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Augustana will host pandemic talks
Institution is coordinating a series of public sessions to address current events and international topics Elaine Pennington, Editor
Sunday September 10, 2006 Camrose Canadian — Augustana Faculty University of Alberta is hosting a series of sessions on pandemics, plagues and viruses during the upcoming school year.
With fears of a pandemic flu outbreak rising around the world, Augustana faculty members decided that it would be the ideal theme for this school year’s community academic sessions.
As a community of scholars, Jan Johansen, professor of English and chair of the committee said, increasing awareness about current regional, national and international issues is an important role for the institution to play.
Preparation
The first session will be held at the Augustana chapel, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. with Dr. Olive Young, vice-provost of the University of Alberta, and pandemic preparedness coordinator, Joe Mah, Camrose pandemic preparedness coordinator and Dr. Gerhard Benadé, medical officer of health for East Central Health as guest speakers. The topic will be Local and University Pandemic Preparedness.
Between Oct. 10 and 13, Andrew Nikiforuk, author of The Fourth Horseman and Pandemonium will be at Augustana to discuss the topic. A public session is being planned, however a date has not been set.
Coincidentally, Augustana’s Kevin Sutley is directing a play, featuring local drama students, on the deadly 1918 influenza outbreak and its impact on Unity, Saskatchewan. The playwright, Kevin Kurr, will be in attendance on opening night, Nov. 9. The play runs through until Nov. 18.
“Kevin was working on this play already and it works into our theme,” Johansen said.
On Nov. 28, Wendy Austin, a medical ethicist at the University of Alberta will be presenting a session on Ethics in a Time of Contagion.
During the winter term, Ted Binnema, a historian from UNBC will be discussing Smallpox on the Prairies, Jan. 29 to Feb. 2. Then April 2 to 4, epidemiologist Paul Ewald of the University of Louisville will be the guest speaker.
Ramifications
“It is a topic with lots of ramifications and we will be running an internal series with presentations on campus as well. We plan to have six to eight presentations every year and the 2007-08 committee will be struck this fall. The 2008-09 committee will be struck in the spring,” Johansen said.
The sessions are geared to a general audience and will be “relatively non technical in nature, but of general interest.”
Email Jan (John) Johansen at jgj@ualberta.ca for more information on the sessions.
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