UBC designated as primary international academic partner of Chongqing, China
A successful official visit to Chongqing, China has helped to solidify future partnerships and collaboration between the city of Chongqing and UBC.
start an evolution Campaign Celebration in London
On December 6, 2012 His Excellency, Gordon Campbell, Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland and Professor Stephen J. Toope welcomed Europe-based donors and friends to UBC’s start an evolution: London Celebration at Canada House.
Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Flanders Panel (HarperCollins, 1994)
I recently discovered this Spanish writer of devilishly clever literary mysteries. The characters are well-drawn, and the mystery revolves around a Flemish painting and the intricacies of chess. Wonderfully paced, and urgently compelling, this is a great read on a long plane ride, or at the cabin.
Gao Xingjiang, Soul Mountain (Harper Perennial, 2004)
Gao was the first Chinese author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, although he did so from exile in France. After the publication of a work dealing in part with the massacre at Tiananmen Square, all his writings were banned in China. In awarding him the Nobel, the Committee referred to his “œuvre of […]
Iris Murdoch, The Bell (Vintage, 1999; first published in 1973)
I first began to read Murdoch when I was studying in England in the 1980s and was drawn to her complex characters; no-one is ever good or bad, everyone is an amalgam. The Bell is no exception, for here we have a religious community of deeply confused people struggling to find a way to live […]
Tim Winton, Dirt Music ( Scribner, 2001)
I discovered this book browsing in a New York bookstore. Winton is a youngish Australian whose novels have twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. Dirt Music is the story of a couple of outcasts who find each other, lose each other, and against pretty remarkable odds, connect again. I have rarely read any […]
David Mitchell, Black Swan Green (Vintage Canada, 2007)
Mitchell is probably best known for Cloud Atlas, now, as they say, “a major motion picture.” I thought that The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010) was fabulous. Mitchell’s diversity of subject matter and style is remarkable. In Black Swan Green he writes in the voice of thirteen-year-old Jason Tyler, who lives in a […]
Nadine Gordimer, A Guest of Honour (Penguin, 1973)
Gordimer’s writing is simply brilliant, but her stories always leave me with a profound sense of sadness. Winner of the Nobel Prize in 1991, Gordimer is closely associated with the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. But she is no naïve optimist! A Guest of Honour is the story of a colonial-era British civil servant, Colonel […]
UBC to produce clean heat and electricity from biofuel
A new $34-million UBC clean energy facility will generate clean heat and electricity for campus from renewable bioenergy
Address to the Vancouver Board of Trade
Prof. Toope urges increased investment in B.C. postsecondary education
September 2012 Letter to the Community
Prof. Toope welcomes everyone to the new academic year and provides an update on UBC’s current priorities in his Annual Letter
Bringing the UBC community together for an interactive dialogue
10 September – Vancouver Campus
19 September – Okanagan Campus
Canada in the Pacific Century Report
Positioning Canada as the academic and research destination of choice for Asia will help it thrive in the new global economy
UBC at the 2012 Summer Games
UBC has much to celebrate as the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games begin
2012 Spring Grad Event at Sty-Wet-Tan Great Hall
Prof. Toope attends the UBC First Nations Longhouse Graduation Celebration held for this year’s Aboriginal grads
UBC at Universitas 21
Dr. Karen Gardner receives the inaugural Universitas 21 Award for Internationalisation at U21’s AGM in Lund, Sweden
Op/ed: Building bridges from B.C. to Brazil
Building bridges from B.C. to Brazil; Ties being developed through student exchanges will provide a foundation for future relationships that benefit all Vancouver Sun Wed May 2 2012 Page: A13 Section: Issues & Ideas Byline: Stephen Toope and Arvind Gupta In our rapidly evolving global context, Western nations, including Canada, are asking the question “To […]
Asia Pacific Gaining Research Strengths
Prof. Toope suggests key steps for better collaboration in Science article
Reappointment of Provost and VP Academic
To: the UBC Community I am delighted to announce that the UBC Board of Governors has approved the reappointment of Dr. David Farrar as Provost and Vice-President, Academic for a second five-year term, effective Sept 1, 2012. Dr. Farrar brings an energetic, consultative, forthright approach to his position. His first term was marked by a […]
Op/ed: Federal budget signals a commitment to innovation
Stephen Toope: Federal budget signals a commitment to innovation National Post Mar 30, 2012 – 9:52 AM ET By Stephen Toope In the global knowledge economy, a country’s greatest strategic advantage is its capacity to discover and innovate. The federal government acknowledged this clearly in Thursday’s budget, with its commitment to make smart investments in […]
UBC at U15
Building bridges between Canadian universities and German partners
UBC 25th in Global Ranking
UBC’s reputation moves up six spots to 25th in global ranking
Strengthening UBC Links With China
Prof. Toope met with Chinese partners and UBC alumni during a recent trip to China
VP Communications and Community Partnership Announced
UBC Board of Governors approves appointment of Pascal Spothelfer
Consultation Process: Place and Promise 2012
UBC welcomes feedback on Place and Promise: The UBC Plan
Max Planck Society and UBC Sign Agreement
Formal agreement signed for the Max Planck – UBC Centre for Quantum Materials
Nippon Foundation-UBC Nereus Meeting
NF-UBC Nereus meeting held at the Vancouver campus
Op/ed: Innovation and International Collaboration
Prof. Toope and Dr. Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and executive publisher of the journal Science, have written an opinion editorial. First published in the 10 February issue of The Vancouver Sun, Toope and Leshner discuss the importance of cross-boarder scientific collaborations in finding answer to urgent global […]
Douglas Coupland, Marshall McLuhan (Penguin Canada, 2009)
Part of a series on “extraordinary Canadians,” I was drawn to this brief biography because it coincided with the 100th anniversary of McLuhan’s birth, and because I thought it a stroke of genius to ask Coupland to write on McLuhan. The result is a fresh, insightful and at times psychedelic exploration of the McLuhan era. […]
Deborah Buszard to Head UBC’s Okanagan Campus
The University of British Columbia’s Board of Governors has approved the appointment of Professor Deborah Buszard to lead UBC’s Okanagan campus as Deputy Vice Chancellor and Principal. Dr. Buszard will begin her five-year term on July 1, 2012. For details, see the full media release on the UBC Public Affairs website.
Inaugural Ismaili Centre Lecture
Prof. Toope spoke on the topic of pluralism and pragmatism at the Ismaili Centre
Olivia Manning, School for Love (Arrow, 2001)
First published in 1951, this novel is by one of Britain’s important mid-twentieth century writers, who is best known for The Balkan Trilogy, a compelling account of life in Cold War Bucharest. School for Love is set in Jerusalem, and traces the growing into adult sensibility of the teen-age orphan, Felix. He has led a […]
Kathleen Winter, Annabel (Anansi, 2010)
An extraordinarily lyrical novel set in Labrador, St John’s and Boston, the book traces the early life experience of Wayne Blake, a person born with the sexual organs of both man and woman. Marked by a generosity of spirit, and an openness to the complexities of identity, the story follows Wayne’s father as he tries […]
Esi Edugyan, Half Blood Blues (Thomas Allen, 2011)
Winner of the 2011 Giller Prize, this ambitious novel is set principally in the months leading up to the German occupation of Paris during the Second World War. Moving back and forth in time, and spanning settings in Baltimore, Berlin and Paris, the narrative focusses upon a jazz combo of African-American and German musicians. They […]
Op/ed: Knowledge Infrastructure Program
Prof. Toope and Prof. Naylor, president of U of T, published an opinion piece on the positive spirit of partnership and collaboration shown by all levels of government, universities, and the private sector in delivering the Knowledge Infrastructure Program. Beginning in the 2009 federal budget as a direct investment of $1.3 billion from the government, […]
Op/ed: broad-based admissions at UBC
Prof. Toope’s opinion editorial on broad-based admission at UBC recently appeared in The Vancouver Sun. The op/ed is permanently archived under Speeches and Op/Eds on this website.
New Senior Communications Position Announced
UBC begins consultative process for a Managing Director, Communications and Marketing
Staff Award Nominations Open
Recognize staff who have made exceptional contributions to UBC and our greater community
Alan Hollinghurst, A Stranger’s Child (Picador, 2011)
Hollinghurst burst onto the literary scene with a pair of acutely observed novels, The Swimming Pool Library and The Line of Beauty, the latter winning the Man Booker Prize in 2004. Both captured the oddly mixed flavour of excess and despair that marked late-twentieth century British society, and both contained much more graphic depictions of […]
Michael Ondaatje, The Cat’s Table (McClelland & Stewart, 2011)
Both autobiographical and fully imagined, this charming novel is Ondaatje at his most playful. Set on a ship travelling from Ceylon to England in the 1950s, the story is told by a writer who is now famous but who was once a passenger on a similar vessel, as a small boy, largely overlooked by those […]