Welcome to the May 2022 issue of Brainstorm

Brainstorm graphic

“Brainstorm,” a special edition of YFile publishing on select Fridays during the academic year, showcases research and innovation at York University. It offers compelling and accessible stories about the world-leading and policy-relevant work of changemakers in all Faculties and professional schools across York and encompasses both discovery and applied research.

In the May 2022 issue

York research team removes harmful waste from Canada’s groundwater
An internationally recognized leader in the development of novel green technologies, Professor Satinder Kaur Brar, Lassonde School of Engineering, is on a mission to add value to residues and remove toxic compounds from the environment that pose extreme hazards to ecological and human health.

A social license for equitable child healthcare
Assistant Professor Ian Stedman is collaborating with experts at SickKids to develop a format with software that makes it easy to use data for research while protecting the identities of children whose data is being used.

Education research empowers youth to support planetary health
Preparing young people with the educational tools and skills to navigate complex issues is a key driver behind the research of Faculty of Education Professor Kate Tilleczek.

Researcher aims to prevent food fights by promoting national food policy
Although food is a public resource, there is no effective and joined up national policy to guide it, says Associate Professor Roderick MacRae, which is an issue that should be addressed.

Don’t leave me this way: researcher explores barriers to gaming
Kelly Bergstrom, assistant professor of communication and media studies at the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, explores participation in various types of massive multi-player online games, why gamers abandon this pursuit and the barriers to participating in the first place.

Launched in January 2017, “Brainstorm” is produced out of the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation in partnership with Communications & Public Affairs; overseen by Krista Davidson, senior manager, research communications; and edited by Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor, Ashley Goodfellow Craig, YFile deputy editor, and Alysia Burdi, YFile communications officer.

Don’t leave me this way: researcher explores barriers to gaming

White gaming console on wooden surface

Kelly Bergstrom holds undergraduate degrees in both visual arts and communications, so it should come as no surprise that her professional research focuses on gaming, which blends stories and graphics.

By Elaine Smith

Bergstrom, an assistant professor of communication and media studies at the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at York University, explores: participation in various types of massive multi-player online games (MMOGs); why gamers abandon this pursuit; and the barriers to participating in the first place.

Kate Bergstrom
Kelly Bergstrom

Her work helps to debunk stereotypes. Previous research indicated that women are more drawn to casual, social network games (SNGs) – played on their phones or on Facebook – given a lack of leisure time, and Bergstrom wondered if that was partly because casual games were more collaborative and friendly. Her own research found that such games are “just as competitive as hard-core games” – those often played on consoles and requiring hours of time.

“If casual games are only ever seen as docile spaces of collaborative play, it reaffirms the gendered and stereotypical assumptions underpinning who plays SNGs and for what reasons,” writes Bergstrom in her paper published in Critical Studies in Media Communication.

Bergstrom says those who are curious about social network games will be exposed to the same backbiting and bullying that exist in the hard-core gaming world, so it is important for novices to be aware of these possibilities and to have the necessary tools to respond. Otherwise, such a negative experience may turn them away from gaming altogether.

Bergstrom is particularly interested in barriers to participation and reasons for abandoning a particular game or gaming in general.

“In game studies, we look at games as if they are a static point in time, but we don’t think about why people come to them or why they leave,” Bergstrom says.

As a post-doctoral researcher, Bergstrom was embedded at Big Viking Games, creators of YoWorld, an SNG. In studying people who had left the game, she discovered that many of the players planned to return in the future; often, quitting isn’t a final pronouncement on the game itself, but a function of other challenges in life: workloads, changes in life circumstances or, for many women, additional family responsibilities.

Time for leisure activities can also serve as a barrier to trying particular games, as Bergstrom’s research has indicated. Some of the MMOGs are very complex and women with children, for example, tend to have less leisure time than their male counterparts and can’t necessarily devote it all to learning an online game with a steep learning curve.

There are also structural barriers to playing games, Bergstrom notes. Not everyone owns a laptop to use for gaming and others may live in regions without the high-speed internet that some games require.

This summer, thanks to a research grant from her Faculty, Bergstrom will be focusing her efforts on studying Pokemon Go, a game played on a cellphone that requires gamers to seek clues in the physical world. Gamers must be outdoors, moving through the city or the countryside. She is interested in who is free to play the game and the external assumptions about who is free to do what in public. For instance, women may feel the need to always be aware of their surroundings and unable to focus completely on the game.

“In addition to its leisure opportunities, there’s a lot we can learn from gaming, such as learning about people and cultures you might not encounter daily, as well as algebraic thinking,” Bergstrom says, “but if you’re being shut out from even opening the door, you get left behind.”

Education research empowers youth to support planetary health

Usa globe resting in a forest - environment concept

Today’s youth will face some of the world’s most pressing challenges, including the climate crisis, global inequality and sustainability. Preparing young people with the educational tools and skills to navigate complex issues is a key driver behind the research of Faculty of Education Professor Kate Tilleczek.

Through the Young Lives Research Lab she leads, Tilleczek is working with, by and for youth to design revolutionary, innovative and community-based educational models that empower younger populations to respond to emerging global challenges while supporting their own personal and community well-being.

Professor Kate Tilliczek addresses new graduates
Professor Kate Tilliczek addresses new graduates of the Wekimün Project

“Education is not a one-size-fits-all approach,” explains Tilleczek, a Canada Research Chair in Youth, Education & Global Good. “As educators, our role must consider the different needs of different communities. What we need is not a set curriculum, but a model that can be adapted to what matters to youth, their communities and the planet.

“The kind of education I’m advocating for is one that opens up space for dialogue to talk about what one person can do, what one community can do. It is a shift towards understanding the place of education in youth socialization and development as it relates to planetary health.”

Tilleczek says that education will be key to achieving the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), which York University has pledged to support. The UN SDGs represent the blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.

“Education underpins every single SDG,” she says. “Young people’s lives are at the intersection of many of the SDGs, with climate justice being one of them.”

New knowledge

The Wekimün Project is one of the initiatives supported by the Young Lives Research Lab. With funding from Global Affairs Canada, Tilleczek and her team, including her Senior Research Assistant and Manager, Deborah MacDonald, worked with Indigenous communities in Chiloé, Chile to build a school and develop a community-centered approach to sustainable education for Indigenous Williche youth. The project successfully created a curriculum based on traditional knowledge informed by Indigenous youth and community members.

“Indigenous Peoples have experienced ongoing colonization for hundreds of years. This project puts those communities at the centre to design, implement and execute their own educational model,” says Pablo Aránguiz, a PhD student at Polytechnic University in Valencia, Spain, who is a visiting research Fellow and associate researcher with the Young Lives Research Lab, and professor of sustainable development for the Wekimün Project. “(It is) a model that addresses the problems of the planet, including issues such as climate change, biodiversity and pollution.”

Pablo Aránguiz (second from left) pictured with students

Wekimün, which translates to “new knowledge” in the Indigenous Williche language of Mapudungun, was integral to the creation of new relationships between people, but also with that of the Chiloé environment.

Tilleczek’s research at the Young Lives Research Lab has inspired a larger collaboration at York University through the Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research Clusters (CIRC) grant, which was announced in December 2021. The project “The Partnership for Youth and Planetary Well-being,” brings together an interdisciplinary team that includes, among others: Tilleczek; Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice Deborah McGregor (Osgoode Hall School of Law, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change); James Orbinski (Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research); and Postdoctoral Fellow in Planetary Health & Education James Stinson.

The research will employ ethnographic research to understand how young women, men and gender diverse people experience system inequalities and climate injustice, and how this impacts their well-being and ability to live sustainably. The project aims to support youth in sustaining life on the planet for healthier individuals and healthy communities.

Stinson is a cultural anthropologist working on a number of research projects centred around working with Indigenous youth in digital media production. Through the CIRC project, Indigenous youth will have the opportunity to head out into the field to record environment-themed content to connect with other youth, their Elders and the natural world.

“Research demonstrates that connecting to nature is really good for our mental and physical health, but consuming environment-related media – whether you’re seeing or hearing environmental images and sounds – can also have positive health benefits,” says Stinson.

“There are multiple pathways of learning that will take place for youth,” says Stinson. “The CIRC project will support youth with the skills to produce media content about the issues affecting their lives, their communities and the environment they live in. That information can be distilled to the broader community and with policymakers.”

Despite the challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation, Tilleczek says that today’s youth are motivated and inspired.

“Young people may be overwhelmed by the challenges they face, but they are also hopeful,” says Tilleczek. “Being able to work alongside them, learning from their fresh ideas and perspectives makes me more hopeful for the future.”

York research team removes harmful waste from Canada’s groundwater

A row of water facuets

An internationally recognized leader in the development of novel green technologies, Professor Satinder Kaur Brar, Lassonde School of Engineering, is on a mission to add value to residues and remove toxic compounds from the environment that pose extreme hazards to ecological and human health.

Brar’s research hinges on two main themes: the removal of emerging contaminants such as plastics, chemical antibiotics, and pesticides from wastewater and drinking supply water; and value-addition of wastes.

Satinder Brar
Satinder Kaur Brar

“Residues are everywhere in the environment. My research aims to harness this waste through biotechnical approaches to create something of higher value that will have a positive impact on the environment,” says Brar, the James and Joanne Love Chair in Environmental Engineering at York University.

Her current Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)- and Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)-funded research is developing an enzyme-based technology for emerging contaminants. Brar and her team, which includes four PhD students, were successful in removing petroleum hydrocarbons, a naturally occurring chemical that presents in crude oil, petroleum-based fuels and lubricant oils, from groundwater.

The research has significant implications for Canada’s oil and gas industry, of which Canada is a top producer and exporter. In 2022, the Government of Canada committed $1.16 billion to clean up and remediate 23,900 sites contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The chemicals are dangerous because they can move through the soil to air or water, creating odours and impairing soil processes such as water retention and nutrient cycling. Human consumption of the toxin can lead to serious health repercussions and can damage the immune system, kidneys, liver and other organs.

Brar is working with a geochemist named Richard Martel at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientific (INRS) and TechnoRem Inc., an engineering consulting firm in groundwater remediation. The team is leveraging the enzymes of microorganisms identified in petroleum hydrocarbons to accelerate the rate of chemical reaction. The application results in the degradation of petroleum compounds by reducing the activation energy for a particular reaction.

“Enzymes are tools in the hands of microorganisms and can help degrade contaminants in the soil,” says Brar.

Using enzymes instead of microorganisms means the team can degrade the targeted compound without any previous adaptation to the soil matrix.

“Working with microorganisms means you’re injecting a live species into an environment. Enzymes, on the contrary, that are not consumed, degrade after a period so it doesn’t cause any harm to the surrounding environment,” she says.

The next stages for the research, which initially kicked off in 2014, is to test the enzymes in situ at petroleum sites in northern Canada and the Arctic.

“Low temperatures impact the efficiency of treatment, but we have isolated the cold-active enzymes which can be active in cold conditions,” she says.

Saba Miri
Saba Miri

Saba Miri, a fourth-year PhD student in civil engineering and environmental engineering, says that cold enzymes are safer for the environment and for humans. “If they do make their way into the drinking water, they won’t harm human health,” she says.

“The next step is to adapt our solution to industry so that we have greener, safer technologies,” says Miri who aspires to remain on the project after she graduates. “Petroleum hydrocarbons can and do leak into the groundwater, which is a main source of drinking water for many remote communities in Canada, including many Indigenous communities. Our research aims to protect these communities with innovative technology.”

A chemist at heart

When Brar was pursuing a master’s in organic chemistry, she was curious about the amount of chemicals used in synthetics and toxic solvents. She wanted to know where they went. Her search for answers led her to pursue a master’s in environmental engineering, where she worked in remediation of organic solvents in the textile industry.

Her career led her to work in India as a defense research scientist spearheading an environmental project on building up explosive contaminants database. “It was a new area of research at a time where defense research was mainly focused on making better explosives and ammunition,” she says.

Brar later went on to complete her PhD in biochemical engineering in Canada at Quebec City. Ever since, she has worked on projects with industry and government, including a collaboration with Hydro Quebec to investigate the use of the biopesticides on the spruce budworm that led to deforestation and defoliation. Her research has also intersected with the health sector, measuring the pharmaceuticals that make their way into wastewater through urine.

“Municipal wastewater is a complex cocktail of what we, as a society, put in there,” she says, adding that “toxins don’t just disappear into thin air, they are usually transformed into something else.

“In my heart I am a chemist,” she explains. “That lens has helped me understand and unravel so many mysteries related to environmental science and the adverse impact of chemicals. There is a direct cause and effect relationship between chemicals and the ecosystem in the environment.

“Research can help instill respect for the environment which is still somehow neglected. I love that our research could potentially act as a driver for better environmental policies and laws,” says Brar.

A social license for equitable child healthcare

Featured image for Mackenzie Health and York U MOU signing shows a medical worker with a chart

Children comprise 25 per cent of the population and present a unique opportunity for researchers to provide more equitable health care, but how do we ethically and securely collect, examine and store pediatric data, and under what circumstances is it acceptable to keep using child health care data for research?

Ian Stedman
Ian Stedman

That is the basis behind Ian Stedman’s research as a co-investigator for a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)-funded research project that aims to provide equitable child health care. Stedman is collaborating with Child Health Evaluative Scientist Alistair Johnson, Critical Care Physician Dr. Mjaye Mazwi and Bioethicist Melissa McCradden (all at SickKids), to develop a format with software that makes it easy to use data for research while protecting the identities of the children whose data is being used.

Stedman, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and an alumnus from Osgoode Hall School of Law, aims to develop parameters around a social license for reusing routinely collected pediatric health data to foster future research by addressing issues around privacy, cybersecurity and ethics, and enabling future research.

For Stedman, who was diagnosed with a rare disease called Muckle-Wells syndrome (MWS) in his 30s, the research has a personal motivation.

“During the first 18 years of my life I had close to 200 regular visits to my GP for the seven same symptoms, which I now know were associated with my diagnosis. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies could have potentially diagnosed my disease by the eighth visit,” says Stedman.

MWS, which can include symptoms such as severe fever, rash and joint pain, is so rare that Stedman is the 12th person in Canada to be diagnosed. The 13th person to be diagnosed was his then one-year-old daughter, Lia (now nine). His daughter, in fact, was the impetus for Stedman, who decided to take paternity leave from his role at the Office of the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario when his daughter started displaying similar symptoms. He embarked on a journey through medical research before he came across the name of a one-in-a-million disorder that turned out to be the one.

Stedman left his career to pursue a master’s from the University of Toronto and a PhD in law from Osgoode. His doctoral supervisor was Lorne Sossin (former dean of Osgoode and now a judge on the Ontario Court of Appeal). He focused his PhD research on public sector accountability laws, while also working on various research projects related to the law, politics and policy of rare disease in Canada. 

“Something compelled me into this space. It really got me thinking about what equity issues are not being addressed in health care,” he says.

Stedman’s career trajectory naturally led towards working with clinicians and scientists working in AI and data-driven health care. “There are many ethical and policy issues that need to be addressed,” says Stedman. “There’s a lot of conversation right now about mechanisms of accountability and what changes within the legal, policy and regulatory environments will be necessary to ensure AI advances in an equitable, legal and ethical way.”

Medicine doctor touching electronic medical record on tablet. DNA. Digital healthcare and network connection on hologram modern virtual screen interface, medical technology and network concept.
Professor Ian Stedman hopes to develop a framework that legitimizes AI and data-driven health research

Stedman currently sits as a member of the CIHR Institute for Genetics’ Instituted Advisory Board and serves as a legal member on SickKids’ Research Ethics Board. He’s also a member of York’s AI & Society Task Force.

Stedman and his colleague, Aviv Gaon (senior lecturer at the Harry Radzyner Law School, Reichman University (IDC Herzliya)), penned the first article to be published in a Canadian law journal about the varying challenges with regulating AI. Shining the spotlight at healthcare ethics is a natural convergence of Stedman’s personal and professional backgrounds. His latest research project is a collaboration with bioethicists, emergency room doctors at SickKids and critical care doctors and computer scientists. He hopes to develop a framework that legitimizes AI and data-driven health research.

“What’s unique about our public health care is that we have these academic centres at the University Hospital Network (UHN), Mount Sinai and SickKids, where revolutionary work is being undertaken but rarely commercialized. Getting this research out across provincial jurisdictions so the broader Canadian health care community can benefit will be a gamechanger,” says Stedman, adding, “I’m doing this for all the people who are falling in the gaps of the health care system. For people like my daughter, and the dads who can’t afford to take paternity leave to go and study medical research. That’s what my work is about – changing the conversation so we can better harness technology and health data to help all people.”

Welcome to the April 2022 issue of Brainstorm

Brainstorm graphic

“Brainstorm,” a special edition of YFile publishing on select Fridays during the academic year, showcases research and innovation at York University. It offers compelling and accessible stories about the world-leading and policy-relevant work of changemakers in all Faculties and professional schools across York and encompasses both discovery and applied research.

In the April 2022 issue

Researcher seeks to shed light on age-related visual brain diseases
A York University researcher is advancing the use of biophotonics to gain a better understanding of age-related disorders of the eye and brain. Biophotonics uses light technology, including lasers, and is a burgeoning field of research and discovery.

Interdisciplinary digital currencies research explores Bitcoin from a variety of perspectives
Professors Joann Jasiak and Henry Kim will be leading an interdisciplinary team exploring the broad topic of digital currencies as part of York University’s new Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research Clusters initiative.

York researcher investigates the ways we unconsciously categorize others and implications
Faculty of Health Professor Kerry Kawakami’s lab examines how we perceive people from different social groups, how we react to intergroup bias, and what strategies reduce prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination.

Major research project supports Inuit culture, art and ways of life
A multimedia, multi-platform collaborative research and creation project based at York University has ignited a dialogue within the arts and research communities about the role of colonialism in disrupting Inuit cultural conditions.

Launched in January 2017, “Brainstorm” is produced out of the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation in partnership with Communications & Public Affairs; overseen by Krista Davidson, senior manager, research communications; and edited by Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor, Ashley Goodfellow Craig, YFile deputy editor, and Alysia Burdi, YFile communications officer.

Researcher seeks to shed light on age-related visual brain diseases

VISTA image showing an eyeball

By Elaine Smith

Biophysicist Ozzy Mermut has a special interest in age-related disorders of the eye and brain, as well as cancers, and uses biophotonics – the application of light to living organisms – to understand these concerns.

“We all deteriorate over time and as we are aging and living longer, we need to manage these disorders better,” says Mermut, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Faculty of Science at York University.

Light technology, including lasers, is a burgeoning field – in 2018, the Nobel Prize for Physics went to Canadian physicist Donna Strickland for her work with lasers – and Mermut believes this approach has potential for understanding and treating disease.

Ozzy Mermut works with students in her biophotonics lab
Ozzy Mermut (centre) works with students in the Mermut integrated Biophotonics Applied Research Lab. Image by Tania Cannarella Photography

Mermut’s lab, the Mermut integrated Biophotonics Applied Research Lab (MiBAR), has a broad scope, exploring vision diseases, neuro-disorders and cancer through biophotonics. As member of the Centre for Vision Research (CVR) and Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) at York, she has assembled an interdisciplinary team because “impactful solutions in medicine begin with bridging physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics through experiment and modelling.” Together, MiBAR researchers strive to understand the pathogenesis and hallmarks of age-related diseases and contribute to developing medical solutions using photonics.

“Vision diseases are not only an expensive problem in Canada, but they are also devastating,” says Mermut. “When we lose vision, we lose the ability to perform everyday tasks and it reduces the quality of life.” A study in JAMA Ophthalmology indicated that people believe it to be worse than the loss of a limb, memory or hearing.

“There are numerous ways to treat vision disease, but our goal is to confine the treatment at the cellular level, finding ways to selectively target only the disease, not the healthy cells. We are working on early diagnostics and better treatments.”

Ozzy Mermut experiences neurostimulation of her brain with transcranial magnetic stimulation. As part of this procedure, there is also an evaluation of her hemodynamic response using functional near infrared spectroscopy 
Ozzy Mermut experiences neurostimulation of her brain with transcranial magnetic stimulation. As part of this procedure, there is also an evaluation of the hemodynamic response using functional near infrared spectroscopy. Image by Rohith Kaiyum 

The emergence of optical coherence tomography – a new biophotonic technique – in the 1990s has made it possible to acquire much clearer images of the retina, aiding early identification and intervention.

“If we can confine laser energy to specific targets within the eye, we can treat them selectively and personalized to each individual,” explains Mermut. “We are working with ophthalmologists to manipulate laser energy to carefully treat lesions in the eye, a technique called Selective Retinal Therapy, but this technique isn’t at the clinical stage yet. We need to know how to use the laser energy to treat the disease effectively and selectively, and how much energy is required to individualized pathologies. Using biophotonics, we can measure the acoustic-coupled light waves and determine if we have delivered enough energy to treat the disease, while simultaneously reducing collateral damage to healthy cells that are responsible for our vision.”

Ultimately, they hope to individualize treatments based on the differences in each retina, manipulating the laser energy to target lesions.

Mermut also has cancer in her sights. As tumours begin to grow, Mermut says, there is cell disorganization and some areas do not receive enough oxygen. Mermut believes that this could be an important biomarker in treating cancers. By combining photonic techniques with weak magnetic fields, she hopes to detect the oxygen level throughout the tumour as a precursor to treatment.

“If we can understand the oxygen micro-environment, we’ll have a good chance to appropriately treat that tumour,” she explains. “And, if we can detect early signs of tumour progression, we would have an early indicator of cancer. By looking at light-responsive biomaterials in tissue, we may be able to determine how hypoxic a growing tumour is. Then, if we insert a photosensitive chemical into the cancerous region, we can convert the regular old oxygen (vital for life) into a version that is toxic to the cancer cells.”

Jennifer Steeves
Jennifer Steeves

Then, there’s MiBAR’s biophysics work with neurological disorders, a collaboration with Professor and Associate Vice-President Research and Innovation Jennifer Steeves (also member of CVR) in the Department of Psychology. Steeves uses transcranial magnetic stimulation to stimulate the brain, a technique recently approved in the United States and Canada to treat depression and other mental health conditions. Transcranial magnetic stimulation can also be used to monitor cognitive tasks. However, it is unclear why the treatment is effective. When combined with fibre optic sensors to sense blood oxygenation in the brain, the researchers hope they can begin to understand what is happening in the brain at the molecular level as a step toward insights into neurological illnesses, such as depression and Alzheimer’s disease.

“I’m obsessed with light, particularly using wavelengths in the non-ionizing range,” says Mermut. “We need more and safer mechanisms for treating these diseases and I am thrilled to be part of developing applications that benefit humans.

“The Biophysics Program at York is so exciting – it’s one of our transdisciplinary strengths at York that enables powerful and impactful research to be done.”

Interdisciplinary digital currencies research explores Bitcoin from a variety of perspectives

An image of three bitcoins on a laptop keyboard

Professors Joann Jasiak and Henry Kim will be leading an interdisciplinary team exploring the broad topic of digital currencies as part of York University’s new Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research Clusters initiative.

By Elaine Smith

Jasiak, a professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), and Kim, an associate professor in the Schulich School of Business, are among the first recipients of the University’s new grant funding that provides $150,000 annually over three years for interdisciplinary projects in strategic areas of research. Digital currencies are growing in popularity worldwide and the grant, says Kim, “will allow us to connect several strands of research.”

Joan Jasiak
Joan Jasiak

Other members of this interdisciplinary research leadership team are: Sotirios Liaskos, associate professor of information technology, and Andrea Podhorsky, assistant professor of economics, from LA&PS; Irene Henriques, a professor of economics, and Divinus Oppong-Tawiah, an assistant professor of information systems, from Schulich; and Professor Poonam Puri, an expert in financial law, from Osgoode Hall Law School. The researchers will work on a collection of projects that focuses on various aspects of digital currency use.

Jasiak and Kim are partnering with the Bank of Canada and Mitacs, a non-profit research program, to explore the bank’s survey data on Bitcoin adoption to address questions regarding Bitcoin ownership and use, as well as the pace at which Canadians are adopting this technology.

Henry Kim
Henry Kim

Meanwhile, given that Bitcoin production, called Bitcoin mining, is energy intensive, Podhorsky is collecting and analyzing mining data in novel ways that may spur on more renewable resources use in mining. 

To study Bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies, Liaskos is refining a tool to computationally simulate the technical functions of cryptocurrencies while Kim and Hjalmar Turesson, a data scientist and lecturer at Schulich, are modelling the incentives schemes – the “token-economics” of cryptocurrencies. Jasiak, together with assistant professor Antoine Djogbenou and York PhD student Emre Inan from the Department of Economics, will be examining the statistical properties of stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to stable currencies like the American dollar that are used in the emerging field of decentralized finance.

In another project, Jasiak and Kim, along with assistant professor Pujee Tuvaandorj and PhD student Peter Mackenzie from the Department of Economics, will work on data provided to them by Statistics Canada data to explore the digital divide in Canada between those who have the technology to allow them to use digital currencies and those who don’t. This information will help determine to what extent all Canadians will be able to benefit from a future Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) expected to be eventually introduced by the Bank of Canada. CBDCs will require significant legal and regulatory frameworks, and Puri will continue her pioneering research into this issue, while Henriques, Oppong-Tawiah and Kim, along with Professor Chris Bell from Schulich, are exploring the financial inclusion effects of different digital currencies such as Bitcoins, China’s Alipay, and Kenya’s M-Pesa on underprivileged communities worldwide.

“There is a wealth of people at York who do research related to digital currencies and we are discovering each other,” says Kim. “The hope is that we can build a large research cluster.”

Jasiak believes the projects will also “provide training for the future by involving students and junior faculty. We want to establish ourselves as a group of experts.”

Notes Kim, “Toronto is known for a lot of technology, including artificial intelligence and blockchain. The talent is here. We hope to bring students and researchers together with industry and entrepreneurs to help establish a thriving fintech ecosystem at York University.”

Major research project supports Inuit culture, art and ways of life

FEATURED image for Brainstorm on Inuit Art exhibit that shows proper orientation

A multimedia, multi-platform collaborative research and creation project based at York University has ignited a dialogue within the arts and research communities about the role of colonialism in disrupting Inuit cultural conditions.

Anna Hudson
Anna Hudson

While Inuit art can be found in galleries and museums around Canada and the world, the connection between the artists and their communities has been lost, posing a risk to the preservation of Inuit language, social well-being and cultural identity.

Reconnecting Inuit art and community was the basis of the Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage (MICH), a multimedia, multi-platform collaborative research and creation project supported by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada. Led by Anna Hudson, a professor in the Visual Arts Department at the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), the project aimed to ignite an ongoing dialogue within the arts and research communities to help understand the role of colonialism in disrupting Inuit cultural traditions, and to raise public awareness and appreciation of Inuit and circumpolar Indigenous resilience.

“The MICH project was premised on the idea that there are huge collections of Inuit art in museums but often times they are missing the artists’ voice and story,” says Hudson, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, an art historian and curator, specializing in Canadian art, curatorial and Indigenous studies.

“There are many instances of Inuit art produced for the post-World War Two market that have accrued in value after having been sold by the artist, benefiting the individuals who purchased or subsequently resold the art, but severing the art’s connection to the people who made it. The art didn’t stay in Arctic communities, so family members aren’t aware that a relative created well-known art that is housed and exhibited in museums and galleries,” she says.

“There is little public understanding of where Inuit art comes from and how a community’s story lives on through the art,” says Hudson.

“Through MICH, we tried to reconnect Indigenous art with Indigenous communities and provide artists with a platform to showcase their work and to build creative capacity,” she says, adding that the project looks at curation as a methodology for bringing people together on a deeper, more profound level to instigate meaningful dialogue and relationship building.

MICH witnessed a crescendo of Inuit voices and artists dating back to the 1970s, but Hudson admits it will still take time for younger generations to take the lead and have their voices heard. She says that while there has been significant progress, it is difficult to shift processes with museums and the number of Inuit academics in Canada is still too low.

But since the seven-year project began, there has been a growing awareness and advocacy around Indigenous culture, language and ways of life.

“It is interesting to see how MICH was part of a constellation of activities for raising awareness,” says Hudson. “The big takeaway for me was the relationships I’ve developed and the deep friendships I’ve made. I’ve had the opportunity to meet brilliant people. “The project was about activism, trust and the ability to learn. There is no reconciliation without reckoning.”

Through the partnership grant in collaboration with York University, Inuit artists Ruben Komangapik and Koomuatuk (Kuzy) Curley were commissioned to create a sculpture titled “Ahqahizu.” The sculpture, which is situated at the entrance to the York Lions Stadium on the Keele Campus, is carved out of a 26-tonne rock and reflects the University’s ongoing commitment to represent the identities of Inuit artists.

An image from the AGO's exhibit of Inuit art
An image from the AGO’s exhibit Tunirrisangit that came out of a collaboration with MICH

MICH collaborated with the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) to support a major exhibit in 2018, Tunirrisangit, which brought together two artists, Kenojuak Ashevak and her nephew Timootee (Tim) Pitsiulak. It was the first time that Inuit art was displayed in the AGO’s largest exhibition space. As part of the collaboration, MICH supported a seal fest (an alternative culinary festival) for the opening of Tunirrisangit and the gallery hosted a virtual reality exhibit during the COVID-19 pandemic that was produced by Hudson with fourth-year AMPD students for the Joan Goldfarb Visual Arts Study Centre Curatorial Placement, a course held during the Winter 2020 term at York University. The group worked in collaboration with Art Gate VR to produce the exhibit for the AGO.

This screen capture shows people interacting in a virtual reality environment with the Tunirrisangit exhibit hosted by the Art Gallery of Ontario

Coming out of MICH will be a book to be published in July 2022. The book by Hudson, titled Qummut Quikiria! Art, Culture and Sovereignty Across Inuit Nunaat and Sápmi: Mobilizing the Circumpolar North (translates to Up Like a Bullet! Art, Culture and Sovereignty Across Inuit Nunaat and Sápmi: Mobilizing the Circumpolar North) is co-edited with Professor Heather Igloliorte from Concordia University and Jan-Erik Lundström, a curator based in Sweden. The book highlights the thriving art and culture of the Indigenous Circumpolar Peoples in the present and demonstrates its importance for the revitalization of language, social well-being, and cultural identity.

York researcher investigates the ways we unconsciously categorize others and implications

Image shows a smiley face balloon

Faculty of Health Professor Kerry Kawakami’s lab examines how we perceive people from different social groups, how we react to intergroup bias, and what strategies reduce prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination.

By Elaine Smith

Kerry Kawakami
Kerry Kawakami

When someone smiles at you, is the smile one that’s truly welcoming or a false one that doesn’t reflect happiness?

Kerry Kawakami, a professor in the Faculty of Health at York University and director of the Social Cognition Laboratory, may have the answer – and it may depend on the race of the person smiling. 

Kawakami’s lab examines how we perceive people from different social groups, how we react to intergroup bias, and what strategies reduce prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination. This involves exploring the categories we use to evaluate other people and the consequences those social classifications have.

For example, white and non-Black participants in her 2019 study had greater difficulty in distinguishing between true and false smiles on Black compared to white faces.

“Being able to accurately read someone’s emotions is important for interpersonal interactions,” Kawakami says. “Especially in an interracial context, this could be crucial to how well we get along with others. If you can’t distinguish between different emotions such as happiness, fear and anger, that has huge consequences.”

Professor Kerry Kawakami (centre) with her team from the Social Cognition Lab
Professor Kerry Kawakami (centre) with her team from the Social Cognition Lab

Kawakami’s research also examines other racial and gender biases, using a variety of research methods. Working with her team, Kawakami monitors heart rates and cortisol levels, tracks eye and mouse movements, and uses reverse correlation paradigms to shed light on interpersonal and intergroup relations.

“When we process other people’s faces, we attend to different areas depending on race and that can have a negative effect on our ability to recognize their emotions and perceive whether they are trustworthy or not,” she says. “For instance, white participants look less at the eyes of Black than white faces and these attentional preferences can limit their ability to ‘know’ them and benefit from critical information from the eyes.”

Kawakami has been studying categorization and implicit biases since the 1990s, “but now my research is having an impact outside academia. At this moment in time, people are more aware than ever of the implications of social categorization processes, given recent reporting related to residential school graves, police violence and the #MeToo movement.”

She has served as an expert witness in court cases involving potential racial biases in police responding, RCMP training and the Ontario Government workplace. These days, she often shares her findings with legal professionals, speaking to Ontario Supreme Court judges about reducing bias on the bench and to the Ontario Bar Association about how implicit bias can affect legal decisions.

Currently, Kawakami is doing research on confronting bias and how people respond in situations where, for example, racism and sexism occur.

“Most of us think we support egalitarianism, but when it comes down to it, we don’t respond as we think we would,” she says. “Although people think they should confront bias, when we experience bias against others, we often respond with apathy. Furthermore, when other people do confront it, they are often perceived negatively and as less moral and likeable. Even though these confrontations come with a cost, they are vital because these actions then become normative.

“Biases influence us in so many subtle ways. While being aware of these implicit processes won’t reduce them, it’s a good first step. It’s important for people to understand the impact that social categorizations can have.”