On Birth, March 2, 2011

WIDEN: On Birth

4:00–6:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Grad Room at Graduate House, 66 Harbord St.
RSVP on Facebook

All welcome. No advance registration required.

Presentations:

The Birth of Stars, Planets and the Origins of Life
Dennis Duffin (Astrophysics)

How are stars born? When and how do they make the planets we see in the Universe? Images from stellar nurseries tell us much about young stars, but little about how they are made. To do this, we make stars on our supercomputers. We know that groups of stars form together in cold, giant strands of wispy molecular gas. This gas is blown about by the strong dynamics present in the galaxy along with winds and jets from brother and sister stars. In this talk I will reveal the mystery and beauty of stellar birth and what it means for the birth of planets and the origins of life. In particular, I will argue that the strong magnetic field that permeates the Galaxy is vital when making stars and their planets.

The Birth of Race and Racism
Kate Korycki (Political Science)

Race has no substance. It has no biological content, in that it does not map out significant differences among people. And yet it stubbornly exists as a marker of identity and boundary of difference and power. If race has no independent existence, then who/what produces it? This presentation will offer a series of accounts of the birth of race. Historically it will look how scientific racism conceived races and how liberalism got implicated in racism; economically it will look at colonialism, imperialism, and slavery and their racial justifications; psychologically it will look at the experience of the raced/colonized mind; and politically, it will trace how states produce race through their regulatory regimes.

How Babies Get Born
Natalie McClure (Midwifery)

From the onset of labour to the arrival of that wailing bundle of joy, birth can be a bit mysterious for those of us who have never had a baby. I will give an overview of the mechanics of labour and birth, to try and explain all those nagging questions: What makes labour start? Why does birth take so long? What’s happening during labour? What is a contraction? What is a placenta exactly? What really happens with the water breaks? When will my mother stop reminding me of how much pain I caused her in labour? I will leave lots of time for your questions, so bring everything you’ve got.

Directions: To get to Grad Room in Graduate House, enter through the coffee shop on the northeast corner of Spadina and Harbord and then go down the stairs at the back. An elevator to the room is accessible through the main entrance of the Graduate House residence.

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