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York professors lead Queer Comics Symposium

coloured pencils sketch cartoon

Building upon the work of the just-published and Lambda Literary Award nominated publication, The LGBTQ+ Comics Studies Reader: Critical Openings, Future Directions (University Press of Mississippi, 2022), York University Professors Alison Halsall and Jonathan Warren will host a Queer Comics Symposium on Friday, April 28.

This event, presented by York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and the Departments of English and Humanities, will focus on transdisciplinary and international LGBTQ+ comics scholarship and creativity. Taking advantage of the appearance of the Reader as a field-defining publication, organizers say the symposium will mobilize the specific kinds of knowledge that it showcases: putting scholars in conversation with creators, providing a forum for the work of thinkers at different stages of their careers, and featuring a diversity of analytical approaches with the aim of generating further contributions to the field.

The day begins at noon, in Accolade Building East (room 005), with a plenary lecture given by Professor Michelle Ann Abate (Ohio State University), author of Tomboys: A Literary and Cultural History (Temple University Press). She will discuss “Queering Conformity in Postwar America: The Li’l Tomboy Comic Book Series and Gender Rebellion in the 1950s.” Following this lecture will be a panel that features papers by Professor Lin Young (University of Calgary), Joti Bilkhu (York University), as well as Halsall and Warren.

The second session takes place at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander St., Toronto) at 6 p.m. It will feature a public address given by Professor Justin Hall (California College of the Arts), cartoonist and editor of No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics (Fantagraphics). This lecture will be followed by the first Canadian screening of the award-winning documentary, No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics (Compadre Media, 2021), directed by Vivian Kleiman.

The Queer Comics Symposium will feature contributions from established and upcoming scholars in the field, as well as comics creators and students, at an event that is committed to inspiring and diversifying conversations about LGBTQ+ sequential art and its production around the world.

Via slideshow presentations and a book display, there will also be a presentation of a creative curation of queer comics art.

All are welcome to attend.

Students from Jane-Finch community engage with Congress 2023

Students in front of Vari Hall 2021

When York University Professor Andrea Davis became the academic convenor for Congress 2023, she listened closely to York members who wanted to engage the University’s surrounding community. Davis, the Congress scholarly planning committee and Research Assistant Jellisa Ricketts have prioritized making space for local high school and undergraduate students at the event.

“The scholarly planning committee wanted to do this engagement well and we decided to focus on four high schools in the nearby Jane-Finch community,” said Davis.

Davis contacted administrators at each of the schools – C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute, Downsview Secondary School, Emery Collegiate Institute and Westview Centennial Secondary School – to arrange two pathways for participation.

Each school recommended five senior students who identify as Black or Indigenous to attend two of Congress 2023’s Big Thinking lectures: former Governor General Michaëlle Jean’s lecture about ”Re-Imagining Black Futures” and Indigenous filmmaker Alanis Obamsawin’s talk, “Seeds of the Future: Climate Justice, Racial Justice, and Indigenous Resurgence.” Afterward, each speaker will meet the students for a private lunch and conversation.

High school students participate in a poetry competition
High school students participate in a poetry competition (credit: Sissi Song, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies)

These senior students will be paired with undergraduate students who attended high school in the Jane-Finch community, meeting twice before Congress 2023 to build connections. To identify appropriate York undergraduate ambassadors, Davis reached out to Associate Professor Sylvia Bawa, director of the Resource Center for Public Sociology and the Jane-Finch Social Innovation Hub, and Mohamed Ahmed and Tesfai Mengesha, co-directors of the community-based program, Success Beyond Limits.

A poetry competition has also been running in these schools to engage students with Congress. The author of the best entry from each school will receive a $500 honorarium and the opportunity to read their poem at a Congress 2023 event.

“This is the best kind of outreach,” Davis said. “We want to show students they have a voice and a future, while breaking down walls between academia and our wider communities.

“It’s part of our larger commitment to demonstrate what it means to be a place-based university adjacent to the Jane-Finch community. York University and the Jane-Finch community both emerged in the mid-20th century and our location makes us both unique and co-dependent. As a university, we have a commitment to serve the communities adjacent to our campus and to deal with them ethically and honestly.”

Ricketts added, “This work is very intentional. We’re backing up our talk with action and hoping some of these York connections flourish beyond Congress 2023, because I can feel how grateful the high school students are.”

York University and the Federation for Humanities and Social Sciences will host Congress 2023 from May 27 to June 2. Register here to attend. Term dates have been adjusted to align with timelines for this year’s event.

New project to explore anxiety among Black youth, families

Black woman and child

The recently launched “Retooling Black Anxiety” project at York University looks to examine increased anxiety among Black youth and families who have had encounters with the criminal justice system (CJS).

With $35,000 from the Faculty of Health’s Anxiety Research Fund, powered by Beneva – a Quebec-based insurance and financial services firm – the project is led by two York professors: serving as principal investigator is Professor Godfred Boateng, director, Global & Environmental Health Lab and Faculty Fellow, Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research; co-investigator is Dlamini Nombuso, a professor in the Faculty of Education whose work focuses on youth, especially racialized youth within leadership and political systems. Partnerships with the Ghana Union of Canada (GUC) and Gashanti Unity (GU) is also a critical component of the project in order to help lead community-based research activities and intervention.

Godfred Boateng
Godfred Boateng

The collective goal is to work and mentor youth and their families towards better experiences of addressing anxiety and mental health issues mainly induced by encounters with the criminal justice systems (CJS) and the child welfare systems (CWS).

Research conducted in 2021 by the Department of Justice Canada, and the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat at the Department of Canadian Heritage, identified how over-policing in schools and in Black communities – particularly in economically marginalized neighbourhoods – as well as police reliance on child welfare agencies, has increased the encounters Black youth have with the criminal justice system. According to the Department of Justice Canada, in 2020-21, Black males made up 19 per cent of all male youth admissions to custody, and Black females made up 11 per cent of all female youth admissions to custody.

According to Boateng, these realities have a profound effect on the mental health of Black youth and their families. The professor shares that he has observed how this has led to a significant increase in stories of anxiety, youth entrapment and disillusionment among Black youth and their families. Given how anxiety and mental health can limit individual potentials and capabilities, and injustices that put Black youth in jeopardy can affect their long-term possibilities, Boateng and his partners have prioritized exploring ways to address these ongoing challenges.

The GUC and GU will play a crucial role in implementing the project in their communities. “An important part of project is to dialogue with community partners to ensure that they feel fully and respectfully engaged and involved as driving forces for this project,” says Boateng. Each organization will leverage their membership, network and cultural community advocates to recruit young adults who have had encounters with the criminal justice system or the child welfare system to be part of the program.

Boateng with members from community partners Ghana Union of Canada and Gashanti Unity
Boateng with members from community partners Ghana Union of Canada and Gashanti Unity

During the project’s early exploratory phase, all partners will work to interview and focus group discussions. Subjects will receive a one-pager that articulate project intent, target cohort, duration and expectation. During the subsequent implementation phase they will recruit participants, identify key needs and work with clinical professionals to provide interventions, as well as work with participants on outcomes.

The interventions will be tailored specifically to subjects’ anxiety. After an initial assessment, referrals will be provided to appropriate support systems for those found to have higher levels of anxiety, stress and/or depression symptomatology. Among the choices of intervention for Black youth will be either a restorative justice program aimed at healing and consciousness raising, as well as helping keep youth away from CJS; or enrollment in Unstuck & On Target, an eight-week program aimed at improving self-regulation and good directed behaviors in Youth with offences in CJS/CWS. Family and caregivers will be offered an eight-week program aimed at educating them on how to identify or flag risky behaviors in children, as well as providing crisis support, counseling and therapeutic services referrals to parents or caregivers.

The “Retooling Black Anxiety” team has further ambitions for the future. “We are hoping to scale up this study and apply for larger research and community funding that will advance the mental health of Blacks in the Greater Toronto Area and reduce anxieties experienced by Blacks and Black families,” says Nombuso. The team expects to apply in the future to the SSHRC Collaborative grant to further scale-up the study.

A website is still in development, but those wishing for further information can reach out to the project team directly by email. Boateng can be reached at gboaten@yorku.ca; Dlamini can be reached at ndlamini@yorku.ca, and project coordinator Salwa Regragui can be reached at sreg97@my.yorku.ca.

Athletics awards return in-person at annual banquet

York University Athletics & Recreation hosted its 54th annual Varsity Athletics Banquet on April 6. The event marked the return of the in-person banquet following the live-streamed iteration of the 53rd award ceremony in 2021.

Jotam Chouhan portrait being presented with her Female Athlete of the Year Award.
Jotam Chouhan

Women’s soccer player Jotam Chouhan and men’s soccer player Soji Olatoye were named the Lions female and male athletes of the year, respectively. Chouhan also earned the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) West MVP award in 2022 and was named an OUA first-team. Olatoye likewise won the OUA West MVP and was an OUA first-team all-star along with being named a U SPORTS first-team all-Canadian.

A full list of award winners and MVPs named at the ceremony is included below.

Female Athlete of the Year

Awarded to one female who has exhibited outstanding athletic skill, character and fair play in their sport, and, as a result, contributed to the success of their team. Chouhan was named the female athlete of the year.

Male Athlete of the Year

Awarded to one male who has exhibited outstanding athletic skill, character and fair play in their sport, and, as a result, contributed to the success of their team. Olatoye was named the male athlete of the year.

Soji Olatoye, Male Athlete of the Year

Female Rookie of the Year

The recipient of this award must be compliant with U SPORTS and OUA rookie of the year sport-specific regulations, and be in their first year of eligibility in university competition. The award is presented to a female member of a York varsity team who exhibited outstanding athletic skill in their rookie season. Women’s soccer player Nia Fleming-Thompson was the female rookie of the year.

Male Rookie of the Year

The recipient of this award must be compliant with U SPORTS and OUA rookie of the year sport-specific regulations, and be in their first year of eligibility in university competition. The award is presented to a male member of a York varsity team who exhibited outstanding athletic skill in their rookie season. Badminton player Victor Lai was the male rookie of the year.

Bryce M. Taylor Award [Outstanding Female Graduate]:

Presented to a graduating female athlete, who has, throughout their undergraduate years, made outstanding contributions to Varsity Athletics at York University. Leadership, dedication, enthusiasm and participation in all aspects of Varsity Athletics will be considered qualifications for this award. Field hockey player Frankie St. Louis won this year’s Bryce M. Taylor Award.

Outstanding Male Graduate Award

Presented to a graduating male athlete, who has, throughout their undergraduate years, made outstanding contributions to Varsity Athletics at York University. Leadership, dedication, enthusiasm and participation in all aspects of Varsity Athletics will be considered qualifications for this award. Men’s hockey player Xavier Pouliot was this year’s outstanding male graduate.

Coach of the Year

Presented to a coach who has demonstrated leadership and earned the respect of both athletes and coaches in setting high expectations which have led to significant improvements and/or accomplishments over the past season for their program. Coach of the Year was presented to field hockey Coach Zeeshan Minhas.

Charles Saundercook Memorial Trophy

Presented to a student-athlete who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, enthusiasm for life and consideration of others. This trophy is open to male and female student-athletes. The Charles Saundercook Memorial Trophy was awarded to basketball player Prince Kamunga.

Most Valuable Players

Group photo of 54th varsity banquet MVPs
Group photo of 54th Varsity Athletics Banquet MVPs

Women’s Basketball: Lauren Golding

Men’s Basketball: Somto Dimanochie

Women’s Cross Country: Laura Peters

Men’s Cross Country: Abdullahi Abdullahi

Field Hockey: Frankie St. Louis

Football: Matt Dean

Women’s Hockey: Brooke Anderson

Men’s Hockey: Xavier Pouliot

Women’s Rugby: Erin Preston

Women’s Soccer: Jotam Chouhan

Men’s Soccer: Joe Mac

Women’s Tennis: Tamara Janev

Men’s Tennis: Max Tokarev

Women’s Track & Field: Ella Foster

Men’s Track & Field: Jeremy Elliott

Women’s Volleyball: Christina Piccinin

Men’s Volleyball: Andrew Tauhid

Women’s Wrestling: Willow Morton

Men’s Wrestling: Sabit Bin Mahir

Osgoode launches app to aid in immigration, refugee hearings

Close-up photo of judge's gavel on a desk with unseen figure writing on paper in the background

A new online application from a team led by Sean Rehaag, associate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and director of its Refugee Law Lab, is designed to equip lawyers with critical legal data needed to improve their odds of winning refugee protections for migrants at risk.

The Refugee Law Lab Portal (RLLP), which launched March 27, provides readily available legal analytics derived from all Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) decisions and judicial reviews of IRB judgments by the Federal Court.

According to Rehaag, the aim of the project – funded by the Law Foundation of Ontario – is to maintain the portal’s legal data so that lawyers can create “targeted” legal arguments, just as a doctor would use targeted medications to treat a patient’s unique symptom profile.

The Refugee Law Lab additionally receives grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Considering the support that public funding provides for both the RLLP, and the lab in general, a crucial goal of the project is to increase the accessibility and equitability of public services like immigration hearings.

“When lawyers appear before decision-makers, they often don’t know who the decision-maker is until they walk into the room, so this can give them a quick way to understand some information about the decision-maker,” Rehaag said.

“If you know you have someone who is never going to grant refugee protection, then your job as a lawyer is to get a review,” he added. “By contrast, if you have someone who’s very sympathetic, you might just want to let the process roll through without interruption to keep the decision-maker on board.”

Rehaag said that subjective decision-making by refugee adjudicators is a reality, but he hopes data provided by the portal will help level the playing field for lawyers.

“From my perspective,” he said, “the key takeaway is that we need to have safeguards for this kind of decision-making to prevent the worst outcomes for refugees.”

Those worst outcomes would include the recent drowning deaths of eight migrants as they attempted to cross the St. Lawrence River into the United States.

“This [portal] can contribute to efforts to create those safeguards,” he added, “and help lawyers develop strategies to deal with the subjectivity of decision-making.”

The Refugee Law Lab plans to continue expanding the portal to provide additional information, including cases that decision-makers most often cite in their decisions. Rehaag said he also hopes that the legal data will help stimulate additional research into Canadian refugee law by other organizations.

Unlike high-priced legal databases, Rehaag said, the Refugee Law Lab Portal is committed to keeping the information accessible, offering it for free and in easy-to-understand formats while at the same time protecting privacy.

Rehaag explained that most of the work in creating the Refugee Law Lab Portal has gone into compiling the data, including developing a sophisticated, cloud-based internet scraping tool to continuously extract data from Federal Court dockets.

“I think it’s a good example of taking academic funding for research and transforming that research so it’s more accessible and useful for practitioners,” he said. “Lawyers are not always comfortable engaging with data.”

York alumn Mark Miller talks legacy brands

Microphone

York alum Mark Miller (BBA ’95), best-selling author and chief strategy officer at the Los Angeles-based advertising agency Team One, joins Zeynep Güler Tuck, host of Mid-Career Conversations, via Zoom to discuss why more legacy brands are flickering out faster than ever on April 13 at noon.

Mid-Career Conversation, organized and hosted by the Division of Advancement, is a live webinar series designed with the intent of connecting York University alumni to each other for the sake of networking, sharing experiences and learning together.

Mark Miller portrait
Mark Miller

Each Mid-Career Conversation event features an alumni in the middle of their career who describes their professional and academic journeys since having graduated from York and highlights noteworthy moments in their careers.

Aside from his authorial accomplishments, Miller is also a frequent keynote speaker at industry conferences on cutting-edge innovation. With his broad influence and keen leadership sensibility, Miller has garnered many of North America’s most prestigious marketing and advertising awards, such as the ARF David Ogilvy Awards for research excellence, the Jay Chiat Awards for strategic excellence, and the Effie Awards for marketing effectiveness. Miller’s book, Legacy in the Making: Building a Long-Term Brand to Stand Out in a Short-Term World, is a Berry-AMA Book Prize winner for significant contributions to the field of marketing. For his upcoming Mid-Career Conversation visit, Miller will consider why the average lifespan of a company on the S&P 500 has shrunk from 67 to 15 years and share how he built his own successful personal brand.

Zeynep Güler Tuck close-up portrait
Zeynep Güler Tuck

Alumna Güler Tuck (BA ’02), a storyteller with 20 years of dedicated experience in public relations, telecommunications and travel sectors, leads the discussions. She has produced and written for an array of broadcast programs, authored editorial columns and contributed to web series for Microsoft News, Business Insider, Time Out, Lonely Planet, Corus Entertainment and Elevate, a non-profit in the innovation space. Her work is primarily concerned with building more reliable pathways for women in STEM fields and increasing and diversifying the representation of women and girls in contemporary media.

Click here to attend and register for this free event.

YUeats introduces value menu to address food insecurity

Healthy food

York University’s campus food services provider, YUeats, has created a new $6.99 value meal meant to provide the York community with access to meals that are filling, nutritious and affordable.

The new on-campus value meal program will launch in Central Square in Summer 2023, Winters and Stong Colleges in Fall 2023, and be available throughout the year at the University’s Glendon Campus.

Menus will rotate daily and offer a wide range of options that cater to different dietary requirements and preferences. “This initiative was launched to increase the availability of nutritious, culturally diverse and well-balanced hot meals to our York community,” says Dahlia Abou El Hassan, York’s in-house dietitian.

“Many students identified food insecurity in York’s recent 2022 Canadian Campus Well-being Survey as a significant challenge, and this concerns all of us. I’m delighted the Food Services team worked quickly to provide students and the community with a selection of cost-effective and nutritious meal options. It’s progress towards supporting our community,” said Nona Robinson, vice-provost, students. “We are continuing to work with partners across the University to provide additional food supports for students.”

York launches production accounting micro-credential program

Film camera shooting an actor

York University and Cinespace Studios have partnered to create a production accounting micro-credential program in response to growing demand from the film and television industry.

$3.12 million in renewed support for York University Motion Media Studio at Cinespace
York Motion Media Studio

The new six-week program will launch June 2023 and be taught in person at the York University Motion Media Studio – an interdisciplinary space for learning, teaching and production located on Cinespace Studios Toronto’s Kipling campus in Etobicoke. The curriculum will teach students the important role production accounting plays in the film and television industry, as well as common systems, tools and techniques used in the profession. The course is also managed by Schulich ExecEd.

“Schulich ExecEd is excited to partner with the York University Motion Media Studio and Cinespace Studios for the Foundations of Production Accounting program,” said Rami Mayer, executive director, Schulich ExecEd. “Accelerated reskilling is the way of the future for mid-career professionals, and micro-credentials have become the way of acknowledging to employers that the new skill has been learned. This program is a wonderful example of its practical use for a real need in an important industry for Ontario and the GTA.”

This latest collaborative venture is part of an ongoing strategic partnership between the University and Cinespace, which renewed its commitment to York in 2022 with $3.12 million in support.

“York University is proud to extend our partnership with Cinespace Studios to deliver this innovative micro-credential in production accounting that fills a need for highly skilled professionals in a growing industry like film and television,” said Sarah Bay-Cheng, dean of York’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design. “The production accounting micro-credential is testament to York University’s commitment to making quality education accessible to diverse learners while preparing the industry leaders to create positive change.”

“Film and television production accountants are in critically short supply globally and this micro-credential program will allow the industry to quickly fill a much-needed role as production volumes continue in the region,” says Ashley Rice, president and co-managing partner at Cinespace Studios.

Those interested in further information can review the micro-credential program’s details and curriculum here.

Harry Jerome Leadership Award goes to York alum Rosemarie Powell

3d golden star golden with lighting effect on black background. Template luxury premium award design. Vector illustration

York University alum Rosemarie Powell (MES ’15) will be honoured at the 2023 Harry Jerome Awards for her long-serving work in advancing social, economic and environmental justice.

Rosemarie Powell
Rosemarie Powell

The Harry Jerome Awards recognize excellence in the African Canadian community. Powell will be presented with the Leadership Award on April 29 during the 41st Black Business and Professional Association (BBPA) Annual Harry Jerome Awards Gala.

Powell is executive director of the Toronto Community Benefits Network, a non-profit community-labour coalition where she advocates for disadvantaged communities and equity-seeking groups in the City of Toronto. In this role, she has grown the community benefits movement and strengthened the coalition to create good jobs and opportunities through government investment in infrastructure and urban development for Black, Indigenous and racialized peoples with a focus on those who are youth, women and newcomers.

With more than 20 years of service to grassroots communities and organizations, Powell has led numerous community-based programs and services that support marginalized and under-represented groups and their access to the labour market. Throughout her career, she has advanced equitable approaches to policy development and implementation at various levels of government as it relates to land use planning, infrastructure investment and urban development.

She is the recipient of several awards for her leadership and imagination in community engagement and environmental advocacy, and has previously held roles at the Jamaican Canadian Association, the Jane-Finch Community and Family Centre, and Skills for Change.

Established in the memory of Harry Jerome, an outstanding African Canadian Olympic athlete, scholar and social advocate, the BBPA Harry Jerome Awards celebrates African Canadian achievement that pays tribute to outstanding and inspirational African Canadians who are role models of excellence.

The Harry Jerome Awards focus on a number of different categories, including athletics, leadership, young entrepreneurs, business, professional excellence, leadership, arts/media entertainment, health sciences. These awards are done through a nomination process by individuals and organizations across the country.

The Board of Directors additionally selects the president’s, lifetime achievement and diversity awards.

LA&PS writer-in-residence hosts conversation with author Miriam Toews

Black woman reading book

The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) and the Department of English will host Writer-in-Residence Karen Solie in conversation with internationally revered author Miriam Toews on April 17 from 7 to 9 p.m.

Miriam Toews portrait
Miriam Toews

As part of the conversation, Toews will read selections from her work which includes best-selling novels such as New York Times editors’ choice Fight Night (2021), Women Talking (2018), All My Puny Sorrows (2014), Irma Voth (2011), The Flying Troutmans (2008), A Complicated Kindness (2004), A Boy of Good Breeding (1998) and Summer of My Amazing Luck (1996). Toews has also published one non-fiction book, Swing Low: A Life (2000).

In recognition of her literary accomplishments, Toews has been inducted into the Order of Manitoba and throughout her career has won: the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction, the Libris Fiction Book of the Year Award, the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award. Toews’ work has been translated into many languages and is read in countries around the world.

Writer-in-Residence Karen Solie close-up portrait
Karen Solie

After a discussion focused on “writing, reading, fighting and talking,” Toews will take questions from the audience in a Q-and-A moderated by Solie, and will conclude with a book signing. This event is open to all members of the York community and beyond.

The LA&PS writer-in-residence program and its featured guest events are designed to supplement existing creative writing courses by providing students with access to working, professional writers for inspiration, feedback and support. Additionally, the program is dedicated to engaging the broader community by developing partnerships with local authors, North York libraries, schools and community organizations to connect the writer-in-residence with off-campus populations.

For more information and to register for the event, click here.

About Writer-in-Residence Karen Solie

Solie is the author of five collections of poetry. Her third, Pigeon (Anansi, 2009), won the Griffin Poetry Prize, Trillium Poetry Prize and the Pat Lowther Award. A volume of selected and new poems, The Living Option, was published in the U.K. in 2013, and was a Poetry Book Society recommendation. The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out (Anansi, FSG, 2015) was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award, and her most recent collection, The Caiplie Caves (Anansi, FSG, Picador, 2019), was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and Derek Walcott Prize. Her work has been translated into seven languages and has appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada, the U.S., U.K., Europe, and Australia, including the sixth edition of The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Solie has taught writing for universities and writing programs across Canada and in the U.K. and was the 2022 Holloway Visiting Poet and Lecturer for the University of California at Berkeley. She is currently on the creative writing faculty with the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.