Recent grad urges current students to consider study abroad opportunities after the pandemic

October 30, 2020

Marie Gomez in Costa Rica

Ask Marie Gomez if the old adage about travel broadening your horizons is true and she’ll agree without hesitation.

“Honestly, my life really did change once I went abroad to study,” said Gomez, a 2020 graduate of York University’s Glendon College.

For Gomez, who earned an iBA in communications at Glendon and now works as a video journalist for City-TV in Winnipeg, spending an exchange semester in Barcelona was eye-opening.

“It was my first time away from my family for an extended period and Barcelona was someplace I’d always dreamed of visiting,” Gomez said. “I was excited about going, making friends, learning a different language and having roommates for the first time.”

Living with students from Korea, Italy and Spain gave her an opportunity to learn about different cultures while realizing that people are people the world over.

“I really grew as a person,” she said. “There were situations I was in that I wouldn’t have had at home. For example, I got caught in a protest at school where the protesters didn’t want to let us in, and I took a class taught in Catalan because the content was fascinating, although I didn’t speak a word of the language.

“I just tried to adapt and be positive about things.”

After the semester ended, Gomez indulged her passion for travel, exploring Europe before returning home, since she didn’t expect to have an opportunity to return for a while. Little did she know that she’d be back in Europe the following year for a summer internship with a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Romania.

“It was very different from my academic experience in Spain,” Gomez said. “I was living on my own, so it was lonelier.”

It was the work itself that grabbed her hardest. “We were helping migrant youth resettle and worked with people in transit, including the Roma. I learned a lot about migration and it’s an area I could see myself working in down the road,” she said.

Gomez’s love of travel led her to York International (YI), the University’s hub for all things international, and she became one of YI’s Global Ambassadors, speaking at the Global Fair, making presentations and hosting global chat sessions for students preparing to go abroad at the YI offices on campus.

“Because I was so fond of my international experiences, I wanted to share my experiences,” she said.

It turned out that European countries weren’t Gomez’s only ports of call during university. She took a summer course at Las Nubes, York’s Eco-Campus in Costa Rica, and she attended the Japan Canada Academic Consortium Student Forum in Japan this past winter as a York University representative.

Marie Gomez in Japan where she attended the Japan Canada Academic Consortium Student Forum

“In Costa Rica, my course focused on the history of the people and the culture,” Gomez said. I got to really talk to people, which was perfect for me as a future journalist.”

The conference in Japan brought together students from both countries. This year, the focus was on energy politics and each group made a presentation of their research at the Canadian embassy in Tokyo.

“I was part of the group that won first place and it was very validating that we could make a difference,” Gomez said.

York financial aid made some of Gomez’s trips possible and she expressed her gratitude. All York students selected to participate in study and work/intern opportunities abroad receive a York International Mobility Award.

“York is great at trying to give financial help,” she said. “It really helped financially, because it’s not cheap to go abroad.”

After graduation, Gomez accepted her video journalist’s position and works as a general assignment reporter.

“Every day is really different,” she said. “What I love about my job is that you never know what you’ll be talking about.”

With her career, as with her life, she isn’t plotting a path that’s immutable.

“A communications degree can lead you anywhere,” Gomez said. “I’m open to whatever comes my way. It’s the attitude I’ve had since I went on exchanges abroad.

“University gives you the critical thinking skills to do any job and you learn to adapt really quickly to things.”

By Elaine Smith, special contributing writer

York faculty members recognized with Awards of Excellence

October 21, 2020

York University is a diverse community of change leaders working to create a better future through learning and research. In fact, one of the hallmarks of the University is that its staff, students and faculty are passionate about serving their communities and building a more innovative, inclusive and sustainable world.

That passion has been evident during the pandemic, as faculty stepped up in the fight against COVID-19. In recognition of this service, five York University faculty members received the Minister of Colleges and Universities’ Awards of Excellence for their commitment to guiding the province of Ontario through the pandemic.

“The Awards of Excellence celebrate educators who have responded to the pandemic with ingenuity, tenacity and compassion,” said Rhonda Lenton, president and vice-chancellor. “From developing innovative online learning techniques to creating a United Nations COVID-19 recovery roadmap, these York teaching and research leaders are going above and beyond to support the University community, while finding creative solutions to the challenges associated with pandemic recovery and rebuilding locally and in the world.”

Recipients of this award have demonstrated exceptional dedication to the people of Ontario, taking action to support those in need and working to bring an end to the pandemic while kickstarting an equitable recovery.

Award recipients

Henriette Gezundhajt, a course director and lecturer in the Department of French Studies, demonstrates a spirit of collaboration and an exemplary concern for professional life in French within Ontario. As the pandemic hit the province, Gezundhajt leveraged her expertise in using York University’s online learning platform, Moodle, to offer workshops and informal consultations to Francophone colleagues, helping to ensure a smooth transition to distance education. Not only did Gezundhajt create more than 35 video tutorials to assist in this transition, but she also translated York University’s Going Remote website, which is designed to facilitate the transition to distance and online learning. Her contributions have been essential for Francophone colleagues, including those teaching at the Glendon Campus, and to the Francophone students served by York University.

York University microbiologist and “germ expert” Dasantila Golemi-Kotra is a leading researcher on viral and bacterial infections and an associate professor of biology in the Faculty of Science. Given the increase in competing and sometimes inaccurate health information, scientists play a vital role in debunking misinformation with factual and evidence-based guidance. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Golemi-Kotra has expertly guided Canadians looking to get through the pandemic safely, offering advice on how to effectively clean and sanitize homes and workplaces, correctly use personal protective equipment, and take necessary safety precautions when out in the community.

Steven Hoffman is the Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance and Legal Epidemiology, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Global Governance of Antimicrobial Resistance and the scientific director of the Institute of Population and Public Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Hoffman has been appointed by the United Nations (UN) Deputy Secretary-General to lead the development of a United Nations Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery. The UN Roadmap engages researchers, implementers, funders and citizens around the world in identifying key areas of focus for research and study to rebuild after the pandemic. Central to this research is fulfilling the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and informing national and international strategies for the recovery period with rigorous evidence.

Murat Kristal is the director of the Master of Management in Artificial Intelligence program at York University’s Schulich School of Business. Along with colleagues at Schulich’s Centre of Excellence – Big Data and Analytics Leadership, Kristal has developed an analytics dashboard that gives daily insights into the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using publicly available data from the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering GIS platform and GitHub, Schulich’s COVID-19 Dynamics dashboard can predict, with 90 per cent accuracy, the number of new COVID-19 cases over the next five days in each country around the world. These predictive numbers support policymakers, healthcare administrators and public health officials as they make evidence-based, informed decisions to stop the spread of COVID-19 and keep people safe.

Jianhong Wu is the director of the Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid Response Simulation and a professor of mathematics and statistics in the Faculty of Science and Canada Research Chair in in Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He is a trailblazer in several renowned national interdisciplinary projects, including the federally funded national infection dynamics modelling project and the geosimulation of disease spread. Building off his pivotal role during the 2003 SARS outbreak, Wu is leading the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences – a national COVID-19 math modelling team – as it advises public health officials assessing the transmission risk of COVID-19 and the trajectory of potential future outbreaks. Wu was previously recognized with the 2019 CAIMS-Fields Industrial Mathematics Prize in recognition of his contributions to research with public health professionals that leveraged his expertise in infectious disease preparedness and mitigation strategies.

“Congratulations to each of York’s recipients of the Minister of Colleges and Universities’ Awards of Excellence for their leadership, hard work, and essential contributions to stop the spread of COVID-19 and build toward a just recovery,” said Lenton.

The challenges facing humanity now, and those still on the horizon, are growing ever more complex. York University will continue to play a leading role in the global fight against COVID-19 through the ground-breaking contributions being made by its faculty, researchers, and students.

The Glendon Global Debate explores housing affordability in Toronto, Oct. 22

October 20, 2020

Panorama of Toronto skyline at sunset in Ontario, Canada

Join the Glendon School of Public and International Affairs, the CITY Institute and the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies on Oct. 22 to discuss the changing housing landscape of Toronto and what should be done moving forward.

This instalment of the Glendon Global Debate series, titled “The Right to Home: Housing Affordability in Toronto,” will feature panel members Nemoy Lewis from the University of Toronto, Scott Leon from the Wellesley Institute, and Keisha St. Louis-McBurnie from the University of Toronto.

It takes place on Zoom at 5:30 p.m.

It is no secret that the housing affordability in Toronto has reached a tipping point, a situation exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis as people face job losses, the decline in income, and fears of a second wave of the pandemic. With the demand for housing increasing at a much faster than the supply of housing available, residents and newcomers to Toronto are being priced out of the city.

According to the July 2020 National Rent report, Toronto had the highest average monthly rent in June for a one-bedroom home at $2,063 and for a two-bedroom at $2,684. At the same time, Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s Market Year in Review report stated the average selling price of a home within in the city in 2020 will exceed $900,000, which is nearly a 10 per cent increase from the 2019 average sale price of $819,319 and nearly a 45 per cent increase from the average sale price in 2015.

While housing market activity initially slowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the real-estate market Toronto is expected to bounce back. In fact, The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) reported that 11,083 homes were sold in September, 42.3 per cent more than September 2019.

This event will examine how Toronto has the highest immigration rate per capita in the world, with 43 per cent of new immigrants settling in the GTA. Many Canadians, including millennials and new immigrants, are struggling to find affordable housing and many are coming to see homeownership as less and less realistic. With the trends observed over the past five years, who can blame them? The shortage of rentals available, the lack of affordable housing, and the development of Toronto’s neighbourhoods by big-name developers are certainly not helping the situation.

Panelists will explore questions including: What are our representatives doing to address housing affordability? Are the policies being put in place to assist us in attaining affordable housing effective? Are these policies counterproductive? How are racialized Canadians impacted by discrimination, affordability and displacement? How do alternative models such as cooperative housing help address some of these challenges?

Register for the event here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-right-to-home-toronto-le-droit-a-un-toit-toronto-tickets-124289951591.

York University’s Glendon Campus stepping up to help address shortage of FSL teachers

October 20, 2020

A new knowledge mobilization hub at York University’s bilingual Glendon Campus will help to meet the need for French as a second language (FSL) teachers at a time when they are in short supply.

The Glendon Accelerator for Innovation and Best Practices in French Teaching will lead several new initiatives to help recruit and retain French language teachers for extended, core and immersion teaching and address the shortage of FSL teachers in Ontario and Canada.

Students, continuing learners and experts in the field are coming together to create an innovative new hub for the sharing of resources, expertise and networking opportunities.

Co-Interim Principal of Glendon Campus Ian Roberge — Ian Roberge

“For many years, Glendon has played a central role in the development of teachers entering the immersion system, as well as in the teaching of French as a Second Language,” says Ian Roberge, interim principal, Glendon Campus. “We are extremely pleased to lead key initiatives which will address the teacher shortages across the province and will also make core resources available to support them in their daily activities.”

The accelerator’s main objective is to encourage students to seek a career in French language teaching and assist internationally certified French teachers who could benefit from bridging programs for the local Canadian and Ontarian market. The accelerator, which will serve as a hub for innovation, will include a newly created undergraduate certificate in French language and community stewardship, which will nurture the skills needed for a future in FSL teaching. The hub will introduce a critical new FSL research centre and Open Education Resources (OER) on FSL teaching and learning, that will help educators find connections and support in professional learning communities.

“The Government of Canada is proud to provide the necessary support to this important initiative aimed at training the next generation of French as a second language educators. Glendon’s unique position as a significant bilingual campus within the world-class York University makes it an ideal postsecondary partner,” says Rob Oliphant, MP for Don Valley West. “At a time when the demand for bilingual skills is increasing, this made-in-Canada knowledge hub is a welcome tool to recruit, retain or retool FSL educators.”

The new hub will offer prospective participants a diverse and rich place to learn in an environment that fosters inclusivity, equity and diverse ways of knowledge. It will deepen cooperative practices between academic, school and non-governmental partners in French language education and remove some of the burden from schools and school boards that often use their own resources to recruit and retain teachers.

The project is co-led by York Associate Professor Muriel Peguret, Associate Professor Dominique Scheffel-Dunand and researcher Mirela Cherciov, and will include a diverse team of people involved in education, such as teacher candidates, current teachers, postsecondary course instructors and university professors.

The accelerator hub has received funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage and has already begun identifying needs and designing innovative programming for its different targets: high school students, Glendon students, future French teachers and in-service French teachers trained in Canada or internationally.

National conference focuses on Canada in a post-pandemic world

October 14, 2020

An image of the COVID-19 virus. Image: CDC

The novel coronavirus, which has caused the COVID-19 global pandemic with 38.2 million cases worldwide and more than 1.09 million people dead (Source: World Health Organization), has left no country unscathed. As the world enters the second wave of this pandemic, what does Canada need to consider as it looks to emerge in a post-pandemic world?

This central question, which will be viewed from a variety of perspectives, is at the heart of an important two-day national conference organized by York University alumni Irvin Studin (BBA ’99, PhD ’11) and Sam Sasan Shoamanesh (BA ’99).

The conference is set to take place Oct. 23 and 24 in Toronto. Titled, “After the Pandemic – The State & Future of Canada,” this event is presented by the Institute for 21st Century Questions (21CQ), a vision and strategy think tank affiliated with Global Brief magazine, Canada’s leading international affairs magazine.

“We’re organizing the most comprehensive and authoritative national conference to date on Canada post-pandemic on Oct. 23 and 24. We’re covering all dimensions of Canada coming out of the pandemic, from public health to the economy, education, national unity, international affairs, Indigenous relations, cities, majority/minority relations, media, culture, and more,” says Studin, who is a Rhodes Scholar, a 2014 Bryden Alumni Award recipient, president of 21CQ and the editor-in-chief of Global Brief.

Featured experts from York University (listed in order of their appearance at the conference) are: Fred Lazar (professor of Economics, Schulich School of Business and associate professor of Economics, cross-appointed to Department of Economics in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies); Gabrielle Slowey (associate professor in the Department of Politics in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and the director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies); Mamdouh Shoukri (past president and vice-chancellor of York University and professor emeritus of Engineering, McMaster University); Michael Barutciski (professor of Canadian Studies at Glendon College and the Montréal-based associate editor of Global Brief); and Obiora Okafor (professor, Osgoode Hall Law School).

As with previous conferences presented by 21CQ and Global Brief, “After the Pandemic – The State & Future of Canada” will feature a diverse range of global experts speaking to five specific themes:

Oct. 23 panel themes

The Economy Post-Pandemic
Public Health in Canada Post-Covid
Canada’s International Position
Indigenous Relations in Canada
Canada’s Arctic Position
Canadian Science and Technology Post-Pandemic

Oct. 24 panel themes

Canada’s Population and Immigration/Migration/Demography Post-Pandemic
Canada’s Regions and National Unity Post-Pandemic
The State of Majority/Minority Relations in Canada
Canada’s Cities Post-Pandemic
Canada’s Cultural, Media and Information Space Post-Pandemic
The State of Education in Canada Post-Pandemic
Energy, the Environment, Agriculture, Food and Canada’s Possible Futures

Studin will provide introductory remarks for each day of the conference, which will be presented virtually using the Zoom platform.

For more information on the location and availability of tickets, visit the 21CQ website and click on the conference event page.

Join Glendon Tournament to connect, win prizes and compete for Glendon Cup

September 27, 2020

La version française suit la version anglaise.

Glendon Campus has launched an innovative virtual program to help new and returning students connect, have fun, win prizes and compete for the Glendon Cup.

The Glendon Tournament, a pilot project, is a 100 per cent Glendon-driven web-based initiative developed with the input of students, faculty and staff. The core objectives are to provide a meaningful Glendon experience to students during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for first-year students who have not had the chance to discover and enjoy campus life.

How does it work?

Games in the Glendon Tournament, which launched Sept. 14, can be played in French and English, or both, online and in real life. Players can take part individually, or in teams, and play synchronously or asynchronously, which accommodates different time zones. Participants are randomly assigned to one of four teams named after species of trees prominent on the Glendon Campus:

Rosa – for the historic rose garden
Betula – for the many birch trees that dot the land
Acer – for the majestic maples
Picea – for the gigantic spruce trees

There are three types of games: fun games; academically inspired activities that will bring together students and curriculum content; and Glendon values-driven games, e.g. diversity, international community, environment, etc.

Accessible through Glendon’s eClass platform, games run on a two-week rotational basis and are both online and offline.

Prizes, prizes and more prizes

Many prizes will be awarded during the Glendon Tournament, including:

One of four $500 Scholarships
Gifts cards to Glendon Bookstore, Tim Hortons and others
Personal awards e.g. Most Involved, Best Display of Team Spirit, etc.

The team with highest score at the end of the year will be awarded the coveted Glendon Cup, and a plaque will be unveiled during awards ceremony.

“One of the reasons many of you chose Glendon is the personalized experience and that small campus feel,” said Glendon Interim Principal Ian Roberge. “This fall may look different from what we are used to, but whether you are a new or returning student, we still want you to experience campus life. We promise you won’t miss out on our famous Glendon community spirit! The Glendon Tournament is one of the new online activities our staff and volunteer students have created for you this year and we hope you’ll enjoy it. Register to play and get started. Hope to see you at the Awards Ceremony next spring!”

To register, and for information, visit www.glendon.yorku.ca/student-affairs/glendon-tournament.

Le campus Glendon a lancé un programme virtuel innovateur pour aider les étudiants, nouveaux et anciens, à s’amuser, à remporter des prix et à concourir pour la coupe Glendon.

Le Tournoi Glendon est une initiative numérique conçue et dirigée à 100 pour cent par le corps étudiant, le corps professoral et le personnel de Glendon. Les objectifs principaux sont de fournir une expérience Glendon complète et enrichissante au corps étudiant pendant la pandémie Covid-19, tout particulièrement aux étudiants et étudiantes de première année qui n’ont pas encore eu la chance de découvrir la vie sur le campus et d’en profiter pleinement.

Comment ça marche?

La participation aux jeux du tournoi Glendon, qui a été lancé le 14 septembre, peut se faire en français et en anglais, ou dans les deux langues; en ligne ou pour de vrai. Elle peut être individuelle ou en équipe, synchrone ou asynchrone afin de gérer les différents fuseaux horaires. Les joueurs et joueuses sont répartis au hasard dans l’une des quatre équipes portant le nom d’espèces d’arbres et d’arbustes du campus Glendon :

Rosa pour la roseraie historique
Betula pour les nombreux bouleaux qui parsèment la propriété
Acer pour les majestueux érables
Picea pour les gigantesques épicéas

Il existe trois types de jeux : des jeux amusants; des activités plus académiques qui jettent des ponts entre les étudiants et le contenu des programmes d’études; et des jeux axés sur les valeurs de Glendon, comme la diversité, notre communauté internationale, l’environnement, etc.

Accessibles par le biais de la plate-forme eClass de Glendon, les jeux se déroulent selon une rotation de deux semaines et sont offerts à la fois en ligne et hors ligne.

Des tas de prix!

De nombreux prix seront remis durant le tournoi Glendon, notamment :

Quatre bourses d’études de 500 $
Des cartes-cadeaux pour la librairie Glendon, Tim Hortons, etc.
Des récompenses personnelles : Implication, meilleur esprit d’équipe, etc.

L’équipe ayant obtenu le plus de points à la fin de l’année remportera la très convoitée Coupe Glendon; une plaque sera dévoilée lors de la cérémonie de remise des prix.

« Nombre d’entre vous ont choisi Glendon pour cette expérience universitaire personnalisée et cette ambiance de petit campus », dit le principal par intérim de Glendon, Ian Roberge. « La session d’automne rompra peut-être avec nos habitudes, mais que vous arriviez sur le campus pour la première fois ou que vous poursuiviez vos études, vous ne serez pas privés du célèbre esprit communautaire de Glendon! Le Tournoi de Glendon est l’une des nouvelles activités en ligne que notre personnel et nos bénévoles ont créées spécialement pour vous cette année. Nous espérons qu’il vous plaira. Inscrivez-vous et préparez-vous à jouer. Nous espérons vous voir à la cérémonie de remise des prix au printemps! »

Pour vous inscrire et pour obtenir plus d’information, visitez www.glendon.yorku.ca/student-affairs/glendon-tournament.

Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies announces recipients of Barbara Godard and Odessa awards

September 23, 2020

Every year, the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies awards the Barbara Godard and Odessa Prizes for the best graduate dissertation and undergraduate paper in a fourth-year course for outstanding works that advance our knowledge of Canada. For the 2019-20 academic year, the awards went to M’Chigeeng historian and researcher Alan Ojiig Corbiere (Department of History) for his dissertation titled Anishinaabe Treaty-Making in the 18th- and 19th-Century Northern Great Lakes: From Shared Meanings to Epistemological Chasms, and to Natalia Santilli for her paper “The Abject Horror of the Spanish Influenza in Canadian Theatre.”

Corbiere has since been transitioned from student to professor. In the fall 2019 term, he joined the faculty at York University as an assistant professor in the Department of History. His dissertation was unanimously chosen from a pool of eight nominated works for the Barbara Godard Prize. The adjudication committee thought his writing to have “stood out on all the criteria for the prize: advancing knowledge of Canada, transcending disciplinary boundaries and demonstrating innovation in thought and/or methodology.”

Corbiere’s work sought to recover the Anishinaabe historical perspective and used material culture, spiritual beliefs, a wealth of archival sources, as well as the Anishinaabe language and culture itself, to examine the evolution of their treaty-making process. His goal was to produce a more nuanced interpretation of Anishinaabe governance structures and their role in treaty procedures. This work shed new perspectives on treaty relationships and has already had some impact in recent case law interpreting 19th-century treaties in British North America.

Santilli will be completing her specialized honours BA in English and certificate in technical and professional communication this fall. Her paper was nominated for the Odessa Prize by Glendon English Professor Lee Frew for “Canadian Literature and the Great War (GL/EN 4642)” at Glendon Campus. “I really owe my interest in Canadian Studies to Lee Frew [and] I’m incredibly grateful to Irvin Studin for establishing the Odessa Prize,” says Santilli, “I couldn’t imagine a better way to wrap up my degree.”

She began work on the paper in March as the COVID-19 crisis was intensifying around the world. Today, she continues to reflect “on the various ways in which people (or characters) cope with horrific circumstances, for better for worse … fear may be unpleasant, but it can absolutely be harnessed for productive means.” Her paper was the unanimous choice by the selection committee to receive the Odessa Prize. In their decision they write that Santilli “demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection, as well as insightful readings of the plays Dancock’s Dance by Guy Vanderhaeghe (2005) and Unity (1918) by Kevin Kerr (2014) in light of Kristeva’s thinking. … This analysis demonstrates an exceptional understanding of both the theory and the plays: frankly, the essay is outstanding, graduate student-level work.”

Both works have been nominated by the Robarts Centre for the Canadian Studies Network – Réseau d’études canadiennes prizes for the Best PhD Dissertation and Best Undergraduate Essay Prize in Canadian Studies.

The Barbara Godard Prize for the Best York University Dissertation in Canadian Studies was created in memory of the Robarts Centre’s late, distinguished colleague. Godard held the Avie Bennett Historica Chair of Canadian Literature and was Professor of English, French, Social and Political Thought and Women’s Studies at York University.

The Odessa Prize for the Study of Canada was established through the generosity of York alumnus Irvin Studin and is dedicated to Studin’s parents who hail from the famous port city of Odessa.

Quick pandemic pivot provides globally networked learning opportunity

September 16, 2020

A screen shot of the class participants reflecting on the day’s lesson, including Professor Ian Martin, top centre, and student Rachel Whittle, middle centre

In an ordinary year, the final course of Glendon College’s Certificate in the Discipline of Teaching English as an International Language (DTEIL) offers fourth-year students the opportunity to go abroad and test their skills in a foreign classroom. But, as the coronavirus pandemic raced across the globe, it quickly became obvious that spring 2020 was anything but ordinary.

Fortunately for the DTEIL students, Glendon English Department professors Ian Martin and Brian Morgan were determined to ensure their students still had a cross-cultural opportunity, even if it couldn’t take place in person. When York University decided to shut down, the professors were a month away from leading groups of students on an experiential education trip; some students were heading to a partner pedagogical university in Cuba with Martin; the others were off to our partner university in Campo Grande, Brazil with Morgan. Within days, the trips were cancelled and the professors were working their contacts to “make lemonade from lemons,” said Martin.

“We had to think quickly about how to come up with an online equivalent,” Martin explained. “Cuba doesn’t have the online infrastructure to allow us to work together remotely, but Brazil does. We contacted our partner university in Campo Grande, as well as two others in Rio and in Curitiba, to see if we could find enough opportunities for our students, and they all said, ‘Yes.’”

Prior to the start of the remote cross-cultural exchange, Martin had his class watch various recorded teaching sessions and write up their ‘noticings’ using the observation skills framework they had learned for in-person instruction. During the next five weeks, the Glendon students offered a Zoom-enabled five-session, one-and-a-half hour series of classes to around 20 graduate students in programs in applied linguistics for English Language Teaching at the two universities in Rio and Curitiba.

All students participated in the whole course, and each had a chance to host their own content – thematic modules whose content is both global and local. By the end of the experience, the students learned to exploit the full Zoom functionality: breakout sessions, shared screens and live chats. The professors added written homework (submitted via email) and pre-readings (along flipped class lines). They also kept up the weekly meetings as a class, reflecting on the week’s experience and rehearsing the class for the next week, usually with a Brazilian professor pitching in with comments.

Teaching the Campo Grande students involved an additional three-week assignment via Skype and two separate classes: one of medical students, one of future English teachers in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies. In working with these classes, the Glendon students followed the original in-country format: a week of classroom observation, a week of co-teaching with a local teacher and a week of teaching one’s own material.

“It was a heavy load for the students, because they had to reflect on one lesson and prepare for teaching the next,” Martin said.

Rachel Whittle, a recent Glendon graduate, was one of the student instructors. Whittle, who has an honours BA in linguistics and language studies, hopes to teach in Japan as soon as travel is safer.

“The professors encouraged us to create a lesson plan with a general theme and a global context,” Whittle said. “Mine focused on language for educational technology, something I’d originally planned to teach live, but I taught it via Zoom instead. It was challenging moving online, but delivering it that way turned out better.”

An additional challenge came from the nature of one of the Campo Grande classes: it was a course for Brazilian medical students who were learning English in order to read medical journals and research papers. It required the Glendon students to use specialized vocabulary – and so the students had a deep-end experience in teaching an English for Special Purposes (ESP) course.

Thoughtfully, the Brazilian professor chose articles about COVID-19, a topic that had relevance for both the teaching students and the medical students.

“We did a lesson plan, despite not knowing about medicine or studying ESP,” said Whittle. “It worked out really great. They were learning a new discipline – English – and we were able to teach them vocabulary for the pandemic. That was something that connected us.

“It was an experience that no one can ever take away from us, it was so unique,” she added.

Martin said it was an experience borne from the unusual circumstances of the pandemic. While the students were unable to travel, they gained valuable experience and knowledge that wouldn’t have been part of an in-person opportunity.

“Both of us professors felt it was a very positive experience overall and we were very proud of our students,” he said. “It wasn’t inferior to an in-person experience, and it was granted equivalent status by our associate principal, so the students earned their three credits for the course.

“There were also some good friendships struck up, similar to what would have happened if we’d been there. There was enough free time during the question and answer portion of each class to get to know each other.”

Martin is pleased that he and Morgan were able to find a solution for their students, pandemic notwithstanding, and sees how he might incorporate some of the positive outcomes in the future.

“This opened more doors for us in Brazil, and I think we’ll keep in touch with all three universities now, perhaps with a Globally Networked Learning project,” he said. “In addition, I will now include online teaching as part of our Glendon language-teaching methodology course – it’s going to be a useful skill for teachers in this century.”

By Elaine Smith, special contributing writer to Innovatus

President’s University-Wide Teaching Award recipients exemplify excellence

September 13, 2020

the word teach spelled out in scrabble blocks

Four exceptional York University faculty members who have demonstrated enthusiasm and innovative approaches to teaching have been named the recipients of the President’s University-Wide Teaching Awards (PUWTA).

This year’s recipients are: Professor Paula Wilson in the Department of Biology in the Faculty of Science; Michael Boni, an assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science in the Faculty of Health; Lee Frew, a contract faculty member in the Department of English at Glendon College; and Roger Carrick, a teaching assistant in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Lassonde School of Engineering.

York University President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton

“As we moved to online and remote formats in the face of the pandemic, York’s instructors have remained innovative and resilient. They have continued to provide high-impact and transformative learning experiences, connected to the future needs of the workforce and focused on finding solutions to the urgent challenges facing our society,” said President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton. “On behalf of all of us at the University, I want to congratulate this year’s recipients of the University-Wide Teaching Awards and thank them for their unwavering commitment to student success.”

The awards are adjudicated by the Senate Committee on Awards with the goal of providing recognition for excellence in teaching, encouraging its pursuit, publicizing such excellence and promoting informed discussion of teaching and its improvement. The awards demonstrate the value York University attaches to teaching.

Recipients of the awards receive $3,000, have their names engraved on the University-Wide Teaching Award plaques in Vari Hall and are recognized at convocation ceremonies.

President’s University-Wide Teaching Award recipients

Professor Paula Wilson of the Faculty of Science is the recipient in the full-time tenured faculty with 10 or more years of full-time teaching experience category. Wilson is a member of the molecular and cellular biology (MCB) group at York University. The group is comprised of researchers utilizing forefront biochemical and molecular techniques to probe the structure and function of various biomolecules and cell biological processes. Topics as diverse as plant and human viruses, cancer, circadian rhythms, structure of signaling molecules and cellular differentiation are studied by group members.

Wilson’s nominators highlighted her dedication and deep commitment to engaging biology students in the classroom by way of clear learning outcomes and active learning strategies. Wilson was also praised by her nominators for her support of teaching and learning broadly in the Department of Biology and the Faculty of Science. Her contributions to curricular innovation, including the creation of a biomedical science stream and the development of resources to assist first-year students with the transition to university.

Faculty of Heath assistant professor Michael Boni received the award in the full-time faculty with less than 10 years teaching experience category. Boni is a highly experienced certified athletic therapist and physiotherapist with a passion for guiding people towards success. He graduated from York University with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and health science and a certificate in athletic therapy and a completed his post-professional doctor of science degree in the field of physical therapy. His clinical treatment expertise is in the field of manual therapy focusing on neck, shoulder and back pain. Most of his time is focused on educating and mentoring athletic therapists, physiotherapists and kinesiology students. He is an examiner and chief instructor within the post-graduate diploma program of Advanced Manual and Manipulative Physiotherapy of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association. His research explores the effect of soft tissue mobilization (non-painful friction massage) on muscle function. Boni has also been collaborating on various pedagogical research projects.

Boni’s nominators praised his work to create a rich learning environment for students using various technologies and hands-on learning opportunities. In addition, they lauded his contributions to curricular innovation particularly through Boni’s leadership on the restructuring of the certificate in athletic therapy has strengthened student learning and the development of critical thinking skills.

As the recipient of the PUWTA in the contract faculty category, Lee Frew, a faculty member in the Department of English at Glendon College, specializes in Canadian literature, postcolonial literatures and ecocriticism. Frew earned his doctorate from York University in 2011.

His nominators praised his proficiency in creating an academically rigorous learning environment that is also a safe and inclusive space for students to express and hear a wide range of perspectives. In addition, they spoke highly of his contributions to the Department of English, through the design of new courses. His nominators commended Frew for his role in benefiting the Glendon Campus community through his role as Chair of committee charged with investigating the introduction of a common first-year curriculum across the Faculty, and his work to improve the student experience at York and promote excellence in teaching and learning.

Roger Carrick, a teaching assistant in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Lassonde School of Engineering, is the recipient of the PUWTA in the Teaching Assistant category. The award honours teaching assistants who have significantly enhanced the quality of learning for York students. Carrick’s nominators spoke of his leadership as a teaching assistant through his contributions to the development of course material, such as lab manuals, tutorials and assignments and his delivery of several lectures independently. They spoke with high regard of his continued and focused support of students and his deep commitment to curricular development that enhances the student experience at the Lassonde School of Engineering.

Carrick is the designer-in-residence in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the Lassonde School of Engineering. He holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Waterloo. Carrick has spent the last three years focusing on enhancing the training of engineers through student-centered learning, mentorship and outreach programs. He is active in the engineering education community, working primarily on enhancing pedagogical theory and promoting design thinking.

To learn more about the President’s University-Wide Teaching Awards criteria and past recipients, visit https://secretariat.info.yorku.ca/senate/awards-committee/presidents-university-wide-teaching-awards/.

Welcome to YFile’s New Faces Feature Issue, part one

September 10, 2020

Welcome to YFile’s New Faces Feature Issue 2020, part one. In this special issue, YFile introduces new faculty members joining the York University community and highlights those with new appointments.

The New Faces Feature Issue 2020 will run in two parts: part one on Friday, Sept. 11 and part two on Friday, Sept. 25.

In this issue, YFile welcomes new faculty members in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design; the Faculty of Education; Glendon Campus; and the Faculty of Health.

AMPD brings 10 new faculty members on board

Three professors join the Faculty of Education

Glendon introduces four new faculty members this fall

Faculty of Health welcomes seven new faculty members

The Sept. 25 issue will include the Lassonde School of Engineering; the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies; Osgoode Hall Law School; the Schulich School of Business; and the Faculty of Science.

Note: There are no updates in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.

New Faces was conceived and edited by Ashley Goodfellow Craig, YFile deputy editor, Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor and Aaron Manton, communications officer

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