The Conversation

University of British Columbia

The University of British Columbia is a global centre for research and teaching, consistently ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world. Since 1915, UBC’s West Coast spirit has embraced innovation and questioned the status quo. With close to 63,000 students from 160 countries and more than 5,400 faculty on two campuses in Vancouver and the Okanagan, UBC is a place where bold thinking develops into ideas that can change the world. Its entrepreneurial perspective encourages students, staff and faculty to challenge convention, lead discovery and explore new ways of learning.

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Nature offers many benefits to people. (Shutterstock)

It pays to invest in biodiversity

Rashid Sumaila, University of British Columbia

Governments around the world have vowed to halt the loss of global biodiversity by 2020, but without more investment, we'll miss some of the targets.
Heavy rainfall triggered extensive flooding across the province of Alberta in 2013. (Ryan L. C. Quan/Wikimedia)

Damage from flooding doesn’t have to be inevitable

Alexa Tanner, University of British Columbia and Scott McKenzie, University of British Columbia

Calgary has already had two 100-year floods in less than a decade. But the city and the province have yet to take action to meaningfully lower the risk of future flood damages.
The author, second from left, is seen in this photo in a designed leadership dialogue session. The techniques of designers can help make us better leaders. (UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs)

How the mindset of designers can make us better leaders

Moura Quayle, University of British Columbia

The mindset, tools and techniques of designers can make us better leaders. Here's how.
Women and people of colour experience “chilly climates” at academic science conferences. (Shutterstock)

Race and gender still an issue at academic conferences

Sara Cannon, University of British Columbia; David A. Reid, University of British Columbia; Kiely McFarlane, University of British Columbia; Leonora King, University of British Columbia; Lucy MacKenzie, University of British Columbia; Marc Tadaki, University of British Columbia, and Michele Koppes, University of British Columbia

The geosciences are the least diverse of all STEM fields. Inhospitable climates at academic science conferences may be one of the reasons.
One third of women will suffer violence at the hands of someone they love, sometimes resulting in traumatic brain injury. Here, women lay on the street to protest this violence, in Pamplona in northern Spain, in 2015. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

Traumatic brain injury: The unseen impact of domestic violence

Paul van Donkelaar, University of British Columbia

Globally, one third of women suffer violence at the hands of someone they love. And for those who survive domestic abuse, traumatic head injury can be the devastating outcome.
Barney Williams Jr., a residential school survivor, hugs Santa Ono, president of the University of British Columbia, during the opening of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at Vancouver, on April 9. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ben Nelms

A university president apologizes for academia’s role in residential schools

Santa Ono, University of British Columbia

The role of universities in the shameful Indian residential school system needs to be addressed. The president of one of Canada's leading universities explains why it's time to apologize.
Taxing sugar places the burden on the poor – people who are already burdened by higher rates of heart disease, obesity and diabetes. (Shutterstock)

How sugar taxes punish the people

Sarah Fessenden, University of British Columbia

Sugar taxes fail to tackle the root of the problem -- the production and marketing of foods that cause chronic disease.
A woman enters Maple High School in Vaughan, Ont., to cast her vote in the Canadian federal election in October 2015. Canada has a lot to learn from Europe in preventing the digital manipulation of voters. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power

What Europe can teach Canada about protecting democracy

Chris Tenove, University of British Columbia and Heidi J. S. Tworek, University of British Columbia

Several critical Canadian elections are looming. Here's what Canada can learn from Europe on how to prevent the digital manipulation of voters.
Nellie McClung, a prominent Canadian suffragist in the early 1900s, is now being maligned for her racism and support of eugenics. Should the deep flaws of some suffragists from 100 years ago mean Canadian historians must pay them short shrift? (National Archives)

Canada’s curiously cautious commemoration of women suffragists

Veronica Strong-Boag, University of British Columbia

Canada is strangely muted in celebrating women's suffrage. That's because the politics of remembrance has become a contemporary minefield.
Chinese women carry a disproportionate share of family responsibilities. Having more children and greater family demands could increase women’s work-family conflicts and jeopardize women’s careers. With the two-child policy, conflicts between work and family responsibilities are likely to worsen. Shutterstock

China’s two-child policy needs to come with child-care help

Yue Qian, University of British Columbia

How does the two-child policy in China impact women's equality? Do women have the ability to stop when they no longer want more children?
Homes are surrounded by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey in Spring, Texas on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

Why some conservatives are blind to climate change

Jiaying Zhao, University of British Columbia; Jennifer Whitman, Northwestern University, and Rebecca M. Todd, University of British Columbia

Despite strong evidence that human activities have altered the climate, not everyone sees the risks. New research explains why some people seem blind to the signs of climate change.
Indigenous community members are doing the work to situate Colten Boushie’s life and death within the colonial context, answering not if race was a factor, but how and why. Colten Boushie’s brother, Jace Boushie, looks on during a media event at the Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs office after a jury delivered a verdict of not guilty in the trial of Gerald Stanley. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Liam Richards

Stanley trial highlights colonialism of Canadian media

Candis Callison, University of British Columbia and Mary-Lynn Young, University of British Columbia

What can the events surrounding Colten Boushie’s death, the trial verdict and its media coverage tell us about the role of journalism and journalists in relation to Indigenous concerns in Canada?
Parents wait for news after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. AP/Joel Auerbach

Why security measures won’t stop school shootings

Bryan Warnick, The Ohio State University; Benjamin A. Johnson, Utah Valley University, and Sam Rocha, University of British Columbia

When school shootings take place, beefed up security is often seen as a solution. Experience shows, however, that school shootings stem from social factors that require a different response.
Colin Kaepernick, centre, and his San Francisco teammates kneel during the national anthem before an NFL football game in 2016. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

What Colin Kaepernick can teach us about citizenship

Scott McKenzie, University of British Columbia and Sameer H. Shah

Much of the discussion about "Take a Knee" has overlooked the issues of justice and social exclusion, and especially environmental matters. That's something to think about during the Super Bowl.
Asylum seekers from Haiti leave Olympic Stadium in August, 2017 in Montreal.The stadium is being used as temporary housing to deal with the influx of asylum seekers arriving from the United States. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz)

Let’s Talk about the mental health of young immigrant and refugee men

Carla Hilario, University of British Columbia

Talking about mental health challenges is not always so easy for young immigrant and refugee men in Canada, according to research from the University of British Columbia.
Villagers enjoying the evening fishing in Kavieng, Papua New Guinea. (Colette Wabnitz)

Less money, more problems – trying to get fisheries right

Robert Blasiak, Stockholm University and Colette Wabnitz, University of British Columbia

Sustainable fisheries tick all the boxes. They can fill your belly and your wallet, and generate less CO2 than conventional agriculture. So why is some integral funding for marine fisheries falling?
A woman holds a photo of her best friend, who died of a drug overdose in January 2017, before a march to draw attention to the opioid overdose epidemic, in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, B.C. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)

How to stop overdoses? Prevent them to begin with

Lindsey Richardson, University of British Columbia and Jenna Van Draanen, University of British Columbia

Catastrophic increases in opioid overdose deaths across Canada require a broad response -- tackling housing, food and income insecurity as well as the contaminated drug supply.
Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, is welcomed by German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel prior to a meeting of the G20 Foreign Ministers in Bonn, Germany in February 2017. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Is Germany’s foreign minister having a Chrystia Freeland moment?

Heidi J. S. Tworek, University of British Columbia

Germany's foreign minister could take a page from Chrystia Freeland's playbook on how his country should manage foreign policy in the Donald Trump era.

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