ARTS RESEARCH IN THE NEWS

Federal environment commissioner Julie Gelfand has criticized the National Energy Board (NEB) for failing to track whether pipeline companies meet conditions for project approvals, the Financial Post reported Tuesday.

The article quoted UBC political science professor Kathryn Harrison, who said the pipeline and NEB debates are highlighting regional divisions on energy issues.

“There’s now much more controversy concerning pipelines, and the concerns about the pipelines have led people to look more closely than they had previously at the NEB process,” said Harrison.

The Vancouver Sun also ran the story.

Plunging oil prices and the worsening economy have put Justin Trudeau’s promise to reduce Canada’s debt in jeopardy, according to the Financial Post.

These conditions increase the deficit while lowering GDP forecasts, said UBC economics professor Kevin Milligan.

“There’s not a lot of playroom for the finance minister and the government to figure this out, to stay underneath their commitment of declining debt-to-GDP,” said Milligan.

Egyptian-born Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy was interviewed by Global News.

Fahmy was arrested and imprisoned in Egypt while working for broadcaster Al Jazeera English. Since his release he has taken up an academic life as an adjunct professor at UBC.

A Salon article analyzed the events that lead to the poisoning of Flint, Michigan’s water supply, and linked it to a “state-level attack on democracy.”

UBC geography professor Jamie Peck’s thoughts on neoliberalism were quoted in the article.

A Forbes article on donating to charity featured a UBC-Harvard study that found a positive link between charitable giving and happiness.

The researchers–UBC professor Elizabeth Dunn and her former PhD student Lara Aknin, and Harvard’s Michael Norton–found this correlation in 120 out of 136 countries included in their study.

Theatre UBC’s Eurydice departs slightly from its mythical roots and focuses more on a woman’s ambiguity about leaving Hades, reports Georgia Straight.

The show runs through Feb. 6.

UBC economist and former Liberal adviser Kevin Milligan was quoted in an Ottawa Citizen article on Parliament’s economic agenda.

Milligan doesn’t believe a wide-scale stimulus program is needed and said: “We’re in a period of slow growth, a period of zero growth, and that’s not great, but you can certainly imagine worse situations.”

The article also appeared in the Montreal Gazette and The Province.

The new deal meant to conclude the “comfort women” dispute between Japan and South Korea lacks popular support in South Korea, says Trevor Kennedy, a Master of Arts Asia Pacific Policy Studies candidate at UBC, in an East Asia Forum op-ed.

“Japan and South Korea cannot do much to appease those taking an emotional or political stance, but they can and should focus on explaining the merits of the agreement to groups genuinely interested in reaching a conclusion,” wrote Kennedy and co-author Misato Nagakawa.

A UBC experiment that shows that flashing lights and music encourages risky choices among rats sheds light on why people get addicted to gambling, reports Discover Magazine.

A similar story appeared on Yahoo.

UBC anthropologist Mark Turin spoke about the work being done to preserve dying or hibernating minority languages in a BBC World Service interview.

Turin, whose work focuses on the Himalayan region in Nepal, said languages don’t become endangered naturally; instead, it’s due to a combination of political, cultural and social processes. People in marginalised communities might be repeatedly told that their indigenous language is “backward” or not practical and this belief is absorbed and starts a vicious cycle.

“We have to break out of the sense that one language….is suitable for all purposes at all time,” said Turin.

With shareholders approving the sale Thursday, the sale of Canadian satellite equipment maker Com Dev International to U.S. tech giant Honeywell appears to be a done deal, reports the Globe and Mail.

UBC political scientist Michael Byers said the sale is a “potentially significant loss to Canada.” Future Canadian satellites might have to be built from parts sourced from non-Canadian companies, and this could be a potential national security concern, Byers said.

A UBC study involving a “rat casino” shows that bright lights and sounds encourage risky choices, reports Vice.

The researchers tested 32 rats, offering small rewards for low risks. When exposed to bright lights and music, the rats began to opt for the higher risk, higher reward options.

“Translating these findings to humans, we think that people who are more attracted to these kinds of sound and light cues, and more influenced by them, may be more likely to make risky/bad choices in gambling games, and potentially become addicted to gambling,” said researcher Catharine Winstanley.

Similar stories appeared in Tech Times, CBC News, and other publications.

UBC film studies professor Brian McIlroy reviews the last 25 years of hiring in academia in an op-ed for University Affairs. He notes that much progress still needs to be made, although there have been incremental gains made.

His own department at UBC has achieved gender parity but only one faculty member belongs to a visible minority and no one has identified as having a major disability, said McIlroy. “[W]e in the arts…have failed to make progress on issues relating to diversity in the round.”

There’s a silver lining in the current state of the Canadian dollar, UBC economics professor Paul Beaudry told Business in Vancouver.

Chinese firms looking to expand into North America could find Canada a more attractive destination, according to Beaudry.

In a Toronto Star op-ed, UBC political science professor Michael Byers decried the possible sale of Canada’s second largest space company, Com Dev International, to an American conglomerate.

“In addition to the national security risk, the economic consequences of the sale could be significant,” Byers wrote. “For globally, the space industry is in a period of rapid technological change and truly massive opportunity.”

He noted that the Harper government successfully kept Macdonald Dettwiler in Canada.