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LINGUISTICS & LANGUAGES @ McMASTER UNIVERSITY

LANGUAGE MATTERS – Dr. John F. Connolly

Professor & Chair, Department of Linguistics, McMaster University

Senator Wm. McMaster Chair in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Language

Language is viewed as an ability that separates Homo Sapiens from other species. Language is also considered the cornerstone of conscious reflection – another phenomenon thought to be uniquely human. Finally, language is seen as the foundation of many cognitive processes such as thinking and controlling action. Fundamentally, language is central to many abilities and characteristics that define our species as unique and are essential for daily functioning. What happens if we lose our ability to communicate – if we suffer a stroke or a traumatic brain injury? We may be judged to be “low functioning” by medical experts and fail to receive the clinical interventions that might otherwise be offered. We may also be treated as intellectually disabled by both healthcare professionals and our closest family and friends. This talk will start by reviewing neurolinguistic research using brain recording/imaging tools to understand how the brain processes language. The talk will segue into the medical applications of this work that have significantly affected patients’ lives, offered new insights into consciousness, and shown that communicating with the “non-communicative” is best done using advances in neurolinguistics.

Did you go to Prince Philip School? If you did, we have great news for you!

You are invited to Prince Philip’s 60th Anniversary Open House where you will have a chance to share memories and catch up with friends, classmates and colleagues on:

Thursday, May 16, 2013

5:30 – 7:00 p.m. 125 Rifle Range Road Hamilton ON

If you have any photos or memorabilia from your time at Prince Philip, and you are willing to lend your items for display, please contact the school office at 905-527-6512 for more information.

All photos and memorabilia will be returned after the open house.

Bernadette rule – Reading from the story collection she edited entitled IN THE WINGS

Jeanette Lynes – reading from her new poetry collection, ARCHIVE OF THE UNDRESSED

BERNADETTE RULE is a talented poet, author, editor, teacher and very active member of Hamilton’s literary community.  She is also the host of the popular Mohawk College arts programme Air Waves. Bernadette has been published in The Malahat Review, Descant and Hammered Out. A collection of her selected poems, The Literate Thief, was published in a limited edition by Larkspur Press.  Bernadette was born in Kentucky and currently lives in Dundas.

In the Wings: Stories of Forgotten Women  is published by Seraphim Editions and is the culmination of a project Bernadette undertook with a group of students in the McMaster Writing Certificate Programme.  She has edited this collection of stories of forgotten women.  “It takes dedication and cooperation to omit women from the story of the human race. In the Wings is an attempt to stop cooperating with this massive omission.”

JEANETTE LYNES  is the author of one novel and five collections of poetry and has been nominated for several of Canada’s most prestigious literary awards including the Scotiabank Giller Prize. She is a great storyteller. Her titles include The Aging Cheerleader’s Alphabet and The New Blue Distance. Jeanette is the coordinator of the MFA in Writing at the University of Saskatchewan.

Archive of the Undressed, published by Wolsak and Wynn, is Jeanette Lynes’ sixth and most recent book of poetry.  Sequins, parties, dead centrefolds, and freshly plowed fields, this new title is tantalizing and will change the way you think of men’s magazines.

Free admission, everyone welcome.

Press Release – Rule/Lynes

Westdale Secondary School Mental Health Action Team in association with Dalewood Secondary School presents Renowned International Speaker Dr. Jean Clinton MD FRCP (C)

Join us as Dr. Clinton shares her expertise in the challenges of overcoming the many difficulties teens face today in regards to stress, depression, and relationships.

Please email your registration by February 20 westdale@hwdsb.on.ca

Doors open at 6:30pm.

Dr. Lam was one of the finalists for the 2012 Governor General`s Literary Award for his novel The Headmaster`s Wager. Dr. Lam, from the expatriate Chinese community of Vietnam, was born in Canada and did his medical training in Toronto. He is an emergency physician in Toronto and a lecturer with the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. His first book, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, won the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and his biography of Tommy Douglas was published by Penguin Canada as part of the Extraordinary Canadian Series.

Tickets can be purchased at Bryan Prince Bookseller, 1060 King St. West, 905-528-4508, or by contacting annashkolnik@hotmail.com . Tickets $25, students and seniors $22. Price includes the lecture, light lunch, and door prizes.

Hamilton and Green Venture are hosting a workshop to help older citizens navigate the Hamilton Street Railway.  It will cover HSR bus routes, fares and passes, seniors’ discounts, and trip planning.  Each participant will be able to request two trip plans with step-by-step instructions explaining how to take the bus to their local destination.  Green Venture is also providing free guided bus trips and instructions on using the Internet to map out trips. Registration is not required.