Upper Case

Free Movie Screening

2011-04-13T13:36:00.000-04:00

Timothy Leduc, author of Climate, Culture, Change will be participating in an upcoming screening and discussion of the award-winning documentary Climate Refugees. The documentary takes a look at the people displaced by climatically induced environmental disasters: the products of climate change.

Experts predict that instances of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, cyclones, fires and flooding will increase dramatically in the coming years. As areas are hit with these disasters, people will be forced to leave their homes and seek asylum in other parts of the world. It is thought that border conflicts and potentially even wars will be fought over these issues. For the first time ever, climate change is being considered a national security risk.

To learn more about these issues, please attend the free screening of 'Climate Refugees' which will be held at the University of Toronto Campus in the the JJR Macleod Auditorium on Friday, April 29 at 6:30 PM.

The screening will be following by a panel discussion with Timothy Leduc, author of Climate, Culture, Change; Laura Westra, author of Globalization, Violence and World Governance; and Alfredo Barahona, Program Coordinator, Migrant and Indigenous Rights, KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, and Member of the World Council of Churches' Global Ecumenical Network on Migration.

Watch the 'Climate Refugees' trailer here:

Glowing Review in Contemporary Women's Writing

2011-04-05T11:10:00.001-04:00

Contemporary Women’s Writing has published a glowing review of Engendering Genre: The Works of Margaret Atwood by Reingard Nischik. The book, which was recently awarded the 2010 Best Book award by the Margaret Atwood Society, explores the use of gender and genre in Atwood’s writing.

Nischik is a renowned Atwood scholar who has authored or edited more than 25 books. She is the Chair of North American Literature at the University of Constance, in Germany.

Here is an excerpt from the review:

Nischik offers a genuinely original take on established critical conversations about Atwood's writing. For the first time, Atwood's literary achievements are set alongside less familiar creative modes, providing a fuller picture of the author's creative history and offering fresh insight into her innovations across literary genres. Especially welcome is the reproduction of material from the Margaret Atwood Collection, housed at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, which offers a new picture of the author in progress; Nischik explores how Atwood's cartoons – in particular her Kanadian Kultchur Komix/Survivalwoman series – speak to some of the major concerns in her writing but also provide a glimpse of the author in irreverent, playful form.
-- Ellen McWilliams, Bath Spa University

If you would like to read the review in its entirety, it is available online at the following link: http://cww.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/03/11/cww.vpq019.full

To find out more about Engendering Genre, visit the UOP website.

Don’t miss out on these great April Fools jokes!

2011-04-01T11:46:00.000-04:00

It’s April Fools day and the hunt is on for the day’s best internet prank. Here are a few that we’ve come across so far:

     - Huffington Post erects Paywall for NYTimes employees
     - GMAIL Motion BETA
     - Release of the Appwood
     - Scholarly Kitchen to Erect Pay Wall
     - (Font Nerds only) Google “Helvetica”
     - Hootsuite’s ‘Happy Owls’
     - Rebecca Black mania

And our personal favourite....

     - Harry Potter’s new TV show, The Aurors

Which is your favourite? Have we missed any? Let us know!

Celebrating Canadian Poetry

2011-04-01T09:21:00.004-04:00

April is National Poetry Month, and what better way to celebrate than by curling up with the UOP’s new volume of poetry, coming out later this month.

Ricochet, by Seymour Mayne, is a collection of word sonnets – fourteen line poems with only one word per line. Though the poems are short and sweet, including a single sentence (sometimes two,) these sonnets create a world of meaning with their depth and complexity. Seymour Mayne is the author, editor or translator of more than fifty books including Les pluies de septembre (Éditions du Noroît, 2008), and Light Industry (Mosaic Press, 2000).

This bilingual edition includes a version of each poem in both French and English, which presented the additional challenge of translating the sonnets. The brave and capable translator is Sabine Huynh, a novelist, short story writer and a poet in her own right.

Here’s a look at the word sonnet Calendar and its translation. Enjoy!

Calendar

She
awoke
Monday,
it
was
April
on
the
calendar,
December
on
the
snowcovered
ground.

Le calendrier

Elle
se
réveilla
lundi,
le calendrier
indiquait
avril,
la
neige
recouvrant
le
sol,
décembre.

If you would like more information on Ricochet, check out the UOP website: http://www.press.uottawa.ca/book/ricochet

Great review in 'Journal of Popular Music Studies'

2011-03-28T12:11:00.001-04:00

The Journal of Popular Music Studies has published a great review of Sonjah Stanley Niaah’s recent title DanceHall. The book examines the cultural significance of dancehall, a genre of popular Jamaican music. Stanley Niaah looks at the history of Dancehall music and offers the first in-depth look at the performance spaces, lifestyle and meanings that have come out of this art form.

The review is not available online, but here is some of what Stacy J. Lettman had to say:

Sonjah Stanley Niaah’s DanceHall: From Slave Ship to Ghetto offers a new approach to theorizing performance geography and presents a compelling body of research conducted over an eight-year period, from 1999 to 2007. As a theoretical framework, the book fuses together concepts from geography, sociology, and cultural studies as it explores the physical space of the dancehall, the types of events that are staged there, and the rituals that are maintained and that are linked to the experiences and practices of ghetto life—practices that can be traced back to the plantation and to the slave ship. The book offers an ambitious and exhaustive interdisciplinary study of dancehall’s performative spaces in Kingston and the wider Jamaica, spaces which are understood as not only local but also transnational, occupying/inhabiting intersecting spaces within the performative culture of the African diaspora. As the author notes, her work is a necessary intervention in a scholarly discourse that has tended to focus on dancehall’s “excesses and obsessions rather than sociocultural, spatial and historically contextualized readings” (xvi).

-- Stacy J. Lettman, Journal of Popular Music Studies

To find out more about the book, visit the UOP website: http://www.press.uottawa.ca/book/dancehall

Constance Backhouse, lauréate de la médaille David Walter Mundell 2010

2011-03-22T11:42:00.001-04:00

Félicitations à Constance Backhouse, auteure du livre De la couleur des lois, qui a été choisie comme lauréate de la médaille David Walter Mundell pour l’année 2010. Le prix rend hommage à ceux et celles qui ont fait une contribution distinguée au droit et aux lettres.

La professeure Backhouse est une spécialiste réputée de droit au Canada qui se concentre particulièrement aux inégalités systémiques. De la couleur des lois expose la discrimination raciale du système judiciaire au Canada entre 1900 et 1950.

De la couleur des lois est la traduction française de Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 1999), qui a été gagnant du prix Joseph Brant en 2002.

Pour en lire plus au sujet du prix, veuillez cliquer le lien suivant :
http://www.commonlaw.uottawa.ca/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=111&id=5579&task=view&lang=fr

Pour commander le livre, visitez: http://www.presses.uottawa.ca/book/de-la-couleur-des-lois

Un dictionnaire à la hauteur des auteurs franco-ontariens

2011-03-17T16:08:00.000-04:00

Voici une critique du Dictionnaire des écrits de l'Ontario français qui viens d'être publier dans le journal Le Goût de vivre.

Bonne lecture!

Open publication - Free publishing - More article

Book launch for Climate, Culture, Change

2011-03-01T14:19:00.000-05:00

The book launch for Climate, Culture, Change: Inuit and Western Dialogues with a Warming North will be held this Thursday, March 3, 2011. The launch will be hosted by the Iris Speaker Series at York University in HNES 140 from 3:30 – 4:30pm.

In Climate, Culture, Change, author Timothy Leduc works to integrate the Inuit experience of climate change with western climate research. Considering alternative ways of thinking about climate change, Leduc sidelines the common debates on the validity of climate science and the economic viability of responding to climate change. Instead, he approaches current issues such as polar bear decline from both an Inuit and western viewpoint to create a more organic understanding of what is happening in the north.

For more information about the launch, visit the following link:
http://www.irisyorku.ca/irisyorku.ca/iris-speaker-series-presents-book-launch-climate-culture-change-western-and-inuit-dialogues-with-a-warming-north-by-timothy-b-leduc/

Association of American Publishers Announces 2010 PROSE Award Winners: University of Ottawa Press receives honourable mention for ‘My Life’

2011-02-22T12:53:00.003-05:00

The Professional and Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division of the Association of American Publishers recently announced the winners of the 2010 American Publishers Awards for the Professional and Scholarly Excellence (The PROSE Awards). Among the laureates was an honourable mention for the University of Ottawa Press in the ‘Biography & Autobiography’ category for its recent publication ‘My Life,’ the memoirs of Sofia Andreevna Tolstaya.

More than 45 awards were presented February 3, 2011 at the PSP Annual Conference in Washington, DC. Winners included Elsevier, American Psychological Association, Oxford University Press, John Wiley & Sons, University of Texas Press, Getty Publications and American Chemical Society.

A full list of winners can be found at the following link: http://www.proseawards.com/current-winners.html

The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the U.S. publishing industry. AAP’s members include most of the major commercial publishers in the U.S., as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies. The 2010 PROSE Awards received a record-breaking 491 entries from over 60 publishers across the country.

Une ancienne de l’Université d’Ottawa partage son expérience personnelle de l’Holocauste

2011-02-17T09:34:00.000-05:00

Il y a soixante-dix ans, Truda Rosenberg, alors âgée de 19 ans, entreprend sa première année universitaire à Lwòw, sa ville natale de Pologne. Elle est fiancée à un homme qu’elle a rencontré au cours de son emploi à temps partiel.

Au mois de juin 1941, les nazis arrivent. À partir de ce moment, la jeune femme commence à lutter simplement pour survivre.

Aujourd’hui, Dr Rosenberg est une psychologue réputée et une figure de proue au sein de la communauté juive. Le 28 février, cette ancienne de l’Université d’Ottawa célébrera la traduction de ses mémoires sur la période de la guerre, qui viennent tout juste de paraître en français.

Dans son livre intitulé Sans masque, Dr Rosenberg décrit les horreurs qu’elle a vécues pendant l’Holocauste et les moyens qu’elle a pris pour survivre. Elle a notamment utilisé une série de fausses identités pour cacher ses origines juives, ce qui n’a pas empêché les nazis de la mettre à bord d’un train en direction de Belzec, camp de la mort où 500 000 Juifs ont été massacrés. Truda Rosenberg a aussi été emprisonnée dans un camp de travail et vendue comme esclave à un officier allemand. Tous les membres de sa famille immédiate ont péri. C’est la « profonde conviction selon laquelle tout le monde a le droit et le devoir de veiller à la survie de son esprit, de son corps et de son âme » qui lui a permis de surmonter toutes ces épreuves.

Même si pour la plupart d’entre nous, ses expériences semblent impossibles à comprendre, Dr Rosenberg rappelle qu’elle ne fut qu’une victime parmi tant d’autres Juifs ayant souffert les pires outrances aux mains des nazis. Elle écrit : « à aucun moment, ni dans le passé, ni maintenant, je n’ai qualifié mes expériences d’uniques. Leur existence est un fait et je les présente ici comme le témoignage d’un témoin direct, une version de ce que beaucoup d’entre nous ont connu sur une base quotidienne. »

Dr Rosenberg livre un précieux témoignage sur l’adversité et la cruauté humaine que des millions de Juifs ont endurées pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. Son histoire dépeint la résistance de l’esprit humain ainsi que notre capacité de nous adapter aux pires circonstances. Son récit de la guerre pousse le lecteur à réfléchir aux gestes de bonté et de cruauté commis des deux côtés et à faire face à notre humanité intrinsèque.

« La guerre oblige tout le monde à faire des compromis moraux, affirme Truda Rosenberg. Vous n’avez pas toujours le temps de soupeser les conséquences et souvent, vous devez agir pour ne pas mourir. Ce n’est que plus tard, si vous survivez, que vous avez l’occasion de réfléchir à vos gestes et, bien sûr, vous traînez un sentiment de culpabilité vis-à-vis des personnes que vous avez dû abandonner. La tristesse qui nous envahit lorsque nous songeons à ceux qui n’ont pas survécu est compensée seulement par les grandes réalisations accomplies, souvent en leur nom, par les survivants. »

Sans masque a été traduit de l’anglais original par Christine Klein-Lataud et publié par les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa.

Le lancement de Sans masque aura lieu le lundi 28 février 2011 au pavillon Desmarais, salle 12102. Pour obtenir plus d’information, ou pour faire une réservation, visitez le site : http://www.sciencessociales.uottawa.ca/rsvp/fra/

Faculty Author Week at the uOttawa Bookstore

2011-02-08T15:20:00.001-05:00

It's Faculty Author Week at the University of Ottawa Bookstore!

For those of you who've been curious about what your professors are up to in their spare time, head to the bookstore this Thursday between 2 and 6pm. You'll be able to snack, chat and browse the stacks while you're at it!

Featured authors include: Damien-Claude Bélanger, Nathalie Bélanger, Lise Boily, Marcel Chartrand, Béatrice Craig, Gordon Digiacomo, Liliane Dionne, Andrew Donskov, David Dyment, Pascale Fournier, William Leiss, Errol Mendes, and Christian Milat.

La Librairie de l’Université d’Ottawa vous invite à célébrer la Semaine des publications professorales du 7 au 11 février 2011, venez rencontrer nos professeurs auteurs lors d’une réception le jeudi 10 février, de 14 h à 18 h. Des rafraîchissements seront servis.

Dancehall: the Carribean book launch

2011-01-25T15:23:00.001-05:00

Great news for all those of you who have been looking for a reason to head for warmer climes – as if the weather this week wasn’t enough!

The University of the West Indies' Institute of Caribbean Studies and the UOP invite one and all to attend the launch of DanceHall: From Slave Ship to Ghetto by Dr. Sonjah Stanley Niaah. You’ll likely need a plane to get there, but who can say no to a Jamaican vacation?

Stanley Niaah’s book is the first to document the cultural significance of dancehall, a genre of popular Jamaican music that combines reggae, digital instrumentation and rapid-fire DJ lyrics. Dancehall music came into vogue in Jamaica during the 1980s, and its popularity continues to grow around the world. In DanceHall, Stanley Niaah examines over 400 years of Black Atlantic performance history through the eyes of a native Jamaican, and links it to other genres of music including as American blues, South African kwaito, and Latin American reggaetòn.

The launch will certainly be one for the books (if you’ll forgive the pun,) and will feature conversations with Professors Brian Meeks and Wilma Bailey as well as Jerome Hamilton, the Executive Director at Headline Entertainment, and the beautiful and talented Nadine Sutherland, Recording Artist. As an extra treat, the after party will include a performance by Stone Love, one of the veteran sound systems featured in the book, as well as some other surprises.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Rex Nettleford Hall, Multipurpose Room

University of West Indies, Mona Campus

6:00pm

To help you all get in the right frame of mind for this groundbreaking launch, check out one of Sonjah Stanley Niaah’s favourite dancehall songs:

Interview with Reingard Nischik, winner of 2010 Margaret Atwood Society 'Best Book' Award

2011-01-24T09:30:00.026-05:00

On the publication of Reingard M. Nischik's latest book Engendering Genre: The Works of Margaret Atwood, Hildegard Nagler conducted an interview with the scholar. The interview was first published in German. With the kind consent of the journalist, the interview is here published for the first time in an English translation. Translation by Christina Duck Kannenberg and Emily Petermann. Since the time of the interview, the book has been honoured with the 2010 Best Book Award by the Margaret Atwood Society.

To find out more on Engendering Genre visit the following link: http://www.press.uottawa.ca/book/engendering-genre

===

Professor Reingard M. Nischik is considered a renowned, internationally leading specialist on Margaret Atwood. The Professor of North American Studies at the University of Constance in Germany already dealt with the world-famous Canadian author in her literary theoretically oriented post-doctoral thesis of 1991, and she has now published her second monograph (after editing two article collections) on Atwood.

HN: Professor Nischik, what fascinates you about Margaret Atwood?

RN: Her impressive intellectuality and imaginative power, her immense writing talent, her strong visionary power, her unbelievable productivity and diversity, her wide-reaching knowledge as well as her humour and her ready wit; furthermore, that she is also engaged beyond writing in diverse political and humanitarian projects, often in the public eye but also behind the scenes. As I can say from my own experience during personal meetings over the years, Margaret Atwood has remained a kind, accessible, and sensitive person despite her great success and the international hype surrounding her.

HN: How would you characterize the writer in five sentences?

RN: Atwood has been the leading Canadian writer for the past four decades. She is perhaps the most diversely talented contemporary writer overall (including male writers). Her literary œuvre, which is difficult to match in its literary quality, its genre variety, and its breadth, is supplemented by her numerous personal appearances (book tours, interviews, speeches, and television appearances), with which Atwood has, since the 1960s, not only definitively put Canada on the international literary map, but which have moreover made her, with her political and social consciousness, one of the most important chroniclers and critics of contemporary western culture. Her international impact is not only due to her literary skill, but is also supported by her media-friendly, charismatic personality, which captivates thousands of listeners at readings in, say, London or New York. Atwood has also always gotten involved on behalf of those who are socially and politically weaker, whether it be – especially in earlier decades – women, politically persecuted authors, or her own country, especially in relation to the politically and economically overly powerful neighbour, the United States.

HN: Do you still remember the day on which you heard of or read Margaret Atwood for the first time?

RN: I can still remember my reaction as a young doctoral student when I read my first Atwood text. It was her second novel, Surfacing (1972). This novel fascinated me immediately in relation to its thematic complexity and force of expression, as well as with regard to its grandiose language style (which here is idiosyncratically based on the protagonist’s characteristics). Atwood has been my favourite writer since I first read her work at the end of the 1970s, and I have never lost sight of her work.

HN: What was your first contact with the successful author like?

RN: In the situation itself I thought the first contact was actually relatively “normal,” as it was very task-oriented. In hindsight, this was one of the so-called mythical moments of my life. For five years I was the chair person of the English-Canadian Literature and Language Section of the Association for Canadian Studies in German-Speaking Countries. In this role back then I tried to convince Atwood to be the keynote speaker at the Association's annual conference in Grainau in the Bavarian Alps. This was in the pre-e-mail era and when a fax machine was still something unusual. We initially corresponded with each other by letter, which, however, led to week-long delays. At the time, Atwood was in the Provence [in France] writing for several months, and the travel agency there could not locate Grainau, the village at the base of the Zugspitz mountain (which today, by the way, has a legendary reputation in international Canadian studies). One afternoon while I was working at home, my telephone rang: “Hi, this is Margaret Atwood.”

We then talked for about 20 minutes and clicked right away. At the conference in Grainau in 1992 she presented a then still unpublished short story, which she had previously asked me to translate into German (“The Little Red Hen Tells All” from Good Bones) – with overwhelming success. I had never experienced such an electrified audience and people still address me about this event today. Atwood and I then spent the two conference days and evenings together – our long acquaintance is thus based on this first personal contact, which then through occasional written correspondence and various personal meetings in Germany, Canada, and the USA has been maintained to this day.

HN: You speak of Margaret Atwood's “unusual productivity.” You yourself have already published four books about the writer. Are there parallels between you?

RN: Atwood is unique. But I'll take up your question playfully. Of my to date twenty-six books there are in fact four dedicated to Margaret Atwood, though in very different ways. One parallel that could be named, then, is the passion for writing about fascinating topics. As Atwood herself once commented on text-creating productivity, including her own: “What drives them to it? Why this boundless outflowing of words? Is writing … − being speech in visual form − … simply a manifestation of being human?”

HN: You were even awarded with the Best Book Award of the Margaret Atwood Society. Is there any room for further development?

RN: Oh yes. For example: this prize is given out for each publication year, thus one can win more than once. I would be glad if my latest monograph (Engendering Genre: The Works of Margaret Atwood, Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2009) could capture this prize once again. But in 2009 alone five books were published on Atwood internationally. Far more important to me would be for Atwood to finally be awarded the Nobel prize. She was several times close to it. I would be very happy about it, because I am deeply convinced that she has unequivocally earned this prominent award (much more than some previous winners, by the way). I see my own work in research and teaching and also in organizational matters in connection with Atwood as my very small contribution which is also meant to serve this higher goal.

HN: Your main interest is with the innovative way in which gender and genre connect and cross-pollinate each other in Atwood's oeuvre. Why?

RN: In my articles and books I have already dealt with diverse aspects of Atwood's multifaceted oeuvre. I tackled the connection between genre and gender questions because I noticed over the years that they are especially significant in Atwood's work as well as being theoretically and analytically challenging, and because this aspect had not yet been specifically examined by scholars. At the same time, I also covered several of the numerous genres treated by Atwood for the first time in a detailed and thorough way, such as Atwood's work and experience with film and film adaptations, her impressive collection of essays, or her funny and at the same time profound comics.

HN: Are there genres that Margaret Atwood has not yet dealt with?

RN: Even in the wider literary context regarding the main genres, nothing comes to mind at the spur of the moment – which again confirms the wide-ranging creativity of this writer. Atwood has, though, more prominent and less prominent genres: she is primarily a poet and fiction writer (novel, short story) and can, for example, not really be called a dramatist – her recently published first drama is a dramatization of one of her own narratives, which itself is difficult to categorize generically (The Penelopiad, 2005).

HN: Which is your favourite of Margaret Atwood's works and why?

RN: That is a very difficult question for me. I am especially fascinated by several of her poems and prose poems, some of her short stories, and several of her novels. But again I don't want to be a spoilsport, so I will now choose her historical novel Alias Grace (1996). I would argue that only a literary genius could write such a text.

The way Canadian history and aspects of general historiography mesh here with Atwoodian narrative art cannot be surpassed. As a scholar interested in narratology, it fascinates me how the reader is shown – seemingly in passing, while under a spell by the plot – how we use narration to construct our world and to some extent that of others as well. The title character Grace Marks is able to save her freedom, if not her life, through her highly intelligent storytelling. In this novel Atwood arrestingly demonstrates the power of words and of imagination. Aside from everything else, this novel is also an overwhelming love story – although it remains unspoken between the characters (and as usual for Atwood, without a happy ending). I can imagine that this novel will one day be required reading for, amongst others, prospective psychoanalysts.

HN: Let’s assume that Margaret Atwood would ask you for a subject for her next book. What would you answer her?

RN: Atwood does not even talk about the projects that she is currently working on, so this question about earlier stages is of course totally unrealistic. But your question is also provocative. Now, after Atwood has dealt with globally essential questions about the course of the world in her dystopias, I would find it interesting to see how she would grapple with topics of less cosmic dimensions, for example the microcosm of the university. This idea is, however, so far-fetched in relation to Atwood's constellation of interests that it would never come about. It is probably better that way, as such a text would certainly be a biting satire. On the other hand, Atwood has an unusual talent for expressing criticism in such a rhetorically attractive way that one does not get offended but rather one can often even be amused about it. She has, for example, an ambivalent, partially very negative image of the USA – but American readers still love her. Even more interesting from my perspective would be a North American or continental American novel, which would deal with, among other things, the current relationship between Canada and the USA. After Atwood's “(inter)national” phase up to the end of the 1980s, in which this relationship was often part of the Canadian search for identity, and her “postnational” phase starting at the beginning of the 1990s, it would be interesting to see how she would depict this exciting but also tense relationship between the neighbours USA and Canada today. But Atwood will go for other topics – she surprises us with each book anew.

HN: Margaret Atwood has been repeatedly considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize. Do you believe that she will receive this award one day? And do you believe that the Nobel Prize would be personally important to Margaret Atwood?

RN: The awarding of prizes is not always justly done, nor is it always unjust. I have believed since the end of the 1970s that one day Atwood will win this prize. In 109 years of the existence of the Nobel Prize (since 1901), not one Canadian writer has received this highest of literary prizes, which in the meantime is really a literary scandal. Even more scandalous is the fact that until now only 11% of all Nobel Prizes in literature have been given to female writers (among 106 Nobel Prize winners there have only been 12 women), although writing is definitely an area in which women are in no way inferior to men (except in prize-winning). In this alone one can see that the awarding of the Nobel Prize is not impartial. I greatly wish that literary quality will prevail and Margaret Atwood will one day win the Nobel Prize: for Canadian literature as a whole, which has also long deserved the recognition of the Nobel Prize committee, but moreover for her own literary achievements, which are Nobel-worthy. I believe that Margaret herself sees this prize with mixed feelings, as even now the hype surrounding her has become ever more difficult to control, and as is well known, one also needs peace and quiet to write. She once said to me: “I do not write to get prizes. One should not write to get prizes.” Perhaps the Nobel Prize would be still more important for a further academic-institutional recognition of Canadian literature as a whole (especially outside of Canada) than for Atwood herself – as she unquestionably already occupies a position at the literary zenith.

Reingard Nischik Wins Margaret Atwood Society ‘Best Book’ Award For Second Time

2011-01-21T10:31:00.000-05:00

Today, the Margaret Atwood Society announced the winners of the prestigious Margaret Atwood Society Awards. Among them was Engendering Genre: The Works of Margaret Atwood by UOP author Reingard Nischik.

The Best Book Award is conferred each year by the Margaret Atwood Society, an international association of scholars, teachers, and students who are devoted to the Canadian icon’s work. Five awards are given to authors in the categories of best book, best article, best dissertation, best graduate essay and best undergraduate essay. The society’s goal is to promote scholarly exchange on Atwood’s oeuvre by providing opportunities for scholars to exchange information.

Engendering Genre explores how Atwood has developed her writing to be gender-sensitive, and argues that her use of gender and genre emphasizes the gender-bias inherent in traditional genres. The book also includes the first in-depth treatment of Atwood’s cartoon art, as well as an interview with the Canadian icon.

“We were thrilled to hear of the society’s choice” said Michael O’Hearn, Director of the University of Ottawa Press. “It is wonderful to see Reingard recognized for her outstanding work.”

Reviewers have had nothing but good things to say:

"Offering interpretations of some of Atwood's best-known and less-familiar works, Nischik has written chapters that are individually strong but which together provide a way to read Atwood's oeuvre as a 'significant cultural document of our times.' Highly recommended."
-- Choice

"Nischik's strength is in the minutiae and in her close reading. This is what Atwood scholarship needs now, and Nischik provides a strong framework for anyone interested in Atwood scholarship, whether one is just starting out or an experienced scholar." -- The Goose

Congratulations, Reingard!!

To find out more about Engendering Genre, or to buy a copy of your very own, visit: http://www.press.uottawa.ca/book/engendering-genre

Le VocabulAIDE: Influences de l’anglais – vraies et prétendues – et usages en transition

2011-01-20T11:08:00.001-05:00

Un recensement du VocabulAIDE, le dictionnaire d’anglicismes rédigé par Pierre Cardinal, vient de paraître dans la revue de l’ordre des enseignantes et enseignants de l’Ontario. Pour parler profession recense des ressources utiles pour les professeurs.

Ce qu’ils ont à dire :

Tous ceux qui s’intéressent à la linguistique et à l’évolution des langues devraient feuilleter ce livre… Ce guide vous permettra de vous pencher de plus près sur votre propre usage du français et d’évaluer comment il est influencé par l’anglais. Le guide offre des solutions de rechange aux anglicismes et vous incitera à enrichir votre vocabulaire français. Pour certains, cet ouvrage semblera donner une trop grande place aux emprunts de l’anglais. Mais que vous soyez puriste ou non, ce livre prouvera, d’une façon ou d’une autre, que le français est une langue vivante et en pleine évolution dans notre culture globale. »

Pour lire le recensement au complet, cliquer le lien suivant:
http://pourparlerprofession.oeeo.ca/decembre_2010/resources/reviews.aspx#vocabulaide

Pour en savoir plus sur Le VocabulAIDE, rendez-vous au site web des presses ici:
http://www.presses.uottawa.ca/book/le-vocabulaide

Interview with Author Timothy Leduc

2011-01-17T09:12:00.000-05:00

Q: You write that research on climate change should “accept indigenous knowledge as a … source that complements science.” What do you mean by this?

The individual who most influenced my sense of Inuit understandings was Jaypeetee Arnakak. In one of our early conversations, he asked me why I and other Western climate researchers rarely ask Inuit questions about the role of wisdom in an environmental response. He saw this as part of a general tendency in Western research that tends to focus on Indigenous ecological knowledge while marginalizing cultural and spiritual understandings. Indigenous knowledge becomes an object or resource to be used rather than a complementary set of understandings that can broaden our sense of climate change.

Q: You suggest that politicians’ tendency to ‘economize’ the effects of climate change is problematic. Why is that?

It is not that economizing in itself is wrong, but that it is often defined primarily in relation to sustaining unending economic growth. On top of that, this view holds too much un-balanced power. As soon as any scientific research, cultural understanding or religious worldview conflicts with it, these perspectives become marginalized from the corridors of power. This economizing tendency is a pervasive cultural and religious belief that fuels climate change. It is what underlies the continued denial of climate change research and political statements like this one by Prime Minister Harper on the Alberta tar sands: “Digging the bitumen out of the ground, squeezing out the oil and converting it in into synthetic crude is… an enterprise of epic proportions, akin to the building of the pyramids or China’s Great Wall. Only bigger.”

Q: What do you think are some of the most important stories on climate change not being covered by the media?

I sit down in front of the TV and hear a story about climate change, and then another about the tar sands. Despite being intertwined, they are rarely discussed together. The BP oil spill is another example of this disconnect. While there were questions of ecological degradation, it was rarely discussed in relation to the need to shift from fossil fuels in a context of climate change. Whether it is the BP oil spill or tar sands, the dominant media stories focus on how to continue extracting all the resources we can while limiting the harm to the environment. These story-lines reflect the economizing cultural tendency discussed above, and I do not think the disconnection of climate and oil in the popular consciousness is sustainable.

Q: How would you rate the environmental policies of the current Canadian government?

Our government and Prime Minister Harper are, I believe, caricatures of a culture that is in denial of our situation and refuses to change. They seem rational and secular, but are in fact religious fundamentalists who hold sacred and unquestionable an oil-based approach to economic growth. That said, the Conservatives have won two minority governments and despite their questionable environmental positions are still performing well enough in the national polls to maintain power. Canadians are very much a part of the uncertain future that is being imposed on not only the north, but also our children and grandchildren. Climate change is a cultural problem that the Conservative government symbolizes in extreme form, as did American President G. W. Bush and his Republican administration.

Q: How do you envision Canada moving forward to tackle climate change?

Obviously a change in government would be one step forward, but I do not believe that in itself will solve our problem. The issue goes far beyond political parties, for it is grounded in cultural beliefs like never-ending economic growth and the power of technology to solve any crisis. These issues pervade most aspects of all our lives. It is for this reason that I agree with the late John Livingston’s statement that “there can be no technical answer to a moral problem.” There are no band-aid solutions to the climatic situation we find ourselves in.

To find out more about Leduc's new book Climate, Culture, Change visit: http://www.press.uottawa.ca/book/climate-culture-change

To read the interview in full, visit climateculturechange.wordpress.com

Engendering Genre: The Works of Margaret Atwood

2011-01-04T11:22:00.001-05:00

The online journal The Goose has published a review of Engendering Genre: The Works of Margaret Atwood by Reingard M. Nischik, which was published by the UOP in early 2010.

This interesting volume studies the relationship between gender and genre in Margaret Atwood’s writing, and includes an intriguing look at some of her cartoon art - some of which is reprinted in the book. It also includes a lighthearted interview with the great Canadian author, titled “From Survivalwoman to Literary Icon” whose topics range from Atwood's beginnings as a cartoonist, to her many pseudonyms, to ways of outfoxing troublesome squirrels.

Nischik is a renowned Atwood scholar, who has authored or edited more than 25 books. She is the Chair of North American Literature at the University of Constance, in Germany.

This is some of what Jill E. Anderson, from The Goose, had to say:

"The range and depth of Margaret Atwood's literary and artistic work deserves a thorough study such as Reingard Nischik's. Covering the thematic and generic assortment of Atwood's work, Nischik lays before readers the spread of Atwood's talent from her first poetry collection, Double Persephone, published in 1961, through Atwood's poetry, novels, short stories and essays, film adaptations (both aborted and produced), criticism, illustrations, and cartoons. [...] Nischik is not intimidated by the hugeness and range of Atwood's oeuvre, and she shows her strength particularly in discussing the visual aspects of Atwood's work."

To read the entire review, visit The Goose online at:
http://www.alecc.ca/goose.php

You will find the review at the bottom of page 49.

Top 10 of 2010

2010-12-22T15:37:00.001-05:00

Things are winding down at the UOP today as we prepare for the coming holiday season. The press will but shutting down along with the rest of the university for our annual Christmas holiday - from December 23 until January 4, 2011. Since 2011 is right around the corner, we figured it was a great time to look back on the year, and what better way to do that than the ubiquitous Top 10 list?

So here it is -- the UOP's Top 10 of 2010!!

Happy Holidays, and see you next year!!

Je l’ai entendu à la radio : le Dictionnaire des écrits de l’Ontario français

2010-12-15T12:29:00.002-05:00

À vrai dire, l’émission Grands Lacs Café est le rendez-vous radiophonique de la fin de semaine pour les Franco-Ontariens. Il n’y a pas longtemps, Gaetan Gervais et Jean-Pierre Pichette on fait la visite avec animateur Éric Robitaille.

L’excellente entrevue avec les codirecteurs de la nouvelle parution Dictionnaire des écrits de l’Ontario français a été diffusée le 4 décembre à la Première Chaîne de Radio-Canada.

Voici un extrait :

« C’est le moment de vous en parler de ce Dictionnaire des écrits de l’Ontario français 1613-1993. L’aboutissement d’une entreprise qui a été lancé en 1992 – ça fait 30 ans qu’on travaille là-dessus et enfin le projet se concrétise, se matérialise. Ça tombe bien aussi parce que le livre est publié l’année du 400e anniversaire de la présence francophone en Ontario avec les premiers voyages d’Étienne Brulé et Samuel de Champlain dans la baie Georgienne.

L’ouvrage - je l’ai reçu en primeur, il est beau, il est impressionnant, c’est une brique, il est magnifique, c’est une travaille colossale, minutieux. J'ai eu la chance de parler cette semaine avec quelques-uns des principaux artisans du dictionnaire, dont les deux codirecteurs du projet l’historien Gaetan Gervais et puis l’ethnologue Jean-Pierre Pichette … »

Pour écouter l’entrevue, cliquez le lien suivant :

Dictionnaire des écrits de l'Ontario français
Sujet: Reportage sur une oeuvre colossale et essentielle pour les francophones d'ici

Author Reading

2010-12-14T11:36:00.000-05:00

For those of you looking for something to do on Saturday night, here’s some information about an event of the literary persuasion!

UOP author Gregory Betts (The Wrong World: Selected Stories and Essays of Bertram Brooker) will be doing a poetry reading along with Jeanette Lynes. The event is part of the AB series, which presents audiences in the Ottawa-area with experimental, sound and performance poetry readings.

The event is being held this Saturday, December 18th at the Mercury Lounge in the Byward Market. Doors open at 7:30pm and the revelry will begin at 8:00pm. For more information, visit the AB series website at http://abseries.org/

Lancement collectif au CRCCF

2010-12-08T13:17:00.001-05:00

Le Centre de recherche en civilisation canadienne-française de l’Université d’Ottawa vous invite au lancement collectif du CRCCF demain soir, le 9 décembre, à 16 heures. Le lancement sera l’occasion de présenter sur scène les dernières parutions du CRCCF.

Onze publications y seront présentées, y inclut les Cahiers Charlevoix n° 8 rédigé sous la direction de la Société Charlevoix et le Dictionnaire des écrits de l’Ontario français rédigé sous la direction de Gétan Gervais et Jean-Pierre Pichette.

Open publication - Free publishing - More livres

100 Awesome Books - And We Made the Cut!

2010-11-29T15:30:00.004-05:00

Great news! The University of Ottawa Press' premier edition of Sofia Tolstaya's memoirs, entitled My Life, was selected for the 2010 Globe 100: Non Fiction list.

We are extremely excited to have been chosen. To see the complete listing, as well as the lists for Canadian and International Fiction, visit www.theglobeandmail.com

For more information about My Life, visit the University of Ottawa Press website at the following link: http://www.press.uottawa.ca/book/my-life

Meet the 2010 winner of the Governor General's Literary Awards!

2010-11-24T11:41:00.001-05:00

For those of you who are looking for something to do this evening, you may want to head down to the ByWard Market for a literary meet-and-greet!

Those of you who venture out will have the opportunity to meet the winners of the 2010 GGs, and have your books signed. The winners include novelists, non-fiction writers, poets, playwrights, illustrators and translators from across the country.

The English-language winners will be gathered at Nicholas Hoare Books, 419 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, and the French-language winners will be at the Librairie du Soleil, 33 George Street, Ottawa.

The event takes place from 6-8pm so if you're lucky, you may even have the opportunity to check out both locations!

For a complete event details and more information on the winners, visit the website of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Finding the Feminine Side of Engineering

2010-11-19T13:44:00.003-05:00

An excellent article appeared in the autumn issue of the UK magazine Engineering Apprentice. Writer Ross Ringham had a chat with UOP author Monique Frize about her book The Bold and the Brave: A History of Women in Science and Engineering. They spoke about issues facing women in Engineering, and what needs to be done in both the education system and in the industry itself to achieve gender balance.

Here is some of what Frize had to say:

Increasing the pool of women engineers requires that policies, strategies and initiatives be invested at each level of education, from primary school, to college, to university. We must profile women and their work for generations to come, so that girls think, "I can also do this," and boys think, "Girls and women can also do this."

Equally important is the integration of feminine attributes and perspectives into the culture of engineering and technology, ensuring social relevance is included in the curriculum and using a teaching style that reaches a diversity of audiences.

Engineering needs women more than women need engineering roles. Women currently flock in great numbers to health-related careers, which are in great demand everywhere with the ageing population. So we must find the way to achieve more gender balance, and a culture where women no longer have to be bold and brave to choose engineering careers.

To read the full article, visit the Engineering Apprentice website. You may be asked to create an account to view the article, but it is very simple, and there is no cost.

Frize was selected by Professional Engineers Ontario and the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers to receive their annual Gold Medal for achievement in the field of engineering. The gold medal will be presented at a Gala tomorrow evening.

Congratulations, Monique!!

Entrevue avec Denyse Côté, codirectrice de l'ouvrage « Famille et fragmentation »

2010-11-15T11:08:00.003-05:00

Cette semaine, une entrevue intéressante au sujet de la garde partagée sera diffusée dans le cadre de l'émission « C'est ça la vie » à l'antenne de Radio-Canada. L’invitée est professeure Denyse Côté, codirectrice de l'ouvrage intitulé « Famille et fragmentation » qui a été codirigé avec Marie-Blanche Tahon.

L'entrevue sera diffusée à l'antenne de Radio-Canada, le 17 novembre entre 14 h et 15 h.

University Affairs article: The woman behind Tolstoy

2010-11-12T15:48:00.002-05:00

Earlier this week, the magazine University Affairs/Affaires Universitaires published a short article about the publication of My Life -- the memoirs of Sofia Tolstaya, wife of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy.

Writer Carolyn Wong interviewed UOP's Managing Editor Marie Clausén for a unique look at the production aspect of this massive project.

She writes:

"It took two years for Dr. Donskov and a team of two translators (John Woodsworth and Arkadi Klioutchanski, both members of the Slavic Research Group) and press staff to ready the book for publishing. With more than 1,200 pages to translate, scores of names and details to fact-check with experts in Russia, and 4,000 footnotes to create and index, managing editor Marie Clausén describes My Life as “the biggest and most complex book project I have ever worked on.”

With the book successfully completed and launched, Dr. Donskov has turned his attention to writing a critical study of Sofia’s work; none has ever been published in English. “She was an extremely bright woman,” he says. “What is most remarkable [about My Life] is if she had been given a chance, she would have been a very accomplished writer.”

To read the full article, visit the following link:
http://www.universityaffairs.ca/the-woman-behind-tolstoy-tells-her-story.aspx

Lancement de la nouvelle collection aux PUO: 'Traduction littéraire'

2010-11-11T15:04:00.001-05:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More lancement

Lest we forget...

2010-11-11T09:33:00.000-05:00

    In Flanders fields the poppies blow
    Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
    Scarce heard amid the guns below.

    We are the Dead. Short days ago
    We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
    In Flanders Fields.

    Take up our quarrel with the foe:
    To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
    We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
    In Flanders Fields.

- John McCrae

Évènement: les cultural studies comme projet transdisciplinaire

2010-11-10T12:00:00.003-05:00

Les PUO vous invite à la conférence de Boulou Ebanda de B'béri, auteur de la récente parution Les Cultural Studies dans les mondes francophones. Boulou Ebanda de B'béri est professeur au département de communications et directeur-fondateur du Laboratoire des médias audiovisuels pour l'étude des cultures et sociétés (LAMACS) de l’Université d’Ottawa.

L’évènement s’agit d’une reflection sur les ‘cultural studies’ comme projet transdisciplinaire.

Coordonnées de l'événement:

Jeudi 11 novembre 2010, 16h30 à 18h
Pavillon Desmarais (DMS 3105)
Université d'Ottawa

Spotlight on Tom Symons, founder of Trent University

2010-11-10T09:25:00.007-05:00

It looks like The Peterborough Examiner has scooped the UOP! Our publicist was surprised to find a link to this article in her inbox this morning, and incredibly impressed with how quickly the news has gotten out about one of our yet-to-be announced titles: Tom Symons, A Canadian Life. This project is so new to the UOP that we haven't yet prepared marketing copy on the title, so for today, we'll let The Examiner do the talking.
Ed Arnold writes:

Peterborough's (we can proudly call him that now since he's lived here for more than four decades, can't we?) Tom Symons, the founder of Trent University, is being recognized with a new book on his professional life. Symons, who has more letters after his name than the alphabet, is one of Canada's educational/ cultural icons and has been for more than 50 years.

The book will be published next year by the University of Ottawa Press and, according to the alumni association newsletter, will tell "the story of Symons's leadership across many areas of Canadian and international life over the past 60 years."

The book Tom Symons, A Canadian Life will have a chapter by Denis Smith, Trent's first vice president, that is to be all about the university's first decade. Other chapters will look at Symons's national unity, Canadian, cultural, heritage and commonwealth roles. Various people including Walter Pitman, John Fraser, Rosalie Abella, ad Tom McMillan, will write chapters.

It's about time.

You can access the article here: http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2835626

We're happy to know that Peterborough locals are as excited about the book as we are, and we'll be sure to send The Examiner a review copy!

Launch: The Doom Loop in the Financial Sector, by William Leiss

2010-11-09T15:17:00.006-05:00

Come one, come all, to the launch of William Leiss' latest book:
The Doom Loop in the Financial Sector and Other Black Holes of Risk.

Open publication - Free publishing - More william leiss

Nouveauté des PUO: Droits et voix, la criminologie à l'Université d'Ottawa

2010-11-09T09:00:00.007-05:00

Dernièrement, le bulletin de découverte et d‘invention de l’Université d’Ottawa, Perspectives sur la recherche, a annoncé la parution d’une des nouveautés des Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa. L’œuvre est intitulée Droits et voix : La criminologie à l’Université d’Ottawa et a été rédigé sous la direction de Véronique Strimelle et Françoise Vanhamme..

Pour en lire plus: http://www.recherche.uottawa.ca/perspectives/

Open publication - Free publishing - More vieillissement

War and Peace, Love and Marriage, Globe and Mail

2010-11-08T10:22:00.001-05:00

We are thrilled to announce that an excellent article about Sofia Tolstaya's My Life appeared in Saturday's Globe and Mail. The article, called War and peace, love and marriage: How the University of Ottawa Press nabbed the rights to a memoir by Tolstoy's long-suffering wife was written by Jeremy Mesiano-Crookston,a local freelance writer.

Here's an excerpt:

In the academic world, Leo (Lev Nikolaevich) Tolstoy is a colossus. He’s talked about, read, discussed, dissected and forms a pillar of studies of the novel itself. So how did the written memoirs of Tolstoy’s indomitable wife, Sofia Tolstaya (the Russian feminine version of Tolstoy), one of the most important and anticipated works in modern Tolstoy scholarship, land at a university press in Canada’s capital city? As with most things in academia, it involves an almost obsessive love of the subject, and lots of time.

Twelve years ago, the University of Ottawa formed the Slavic Research Group under the direction of Andrew Donskov, a world-renowned Tolstoy expert. Since its inception, the group has produced nearly 40 volumes of high-calibre work. “I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that ours would be called the centre of Tolstoy studies in North America,” Donskov says. [...] Over the years, Donskov worked in [Russia], published jointly with the Russian museums and organizations and eventually became the only foreign scholar on the editorial board of the Russian Academy of Sciences. When Tolstaya’s memoirs were scheduled to be printed in Russia as a coffee-table book, Donskov was entrusted with creating the full scholarly edition, as well as the obligation to treat the material as seriously as it deserved.

To read more, visit the Globe and Mail website at the following link:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/how-a-canadian-university-nabbed-the-rights-to-the-memoirs-of-tolstoys-wife/article1786973/page1/

Black Holes of Risk: author W.Leiss featured in Research Perspectives

2010-11-04T12:14:00.003-04:00

UOP author William Leiss was recently featured in the magazine Research Perspectives. The issue, which focussed on risk, was the perfect place to showcase one of our newest titles: The Doom Loop in the Financial Sector: And Other Black Holes of Risk

The book, which hit shelves last week, tells an important story about uncontrolled risk, set against the backdrop of the global financial crisis.

Leiss is a nationally recognized risk management expert and an Associate-Director at the McLaughlin Center for Population Health Risk Assessment. He's a Fellow and former President of the Royal Society of Canada, and an Officer in the Order of Canada. Overall, he has written or edited over 15 books, including Risk and Responsibility and my favourite: Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk, both of which were published by McGill Queen's University Press.

Open publication - Free publishing - More risk

Two-for-One Book Launch Tomorrow!

2010-11-01T13:34:00.001-04:00

A launch will be held tomorrow evening for two of our recent titles: The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: Hungarian and Canadian Perspectives edited by Christopher Adam, Tibor Egervari, Leslie Laczko and Judy Young, as well as Gender and Modernity in Central Europe edited by Agatha Schwartz.

If you're planning on being at the uOttawa campus tomorrow, we encourage you to come out and support the wonderful folks who made these (very attractive) books possible.

Calling all professors!

2010-10-29T10:27:00.001-04:00

We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for post-secondary instructors to order examination and desk copies from us. Gone are the days of trolling through our site, finally finding that book you want, and then having to fish out an email or a fax number from our contact info. Now, when you land upon that perfect title for your class, it’s one click to our examination copy request form.

You’ll find the link to the form next to the cover image of the book. When you click that link, you’ll be brought to a form that gathers all the information we need from you. The ISBN of the book you want to order is automatically populated into the form so we can find it instantly. You can add the title or the ISBN of one or two other books. (We kindly ask that you request no more than 3 books a term.)

You’ll get a response from one of our staff to let you know the book is on its way. And we may follow up with you in a few months to see what you thought. Pretty easy, eh?

So this is the last in our series on our new website. We touched on the high points and we hope that you’ll check out the site to see what else has changed. Overall, we think we’ve made a much more informative and user-friendly site.

But we what we think doesn’t matter that much – what are your thoughts?

"Stop, that's my X-ray!" The true story behind the discovery of DNA

2010-10-27T13:40:00.008-04:00

Interesting find today while looking through the archive of Hark, a Vagrant! a web-comic drawn by Canada’s own Kate Beaton. Here’s the comic:

Hark, A Vagrant! by Kate Beaton

The comic depicts Rosalind Franklin, James Watson and Francis Crick. Do the names ring any bells?

If they do, it’s likely Watson and Crick, and you are likely remembering a 9th grade science lesson on the men attributed with the discovery of the structure of DNA. They, along with a gentleman named Maurice Wilkins, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this breakthrough in 1962.

The question some people now ask is – did they deserve it, or should someone else’s name have been included on the list of recipients for the Nobel Prize?

The thing is, their discovery was due in large part to an X-ray belonging to Rosalind Franklin, who was also in the race to discover the structure of DNA. Watson himself attributes his original identification of the of DNA to Franklin’s X-ray. In his autobiography, The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, Watson wrote: “The instant I saw the picture, my mouth fell open and my pulse began to rush. The pattern was unbelievable…” (167)

The controversy revolves around how they got the X-ray in the first place. How did Franklin’s research end up in the hands of Watson and Crick? Did they misappropriate it? Was it stolen from Franklin’s lab with the help of Maurice Wilkins, her co-researcher? (Wilkins’ name, you’ll notice, IS on the list of Nobel Prize laureates for 1962.)

Either way, it’s a tragic demonstration of how a woman’s contribution to a major event is often downplayed or completely ignored by the scientific community. And, while the actual event may not have played out exactly as the comic portrays -- it's still pushes us to think about what it would have been like for women trying to make it in a time that was not always kind, or even fair, to women.

Interestingly enough, we recently published a book titled The Bold and the Brave: A History of Women in Science and Engineering which touches on Franklin’s work, as well as on the work of other pioneers in science such as Mileva Einstein and Sophie Germain. If you are interested in learning more about the lives and contributions these women made to science, check it out!

Letting it all hang out (on Google Books)

2010-10-22T10:08:00.000-04:00

This being Open Access week, we decided to highlight our Open Access collection. 14 new books are now available through Open Access, which brings the total number of Open Access Books available through the UOP to 50!

The entire collection can be viewed through the University of Ottawa’s institutional repository, uO Research, at the following link: http://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/en/handle/10393/12941 The books are browse-able by title, author and date, and is also fully searchable.

But we also have the complete list on our website, which you can find here: http://www.press.uottawa.ca/open-access

You can browse the books alphabetically by title. For the finished website we will have a design feature to identify the Open Access titles, which will make them easier to browse by subject, collection and author as well. Do you have any suggestions on how we can make these books really stand out?

But let’s cut to the chase: you want to read these Open Access books, don’t you? They are free after all. Click through to the title you want to read and click on the icon for “Google Preview” next to the cover image. BAM! It’s not a preview – it’s the whole book! Read it in the pop-up on our site or click through to Google Books to get a larger screen view.

And we’re also using Google Preview throughout the site to give you a taste of our other books.

If a book doesn’t have a Google Preview icon on its page, check back soon – we’re always adding more titles to Google Books.

uOttawa celebrates Open Access Week!

2010-10-19T12:04:00.000-04:00

The University of Ottawa community is celebrating Open Access this week, as we come together to highlight the benefits of Open Access and its importance in the dissemination of research.

If you're looking for a bit of a backgrounder on Open Access and what this is all about, the Open Access Week website, located at http://www.openaccessweek.org/ is a great resource. According to the site,

"Open Access Week is a global event now entering its fourth year, is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research. [...]

This year’s Open Access Week (October 18 – 24) will highlight the collaboration and collective action that have heightened the momentum behind Open Access and showcase a broad range of initiatives around the globe. Participation by hundreds of universities, research facilities, and other sites worldwide will illustrate the depth and breadth of support for Open Access and demonstrate the real impact of unfettered access on advancing discovery across disciplines."

Check out the video below to learn more about how the University of Ottawa is participating. The best part is that around the 15 minute mark, the UOP is mentioned!

Open Access Week 2010 from SPARC on Vimeo.

So you want to be a UOP author…

2010-10-15T09:35:00.000-04:00

Our editor, Eric Nelson, had a big influence on our new website. He wanted to see more information available for people interested in publishing with us. Well Eric, you got what you wanted!

A comprehensive submission guide is now found in the “Info” section of the site, complete with standard editorial schedules, documents for download and contact information.

If you’ve ever wondered whether you could publish with the UOP, you can find answers here: http://www.press.uottawa.ca/info/submissions

I can’t imagine we missed anything (I think we went through eight drafts of that page!) but on the off chance that we have, let us know and we’ll fill in the gaps.

Officially unpacked (almost)

2010-10-12T09:35:00.000-04:00

It's official: the renovations at 542 King Edward are complete, we have moved back from our temporary offices, and we have unpacked 99% of all our things. After approximately 500 boxes, 3000 Post-Its, 10 rolls of packing tape and a whole lot of work later, we're done. Almost. But, I have a feeling the last few boxes will take a *long* time to unpack.

Here are some pictures of the completed renovations and the people around the press. Everyone would like you to know that their bulletin boards are usually much more crowded, in case they gave off the impression that they weren't busy.

Also note - the photographs are blurry and horrible because they had to be taken on the sly.

The UOP entry, as seen from above.

The entry, as seen by someone entering UOP, and Marie trying to hide in plain sight.

New kitchenette

Rebecca (left) and Mariam hard at work.

Mariam

Mireille pretending to work

Marie, Managing Editor

Eric, Aquisitions Editor, embarrassed.

Mike, our Director, caught unawares.

Lola, working hard.

A serious conversation.

Marketing office

Jessica, smiley as ever.

Photos from the launch of Sofia Tolstoy's memoirs

2010-10-12T09:01:00.001-04:00

Here are some great pictures that were taken Wednesday evening during the launch of My Life, the memoirs of Sofia Andreevna Tolstaya. Thanks to Peter Thornton for providing us with the photographs.

Front row, left to right: François Houle,Vice-President Academic and Provost; Andrew Donskov, Editor of My Life; Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, uOttawa student.

Back row: Dmitry Avdeev, First Secretary to the Russian Ambassador; Antoni Lewkowicz, Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa; John Woodsworth, Translator of My Life; Michael O’Hearn, Director of the University of Ottawa Press; Roman Shevchenko, Third Secretary to the Russian Ambassador, Arkadi Klioutchanksi, Translator of My Life.

Michael O’Hearn, Director of the University of Ottawa Press

Andrew Donskov, Editor of My Life

Unknown attendee

Unknown guests

Arkadi Klioutchanski, Translator of My Life

Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, student; Arkadi Klioutchanski and John Woodsworth, Translators of My Life

John Woodsworth, Translator of My Life

Antoni Lewkowicz, Dean, Faculty of Arts; Dmitry Avdeev, First Secretary to the Russian Ambassador; crowd

UOP Renovations at Home and Online

2010-10-08T11:09:00.001-04:00

You may have heard that our offices underwent renovations not that long ago. At the same time, we were renovating our online home – our website. You may have already noticed the changes.

For the month of October, we’ll be posting a little note each week about a new feature on our website. We’d like for you to try it out and let us know what you think. Consider it an informal beta test.

And just so we can get the obvious out of the way, we'll start with the shopping cart. Yes, you can now buy UOP books in the comfort of your own home, regardless of where you are! We’ll ship them to you and in no time you’ll be enjoying your very own UOP book.

Our entire catalogue is up there, so go nuts. Seriously. And let us know how you felt about your shopping experience.

UOP Home Page: http://www.press.uottawa.ca/

Launch Tonight! Sofia Tolstoy’s memoirs out at last.

2010-10-06T11:45:00.000-04:00

The UOP office is gearing up for a great day today, despite the inclement weather.

Today we will be celebrating the launch of what was probably the most complicated publication the press has ever undertaken: My Life, the memoirs of Sofia Andreevna Tolstaya. The book was edited by Andrew Donskov and translated from its original Russian by John Woodsworth and Arkadi Klioutchanski.

It’s great to know that all of our hard work has paid off and that we’ve made it through the process unscathed and with amazing results. We’ve put together a book that is physically striking, (and not only because of its size: it weighs 2.6 kilos!) that is on a interesting and truly important topic, is well researched, well written, well translated, and just generally well done.

But don’t take it from me – take a look at what others are saying:

CBC News – Tolstoy’s Wife Gets to Tell her Story
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/10/05/tolstoy-memoir.html

Ottawa Citizen – Inside the World of Tolstoy
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Inside+world+Tolstoy/3629657/story.html

If you are interested in attending tonight’s launch – please feel free to come! It will be held this evening, at 5pm at the University of Ottawa campus.

For complete information on the launch, visit the following link: http://www.press.uottawa.ca/news/launch-of-my-life

Charles Le Blanc nommé gagnant du prix littéraire Victor-Barbeau

2010-09-24T11:21:00.002-04:00

C’est avec le plus grand plaisir que les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa annoncent que Charles Le Blanc, auteur de l’ouvrage Le complexe d’Hermès: Regards philosophiques sur la traduction a été choisi comme lauréat du prix Victor-Barbeau de l’essai, par le jury de l’Académie des Lettres du Québec. Le prix Victor-Barbeau est accordé chaque année à un auteur pour un essai qui est jugé de très grande qualité par un jury formé de trois membres de l'Académie.

Le Blanc est né à Jonquière en 1965. Il a fait des études en philosophie à l’Université Laval, où il a reçu son doctorat en 1995. Spécialiste de philosophie allemande classique, il est l’auteur de l’anthologie La forme poétique du monde (José Corti, 2003).

Traducteur chevronné, M. Le Blanc est le principal spécialiste francophone de Georg Christoph Lichtenberg dont il a assuré l’édition critique en français (José Corti, 1997). Formé à la philosophie de Kierkegaard, il a traduit et préfacé un de ses ouvrages intitulé Crainte et tremblement (Payot & Rivages, 2000) et a publié une monographie sur sa pensée (Les Belles Lettres, 1998).

Il est aussi l’auteur de quatre livres jeunesse : Contes et légendes de la nature enchantée (Nathan, 2004), Contes et légendes des fantômes et revenants (Nathan, 2004), Contes et légendes des vikings (sous le pseudonyme Lars Haraldson, Nathan, 2002) et Contes et légendes du Québec (Nathan, 1999).

Le complexe d’Hermès, un travail de réflexion sur la traduction – est un ouvrage pour lequel il a l’honneur d’être finaliste pour les Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général 2009 et gagnant du Prix Victor-Barbeau 2010. Il est professeur agrégé à l’École de traduction et d’interprétation à l’Université d’Ottawa. Il habite à Gatineau, Québec.

Pour en savoir plus, consulter le site web de l’Académie des lettres du Québec: http://www.academiedeslettresduquebec.ca/

UOP’s Having a Party – and you’re invited!

2010-09-21T10:39:00.001-04:00

As you know, we’re gearing up for the launch of Sofia Tolstaya’s memoirs, which will be held in T-minus 15 days!

It’s shaping up to be a classy event; held in the Tabaret Hall, with live musicians, some distinguished speakers (including the Russian Ambassador!) great food, and good company.

We invite all those who are interested in learning more about the project to come out and celebrate with us!

You’ll find the invitation below. Please make sure to RSVP!! Here's the link: http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/eng/rsvp/register.php?event=8

Gold Medal Author

2010-09-15T11:22:00.001-04:00

Hearty congratulations go out to UOP author Monique Frize,who was selected as the recipient of the Gold Medal which is awarded by Professional Engineers Ontario and the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers. The gold medal will be presented at a ceremony on November 20, 2010.

Frize will be adding the medal to an already enviable list of accomplishments. She began her distinguished career when she graduated as the first woman to earn a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering at the University of Ottawa. Her credentials, both as an engineer and as an advocate for women’s equality, are simply astounding. Following her undergraduate work, Frize earned a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London (UK), a Master’s of Business Administration at the Université de Moncton, and a doctorate from Erasmus Universiteit in Rotterdam (The Netherlands).

She has been awarded five Honorary Doctorates, and was inducted as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 1992 and Officer of the Order of Canada in 1993.

For more information, see the news release on Carleton University's website:
http://www2.carleton.ca/newsroom/news-releases/carleton-professor-honoured-by-ontario-engineers/

UOP Teams Up With Symtext to Offer Customizable Textbooks

2010-09-14T11:12:00.000-04:00

The UOP team is happy to announce that we’ve begun working with Symtext Corp., a new and innovative platform for educators, learners and publishers, that allows users to manage and deliver digital instructional materials.

The Symtext platform allows educators to create something called Liquid Textbooks – which are individually customized digital textbooks that can include a wide range of materials, including:

texts from diverse publishers
personal material
presentations
videos
photos
podcasts
basically anything else a teacher/prof could think of

For professors, this new ability to completely customize content means that they have the opportunity to create the perfect course book by combining a variety of learning materials from multiple sources. They also have the opportunity to enrich content with annotations and personal comments. Students also benefit because the liquid textbooks are generally cheaper, and they have the opportunity to add and share materials with classmates, or comment or ask questions within their digital textbook.

So far, forty-two UOP (new & backlist) titles have been made available through the Symtext platform, which in turn have been ‘chunked’ into 523 separate parts. At the moment, the platform only supports English material, so our French titles are not available through Symtext.

Other publishers are taking part in the project as well. Over 70 publishers are making material available on the platform, including Oxford University Press (Canada), McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Harvard Business Publishing, MIT Sloan Management Review, Broadview Publishing, Jones and Bartlett, University of Western Ontario's Ivey Publishing, Wilfrid Laurier University's School of Business and Economics case group, and the University of British Columbia Press.

The Liquid textbooks are available online, through Print-on-Demand, and will shortly be available for Apple’s new iPad.

See how it works:

For more information, check out this article in the Toronto Star:
http://www.thestar.com/business/smallbusiness/article/813864--symtext-aims-to-build-the-textbook-of-tomorrow

Or Symtext’s website: http://www.symtext.com/

And if you’re really interested, and would like to see a list of available UOP titles in the platform, you can contact Rebecca Ross at rebecca.ross@uottawa.ca or 613.562.5800 x2854

Charles Le Blanc Choisit Comme Finaliste du Prix Littéraire Victor Barbeau

2010-09-13T12:23:00.001-04:00

Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa ont le plaisir d’annoncer que Charles Le Blanc, auteur de l’ouvrage Le complexe d’Hermès: Regards philosophiques sur la traduction a été retenu comme finaliste pour le prix Victor-Barbeau de l’essai, par le jury de l’Académie des Lettres du Québec.

L’Académie des Lettres du Québec décerne ses prix littéraires depuis 1983. Le prix Victor-Barbeau est accordé chaque année à un auteur pour un essai qui est jugé de très grande qualité par un jury formé de trois membres de l'Académie.

La cérémonie de remise des prix aura lieu le mercredi 22 septembre, 19h, à l’auditorium de la Grande Bibliothèque à Montréal.

Charles Le Blanc est professeur agrégé pour l’École de traduction et d’interprétation à l’Université d’Ottawa. Il est auteur et traducteur de plusieurs ouvrages, notamment De interpretatione recta - De la traduction parfaite, Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa, Ottawa, 2008 et Kierkegaard : Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 1998. Il habite à Gatineau, Québec.

Pour en apprendre plus au sujet du livre Le complexe d’Hermès, visitez :
http://www.press.uottawa.ca/book/le-complexe-d%E2%80%99hermes

Pour en savoir plus au sujet du prix, consulter le site web de l’Académie des lettres du Québec: http://www.academiedeslettresduquebec.ca/

Les lois du Canada selon la couleur de la peau

2010-09-09T12:35:00.000-04:00

Nous sommes fières de vous annoncer que notre publication De la couleur des lois : Une histoire juridique du racisme au Canada entre 1900 et 1950, écrite par Constance Backhouse, a servi
d’ inspiration pour une émission récente des Chemins de travers. L’émission a été diffusée dimanche dernier de 20h00 à 23h00 à la Première Chaîne de Radio-Canada.

Puisque les Nations unies ont déclaré 2011 l’année internationale des personnes d'ascendance africaine, animateur Serge Bouchard s'est inspiré pour parler de l'histoire juridique du racisme au Canada. Son invité, Maître Julius Grey, est un avocat canadien renommé et professeur de droit à l’université McGill. Ensemble, ils discutent d’un sujet parfois difficile, mais très intéressant.

Pour en savoir plus, ou pour écouter l’émission au complet, visitez le site web de l’émission Les chemins de travers à l’adresse suivante :

http://www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/les_chemins_de_travers/2009-2010/chronique.asp?idChronique=118316

Un gros merci à la recherchiste Lise Maynard pour avoir facilité ce projet!

Moving again!

2010-09-02T14:51:00.000-04:00

Well, it's the Thursday before the long weekend, and UOP staffers are packing up and getting ready to leave 705 King Edward, which has been our temporary home since mid-July. It seems that renovations at 542 are close to complete, and things should be all set for us to resume our regular operations on Wednesday September 6, 2010.

A couple things to keep in mind:

Friday is moving day, so staff will be working from home as best they can.

Until Wednesday September 6, phones will not be operational - so contacting us via email is a better bet.
We're crossing our fingers for no delays, but Murphy's law says...stuff happens.

I think that's everything - now I'm off to find the packing tape.

Have a good long weekend, everyone!

Sofia's Side of the Story

2010-08-26T15:04:00.005-04:00

Right now the press is gearing up for the release of “My Life,” which should be printed and bound in the next week or so. We’ve set a date for the launch, and we’re working on the invitations, the guest list, and doing all the grunt work it takes to pull off an event for over a hundred people. Never having published anything of this magnitude before, I think we’re all feeling the pressure a little bit, but so far everything has been going well (knock on wood!)

We were fortunate enough to be featured in an article in the Ottawa Citizen Sunday, announcing the publication of My Life and giving a bit of an introduction to Sofia.

It was nice to see the volume treated as such an accessible text, because that has been one of my challenges in publicizing it. At 1200 pages, it’s a little daunting, and it’s certainly important to stress the academic significance of this treasure trove of information on Tolstoy, but it’s also important to note that it is very easy and interesting to read!

Read the article

Sneak peek @ Sofia Tolstoy's memoirs!

2010-08-20T12:05:00.009-04:00

Yesterday, our managing editor Marie Clausén went to oversee the printing of our upcoming book My Life, otherwise known as the long lost memoirs of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoya.

If the name doesn’t ring a bell immediately, here’s a little background.

Sofia was the wife of the celebrated writer and philosopher Leo Tolstoy, who wrote such classics as War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and The Kreutzer Sonata. In her memoirs, she gives readers an intimate look into the life of her family and a unique portrait of late-19th-century and early-20th-century Russia. To find out more about the book, visit the website.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the printing of the book:

Tolstaya press check @ Solisco Tri-Graphic - the cheerful chap in charge of printing the full-colour image inserts

Checking the colour levels...

Colour insert sample page

Boxed signatures

Isn't that neat? Thanks to Marie for sharing the pictures!

Old Saying, New Outlook

2010-08-18T11:17:00.006-04:00

The Journal of Ecclesiastical History published a short review of our recent title Tous les chemins mènent à Rome, in their July 2010 issue.

The review, written in English by Christopher F. Black of Glasgow University, can be accessed in PDF format at the following link: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History

Rénovations aux PUO

2010-08-17T13:05:00.012-04:00

Notre édifice

Réception

Escaliers

Bureau de Marketing

La place pour notre nouvelle petite cuisinette

Bureau de Marie, Secrétaire générale d'édition

Voici quelques photos des rénovations aux PUO! Nous espérons que les entrepreneurs seront finies par la fin de la semaine prochaine. C’est bien beau, n’est ce pas?

The Wrong ... Review?

2010-08-13T11:04:00.001-04:00

Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review, has published a review of the UOP’s newest title from the Canadian Literature Collection. The Wrong World, edited by Gregory Betts, is a collection of previously unpublished works of Betram Brooker, a Canadian pioneer in the realms of literature, visual arts, film, and theatre.

I’m always happy when writers from Canadian Literature review our books, because we at the UOP love our Can Lit. (Don't believe me? Take a look at our backlist – we’ve got everything from Susanna Moodie, to Stephen Leacock, to Northrop Frye and Margaret Atwood.)

I have to admit I got a little over-excited when I read the first line: “Every so often a text comes along that changes how things are done...” and then realized that the comment wasn’t directed towards our volume, but was referring to the other book featured in the review (Reasoning Otherwise: Leftists and the People's Enlightenment in Canada, 1890-1920 written by Ian McKay and published by Between the Lines.)

When it comes to reviews, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.

All in all, Bart Vautour has some pretty nice things to say:

Betts has done a great service to the study of modernism in Canada by recovering and arranging these texts. This collection has great pedagogical potential and can contribute much to a rethinking of how modernism is taught in Canada. Part of the text’s usefulness for teaching is its accompanying website (www.press.uottawa.ca) which contains supplementary material such as biographical information, essays and short stories that are not included in the collection, and study questions for the texts that are included. The strength of this collection lies in the fact that it is geared to help both literary scholars do the work of reconnaissance that Ian McKay advocates and that is so important for the study of modernism in Canada while it also facilitates the ability of a new generation of students to do that same work.

To read the review in its entirety, visit the Canadian Literature website, and then scroll down the page for a bit before you start to read. ;)

Monique Frize: Catalyst, Activist, Advocate

2010-08-05T13:48:00.002-04:00

Tabaret Magazine has published a shiny new cover story featuring Monique Frize, author of The Bold and the Brave. The article, titled Debunking Myths and Legends: Women in Science and Engineering, was written by Susan Lightstone. It discusses some of the hurdles that Frize has come across in her chosen career, and the iniquity that persists for women who follow in her footsteps.

Part of the problem is that people think that gender is no longer a barrier in today’s modern world. Frize disagrees.

“Women’s full and equal participation in society is in no way guaranteed”, says Frize, who looks to the past to prove this point. In her book, she provides numerous examples of women throughout history who, despite societal constraints and prohibitions, developed their passion for and expertise in science. Yet they remain largely unknown—their work either trivialized or adopted by men as their own.

The modern-day myth that gender stereotypes have disappeared is, in fact, untrue says Frize. If society is truly committed to “women’s full and equal participation,” we must, like her, keep “debunking myths and legends.”

On the bright side, Frize presents some of the ways that she and others are working to make the fields of science and engineering a friendlier place for women.

To find out more, read the complete article: http://www.tabaret.uottawa.ca/article_e_439.html

To learn about The Bold and the Brave, visit the University of Ottawa Press’ website. http://www.press.uottawa.ca/book/683

Exciting news!

2010-07-28T11:44:00.008-04:00

Well, it’s official! After months of prep-work on the part of our diligent staff (shout outs go to our ebook coordinator Rebecca Ross, Scholarly Communication Librarian Patrick Labelle, and our director Michael O’Hearn) the University of Ottawa Press is proud to announce the launch of our new Open Access Collection!

As of today, 36 of our books have been digitized and placed in a repository which allows anyone to freely download PDF versions of the titles. The collection includes both English and French books in the subject areas of the arts, humanities and social sciences.

We would like to thank the University Library, as well as the authors who have chosen to participate in this groundbreaking initiative – without their support, this initiative would not be possible.

We’d also like to encourage everyone interested in FREE BOOKS (!!) to check out the collection, which is available on the University of Ottawa Library’s repository at the following link: http://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/en/handle/10393/12941

To find out more about the open access project, read the press release here: http://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/en/handle/10393/12941

Flashback to the days when floppy disks were high-tech...

2010-06-21T15:26:00.008-04:00

The UOP is looking forward to some much-needed renovations this summer, and with that in mind, we’ve been taking a hard look at all of our stuff, choosing what is going to stay, and what has to go.

Jessica, (our wonderful co-op student) has been given the privilege of going through all of our archives to cull nearly 75 years worth of files! While most of the files are pretty standard, from time to time Jessica stumbles across something entertaining, compelling, or just worth sharing.

Today’s pick is an article from the Wall Street Journal and dated June 1, 1993. The headline?

“Technology Threatens To Shatter the World of College Textbooks: CD-ROM, Interactivity, PCs Spread While Publishers Mostly Just Wait and See”

Here are some of the more amusing/interesting/dire extracts:

“A technology revolution is sweeping higher education. At Drew University, every entering freshman is given a high-powered note-book-style computer, and some professors assign software instead of books. Professor Norman Lowrey teaches musical composition using a floppy disk that enables students to compose music on their computers and then play it back”

“[Publishers] have a fortune sunk in the making and marketing of standard textbooks that are increasingly behind the times and technology. To survive, some educators warn, publishers must prepare for titanic change. If they don’t, others are poised to take business from them.”

“Educational technology will change with dizzying speed, experts predict, and even while the CD-ROM grows, so will the use of the superfast computer network now being installed on campuses nationwide. Many publishers expect that by the end of the decade, they will be sending the contents of their textbooks across this network, possibly to be printed in campus bookstores. Nobody knows yet how they will keep track of copyright permissions and payments. But one thing seems sure: the ultimate winners won’t be the players who wait until such wrinkles are ironed out.”

My personal favourite is a quote from James Noblitt, then head of the Institute for Academic Technology at University of Carolina.

“The textbook is the wrong medium for colleges today; I call it pedagogical polyester”

UOP Author Takes Mexico by Storm

2010-06-18T13:50:00.002-04:00

University of Ottawa Press author Michael Small was in Mexico this week, and was invited to speak about his recent book: The Forgotten Peace: Mediation at Niagara Falls, 1914. Despite the rain, around 70 people attended the talk. Attendees included Mexican diplomats, academics, and 18 university students who traveled all the way from Guadalajara to El Atrio. Thanks to everyone who made the effort to come out, the event was a smash!

We even got some press coverage in two daily papers in Mexico!

For those of you who want to practice your Spanish, take a look:

Open publication - Free publishing - More books

Survol du livre "Gouvernance et appropriation locale du développement, Au-delà des modèles importés"

2010-06-17T11:16:00.001-04:00

Comment aider les pays en voie de développement? La réponse repose en partie dans le livre Gouvernance et appropriation locale du développement, Au-delà des modèles importés rédigé sous la direction de Jacques Fisette et Marc Raffinot.

Qu’est-ce que la gouvernance? Tout d’abord, il faut noter que sa défectuosité est identifiée comme la cause de la pauvreté en Afrique. En effet, dans ce continent, il y a une crise de la gouvernance. Pour rétablir cette dernière, plusieurs actions ont été posées. Ainsi, nous pouvons lire que : « La gouvernance s’est intégrée aux dispositifs des IFI (Institutions Financières Internationales) entourant les programmes d’ajustement structurel; les pays demandeurs d’aident étaient invités à élargir le champ des réformes structurelles et à marquer leur adhésion à de nouvelles conditionnalités politiques. »

L’appropriation locale, de son côté, s’applique lorsque le gouvernement prend en charge les membres de la société afin de les aider à sortir de leur situation inconfortable. En d’autres termes, le gouvernement s’approprie des politiques de développement. L’appropriation locale peut se définir comme : « l’adoption d’un Document stratégique de lutte contre la pauvreté (DSRP) “opérationnel” […] »

En gardant à l’esprit ces concepts de la gouvernance et de l’appropriation, les auteurs questionnent les initiatives qui ont été entreprises durant les années 90 dans le but de combattre la pauvreté dans les pays en voie de développement. Dans l’ensemble, les auteurs mentionnent que ces initiatives entretiennent une vision technocratique du développement, c’est-à-dire une : « […] tendance à ramener les problèmes de développement à des questions techniques, le refus de faire face à la complexité des conditions de mise en œuvre des actions de développement. »

Plusieurs autres problèmes sont soulevés par les auteurs. Cependant, on se réjouit d’entendre l’existence d’un dénominateur commun derrière ces pistes de solutions soulevées : « Toute la communauté internationale en vient à adopter les mêmes expressions nouvelles : bonne gouvernance, renforcement des capacités, appropriation, participation de la société civile […] »

Bref, tout au long du livre, des auteurs issus de plusieurs disciplines se penchent sur le problème et les solutions proposées pour soutenir la gouvernance et l’appropriation locale dans les pays en voie de développement.

Pour plus d’informations ou pour acheter ce livre, vous pouvez consulter le site web des Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa en cliquant ici.

UOP author featured in Nature Magazine

2010-06-11T11:34:00.004-04:00

Good news -- one of our authors was featured in Nature Magazine yesterday!

Monique Frize, the author of The Bold and the Brave: A History of Women in Science and Engineering was interviewed about the underrepresentation of women in the academic sciences. It's a great article, which details the strategies being used by universities and in industry to increase gender diversity in fields with fewer women.

Robin Mejia writes:

When Monique Frize started at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, in the 1960s, she wanted to study engineering. At the time, her gender was more than an anomaly. “I was the first one.The dean and the department chair tried to dissuade me and told me to stay in chemistry,which I hated,” Frize recalls. “I wanted to be an electrical engineer.”

Today, a story such as Frize’s sounds almost anachronistic — its overt sexism something that a modern university would be unlikely to tolerate. Yet studies show that in Europe and North America, women are still significantly underrepresented in science, technology,engineering and mathematics, at least at the top levels.

In Europe, only 11% of senior academic researchers are women, according to the European Commission 2009 report She Figures. In the United States, a 2009 National Research Council (NRC) study found that 21% of senior science faculty members and 6% of senior engineering faculty members were female.

“The [tenure] processes have not changed to reflect the lives of young professors,” says Catherine Didion, the director of the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine at the US National Academies based in Washington DC. Universities are attempting to address these shortcomings (see ‘Increasing gender diversity of the candidate pool’). Some have sought policies to make the academic track more family-friendly, such as pausing the tenure clock after the birth of a child. Others have made a concerted effort to broaden faculty searches or offer mentoring programmes. Such moves should provide new solutions to an old problem — especially for those candidates who know that these options exist.

To read the full article, visit this link:
http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/2010/100610/full/nj7299-832a.html

The UOP's Awards List (French and English)

2010-06-03T14:04:00.004-04:00

Winners

2010 – Pierre Cardinal, Le VocabulAIDE : Prix d’excellence Lyse-Daniels (Volet Francophonie) présenté par la société Impératif français pour la promotion ou la défense de la langue française et de la culture d'expression française

2007 – Jinny Yu, Jinny Yu : Prix Gutenberg (catégorie beaux livres), organisé par l'association des Artisans des Arts Graphiques de Montréal, ce concours célèbre le talent québécois parmi toutes les pièces primées lors de l'International Gallery of Superb Printing, tenu annuellement aux États-Unis. (Imprimeur : Litho Chic)

2005 – Julian Gwyn, Ashore and Afloat : Keiths Matthews Prize, awarded by the Canadian Nautical Research Society for the best book published on a Canadian nautical subject or by a Canadian on any nautical subject.

2003 – Jean Delisle, Portrait des traducteurs : Prix Vinay et Darbelnet de l’Association canadienne de traductologie couronne le meilleur article issu d’une communication présentée dans le cadre du colloque annuel de l’Association et publié dans le numéro de TTR qui en découle

1997 – Marcel Martel, Le deuil d’un pays imaginé : Prix Michel-Brunet, décerné par l’Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française, ce prix couronne le meilleur ouvrage traitant d'un sujet historique produit par un jeune historien québécois de moins de 35 ans

Finalists

2009 – Anne Trépanier, La rénovation de l’héritage démocratique : Prix Jean-Charles-Falardeau, décerné par le Programme d’aide à l’édition savante pour le meilleur livre subventionné par le PAES en sciences sociales

2009 – Charles Le Blanc, Le complexe d’Hermès : Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général, catégorie études et essais

2007-2008 – Robert Dion, L’Allemagne de Liberté : Prix Raymond-Klibansky, décerné par le Programme d’aide à l’édition savante pour le meilleur livre subventionné par le PAES en sciences humaines

1999 – Louis Rousseau et Frank W. Remiggi, Atlas historique des pratiques religieuses : Prix Lionel Groulx, décerné par l'Institut d'Histoire d'Amérique Française pour le meilleur ouvrage portant sur un aspect de l'histoire de l'Amérique française et s'imposant par son caractère scientifique

Translations of Award Winners

2006 – Paul Glennon, The Dodecahedron (Procupine’s Quill Press, 2006) : The Globe and Mail’s “100 Best Books of 2006”
Translation: Le dodécaèdre, 2010

2002 – Constance Backhouse, Colour-Coded (University of Toronto Press, 1999) : winner of the Joseph Brant Prize, awarded by the Ontario Historical Society for the best book on multicultural history in Ontario
Translation: De la couleur des lois, 2010

1999 – Jean-Claude Dubé, Le Chevalier de Montmagny (Fides, 1999) : finaliste pour les Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général, catégorie études et essais
Translation: The Chevalier de Montmagny, 2005

1961-1962 – Yves Thériault, Ashini (Fides, 1960) : Prix France-Canada (1961), Prix du Gouverneur général (roman, 1962) Prix Molson (1971).
Translation: Ashini, 1971 (Harvest House)

Other

2004 – Robert Choquette, Canada's Religions : named “Outstanding Academic Title” by Choice Magazine

The UOP's Fall Catalogue 2010

2010-06-03T13:28:00.004-04:00

Construire l'image de marque d'un auteur avec les médias sociaux

2010-05-26T11:35:00.000-04:00

Cette semaine, j’ai terminé de rédiger un document dans lequel je mentionnais les multiples utilisations que les maisons d’édition peuvent faire des médias sociaux.

Dans le contexte des PUO, j’ai établi que celles-ci utilisent les médias sociaux principalement pour se construire une image de marque. Cependant, une deuxième opportunité se présente à l’horizon, la construction de l’image de marque des auteurs et de leur livre. En effet, les médias sociaux représentent une occasion en or pour les auteurs de rencontrer des gens qui ont une passion pour leur sujet de recherche.

Par pure coïncidence, j’ai croisé sur facebook aujourd’hui un des auteurs aux PUO. Je lui ai envoyé une demande d’amitié et je suis maintenant dans sa liste d’amis. En étant maintenant en contact avec l’auteur sur facebook, je peux le conseiller sur l’approche qu’il devrait adopter avec les médias sociaux.

À ce sujet, je vous conseille un article fort intéressant qui a été rédigé par Colleen Coble. Elle est l’auteure de 35 romans et nouvelles. De plus, elle a remporté plusieurs prix pour ses publications. Tout comme les deux professeurs que nous avons mentionnés précédemment, elle est également active sur Twitter et facebook. L’article s’intitule Using Social Media to Build Your Author Brand et vous pouvez le consulter en cliquant ici.

Avant de terminer ce billet, je veux partager avec vous un deuxième lien vers un deuxième article qui s’intitule 5 Reasons Writers Need To Embrace Technology. Après que j’aie partagé ce lien sur Twitter, 6 personnes l’ont aussi partagé. Pour consulter l’article, cliquez ici.

Bref, j’imagine que selon la tendance actuelle dans laquelle les choses évoluent, le nombre d’auteurs qui se lanceront dans les médias sociaux devrait s’accroitre avec le temps.

In case you haven’t already heard…

2010-05-26T09:50:00.002-04:00

Quill & Quire has written up a lovely publication announcement for our upcoming title “My Life” written by Sofia Tolstoy and translated into English by Andrew Donskov, John Woodsworth, and Arkadi Klioutchanski.

We apologize for the delay in passing the information along, but we’ve been busy busy busy with conferences this month!

Quill & Quire reporter Chelsea Murray writes:

“The University of Ottawa Press has landed a small victory for Canadian scholarly publishing, signing a deal for world English-language rights to the contentious, unpublished memoirs of Leo Tolstoy’s wife, Sofia Tolstoy. My Life, which is more than 1,200 pages long, had been kept out of print for more than 100 years by Russians wanting to protect the reputation of Sofia's cherished husband. The book will be released simultaneously by the Tolstoy Museum in Russian and by UOP in English in July.”

To read the full story, visit Quill & Quire’s website at the following link:

http://www.quillandquire.com/google/article.cfm?article_id=11285

Celebrating Al Purdy

2010-04-21T13:39:00.007-04:00

Today is the 10th anniversary of the day that Al Purdy, one of Canada's most celebrated poets, succumbed to cancer and died in North Saanich, B.C, at the age of 81.

We feel it is only appropriate, particularly since it is National Poetry Month, to highlight his life and accomplishments on a day that has since been named "Al Purdy Day" in Canada.

Purdy published his first poem when he was 13 years old, and learned right away that poetry was not going to be a lucrative career -- he earned a dollar.

Unlike many poets, Purdy didn’t hit his stride until his 40s. It wasn't until 1965, at the age of 47, that Purdy won his first Governor General's Award for his book of poetry The Cariboo Horses. But throughout his life he was driven to write, and write he did. All told he published 33 books of poetry, several essays, a novel, and a two-volume memoir.

As a tribute, here's an adaptation of one of Purdy's most famous poems, At the Quinte Hotel. The short film stars The Tragically Hip's Gord Downie, and is narrated by the poet himself.

To learn more about Al Purdy, or the Purdy A-frame project, which is raising funds to purchase Purdy’s former property and establish a poet-in-residence program, please visit the following website: http://www.harbourpublishing.com/PurdyAFrame/index.html

You may also want to check out The Ivory Thought: Essays on Al Purdy from the University of Ottawa Press.

Poetry to tap your feet to

2010-04-21T09:54:00.004-04:00

Some poems get stuck in your head, like cheesy pop songs. Their rhythms enchant you, their alliterations seduce you and you find yourself saying them over and over in your head.

I recently had the pleasure of rediscovering some of my favorite childhood poems by Dennis Lee from Alligator Pie, Garbage Delight and Jelly Belly with a young friend of mine. Reading the poems out loud to her, I quickly realized how familiar the rhythms felt and the words and phrases of the poems welled up from my memory.

Here’s one of my favorites from Garbage Delight:

(Read it out loud to get the full effect.)

Suzy grew a moustache,
A moustache,
A moustache,
Suzy grew a moustache,
And Polly grew a beard.

Suzy looked peculiar,
Peculiar,
Peculiar,
Suzy looked peculiar,
And Polly looked weird.

Suzy got the garden-shears,
Garden-shears,
The garden-shears,
Suzy got the garden-shears,
And Polly got a bomb.

Now Suzy’s face is smooth again,
Smooth again,
Smooth again,
Suzy’s face is smooth again,
And Polly’s face is gone.

This is a great example of the brilliance of Dennis Lee’s children’s poems. Sound is the first and foremost component, even if it results in nonsense and the absurd. (Maybe especially if it results in nonsense and the absurd!) And it’s kind of weird too. I don’t know if this poem would find its way into a collection of children’s poetry today. And that would be a shame. Because my young friend giggled and giggled when I read her this one and it would be very sad to lose that.

La Nouvelle-Écosse s'excuse auprès de Viola Desmond

2010-04-21T09:16:00.001-04:00

À la lecture d’un article paru récemment dans le journal « The Globe And Mail », j’ai appris que l’une des provinces du Canada, la Nouvelle-Écosse, s’est excusée la semaine dernière auprès d’une femme noire pour l’avoir arrêtée en 1946. La raison de l’arrestation provient du fait que la femme se serait assise dans une section d’un cinéma qui était alors réservée aux blancs. Cependant, l’article survole assez rapidement les détails de l’événement qui aura mené à l’arrestation injuste de la victime, Viola Desmond. Aux Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa, un livre s’intitulant De la couleur des lois vient de paraître. Je nomme ce dernier puisqu’il raconte la malheureuse histoire de Viola Desmond, au jour où elle avait décidé d’aller au cinéma, en 1946. Voici ce qu’on y apprend.

Viola Desmond, la victime dans toute cette affaire, avait simplement demandé un billet pour s’asseoir au niveau de l’orchestre (l’étage du bas) dans le cinéma. On le lui refusa. Elle réussit tout de même à s’acheter un billet pour accéder au niveau supérieur, mais la distance qui la séparait du spectacle l’empêcha de voir correctement. Elle descendit au niveau de l’orchestre. Constatant la situation, un employé aurait alors décidé d’avertir le gérant du cinéma, Henri MacNeil. Aux dires de Viola, ce dernier se serait alors mis en colère quant à sa résistance : « [Il] m’a menacée de m’expulser du cinéma. » À la grande surprise de la pauvre victime, puisqu’elle doutait que le gérant passe des paroles aux actes, ce dernier partit chercher un policier. La pauvre femme se fit arrêter et emprisonner jusqu’à ce qu’on la juge le lendemain.

Lors de son procès, elle ne reçut aucune explication concernant ses droits. Bref, pratiquement aucune aide ne lui fut offerte pour qu’elle réussisse à se défendre convenablement devant le tribunal. Le poursuivant, Harry MacNeil, accompagné de deux témoins, n’a eu aucune difficulté à faire condamner l’accusée, qui a dû payer une amende.

La loi mise en application pour démontrer la culpabilité de Viola Desmond: « […] stipulait en outre que les clients devaient payer une taxe d’amusement sur chaque billet acheté dans un théâtre de province. » L’interprétation donnée par le poursuivant de cette loi donna l’impression que Viola Desmond, en s’asseyant au niveau de l’orchestre, n’aurait pas payé la taxe prescrite par la loi. La raison est que le prix du billet pour s’asseoir à cet endroit est plus élevé que ce que Viola a payé. Conséquemment, la proportion du prix décerné aux taxes y était aussi plus élevée. Ce constat signifie que la proportion du prix du billet acheté par Viola couvrit seulement 2 des 3 sous nécessaires pour payer la taxe à l’étage orchestre. Cependant, nous savons maintenant que la victime fut faussement accusée, car elle n’avait aucune mauvaise intention. En effet, elle avait essayé de s’acheter le billet requis pour s’asseoir à ce niveau, mais on le lui refusa.

En conclusion : « Nul ne crut bon de remettre en cause le bien-fondé d’invoquer une loi relative aux revenus et à l’octroi de permis pour exercer la ségrégation raciale dans des cinémas publics. » C’est une histoire bien triste pour le Canada. Si vous croyez que le raciste est aujourd’hui terminé en Nouvelle-Écosse, je vous suggère la lecture de cet article intitulé Inter-racial couple in Nova Scotia vow to leave community after car burning.

Poetry Events in Ottawa

2010-04-19T15:01:00.007-04:00

As promised, here are some poetry events going on in Ottawa in the next little while!

Canadian Author’s Association Poetry Circle
Time: Thursday April 22, 6:00 pm.
Place: Collected Works, 1242 Wellington Street
More information: www.canauthors-ottawa.org/writerscircles.shtml

Café Nostalgica Music & Poetry Open Mic
Time: every Thursday at 8pm
Place: 603 Cumberland, University of Ottawa Campus
More information: gsaed@uottawa.ca

Urban Legends Poetry Slam
Time: Friday April 23, 6:30pm
Place: Rooster's Cafe, Carleton University
More information: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Urban-Legends-Poetry-Slam/101529778283

Poetry Cabaret: Spotlight on Talon Books
Time: Saturday, April 24, 2010; 6:30pm
Place: Mayfair Theatre, 1074 Bank Street
More information: http://www.writersfestival.org/events.html

Poetry Cabaret: Pan-Canadian Poetics
Time: Monday, April 26, 2010; 8:00pm
Place: Mayfair Theatre, 1074 Bank Street
More information: http://www.writersfestival.org/events.html

Les appareils électroniques pour la lecture de livres numériques (partie 3)

2010-04-15T11:41:00.001-04:00

Bon nombre de personnes voient l’iPad comme une autre façon de présenter le contenu d’un livre. Un exemple de ce contenu repensé est montré dans un billet du blogue ebouqin. Ce dernier y présente le livre Alice au pays des merveilles, voici le lien. Vous remarquerez rapidement que ce livre a été rematricé pour l’iPad. Bien sûr, l’exemple ici choisi s’applique dans un simple contexte, mais il n’en reste pas moins que celui-ci laisse porte ouverte à l’imagination pour des sujets plus adultes ou sérieux.

L’iPhone et l’iPad supportent la lecture de vidéos dans un format H.264. Selon le site web d’Apple, l’iPhone, ayant précédé l’iPad, a été le premier appareil mobile à autoriser la lecture de ce type de format vidéo. La raison qui a justifié un tel choix de format est que celui-ci assure une meilleure qualité et est moins énergivore que son semblable, le Flash Player. D’ailleurs, les deux types d’appareil ne supportent pas ce dernier. Selon un article paru dans le Washington Post, ce format de vidéo a des défaillances : il est utilisé pour intégrer des publicités dans les pages web, il ralentit les interfaces et il supporte les vidéos indésirables en intro lors de l’entrée dans un site Web.

La durée de vie de la pile de l’iPad parait ainsi plus longue. Il est à noter que pour répondre à la demande de vidéos en formats H.264 générée par Apple, le site Web YouTube offre maintenant des vidéos pour ce genre de format.

Si l’écran de petite taille du iPhone peut alimenter l’idée chez les sceptiques qu’elle est inadéquate pour la lecture, il reste que cette activité est répandue chez les usagers de cet appareil. Une enquête qui a étudié les principales applications iPhone en a établi la preuve. En octobre 2009, le nombre d’applications développées pour la lecture de livre a surpassé celui des jeux. Le développement des applications suit évidemment la demande.

La sortie du iPad symbolise manifestement l’entrée officielle de Apple dans la concurrence pour obtenir un point de distribution rentable pour les créateurs de contenus, les éditeurs (journaux, magazines, livres…).

Avec l’iPhone, la concurrence vis-à-vis des autres joueurs de ce secteur semblait davantage comme un dommage collatéral, une surprise. Maintenant, c’est intentionnel.

Plusieurs prédisent qu’Apple va hausser le prix des ebooks. Cette hausse de prix sera profitable pour les auteurs et les éditeurs. La raison du soutient d’un tel espoir est l’expertise que détient Apple pour rendre rentable le contenu numérique. (p. ex. le iTune pour se procurer de la musique)

De plus, quelques jours avant la sortie officielle du iPad, un article paru dans Le Devoir a dévoilé au grand public que : « Le domaine du livre électronique sera transformé, aujourd'hui, alors que cinq des six plus grands éditeurs en Amérique du Nord mettront en place une nouvelle échelle de prix qui éliminera les énormes rabais et la nécessité de magasiner pour comparer les prix. » Il semble que les éditeurs ont décidé de reprendre le contrôle du marché.

Pour l’instant, la compétition se joue majoritairement avec le Kindle d’Amazone. Cette entreprise a vite fixé la barre maximale du prix du livre électronique à 10 $, créant ainsi une offre alléchante pour ceux qui désireraient acheter son Kindle. Étant la principale entreprise dans ce domaine, Amazone possédait jusqu’à tout dernièrement un véritable monopole. Dorénavant, avec l’entrée en scène d’Apple et son application iBooks qui comprend un magasin dédié aux livres électroniques, les créateurs de contenu ont obtenu un pouvoir de négociation. En effet, Apple défie les lois d’Amazone en augmentant le prix des livres électroniques au-dessus de la barre des 10 $. Situation malheureuse du point de vue du consommateur, mais une célébration pour les créateurs de contenu, car ces derniers peuvent dorénavant compter sur Apple pour marchander. C’est le cas de l’éditeur McMillan qui a exigé à Amazone d’augmenter le prix des ebooks. Bref, Amazone est en train de revoir sa stratégie, car Apple est en train de tirer son épingle du jeu.

Striving for a greener UOP

2010-04-12T16:13:00.015-04:00

Today I had the opportunity to attend a talk on Parliament Hill given by Dr. Jane Goodall, the environmental advocate who has inspired millions with her work on Chimpanzees in the Tanzanian jungle.

It was a great chance for me to see a successful and influential woman who I have admired since I was a little girl. At 76, she is a slight woman whose kind face and quiet smile has earned the trust and respect of many, chimpanzee and human alike.

I always walk out of environmental talks feeling this odd mix of futility and desire to do more. I find myself taking a hard look at the way I live and cataloguing the things that I do to help the environment against the things that I know I have issues with. At the press, we see both as well. Here’s my mental list:

Negatives:

Let’s face it – we’re paper users! (We print books, make photocopies, send faxes, use post-its, paper towels etc…)
We’re high energy consumers (9 computers, 3 printers, 1 photocopier, a microwave, a fridge, an old energy inefficient building…)
Too often, we cannot afford to print on environmentally friendly papers
We don’t use a compost bin

Positives:

All UOP staff either takes transit or walks to work
We recycle!
We have low print runs on our books
We use print-on-demand when possible
Instead of buying new, we use recycled furniture
We print double-sided documents
We take part in Earth-Hour

I suppose that the consolation here is that at the moment, the list of positives is longer than the list of negatives. Hopefully, one overriding positive will put us over the edge and into the green; our willingness to spread the word about climate change and the environmental impacts of the average Canadian lifestyle, and work for positive change within our community.

But, I may also put up a towel rack in the bathroom over the weekend…

Note: Our upcoming title Climate, Culture, Change by Timothy B. Leduc will hitting bookstores in 2011.

La poésie à l'honneur aux Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa

2010-04-08T09:49:00.000-04:00

Nous voilà rendus au mois d’avril, ce qui m’amène à consacrer ce billet à un poème. D’où provient l’idée d’entamer une telle initiative? Elle provient de mes collègues de travail qui ont tenus à souligner le Mois national de la poésie, un événement qui survient au Canada pendant le mois d’avril. Pour cette période, nous, habitants du Canada, accordons une attention particulière aux poètes et aux poèmes qui ont façonné notre pays. Dans ce contexte, plusieurs activités et événements liés à la poésie se déroulent durant l’ensemble du mois.

Lire un poème est une des activités suggérées par la Commission canadienne pour l'UNESCO, le Conseil des Arts du Canada et la Bibliothèque nationale du Canada pour le Mois national de la poésie. Comme suite à des encouragements provenant de mes collègues, J’ai décidé de participer. J’ai donc choisi de vous parler d’un poème que j’ai lu.

Est-ce que Le vaisseau d’or d’Émile Nelligan vous dit quelque chose? C’est probablement le cas si vous êtes Canadiens francophones, puisque dans cette culture, c’est l’un des grands classiques de la poésie. Je me rappelle mes cours au cégep et de l’un d’entre eux plus précisément, le cours de français dans lequel le professeur a présenté ce poème.

Le Vaisseau d'or (source wikipedia)

C'était un grand Vaisseau taillé dans l'or massif:
Ses mâts touchaient l'azur, sur des mers inconnues;
La Cyprine d'amour, cheveux épars, chairs nues,
S'étalait à sa proue, au soleil excessif.

Mais il vint une nuit frapper le grand écueil
Dans l'Océan trompeur où chantait la Sirène,
Et le naufrage horrible inclina sa carène
Aux profondeurs du Gouffre, immuable cercueil.

Ce fut un Vaisseau d'Or, dont les flancs diaphanes
Révélaient des trésors que les marins profanes,
Dégoût, Haine et Névrose, entre eux ont disputés.

Que reste-t-il de lui dans la tempête brève?
Qu'est devenu mon coeur, navire déserté?
Hélas! Il a sombré dans l'abîme du Rêve!

De mon point de vue, Nelligan transmet à celui qui a lu son poème, une facette de la réalité vécue par le poète, une réalité loin d’être facile. Lorsque le navire de Nelligan se frappe au grand écueil, ce dernier se fait dérober de ses trésors. Afin de vous offir ma propre interprétation de ce poème, je vous invite à percevoir ce contact du navire avec le grand écueil, ce rocher affleurant la surface de l'eau, comme le contact quotidien du poète avec la société. En ce sens, je pense que Nelligan révèle le malheureux sort qu’a réservé la société au poète, lorsque : « Hélas! Il a sombré dans l'abîme du Rêve! » Souvent critiqué pour ne pas être sérieux, le poète est situé aux antipodes de la science, un milieu qui guide aujourd’hui les hommes dans la société, parfois même au-delà de la religion. Il est dérobé de ses trésors, de ses espoirs.

Bref, j’espère que vous avez apprécié en ce Mois national de la poésie ce billet sur le poème Le vaisseau d’or d’Émile Nelligan et mes commentaires sur ce dernier. Si vous appréciez la poésie, vous pouvez toujours visiter le site Web des PUO, il contient certains livres dédiés à ce genre de littérature. Vous pouvez aussi consulter le site Web de la ligue des poètes canadien.

Poetry in Translation

2010-04-07T13:44:00.008-04:00

Any bilingual person can tell you about the difficulties of translation: the impossibility of translating something word-for-word, the struggle to transfer cultural implications of certain phrases from one language and culture to another, and/or the worry that the original message is being distorted in some way.

I’ve had some experience translating simple things like press releases or catalogue copy here at the UOP, and it’s always a struggle. What I can’t imagine is translating poetry. Not only would you have to worry about the words, but the meter, the tone, the punctuation, the literary devices!

One of my favourite poems is called Laughter by the Chilean diplomat and Nobel Prize laureate Pablo Neruda. It’s such a beautiful poem that I marvel at the fact that it has been translated from its original Spanish to English.

My Spanish is very poor, but I still find it interesting to see the original poem next to the translation. If you’re interested, check out both versions at the following link:

https://www.msu.edu/~sullivan/NerudaPoemLaugh.html

For more information on Pablo Neruda, including his biography, more of his poetry, and a recording of Neruda’s Nobel lecture, check out the Nobel Prize Website.

Climate Change, Poetry and Gary Snyder

2010-04-07T11:38:00.001-04:00

The theme for National Poetry Month this year is climate changes. When I think of ecology, environment, and climate changes I can’t help but think of poet Gary Snyder. Snyder’s poetry speaks of species destruction and destruction of life on this planet. He studied Indian cultures that offered a more harmonious relation with nature. For poetry written 20 to 30 years ago, Snyder’s perception of a changing climate was terribly accurate. New York Times Book Review correspondent Herbert Leibowitz said of the poet “Snyder’s sane housekeeping principles desperately need to become Government and corporate policy”. Snyder is often associated with the Beat Generation and was the inspiration for the character Japhy Ryder in Jack Kerouac’s novel The Dharma Bums. If that isn’t enough, he is also a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Rather than list excepts from his work, I invite you to listen to Gary Snyder as he reads from his work and discusses the connection between ecology and poetry: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.

Did you know that National Poetry Month begins today?

2010-04-01T14:01:00.004-04:00

National Poetry Month began in Canada in April 1999 by the League of Canadian Poets. The event aims to bring together schools, publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, and poets all across the country to celebrate the wonderful world of poetry and its important place in Canadian culture.

In the spirit of the celebration, we will be stretching our imaginations and flexing our poetry muscles to bring you what we consider the best of poetry. Check back to read about poems and poets that we love, poetry that we’ve published, and perhaps even some that we’ve written. We’ll also keep you up to date on readings, poetry slams, and other poetry-based events going on in the Ottawa region.

Feel free to let us know what you like or don’t like, or let us know if you’ve got something poetry-related going on!

If you want more information on National Poetry Month, or would like to request a free poster, check out the League’s website: http://www.poets.ca/linktext/npm.htm

Les appareils électroniques pour la lecture; la hausse du prix du livre numérique

2010-04-01T10:07:00.000-04:00

Aujourd’hui, le journal Le Devoir n’a pas annoncé la hausse du prix de l’essence comme nous somme habitués de nous le faire dire, mais plutôt la hausse du prix des ebooks. Du point de vue du consommateur, ce changement signifie moins de sous dans ses poches après avoir acheté un ebook. Cependant, du côté des éditeurs, c’est un soupir de soulagement que nous pouvons entendre.

L’article de journal mentionne que cinq des six plus grands éditeurs en Amérique du Nord mettront en place une nouvelle échelle de prix qui éliminera les énormes rabais et la nécessité de magasiner pour comparer les prix. Cependant, je crois que l’article omet de mentionner le rôle occupé par Ipad dans ce changement. Cette annonce coïncide assez bien avec l’appareil de Apple qui sera accessible sur le marché dans les prochains jours.

En effet, depuis les dernières années, la compagnie Amazone et son appareil électronique, le Kindle, ont eu le gros bout du bâton pour décider du prix des ebooks. D’ailleurs, en fixant les prix suffisamment bas, Amazone encourageait les lecteurs à acheter son Kindle.

Avec l’arrivée du Ipad de Apple, une compétition se développe entre les compagnies qui produisent les appareils pour la lecture de livres numériques. Ces dernières tentent d’obtenir le contenu produit par les éditeurs pour l’offrir via leurs appareils. Amazone exigeait jusqu’à récemment que les éditeurs lui vendent leur contenu à très faible coût. Les éditeurs n’avaient pas de marge de manœuvre pour négocier, puisqu’aucune autre alternative ne s’offrait à eux. Maintenant, avec l’alternative que représente l’arrivée d’Apple pour les éditeurs, la donne est changée. En effet, Apple doit réussir à séduire le consommateur avec du contenu. Stratégiquement, ce dernier a accepté d’augmenter le prix des ebooks pour appâter les éditeurs qui sont les experts dans la production de contenu.

Une question qui demeure parmi plusieurs est : « Qui va lire des ebooks? » Une étude récente a indiqué que 1 Français sur 5 est prêt à lire sur un écran numérique. Il existe une déchirure entre les gens. Plusieurs ont probablement entendu quelqu’un dans leur entourage dire que le papier qui compose les livres est irremplaçable. C’est un défi de taille qui attend les entreprises dans ce secteur qui chercheront à faire grimper le mince pourcentage de 20 % en convainquant les lecteurs de s’abandonner aux livres électroniques.

Est-ce que la hausse du prix des ebooks jouera contre les ventes? Pour produire un contenu de qualité, il faut de l’argent. En d’autres termes, lire un livre rempli de fautes d’orthographe est déplaisant. Donc, je crois qu’un contenu qui est de qualité charmera le lecteur, lui faisant oublier l’argent qu’il a dû débourser.

UOP’s BNC Tech Forum 2010 Summary

2010-03-30T11:30:00.002-04:00

I’m always amazed at the energy, enthusiasm and knowledge at every BNC event. Last year, as I was entering the magical world of digital publishing, Tech Forum 2009 was an excellent introduction to the themes, ideas and big thinkers in the field. Tech Forum 2010 once again provided some really great take-home ideas, along with great speakers, new business models and exciting projects.

Richard Nash’s (Cursor Books) presentation Publishing 3.0 told us that publishers need to be in the business of managing demand, moving from the supply chain to the demand curve. It is our job to connect writer to reader. Publishers need to forget about ‘downloads’ and enhanced books are just another form of CD-ROMs.
UOP Take Home: “the absence of audio and video is a feature of the book”

Next up was Dominique Raccah (Sourcebook) and her presentation titled Breaking Ground. Dominique talked about her experiences being a digital entrepreneur while running a traditional book publishing company.
UOP Take Home: Define verticals; define the communities you are an essential part of.

I’ve seen several Michael Tamblyn presentations and they are always a treat. This time he discussed Lessons Learned at Kobo. Michael told us, much to our great relief, that long form reading on digital devices is alive and well. He also told us that there is a significant loss of sales with late ebook releases. For him, a great digital publisher provides digital sales and marketing information to vendors, provides pristine metadata, and provides well crafted epub files.
UOP Take Home: Release early, release often.

To my knowledge, Liza Daly (Threepress) is one of the only sources of epub production information out there. In her presentation Open Source ePub, Liza suggests using web kits for the creation and testing of epub files. She also suggested testing and previewing all files using Adobe, a big web kit (on a browser) and a small web kit (a mobile device)
UOP Take Home: Keep mark-up minimal and semantic. Spacing between header and body is presentational whereas spacing between a scene change is semantic.

In Trailblazing, Mark Lefebvre (Titles Bookstore, McMaster University) and Hugh McGuire (BookOven and LibriVox.org)discussed the Espresso Book Machine, which was particularly exciting and interesting. Hugh McGuire talked about Bite-Size Edits, a game where players get points for editing. They both discussed new ways to collaborate, communicate and participate with other publishers, readers and authors.
UOP Take Home: As publishers, we need to make sure we are doing everything possible to make it easier for our customers to discover, enjoy, and buy our books.

The last presentation of the day was: Has Content Outgrown its Covers? by Deanna McFadden of HaperCollins Canada. Deanna gave a great presentation about the importance of good online marketing and matching the right content to the right platform. She gave us a top ten list for online marketing that included suggestions such as: stop building static websites, use what is in your back pocket, ask authors if they want to participate in social marketing and find out where the visitors are coming from.
UOP Take Home: So far, Facebook hasn’t been that effective in selling books.

What does this all mean for UOP?
UOP is producing ebooks, both PDF and epub. We’re working with our distribution partners to determine the best way to get our books to our readers. We are excited by the opportunities and challenges that ebooks present and we’re eager to move forward. To our readers, take this as an open invitation to tell us what you want from your ebooks, the format, the vendors and the features -- we will listen, I promise! To our authors, let us know how you’d like to work together to best market your books to your readers, we are open to suggestion and looking forward to collaboration. To our colleagues, we are all in this together, lets continue to discuss and brainstorm, we are excited and I know you are too!

Le VocabulAIDE : Winner of the 2010 Lyse-Daniels Excellence Award

2010-03-22T12:46:00.001-04:00

It was announced Sunday, March 21 that Pierre Cardinal, author of Le VocabulAIDE, is the recipient of the 2010 Lyse-Daniels Excellence Award in the “francophonie” category.

Each year the prize is awarded by Impératif français to people or organizations who distinguish themselves through their contribution to the promotion or safeguard of French language and culture. The judges commended Pierre for “producing a linguistic tool that has impact on an international level.”

The University of Ottawa Press would like to congratulate Pierre for this great accomplishment!!

For more information on this award, visit the “Impératif français” website. For information on “Le VocabulAIDE”, visit the University of Ottawa Press website.

2010-03-22T10:11:00.000-04:00

Le VocabulAIDE décroche le prix d’excellence Lyse-Daniels pour le volet francophonie

Ce dimanche dernier, soit le 21 mars 2010, le prix d’excellence Lyse-Daniels pour le volet francophonie a été décerné à Pierre Cardinal pour la publication récente de son livre intitulé VocabulAIDE^MD : influences de l'anglais- vraies et prétendues - et usages en transition.

Pierre Cardinal a fait des langues son cheval de combat dès son tout jeune âge en prenant la peine d’apprendre l’anglais, le latin, le grec ancien et l’italien. Il ne faut donc pas être surpris si par la suite, Cardinal a connu une brillante carrière académique. En effet, en plus de sa maîtrise et de son doctorat dans le domaine de la linguistique, ce dernier enseigna les langues à la University of Western Ontario, à l’École de traduction de l’Université d’Ottawa qu’il cofonde en 1971, puis au Département d’études langagières de l’Université du Québec en Outaouais.

Son ouvrage Le VocabulAIDE est le résultat de plusieurs années de réflexions par rapport à la linguistique. Impératif français, un organisme culturel de recherche et de communication voué à la promotion de la langue française a souligné la contribution de Pierre Cardinal à la production d'un outil linguistique d'envergure nationale en lui décernant le prix d’excellence Lyse-Daniels pour le volet francophonie.

Mission accomplie pour Pierre Cardinal.

Voici une liste de liens pertinents pour vous aider à vous documenter sur le sujet :

Pour de plus amples informations concernant ce livre, visitez le site Web des Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa, ou encore, lisez notre article Lancement - Le VocabulAIDE.

Pour de plus amples informations concernant le prix décerné à Pierre Cardinal pour son livre, visitez le site Web d’Impératif français.

How should we perceive cultures in today’s world?

2010-03-15T13:35:00.005-04:00

The book Transcultural Americas encourages readers to question the notion of culture. Many changes have emerged in the past few years about the ideas behind culture, as a result of the impacts of globalisation and new media technologies.

Several definitions of culture exist, but according to the editor, Afef Benessaieh, most of them fail to explain what is really happening in today’s world. To demonstrate this, she classifies the definitions of culture in two categories: cultures as disparate or cultures tied together by commonalities.

We generally think of a culture as the ideas, customs, or behaviour of members of a particular society. We hold onto the idea that culture is clearly definable “Terms such as “transculturation”, “multiculturalism” and “interculturality” suggest that some sort of “pure” (in the sense of non-mixed) culture exists or precedes the mixture […]”.

This may have been possible before the advent of globalization, immigration, and the internet, but as Benessaieh observes: “with few exceptions, most societies around the world are culturally mixed, and national boundaries rarely enclose populations that are culturally or ethnically homogeneous.” The increased access to communication between cultures and exposure to other ideas, customs, and behaviours creates a situation where different cultures will influence others. The author argues that this must mean that cultures function together, as a network.

As a result, the term “transculturalism” is an attempt to identify the true relationship between cultures: “[It] is a new way of viewing culture that sees cultures not as separate islands, but as connected and interacting webs.”

Afef Benessaieh is assistant professor of International Studies at the télé-université (TÉLUQ) of the University of Quebec in Montréal.

For further information on Transcultural Americas, visit our Website.

*All the citations in this post come from our book Transcultural Americas

Les Jeux olympiques de Vancouver 2010 et les danses des nations autochtones

2010-03-14T10:33:00.000-04:00

Les Jeux olympiques de 2010 ont été une réussite, comme ceux qui lui ont précédé, celui-ci à suscité l’attention de la quasi-totalité de la population mondiale. Je regardais la télévision il y a quelques semaines et j’ai entendu par hasard un invité dans une émission qui a eu des propos particulièrement intéressants pour décrire ce genre d’événement. J’espère ne pas trop les déformer en les reportant ici, car ce sont ceux sortis directement de la bouche de Grégory Charles; ce dernier affirmait que les Jeux olympiques, lors de leur tenu, engendrent presque inévitablement un moment historique pour l’humanité, lui confinant ainsi un aspect sacré. En effet, rares sont ceux qui ne veulent pas assister en direct à l’écriture d’une page de l’histoire. De plus, ces jeux et ses médailles représentent une occasion en or pour les pays de se démarquer sur le plan international.

Pour ce billet, j’aimerais attirer votre attention non pas sur la performance des pays et leurs athlètes prenant part aux épreuves, mais plutôt sur leur pays hôte, le Canada. Je veux sortir de la brume un élément presque invisible qui survolait la BC Place Stadium durant les cérémonies d’ouverture. Si vous avez comme moi et plusieurs autres milliards de téléspectateurs regardé la cérémonie d’ouverture, cet élément était présent lorsque : « des dizaines de représentants des nations autochtones canadiennes [ont] dansés pendant plus d'une heure sur la scène pour accueillir les 82 délégations », pour citer les informations présentes dans le site Web officiel des Jeux olympiques.

Cet élément qui a pris son envol au moment de ces danses en puisant son énergie dans le bagage historique particulier que possèdent ces dernières, un passé qui soulève plusieurs questionnements pour celui qui le connait. Si une représentation concrète pouvait être attribuée à cet élément, ce serait un avion volant dans le ciel avec une bannière accrochée à l’arrière sur laquelle nous pourrions lire : « Ces danses ont déjà été proscrites par le gouvernement du Canada et elles sont maintenant mises dans l’avant-plan sur la scène internationale par ce dernier. »

Pour avoir réussi à percevoir cet élément, je me suis basé sur un nouveau livre de Constance Backhouse intitulé De la couleur des lois : une histoire juridique du racisme au Canada entre 1900 et 1950 qui vient tout juste d’être publié par les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa (le papier est encore chaud). Oui, avec ce livre, on ne peut plus se le cacher, le Canada à des squelettes dans le placard de son histoire juridique. L’un d’entre eux, celui que je mets en lumière dans ce billet, est rapporté dans le troisième chapitre dont le titre, assez évocateur, s’intitule « Des sauvages ornés de plumes bariolées » : la criminalisation des danses autochtones – le procès de Wanduta au Manitoba en 1903.

L’idée d’inviter les autochtones à danser dans une cérémonie n’est pas née lors des derniers Jeux olympiques. Effectivement, durant des foires organisées dans le début des années 1900, un phénomène similaire à celui de Vancouver 2010 pouvait être observé dans les prairies canadiennes : « Une dizaine de danseurs de la nation Dakota, revêtus de leur costume traditionnel, se livraient chaque année à une danse autochtone au son des tambours devant une foule de spectateurs subjugués. » Ces danses généraient des revenus aux hommes d’affaires qui les partageaient par la suite avec les autochtones.

Puis un jour, l’insoupçonnable se produisit, ces danses firent l’objet de poursuites criminelles. Ces poursuites étaient fondées, selon l’ouvrage De la couleur des lois de Constance Backhouse, sur l’existence de lois précédemment créées par le gouvernement fédéral : « En 1884, le gouvernement canadien commença par adopter des lois criminelles ayant pour effet d’interdire les danses cérémoniales des Premières Nations […] En 1895, cette interdiction fut étendue à tous les festivals, danses et cérémonies qui comprenaient un échange d’argent ou de produits ou, encore, qui impliquaient des blessures infligées à des êtres humains ou des animaux. »

Il faut croire que les temps ont changé. Ces Jeux olympiques de 2010 auront été, sous l’aspect mis en lumière dans ce billet, un véritable coup de maître pour montrer une image du Canada entretenant une relation saine avec les nations autochtones et ce, en misant sur la danse, une pratique qui dans le passé était parsemée de litiges. Il faut se garder à l’esprit que ces dernières danses devaient probablement être plus civilisées que celles pratiquées autrefois.

Plusieurs autres situations semblables sont recensées dans l’ouvrage De la Couleur des lois : Une histoire juridique du racisme au Canada entre 1900 et 1900. Pour en apprendre davantage, visitez le site Web des Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa.

*La majorité des citations dans ce billet sont tirées de notre ouvrage De la Couleur des lois : Une histoire juridique du racisme au Canada entre 1900 et 1900

Review - The Forgotten Peace: Mediation at Niagara Falls

2010-03-09T12:51:00.003-05:00

David M. Malone has reviewed our book The Forgotten Peace: Mediation at Niagara Falls in the March issue of the Literary Review of Canada (LRC). The review is not freely available online right now, but it is available for purchase on the LRC website. As a consolation prize, here’s a summary of the book and some of what Malone has to say about it.

Discord and conflict is a part of everyday life. It can be about something as simple as how your next-door neighbour’s willow tree is encroaching on your backyard. You try to resolve the conflict by bribing him with cheesecake and asking nicely, but when he finally does agree to do some gardening, it’s at 6 am Saturday morning and includes the use of a chainsaw. How to tactfully resolve the conflict, when the neighbour is holding a weapon in his hands?

Imagine a similar situation, but between two countries. At an international level, the problem becomes much more complex and many more variables need to be taken into consideration. A variety of stratagems including diplo¬matic negotiations, mediation, and peace-keeping come into play. In Michael Small’s The Forgotten Peace: Mediation at Niagara Falls, the author describes a dispute that occurred between the United States and Mexico in 1914. The U.S. has taken issue with the overthrow of Mexico’s democratically elected leader in a military coup d’état. President Woodrow Wilson takes the moral high-ground and declares that he will not deal politically with a dictator, and decides to involve itself intimately in Mexico’s civil war. Mayhem ensues.

In one of the first broad-scale attempts at international mediation, Argentina, Brazil and Chile offer to mediate a peaceful resolution to the conflict between the U.S. and the two factions in Mexico. In his review, Malone writes:

“We Canadians tend to know too little about Latin American history. Small’s The Forgotten Peace helps fill the void. It reminds us of the relative stability over the past century in Latin America, dominated as it was by entrenched, highly educated, self-serving and wealthy elites in states, the borders of which have not moved much since 1900. Mexico, with its tormented history of revolution, dictator¬ship and democratic decay until quite recently, is in some ways an exception to the pattern. It escaped the spectacularly failed military dictatorships of so many Latin American countries of the 1960s to 1980s, but largely stagnated under the grip on power throughout much of the 20th century of the amusingly titled Institutional Revolutionary Party. Because these countries share our hemisphere, which Canadian governments have from time to time, and certainly currently, proclaimed as a prior¬ity for Canadian foreign policy, it is useful to know more.”

He continues:

“Small, a former Canadian ambassador to Cuba, writes beautifully. The book’s footnotes are finely wrought. The production design, with art nouveau graphic touches, is superb—indeed, the best I have seen in any book, short or long, in some time. The volume contains amusing annexes—not least political cartoons from the time (playing on biblical as well as contemporary themes and displaying a sophistication many of today’s cartoonists would admire).”

For further information on The Forgotten Peace: Mediation at Niagara Falls, visit our Website.

Bonne journée de la femme!

2010-03-08T10:39:00.001-05:00

Aujourd’hui, nous sommes le lundi 8 mars et c’est la journée de la femme, soit l’occasion pour célébrer leurs nombreuses contributions qui de façons directes ou indirectes ont collaboré à notre bien-être. Ce sont ces mêmes contributions qui participent à l’avancement et au progrès de la société. Pour souligner cette journée, nous effectuons un petit recueil de nos ouvrages récemment publiés aux Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa qui témoigne de cette place occupée par les femmes dans les sociétés.

Dans le livre D’un islam textuel vers un islam contextuel par Naïma Dib, la question de la femme dans l’islam est abordée, au départ, comme un endroit où elle possède l’image d’une subordonnée de l’homme. Les analyses de Naïma Dib, avec une rigueur scientifique, dévoilent la véritable représentation de la femme véhiculée par le Coran, soit une représentation distincte de celle qui a été popularisée dans le discours social commun. De son point de vue: « […] la subordination féminine fait place à l’être-femme ».

Dans un autre ouvrage, intitulé Études sur la traduction de l’anglais par Benoît Léger, il se dégage une toute autre dimension de la place de la femme dans la société. En effet, cet ouvrage porte sur Madame G. M. de Rochmondet, une femme qui fut une experte dans le domaine de la traduction à un moment de l’histoire où l’on y retrouvait majoritairement que des hommes. Elle aura probablement été une source d’inspiration pour plusieurs femmes qui ont décidé de se consacrer à la traduction.

Le sujet de la place de la femme dans les sociétés a aussi été traité dans d’autres ouvrages en anglais publiés par les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa. C’est le cas de The bold and the brave, un ouvrage dans lequel l’auteure Monique Frize se penche sur l’histoire des femmes dans le domaine des sciences et de l’ingénierie. C’est aussi le cas de l’ouvrage Waste Heritage de Irene Baird, une des pionnière à s’être consacrée au réalisme dans la littérature.

Pour plus d’information sur ces livres, consultez le site Web des Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa.

Review - The Bold and the Brave by Monique Frize

2010-03-02T12:58:00.003-05:00

Here’s a review done by the Literary Review of Canada on our book The Bold and the Brave: A History of Women in Science and Engineering by Monique Frize.

The Sexes and the Sciences
Why aren’t women rushing to the labs as we thought they would?
by Sheilla Jones

The article brings to light the fact that last time society checked, the number of women involved in the fields of engineering and science had been on the rise. However, the latest statistics suggest that number is now decreasing.

The review highlights the explanations provided by Frize that attempt to identify and characterize this trend. She argues that this cyclical phenomenon, where progress is followed by regress, has already occurred many times in our history. Jones explains:

“Throughout recorded history, women have made considerable gains in gender parity with men, only to have those gains abruptly terminated or to see them slowly dissipate through societal change.”

The argument regarding the cyclical nature of women’s progress in the fields of science and engineering is first put into historical context by Frize, after which she shares many observations she has made during her career that support the theory she proposes.

Sheilla Jones writes:

“The Bold and the Brave is a distillation of Frize’s personal experiences as the often lone woman in engineering classes or at conferences, and the feel¬ing that she was tilting at windmills in her effort to make engineering a friendlier place for women. And she has been at it for a long time.”

For further information on The Bold and the Brave: A History of Women in Science and Engineering check out the UOP’s website.

Sofia Andreevna Tolstaya and The Last Station: Fact or Fiction?

2010-03-01T11:21:00.004-05:00

Have you seen the movie The Last Station? The movie is nominated for two Oscars at the 82nd Academy Awards. One is for best actress; Helen Mirren has been selected for her portrayal of Countess Sofia Andreevna Tolstaya. The University of Ottawa Press will be publishing Tolstaya’s memoirs, titled My Life later this spring.

Who is Countess Tolstaya? If you haven’t already seen The Last Station or read Jay Parini’s 1990 novel of the same name, Tolstaya was the wife of Leo Tolstoy, one of the most influential writers of all time. Towards the end of his life, Tolstoy argued for pacifism and a mystical Christian communism. He renounced his noble title and his property in favor of poverty, vegetarianism and celibacy. These radical beliefs, and the conflict they created in the Tolstoys’ marriage, are the context in which The Last Station takes place.

The movie follows the last year of Tolstoy’s life, 1910. In My Life, Tolstaya reflects on her life from her early childhood until 1901. She paints an entirely different portrait of her life with Tolstoy, and deals directly with many of the issues raised in The Last Station, such as their conflict over Tolstoy’s spiritual beliefs and the constant presence of the media.

For more information about My Life, visit our website.

Le VocabulAIDE dans le domaine de l’éducation

2010-02-25T11:09:00.000-05:00

Juste un petit mot pour mentionner qu’un article portant sur notre ouvrage Le VocabulAIDE a été publié récemment :

Faites de l'anglais un allié en langue française avec Le Vocabulaide!

Bref, écrit par un journaliste d’info07, Patrick Voyer, cet article suggère l’utilisation du VocabulAIDE dans le domaine de l’éducation.

The UOP's Spring Catalogue 2010

2010-02-25T10:50:00.009-05:00

Nomination - La rénovation de l’héritage démocratique

2010-02-23T11:16:00.000-05:00

Notre ouvrage La rénovation de l’héritage démocratique a été présélectionné pour le prix Jean-Charles Falardeau.

Le Programme d’aide à l’édition savante (PAES), de la Fédération canadienne des sciences humaines, offre annuellement ce prix au meilleur ouvrage de langue française en sciences sociales financé par PAES. Le prix, d’une valeur de 2 500 $, sera décerné samedi, le 27 mars 2010, à l’Hotel Crowne Plaza, à Ottawa. Les candidats sélectionnés pour ce prix seront informés de la décision du jury d’ici quelques semaines.

Nous inscrirons le gagnant de ce concours dans notre blog lorsque les résultats paraitront.

Event - Salon du livre de l'Outaouais

2010-02-22T15:28:00.005-05:00

The University of Ottawa Press invites you to the 31^st Salon du livre de l'Outaouais. Come and see new books by your professors and colleagues at our booth (# 94, Prologue Inc.).

Author signings

Friday, February 26
7 PM to 8 PM: Pierre Hurtubise, author of Tous les chemins mènent à Rome

Saturday, February 27
1 PM to 2 PM: Georges Sioui, author of Histories of Kanatha
2 PM to 3 PM: Louise N. Boucher, contributor to Entre lieux et mémoire
3 PM to 4 PM: Charles Le Blanc, author of Le complexe d'Hermès
4 PM to 5 PM: Réal Fillion, author of La dynamique multiculturelle et les fins de l'histoire

31^st Salon du livre de l'Outaouais
February 25 to 28, 2010
Palais des congrès de Gatineau
(200 Promenade du Portage in Gatineau)

Hours
Thursday, February 25 from 9 AM to 9 PM
Friday, February 26 from 9 AM to 9 PM
Saturday, February 27 from 10 AM to 9 PM
Sunday, February 28 from 10 AM to 5 PM

Map for the directions

View Larger Map

Événement - 31e Salon du livre de l'Outaouais

2010-02-22T11:19:00.000-05:00

Séances de dédicaces

200, place du portage, Outaouais (carte pour les directions)

Vendredi 26 février de 19 h à 20 h

Pierre Hurtubise est professeur émérite à la Faculté de théologie de l’Université Saint-Paul. Depuis 1968, il a passé d’innombrables heures aux Archives du Vatican lors de ses recherches sur la cour pontificale. Il a rassemblé ses recherches dans l’ouvrage Tous les chemins mènent à Rome.

Tous les chemins mènent à Rome est une histoire sociale de la cour pontificale et des cours cardinalices au XVIe siècle. Avec des regards multiples, l’ouvrage permet de comprendre pourquoi la cour pontificale était sujet d’admiration et était surtout enviée par tant de contemporains qui étaient prêts à tout pour y accéder.

Samedi 27 février de 13 h à 14 h

Georges Sioui est coordonnateur du programme d’études autochtones à l’Université d’Ottawa. Les projets et l’implication de Georges Sioui ont toujours été reliés à la communauté amérindienne, autochtone et inuit. Ses écrits sur la philosophie, l’histoire et l’éducation autochtones ont été publiés dans plusieurs revues et journaux.

Histoires de Kanatha est un recueil bilingue de ses textes qui présente et explore la vision des Huron-Wendat sur la place des autochtones au Canada, dans le monde et dans l’histoire.

Samedi 17 février de 14 h à 15 h

Louise M. Boucher est candidate au Ph.D. au Département de géographie de l’Université d’Ottawa. Sa recherche doctorale, comme sa contribution au collectif Entre lieux et mémoire, porte sur les chutes des Chaudières de l’Outaouais. Au-delà des chutes, sa spécialité est la géographie du patrimoine. Elle est aussi vice-présidente de la Société d'histoire de l'Outaouais.

Entre lieux et mémoire est un recueil d’essais sous la direction d’Anne Gilbert, Michel Bock et Joseph Yvon Thériault qui explore comment la francophonie s’inscrit dans la géographie canadienne et comment les lieux historiques participent à la construction de l’identité francophone canadienne.

Samedi 17 février de 15 h à 16 h

Charles Le Blanc est professeur agrégé à l’École de traduction et d’interprétation à l’Université d’Ottawa. Traducteur chevronné, il est aussi spécialiste de philosophie allemande classique et l’auteur de quatre livres de jeunesse. Il a été finaliste du Prix du Gouverneur général, catégorie études et essais, pour son livre Le complexe d’Hermès.

Le complexe d’Hermès est une réflexion philosophique sur la traduction qui cherche à montrer qu’il est possible de sortir de la limite du langage en déplaçant la traduction de la linguistique à l’esthétique.

Samedi 17 février de 16 h à 17 h

Réal Fillion est professeur au Département de philosophie à l’Université de Sudbury. Ses recherches philosophiques portent sur la philosophie politique, le multiculturalisme et l’histoire.

Dans La dynamique multiculturelle et les fins de l’histoire, Réal Fillion propose une lecture originale de textes clés portant sur la philosophie de l’histoire signés par Kant, Hegel et Marx, et démontre que ces textes demeurent pertinents aujourd’hui pour comprendre l’histoire.

Les appareils électroniques pour la lecture de livres numériques (partie 2)

2010-02-17T11:29:00.000-05:00

Un iPad du point de vue d’un éditeur

Dans un billet précédent, j’ai effectué un bref survol des appareils électroniques pour la lecture de livres numériques. En terminant de rédiger ce dernier, j’avais bien pris soin de mentionner dans le dernier paragraphe de garder un œil sur Apple et de son arrivé dans le futur avec ce que nous avions tous pensé le iTablet ou le iSlate. Le grand jour est finalement arrivé, il y a deux semaines, lorsqu’Apple a annoncé le lancement de son produit qui se nommera iPad. Le choix de ce nom a fait couler beaucoup d’encre. À ce sujet, je vous suggère de lire l’article écrit par le Globe and Mail et intitulé The life and the death of the iPad joke.

Oui, beaucoup d’encre virtuelle a coulé pour couvrir le lancement du iPad, et ce, sous plusieurs angles. Parce que ce blogue existe en relation étroite avec une maison d’édition, je vais me concentrer sur le rôle que représente cet appareil dans le monde de la publication, un rôle qui se rapproche drôlement d’un héros dans un film américain. De plus, plusieurs billets dans la blogosphère comparent le iPad au iPhone pour finalement conclure qu’une faible différence existe entre les deux produits. Une différence qui peut se résumer à l’impression que l’un d’entre eux semble avoir pris des stéroïdes. Dans cet article, nous avons sélectionné certaines dimensions communes à ces deux produits pour tenter de cerner ce qui les différentie. Du point de vue d’un éditeur, le iPad n’est pas un iPhone sous l’effet des stéroïdes.

Caractéristiques matérielles des produits

Commentaires :

La taille de l’écran risque-t-elle de rendre inconfortable la lecture? En d’autres termes, sera-t-il difficile de s’installer confortablement pour lire ? Ces questions se doivent d’être posées, puisqu’en considérant certains prototypes, nous remarquons qu’ils ont des caractéristiques qui peuvent améliorer le confort. Par exemple, on retrouve des appareils présentés.

Un autre prototype, encore complètement au stade conceptuel, est un écran qui utilise la technologie e-ink et dont sa rigidité ressemble à du papier.

Commentaires :

Le iPad est possiblement plus confortable pour la lecture que le iPhone. L’écran peut contenir un nombre de caractères plus élevé que son voisin sans que la taille des caractères en souffre.

La résolution est essentielle pour la lecture. Une application pour la lecture de livres peut attirer le lecteur avec ses graphiques, par exemple, en représentant numériquement la disposition des livres sur un présentoir. De plus, les études ont démontrés que la page couverture d’un livre à un impact considérable sur sa vente. Un des avantages du LCD par rapport à l’encre électronique (noir et blanc) est qu’il peut rendre le contenu attrayant grâce à la couleur, les vidéos, les images… Par contre, il ne faut pas écarter l’hypothèse que des appareils futuristes qui utiliseront la technologie de l’encre virtuelle pourront aussi utiliser la couleur et les vidéos. Certaines vidéos à ce sujet circulent dans Internet.

Commentaires :

Ce n’est pas facile de définir précisément le nombre de eBooks que peut contenir un disque dur de 16 GB ou de 32 GB, car la taille d’un livre sur le disque peut varier en fonction de ses caractéristiques, tel que ses images ou sa longueur.

Pour se donner une idée, 1GB est l’équivalent de 1000 MB. 1 MB est l’équivalent de 1000 KB. Un livre de 200 pages peut occuper environ 300 KB sur le disque. Je vous laisse faire lecalcul pour trouver combien d’ebooks peut contenir un iPhone ou un iPad.

La taille d’un livre sur le disque dépendra du format qu’il devra prendre pour se conformer à l’application iBook. Il ne serait pas surprenant que du côté graphique, l’application présentera plusieurs options pour rendre le contenu attrayant visuellement. Les graphiques augmentent la taille d’un fichier, mais avec 64 GB, je ne crois pas que nous aillons besoin de nous inquiéter.

Commentaires :

L’iPad et l’iPhone possèdent une batterie avec une durée de vie qui peut aller jusqu’à 10 heures (9 heures pour iPhone) lorsqu’elle est utilisée pour surfer sur le Web avec le Wi-Fi, regarder des
vidéos, ou écouter de la musique. En 10 heures, le lecteur à amplement le temps d’être rassasié.

Le Site Web de Apple mentionne que le iPad pourra être rechargé dans une prise de courant standard, mais aussi dans une entrée USB (transfert de photos, musique ou autres documents). Cette deuxième option offre la possibilité de recharger la tablette sur un ordinateur. Cependant, il faut noter que l’accès USB est offert séparément de la tablette.

L’acheteur devra se procurer un adaptateur pour brancher un câble USB et un autre s’il désire utiliser des cartes SD (pour des photos). Cet accès USB optionnel soulève plusieurs questions quant à la façon dont les informations pourront être transférées sur le iPad. Possiblement que iPad vise à restreindre l’accès pour forcer l’usager à acheter des produits, comme des livres, dans son magasin.

Commentaires :

Malheureusement, l’étude ne mentionne pas le ratio des consommateurs potentiels qui sont des étudiants. Certains prédisent que dans le futur, les étudiants auront seulement leur tablette (iPad ou autres) à trimbaler dans leur sac-à-dos. Le temps où l’étudiant devait se rendre à la librairie ou à la bibliothèque serait révolu. Pour ceux qui désireraient continuer à lire un livre en format papier, il y aurait toujours l’option print-on-demand (POD).

Partie 3 à venir...

Event - book launch of "Le VocabulAIDE"

2010-02-05T11:40:00.007-05:00

The Département d’études langagières of the Université du Québec en Outaouais and the University of Ottawa Press invite you to the book launch of Le VocabulAIDE, in the presence of the author Pierre Cardinal and his main collaborator, Marie-Paule Lavoilette-Chartrand.

The launch will take place on Tuesday, February 9, from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM, at the café-bar Le Tonik (off the lobby, next to the cafeteria) in Alexandre-Taché hall at UQO, 283 Alexandre-Taché Boulevard in Gatineau (parking available on Belleau Street, to the west of the campus).

This event is part of the Semaine du français at UQO, whose theme this year, « La pensée se réalise dans le mot », perfectly suits the spirit of Le VocabulAIDE.

Wine and light refreshments will be served following a brief presentation.

For more information, please contact Nancy Béliveau at (819) 595-3900, ext. 4444.

This event will be in French only.

Agrandir le plan

Lancement – Le VocabulAIDE

2010-01-29T13:20:00.000-05:00

Je ne suis pas certain que se soit un phénomène isolé dans notre pays, le Canada. J’imagine que non, ça doit être aussi un fait qui se vit à d’autres endroits. J’ai le pressentiment que ce phénomène est susceptible de se manifester partout où les gens utilisent deux ou plusieurs langues pour communiquer entre eux. De plus, probablement qu’avec les années, les groupes linguistiques en place s’influencent entre eux, même au point de voir dissoudre certaines de leurs caractéristiques qui permettaient de les distinguer. En ce qui concerne les mots, est-il vrai que la langue anglaise soit très attrayante pour les francophones ?

On ne peut pas se le cacher, il suffit d’examiner le langage quotidien des personnes qui se définissent comme étant francophones pour constater une utilisation consciente, ou parfois inconsciente, de la langue anglaise.

Pour ma part, j’avoue que j’utilise fréquemment ces mots empruntés, ou encore, dérobés, à notre langue voisine.

Il suffirait de porter une attention particulière à ce que j’écris et à ce que je dis toute au long d’une journée pour me le rendre à l’évidence. Au cas où vous ne l’auriez pas remarqué, évidence est un nom féminin qui provient de l’anglais evidence. Son équivalent en français aurait pu être preuve ou pièce à conviction. Vous pourriez vous amuser à relire mon texte, il en abrite peut-être d’autres…

Devrions-nous être effrayés de ce mélange de deux langues? Mireille Lapensée, une collègue de travail, a bien résumé la situation dans le communiqué de presse qu’elle a envoyé aux médias : « Les Canadiens francophones sont coincés entre deux exigences essentielles: celle de protéger l’intégrité de leur langue dans un pays où la majorité est anglophone, et celle de reconnaître qu’une langue est en évolution perpétuelle. »

Pierre Cardinal, docteur en linguistique de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne et professeur honoraire à l’Université du Québec en Outaouais a effectué un excellent travail en ciblant ces mots, où la langue anglaise et française s’est entrelacée dans le langage écrit. Pour vous donner une idée de l’ampleur du phénomène, son nouveau dictionnaire intitulé Le VocabulAIDE à près de 700 pages. C’est beaucoup de mots 700 pages! Cependant, il faut se rassurer, parce que comme le docteur le mentionne dans un entretien que nous discuterons plus en profondeur dans un autre paragraphe de ce billet, la présence de l’anglais dans la langue française est minime, soit environ 4 ou 5 % du vocabulaire.

Le VocabulAIDE fait la présentation descriptive et non culpabilisante, d’une sélection de vrais anglicismes. Tous les mots et expressions traités sont illustrés par des exemples authentiques relevés dans les principaux journaux du pays, accompagnés du mot anglais qui a influencé le français et de leurs équivalents en français général. L’auteur ajoute un certain nombre de prétendues influences de l’anglais qui ne l’ont jamais été, de faux anglicismes en somme. Ce petit dictionnaire novateur a essentiellement deux objectifs : d’abord de contribuer à modifier radicalement notre conception idéologique des influences lexicales de l’anglais sur le français; et ensuite d’en rénover fondamentalement la présentation.

Pour agrémenter le lancement de son livre, docteur Cardinal a accordé un entretien à l’émission Divine Tentation diffusée sur la chaîne de Radio-Canada. L’entretien a aussi été déposé sur le Web ici. Au cas où vous oseriez douter de la crédibilité et de l’expertise de cet homme, l’animatrice débute l’entrevue en le présentant comme un moine de la langue française. En effet, l’animatrice l’a bien mentionné, Cardinal s’intéresse à la langue française depuis plus de 40 ans. Pour en revenir à mes questionnements du début de ce billet, à savoir si le Canada est le seul pays où la langue française subit une forte influence anglaise, Cardinal affirme que non. Selon cet expert en linguistique, la pression que l’anglais applique sur les autres langues est présente dans plusieurs régions du monde. À ses dires, son ouvrage ne vise pas à armer les francophones pour contrer cette pression, d’ailleurs il porte une attention particulière pour ne pas utiliser le terme « anglicisme », car le terme contient des connotations négatives, mais à les ressourcer afin d’enrichir leur lexique. Bref, ce que nous apprend le docteur dans l’entrevue est que l’intention derrière son ouvrage n’est pas de dicter au francophones comment ils doivent s’exprimer ; l’intention est de leur fournir les informations nécessaires pour les aider à effectuer des choix éclairés dans le but d’élargir l’éventail des possibilités qui s’ouvre à eux dans la langue française pour exprimer ce qu’il aurait normalement exprimé en effectuant un emprunt à l’anglais.

Pour plus d’information sur ce livre, consulter le site web des Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa.