Preface

Abstract

Welcome to the inaugural issue of our new journal, Interdisciplinary Themes Journal. We are pleased to
publish a selection of papers presented at our first conference, “The City: Culture, Technology, Society”,
which was held in Vancouver at Simon Fraser University’s Wosk Centre for Dialogue over two slightly
cool and rainy days in early November 2010. We were pleased to welcome over forty participants from
fifteen different countries to our conference for an invigorating exchange of ideas dealing with the
concept of “the city”.
In addition to hearing a set of outstanding papers, our participants were able to get a good view of
Prince Charles as he toured the Wosk Centre, even if he was not precisely an invited guest of the
conference... We were also able to screen the National Film Board of Canada award winning featurelength documentary “Dirt”, which included a question and answer session with director and writer
Meghna Haldar and producer Tracey Friesen.
We hope that you find the papers in this issue of the Interdisciplinary Themes Journal as interesting and
stimulating as we do. Future issues of the journal will feature papers from our other conferences. If you
would like to publish with us, we welcome you to explore our website—
www.interdisciplinarythemes.org—to find a conference of interest to you and to visit the site frequently
as we will announce new conferences periodically. Please submit a proposal to our vetting process,
come and present a paper, engage in exchange with other scholars, students, and practitioners, and
then look forward to seeing your paper published in the Interdisciplinary Themes Journal