My background includes graduate work in Political Science at York University's Centre for International and Security Studies, a one-year travel-study tour around the world focused on issues of peace and conflict resolution, and almost 20 years of teaching subjects from International Development to Canadian government. I have researched and published on topics like ecological modernization, global environmental governance issues, protected areas governance in North America, environmental discourses, disaster risk reduction, global health, and environment and trade in Canadian foreign policy.
I am Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies, past editor of Unsettled Balance: Ethics, Security and Canada’s International Relations, and Ethics and Security in Canadian Foreign Policy, both with UBC Press. Recent article: Governance for resilience: Canada and global disaster risk reduction, Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, 26:3, 330-344, DOI: 10.1080/11926422.2019.1699129. I am Co-Director, along with Andy Knight, of the Canadian Defence and Security network’s Global Health Security Theme. I am a Research Fellow with the Earth System Governance Project, Chair of the local Steering Committee of the Global Empowerment Coalition of the Central Okanagan (BCCIC Chapter), and Board Member of the Canadian Environmental Network. I speak and write publicly often on political issues of the day. All views my own.
Governments have claimed to be pursuing peace since time immemorial, with seemingly little progress to show for it. Numerous treaties, declarations, laws and covenants have been signed to eliminate war or reduce its effects, yet societies continue to fight and to suffer, despite these efforts. In this talk, we will survey the historical benchmarks of war and peace in world politics, consider where things went wrong, and speculate about how peace might be achieved in the context of an ongoing global crisis.
This talk will delve into the historical context, current challenges, and future implications of this powerful form of civic action. What are the ethical dilemmas of civil disobedience? What might be the effect of disruptive technologies on state surveillance and the balance between security and individual freedoms? Talk on November 10, 2023
Southern Resident Orcas are critically endangered despite legal protection
on KSQD 90.7 FM, KSQT 89.7 FM, K207FE(FX) 89.5 FM and KSQD.org
The Rights of Nature is one way to rethink the relationships between humans and Nature, but are there other ways to think about those connections? Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with Dr. Rosalind Warner, professor of political science at Okanagan College in British Columbia and Research Fellow with the Earth System Governance Project. Warner is studying the role of kinship metaphors in Earth System Law, with kinship connoting more ethical relationships among humans, Nature and earth’s non-human inhabitants. Earth System Law is an emerging body of legal precepts, principles and practices that bring together ethics and law with the planet’s dynamic physical and biological cycles. Tune in to hear a new take on human-nature relations.
Alternative facts, misdirection, and outright propaganda seem to dominate the news media landscape today in a way that is quite different from the past.
Presented February 10th, Society for Learning in Retirement
Thank you to the Society for Learning in Retirement in Kelowna for honouring me with a lifetime membership! I feel very privileged to be able to continue serving this very wonderful group of humans!
Some Tools for Media Literacy
Use the Internet Archive to retrieve older versions of public websites
Mosleh, M., Pennycook, G., Arechar, A. A., & Rand, D. G. (2021). Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter. Nature Communications, 12(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20043-0
Pennycook, G., Epstein, Z., Mosleh, M., Arechar, A. A., Eckles, D., & Rand, D. G. (2021). Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online. Nature, 592(7855), Article 7855. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03344-2
Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2022). Accuracy prompts are a replicable and generalizable approach for reducing the spread of misinformation. Nature Communications, 13(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30073-5
Shao, C., Ciampaglia, G. L., Varol, O., Yang, K., Flammini, A., & Menczer, F. (2017). The spread of low-credibility content by social bots. http://arxiv.org/abs/1707.07592
View video on CACOR‘s (Canadian Association for theClub of Rome) Youtube Channel.
Covid-19 disrupted the world in unimaginable ways. Future disasters may be even worse. Some argue human societies have left the Holocene Epoch and entered the Anthropocene. How might our perceptions of the human-nature relationship now change, and how might we improve policy, governance, and planning? [Note: one correction has been made to the slide set available on the CACOR website–there were 5 mass extinctions in the last 5oo million years. Ed.]
Despite a plethora of treaties, constitutional guarantees, and international organizations, the world continues to be afflicted with senseless atrocities that offend human conscience. Why are institutions powerless against such waves of human cruelty and ruthlessness? This session will explore what can be done to make human rights real. Talk November 14th at Okanagan College, November 18th at SLR.
Zhang, L., Lee, E., & Kim, E. (n.d.). IMMIGRANTS IN COVID AMERICA – Xenophobia & Racism. University of Minnesota. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://immigrantcovid.umn.edu/xenophobia-racism
Around the world, the institutions of liberal democratic systems are waging a rear-guard action against sustained attacks from populist and extremist movements. These trends are not new, but can be traced to events in the recent past, as well as broader historical developments. In this session, participants will learn why political scientists are so concerned about these trends, and what ordinary citizens can do to improve democratic accountability in Canada.
The foundational idea that women’s rights are integral to the politics of liberation, solidarity and justice has been mainstreamed in many international agreements and organizations.
The momentum on women’s rights should now be strongly carried forward to inform the politics of climate and security.
Moving forward, the need to mitigate and adapt to climate change means the world will be pushed to recognize and institutionalize the principle that women’s security is human security.
The challenge is urgent, the climate will not negotiate. Any efforts to address climate change will be that much poorer for the absence of women’s voices and experiences. Any efforts to address climate change will be that much richer with the power, strength and leadership that women bring as agents of change. The need for human security gives even more reason to ensure that women are not left behind.
Recently I prepared a poster on the Top Ten ways to gain students’ attention. It was displayed at the UBC Okanagan Centre for Teaching and Learning’s Annual Conference Engaging Every Learner a few years ago. As part of my project, I asked viewers of the poster to share their favourite ways to gain attention in class. So, here is the collected list, with some additional ideas from one of the sessions I attended on Interactive Techniques with Richard Plunkett, including a list of interactive techniques prepared by Kevin Yee.
1. Involve Everyone
It can be a challenge to design activities in which everyone feels engaged, but Liberating Structures has a number of great suggestions for format, invitations, and content that can ensure that everyone has a stake in the proceedings. Contributed: give the whole class a task that can only be accomplished by everyone fulfilling their assigned role. Another one: use ‘lecture reaction’ where students take on the roles of ‘questioners’, ‘example givers’, ‘divergent thinkers’ or ‘agreers’ and discuss in small groups accordingly. I also assign the role of ‘researchers’ who can google or search for interesting information and share it with the class.
2. Explain Yourself
Stating your purpose clearly, for the course, and for the learner, is an important first step in helping to establish a connection.
3. Make it Worth it
Accountability is important to helping learners engage. Using quizzes or surveys to gauge the level of knowledge without giving the impression of ‘judgement’ means keeping these low-stakes and fun. IFAT (Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique) scratch cards encourage teams to arrive at consensus before answering.
4. Apply Knowledge
Asking learners to think about a situation, case, or example immediately after explaining a concept can help concretize the material and aids retention. Contributed variation: invite learners to attend a professional meeting or to interview a practitioner in the field of study. Use ‘finger signals’ instead of clickers for multiple choice or true or false questions (students hold up fingers against their chest so others can’t see, to indicate the correct choice).
5. Be Organized
It sounds trite, but having an agenda for the class and carefully signposting each activity shows respect for learners’ time. Include an opening, buildup and closing at the very least. Contributed variation: use a one-minute paper to have learners identify the ‘Muddiest Point’ and address next class.
6. Use Metaphors
Solving a tough problem can be like unravelling a ball of string. Metaphors help learners to connect the familiar with the unfamiliar. Contributed variation:use a ‘Snowball’ technique with this one.
7. Use Mystery
Don’t give away the ‘answers’ prematurely! Build up to the big reveal with hints and clues. Variation: Picture prompts, in which an image is presented without explanation, asks students to identify/explain, discuss and describe any structures or processes shown (can be written or discussion format).
8. Be Unexpected
Use incongruity, contrasts and comparisons to spur thinking. It doesn’t have to be flashy or shocking, just curious or odd. Contributed variation: use movement, have students move to different areas of the classroom for group work, writing comments on sticky notes, posting under categories, etc.
9. Use Visuals
A picture speaks volumes. Well, you knew that…but visual culture in the age of Instagram is even more vital. Contributed variation: give learners objects to ‘play with’ during long lectures (colouring, playdough). Use demonstrations.
10. Vary Your Voice
For most people, this requires increasing your volume and variability in a conscious way. It may seem uncomfortable at first, but listeners will thank you. Contributed variation: be enthusiastic and show your passion! Capture the emotional content in your subject to create a hook.
A few years ago, I visited the Mauritshuis Museum in Den Haag, Netherlands, where I learned about the famous Vermeer painting Girl With a Pearl Earring. With the painting before me, an app guided me through its history, stories of the painter, and offered comparative works to explore right on my phone. This is just one example of how the internet of things can assist with learning. The Internet of Things refers to the idea that everything becomes a node on a network. It is focused on the use of smart sensing for pervasive connectivity and ubiquitous computing (University of Wisconsin-Madison).
While estimates vary, it is expected that the expectation of internet connectivity for many everyday devices will begin to impact education within 4-5 years. Although opinions vary on the speed of roll out, many observers note the rapid development of sensor, miniaturization, mobile and wearable technology as key drivers. Business Insider predicts that “there will be 34 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020, up from 10 billion in 2015. IoT devices will account for 24 billion, while traditional computing devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc.) will comprise 10 billion (Greenough and Camhi, 2016). “These developments emerge from outside the education sector, and to the extent they have implications for everyday life, work, consumption, decisionmaking and service provision, they will also impact the education sector. Specifically, the Internet of Things intersects with personalized learning and adaptive technologies by creating new opportunities for real-time data to impact learning. It may also impact blended learning, since connectivity creates “Hypersituational” (Educause) learning environments such as augmented reality.
These developments emerge from outside the education sector, and to the extent they have implications for everyday life, work, consumption, decisionmaking and service provision, they will also impact the education sector.
Educause
These new blended learning environments allow for wider exploration of the physical and virtual worlds in synchronous and asynchronous formats. For example, students can tour physical spaces with supplementary sound, text, video, or interactive elements (QR codes or Google Glass). Students can create projects that integrate crowd-sourced or networked data from physical systems in real-time. Similarly, redesigned learning spaces may be affected by the IofT because of the integration of physical and virtual worlds that is made possible by interconnectivity. As well, IofT may boost a focus on place-based education by localizing some aspects of the learning experience and making use of the environment in innovative ways. Another area of potential high impact is environmental, economic, and social sustainability, as the IofT has the potential to make every institutional operation more efficient by more closely integrating systems, from building temperatures to classroom scheduling and parking.
The power and appeal of the IofT lies in its flexibility and convenience. For learners, great benefits arise from improved efficiency and responsiveness of systems to real-time demands. On the other hand, hesitations are widespread and may slow the adoption of IofT in the education sector. Chief among these concerns are privacy, security, automation of decision making, and information overload (Pew Research Centre). Networked systems are vulnerable to hacking or infiltration by phishing or scam artists. Personal information is more vulnerable on a network, and algorithms are imperfect sources of analysis for decision making. The ability to collect data on physical and emotional states has severe implications for personal security and privacy. At the same time, if the IofT grows as many predict it will, students will need to acquire new technical and social skills for employability. IofT will require people to manage data, interpret and apply information, make ethical judgements, and effectively share and contextualize information. How might you put the Internet of Things to use in your classroom?
Dr. Rosalind Warner 
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