooney 2010, “Lowly Shoes on Lowly Feet: Some Jat Sikh Women’s Views on Gender & Equality”. In Sikhism and Women: History, Texts and Experience, ed. Doris R. Jakobsh. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

2008a, “Aaja Nach Lai (Come Dance): Performing Dance and Practicing Identity among Punjabis in Canada”. Ethnologies 30 (1): 103-124. (Special Edition: Dance in Canada).

2008b, “Of Love, Martyrdom and (In)-Subordination: Sikh Experiences of Partition in the Films Shaheed-e-Mohabbat and Gadar: Ek Prem Katha”. In Partitioned Lives: Narratives of Home, Displacement, and Resettlement, eds. Anjali Gera Roy and Nandi Bhatia, pp. 26-49. Delhi: Pearson Longman India/Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd.

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Dr. Olav Lian (right) with student Winter Moon in the Luminescence Dating Lab

Climate and Environmental Change

The principal function of the Luminescence Dating Laboratory and the Paleoecology Laboratory is to conduct leading-edge research and to train undergraduate and graduate students on a continuous basis so that they can (i) be exposed to a variety of field and laboratory techniques useful for reconstruction of environmental change; these techniques include sedimentology, stratigraphy, geochronology and paleoecology, (ii) learn how to complete research projects of a calibre that can, in many cases, be published in peer-reviewed academic journals, and (iii) learn how to present environmental research effectively at academic conferences and to the general public. .

Luminescence Dating Laboratory

For the past 20 years Dr. Olav Lian has been heavily involved in understanding the physical environmental history of western Canada over the Quaternary period (the last c. 2.5 million years). More specifically, he has been studying how the landscape responds to abrupt and long-term climate change, usually on the scale of thousands to tens of thousands of years, but sometimes over shorter intervals. Much of his research has involved adapting luminescence dating of sediments to various sedimentary environments in order to establish temporal frameworks from which he can correlate changes in past climate that have been deduced from the paleoecological (fossil plant) record to landscape evolution.

Lian and his students are currently involved in several research projects, some of which are international in scope, but the principal projects involve (i) understanding the timing and nature of early postglacial sedimentation and landscape adjustment (e.g. river degradation) in southern British Columbia, and (ii) a collaboration with the Geological Survey of Canada on the ‘Paleo-environmental Records of Climate Change” program, for which they are studying sand dunes on the Canadian prairies in order to understand the history of landscape stability and activity as a function of climate.

Dating the evolution of the early postglacial landscape of British ColumbiaStudent: Winter Moon

This research involves refining existing luminescence dating techniques so that they can be used with confidence to help understand the timing of the development early postglacial sedimentary landforms, and their stability, as a function of climate change, such as that which occurred during the neoglacial periods (“little ice ages”) and the xerothermic intervals (periods of unusually dry climate) that have been inferred by paleoecologists to have occurred from time to time in BC over the last c. 12,000 years. These sediments (landforms) are a legacy of the last major glaciation (ice age), and currently are out of equilibrium with the current environment and the older landscape. They form a hazard to infrastructure, salmon-spawning grounds, and human habitation. In that, his research is not only of academic interest, but also of value to the broader community.

Putting the pre-glacial environment into a secure temporal contextStudents: Winter Moon, Justine Cullen, and Kelly McLeod

In Lynn Canyon (North Vancouver), at Muir Point (southern Vancouver Island), and at Okanagan Centre (near Kelowna), is found extremely rare sedimentary and paleoecological information that can be used to help understand what the environment in southern BC was like immediately before the beginning of the last glaciation (ice age). Exposed at the bottom of Lynn Canyon, and in the sea cliffs at Muir Point, are remnants of ancient peat bogs, and river and estuarine floodplains, that existed from about 60,000 to 26,000 years ago; at Okanagan Centre are ancient soils that formed between 35,000 and 25,000

Climate and Environmental ChangeOlav Lian, Jonathan Hughes

years ago. The information preserved within these sediments show how climate fluctuated in the region throughout this nearly 35,000 year preglacial period. The oldest of these ancient deposits are too old to be securely dated using radiocarbon, so luminescence dating techniques are being perfected to help support the chronology at these important sites.

Environmental change on the Canadian prairiesStudent: Justine Cullen

On the Canadian prairies there exists over 120 sand dune-fields; some of these dune fields consist of dunes that are presently active, while for others the dunes are vegetated and stable. Whether a dune field is active or stable depends on regional climate, so by studying the sediments that were deposited within the sand dunes over the last several 1000 years, one can ascertain, using luminescence dating, when the environment was dry, and when it was wet. This research is in collaboration with the Paleo-environmental Records of Climate Change group at the Geological Survey of Canada (Ottawa).

The timing of ice-sheet separation and the formation of glacial lakesStudents: Adrian Hickin, Michelle Hanson, Nolan Alexander, and Justine Cullen

At the end of the last glaciation (ice age) the great ice sheets that covered much of North America began to recede, and, in places, large glacial lakes formed. The existence of these lakes, and their drainage into the oceans, had a profound affect on the environment. Two such lakes were glacial lakes Agassiz (northern Montana) and Peace (northeastern BC). By dating sediments in ancient beaches and lake bottoms preserved in the current landscape, the timing of the existence of these glacial lakes, and periods of lake drainage, can be better understood.

Paleoecology Lab

Dr. Jonathan Hughes runs the UFV Paleoecology Lab. The focus of his research is on a better understanding of natural hazards and past environmental change, particularly as they relate to vegetation ecology. Research themes include paleoseismology (past earthquakes), paleohydrology (past floods), fire history, and ecosystem function in response to climate and human-induced change. A variety of projects enables him to actively involve many students in his research and to make connections between different cause-and-effect relationships. Techniques used in the lab pertain mostly to palynology (identification and quantification of pollen and other organic-walled microfossils) and dendrochronology. With these techniques and analyses of sediments and peats (humification, loss on ignition, total carbon and nitrogen, and radioisotopes for age depth modelling) Hughes and his students are able to reconstruct changes in vegetation across sedimentary contacts, including abrupt contacts that can result from earthquakes and floods. Trees killed or damaged by earthquake-induced shaking and flooding help refine age estimates and can record information about the magnitude of a catastrophic event.

Cascadia paleoseismology Students: Greg Bauch and Roxanne Snook

This project incorporates the collection of old-growth tree samples to assess whether or not they were damaged by Cascadia earthquakes, a project that builds on other efforts to date paleoseismic events with tree rings. Hughes and his students have collected eight rounds from old growth trees in the Olympic National Park in Washington that were blown over in a windstorm. To confirm the age of death, they collected 31 increment cores from living trees growing near the wind-thrown trees.

Climate and Environmental ChangeThey are currently preparing these samples for analysis and will collect more samples this summer. Analysis includes cross-dating ring width patterns between samples by measuring ring widths. Large cross-sections will be assessed for damage caused by earthquake- and wind-induced whiplash.

Rivers Inlet ecosystem assessment Students: Emily Helmer and Lee van Ardenne

The Rivers Inlet project is a multi-year effort to collaborate with colleagues at other universities, the Wuikinuxv Nation, and the Tula Foundation to assess the impacts of past climate change and anthropogenic disturbance to salmon fisheries. Hughes and students sample intertidal deposits in estuaries at the head of Rivers Inlet. At each site they sample sediments to document changes in sedimentation rates that may have accompanied recent climate change and human disturbance. Samples are brought back to the lab and analyzed in the Paleoecology Lab for pollen and plant macrofossils. A steady source of purified water is critical for laboratory procedures to isolate these organic remains from wetland deposits. The researchers are comparing pollen assemblages within intertidal deposits to total carbon, nitrogen, loss on ignition, and concentrations of naturally occurring metals to help explain fluxes in past vegetation assemblages.

Fraser Lowland floods Students: Nathalie Armstrong and Ashley Peters

Langley Bog, which is located in Derby Reach Regional Park, Fort Langley, BC, includes pristine areas of bog that lie metres above the Fraser River. Last summer, Hughes and his students discovered 38 silt units that they believe are likely due to past Fraser River floods over thousands of years. They have been mapping deposits in the field and will collect peat cores for laboratory analysis. Cores will be sub-sampled for palynology and plant macrofossils, the latter of which will be used for radiocarbon dating.

South Okanagan Fire history Student: Alanna SchuurmansRecent devastating fires in the Okanagan have heightened awareness about fire recurrence intervals and whether climate change is causing higher frequencies of fire over time. To this end, Hughes and a student have joined Rick Routledge of Simon Fraser University to assess fire records obtained from fire-scarred trees and charcoal layers in lake sediments.

Beaches of ancient glacial lake, northeastern British Columnia

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Re-engineering Criminal Justice SystemsYvon Dandurand, Terry Waterhouse

Just about everywhere in the world, criminal justice systems are in a lot of trouble. They are slow, ineffective, and costly. They struggle to meet public expectations and their legitimacy is questioned. Justice systems are burdened with an ever increasing number of cases and complexity of the matters they deal with. In recent years, these systems have also had to contort themselves to attempt to prevent terrorist threats, a task they were not originally designed to perform and for which they are often ill-equipped. The Canadian system is no exception.

In many countries of the world, the criminal justice system may have already lost the battle against corruption, its integrity severely compromised. In most countries, the system is struggling to respond to transnational crime and various new crimes enabled by modern technologies. The people, victims of crime in particular, are losing faith in the justice system. The credibility of justice institutions, so essential to social peace, the economic health of a country and its development, is often shaken if not completely shattered.

Criminal justice systems, by themselves, cannot produce a just and fair society — they cannot even guarantee its safety. They do not guarantee peace, social justice, or even development. However, none of these things are possible without a functioning justice system.

We inherited those systems from simpler times, long ago, often from a colonial past when countries could define crime within their territorial boundaries and jealously protect their sovereign right to respond to it in whichever way they pleased. Over the years, patchwork reforms and the vagaries of judicial procedures have made the legislative process more cumbersome and unruly. After all, criminal justice systems were mostly designed to help legitimize the repressive actions of the states; they were neither built for problem solving nor for great efficiency. They are in need, you might say, of a general overhaul even if that is easier said than done. They must be completely reengineered.

As a result, most countries are implementing or contemplating major criminal justice reforms. The United Nations and other international organizations are busy providing a normative framework and laying the basis for more effective international cooperation. Terry Waterhouse and Yvon Dandurand of the University of the Fraser Valley often find themselves right in the thick of things.

Yvon Dandurand sometimes jokingly refers to himself as a justice system “engineer”. Bringing any change to a criminal justice system is never a simple task. Justice institutions are particularly conservative and they are incredibly resistant to change. The work consists of researching practical solutions, determining how and under what circumstances different approaches can be applied, assessing existing practices, evaluating new initiatives, and supporting innovation through research and capacity building.


Yvon Dandurand (left) and Terry Waterhouse.

Re-engineering Criminal Justice Systems

Most recently, Dandurand’s applied research involved supporting comprehensive justice reforms in Vietnam, Ethiopia, and several other countries, as well as local work on improving the efficiency of the criminal justice process in British Columbia. Some of his other work focussed on identifying best practices for improving international cooperation in criminal matters and on the national implementation of international conventions against terrorism, corruption, and transnational crimes, including human trafficking. This included researching and drafting a United Nations handbook on criminal justice responses to terrorism. Military responses to terrorism, he contends, are almost always a mistake. They play right into the hand of the terrorists. The criminal justice system is the best way to respond to that particular threat but, in order to do so, it must transform itself.

Terry Waterhouse heads the Justice and Rule of Law program at UFV’s Global Development Institute. He dedicates a lot of his time and energy to improving the response of criminal justice systems to juvenile crime and to children in conflict with the law.

The treatment of child victims and witnesses of crime is also a concern in developing and post-conflict countries. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and several other internal standards provide the normative framework for that work. This is obviously an area where applied research can help countries live up to their obligations under international law. Terry’s recent work includes identifying best practices in juvenile justice in Vietnam, the Maldives, and Southern Sudan. This work creates opportunities for students to be involved at home and abroad, and for the UFV community to be engaged in finding new solutions to enduring problems.

Together, Terry and Yvon have an interest in the challenges involved in institution-building in post-conflict societies. They are participating in a United Nations peacekeeping project in Southern Sudan to build the capacity of the national prisons service, assess the situations of vulnerable groups in prison, and help address the needs of these groups, particularly children and women. Part of their work consists of helping local leaders develop alternatives to imprisonment.

Publications/For more information...

Dandurand, Y, Lalonde, M., Nyapola, A., Shaw, M., Skinnider, E. and T. Waterhouse. (2009). Vulnerable Groups in Southern Sudan Prisons. Abbotsford: UFV Press.

Dandurand, Y. – UNODC (2009). Handbook on Criminal Justice Responses to Terrorism. New York: United Nations. www.unodc.org/documents/terrorism/Handbook_on_Criminal_Justice_Responses_to_Terrorism_en.pdf

Lalonde, Mark and Y. Dandurand (2009). “Prison Overcrowding and Prison Reform in Post-conflict Societies”, in di Cortemiglia, V. L., Penal Reform and Prison Overcrowding. Turin: United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute – UNICRI. www.unicri.it/wwk/publications/books/docs/penal_reform2009.zip

Dandurand, Y. (2009). Addressing Inefficiencies in the Criminal Justice Process – A Preliminary Review. A Report prepared for the BC Justice Efficiencies Project, Criminal Justice Reform Secretariat. June 2009. www.criminaljusticereform.gov.bc.ca/en/reports/pdf/InefficienciesExecSummary.pdf

Waterhouse, T. (2010). Assessing Juvenile Crime in Vietnam. Hanoi: UNICEF: Vietnam.

Waterhouse, T. & Pollaert, N. (2009). Supporting the Rights of Child Victims and Witnesses. Sion, Switzerland: Institute for the Rights of the Child.

Kelly Chahal, a graduate student in the Criminal Justice program, had an opportunity to participate in a U.N. sponsored planning exercise to develop a probation service in Southern Sudan.

Terry Waterhouse (centre) with trainees in the Maldives.

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Education and PedagogyAdrienne Chan, Rita Dhamoon, & Lisa Moy

How do we develop pedagogical environments that are open, engaging and responsive to diverse student population when dealing with topics such as race and racism? Adrienne Chan (Social Work & Human Services), Lisa Moy (Social Work & Human Services), and Rita Dhamoon (Philosophy and Political Sciences) are working on a research project entitled: Teaching and Learning about Race and Racism: How Students Learn. The research focuses on the ways in which topics of race and racism are addressed in the classroom.

Some of the key questions of the study are: How do students assess their progress in learning when engaging with difficult content areas such as race and racism? What are the barriers to learning for students when engaging in topics of race and racism in the classroom? And, how do instructors and students overcome these barriers to learning, when addressing issues of race and racism in the classroom?

In exploring how students learn about issues of race and racism, the group hopes to foster critical study of topics that are not only systemic but which also affect in-class and out of class deliberation, dialogue, and self-exploration. The premise is that learning about race politics and anti-racism helps make more reflective citizens at UFV and the broader community.

Chan, Moy, and Dhamoon hope that their findings will enhance and expand the civic role of the classroom. The interviews and surveys are especially useful ways to assess how students engage with difficult content, and for students to reflect on their learning process. The examination of barriers in the classroom and how these are addressed will provide important pedagogical underpinnings. In future such practices will be deployed to foreground the experiences of students and will provide a way for instructors to identify new classroom practices. These practices will encourage students to sharpen their interests, think through challenging ideas, and develop their own critical thinking skills.

The fact that the researchers are from different academic disciplines is relevant to this research, not only because of the comparisons that can be drawn but also because the differences in disciplinary perspectives both broaden and deepen the analysis and significance of this study.


From left to right: Lisa Moy, Rita Dhamoon, and Adrienne Chan

Education and Pedagogy

Chan is also completing a three-year study that focuses on social justice in universities. Numerous students were involved in the study. The key questions in this study were about the conceptions and experiences of social justice within the university. What does social justice mean to individuals in the university? How does social justice take place? What role does policy play in developing practices?

In the first year of the research, a documentary analysis was conducted with 20 universities. In the second year, three universities were visited and narrative interviews were conducted with 57 faculty, administrators, and students.

Chan observed that learning takes place at the personal, social, and political level – as well as the academic, intellectual level. The culture of the university is not uniformly experienced and may be in conflict with the culture and race of a number of individuals and groups.

Jeffrey Morgan (Philosophy and Political Science) is interested in the market and the relationship to education systems. Morgan’s research: An ethical dilemma: Private or public. Faith-based or same-sex? focuses on the question of school choices: public, private, or homeschooling; secular or religious; the local neighbourhood school, French immersion, performing arts, international baccalaureate, and traditional school formats. He suggests that there are ethical questions that arise from the marketplace model of education. Is it fair for academically focused private schools to take the best students out of the public system? Do schools of choice within the public system also skim off the “cream of the crop”? Do religious schools limit students’ awareness? Do the academic advantages of same-sex schools outweigh the lack of contact with the opposite gender?

Morgan acknowledges that we all want what’s best for our children, but believes that we also have to be concerned about the ethical questions that arise from separate school systems and choices within the public system. At the heart of his research lies the question of equality of education. School choice necessarily makes children unequal in their educational opportunities. Some will have the opportunity to attend schools with lower class sizes, better facilities and more able classmates than other kids. Whether this is legitimate is part of his concern.

Morgan is aware that these are sensitive issues, and stresses that he understands the desire of families of various faiths to educate their children within their religious tradition. He also says that we cannot generalize about faith-based schools. There is a wide spectrum within this sector. Some accept students from a variety of religious and cultural backgrounds, and others only accept members of a certain church.

Morgan suggests that the solution may be to expand the public system to include faith-based and more academically focused schools that would be open to all students. Morgan notes that this would in turn lead to additional concerns about streaming of children.

Morgan is investigating the current literature on the philosophy of education, incorporating the data generated from researching the private and public school system and educational policies in Canada, and applying contemporary philosophical principles to his work. He is also drawing comparisons with other countries that include India, the United Kingdom, Singapore and New Zealand. He is writing a book that discusses the results of his investigation.

Publications/For more information

Chan, Adrienne S. (forthcoming 2010). Challenging notions of identity in the learning journey. In: B. Merrill and J. González Monteagudo (editors) Educational Journeys and Changing Lives (working title). Sevilla, Spain: Universidad de Sevilla.

Chan, Adrienne, Moy, Lisa., & Henderson, Christina. (2010) Learning about Race and Racism - Implications for Social Work Practice. Paper presented at the Canadian Association of Social Work Education. Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities, Montreal: Concordia University.

Chan, Adrienne S. (2009). Stories of hope: Learning, life, and resistance. Paper presented at: ESREA Life History and Biography Network Conference: “Wisdom and knowledge in researching and learning lives: diversity, differences and commonalities”. Centro Studi Adul-tità “Ettore Gelpi” Società Umanitaria, Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, and Università degli Studi di Siena. Milano, Italy.

Chan, Adrienne S., & Fisher, D. (2009 ) Academic culture and the research intensive university. The impact of commercialism and scientism. Peking University Education Review. Vol 7. No 1. 29-43.

Dhamoon, Rita. 2009. Identity/Difference Politics: how difference is produced and why it matters. Vancouver: UBC Press.

Dhamoon, Rita and Yasmeen Abu-Laban. 2009. “Dangerous (Internal) Foreigners and Nation-Building: The Case of Canada”. International Political Science Review, 30: 2.

Dhamoon, Rita. 2009. “Critical Race Perspectives: Towards a Post-Essentialist Form of Social Critique” in Racism, Identity, and Justice: Dialogue on the Politics of Inequality and Change, ed. Sean Hier and B. Singh Bolaria. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Press.

Dhamoon, Rita. Forthcoming 2010. “Security Warning: Multiculturalism Alert!” in Ashgate Research Companion to Multiculturalism, ed. Duncan Ivison. Surrey, UK: Ashgate.

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Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)Chris Bertram

It is estimated that for every 1,000 births in B.C., nine infants will be affected in some way by Fetal Alcohol Spectum Disorder. FASD is a preventable brain injury caused by alcohol use by the mother during pregnancy that results in lifelong challenges for the children and their families or caregivers.

The Human Performance Centre at UFV is taking a new approach to treating children with FASD. Dr. Chris Bertram, one of the lead researchers in the project notes that the traditional approach to intervention for children with FASD is to identify their defi cits — whether they are behavioral, social, or cognitive — and try to work on those defi cits. That approach has had limited success. The team, which includes fellow KPE faculty Alison Pritchard Orr and Dr. Kathy Keiver, is now focusing on areas of relative strength — motor skills and motor performance — and help children improve in those areas and then measure whether or not that carries over into other areas of their lives.

UFV is working in partnership with the Fraser Valley Child Development Centre and pediatrician Dr. Sterling Clarren, a leading authority on FASD research. The project brings together around children with FASD aged 8 to 12 years, and UFV student workers for twice-a-week motor skill sessions at a local school gym.

The team pre-tested participants on a variety of different motor tasks that measure basic strength, speed, agility, and fi ne motor skills. The program focuses not only on objectively assessed areas of strength, but also on areas that the children themselves say they want to get better at. This could be a game-type activity, or sitting at a desk manipulating an object. They then work one-on-one with a UFV student to improve their ability to complete these tasks.

Dr. Bertram is hoping to fi nd that the successes that the children achieve in the program will carry over into other parts of their lives. Research suggests that a program that focuses on enabling children to choose their own goals in the area of physical activity has important implications for enabling participation and building the social skills necessary for school and daily life.

Improved motor skills on the part of the participating children are expected to result in increased success in physical activities, which will increase their ability to lead active lifestyles. Increased levels of physical activity are associated with reduced risk of chronic disease and also yield a variety of psychological benefi ts. These include reduced stress and depression, and increased emotional well-being, energy level, self-confi dence, and satisfaction with social activities, as well as improved memory, cognition, and literacy skills.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)

It is estimated that for every 1,000 births in B.C., nine infants will be affected in


Dr. Chris Bertram

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)

More recently, Dr. Bertram and his colleagues have teamed up with researchers at Queen’s University to study eye movements and other executive brain functions in their sample of children to determine if the program is directly impacting the brain. Early indications in this regard are showing interesting promise.

The project is also a great learning opportunity for the UFV students working on it, including students from kinesiology, psychology, and child and youth care. Former KPE undergraduate Ryan Konarski is working as the day-to-day program co-ordinator. The project has additionally hired more than 40 UFV undergraduates over the past 3 years to work on the project.


Bertram, C.P., Konarski, R., Keiver, K., Pritchard Orr, A., Khaleel, B., and Clarren, S.K. (In Press). Motor abilities following a strength-based intervention program for children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD): 1st and 2nd year data. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology.

Keiver, K., Bertram, C., Pritchard-Orr, A., Konarski, R., Thomas, M, Atkinson, B., and Clarren, S. (In Press) Preliminary evaluation of a strength-based intervention program on neuropsychological function in children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Bertram, C.P., Konarski, R., Keiver, K., Pritchard Orr, A., and Clarren, S.K. (2009). Changes in motor abilities following a strength-based intervention program for children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 31, S27.

Keiver, K., Bertram, C.P., Pritchard-Orr, A., Konarski, R., Thomas, M., & Clarren., S. (2009). Effect of a strength-based motor skill development program on salivary cortisol levels in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 33: 40A.

Above and right: Children demonstrate their physical skills and coordination and are observed by UFV researchers looking at the impact of FASD on strength, speed, and agility.

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Garry Fehr

What has been most lacking in responses to the need and importance of development in developing countries is an understanding of the failures of the past and learning how to overcome the same mistakes in the future. Historically, development initiatives have not incorporated the rights of the citizen to participate, or to be actively involved in development practices.

A group of faculty and students have joined together to create the Global Development Institute at UFV. Together, they concentrate on four significant areas of global development: good governance and the rule of law, children and development, environmental sustainability, and education. The institute is thus able to create many opportunities for students to engage in “hands-on” experiential learning through internships and research on “best practice” methods and accountability.

One example of a current project is concerned with child-friendly community design responding to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children in Western Kenya. The project, directed by Cherie Enns, finds ways to consider the voice of the children who are affected by AIDS/HIV, their caregivers, and their community, and incorporates their perspectives into child-friendly community-based initiatives to design a community day centre. The research involved facilitating meetings with the Mwanzo women’s group, youth, children, and community leaders, and conducting interviews with members of the community, as well as a visit to an orphanage, in order to better discern the needs of the children/youth, their caretakers, and the community.

Global DevelopmentCherie Enns, Garry Fehr

There were discussions about their living situations, how best to care for the orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) living in their home, and bed-sheet mapping sessions that pointed out areas of need within the community that would help them care for the children. This action-oriented research project is one example of a rights-based approach to development that is inclusive of all affected community residents, particularly children and youth.

Human geographer Dr. Garry Fehr investigates the relationships between environmental sustainability and community development. Most recently he has evaluated the effectiveness of economic reforms and decentralization of the non-timber forest-product sector in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

Global Development


Fehr, G & Véron, R. (2007) “Cashing in India’s Forests: Globalisation, reform, and medicinal plants in Madhya Pradesh” in Bhabbani Nishankar (Ed.) Natonalising Crisis: The political Economy of Public Policy in Contemporary India. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributers p.283-308

Véron, R. & Fehr, G. (March 2006). Unintended consequences: ex-situ cultivation of medicinal plants and forest resource depletion in Madhya Pradesh. Inform. Winrock International. India. p.3-5.

Fehr, G. (March 2005). The impact of globalisation on forest livelihoods in Madhya Pradesh. Research Report. Shastri Applied Research Project, Globalisation and the Poor: Sustaining Rural Livelihoods in India.

Fehr, G. (August 2004). The role of value chain analysis in understanding real markets in a global economy. Discussion Paper. Shastri Applied Research Project, Globalisation and the Poor: Sustaining Rural Livelihoods in India.

Toews, J. & Fehr, G. (March 8, 2008). Seeing the forest under the trees: The pine mushroom harvest of British Columbia. Poster at the Western Division of the Canadian Association of Geographers Conference, Bellingham, Wa. USA.

Fehr, G. (October 10, 2009). Unintended Consequences of Non Timber Forest Product Deregulation in Central India. Canadian Asian Studies Association Conference, Vancouver, BC.

Fehr, G. (March 25, 2009). Local management strategies for unregulated resources. American Association of Geographers Conference, La Vegas, Nevada. USA.

This work shows that the reforms and restructuring have been implemented in a highly uneven manner that has resulted in unexpected stresses on forest resources and diminishing livelihood assets for the rural poor.

In Janta Colony, a slum pushed up against the walls of Chandigarh, the NGO ‘Developing Indigenous Resources’ (DIR) has a number of programs to promote nutrition, sanitation, and basic health in the community. One of these programs is Child Activists for Social Empowerment (CASE), which uses peer-to-peer methods to educate the community.

These health promoters provide basic nutritional education and show mothers healthy recipes to meet the nutritional needs of their children. This reinforces what the children learn through the games and activities, and helps meet the basic health needs of the children.

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LiteratureTrevor Carolan and Miriam Nichols

Dr. Trevor Carolan is a world literature specialist who is also actively involved in the International creative writing community, especially where it intersects with ideas of civic engagement and ecological and spiritual inquiry. He has published 15 books of non-fiction, memoir, poetry, fiction, translation, and anthologies, and his work has appeared in five languages. His books include Giving Up Poetry: With Allen Ginsberg At Hollyhock (2001), and Return to Stillness (2003), an award-winning account of his 23 years as a student of Asian philosophy and martial arts. His UFV research and editing produced the recent anthology Another Kind of Paradise: Short Stories from the New Asia-Pacific (2009), and a companion textbook entitled The Lotus Singers: Stories from Contemporary South Asia will appear in 2011. He enjoys introducing students to vocational realities within the fields of literature and media expression, and into the larger worlds of writing and thinking. As International editor of the Pacific Rim Review of Books he is often able to provide students with their first publications.

At UFV, students can find a point of entry for themselves through faculty mentorship, exchange with peers and campus-community cultural productions. All of this is part of the creative process of researching, making and shaping literature. Graduating students take their UFV experiences into their work and ongoing studies in theatre, environmental studies, creative writing, literary studies and journalism.


Dr. Trevor Carolan

From left to right: Paul Falardeau, student and author; Trevor Carolan; Chelsea Thornton, student and author; Judith Copithorne, poet; Brian Kaufman, publisher, Anvil Press; George McWhirter,poet/past Poet Laureate; and Brad Whittaker, UFV Research Services with their new book ‘Making Waves’.

Literature

Publications/For more informationTrevor Carolan

Editor: The Lotus Singers: Contemporary Stories from South Asia. Boston: Cheng & Tsui, forthcoming 2011.

“Ecosystems, Mandalas and Watersheds: the Dharma Citizenship of Gary Snyder” in Making Waves: Contours in B.C. and Pacific Northwest Literature. Ed. T. Carolan. UFV Press/Anvil Press, 2010.

Editor. Another Kind of Paradise: Short Stories from the New Asia-Pacific. Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 2009.

“Working the Seiners in Barkley Sound” in Imagining British Columbia: Land, Memory & Place. Ed. Daniel Francis. Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2008. 41-52.

Editor: Down In The Valley. Contemporary Writing of the Fraser Valley. Victoria: Ekstasis Editions, 2004.

“Mindfulness Bell: A Profile of Thich Nhat Hanh” in A Lifetime of Peace: Essential Writings By and About Thich Nhat Hanh, Ed. Jennifer Schwamm Willis. New York: Marlowe, 2003.

Return To Stillness: Twenty Years With A Tai Chi Master. New York: Marlowe, 2003.

“Messing With Mother Nature: An Interview With Dr. David Suzuki”. Seattle: New Times, 2003.

Giving Up Poetry: With Allen Ginsberg at Hollyhock. Banff: Banff Centre Press, 2001.

“Wild Medicine: The Masterwork of Gary Snyder”. Boston: Shambhala Sun, 1996. 18-27.

Miriam Nichols

Radical Affections: Essays on the Poetics of Outside. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama Press, forthcoming 2010.

“Jay Macpherson’s Modernism” in Wider Boundaries of Daring: The Modernist Impulse in Canadian Women’s Poetry. Eds. Barbara Godard and Di Brandt. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009. 325-346.

Dr. Miriam Nichols

Dr. Miriam Nichols’ area of specialization is contemporary literature and literary theory. Her book, Radical Affections: Essays on the Poetics of Outside, on postmodern and contemporary poetics, is currently in press at the University of Alabama, and she is now working on Performing the Real, a literary biography of the life and writings of the Vancouver poet, Robin Blaser. A section of the research for this biography will appear in the Chicago Review shortly. She is currently working on Performing the Real, a literary biography of the life and writings of the Vancouver poet, Robin Blaser. Her project is meant to contribute to literary history by drawing out the unique contribution of this influential writer who is just now gaining reputation. Beyond its value as a single author study, the biography will address a number of issues of broader interest. From a Blaserian perspective, it will raise the question of the significance of New American poetics to literature then and now and to postwar Canadian writing. From the TISH group of the 1960s to the Kootenay School writers of the 1980s, Vancouver writers have welcomed cross-border literary exchange and Blaser has remained a touchstone of this literary scene for decades. In recounting his years in Berkeley and Vancouver, the biography will contribute a perspective on the cultural history of the west coast poetry scene, from the postwar years and radical 60s to the contemporary. This is research that will make its way into Miriam’s classes on American and Canadian literature.

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Mathematics & Statistics Ali Reza Fotouhi, Erik Talvila

Dr. Ali Reza FotouhiDr. Fotouhi’s research interest is data analysis using statistical modeling and sample enumeration methods. Different probabilistic models may be proposed for analyzing a data set. The validity of the estimations and interpretations are dependent on the correctness of the assumptions considered for the proposed model. Although there are some criteria for model selection, according to his experience these criteria are not suffi cient to distinguish between all models that can be proposed for a data set. He believes that sample enumeration methods, which let the sampled data speak about the model, are valuable and helpful in obtaining a reasonable model for estimation and prediction. He also believes that any new statistical model should be fi rst evaluated through a simulation study and then be used for analysis of a real data set.

Dr. Fotouhi’s research focus is on proposing and applying statistical models for a given data set, qualitative or quantitative, and checking the preferred model by using simulation and sample enumeration methods. More specifi cally, his research areas are statistical modeling of qualitative and quantitative data, random effects modeling, linear and nonlinear mixed modeling, Bayesian modeling, simulation, and joint modeling of longitudinal and event history data.

An example of his researches is investigation on the sources of over-dispersion in longitudinal count data and developing appropriate models (2008). To illustrate the proposed methods an application to the analysis of epileptic seizure count data arising in a study of progabide as an adjuvant antiepileptic chemotherapy is presented. The proposed methods are also investigated in a simulation study to see if the results from application to real data are consistent in a realistic situation. In his recent publication (2010) he has developed a model for jointly analysing the longitudinal and event history data. Longitudinal count data commonly arise in clinical trials studies where the response variable is the number of multiple recurrences of the event of interest and observation times are variable among cases. Two processes therefore exist. The fi rst process is for recurrent event and the second process is for duration between recurrences. Most studies have assumed that the recurrent event process and the duration between recurrences process are independent. In this recent research joint modelling and separate modelling of the recurrent event process and the duration between recurrences process are studied and compared.

Dr. Fotouhi has been recognized as a professional statistician and has been awarded the P.Stat. designation by the statistical society of Canada since 2006. He has also established and coordinated the statistical consulting centre at the University of the Fraser Valley since 2005.

Mathematics & Statistics

Dr. Fotouhi’s research interest is data analysis using statistical modeling and sample


Dr. Ali Reza Fotouhi

Mathematics & Statistics

Dr. Erik TalvilaThe source for the kind of mathematics Dr. Talvila does is various physical problems, such as fi nding the electric potential for an array of charged matter or fi nding the area of a complicated planar region.

Both of these problems are solved in mathematics by generalising and abstracting. They are both really part of the theory of integration. Mathematicians do this a lot: fi nding a broader framework that includes our original problem. An example is increasing the number of dimensions. Instead of looking at length, area and volume separately; we generalize from volumes in one, two or three dimensions to volumes in n-dimensions. We even consider infi nite dimensions!

It often happens that understanding these more encompassing situations throws light on the original problem. And, we can fi nd beautiful mathematical gems in this abstract world. We might think that to fi nd the area of a region in the plane we need to have the boundary reasonably smooth and fi nite. Obviously, we can deal with regions that have corners. But it turns out we can defi ne a type of “area” for regions where some parts of the boundary are at infi nity, some parts aren’t even defi ned and some parts of the boundary look like a random array of dots.All of these absurdities are handled by a type of integration using “distributional integrals”.

These types of integrals are very general and cover many abstract situations but it turns out they are quite easy to work with. That’s a good sign in mathematics. It means we’ve seen beyond the clutter and confusing detail of individual cases and are starting to see the big picture.

More technically, if we integrate a function from a fi xed point to a variable point, the resulting integral is called the primitive. For the usual functions we can integrate, say in the Lebesgue sense, the primitive is known to be continuous and have various differentiability properties. Distributions are generalized functions that do not have a value at a particular point but only when averaged in a certain sense. We take integrals of distributions and get primitives that are merely continuous. This gives a very broad theory of integration but the new integral has many of the nice properties that other integrals have.

More technically, we compute integrals by looking at properties of their primitive. The primitive is a function whose derivative is in some sense equal to the integrand. By using the distributional derivative we can extend the class of primitives to be the set of continuous functions or even the class of bounded functions. This gives a very general type of integral that includes known integrals such as the Riemann or Lebesgue integrals.

Publications/For more informationModelling overdispersion in longitudinal count data in clinical trials with application to epileptic data: Journal of the Contemporary Clinical Trials, Volume 29, issue 4, pages 547-554, July 2008. http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/concli/article/S1551-7144(08)00006-2/abstract

Distance Between Bivariate Beta Points in Two Rectangular Cities. Communications in Statistics--- Simulation and Computation, Volume 38, Issue 2 February 2009, pages 257 - 268.

Talvila, Erik. Convolutions with the continuous primitive integral. Abstract and Applied Analysis 2009, Art. ID 307404, 18 pp.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aaa/2009/307404.html

Erik Talvila, The distributional Denjoy integral. Real Analysis Exchange 33 (2008), no. 1, 51--82.http://msupress.msu.edu/journals/raex/

Fotouhi, Ali Reza. Modelling overdispersion in longitudinal count data in clinical trials with application to epileptic data. Journal of the Contemporary Clinical Trials, Volume 29, issue 4, 2008, pages 547-554.

http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/concli/article/S1551-7144(08)00006-2/abstract

Fotouhi, Ali Reza. A joint model for analysing longitudinal count data and event history data with application in clinical trials. Advances and Applications in Mathematical Sciences, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 291-311.

http://www.mililink.com/aams_con.php

Fotouhi, Ali Reza and Chu, David. Distance between trivariate beta random points in two cubic spaces. Advances and Applications in Statistical Sciences, Volume 2, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 59-68.

http://www.mililink.com/aass_con.php

Chu, David and Fotouhi, Ali Reza. Distance Between Bivariate Beta Points in Two Rectangular Cities. Communications in Statistics--- Simulation and Computation, Volume 38, Issue 2 February 2009, pages 257 - 268. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tandf/lssp/2009/00000038/00000002/art00004

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Molecular Science of Extreme ConditionsDr. Noham Weinberg

Ironically, theoretical chemistry has more problems explaining reactions at ordinary laboratory conditions than dealing with experimentally much more sophisticated gas-phase processes. The reason is that the theory of an isolated gas-phase molecular system is relatively simple, whereas ordinarily chemical reactions take place in liquid solvents, subjecting reaction system to strong interactions with numerous solvent molecules, description of which was a formidable problem until quite recently and remains a considerable challenge even presently. Fast development of modern computer technologies, however, makes this problem progressively more manageable, primarily through application of molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo techniques.

Dr. Weinberg’s interest in studying the properties of molecular systems and their reactions under extreme conditions is twofold. On the one hand, extreme conditions exaggerate the importance of intermolecular interactions and act as a magnifying glass helping understand their role in physicho-chemical processes at ambient conditions. On the other hand, the ability to describe processes at elevated pressures, temperatures, and viscosities is important to understanding geochemical and technological processes that take place under such conditions.

The fact that pressure, like temperature, has a profound effect on the rates of chemical reactions in solutions is well established and supported by the vast amount of data accumulated over more than sixty years of experimental studies. Qualitatively, this effect can be linked to the variation of volume in the course of chemical reaction: pressure accelerates the processes that result in reduction of volume of the reaction system. Quantitatively, however, the usefulness of this idea is severely limited by the fact that the volume of a molecular system is an ambiguous concept and no clear recipe exists for its calculation.

With a reliable computational method for calculating such volumes, the vast amount of experimental data on kinetic effects of high pressures available in the literature could become an invaluable source for elucidating reaction mechanisms. A few years ago Dr. Weinberg’s team took on that task and soon, through the work of UFV students Nicholas Boon, Lori Thiele, and Van Dinh, was able to calculate exact volumes of stable molecules. The fi nal breakthrough has been achieved in the last two years through the efforts of Elna Deglint and Essex Edwards, who developed a robust technique for obtaining volumes of unstable intermediates. Using this technique, it is now possible to predict theoretically an exact magnitude of the pressure effect on reaction kinetics.

It is not uncommon that elevated pressures make fl uid solvents viscous. As a result, the solvent start interfering with the reaction and slows it down. Neglect to take these viscosity effects into account can result in theoretical predictions overestimating the reaction rates by orders of magnitude.

Molecular Science of Extreme Conditions

Ironically, theoretical chemistry has more problems explaining reactions at ordinary laboratory


Dr. Noham Weinberg

Molecular Science of Extreme Conditions

Over the last ten years through the efforts of UFV students Manjinder Dhaliwal, Jeffery Perkins, Liam Huber, Essex Edwards, and Robin Kliev, Dr. Weinberg’s team has developed a reliable methodology based on molecular dynamics simulations and stochastic Brownian dynamics that allows one to analyse the effects of viscosity for a wide range of reactions and solvents. Highly stimulating for this development was a collaboration with the experimental group led by Professors Tsutomi Asano and Yasushi Ohga at Oita University in Japan, as well as Professor Michael Basilevsky’s theoretical group at the Photochemistry Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia.

Being able to describe reactions and processes that take place at high pressures and in viscous solvents, the group turned its attention to geochemistry, and in particular petrochemistry, as a potential fi eld of applications of these techniques.

Petroleum is and will remain in the foreseeable future the most important energy source in the world economy, a valuable commodity whose availability or lack thereof may determine economic prosperity of a nation or even its political prestige. Not surprisingly, the study of it occupies a central part in geosciences and adjacent disciplines, including chemistry.

The group intends to apply the methodology developed for description of reactions at elevated pressures and in viscous media to analyze petrochemical processes at geological conditions. The results of preliminary studies, representing the work of UFV students Jason Ho, Sarah Reimer, Melissa Prachanau, Heather Wiebe, Jake Spooner, and Johan Louwersheimer over the past two years, look quite promising.

This kind of theoretical studies will defi nitely benefi t from collaboration with experimental geochemistry and petrochemistry research groups.


P. Dance, E. Edwards, T. Asano, M.V. Basilevsky, N. Weinberg Nonequilibrium solvent effects in reaction kinetics: Steady-state solutions for the Agmon-Hopfi eld two-dimensional stochastic model, Can. J. Chem., 2010, in press.

J. Ho, S. Reimer, N.Weinberg, Molecular dynamics simulations of oil components at geological conditions, High Press. Res. 2009, 29, 587.

L. Huber; E. Edwards; M.V. Basilevsky; N. Weinberg, Reactions in viscous media: potential and free energy surfaces in solvent–solute coordinates, Mol. Phys, 2009, 107, 2283.

N.Weinberg, M.Dhaliwal, C.Reilly, E.Edwards, S.Wolfe, Importance Sampling as an Effi cient Strategy for the Conformational Analysis of Flexible Molecules, J. Phys. Chem. A, 2008, 112, 13116.

M.Dhaliwal, M.V.Basilevsky, N.Weinberg, Dynamic effects of nonequilibrium solvation: Potential and free energy surfaces for Z/E isomerization in solvent-solute coordinates, J. Chem. Phys., 2007, 126, 234505.

H. Kono, H. Osako, M. Sasaki, T. Takahashi, Y. Ohga, T. Asano, M. Hildebrand, N.N. Weinberg, Dynamic solvent effects on the fading of a merocyanine formed from a spironaphthoxazine. A case of a strong coupling between chemical and medium coordinate. Phys.Chem. Chem. Phys., 2004, 6, 2260.

Left to right: Jason Ho, Jake Spooner, Noham Weinberg, Elna Deglint (presently: M.Sc. student, McMaster, Chemistry), Christa van Klei (presently: teacher, Abbotsford), Liam Huber (presently: M.Sc. student, UBC, Physics), Jeff Perkins, Sarah Reimer, Essex Edwards (presently: Ph.D. student, UBC, Computing Sci)

Diatomic molecule in solution. Solvent particles (white) avoid the diatomic (red) thus forming a cavity of a matching size and shape. When the size of the diatomic changes (for example, in the course of a chemical reaction), the solvent restructures to readjust the cavity.

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From left: Dr. Steven Schroeder, Dr. Sylvie Murray, Dr. Molly Ungar, Dr. Scott Sheffi eld.

UFV historians are studying the massive upheaval surrounding the Second World War and its impact on nation-building. The war against the Axis powers strengthened national cohesion in the United States, and convinced Americans to participate more readily in global affairs. Germans also confronted the foundations of their national identity during the immediate postwar period, as they sought their place among the family of nations in the wake of the Nazi catastrophe.

Indigenous communities in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States contributed signifi cantly to the allied war effort, which was part of their own respective national development within the settler-dominated societies in which they lived. All Canadians faced the threat of Nazi expansionism after 1939, which resurrected for Québecers the quandary of fi ghting for the British crown.

The wartime mobilization of disparate groups in the United States and the respective Dominions, and the efforts of the German people to atone for the destruction they had wrought on their wartime enemies and victims, were all aimed at building strong, secure, and cohesive nations. That cohesion would serve, in turn, to strengthen further each nation in the future.

Several studies reveal the deep-seated tensions that have developed in the relationships between cultures and nations over centuries, and how wartime pressures galvanized a sense of national belonging and responsibility. The contemporary relevance of these projects is evident in the struggle to develop an inclusive national identity in these respective countries, and in the ongoing challenges to address adequately and appropriately past, and present, injustices.

Many students at UFV share an interest in these broad questions. As they get involved, students become profi cient in how to conduct historical research.

Dr. Scott Sheffi eldDr. Sheffi eld’s research involves comparing the experiences and contributions that indigenous peoples made during the war in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. In each country thousands of indigenous men and women served in the armed forces and others made signifi cant contributions on the home front. Why did these marginalized, often disenfranchised, minorities chose to

Second World War and Nation-buildingMolly Ungar, Scott Sheffi eld, Steven Schroeder, Sylvie Murray

engage with settler societies in the prosecution of the war? What were the post-war implications for indigenous-settler relationships and indigenous citizenship? He is also looking at the history of British Columbia during the Second World War. British Columbians’ experience of war, with its greater connection to the Pacifi c War with Japan, was distinct from that of other Canadians, for whom WWII largely meant the war in Europe and the Atlantic.

Dr. Sylvie Murray

World War II heralded a fundamental transformation in how Americans saw themselves as a nation. Bolstered by an offi cial propaganda that emphasized commonality of purpose, the extensive full-scale mobilization that followed the U.S. entry into the war in December 1941 strengthened the ties of national citizenship. The war also fostered an internationalist orientation that defi ned America’s role in the world for the remaining of the century. Neither of these developments occurred without extensive debates. It is parts of this familiar story that Dr. Murray tells in a book that has a primary pedagogical goal: to teach undergraduate students the ins and outs of historical writing. The book, to be published in 2010, is designed to model, in a succession of short essays, different types of written assignments a student is expected to produce in a history class: a primary source analysis of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s public speeches, for instance, or a book review.

Dr. Molly Ungar

Dr. Ungar is examining the approach of World War II as part of an apocalyptic vision that infl uenced the Montreal avant-garde and changed its understanding of the meaning of heroism in the late 1930s. She sees World War II as a turning point in the development of modernity and modernism in Canada.

Dr. Ungar is also researching another part of the story of World War II, linking it to the 1939 Royal Visit to Canada and the United States. In this case, the coming confrontation with Germany (only ten weeks away when the King and Queen left Canada), was a catalyst in infl uencing the perception of Canada, Great Britain, and the

Second World War and Nation-building

Charles Comfort by Sergeant P. J. Ford

United States in an active alliance against Nazi Germany. At the same time, it is fascinating to examine the “offi cial” image of World War II as seen through the artworks produced by offi cial war artists in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States. In deciding to create an offi cial artistic record of the war, governments and artists alike were forced to enunciate the meaning of war and the meaning of art, two aspects of those societies that by the middle of the 20th century were no longer as clear cut as they might have been 50 years earlier.

Dr. Steven Schroeder

Dr. Schroeder is looking at reconciliation in occupied Germany from 1944 to 1954. He is examining how a signifi cant number of Germans — with a wide variety of motives — worked toward mending the wounds that the German people had infl icted on their wartime enemies and victims throughout Germany and Europe. With a conclusion that points to the positive and enduring results of this work, the book that will result from his research offers insights into aspects of German history that have been largely overlooked in contemporary scholarship.


“Writing Home: Intimate Conversations about War” (review essay), Barbara Messamore, Journal of Historical Biography (forthcoming, February 2010)

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UFV Research Showcase

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berry breeding

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major berry crops

bc breeding program

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bcs breeding program

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