2015-2016

News Release

REF NO.: 1

SUBJECT: PSA: ARTS on Oceans distinguished lecture at Memorial University

DATE: September 9, 2015

Dr. Helen Rozwadowski of the University of Connecticut will discuss Discovery of the Sea? A Central Role for the Humanities on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Bruneau Centre’s Innovation Theatre (IIC-2001) on the St. John’s campus.

The great age of discovery took place in the 15th and 16th centuries when the discovery of routes between oceans shifted human activity from a regional scale towards globalization.

The second discovery in the middle to late 19th century with the increasing cultural and scientific importance of the sea drew new kinds of people to the seashore and out to sea, including writers, middle class families with children, amateur naturalists, artists and tourists.

Dr. Rozwadowski argues that we might be in the midst of a third discovery of the sea, central to which is the rediscovery of the ocean as a profoundly historical place rather than a timeless one.

The third discovery involves a growing appreciation of the inextricable relationship between people and oceans that is prompted by the observed and anticipated effect on the ocean of overfishing and global climate change. Articulating this third discovery of the sea reveals a role for the humanities, and particularly for the history of science, in comprehending how knowledge about nature enables its use and indeed its misuse, on a planet where the oceans are central rather than peripheral.

ARTS on Oceans is a Faculty of Arts-wide program, funded by the Vice-President Academic’s Fund for Scholarship in the Arts, examining ocean issues through the lens of the social sciences and the humanities.

All are welcome to this event and parking is available in lot 15B. A reception will follow.

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