Four York University community members appointed to Order of Canada

Order of Canada Member medal large image for YFile homepage

York University Board of Governors Chair Julia Foster, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Professors Susan McGrath and Edgar Dosman, and Robert Cox, professor emeritus of political science and social and political thought, are among the 95 new appointments to the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honour.

The new appointees include three companions, 13 officers and 79 members. The appointments were made on the recommendation of the Advisory Council for the Order of Canada and announced Dec. 26, 2014, by the Office of the Governor General of Canada.

“This is a major honour and reflects the extraordinary contributions of our York community members to Canada,” said Mamdouh Shoukri, president and vice-chancellor, York University. “These new appointees to the Order of Canada represent the very best of our community. We are all exceptionally proud of their achievements and privileged to have colleagues of such distinction among us.”

Julia Foster, Chair of the York U Board of Governors
Julia Foster

Julia Foster has been appointed a member of the Order of Canada for her voluntary service in promoting the arts and Canadian culture. She joined the Board of Governors of York University in 2005 and was elected chair as of July 1, 2012.

Foster chairs the National Arts Centre Board of Trustees in Ottawa. She is the past chair of the 13th Annual Canadian Arts Summit, the Ontario Arts Council and the Stratford Festival. Foster is also a past member of the executive committee of the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund; former trustee of the Bata Shoe Museum; past member of the Art Gallery of Ontario’s public affairs committee; and a past advisory council member of the Centre for Cultural Management at the University of Waterloo.

Her professional background in market research and financial management includes senior administrative positions at McCann Erickson and Environics Research Group, and time spent as president and CEO of Olympic Trust of Canada.

Her community contributions have included the advisory board of the Nonprofit Management and Leadership Program at the Schulich School of Business. In addition to her dedicated work in the arts, Foster has been active on various international corporate boards, including the Board of Directors of Brascan Corporation, and was also trustee of the Hospital for Sick Children.

In November, Foster was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in 2014 by the Women’s Executive Network.

York University researcher and professor Susan McGrath
Susan McGrath

York University researcher Susan McGrath (MES ’90), a professor in the School of Social Work in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, has been appointed a member of the Order of Canada for her contributions to research and policy on refugee rights and for fostering collaboration among scholars in her field.

McGrath’s academic and research interests include: developing a global refugee research network (refugeeresearch.net), refugee resettlement, community development, community-based mental health programs and transnational social work.

She serves as a member of the boards of the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture and the journal Refuge. Her research and writing focus on community work with vulnerable populations, including refugees.

Her current funded projects explore the impact of collective trauma on community practice with refugees, GLBTT and Aboriginal populations; examine social sustainability among newcomers in three Canadian cities; and support the development of social work in Rwanda.

Recently, she and colleagues in Canada and Sudan studied enterprise development needs in camps for the internally displaced in Southern Sudan and Darfur. McGrath is the principal investigator of a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Strategic Knowledge Cluster grant to support the development of Refugee Research Networks across Canada and globally.

Edgar Dosman
Edgar Dosman

York University Professor Edgar J. Dosman has been appointed a member of the Order of Canada for his studies in Latin American history and politics, and for his role in advancing academic and cultural ties within our hemisphere. Dosman began his teaching career as a special lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan in 1968. He went on to join York University’s Department of Political Science in 1970.

During his academic career he has served on numerous projects and committees, both at York and at other academic institutions. Throughout his career his research interests have focused on international development thought, Western hemisphere studies, Canadian foreign and public policy, and regional conflict management (Central America / southern Africa).

Dosman has been internationally recognized for his biography of Raul Prebisch and lauded for his work in promoting academic and cultural ties between Canada and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Robert Cox
Robert Cox. Photo courtesy of the United Nations.

Robert Cox, professor emeritus of political science and social and political thought at York University, has been appointed a member of the Order of Canada for his contributions to the field of international relations as one of Canada’s foremost scholars in the area of political economy.

A graduate of McGill University, Cox is cited as one of the intellectual leaders of the British School of International Political Economy, along with the noted British scholar Susan Strange.

In 1947, Cox worked at the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland. He eventually became director of the ILO’s International Institute for Labour Studies and served in this role from 1965 to 1971. Cox left the ILO and took up a faculty position at Columbia University. From 1977 to 1992, he was professor of political science at York University.

Cox co-authored The Anatomy of Influence: decision making in international organization (1973) with Harold K. Jacobson. He is the author of Production, Power and World Order (1987) and “Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory” (1981) in the journal Millennium. He is the co-editor of Approaches to World Order (1996) and The Political Economy of a Plural World: Critical Reflections on Power, Morals, and Civilization (2002).

Five York alumni have been appointed members of the Order of Canada. They are: Michael DeGagné (LLM ’10), for his support of residential school survivors and First Nations communities, notably as the head of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation; Patrick Johnston (BA ’73), for his contributions to the charitable sector as an innovator who develops more effective giving strategies for organizations; Adèle M. Hurley (Ba ’74, MES ’76), for her commitment to the conservation and the protection of Canada’s natural resources; John Barker Lawson (LLB ’51 [Osgoode]), for his transformative contributions as a volunteer in support of many of Toronto’s most important music ensembles and arts organizations; Eric Robert Walters (BA ’79, BSW ’82, MSW ’86 ), for his contributions as an author of literature for children and young adults whose stories help young readers grapple with complex social issues; and, Catherine Zahn (BSc ’74), for her contributions as a neurologist, health care administrator and advocate on behalf of those living with mental health and addiction issues.

Recipients will be invited to accept their insignia at a ceremony to be held at a later date.

Schulich prof’s book listed as one of best non-fiction books of 2014

The Supermodel and the Brillo Box partial book cover

The Supermodel and the Brillo Box book coverYork’s Schulich School of Business Professor Don Thompson has done it again. As a followup to his 2008 bestselling book The $12 Million Stuffed Shark, Thompson has published The Supermodel and the Brillo Box, a new book about the contemporary art world, which was listed as one of the best non-fiction books of 2014 by Maclean’s magazine.

The Supermodel and the Brillo Box: Back Stories and Peculiar Economics from the World of Contemporary Art (Palgrave Macmillan) begins with the story of a wax, trophy-style, nude upper-body sculpture of supermodel Stephanie Seymour by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. That sculpture sold for $2.4 million to New York über-collector and private dealer Jose Mugrabi, but it also recounts the story of a wooden Brillo box that sold for $722,500.

“York University marketing professor and art aficionado Don Thompson explains some of the contemporary art market’s more mysterious turns, including the fact that art is now what a recognized artist says it is, including a $12-million stuffed shark,” writes Brian Bethune in Maclean’s.

Acquiring contemporary art may be about passion and lust, but it is also about branding, about the back story that comes with the art, about the relationship of money and status, and, sometimes, about celebrity. This is what Thompson, an economist and professor emeritus of marketing and strategy, explores in the The Supermodel and the Brillo Box. He looks at the new economic order in the art world that emerged in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the changing methods major auction houses and dealerships have since implemented.

The book describes what happened to that market following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and offers insights and art-world tales from dealers, auction houses and their former executives from New York and London to Abu Dhabi and Beijing. It looks at the increasing dominance of Christie’s, Sotheby’s and a few über dealers; the hundreds of millions of new museums coming up in cities like Dubai, Abu Dabai and Beijing; the growing importance of the digital art world; and the shrinking role of the mainstream gallery.

Thompson is the author of 11 books and writes on the economics of the art market for such publications as the TimesHarper’s and the Art Economist.

Making language immersion fun for the kids

York University psychology Professor Ellen Bialystok was quoted in the New York Times Dec. 26, 2014. Read full story.

NHL arena, York campus top Markham news stories in 2014
York University President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri was mentioned in the Markham Economist & Sun Dec. 31, 2014. Read full story.

We need new thinking to meet Canada’s new challenges
Eugene Lang, BMO Visiting Fellow and interim co-director of York University’s Glendon School of Public and International Affairs, wrote a story in the Toronto Star Dec. 25, 2014. Read full story.

City and suburbs: six decades of unity and division
York University Professor Roger Keil was quoted in the Toronto Star Dec. 20, 2014. Read full story.

Complaints against federal judges usually handled in secret
Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Allan Hutchinson was quoted in the Toronto Star Dec. 29, 2014. Read full story.

DeGroote falls short in bid to retain MBA Games title
York University’s Schulich School of Business was mentioned in the Hamilton Spectator Jan. 5. Read full story.

Celine Cooper: What can the U.S. really learn from Canada on language policy?
York University Professor Eve Haque was mentioned in the Montreal Gazette Jan. 5. Read full story.

Opinion: Health Canada fails to enforce its own rules on pharmaceutical advertising
York University Professor Joel Lexchin co-wrote a story in the Montreal Gazette Jan. 5. Read full story.

Graduate students encouraged to apply for awards for their research related to Korea

Gyeongbokgung Palace by KeunJeongMoon

York University graduate students conducting research on topics related to Korea or the Korean diaspora are encouraged to apply for two new awards, each valued at $12,500.

The Dr. Sangdeok Woo and Mrs. Kwisoon Lim Woo Memorial Graduate Award will support a graduate student undertaking research on the topics of Korean history, culture or society. The recipient must be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or protected person, and resident of Ontario, and must demonstrate financial need.

Dr. Woo, one of Korea’s most distinguished scholars in legal medicine, laid a foundation for the development of the country’s National Institute of Scientific Investigation. He was also a dedicated attending professor for 30 years at his alma mater, Yonsei University in Seoul.

Dr. Woo and his family also established the Young-Rahn Woo Memorial Graduate Award in loving memory of their wife and mother. The award is open to graduate students conducting research in the Korean language or cultural studies or whose research may require them to travel to Korea. Preference will be given to students in visual arts, but in the event that there are no such candidates available, consideration will be extended to graduate students studying a topic in the humanities or fine arts (especially visual arts) elsewhere in Asia. Preference will be given to candidates who have demonstrated a commitment to community volunteerism.

The application deadline for both awards is Monday, Feb. 9, at 4pm.

For more information and application details, visit the funding and awards page on the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) website or email ycar@yorku.ca.

To learn more about other graduate student awards for language acquisition and fieldwork offered by YCAR, visit the York Centre for Asian Research website.

Nominate a great teacher for one of four teaching awards

Teaching Commons staff lead a course for graduate students
The Teaching Commons courses for teaching assistants are offered at regular intervals throughout the academic year.

The President’s University-Wide Teaching Awards (UWTA) honour those individuals who, through innovation and commitment, have significantly enhanced the quality of learning for York students. Four awards are offered each year in the following categories:

  • Full-time faculty with 10 or more years of teaching experience;
  • Full-time faculty (tenured, tenure-stream, contractually limited appointments) with less than 10 years of experience;
  • Contract and adjunct faculty;
  • Teaching assistants.

The purpose of these awards is to provide significant recognition for excellence in teaching, to encourage its pursuit, to publicize such excellence when achieved across the University and in the wider community, and to promote informed discussion of teaching and its improvement. The awards demonstrate the value York University attaches to teaching.

Recipients of the awards, selected by the Senate Committee on Awards, receive $3,000, have their names engraved on the University-Wide Teaching Awards plaques in Vari Hall and are recognized at convocation ceremonies. Nominations can be submitted by faculty, students or alumni.

The deadline for the 2014 President’s UWTA is Feb. 6, 2015. Nominations may only be submitted online.

A PDF download of the President’s UWTA criteria and online nomination form are available from the Awards webpage.

Three students win Michael Baptista Essay Prize for outstanding scholarly papers

CERLAC LOGO_2014

Three students have won this year’s Michael Baptista Essay Prize for outstanding scholarly papers relevant to Latin American and Caribbean Studies, announced the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean at York University (CERLAC).

CERLAC LOGO_2014Usually, $500 is awarded to both an undergraduate and graduate essay winner. This year, two students won at the graduate level – they will share the prize – and one at the undergraduate level.

Jorge Villatoro of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies won for his undergraduate paper, “The Emergence of the Regional Cult of El Señor de Esquipulas.”

As one judge said, “This paper offers a very thorough and insightful analysis of the emergence of the cult of El Señor de Esquipulas in the town of Esquipulas [Guatemala]. This is a superb research paper with a well-defined topic, precise and cohesive sections, and an elegant organization. There is ample evidence throughout the paper that this student is well on his way of becoming an independent scholar.

“Indeed, working with ample sources the author goes on to challenge existing explanations of the origin of the cult and to postulate his own interpretation with a clear and theoretically informed rhetorical voice. Moreover, using an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, the author situates himself within current debates about the significance of religious pilgrimage and the rise of Esquipulas as a pilgrimage centre. In sum, this paper is a prime example of undergraduate research at its best.”

At the graduate level, Nadia Halum Arauz of Osgoode Hall Law School won for her paper, “Atahualpa’s Legacy: Analyzing the Impact of Gold Mining on Peru’s Campesino Community,” and Jenna Meguid, also of Osgoode, won for her essay, “Colombia’s Peace Talks.”

One judge said Arauz’s essay “is not only very carefully and analytically argued, but it is also based on primary, as well as secondary sources. That is, it is particularly well researched. The essay is also original…. In addition, this work is very well and clearly written. It develops its arguments with great care and precision. In sum, the paper manifests exceptional research, exceptionally cogent and analytically developed arguments, originality and an elegant, well-organized presentation.”

Meguid’s essay was called by one of the judges “a careful analysis of the current peace negotiations in Colombia. Working with relatively little material on this process, the paper develops a number of important insights into the ongoing challenges and possible outcomes of the peace talks between the FARC and the Government of Colombia.”

Another judge said Meguid’s work “is very carefully and well argued, analytically cogent and well-written. I am very impressed … by the critical intelligence with which it systematically dissects a very difficult set of issues.”

The essays were nominated by York faculty members and evaluated by two committees of CERLAC Fellows (a separate committee for each level of prize). All three prize-winning papers will be available online as part of CERLAC’s Baptista Prize-Winning Essays Series.

All of the nominated papers represent high-calibre scholarly work at their authors’ respective levels of study, and merit recognition as worthy of candidacy for this prize. The other undergraduate papers nominated for the 2014 prize were: Collette Murray’s “Global Migration and Diaspora Cultures” and Maia Foster’s “The Fight for the Forest.” The other graduate-level nominees were: Julian Gutierrez Castano’s “The Racialization of Forced Displacement in Colombia”; Abigail Henry’s “Codeswitching in the Church: The Cultural Significance of the Jamaican New Testament”; Kevin Chrisman’s “Visualizing Los Pobres in Mexico City: Space, Gender and National Identity in Feature Films, 1948-1979”; and Vanesa Tomasino Rodriguez’s  “Subjectivity and Space: Orchestrating and uncontested perception of Pandilleros in El Salvador.”

The Michael Baptista Essay Prize was established by the friends of Michael Baptista and the Royal Bank of Canada. The prize consists of $500 awarded annually to both a graduate and an undergraduate student at York University in recognition of an outstanding scholarly essay of relevance to the area of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, from a humanities, social science, business or legal perspective. The Michael Baptista Essay Prize and Lecture are named in honour of Michael Baptista in recognition of the areas central to his spirit and success: the importance of his Guyanese/Caribbean roots, his dedication to and outstanding achievement at the Royal Bank of Canada, and his continued and unqualified drive and love of learning.

For more information, see the call for nominations for the 2015 prize.

York faculty members who wish to nominate a student essay for the prize should contact CERLAC at cerlac@yorku.ca.