Tag: Libraries

Approved tag

Next generation of York librarians and archivists work to address critical gap in Black content

Lightbulb on chalkboard

An ongoing Black History Edit-a-thon event aims to improve the digital coverage of Black histories and experiences on Wikipedia and Wikidata. The edit-a-thon features a kickoff event in the form of a panel discussion on Black archives on Monday, Feb.  7, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. EST.

While researching for a display case for Caribana’s 50th anniversary at York University Libraries (YUL) almost five years ago, Katrina Cohen-Palacios, an archivist at YUL’s Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections at Scott Library, found that articles from major news outlets did not report on the historical-cultural significance of the annual celebration. Knowing that Wikipedia is one of the most visited websites worldwide, she decided to use all the citations she found to expand the Caribana article on the Wikipedia page on this subject. The result? Today, the article receives an average of 123 page views per day. 

“This type of contribution provides long-lasting impact that improves representation of a significant cultural event. This is because most people including media, often use Wikipedia as the starting point of their research process,” said Cohen-Palacios. 

Mobilizing research is part of what drives her passion to make a difference at York’s libraries, where she’s been an archivist since 2017. It’s also one of the reasons she’s sharing her knowledge about wiki-editing with students during this year’s Black History Edit-a-thon 2022 Event, which continues until Feb. 28, with synchronous editing sessions every Friday of the month.

The edit-a-thon is a joint effort by library and archives staff and students at York University, University of Toronto (U of T), X University (formerly Ryerson), and Toronto Public Library (TPL) as part of Black History Month events. Drawing upon expertise, the York University Libraries will be hosting and leading editing sessions on Wikidata as part of this collaboration. The event is sponsored by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation at York University. 

“Often the history of Black Canadians is told in a way that it focuses on adversity and the token firsts who overcame the barriers of racism and discrimination,” said Cohen-Palacios. “This unidimensional, flat narrative obscures the multifaceted, plurality of experiences – notably, a celebration of inspirational figures and events that have the power to uplift and spark joy – within these communities. With Wikipedia mirroring these gaps, these edit-a-thons are a great opportunity to build awareness about the gaps in our national narratives and engage individuals to collectively use our power and privilege to contribute towards sharing inclusive Black history, especially those that are written by Black scholars.”  

Co-organizer of the event, and data visualization and analytics librarian in the Open Scholarship Department, Alexandra Wong, says a Wikidata session was added this year, due to the platform’s growing popularity, Wikidata’s impact, and the opportunity to teach and improve participants’ data skills. With the event collaboratively hosted by York University Libraries, U of T Libraries, X University Library, and TPL, the libraries are in a unique position to provide robust, shared support and resources on source selection and metadata structuring, adds Wong. 

“This edit-a-thon aims to consciously, and with care, improve the digital coverage of Black histories and experiences,” said Wong. “We hope to engage with students and our wider community, and to empower them to contribute and become editors: we want students to be inspired and properly equipped to write their own histories.”

Wikidata is an open-linked data repository that centralizes information across all Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. Where Wikipedia’s goal is to compile the sum of human knowledge, Wikidata aims to structure the sum of human knowledge and make it machine readable to assist artificial intelligence. 

Wong says Wikidata has enormous potential for information access because all languages can pull information from Wikidata’s linked data, which is primarily language-agnostic. One goal of YUL’s Wikidata portion of the Black History Edit-a-thon is while most participants will be editing in English, they are also contributing more equitably to all languages and communities of knowledge through the platform.   

Wikidata can also inherit biases, from who edits Wikidata and what knowledge is created in it. The Wikimedia Foundation has found that only 1.6 per cent of contributors are based in Africa, although people in Africa comprise 17 per cent of the world’s population. Their U.S. data for Wikipedia finds that fewer than one per cent of Wikipedia editors identify as Black or African-American. This can create gaps in the public’s sum of knowledge, said Wong. 

Beginners with no experience in Wikipedia and Wikidata will be provided with training and instructions in every Friday working session. As well, more experienced editors in Wikipedia or Wikidata will be guided to leverage their skills to improve the visibility of Black scholars and their works and will be supported by other experienced editors throughout the working sessions. 

Collette Murray, a PhD student in dance studies at York University, will be part of a panel presentation on Black archives for the kick-off event on Feb. 7.  She’s been an advocate in the arts sector for several years and says online content has some work to do in highlighting changemakers in the Black community.  

“I felt it was important to contribute a new perspective to decolonize ideas around digital archives,” said Murray. “There are many more categories of Black content missing on not-for-profit organizations who mobilized for diverse Black communities. It raises questions on why now. Who decides who can document and who gets archived? As an emerging scholar, I would like to find and reference digital spaces that speak to me, represents us so that everyone can learn content about generations of Black communities across Canada.” 

Through this kind of event, organizers hope to diversify the Wikipedia and Wikidata editor base and given Toronto and York University’s diverse populations, Wong and her team hope they can contribute to decreasing the gaps in information. Wong says by bringing in these perspectives, the goal is also to bring a Canadian perspective into a platform like Wikipedia and Wikidata where much of the knowledge is America-focused. 

“York University specifically has students that come from over 155 countries and so we have this great population of students that we think could be bringing their own histories and contributing their own unique perspectives,” said Wong. “We hope to engage with students and our wider community and to empower them to contribute and become editors: we want students to be inspired and properly equipped to write their own histories. Within the Wikidata component, we suggest our editors focus on helping to create items for Black scholars and their works. Our goal is to promote and raise the visibility of these academics and their important academic outputs.” 

The Black History Edit-a-thon’s organizing team said the York University libraries will continue to play an important role in providing the space to teach and educate in this area. With many groups traditionally excluded from these types of environments, the libraries have the potential to create a safe space and teach individuals how not only to critically review resources but also to overcome the daunting experience of learning new technologies. Events such as edit-a-thons have the potential to create an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere for newcomers and foster a community of users to collectively mentor and inspire one another. With the collaborative nature of Wikipedia and its platforms, everyone from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines – not just coders and hackers – can contribute, download and analyze data sets to mobilize knowledge and new discoveries.  

“York University Libraries was an early international leader in exploring the emerging field of linked open data and its potential to provide pathways for researchers and research libraries to address and deconstruct systemic injustice present in traditional methods of surfacing and accessing research collections by exploring the use of Wikidata to create a model process of community-librarian/archivist/curator-scholar collaboration,” said the Dean of Libraries at York, Joy Kirchner. “I’m thrilled our next generation of librarians and archivists has taken up this work to address a critical gap in Black content with an empowering and inclusive approach.”

For more information, visit the Black History Edit-A-Thon Wikipedia webpage. To register click here.

Nellie Langford Rowell Library to host second annual Undergraduate Student Conference and Poetry Slam

Nellie Conference Banner - an icon of an open book in the middle of a green and navy patterned background

The Nellie Langford Rowell Library, housed in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies in Founders College, is inviting third- and fourth-year students to participate in the second annual Nellie Library Undergraduate Student Conference.  

Students who have recently completed or currently working on a compelling, thought-provoking project are invited to apply to participate in the conference. These interesting and unique projects must be work submitted in the Fall 2021 term or due in Winter 2022 term. The projects should be engaged with feminist, anti-racist, intersectional, interdisciplinary and/or decolonizing approaches. The submission can be multi-media project in the form of written papers, posters, poetic presentations as well as storytelling and visual projects.  

Successful applicants will present their work for 10 to 12 minutes, followed by a brief question-and-answer period. The conference will take place virtually on March 3 and 4 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. The library will host a poetry slam at 4 p.m. on March 4 to close the conference. The poetry slam is open to all students.  

After the success of the first conference and poetry slam, organizers decided to make this an annual event. The conference provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to gain conference presentation skills, further strengthen work-in-progress and network with peers.  

Undergraduate students are encouraged to apply to the conference by filling out the application form due on Feb. 16 at 11:59 p.m. Questions should be directed to the Nellie Langford Rowell Library at nlrowell@yorku.ca. 

Appointment of Victoria Sigurdson as media collections librarian

An image of the Scott Library on the Keele Campus

Victoria Sigurdson has been appointed media collections librarian at the York University Libraries (YUL).

Victoria Sigurdson

Sigurdson has dedicated her career to empowering teaching, learning and research communities through the development of responsive university library services and collections. She is a graduate of York University’s Bachelor of Fine Arts (Studio) program and holds a master’s degree in library and information studies from Dalhousie University. She brings extensive experience in media acquisitions and licensing, and a lifelong enthusiasm for a variety of musical styles and genres to the media collections librarian role.

In addition to an established history of collaborative projects with university faculty and staff, her library services experience includes film and visual materials management, reference and information services, digitization activities, accessibility services, as well as intellectual property rights and licensing consultation. She has been a long-standing member of both the video and the alternate formats communities within the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), as well as Chairing the Ontario Chapter and planning the annual general conference for the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA).

Her research focuses on the role of Canadian arts funding programs and media agencies in providing equitable access to media works, and how the interplay between international, national and provincial copyright legislation impacts the provision of accessibility services for digital media in the academic environment. Her topics of interest include the phenomenology of artmaking and creative spaces, alternative analog and instant photographic processes, data visualization and olfactory art.

Sigurdson will begin her leadership role to advance YUL’s media collections on Feb. 1. 

York University named top team in Flight for Sight event

flying plane

The York University – Libraries and YCAR team was named a top team in the Orbis Flight for Sight virtual event.  

Jack Hang-tat Leong, associate dean, Research and Open Scholarship at the Office of the Dean of Libraries and faculty associate of York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR), organized York’s participation in the event. Participants included Dean of Libraries Joy Kirchner, Associate Professor Jessica Tsui-Yan Li and York University Libraries faculty and staff, Norda Bell, Genny Jon, Laszlo Juhos, Thumeka Mgwigwi, Tanya Prince, Dany Savard and Tom Scott.

The York University – Libraries and YCAR Flight for Sight team

The event was an immersive and engaging entertainment and team-building experience that invited teams to experience a virtual flight experience and explore all corners of the world. From the comfort of home, participants engaged in a variety of activities while fundraising to support quality and accessible eye care for all.

The York University team obtained top scores in this charity event after competing against other teams from Canada and United States through various rounds of live games, skill-testing trivia, and problem-solving challenges and won a championship title in the local section and first runner-up among the teams from all over the world.

“Our exceptional performance in this event reflects the strength of our inclusive and diverse team members who have expertise across the competition categories including, Canadian history and global cultures,” says Leong. “I would like to thank my colleagues at the York University Libraries and YCAR for their contributions and participation in this event.”

Together with York University and other participating teams, Orbis raised more than $153,000 to support and increase awareness of vision care and health education in developing countries.

This fundraising event provides fun and intellectually stimulating opportunities for members to contribute to restoring eyesight globally, outreach to health care, aerospace engineering and philanthropy communities, and develop a culturally diverse and compassionate team spirit.

For nearly 40 years, Orbis has been a global leader in helping to end avoidable blindness. Orbis operates a Flying Eye Hospital, along with many other initiatives, to build eye health capacity and create long-term, sustainable eye care solutions in low- and middle-income countries.

“I have been organizing a University team to take part in this annual event since 2015 and raised more than $17,900 for prevention of blindness with the generous support of The Honourable Dr. Vivienne Poy, University colleagues and the wider community. I am particularly proud this year to organize a joint team of the Libraries and YCAR to strengthen our collaboration and commitment in community outreach and engagement, and raise York University’s social impact,” says Leong.

York’s undergraduate research journal embraces an experiential approach

Clear light bulb on black chalk board

Under the surface of York’s refereed undergraduate research journal, Revue YOUR Review (RYR), there’s a unique approach to scholarly publishing. While it looks like a typical open access journal and is hosted by York University Libraries as part of the York Digital Journals program, Revue YOUR Review’s new volume is actually the output of a nurturing process for junior scholars.

Cover of the next issue of Revue YOUR Review. Used with permission. Image shows a woman sitting on a chair, she has her left arm raised behind her head.
Cover of the next issue of Revue YOUR Review. Used with permission

“It gives you a sense of what it takes to be a researcher,” says student author Ranjana Nagi, whose article on female genital mutilation in Africa will appear in volume 6/7. “[Research is] a whole career for many people and this makes it possible to experience that career without committing to a whole PhD or other graduate studies.”

Nagi is referring to RYR’s experiential learning focus. When the review committee recommends a student’s work for possible publication, the editorial board pairs each author with a writing coach. The coach helps the student revise the material, evolving a course assignment into an academic article suitable for an interdisciplinary audience. “They actually see what goes into scholarly publication,” says Teresa Abbruzzese, assistant professor in the Department of Social Science and a member of RYR’s editorial board. “It’s coaching. It’s a mentoring process. There’s nurturing, and confidence building, and then we get to the point where the student can actually publish their work.”

Submissions to Revue YOUR Review come from York’s annual Undergraduate Research Fair (also hosted by York University Libraries), with many of the journal’s published articles arriving thanks to the urging of instructors. Often the submissions are papers from previous classes, so the work of revising them for publication is a chance to revisit and update material. “It’s challenging to go back to your work and turn it into something for an interdisciplinary audience … being able to tell a story,” says Nagi.

Abbruzzese laughs when thinking about her own revisits of previous writing. When advising Nagi, she notes, “It’s tough to look back at your own work, right? You have to come back to this essay, but without losing yourself in the process. This is a commendable piece of work, and we just need to bring it to the level of a scholarly manuscript.”

The process of revising an article provides an opportunity for established scholars to share their own experiences with academic writing. “I shared two of my papers because I was telling her it’s common to get rejected,” says Abbruzzese.

Teresa Abbruzzese
Teresa Abbruzzese

“Yes! She went above and beyond,” adds Nagi. “I learned a lot about how to write clearly and concisely, and also about a day in the life of an academic researcher. We see our professors when they come to class, but we don’t get insight into the thousands of other activities they might be up to.”

Rethinking material provides new opportunities for authors, as well. While revising her article, Nagi’s coaches suggested she clarify her storytelling with data visualizations. “The challenge of that was surprising, but it turned out very well.”

Student authors get a dedicated writing workshop focused on communicating scholarly material to a general audience. Besides the direct coaching they get from their subject expert, students also learn about author rights and publishing agreements with programming designed by the libraries. Each author selects an open, Creative Commons licence for their article, just as many senior scholars do when publishing in open access journals; the journal accepts submissions and publishes articles in both French and English.

“Our role is to convince students that they’re scholars right now,” says Abbruzzese. “I was not given that opportunity as a student. Sometimes undergrads are not taken seriously. Here, we are actually committed to undergraduate students and that’s so important… the more I can make an impact and help students, the more I feel like I’m in the right place.”

Volume 8 of Revue YOUR Review is available now, and volume 9 (for Undergraduate Research Fair 2021) is currently in preparation.

To learn more about the Undergraduate Research Fair, visit https://undergradfair.library.yorku.ca/web/.

York University’s groundbreaking Academic Innovation Fund turns 10

A hand clasps balloons

York University’s Academic Innovation Fund celebrates an important anniversary this year. The program has promoted exceptional innovation in teaching, learning and the student experience, and it continues to grow and thrive.

By Elaine Smith, special contributor

A photograph of York's President
Rhonda Lenton

Bring on the balloons, the streamers and the cake for York University’s Academic Innovation Fund (AIF), which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The AIF, overseen by the Office of the Associate Vice-President of Teaching and Learning, financially supports projects that advance York University’s priorities in terms of teaching, learning and the student experience, allowing faculty to experiment and innovate in new and creative ways, both in teaching and in pedagogy. Its creation was spearheaded by a team that included President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton, who was vice-provost academic at the time.

“I am delighted to be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Academic Innovation Fund,” said Lenton. “By supporting groundbreaking approaches to teaching and learning, including technology-enhanced learning, and facilitating increased access to fundamental student success programs and international perspectives that extend around the world, the AIF continues to provide our faculty and course directors with the resources they need to push pedagogical boundaries and enhance the student learning experience, solidifying York’s reputation as an innovative, progressive and forward-thinking institution dedicated to teaching excellence.”

Will Gage
Will Gage

The AIF was also a means of elevating and celebrating teaching and learning in the eyes of the York community, said Professor Will Gage, associate vice-president teaching and learning.

“It showed how committed the University is to teaching and learning and provided leadership to the higher education world around teaching and learning,” Gage said. “When AIF began, our early investments paid dividends in a number of different ways, including helping faculty members advance their priorities, putting a focus on technology-enhanced learning, and creating champions of teaching and learning among the faculty, who served as role models for their colleagues.”

In fact, a report by York’s Institute for Social Research validated the importance of AIF, noting how impactful it was in furthering innovation in pedagogy and curriculum.

Provost and Vice-President Academic Lisa Philipps has seen the AIF continue to flourish and believes it sends “an important signal to faculty that at York we have an aspirational culture around teaching and we value the effort and creativity of our faculty in developing new, high-quality learning experiences for our students.” 

Lisa Philipps
Lisa Philipps

A number of projects that date back to the early days of the AIF are now fixtures at the University: the Cross-Campus Capstone Classroom (C4); globally networked learning (GNL); YU Start, the transition program for incoming students; SPARK, the Student Papers and Academic Research Kit; and an e-learning program from the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD) that connects students to the community. The originators of these programs are enthusiastic about the effect that the fund has had in making these projects possible.

Franz Newland
Franz Newland

“The funding makes a huge difference,” said Franz Newland, an associate professor at the Lassonde School of Engineering and one of the creators of C4. “It really enables us, because it pays for things that make innovation possible. Innovation around teaching and learning requires a community of engaged, interested people and AIF is a mechanism to bring them together.”

Danielle Robinson, co-creator of C4 and an associate professor at AMPD, said, “There is no way that C4 could have been launched without the AIF. It gave the program legitimacy and a vote of confidence that amplified its impact across the community, not to mention the financial resources required. Students have directly benefited, because C4 is designed as a personal and professional journey of self-discovery for them.”

Globally networked learning “began as a provost-driven initiative in 2015 with a three-year AIF grant​ that allowed the GNL initial team to work closely with students, faculty and senior administration at both York campuses to inform and train on best GNL practices around the world,” said Dominique Scheffel-Dunand, an associate professor in the Department of French Studies who helped create York’s program.

“York GNL has grown so much that in 2020-2021 alone, more than 600 students – 312 from York and 293 from international partner institutions – have had the opportunity to learn, share perspectives on challenging world-related questions,” added Scheffel-Dunand, who has also taught at the Glendon Campus.

Lara Ubaldi, a member of the team that created YU Start, is appreciative of AIF too. “What a thrill to have an idea and have the University recognize it with funding to help get it started,” said Ubaldi, now director of student advising and academic services. “It makes you feel invested; you can do something to make a change.”

The YU Start program has become an award-winning success.

Danielle Robinson
Danielle Robinson

SPARK also grew out of an early AIF grant. “This was our first real pan-University project,” said Sarah Coysh, digital engagement librarian. “It involved the library, the Writing Department, Learning Skills Services and other groups across the University that supported students. It was an opportunity for us to work together and look at best practices.

“We were one of the first to license such an effort through a Creative Commons licence, something that the AIF afforded us the opportunity to do. It has now been adapted by universities nationally and internationally as a result. We also know that it’s widely used; I hear from faculty if it’s not up to date,” said Coysh.

In addition, SPARK has been translated into French at the Glendon Campus, thanks to a Heritage Canada grant.

Dominique Scheffel-Dunand
Dominique Scheffel-Dunand

At AMPD, faculty members David Gelb, Michael Longford and Judith Schwarz were early adopters of online learning for the arts and pioneers in offering blended studio courses. Their initial grant allowed them to work with a team to build the infrastructure to support online learning across the faculty; develop six large introductory courses, a combination of blended and online; develop best practices for online pedagogies; and nurture a community of practice. They have received subsequent AIF grants to augment these opportunities and establish excellence in media production.

“When the pandemic struck and we had to move fully online, AMPD was prepared to step up to the challenge, offering a full range of support to faculty during that time,” said Longford. “We’re quite proud of that.”

In fact, said Gage, all of the AIF advances “emerged as essential when COVID shut the world down. AIF established a foundation that helped us respond as an institution.”

Karthiga Gowrishanger, program director, teaching and learning strategic initiatives for the Office of the Associate Vice-President of Teaching and Learning, agrees: “AIF innovation helped prepare us to be creative, agile and resilient.”

At York, AIF has become one of the proverbial gifts that keeps on giving.

York University Archivist Katrina Cohen-Palacios awarded the 2021 AAO Emerging Leader Award

Image announcing Awards

Archivist Katrina Cohen-Palacios of the Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections at York University has been awarded the 2021 Emerging Leader Award by the Archives Association of Ontario (AAO). The award was presented to Cohen-Palacios at the AAO’s annual general meeting, which took place virtually on May 14.

Cohen-Palacios joined York University’s Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collection in 2017 as an Adjunct Archivist, becoming the Media Archivist in 2019, and promoted to Archivist in 2020. Her work and contributions as an archivist at York University is described as exemplary not only in its collaborative nature but also for its outreach impact. Cohen-Palacios has made important contributions in the discourse and workflows related to Canadian archives and linked data, an emerging area of archival outreach and collaboration.

She also has played a key role in the Home Made Visible project, a collaboration of the Regent Park Film Festival, Charles Street Videos and the York University Libraries, which preserves and celebrates the important memories captured in home movies created by members of Indigenous, Black and People of Colour communities in Canada. This project was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation in 2020 and was also shortlisted for the Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Community Programming.

Cohen-Palacios has presented at library and archival conferences across Canada and has been involved in various national and local professional organizations since 2013, serving on numerous committees and leadership positions within the Archives Association of Ontario (AAO) and the Toronto Area Archivists Group (TAAG), including as Chair of AAO’s Professional Development Committee (PDC) since June 2019 and on the 2021 AAO Conference Program Committee. She began serving as a mentor in the Association of Canadian Archivists’ Mentorship program this year.

Her nominators highlighted the important to the role Cohen-Palacios’ mentorship has had: “It is integral that racialized young professionals and students have other racialized leaders that can champion them through the early stages of their career. Katrina is an ideal example of this vital role model.”

The Emerging Leader Award was created in 2018 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Archives Association of Ontario. The award recognizes early-career archivists (who have been in the profession between two and 10 years), whose work and service demonstrate consistent growth, leadership, and promise to the archives profession in Ontario. The award is intended to recognize cumulative contributions rather than any single activity.

Libraries celebrate undergraduate changemakers at Research Fair and Art Walk

undergraduate research fair FEATURED

Nearly 40 posters and eight pieces of artwork from more than 60 students were highlighted at the ninth annual Undergraduate Research Fair and Art Walk, which took place online on March 10.

One of the most anticipated and uplifting events of the academic year, the Undergraduate Research Fair and Art Walk honours student researchers and provides them with an opportunity to share work that creates positive change. The annual celebration is co-sponsored by York University Libraries and the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation.

Remarks were also given by President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton and Vice President Research and Innovation Amir Asif, who joined organizers, participants, family, friends, members of the York University community and other attendees. The awards ceremony featured Provost and Vice-President Academic Lisa Philipps, Faculty of Graduate Studies Dean Thomas Loebel and School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) Professor Norma Fisher-Stitt announcing winners.

The fair provides an experiential education opportunity for undergraduates to participate in the cycle of knowledge production and dissemination, and to advance work that tackles complex societal challenges. This year, students from the Keele and Glendon campuses, representing a diverse range of Faculties and disciplines, attended the virtual event and were eager to demonstrate their findings.

Joy Kirchner
Joy Kirchner

“We hope we’ve cultivated a space for multidisciplinary sharing, which is a hallmark of the Undergraduate Research Fair,” said Joy Kirchner, dean of Libraries, of the fair’s novel virtual format. “We wanted to provide experiential learning opportunities for all of our participants that were meaningful to the current context of remote learning.”

Fair participants received training on designing academic posters, as well as the opportunity to present and discuss key content, findings and research from their projects in five-minute presentations, followed by a Q-and-A, as part of interdisciplinary Zoom panels.

Students submitted projects advancing purposeful research in a range of topics, from politics, with Ayeda Khan’s “Western Medicine: Inroads for Colonialism and Neocolonial Suffocation of Indigenous Medicine,” to psychology, as demonstrated in “An Analysis of Extraversion, Competitiveness, and Humour” by Alexandra Markwell, Danika Wagner, Andreja Stajduhar and Lucas Norton, and geography, considered in Jonelle Waugh’s “Food Insecurity and Food Deserts in Toronto.”

Many students addressed social justice topics, such as Harmoni Watson, who submitted “The Consequences of Police Brutality on Psychological Well-Being and Collective Action,” and Moboluwajidide Joseph, whose project explored “Stolen People on Stolen Land.”

Some student researchers chose to focus on timely pandemic-related research, such as Dolunay Kocabag, who wrote about “Social Identity of Blindness and Its Impact on Well-being During the Pandemic,” and Promise Busulwa, whose paper was titled, “Coping During COVID: A Pilot Study on Social Support, Mental Health and the Internet.”

“It’s always so uplifting to hear your presentations,” Kirchner told this year’s participants. “York likes to teach our students to be global citizens. The fair is a clear demonstration of how this plays out in the classroom. So many of the presentations represented a global reach in one way or another. It really makes you feel proud to be part of the York community. I was thoroughly impressed.”

Awards were presented in seven different categories, with students taking home monetary prizes for Best Lower-Year and Upper-Year Project, Best Honours Thesis Project, Best Group Project, Art Walk Exhibit Award, Best Poster Presentation and the Libraries’ Information Literacy Award. Students voiced the importance of cash prizes, which were increased this year due to the unprecedented impact of the pandemic.

All presenters received an invitation to submit an article on their project, to be considered for publication in the refereed e-journal Review YOUR Review (York Online Undergraduate Research Review), published by York University Libraries and associated with the fair. The Art Walk award-winning submission will appear on the cover of the e-journal.

For more information on the Undergraduate Research Fair and Art Walk, visit the event’s website. Information about the next Undergraduate Research Fair will be available in December 2021.

This year’s award winners

Dr. James Wu Award for Best Lower-Year Project

  • 1st place: Dara Dillon – Anti-Black Racism is Endemic!
  • 2nd place: Meaghan Landry & Ryan Yacknovets – Hiring Discrimination Towards Transgender Nonbinary Job Applicants

Dr. James Wu Award for Best Upper-Year Project

  • 1st place: Catherine Morin-Mitchell – A Path Toward Mental Health Equity: Assessing Classic Literature as a Source of Racial Trauma in the Classroom
  • 2nd place: Manminder Singh – Information Diffusion, Environmental Degradation & Modernization: How COVID-19 Revealed Society’s Vulnerability to Disaster

Dr. James Wu Award for Best Honours Thesis Project

  • 1st place: Harmoni Watson – The Consequences of Police Brutality on Psychological Well-Being and Collective Action
  • 2nd place: Braxton Hartman – Atypical Brain Connectivity in Autism

Information Literacy Award

  • 1st place: Tiana Putric – Neuroweapons: The Future of Warfare
  • 2nd place: Claudia Dias Martins – Impact of Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Bilingualism on French Language Development in Early French Immersion

Best Group Project

  • 1st place: Vyjayanthi Janakiraman, Hailey Luong & Justin Chiu – Save-A-Bear
  • 2nd place: Yasmin Dini & Yanet Habtom – eHealth in the 21st Century: The Case of the Fitbit Versa 2

Art Walk Exhibit Award

  • 1st place: Asha Cabaca – Wild Apples (The Fruit of Labour)
  • 2nd place: Shifra Hetherington & Jaelyn Jones – Skinscape

Best Poster Presentation

  • 1st place: Hannah Santilli – Redesign the Ill-Defined: Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Implications of Low Socioeconomic Status
  • 2nd place: Ayeda Khan – Western Medicine: Inroads for Colonialism and Neocolonial Suffocation of Indigenous Medicine

Alexandra Wong appointed data visualization librarian at York University Libraries

Alexandra Wong
Alexandra Wong

The following is a message from Jack Leong, Associate Dean of Research and Open Scholarship, York University Libraries:

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Alexandra Wong has been appointed data visualization librarian at York University Libraries following an extensive search.

Alexandra Wong
Alexandra Wong

Wong (she/her) is a graduate of the Master of Information Program at the University of Toronto, concentrating in Library and Information Sciences, and holds a Bachelor of Mathematics and Bachelor of Business Administration double-degree from the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

Wong worked for several years in the technology sector as a data analyst, where she was involved with many different products and collaborated with teammates around the world to analyze and visualize data, answer business questions and deliver better products. She will bring to YUL her extensive data experience and knowledge from her prior practice as a data analyst, working with the University of Toronto Libraries’ (UTL) Information Technology Services Department and as a research associate at the University of Toronto.

At UTL, she advanced digital collections’ metadata, particularly focusing on linked open data as a way to improve discoverability and contribute to open scholarship. She has endeavored to contribute to this growing field through partnerships throughout UTL and the Canadian library and archival systems. She looks forward to building similar collaborative efforts at York University Libraries.

Wong will begin her role on June 1. Please join me in welcoming her to York University.

Jack Leong
Associate Dean, Research and Open Scholarship
York University Libraries

Open Up to Open Education at May 6 conference

Open Education Week
Open Education Week

While York University has been formally exploring open education for a couple of years, current pandemic pressures have highlighted how open educational resources (OER) can provide students with access to free, openly licenced course learning materials from the first day of classes.

Will Gage
Will Gage

Join Will Gage, associate vice-president, teaching & learning, and Joy Kirchner, dean of libraries, on May 6 from 1 to 4 p.m. for a non-traditional conference, Open Space for Open Education, to help shape the University’s further engagement with open educational practices and OER.

If you’re not familiar with Open Education, now is a perfect time to get your feet wet. You’ll get a sense of what is already happening with regard to Open Education at York and will be able to explore possibilities for getting involved yourself, either alone or in conjunction with colleagues.

Open education is a pedagogical philosophy that removes access barriers to education. OER are foundational to the open education movement as they use open licences, such as Creative Commons licences, to make educational content freely available for faculty, students, and the public. Open education deconstructs barriers by making educational content readily available to the public and increases opportunities for society to engage in new ways of learning and creating knowledge.

“Open education makes possible the ability to reuse, revise, remix and redistribute content, creating new pedagogical opportunities that are changing the relationship instructors have with teaching and students have with learning,” says Gage.

Joy Kirchner
Joy Kirchner

Under the leadership of Gage, Kirchner and the Open Education Steering Committee, York University is coordinating and promoting the creation, mobilization and discovery of OER produced by the broader York University community. The committee is also investigating avenues towards adopting open and/or affordable course materials to enhance the student experience at York University. Your feedback and perspectives will help inform York’s actions.

“Open education is a gateway to innovative pedagogical opportunities,” says Kirchner. “It provides an avenue to pursue evolutionary teaching practices and reimagined course delivery by making content co-creation possible through open practices, while also creating a pathway for affordable education.”

Of course, there’s no need to take our word for it. Come and discover more about open education and OER for yourself on May 6. You’ll hear briefly from:

  • Sophie Bury, director, Learning Commons and Reference Services;
  • Iris Epstein, assistant professor, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health;
  • David Gelb, Chair and associate professor, Department of Design, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design;
  • Paul Maharg, distinguished professor of practice, Faculty, Osgoode Hall Law School;
  • Students of Professor Dominique Scheffel-Dunand, Department of French Studies, Faculty of LA&PS.

An Open Space Technology event (sometimes called an unconference) is unlike any meeting you’ve attended previously. Following the presentations from colleagues with experience in open education, the agenda of topics will be co-created by you and the other attendees. You will then be invited to participate in free-flowing discussions. You can virtually wander from one breakout session to another, finding conversations that intrigue you and taking away bits and pieces of various discussions to ponder.

A facilitator will be on hand to guide you through the Open Space experience, allowing you to tailor your exploration to your own needs and interests.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to help create a more inclusive future for education at York. Register now at https://oesc.library.yorku.ca/upcoming-events/open-space-for-open-education/.

If you’re interested in learning more about York’s involvement with open education, check out the recording of the Open Education Steering Committee’s March 25, 2021 event, Exploring Open Education at York University.

By Elaine Smith, special contributing writer