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The art of translation

trevor.kenney — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:19:43 +0000

What do you get when you cross a multiple scholarship winner with an Oxford graduate, Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Translation, senior analyst for the Canadian Privy Council Office, published author and an accomplished musician? You get one remarkable guy by the name of Blair McMurren (BA '96), who just happens to be the U of L's 2010 Alumnus of the Year.

Born and raised in Lethbridge, McMurren graduated from the U of L with Great Distinction, receiving the Faculty of Arts and Science Gold Medal and the Governor General's Silver Medal for Highest Undergraduate Class Standing. His pursuit of academia didn't stop there. McMurren was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and immediately went to Oxford ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ to pursue graduate studies.

Dr. Blair McMurren, at home in Ottawa.

An English major at the U of L, particularly fond of the works of James Joyce, McMurren focused his attention at Oxford on furthering his understanding of English literature. He earned an Honours BA in English language and literature, and went on to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in comparative literature as well as an MA in translation from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Surrey at Guildford.

Ask McMurren what he initially planned to do after completing his education, and he'll admit that he wasn't really sure.

"Some far-sighted senior officials with the federal public service came recruiting at Oxford, and they made a compelling pitch for returning to Canada and making a difference in public policy," he says. "The idea of working on a variety of key files and having some influence on what would be happening in my country resonated with me."

McMurren returned from the U.K. in 2002 to begin work with the Department of Canadian Heritage. He also helped to launch a government initiative that has since become the Recruitment of Policy Leaders program. Since 2009, McMurren has been a senior analyst with the Priorities and Planning secretariat at the Privy Council Office – the department that supports the Prime Minister and Cabinet in all policy and decision-making actions. He is the lead analyst responsible for briefing senior officials and engaging with federal departments on Cabinet decisions related to climate change, clean energy and the environment.

McMurren concedes that the connection between English literature, translation and public policy isn't obvious, but says that his academic background fostered intrigue for the work he does today.

"Closely examining James Joyce's approach to translation is where many things started to come together for me," says McMurren. "So much of human history comes to us through the lens of translation. Freud, Marx, the Bible, what have you – all history-shaping works, and all are translated. Joyce was obsessed with the concept of translation, which ultimately got me thinking about how cultural politics work, and how ideas and issues move from one cultural context to another. It's not a huge stretch from there to cultural policy, which is all about how you tell your story as a country. It's a complex task, and in Canada we do it bilingually and multiculturally, which makes it richer but even harder."

While McMurren intends to continue his career in public policy, he would also like to branch out, perhaps by teaching sessional courses at a university. He's also very keen to give back to the school where his illustrious career began.

"I'd like to help U of L students find out all that's available to them after they leave the university," he says. "This award is a very humbling thing. I'd like to offer my experience to students and perhaps do something to help bridge the famous policy/research divide. I think we all have an interest in getting a broader, better dialogue going about the issues facing Canadian society."

Call for Nominations

The Alumni Association is now accepting nominations for the 2011 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year and Alumni Honour Society awards.

To obtain a nomination form, contact Alumni Relations: e-mail alumni@uleth.ca or call toll free 1-866-552-2582.

The nomination deadline is Feb. 1, 2011.

For a look at the full issue of SAM in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Campus Kudos

trevor.kenney — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:39:44 +0000

Dr. Leslie Dawn (Art) lectured on Oct. 5 about Emily Carr and the Group of Seven's Accusations she was "painting against the nation" as part of Southern Alberta Art Gallery's (SAAG) Articulations III: Scandals, Scoundrels, Capers, and Cons.

Leanne Elias (New Media) is the lead artist on SAAG's Welcome to My World project, which runs until Dec. 5. Chai Duncan (Art Technician) and Glen MacKinnon (Art) were artist mentors to the students who created videos during the workshop.

Dr. Janet Youngdahl (Music) presented The Origins of the Art of Musical Notation to a history course of Dr. Friedemann Sallis at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary recently. The presentation was video-linked to the U of L.

Billy McCarroll (Art Professor Emeritus), Glenn MacKinnon (Art) and Denton Fredrickson (Art) make up one of the six collaborative teams whose work was part of SAAG's On Your Marks exhibition. Dagmar Dahle (Art) and Amanda Espezel (MFA art student) made up another team.

Dr. Ed Jurkowski (Music) will present his paper entitled, Interthematic Formal Fusion as Structural Design in Sibelius's Op. 67 Sonatinas for Piano, at the Fifth International Jean Sibelius Conference, at Oxford ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, England.

Dr. Rolf Boon's (Music) composition Waves (2007) was selected for inclusion in the New Works Calgary concert season. The Rubbing Stone Ensemble will perform Waves in their Apr. 21, 2011 concert of works for percussion and ensemble with guest virtuoso percussionist Aiyun Huang.

Michael Campbell (Art) is part of a group exhibition entitled, Nouveau Frankenstein, showing at the Trianon Gallery until Nov. 12.

Dagmar Dahle's (Art) prose piece, Painting John Brown Painting, is featured in the recent issue of Ars Medica: A Journal of Medicine, the Arts and Humanities, published by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto Press.

Col Cseke (BFA '07) was part of the collective that shared a Betty Mitchell Award for Best New Play. The Betty Mitchell Awards are Calgary's celebration of professional theatre.

Aaron Barr (BFA '02) was a character surfacer for the recently released 3D movie, Legend of the Guardians. Among numerous other projects, he has worked on two other movies – The Ant Bully and The Wild. He currently works as a surface/modeler at Image Engine Design Inc. in Vancouver.

Campus Kudos

trevor.kenney — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:35:24 +0000

Campus Kudos

Lisa Doolittle (Theatre & Dramatic Arts), with Anne Flynn from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, is presenting the paper "Assimilating and Accommodating: Bodies and Dancing, Canada's Choreography of Multicultural Nationhood in the 20th century" at the British Association of Canadian Studies international conference "Being, Becoming and Belonging: Multiculturalism, Diversity and Social Inclusion in Modern Canada" at Oxford ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, UK, Mar. 28-30.

Mary-Anne McTrowe (Art) has received an Alberta Creative Development Initiative grant to produce work for a solo exhibition in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria's contemporary space, the LAB. The exhibition opens in October 2009.

Richard Epp (Theatre & Dramatic Arts) appears in Theatre Calgary's production of An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde, Mar. 3-22.

Jim Steacy (kinesiology student) and Heather Steacy (music student) brought home three gold medals from the Canada West track championship meet in Regina recently. Jim Steacy won both the men's weight throw and shot put, giving him eight career Canada West gold medals. Heather Steacy won her third consecutive Canada West women's weight throw gold medal. Both athletes were named top athletes of the meet and Jim Steacy was also named top male track athlete for the year.

Dr. Arlan Schultz (Music) has received a Community of Research Excellence Development Opportunity from the U of L Research Office to support his development of tools for electroacoustic composition in the form of audio spatialization software and unique audio-sample databases. Schultz recently returned from Paris, France where he was studying and designing audio spatialization algorithms and studying advanced MAX/MSP programming techniques at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in the Centre Georges Pompidou. During this spring/summer, he has been awarded a research residency and has been appointed a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CIRCA) in La Jolla, California. He has also received a Canada Arts Council grant for the composition of two new works of interactive acoustic/computer music. One is a commission from New Works Calgary's "Rubbing Stone" Ensemble for soprano, chamber orchestra, real-time audio spatialization and computer processed audio, which will be premiered in 2010.

Ryan Pottruff (education student) and Dustin Moore (pre-management studies) of the Pronghorns men's hockey team, won silver medals while representing Canada at the 2009 Winter Universiade in Harbin, China.

Deanna Oye (Music) performs a solo piano recital at Lakehead ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ on Mar. 17, as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations for Lakehead's Department of Music. She was a graduate of their B.Mus.(Honours) program during its first decade.

Trio Amaranth (Peter Visentin, violin; Tido Janssen, cello; and Deanna Oye, piano) performed at Convocation Hall at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta on Feb. 27.
Dana Inkster (New Media) has been invited to be a discussant in the "The Role of the Employer and Legal Implications For Foreign Workers" plenary, Mar. 19 at the 11th National Metropolis Conference in Calgary. She will speak about her 2007 documentary "24 Days In Brooks" as well as her current projects in development, "Los Invisibles" and "Ladies of the Saturday Night". In March, she also speaks on the Collaborative Research in Ethnicity, Social Care and Health program in Faculty of Nursing, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, where she will use her film 24 Days in Brooks as a case study for the use of documentary film as a facilitation tool in intercultural exchange.

Peter Visentin (Music) presented "Violinist's Cool Move" to music majors at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta recently. The presentation explores his research with biomechanics researchers to gain insight into the art and science of playing the violin.

Lani Maestro (Art) is among 50 artists from around the world to participate in the Sharjah Biennial 9, this spring.

Ed Wasiak (Education/Music) was elected president of the Canadian Music Educators' Association (CMEA). CMEA provides leadership for music education in Canada and is also the national affiliate to the International Society for Music Education. Wasiak's term as president runs from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2011.

Dr. Rolf Boon's (Music) composition "First Light" has been selected for publication in the Canadian National Conservatory of Music's Northern Lights Level 5 piano syllabus. Several of Rolf's works are also under consideration for publication for their Grade 6 and 7 piano repertoire.

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The art of translation

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