Bringing international experts to Queen’s

Bringing international experts to Queen’s

By Sarah Linders

March 26, 2018

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The Principal’s Development Fund (PDF) is open for applications, with some changes over last year.

The Fund supports Queen’s faculty by providing funding for international academic opportunities. The three categories in previous years have been restructured into two. Applicants can request up to $3,000 to assist in travel expenses for either category.

[Dr. Shoshana Zuboff gives a lecture on surveillance capitalism (Photo: Surveillance Studies Centre)]
Dr. Shoshana Zuboff gives a public lecture on surveillance capitalism. (Photo: Surveillance Studies Centre)

Category one supports faculty in bringing renown international scholars from around the world, including from the Matariki Network of Universities (MNU), to visit Queen’s.

Category two supports faculty to travel internationally to share their research and collaborate with MNU institutions. The MNU includes University of Western Australia (Australia), Tübingen University (Germany), University of Otago (New Zealand), Uppsala University (Sweden), Durham University (United Kingdom), and Dartmouth College (United States).

David Lyon (Sociology and Surveillance Studies Centre) has taken advantage of the PDF to bring acclaimed and innovative international scholars to campus. He recently invited Shoshana Zuboff, professor emerita of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, to Queen’s to collaborate with a multidisciplinary project on big data surveillance.

“Dr. Zuboff has been an important pioneer in surveillance studies. She spoke about surveillance capitalism – how it works today, at the heart of the wealthiest corporations on earth,” says Dr. Lyon. “She gave a seminar at the Smith School of Business, and she has a wonderful pedagogical style. She also gave an undergraduate lecture, a public lecture, and private sessions with graduate students. It was very stimulating and worthwhile – she’s a thoughtful, provocative, wise, and incredible scholar who speaks from the heart, and I felt gratified that we chose her to come to Queen’s.”

[Margaret Murphy with the Health Quality Research Collaborative (Photo: Lenora Duhn)]
Margaret Murphy (seated), the Principal’s Development Fund visiting scholar from Ireland, pictured with the Queen’s Health Quality (HQ) program leads, and members of the HQ Research Collaborative at the inaugural Queen’s Health Quality Research Forum.

Elizabeth VanDenKerkhof (Nursing) and Lenora Duhn (Nursing), members of the Health Quality (HQ) Research Collaborative team at Queen’s, together with other faculty members and local practice partners, applied for PDF funding to bring Margaret Murphy, External Lead, Patients for Patient Safety with the World Health Organization to Queen’s. Dr. VanDenKerkhof and other HQ faculty were inspired to invite Mrs. Murphy to Queen’s after hearing her speak at the Bader International Study Centre (BISC) in England during a HQ program elective.

During her visit to Queen’s, Mrs. Murphy was the keynote speaker for the inaugural Queen’s HQ Research Forum, and participated in meetings, luncheons, teaching rounds, and a number of presentations for researchers, educators, administrators, local patient advisors, students, and the public.

“The opportunity to provide a new, expert perspective and different way of thinking was a huge gift to the students, faculty, and clinicians,” says Dr. Duhn. “Mrs. Murphy left her mark on all of us, and emphasized some key points as educators/researchers/practitioners about leading with ‘head, heart, and hand’ when working in health care.”

Will Kymlicka (Philosophy) and Alice Hovorka (Geography and Planning) used the PDF to invite Helena Pedersen, senior lecturer at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and expert in critical animal studies, to campus last fall.

[Dr. Pedersen gives a lecture on human-animal relations in research (Photo: Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law, and Ethics)]
Dr. Helena Pedersen deliver a public lecture entitled “Posthumanist Education: Rethinking Human-Animal Relations in Teaching and Learning” (Photo: Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law, and Ethics)

“We were delighted with the flexibility that the Fund offered us, not only to hold a public lecture and class visits, but also to organize a workshop with Dr. Pedersen about how to integrate animal studies more fully into the curriculum,” says Dr. Kymlicka. “Many of us at Queen’s are exploring how we can incorporate the importance of human-animal relations into our teaching. Dr. Pedersen’s visit was a great opportunity to share experiences and insights, and also discuss future possibilities with one of the world’s leading scholars in this exciting new field.”

Category one applications are due by April 23, 2018, and category two applications are accepted on a rolling basis. You can find more details about the funding process and rules here.