A reception Friday, October 21, at the Art Gallery of Windsor will celebrate the opening of a retrospective exhibition on the work of creative arts professor Brenda Francis Pelkey.

Over the past three decades, Francis Pelkey’s works have been the subject of many solo and group exhibitions in Canada and northwestern Europe, including the Museum of Photography in Helsinki, London Guildhall University, the Remai Modern in Saskatoon, Regina’s MacKenzie Art Gallery and Dunlop Art Gallery, and the Thames Art Gallery in Chatham. This will be her first solo exhibition organized by the Art Gallery of Windsor since she moved to the city in 2003.

“The last solo exhibition I had at the AGW was in 1994, but that was one body of work,” Francis Pelkey says. “This has got quite a bit more in it. It’s quite alarming to see it all in one place.”

Her works are held in several major public collections, including several of those listed above as well as: Canada Council Art Bank in Ottawa, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Charlottetown’s Confederation Centre for the Arts, the University of Saskatchewan, and the National Gallery of Canada.

“As artist-cartographer-photographer, Francis Pelkey opens the multiple possibilities of female subjectivity in public and private spaces to challenge geographies which have been normalized as male spaces,” says curator Catherine Mastin.

“From the particularized front and backyards adorned with elements of personal memory and identity to dark roads at night to expansive coastal ocean scenes to empty hospital beds of the admitted yet waiting and recovering ill — and to strip-dance poles in empty bars, Francis Pelkey exposes the still-gendered yet changing contours of social spaces in contemporary life.

“A career review is a timely undertaking to widen knowledge on her contributions to contemporary photography and to expand awareness of her work.”

The exhibition spans works from 1987 to her current project Site, which explores major commercial construction sites, including the Windsor International Aquatic and Training Centre.

“These multi-faceted, complex, transitional spaces are in constant change through the duration of their construction,” says Francis Pelkey. “The photographs map this evidence of labour and its resulting narrative.”

Friday’s reception begins at 7 p.m. at the gallery, 401 Riverside Drive West. Brenda Francis Pelkey: A Retrospective will be on exhibit through January 22. From Windsor, this show will tour to galleries in Halifax, Peterborough and Regina.

Organizers of the undergraduate research conference, UWill Discover are now accepting submissions for presentations. Presenters are eligible for prizes in many categories during the event, March 31 on the UWindsor campus.

“The UWill Discover conference is an excellent opportunity for you to showcase your research or original creative work in a professional setting before your peers, faculty, and the public,” says conference chair Simon du Toit. “We are using the theme ‘What have you discovered?’ as a way to signal the breadth of inquiry appropriate for discussion.”

Undergraduate students in any discipline are eligible to participate, and each presentation will be reviewed by expert faculty and guest respondents. The deadline for submission of proposals in December 1.

Detailed guidelines for how to prepare an abstract, a research talk, or a poster are available on the UWill Discover website.

Some very generous students are gearing up for next week’s Charity Week.

Volunteers from the Orphan Sponsorship Program are hosting the fourth annual Charity Week, which runs October 24 to 28. Universities across Canada compete to collect funds to donate to charities. The UWindsor team has won the competition for two consecutive years, and is hoping to retain the bragging rights this year.

The week will feature a variety of activities and fundraisers, aimed at sponsoring orphans through registered charities.

The event will be held in the CAW Student Centre Commons, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Participants can find a bake sale, henna design service and a video game booth.

To learn more about the event, visit the Facebook page or the Charity Week website.

—Loren Mastracci

Are you obsessed with The Walking Dead? Do you think you could outlast The Horde? Come out for a two-day conference filled with practical advice and skill-building on how to survive a zombie apocalypse or any natural disaster, October 28 and 29 on the UWindsor campus.

The conference begins Friday night with an introductory keynote address by history professor David Bright of Niagara College entitled “I don’t think those rules apply anymore, do you? Rebuilding civilization after the Zombie Apocalypse.”

Saturday is filed with thought-provoking panel presentations and hands-on workshops in a range of disciplines, including:

• introduction to self-defence techniques;
• how to find food when there’s none left;
• diagnosing the zombie bug;
• emergency preparedness; and
• how to create zombie make up.

The day ends with a free zombie walk and after-party featuring the local band, The Brandy Alexanders.

The cost is $10 for students and includes access to all the panels and workshops. While supplies last, registrants will also receive an emergency kit that includes some practical things to get them prepared. A free lunch will be provided to those who register by October 24.

Find more information and an online registration form at “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse.”

Sandra Davis, employer relations co-ordinator in the office of co-op, career and employment services, won Thursday’s DailyNews quiz contest and its prize of four gold-seat tickets to Saturday’s Lancer football game.

Davis’s entry was drawn from all those which correctly identified the Vanier Cup as the CIS football championship trophy, a rouge as worth one point, and the Lancer shield as the logo at the centre of Alumni Field.

The Lancers will close the season hosting the Laurier Golden Hawks, with kick-off set for 1 p.m. Gold seat tickets are $15; adult admission is $12; and youth and seniors get in for $10. UWindsor students are admitted free with valid ID.

Demolition of the Clark residences on Sunset Avenue south of Wyandotte Street is scheduled to proceed next week, and the contractor responsible is taking steps to minimize disruption to those living and passing nearby.

The University plans to return the site to green space for the enjoyment of the campus community and its neighbours.

The structure demolition and site restoration is expected to take six to eight weeks. Crews from the Jones Group will work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, ensuring all demolition ends before dusk.

While there will be noise and dust associated with the work, the contractors will employ dust suppression measures, as well as the abatement of any hazardous materials in accordance with provincial law.

Direct questions or concerns to project co-ordinator Mark Rudkin of Facility Services at 519-253-3000, ext. 2168.

On October 22, 1966, 12-year-old Chanie Wenjack died near Kenora, Ontario. He was walking the more than 400 miles from a residential school to the home from which he had been taken.

Now, Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie has taken inspiration from Wenjack's story and turned it into the Secret Path project, which consists of a solo album, a graphic novel and an animated film.

The film, created in collaboration with Essex County-born cartoonist Jeff Lemire, will be screened Sunday, October 23, as part of an evening discussing the legacy of residential schools and the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada.

It starts at 8 p.m. in the CAW Student Centre Commons. Admission is by free-will donation to the legal defence fund for Vanessa Gray of Aamjwinaang First Nation, who has been charged for shutting down Enbridge’s pipeline near her traditional lands outside Sarnia.

There are still tickets available for the 2016 Annual Retirees’ Dinner and Reunion, Thursday, November 3, in Ambassador Auditorium, reports organizer Mary-Ann Rennie.

The evening gets underway at 5:30 p.m. and promises a selection of hors d’oeuvres during the pre-dinner reception; a three-course meal including salad, main course entrée, and dessert; and presentations on each of this year’s 44 honourees.

Tickets are $30 per person, available from Rennie at mrennie@uwindsor.ca or 519-253-3000, ext. 7059.

In April 2016, Information Technology Services updated the Scantron software and hardware it uses for computerized test scoring and for student evaluation of teaching.

The resulting changes for instructors are as follows:

1. Students must not write anything above the red bar on the red test Scantron sheets. In courses where the instructor uses multiple test versions, it has not been uncommon that they have the students write the version of the test they are writing on the top corner of the sheet. This is acceptable as long as nothing is written in the area reserved for form definition marks. Writing on the red test sheets is okay as long as it is below the red bar.
2. Users must fill out a service request form in Team Dynamix before coming to Operations. Previously, they filled out a paper form at the IT Services counter. Please click on the Scantron link under Quick Links on the IT Services homepage http://www.uwindsor.ca/its. For proper tracking, record the Team Dynamix ticket number provided to you through your request in place of the student number on the professor’s master response sheet for test scoring requests. You also need this number to pick up your submission. If you are submitting multiple versions of the same test, each version should be entered as a separate Team Dynamix request.
3. Instructors must sign their name over the seal of any envelopes containing tests before leaving the forms with Operations. This allows Operations to be confident that the tests have not been tampered with and satisfies the concerns of academic integrity.
4. Test takers must use No. 2 pencil only and fill in circles completely. If students want to change an answer when completing a test, they must completely erase the answer they provided and not simply put an X through it. Crossing out an initial answer and filling in another response will require operator intervention, defeating the whole purpose of computerized test scoring.

Click here for detailed step-by-step instructions.

Speakers from several religious traditions will address personal and social dimensions of forgiveness and healing in an interfaith symposium on Sunday, October 23.

First Nations, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh communities will be represented.

Presented by Assumption University’s Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Religion and Conflict, the event runs 2 to 5 p.m. at the Windsor Essex Children’s Aid Society, 1671 Riverside Drive East. Admission is free and open to the public.