Book launch, exhibition opening celebrates work of Prof. Amar Wahab
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A new book by Amar Wahab, associate professor of gender and sexuality in the School of Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies at York University, will be celebrated at a book launch and accompanying exhibition opening on Oct. 24.
The event will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Canadian Language Museum in the Glendon Gallery on York’s Glendon Campus. Remarks by Wahab, the author and artist, will begin at 6:30 p.m.
Amar Wahab
Despite an abundance of research on enslaved labour systems, there is an alarming paucity of research on indentured labour systems in the colonial Caribbean.
The exhibition Coolie Hauntings aims to address this resonating silence. It presents images and installations featured in the recently published monograph Disciplining Coolies: An Archival Footprint of Trinidad 1846 (Peter Lang Publishers, 2019).
The work critically investigates the violence of the British indentureship scheme – an experiment with contracted and trafficked Indian migrant labour in the immediate aftermath of the abolition of slavery – in the 19th-century colonial Caribbean. It critically and creatively engages with the transcripts of a British inquiry (in 1846, the very first year of the labour scheme) into the torture, misery and death of Indian indentured labourers, or “coolies,” as they were referred to in official colonial discourse.
The exhibition reflects on the question: How do we creatively reimagine the productive presences and voices of ghosts in the coolie archive? It offers a creative “archival ethnography” to think about questions around coolie transience (as “bonded migrant”) and the invisibility/visibility of absented presences in the official record by offering a visual language of the dead.
The exhibit appears the embodied coolie as a ghostly figure who hovers over and under history from a certain disruptive positionality and therefore performs a strategic fetishism of (post)colonial power relations. In doing so, it contemplates the “ghost world” of indentureship as a counter-archive of labour migration that haunts official knowledge through a language of haunting.
The event is sponsored by the Canadian Language Museum, the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Events Fund, the Office of the Vie-President Research & Innovation, the Centre for Feminist Research, and the School of Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies.
Geography prof’s articles most cited and most read in world’s leading science and technology studies journal
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Kean Birch
It’s a rare achievement to have the most cited or the most read article in an academic journal; having both at the same time with different papers is an almost unheard-of achievement in a discipline.
But that’s exactly what York University Professor Kean Birch has achieved. Birch is an associate professor in the Department of Geography and the current graduate program director of the Graduate Program in Science & Technology Studies (STS). In August, two of his papers were the most cited and the most read articles in the world’s leading science and technology studies journal, Science, Technology, & Human Values. Both papers are open access.
The most cited paper is a 2017 article titled “Rethinking Value in the Bio-economy: Finance, Assetization, and the Management of Value.” It draws on research funded by the York University Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies’ Minor Research Grant and outlines the new concept of “assetization” for understanding how things like scientific knowledge are transformed into capitalizable assets. Its groundbreaking nature is evident in the way its arguments have been taken up and cited across a range of social science disciplines, and from the fact that it has been downloaded more than 5,000 times to date.
In following up on this achievement, Birch and his collaborator Fabian Muniesa, a senior researcher at the École des Mines de Paris in France, have a new edited book coming out from MIT Press next year called Turning Things into Assets in which contributors analyze how knowledge, nature, infrastructure and social relations are all assetized. For example, York University Associate Professor James Williams from the Department of Social Science has a chapter in the book on social impact bonds.
The most read paper is a 2019 article titled “Technoscience Rent: Toward a Theory of Rentiership for Technoscientific Capitalism,” which has already been downloaded nearly 2,000 times since being published online in February of this year. It builds on the earlier 2017 paper by outlining a theory of “rentiership” for understanding the resurgence of monopolies and rent-seeking in contemporary, technoscientific capitalism. As such, it highlights the critical need to examine the relationship between technology and society.
The article represents the theoretical starting point for a $270,000 Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council Insight Grant that Birch received in 2018, and that he outlined in an invited lecture at a 2018 conference jointly organized by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and the Hamburg Institute for Social Research to mark the birthday of Karl Marx. See a video of his talk here.
Birch was pleasantly surprised by the two achievements. “I was keeping an eye on the downloads of my paper on rentiership to see how much interest there was in it, but I didn’t expect it to end up as the most read article in the journal,” he said. “It just shows how much interest there is in the relationship between technology and society.”
Prof. Hassan Qudrat-Ullah publishes book on testing effectiveness of decision-aiding technologies
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A new book on improving human decision making and performance in complex, dynamic tasks is the result of research conducted by York University Professor Hassan Qudrat-Ullah.
Qudrat-Ullah, who teaches in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies’ School of Administrative Studies, demonstrates the utility of laboratory-based experimental methods in dealing with dynamic tasks in his book Improving Human Performance in Dynamic Tasks.
The book features a comprehensive evaluation model for testing the effectiveness of decision-aiding technologies and provides evidence as to the cost-benefit approaches to decision making, proving more effort is needed to improve human performance in dynamic tasks.
The defining characteristics of a dynamic decision task are that there are a number of decisions required, that decisions are interdependent, and that the environment in which the decision is made is transient and feedback is pervasive. Examples of dynamic tasks include the sustainable management of renewable resources and how businesses might allocate resources for research and development projects.
Improving human performance in complex, dynamic tasks has always been at the forefront of both research and practice of organizational decision making, and simulation-based education and training is a multibillion-dollar industry. The purpose of this book, says Qudrat-Ullah, is to provide the reader with knowledge about the design, development, validation and application of an innovative, system dynamics-based interactive learning environment that includes a systematic debriefing.
A laboratory experiment is reported in which the participants managed a dynamic task by playing the roles of fishing fleet managers. A comprehensive model consisting of the following five evaluation criteria is developed and used: task performance, decision strategy, decision time, structural knowledge and heuristics knowledge.
The key insights gleaned from the empirical data include the following:
The process-oriented debriefing improves subjects’ performance better than the outcome-oriented debriefing.
Contrary to the cost-benefit approach to decision making, more systematic effort is needed to perform better in dynamic tasks.
In the quest for innovative solutions for the education and training of people in dynamic tasks, the book outlines many challenges that lie ahead. Specifically, as we move towards displacing the traditional thinking that people perform poorly in dynamic tasks, founded in dominant dynamic decision-making literature, to one where plural logics of “systematic debriefing-based training with SDILEs” coexist under conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity, the need for systematic and integrated solutions for improving human performance in dynamic tasks becomes pronounced.
The goal was to focus attention on the whole virtuous cycle of expertise development: decision making to learning to decision making.
This book aims to stimulate a new way of thinking as a proclamation of a new era of resource constraints and a renewed focus on integrative solutions for people’s education and training in dynamic tasks.
New College invites York community to 10th anniversary celebration
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New College, one of York University’s nine colleges, will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Oct. 10. The special event will include an evening of music, appetizers, and a chance to mix and mingle with faculty, staff, students, alumni and campus partners.
New College was formed in 2009, when York University launched the new Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), combining the strengths of the former Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies and the Faculty of Arts.
The 10th anniversary event will include staff and faculty from past and present, including:
J.J. McMurtry, interim dean of LA&PS;
Lucy Fromowitz, vice-provost students;
Carol McAulay, vice-president finance and administration;
Gary Spraakman, former master of New College;
Marie-Helénè Budworth, former master of New College;
Christian Marjollet, former head of New College; and
Vanessa Pichelli, alumna.
As part of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, New College serves students in Administrative Studies (BCom), Information Technology (ITEC), Human Resource Management (HRM), and Disaster & Emergency Management (DEM).
This free event is open to all members of the York community. Light refreshments will be provided. To register, visit yorku.ca/newcol/forms/view.php?id=130.
The event takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. in the Harry Crowe Room, 109 Atkinson Building.
Professor and graduate student receive top award for their paper exploring investor behaviour and stock returns
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Recently, Andrei Semenov, an associate professor in the Department of Economics in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, and Oriana Rahman, an economics PhD student in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, received the Ben Graham Center for Value Investing Award from the Ivey Business School at Western University, London, Ont., for the best paper in areas related to asset pricing, market anomalies and behavioral finance presented at the 26th Annual Conference of the Multinational Finance Society in Jerusalem.
Andrei Semenov (left), an associate professor in the Department of Economics in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, with Oriana Rahman, an economics PhD student in the Faculty of Graduate Studies
The efficient-market theory claims that asset prices fully and correctly reflect all available information, so that any future price changes are determined entirely by future news. However, many recent papers provide empirical evidence that market frictions can make the returns on individual stocks predictable (based on the return history) to some degree.
In their paper titled “Investor behavior and stock returns,” Semenov and Rahman argue that, apart from the factors that can cause the predictability of stock returns, there might also be factors that have an opposite effect and weaken the influence of past returns on the current stock return.
They investigate the impact of the anomalies in the investor’s behavior on the investor’s ability to forecast the returns on individual stocks and provide empirical evidence that taking into consideration the irrationality of investors can outweigh the effect of market frictions, thereby making the returns on individual stocks unpredictable based on past returns.
‘Any idea we had about privacy is over,’ says author of new book on genealogy
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Genealogy is a white-hot topic, an endless data mining project and a very lucrative business. Three years ago, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Professor Julia Creet produced and directed Data Mining the Deceased, a TVO documentary that has now been seen by over half a million people and is streaming on demand in Canada, the U.K., the U.S., India and Australia.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada called it “one of the best projects we have funded.” Indeed, Creet’s research is well poised to inform policy-makers’ decisions around how to regulate this seemingly unregulatable area of technological development.
Today, the 2019 recipient of the President’s Research Impact Award is on the eve of releasing a book that’s a companion piece to the film. The Genealogical Sublime will be published by the University of Massachusetts Press in February 2020. Funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, it traces the histories of the largest, longest-running, most lucrative and most rapidly growing genealogical databases.
Creet sits down with Brainstorm to discuss her highly anticipated new book.
Julia Creet and the cover of her upcoming publication. Image reproduced with the permission of the University of Massachusetts Press
Q: Did one thing spark your interest in genealogy and databases?
The Encyclopedia of the Dead by Danilo Kiš. Source: Wikipedia
A: Yes. Yugoslav author Danilo Kiš wrote a book of short stories, Encyclopedia of the Dead, in the 1980s. One of the stories, a great gothic piece, provoked my interest. The story is about an encyclopedia that was penned by unknown, all-seeing historians and buried in a tomb beneath the Royal Library of Sweden in Oslo. It contained a book, or entry, for every ordinary person who had ever lived since 1789. The entirety of their lives had been captured, every detail. The story’s narrator finds herself in the tomb after her father’s death. Here, all of the books in the encyclopedia are chained to the stacks. The implication is that these histories, these lives, are the possession of the archives.
After Kiš published the book, he discovered, through a newspaper article, that his story was real. The Mormon Archives in Salt Lake City maintain such records. In the second edition of TheEncyclopedia of the Dead, Kiš notes this fact in a long footnote. This footnote drew me to the Mormon Archives, of which I was unaware at the time. This was motivation for both my documentary and The Genealogical Sublime.
“At York, we’re very good at recognizing talent that doesn’t fit into conventional disciplines.” – Julia Creet
Q: The book evolved from the documentary?
A: I had way more research than I could fit into the documentary. So, I had the material, and I developed the thesis: I wanted to write about the most complete, the largest genealogical databases in the world. They all aspire for an uncanny completeness, which is exactly what Kiš’s story was about. We all are, for some reason, yearning for a complete record of the dead.
Q: What were the case studies, and why were they selected?
A: I started with Confucius, whose descendants created the oldest recorded genealogy in the world – 184 generations. This genealogy is 2,500 years old.
The next one is the Mormon Database, the largest database in the world. The Mormons have already accumulated a quarter of the records. Their goal is to get all of the genealogical records in the world to trace the family of man back to Adam and Eve. It’s a mammoth project.
The next one is Ancestry.com because it’s the biggest. It was started by Mormon entrepreneurs. The Mormon Church backs the entire industry indirectly.
Confucius’s descendants created the oldest recorded genealogy in the world – 184 generations
Then I looked at the Iceland genealogical records because theirs is the most complete of any nation and also because it was funded by a pharmaceutical company, DeCode Genetics, that wanted to marry the genealogical records with genetic histories for the genetic marking of diseases. That’s the most concerning. The power of melding genealogic information with genetic information is that it gives you family histories and disease profiles.
DeCode paid for the database in Iceland to be constructed, creating new privacy issues. So, you see, every database has a different motivation behind it, and different problems and implications.
Q: What’s the state of regulation? What’s the danger of being unregulated?
A: There are very few regulations in Canada and the U.S. around the collection of, use of and access to this information. The industry is basically self regulating. Europe has much stricter regulations; France has banned consumer DNA tests.
There are very few regulations around this industry, says Creet
The dangers? All of the information is being sold to the pharmaceutical industry. Ancestry.com is selling it to Google-owned Calico, an American biotech company. 23andMe is pretty much Google-owned. There’s also MyHeritage and Helix. So, there are four or five big databases, none of them regulated, with varying degrees of privacy.
Of course, everyone’s worried about the insurance industry, which would love to get its hands on these databases. Canada has a genetic anti-discrimination law that says you can’t be discriminated against based on your genetics, which is supposed to protect us from the insurance industry.
Q: Do customers realize the ramifications of handing over their DNA?
A: Nobody predicted how this information could be used. GEDmatch, a public database in the U.S. with few privacy provisions, is a case in point. Here, consumers uploaded their genetic results from Ancestry and 23andMe to find relatives. In spring 2018, without permission from the database or its users, the police uploaded the DNA from an old rape-murder case (the “Golden State Killer”), found distant matches and, working with a genealogist, rooted out the criminal: 72-year-old Navy veteran Joseph James DeAngelo.
GEDmatch has become an invaluable source for law enforcement. This raises very serious issues of genetic privacy.
“No more family secrets. When submitting your own genetic information, you’re providing the genealogy of your children, grandparents, distant cousins, entire family.” – Julia Creet
This really showed customers that you’re not just submitting your own genetic information, you’re providing the genealogy of your children, grandparents, distant cousins, entire family.
This is what people don’t seem to understand about DNA: Privacy is antithetical to genealogy. The real issue now is how to protect the privacy of people who haven’t uploaded their DNA, which is next to impossible.
Nobody predicted how this information, DNA, could be used, says Creet
Q: What’s the scariest thing about this?
A: Columbia University Professor Yaniv Erlich, the chief science officer of MyHeritage, recently said that given the amount of information that’s in the public databases, you could track the identity of 60 per cent of the U.S. white population. (This population has undertaken the genealogical quest more readily than the non-white population, for various reasons.)
“This industry has taken that potent, spiritual, all-too-human need to belong … and monetized it in a particularly exploitative way.” – Julia Creet
He also predicted that all you need is two per cent of the population’s DNA to be able to identify everyone in that population. That’s the statistic I find the most disturbing. Any idea we had about privacy is basically over. No more family secrets.
This industry has taken that potent, spiritual, all-too-human need to belong or trace our origins … and monetized it in a particularly exploitative way.
Q: This is timely, policy-applicable work. What kind of support has York University provided?
A: York’s a wonderful place. I’ve had huge support while grant writing and from Research Accounting.
I came here in 1998 and was basically left alone – that is, I could do whatever I wanted as long as it made sense as a research project.
I never do anything by the book. York has allowed me that kind of creativity. At York, we’re very good at recognizing talent that doesn’t fit into standard or conventional disciplines.
To buy the book, The Genealogical Sublime, visit the publisher’s website. To learn more about Creet, visit her Faculty profile page.
To learn more about Research & Innovation at York, follow us at @YUResearch; watch our new animated video, which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity such as artificial intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the snapshot infographic for a glimpse of the year’s successes.
By Megan Mueller, senior manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, York University, muellerm@yorku.ca
Have we failed in our sustainability goals? Learn more during the Annual Dr. David V.J. Bell Lecture, Oct. 22
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A review of what has been accomplished over the past 30 years in sustainable development will be the focus of the 2019 Dr. David V.J. Bell Lecture at York University on Oct. 22.
Bruce Lourie
The lecture was developed in memory of the late York Professor Emeritus David Bell and presented for the first time in 2018. It will be delivered this year by Bruce Lourie, president of the Ivey Foundation, an adjunct professor at Queen’s University’s School of Policy Studies and senior Fellow at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s.
Lourie will deliver the talk “Sustainable Development: Where We’re At, What’s Working (and What’s Not), and What We Need to Succeed” and explore what has been done in the 30 years since the modern era of “sustainable development” was ushered in.
The idea of sustainable development was based on the need to balance ecological, social and economic outcomes. Lourie will explore questions including: How have we done? Where are we at in 2019? What can we learn from the past 30 years? How can we apply our learning to the next phase of sustainability 30 years ahead with the climate targets looming in 2050?
Lourie, a 2015 Bryden Award recipient and a FES alumni (MES and PhD), promises a provocative conversation, based on his nearly 30 years of work on climate, plastics and biodiversity, on whether or not we have failed in our sustainability goals.
He is currently a board director of several charitable and non-profit organizations, including the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices, Canadians for Clean Prosperity and the SeedChange Foundation. He is a former director of the Independent Electricity System Operator, the Ontario Power Authority, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Environmental Defence Canada and many others. Lourie is also founding advisory board member of Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, an advisory board member of the Canadian Energy Research Institute and a visiting lecturer at the University of Oxford Social Finance Programme.
He is well known for his work in convening collaborative efforts among businesses, NGOs and government, and is one of Canada’s leading social entrepreneurs. He played a pioneering role in connecting environmental issues to human health, most notably with his leadership in the phase-out of coal-fired power plants in Ontario, the single largest climate action in North America. Lourie is the co-author of two bestselling books, including the internationally acclaimed Slow Death by Rubber Duck. He is a founder of a number of for-profit and non-profit organizations, including Summerhill Group, one of Canada’s leading energy efficiency consultancies.
The event takes place at 7 p.m. in the Founders Assembly Hall, Room 152, Founders College, Keele Campus. To register, visit bit.ly/dvjbelllecture. For more information, call Elaine Rubinoff at 416-627-2032. Refreshments will be served.
This event is sponsored by the Faculty of Environmental Studies, the Department of Politics in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, and McLaughlin College.
About the Annual Dr. David V.J. Bell Lecture
Before his untimely death on Jan. 10, 2017, Professor Emeritus David Bell had a long and accomplished career in academia at York University. He was a professor of political science, dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies and a Fellow of McLaughlin College. His altruism was recognized with many awards over his lifetime. Most notably, Bell was the recipient of the 2014 Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication Award, the Green Toronto Award for Leadership in Sustainability, the 2016 Harry Jerome Award, the Clean50 Award and the Jackie Robinson Fortitude Award.
Bell also served as the Chair of Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) from 2006 until his death. In that role, he became known as an international thought leader on the power of research to inform education for sustainable development at the provincial, national and international levels.
David V.J. Bell
Following his death, the LSF board approved the establishment of the Annual Dr. David V.J. Bell Lecture to acknowledge his commitment to education for sustainable development and serve to link research to practice in educating for a sustainable future.
The Annual Dr. David V.J. Bell Lecture is intended to help bridge the gap between research and what is practised in educational institutions by identifying Canadian thought leaders and providing a forum for them to share their research and insights on education for sustainable development, specifically as it applies to education policy, teacher education and practice, and student empowerment to make change. Keynote papers and a video of each lecture will be posted and archived on the LSF website. Materials, including the videos and papers, will be circulated to thought leaders across the country.
McLaughlin Lunch Talk Series puts focus on student success in October
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Four events are on the calendar for the popular McLaughlin Lunch Talk Series this October, turning some of the focus to best practices for student success.
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.
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.
Here’s what’s on the menu for October:
Oct. 8 – Well-being: The Key to Student Success
Shaila Khan
Presented by Shaila Khan, a health educator and training specialist working in Student Success Strategies at York University, this talk looks at the importance of well-being in a student’s life.
Part lecture and part workshop, it will provide a high-level overview of and emphasis on the significance of making well-being a high priority and how it relates to physical health, mental health and student success. An overview of campus supports, services, tips and resources are provided with encouragement to take a proactive approach to become familiar with and to access supports needed. Students will understand how wellness plays into their personal success, whether that is securing better grades or accessing new opportunities to build their careers during their time at York.
This event runs from noon to 1 p.m.
Oct. 9 – The Opera Llandovery Castle: Research-creation and the Creative Process
Stephanie Martin
Presented by Stephanie Martin, graduate program director for music, this talk explores Martin’s 2018 opera Llandovery Castle.
Martin teaches composition, historical ensembles and music history in York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), and her opera Llandovery Castle recounts the forgotten story of 14 Canadian nurses who were killed on their hospital ship during the First World War. Creative work continues with librettist Paul Cuifo for an oratorio based on Aesop’s fable The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak, premiering in Toronto on Nov. 2. Recent commissions include works for the Victoria Cathedral (B.C.), the Saskatoon Chamber Choir and the Halifax Camerata. Martin was recently appointed a Fellow of McLaughlin College, York University.
Oct. 10 – Improper Influence of Office: Laws, Codes and Cases
Greg Levine
This presentation will look at how improper influence of office is an abuse of power that demeans democracy. It is presented by Greg Levine, who practices administrative, municipal and government ethics law, and has spent part of his career as an integrity commissioner for several Ontario municipalities.
It is reasonable to expect that elected officials and public servants will be influential in terms of promotion of ideas and ideals that will enhance government and administration. It is also reasonable to expect that influence will not be used to advance non-meritorious and illegal decisions and actions. This presentation explores the concept of improper influence and how it is defined and regulated in statutes and codes of ethics as well as some contemporary examples. The view that rules about improper influence should not only reflect concerns respecting conflict of interest, but concerns about inappropriate governance and administration more generally will also be outlined.
Levine is a member of the Law Societies of Upper Canada and British Columbia, with an LLB from the University of Toronto and a PhD in cultural geography from Queen’s University. He is also a member of the Canadian Academy of Independent Scholars, based in Vancouver. The author of three books – The Law of Government Ethics: Federal, Ontario and British Columbia; Municipal Ethics Regimes; and Ombudsman Legislation in Canada: An Annotation and Appraisal – and numerous articles, Levine has been involved in government ethics law work in various contexts for many years.
This presentation takes place from noon to 1:30 p.m.
Oct. 23 – Common Read: Skills for Success at University, Work and Life
Thomas Klassen
This talk is presented by Thomas Klassen, a York University professor and author who teaches about, and writes on, public policy and public administration and how to ensure students succeed.
Klassen has taught in a variety of programs at York, including the School of Public Policy & Administration, the IMBA at the Schulich School of Business, the Department of Political Science and the Faculty of Health. He has also taught university courses in South Korea and Germany. More information on Klassen is available online at thomasklassen.net.
In this session, attendees will learn the four skills needed to succeed at university: communication, problem solving, teamwork and adaptability. Learn how to avoid the mistakes that first-year students make, and discover how to mobilize professors to boost success.
This talk takes place from noon to 1:30 p.m.
Tea Mutonji to read from first book at Canadian Writers in Person lecture, Nov. 19
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York University’s Canadian Writers in Person Lecture Series will feature author Téa Mutonji on Nov. 19, who will read from her debut story collection, Shut Up You’re Pretty.
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.
Mutonji is an award-winning poet and writer. Born in Congo-Kinshasa, she now lives and writes in Scarborough, Ont., where she was named emerging writer of the year in 2017 by the Ontario Book Publishers Organization. Shut Up You’re Pretty is her first book.
In Mutonji’s debut story collection, a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust of Canada Fiction Prize, a woman contemplates her Congolese traditions during a family wedding, a teenage girl looks for happiness inside a pack of cigarettes, a mother reconnects with her daughter through their shared interest in fish and a young woman decides to shave her head in the waiting room of an abortion clinic. These punchy, sharply observed stories blur the lines between longing and choosing, exploring the narrator’s experience as an involuntary one. Tinged with pathos and humour, they interrogate the moments in which femininity, womanness and identity are not only questioned but also imposed.
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.
Brazilian artist Pablo Parra’s ‘Fragments of Memory’ exhibit launches with panel discussion, Oct. 8
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Artist Pablo Parra
Fragments of Memory, an exciting and challenging new exhibit of storytelling and recovered memory of the African diasporas, will officially launch on Tuesday, Oct. 8 from 3 to 5 p.m. in 305 Founders College, Keele Campus.
In the exhibit, Brazilian artist Pablo Parra represents the biographies and testimonies of five individuals of the African diaspora and transatlantic slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries. The striking portraits express the emotion that the artist felt upon reading the individuals’ accounts.
The opening night will include a panel discussion featuring the project’s director, Bruno R. Véras; York University Professor Paul E. Lovejoy, co-editor of the UNESCO General History of Africa; and artist Pablo Parra. Their conversation will engage the audience with methodologies bridging research and creative representation.
This exhibit is a public history initiative, part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization’s celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Slave Route Project: Resistance, Liberty, Heritage.
The book features a comprehensive evaluation model for testing the effectiveness of decision-aiding technologies and provides evidence as to the cost-benefit approaches to decision making, proving more effort is needed to improve human performance in dynamic tasks.
York University’s Canadian Writers in Person Lecture Series will feature author Téa Mutonji on Nov. 19, who will read from her debut story collection, 
