Newspaper cites York research in money-laundering story

A York University study of RCMP-investigated money laundering cases suggests that if the province is thinking about adding plain-clothed officers to curb money laundering, they should be posted in banks, where the majority of laundering activities take place in Canada, wrote the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal Aug. 22, in a story about plans for a new casino in Moncton, NB.

York art historian’s work is noted in The New York Times

If the issue of slavery lurks in the background of Joseph Wright’s portraits, it is unavoidable in “A Conversation of Girls” (1770), wrote The New York Times Aug. 18 in a review of an exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, CT. In this painting three girls — two white, one black — surround an urn on a pedestal. The black girl, differentiated by her striped dress and cropped hair as well as her skin tone, kneels before the others with an offering of flowers and jewels. One of her companions, brown-haired, keeps her distance; the other, a redhead, grasps the bouquet and gives the viewer a searching look.

In a catalogue essay, the scholar Sarah Parsons [a visual arts professor in York’s Faculty of Fine Arts], suggests that the painting was Wright’s way of stirring discussion on slavery without going so far as to take a position that would threaten his livelihood, wrote the Times. Her interpretation seems plausible, but the girls’ oddly adult features — compared with contemporaneous portraits of children in the next gallery — make them seem more like figures in an allegory.

York student’s work featured at local film festival

Vince Pilon, who’s currently studying film production at York University – and who’s already well on his way locally to making a name for himself in the art – is submitting two films, including a brand new feature-length production, The Blue Dress Princess, wrote the Cornwall Standard Freeholder Aug. 22, in a story about the Aug. 30 Seaway Film Festival at Cornwall’s Port Theatre.

On air

  • Songwriter and singer Tyler Rose, 18, was interviewed about her coming year as a student at York, on CFRB Radio Aug. 21.
  • Ian Roberge, political science professor at York’s Glendon College, spoke about the upcoming federal by-election in Don Valley West, on Radio Canada (Toronto) Aug. 22.
  • Chantal Joy, assistant director, residence life, in York’s Centre for Student Community & Leadership Development, spoke about living on campus, on Global TV News Aug. 21.