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McLaughlin College celebrates first-year students with inaugural Freshers Concert

Performers and some of the students who attended the concert

McLaughlin College celebrated its first-year students with inaugural Freshers Concert on Feb. 6. “Fresher” is a British term for a first-year student and the Fresher’s Concert is one of several new extracurricular initiatives at McLaughlin College created to enhance and to enrich the first-year student experience and college life for all students.

The concert was planned and organized by a team of McLaughlin’s first-year students who came together to form the McLaughlin College Music Society, which is dedicated to supporting, organizing, and promoting musical activities for the benefit and pleasure of all members of the McLaughlin community.

Czarina Puri performs as part of the Freshers Concert

The Freshers Concert program featured two talented first-year students at McLaughlin College: Czarina Puri, who is currently a sociology major; and Otiona Oputu, a criminology major. Puri played the piano and performed two numbers: Billy Joel’s “Vienna” and “Man in a Movie” by the band DAY6. While Oputu sang two songs: “Never Enough,” from the movie The Greatest Showman, and “Rise Up,” by Andra Day.

“Both performers gave marvellous performances that left the audience wanting even more. It was an auspicious start to the Freshers Concert that will be held as an annual college event,” said McLaughlin College Head, James Simeon, who noted the concert provided an opportunity for first-year students to showcase their musical talents and abilities beyond their respective fields of study.

Otiona Oputu performs at the Freshers Concert

“McLaughlin College has a remarkable musical foundation and history,” said Simeon. “Our very first Master, as he was then called, of McLaughlin College, George Tatham, was not only a distinguished geographer and academic administrator, by profession, but, also a highly accomplished pianist.

“During his day, Master Tatham invited the Department of Music to be housed in McLaughlin College and provided a number of practice music rooms, each equipped with its own piano, for students to play their instruments and to practice their music,” said Simeon.

Music is part of the DNA of McLaughlin College, said Simeon, noting that music goes back to the 1968 founding of the college at York University. Over time, McLaughlin College has attracted celebrated Canadian jazz pianist, Oscar Peterson, a former Chancellor of York University, and Canadian jazz vibraphone player, Peter Appleyard, among many others.

“The time has come to revive and to continue our college’s exceptional musical heritage,” said Simeon. “This is why McLaughlin College has supported the establishment the McLaughlin College Music Society, that not only planned and organized the Freshers Concert but is supporting other musical activities at our College. In addition, we are also supporting our McLaughlin College Community Choir (MCCC). They have already given three public performances and are looking to hold two more performances before the end of the winter term.”

All students at McLaughlin College and York University are welcome to participate in any of these new initiatives, said Simeon. For those who are interested in getting involved with the music society or community choir, no auditions or any previous musical experience is required.

To learn more, visit the McLaughlin College website.

Aquatic Research Group Seminar to explore the factors shaping urban ecosystem services

ARG Feb 24 FEATURED
Carly Ziter
Carly Ziter

Editor’s note: Today, the room number for this event was changed to 140 HNES Building.

The next event in the 2019-20 Aquatic Research Group (ARG) Seminar Series features Concordia University Assistant Professor Carly Ziter presenting a talk titled “Thinking beyond the park: landscape structure, land-use history and biodiversity shape urban ecosystem services.” It takes place on Monday, Feb. 24, at 12:30 p.m. in room 140 HNES Building, Keele Campus. The seminar will be followed by a free lunch at 1:30 p.m. All members of the York community are welcome to attend.

The pan-Faculty ARG Seminar Series, organized by biology Professor Sapna Sharma in York University’s Faculty of Science, brings top ecologists from across the province to York to talk about their research in aquatic ecology and what’s causing stress in our waterways.

Professor Ziter grew up in southern Ontario, in a house surrounded by fields (usually corn, sometimes soy), punctuated by small woodlots. In her mind, this mix of farmland, housing and forest wasn’t an “ecosystem,” it was just where she walked the dog. Now, she realizes that these human-dominated landscapes are hard at work providing a multitude of ecosystem services we rely on, and she’s fascinated by how we can manage these areas better. When she’s not busy researching the intersection of landscape structure, biodiversity and ecosystem services, she can be found enjoying the great outdoors, knitting or at the pottery studio.

​Ziter has a PhD (2018) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MSc (2013) from McGill University and a BSc (2011) from the University of Guelph.

Here’s a look at the rest of the ARG Seminar Series lineup:

March 11: Professor Karen Kidd (McMaster University), “Local through global influences of human activities on mercury in aquatic ecosystems.”

The ARG includes researchers who focus on aquatic science from the Faculties of Science, Engineering, Environmental Studies, and Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. The seminar series is designed to engage this multidisciplinary scientific community at all levels, including graduate and undergraduate students, both at York University and in the wider aquatic science community.

Uzma Jalaluddin talks about the first Muslim romance published in Canada

books literacy
A stack of books

On Jan. 28, Uzma Jalaluddin came to the Canadian Writers in Person reading series at York University to talk about her novel Ayesha at Last.

Uzma Jalauddin at a recent signing of her book Ayesha at Last. Image: Wikipedia

Jalaluddin told the audience that one of the reasons she wrote Ayesha at Last, a book that is “unapologetically Muslim,” is that she wanted to tell a different Muslim story about love and community. “When you have few stories told about marginalized communities, you see the same story again and again. You don’t have diversity,” she said.

Ayesha at Last, a Muslim romantic comedy, tells a different story. It is “the first romance about Muslims published in Canada,” the writer says. In it, Jalaluddin deconstructs the idea of what Muslim masculinity looks like.

When a friend pointed out to her that she was re-writing Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Jalaluddin was at first a bit surprised, but then she decided to lean into it, as “not a lot of people know about Muslims, but a lot of people know the tropes of Pride and Prejudice.” This ended up making the book appeal to a wider range of people.

Carrianne Leung is coming to the Canadian Writers in Person reading series on Feb. 11, to talk about her book That Time I Loved You.

Readings are free and open to any member of the public.

For more information, contact Professor Leslie Sanders at leslie@yorku.ca or Professor Gail Vanstone at gailv@yorku.ca. All readings are held Tuesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. in room 206, Accolade West Building, Keele Campus.

China Day celebrations feature guest lecture and a demonstration of Yue opera

China Day celebrations included a demonstration of Xue opera

York University’s Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics (DLL) celebrated China Day on Jan. 28. The event was part of the World Cultures Celebrations initiative created to promote intercultural understanding and leadership.

Professor Carole H. F. Hoyan from The Chinese University of Hong Kong gave a public lecture, titled “On Lu Xun’s Reception of Eroshenko,” to kick off the event. The lecture presented the Chinese writer Lu Xun’s (1881- 1936) literary interaction with the Russian writer Vasili Eroshenko (1890-1952), focusing on the two writers’ co-creation of each other’s literary image in their participation in a globalized discourse. This lecture was followed by an animated dialogue between Hoyan and York University students and professors, with the discussion focused on cultural translation and mediation.

Also invited to take part in the celebration was Rui Shen, head of the Toronto Fanghua Yue Opera (越劇) and chair of the Chinese Opera Canada Center Inc.,to give a presentation and a performance on Yue opera. Shen not only explained the history of Yue opera, there was also demonstrated the beauty of the art form with her own vocal performance. York University students had an opportunity to dress in the traditional costumes and they enthusiastically took part in the demonstration led by Shen, who taught them some basic performing skills.

China Day celebrations at York University featured a demonstration of Xue opera by Rui Shen, head of the Toronto Fanghua Yue Opera and chair of the Chines Opera Center Inc.

“This annual China Day provided experiential education experience to students by bringing a scholar from Hong Kong and a Yue opera performer from the local community to engage them in intellectual and culture exchanges at York University. Students reflected on their learning of Chinese-Russian cultural translation and aesthetical practice of Yue opera,” said Professor Jessica Tsui-yan Li, coordinator of the Chinese Program. “The Chinese Section will continue to prepare York University students to acquire intercultural knowledge and communication skills in order to become global leaders in striving for making our world a better place for everyone to live.”

The China Day event was sponsored by the Chinese Section, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, the York Centre for Asian Research and Founders College.

Two servings of McLaughlin College Lunch Talks on the menu for February

McLaughlin College invites the York University community to come and listen to interesting speakers as they share their knowledge on a variety of topics, and enjoy a free lunch during the popular Lunch Talks Series. The long-running series continues into February with two events on the calendar.

Students who attend six or more Lunch Talks throughout the year will receive a Certificate of Participation, while those who attend 10 or more will receive a Certificate of Honour.

The talks take place in the Senior Common Room, 140 McLaughlin College, Keele Campus.

Feb. 12 – The Independence of the Senate: Principle, Policy, and Politics Presented by Marc Gold

Presented by Marc Gold, government representative in the senate, this talk examines how the Liberal party electoral platform of 2015 pledged to end the partisan nature of the Senate by creating “a new, non-partisan, merit-based process to advise the Prime Minister on Senate appointments.”

Marc Gold

The commitment of the government was repeated in the 2019 electoral platform and was reflected in the mandate letters of the president of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and the leader of the government in the House of Commons. Changes to the appointment process were introduced in the last parliament, and more than 50 new senators have been appointed since then. The senate now comprises a majority of senators who are not members of a political party caucus.

The talk will evaluate the changes that this has brought to the work of the senate, with special attention to the concepts of independence and partisanship as they relate to the constitutional role of the senate. It will conclude by offering some thoughts on the steps that still need to be taken.

Gold was appointed to the senate in November 2016 by Prime Minister Trudeau, and in January 2020 was appointed as the government representative in the senate. He previously served as liaison of the Independent Senators Group during the 42nd parliament. A full-time law professor at Osgoode Hall Law School from 1979-91, and an adjunct professor of Law at McGill University since 2003, Gold has published and taught in the areas of constitutional law, legal theory and the Charter of Rights. With extensive experience in the business world, he is an accredited mediator and has held many leadership roles in the not-for-profit sector.

The event takes place from 12 to 1:30 p.m.

Feb. 27 – The Third Anniversary of the Trump Administration

The third year of the Trump administration recently ended. America’s economy is booming, a new trade deal is in place between the United States, Mexico and Canada, the first phase of a trade deal with China has been negotiated, the American military has been rebuilt, and many other gains have been realized – but the president faces two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of congress. How are we to make sense of this?

This event will featured panelists:

  • Robert Drummond, professor emeritus, Department of Politics and School of Public Policy and Administration, York University
  • Ian Greene, professor emeritus, School of Public Policy and Administration, York University
  • David Leyton-Brown, professor emeritus, Department of Politics, York University
  • Stephen Newman, associate professor, Department of Political Science, York University
  • Benjamin Lowinsky, Faculty emeritus, cross appointed between the Department of Social Science and the Writing Department, teaches history, social and political thought and writing at York University

The moderator for this event is Philip MacEwen, who teaches in the Departments of Philosophy and Humanities and is coordinator of the York Collegium for Practical Ethics.

This event runs from 12 to 2 p.m.

Aquatic Research Group Seminar looks at the impacts of road salt inputs on GTA streams

Road salt
Claire Oswald
Claire Oswald

The next event in the 2019-20 Aquatic Research Group (ARG) Seminar Series features Ryerson University Professor Claire Oswald presenting a talk titled “Impacts of road salt inputs on GTA streams.” It takes place on Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 12:30 p.m. in 140 Health, Nursing & Environmental Studies Building (HNES). The seminar will be followed by a free lunch at 1:30 p.m. All members of the York community are welcome to attend.

The pan-Faculty ARG Seminar Series, organized by biology Professor Sapna Sharma in York University’s Faculty of Science, brings top ecologists from across the province to York to talk about their research in aquatic ecology and what’s causing stress in our waterways.

Professor Oswald, of Ryerson’s Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, is a broadly-trained physical geographer with research interests in catchment hydrology, biogeochemistry, pollutant fate and transport, and dissolved organic matter quantity and quality. These interests span both natural and human-dominated landscapes, from the boreal forests of northwestern Ontario to constructed wetlands in the Alberta oil sands region to urban and urbanizing watersheds in south-central Ontario.

She holds a PhD (2011) in physical geography from the University of Toronto, an MSc (2002) in physical geography from McMaster University and a BSc (1999) in physics from McMaster University.

Here’s a look at the rest of the ARG Seminar Series lineup:

Feb. 24: Assistant Professor Carly Ziter (Concordia University), “Thinking beyond the park: landscape structure, land-use history and biodiversity shape urban ecosystem services”

March 11: Professor Karen Kidd (McMaster University), “Local through global influences of human activities on mercury in aquatic ecosystems”

Each seminar will start at 12:30 p.m., followed by a free lunch at 1:30 p.m. The seminars will all take place in HNES 140 except for the talk on Feb. 24, which will be in 306 Lumbers Building.

The ARG includes researchers who focus on aquatic science from the Faculties of Science, Engineering, Environmental Studies, and Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. The seminar series is designed to engage this multidisciplinary scientific community at all levels, including graduate and undergraduate students, both at York University and in the wider aquatic science community.

Carrianne Leung to read from second novel for Canadian Writers in Person lecture, Feb. 11

Books

That Time I Loved You coverYork University’s Canadian Writers in Person Lecture Series will feature author Carrianne Leung on Feb. 11, reading from her second novel, That Time I Loved You.

The series features 11 authors who will present their work, answer questions and sign books. Canadian Writers in Person is a for-credit course for students. It is also a free-admission event for members of the public. All readings take place at 7 p.m. on select Tuesday evenings in 206 Accolade West Building, Keele Campus.

Leung is a fiction writer and educator. She holds a PhD in sociology and equity studies from the University of Toronto. Her debut novel, The Wondrous Woo, was shortlisted for a 2014 Toronto Book Award.

In That Time I Loved You, winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, Leung depicts the fine line where childhood meets the realities of adult life, and examines how difficult it is to be true to ourselves at any age.

The suburbs of the 1970s promised to be heaven on earth – new houses, new status, happiness guaranteed. But in a Scarborough, Ont., subdivision populated by newcomers from all over the world, a series of sudden catastrophic events reveals that not everyone’s dreams come true. Moving from house to house, Leung explores the inner lives behind the tidy front gardens and picture-perfect windows, always returning to June, an irrepressible adolescent Chinese-Canadian coming of age in this shifting world.

Other presentations scheduled in this series are:

March 3: E. Martin Nolan, Still Point, Invisible Publishing

March 17: David Bezmozgis, Immigrant City, HarperCollins

Canadian Writers in Person is a course offered out of the Culture & Expression program in the Department of Humanities in York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. For more information on the series, visit yorku.ca/laps/canwrite, call 416-736-5158, or email Professor Gail Vanstone at gailv@yorku.ca or Professor Leslie Sanders at leslie@yorku.ca.

Inclusion Day 2020 agenda promises thoughtful discussions, insightful opinions and more

Tuesday, Feb. 4 is Inclusion Day 2020.

A free, annual event, Inclusion Day is hosted by the Centre for Human Rights, Equity & Inclusion, the Law Commission of Ontario, RISE, Enable York and SexGen York. A light lunch will be served as part of the day’s proceedings. Students, faculty and staff who are interested in attending Inclusion Day events should submit their RSVP by clicking here.

Organizers have planned a full agenda of panels, information sessions and networking opportunities. The morning portion of Inclusion Day features a series of fascinating conversations exploring critical questions relating to the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on human rights. These thought-provoking dialogues will be presented in a dynamic three-segment session and will address the following topics: What is AI? How is AI impacting York? What are the solutions to challenging outcomes? What can York do to respond?

This session will be facilitated by Ryan Fritsch, counsel with the Law Commission of Ontario, who will unpack these questions in conversation with AI thought-leaders Trevor Farrow(Osgoode Hall Law School), Ruth Urner (Lassonde School of Engineering), Insiya Essajee (Ontario Human Rights Commission) and Regina Rini (Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies), who will be sharing their perspectives and responding to audience questions and comments.

In the afternoon session, why not participate in a dialogue with RISE, Enable York and SexGen—York’s own race & inclusion, accessibility and sexuality-gender affairs committees—as they explore belonging through various initiatives.

Inclusion Day presents an opportunity for York University community members to engage in a conversation with committee members, learn more about their work and provide direct feedback on some of their progress.

RISE – An Introduction to RISE and Approaches to Belonging
Explore the history of this ground-breaking committee and learn more about their initiatives for the future, including the York Student Identity Census project and how it can support a sense of belonging among racialized and Indigenous students.

Enable – Launch of the Access Website and Community Engagement/Feedback Forum
Do you have a question about access, policies and spaces that support belonging at York? Do you have some ideas and want to have you voice heard? Give live feedback to members of Enable, who will be workshopping an access-oriented online interface that they have been developing for over a year.

SexGen –The Hows and Whys of They: Respecting Trans Pronouns
Do you have questions about how to use pronouns? Do you want to learn more about the history of pronouns and how that history is impacting appropriate approaches now? Do you need an opportunity to practice in real time and learn some useful skills you can employ day to day? Join the conversation and learn together!

To register, visit http://bit.ly/37J7UoO.

For more information about Inclusion Day, visit https://rights.info.yorku.ca/event/inclusion-day-2020/.

Prof. Caroline Shenaz Hossein to lead federal government training on the social economy for racialized Canadians

Two Black women talk together

For the first time, federal policymakers in the Ministry of Employment and Social Services will take part in a training session led by York University Professor Caroline Shenaz Hossein to learn how to use Black political epistemologies so that funding can better reach Black and racialized women in Canada.

Caroline Hossein
Caroline Shenaz Hossein

Hossein, a professor of business and society in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), will train roughly 50 policymakers on Feb. 6 together with community leaders Indu Krishnamurthy of Microcrédit Montreal and Ginelle Skerritt of Warden Woods Community Centre.

The timing of the training session, titled “The Role of the Social Economy for Black and Racialized Canadians,” is significant with February marking Black History Month.

The three women are members of the newly launched Diverse Solidarity Economies (DiSE) Collective, which Hossein founded in 2018 and is a group of anti-racist feminists writing on and/or working on economic development with an eye on cooperatives and informal collectives.

Hossein says the group of 25 women in DiSE have “purposefully come together to combat erasure in the society and economy.”

For the Feb. 6 session, Hossein and her colleagues will work to educate government policyworkers on gaps in funding for racialized groups.

Buzzwords like “innovation” and “social enterprise” continue to alienate racialized people who are bypassed for resources, she says, and those same well-connected groups continue to access the goods on behalf on minority communities.

During the training session, Hossein will focus her training on knowledge, methodolgies and theories around the Black social economy to increase awareness among policymakers when it comes to racial capitalism. Training presentations will also be conducted by Krishnamurthy, who holds an MBA and has two decades of financial development experience, and Skerritt, who has a BA and more than 20 years working in economic development program in low income communities in Toronto.

Hossein hopes that by going directly to policymakers to discuss the $800 million earmarked for social finance and innovation, DiSE will make a difference in the lives of Black and racialized women by emphasizing their exclusion in business and society and championing for these women to have more access to financial goods for community development.

“These strong Black feminist influences in community development will show that solidarity, lived experience and politicizing the social economy is the way for economic change to occur,” said Hossein, adding that the goal is highlight that resource allocations from the $800M cannot exclude the needs of racialized and diaspora Canadians – especially women.

“That is something that is happening far too often, where resources in the field of innovation is not reaching creative businesses of non-white people and the Black women leading activist organizations – and this needs to stop,” said Hossein. “We have the literature, we have the skilled expertise from within the community, and now we need to train and to speak to our policymakers.”

About the members of the DiSE Collective

Caroline Shenaz Hossein is an associate professor of business and society in the Department of Social Science, York University. She is the founder and director of the Diverse Solidarity Economies (DiSE Collective), made up of non-white racialized women scholars and activists committed to decolonizing business in society. She is the author and editor of several publications, including The Black Social Economy in the Americas: Exploring Diverse Community-Based Alternative Markets (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). Hossein has also received several awards and recognitions, including the 2019 IAFEE and 2018 Du Bois Book awards and the 2018 Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry for Research Innovation and Science for the project titled “Social Innovations among the Diaspora.”

Indu Krishnamurthy

Indu Krishnamurthy is the executive director at Microcrédit Montréal where social impact investments are leveraged to finance entrepreneurship and professional projects, to build a more inclusive and prosperous society. An Executive MBA McGill-HEC Montréal graduate, her work in finance, banking and the non-profit sector has given her a solid experience in community economic development, strategic planning, project management, relationship building and partner engagement strategies. She currently sits on the board of PME-MTL Centre Ville, the investment committee of Centraide du Grand Montréal and is on the advisory committee of the Community Innovation’s Fund of the Quebec Community Groups Network.

Ginelle Skerritt

Ginelle Skerritt is the executive director of Warden Woods Community Centre (WWCC) and she has led community development and social purpose business development initiatives, promoting a participatory and asset-based service delivery model for the agency. She has worked in the non-profit sector for more than 25 years, advancing from front line community development work with youth, volunteers and families to take on leadership roles in the administration of some of Toronto’s best-known and well-respected organizations, including United Way of Greater Toronto and UNICEF Canada. She is a member of the Board of the Toronto Neighbourhood Centres, Scarborough Executive Director’s Network, and most recently, the United Way and Bank of Montreal-led Inclusive Local Economies table, Skerritt contributes to the strategic leadership of the non-profit sector in Toronto.

Story by Ashley Goodfellow Craig, YFile deputy editor

Critical skills for school, life and great jobs to highlight ‘Common Read’ workshop

York University Professor Thomas Klassen will continue his popular “Common Read” series of workshops for first-year McLaughlin College students on Feb. 4 beginning at noon in the 140 McLaughlin College Senior Common Room. This will be the fourth such workshop being offered to the college’s first-year students this academic year and will focus primarily on “Practical Problem-Solving and Critical Skills.”

Thomas Klassen
Thomas Klassen

Studies show that first-year students are challenged, to varying degrees, in their transition to the rigors of university. The adjustment from high school or the labour force to higher education can be strenuous and grueling. It’s a new and unfamiliar learning environment for all first-year students, and perhaps more so for international students, who must develop a  number of new skills and abilities to meet the demands and expectations of their professors. Recent studies have shown that regardless of how well students may have performed in high school, they may struggle in their university studies because of a lack of essential academic skill sets.

With this in mind, prior to beginning their classes, all first-year McLaughlin students were asked to read Klassen’s highly acclaimed book with co-author and York University Professor John A. Dwyer, How to Succeed at University (And Get A Great Job!): Mastering the Critical Skills you Need for School, Work, and Life, that is available as a free download.

How to Succeed at University (And Get A Great Job!): Mastering the Critical Skills you Need for School, Work, and Life
How to Succeed at University (And Get A Great Job!): Mastering the Critical Skills you Need for School, Work, and Life

According to Klassen, first-year students are ready and eager to learn in order to successfully complete their degree programs and graduate, but they often need the guidance, encouragement, reinforcement and moral support to channel their energies and efforts appropriately. “I am thrilled to see how our first-year students make significant strides in their academic skill sets when they apply themselves with some personal guidance and support on the part of all of the faculty and staff at York University,” Klassen said. “This is why I am so delighted to be offering this “Common Read” series. It is a highly rewarding and engaging experience, and the students’ enthusiasm and eagerness to learn is infectious and carries over into my own research and teaching.”

“First-year students are on a very steep learning curve when they arrive at our College at York University,” McLaughlin College Head James C. Simeon points out. “They must learn their way around the campus, make new friends, forge constructive learning partnerships and communities with their class members, and acquire new research, analytical, writing and presentation skills in order to do well in their courses. One of our primary roles in the colleges and within the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies is to help ensure that first-year students make a smooth transition to their university studies by assisting them in acquiring the critical skill sets that will allow them to succeed.”

The “Common Read” series is intended to enhance students’ all-important first-year experience at the college and York University. All members of the University community are welcome to attend the workshops. A calendar of upcoming college events can be found on the McLaughlin College website.