Centenary Highlights
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April 21 |
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March 26Campaign 2008 Celebration Great Things Are About To Happen... Again! was the theme for an evening of celebration at the Winspear Centre. Donors, alumni, community, and government leaders were invited to a spectacular theatrical performance profiling donorsí stories and highlighting the impact of philanthropy on students, teachers, and researchers. |
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March 23-May 7Photography Exhibit: The Centenary Year in Photographs U of A Visiting Scholar-in-Residence Mark Morris put together this exhibit documenting the Centenary. |
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February 2-6International Week 2009 With its forward-looking theme, Hungry for Change: Transcending Feast, Famine, and Frenzy, Frances Moore LappÈ and George Monbiot headed up a distinguished list of guests. |
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January 22Creating the Mactaggart Art Collection: Insights from an Art-World Insider University of Alberta Museums hosted world-renowned artist and art historian Arnold Chang for a lecture on the history and provenance of the Mactaggart Art Collection. |
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December 15
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November 13Called Je te retrouve (I Remember You) and written by France Levasseur-Ouimet, professor emerita of Campus Saint-Jean, the song captures a wistful sense of nostalgia for youth gone by, or la jeunesse. It was performed by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra for Quebecís 400th birthday, at several venues in Quebec during Chorale Saint-Jeanís tour of the province, and at the U of A's alumni awards event in September. |
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November 13-16The capstone of the Centenary and a legacy gift to Edmonton, the Festival of Ideas was designed to foster dialogue at a local, national, and international level under the theme Fear and Happiness in the Modern World. Highlights included a conversation between Pulitzer Prize-winning environmentalist Edward O. Wilson and the U of Aís Killam Memorial Professor of Ecology David Schindler, as well as a landmark staging of Monteverdiís opera Orfeo. |
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November 13Conversation with Salman Rushdie Author Salman Rushdie gave the opening night keynote speech for the Festival of Ideas, entitled Public Events, Private Lives: Literature and Politics in the Modern World. |
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November 5 |
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November 1Centenary Celebration - Hong Kong Approximately 600 alumni from east and southeast Asia attended a special international Centenary celebration and convocation in Hong Kong. |
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October 15 |
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October 1Margaret Atwood - 2008 Mel Hurtig Lecture Margaret Atwood, esteemed Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, feminist, and political activist, delivered the 2008 Mel Hurtig Lecture on the Future of Canada at the Winspear Centre. |
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September 23100th Anniversary of the First Day of Classes - Green and Gold Day This day marked the 100th anniversary of the first day of classes at the U of A. To celebrate this milestone, the university and the City of Edmonton came together for ìGreen and Gold Day.î U of A staff, students, alumni, and friends were encouraged to show their school pride by wearing green and gold. |
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September 20Release of All True Things This 392-page Centenary project, written by U of A historian Rod Macleod, covers the U of A's first 100 years. |
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Sept. 18-21Homecoming For Homecoming 2008, every U of A graduate was invited back to campus to celebrate the biggest homecoming event in the history of the university. The festivities kicked off on Thursday at the Winspear Centre with the Alumni Recognition Awards and continued through the weekend with a Golden Bears football game, faculty open houses, and campus educational lectures, culminating with the Centenary Homecoming Gala held at the Shaw Conference Centre on Saturday night. |
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September 3Students, staff, and faculty were invited to join President Samarasekera for birthday cake and entertainment, as all five campuses celebrated the U of Aís 100th birthday. |
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July 14-18Chorale Saint-Jean on tour Chorale Saint-Jean was chosen as one of only two Canadian choirs outside of QuÈbec to participate in QuÈbec Cityís official 400th anniversary celebrations. |
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June 19Samuel Benfield Steele Collection repatriated A collection of photos, journals, and military memorabilia of iconic Canadian lawman Sir Samuel Benfield Steele was repatriated to the U of A from Great Britain. |
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May 28-30Canadian Arctic Summit This conference celebrated Northern Canada and the polar regions during the International Polar Year and provided a forum to discuss the challenges facing these regions in the coming decades. |
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May 9Charter Day Dinner The U of A hosted an intimate gala honouring the current and former premiers of Alberta, timed for the Celebration of Charter Day, the date in 1906 on which Alberta's lieutenant-governor signed the University Act that officially established the institution. |
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May 5 |
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April 26-May 3Mixed Chorus Northern Lights The Mixed Chorus commissioned a song celebrating the history of the U of A to open its 2008 annual concert and all concerts on its spring tour: lyrics by Canadaís leading librettist Mark Morris, and music by internationally published composer Mark Sirett. |
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April 10Jane Goodall - 14th Annual Louis D. Hyndman Lecture |
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April 2Visiting Lectureship in Human Rights Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland (1990-97) and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), spoke at the U of Aís Visiting Lectureship in Human Rights. Inaugurated by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 1998, the lectureship underscores the universityís commitment to providing Albertans with the chance to explore human-rights issues in global and local contexts. |
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March 12 |
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March 7Canada Post issues Centenary Stamp |
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February 10 & March 2Choir of Choirs A spectacular choir of more than 300 singers from the major U of A chorusesóMadrigal Singers, Mixed Chorus, Chorale Saint-Jean, Augustana Choir, and the Concert Choiróperformed with the University Symphony Orchestra at the Winspear Centre in Edmonton and the Jack Singer Hall in Calgary. |
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February 7-16While We're Young A Studio Theatre production world premiere of While We're Young by Don Hannah, the drama departmentís inaugural Lee Playwright-in-Residence. The play is an ensemble piece that moves through time (140 years) and place (from Edmonton to Passchendaele to Pictou County, Nova Scotia) as six linked stories intertwine. |
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February 7 |
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January 30-March 8 & August 15-November 9What We Wore This exhibition showcased significant artifacts from the clothing collection of the Department of Human Ecology that tell the story of 100 years at the U of A. |
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January 28 - February 1International Week 2008 Addressing Global Challenges: 100 Years and Beyond Sima Samar, chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Sudan, and Paul Farmer, American anthropologist and Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology at Harvard University, delivered the keynotes. |
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January 28President Indira Samarasekera officially opens the Centenary with a formal address at Convocation Hall. |