Beyonce course coming to UVIC

Starting in January, students at the University of Victoria will be able to study the pop singer Beyonce.

This new music department course will be taught by Melissa Avdeeff, a musicology researcher who has lectured at both the University of Alberta and the University of Edinburgh. Avdeeff has written on how women are portrayed in popular music, specifically focusing on Beyonce, for her MA thesis at Hamilton’s McMaster University.

For the course, Avdeef considered other singers such as Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, but eventually picked Beyonce since a variety of pop-music studies could be included.

With files from The Globe and Mail

Five Alberta university-colleges now called universities

Five university-colleges in Alberta have received provincial permission to name themselves universities.

Recently renamed schools such as Concordia University and The King’s University have already started making plans to change billboards and letterhead. Concordia President Gerald Krispin noted that these post-secondary institutes have been pushing to get their names changed for years.

Bill Diepeveen, chair of King’s board of governors, believes this will help with campus recruitment: “You are coming to a university. Don’t have any doubt in your mind.”

With files from Edmonton Journal

Michael Ignatieff leaves U of T for Harvard

The former leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and a professor at University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, Michael Ignatieff, is leaving the university to pursue another post at Harvard University.

At Harvard, he will teach a variety of topics ranging from human rights, to sovereignty and interventions, to political life, to responsibility and representation as the Edward R. Murrow Chair of Press, Politics, and Public Policy.

“[Harvard] is an exciting and dynamic place where our future leaders are engaged in the very real process of gaining a greater understanding of the challenges they will face and the tools they will need to confront them,” said Ignatieff.

With files from The Varsity