Thanks to a donation from Margaret Morgan in 2010, the existing Labour Studies program at SFU has become the Morgan Centre for Labour Studies. In just a few short years, the expansion will lead to students being able to obtain a Major in Labour Studies. Margaret Morgan’s donation is a legacy to ‘Lefty’ Morgan, her husband. The Morgan Centre for Labour Studies at Simon Fraser University is committed to the study and understanding of labour, working people, and their organizations from a comprehensive social, cultural, historical, political and economic perspective. The Centre aims to provide a range of taught courses and programs (credit and non-credit), offer research opportunities and assistance to Simon Fraser University students and provincial labour organizations, and create mutually supportive and beneficial links between academic and labour communities.

The 2011 Ruth Wynn Woodward Lecture Series, hosted by the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, kicked off on February 24 with a presentation by Cindy Holmes, a Ph.D. candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies at UBC. Holmes’ research applies an interlocking feminist framework to the study of anti‐violence and health promotion strategies in queer communities. Two more lectures are set for March 2 and March 17. Both lectures will be at SFU’s Harbour Centre Campus from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Click here for lecture details and here for more information about the presenters. The series was named for Ruth Wynn Woodward, one of British Columbia's outstanding pioneer women. she was director and vice-president of Woodwards' Stores Ltd., owner/operator of Woodwynn Farm, a founding director of the Junior League of Vancouver, and president of the Women's Auxiliary of Vancouver General Hospital. 

As part of Vancouver's 125th anniversary celebrations, SFU's Department of History has planned a year-long lecture series exploring different aspects of Vancouver's past. February 24th marked the second installment with a lecture by SFU History professor Ilya Vinkovetsky on Russian colonization of the Northwest Coast. The series continues on March 31 with a lecture by Jennifer Spear, entitled, “Captain George Vancouver goes to California”. Learn more at http://www.sfu.ca/history/van125.htm where you can download podcasts of past lectures.

The American Comparative Literature Association’s 2011 Annual Meeting will take place in Vancouver, from March 31-April 3. This year, the ACLA Convention will highlight the processes of cultural renewal that follow from contact with other cultures. Questions of transmission and translation, but also of interference and resistance, will be at the center of this conversation located in Vancouver, one of the world’s cultural crossroads. What is world literature? What is comparative literature? What can be gained from setting these concepts in dialogue? What scholarly methods can best account for the freshness, excitement and, yes, fear of experiencing the “foreign”? These questions will top the agenda of the plenary discussion between two preeminent theorists of world and comparative literature, David Damrosch and Gayatri Spivak, on April 2. Click here for more information.

School for International Studies professor, Tamir Moustafa, has been interviewed over 30 times in the past month by international media concerning the unprecedented events in Egypt.  He has been interviewed by outlets ranging from CBC's The National, to al-Jazeera English, to the New York Times, Slate, and the US National Public Radio's nation-wide show, Talk of the Nation. 

His commentary and analysis has also appeared in the Globe and Mail and other national and international outlets. One of his recent pieces, which appeared in the HuffingtonPost.com can be found here.  Moustafa is the author of the book, The Struggle for Constitutional Power: Law, Politics, and Economic Development in Egypt. Learn more about him here. 

On the same weekend the BC Liberals were chosing their next leader, NDP members in Burnaby-Douglas picked their new nominee for the next federal election. On February 25, the School of Public Policy’s Kennedy Stewart won a first-ballot victory over Neworld Theatre board member and essayist Alnoor Gova and former City of North Vancouver councillor Sam Schechter . Read a great Burnaby Newsleader story about the contest to become the next Member of Parliament for Burnaby-Douglas here  and a story about Stewart's win here.

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