Call for nominations: Ian Greene Award for Teaching Excellence
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The Ian Greene Award for Teaching Excellence is an annual, merit-based award given to one professor and one teaching assistant (TA) in York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) who have demonstrated excellence in teaching and supporting their students.
The award was created by former students of Professor Emeritus Ian Greene – from York’s School of Public Policy & Administration – in recognition of his outstanding drive and efforts to make learning a unique experience. The award is overseen and presented by the Student Council of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (SCOLAPS).
Award nominations are open to LA&PS students only, ensuring that truly outstanding professors and TAs receive the recognition they deserve. Each student is eligible to nominate one professor and one TA of their choice. Nominees do not need to have taught the students this academic year, but they must be current, practising members of the University’s academic staff.
Recipients are selected by a five-person adjudication committee made up entirely of students. The committee is formed by the award director, a student position elected within the SCOLAPS executive.
Pest control treatments scheduled for April 19 to 21
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Pest control applications at the Keele and Glendon campuses for Food Services-contracted areas will begin on Friday, April 19 at 5 p.m. and end on Sunday, April 21 at 5 p.m.
Work is undertaken using accepted practices and approved materials by Professional PCO Services, which holds an Eco Green Ergonomic Extermination certificate from the Ministry of the Environment. A work permit has been submitted and approved by York University’s Health, Safety & Employee Well-Being office.
Monitoring and treatment of component applications will be carried out in the Food Services locations listed below:
Location
Campus
Building Name
Glendon Campus Marché Cafeteria
Glendon Campus
York Hall
Glendon Campus Tim Hortons
Glendon Campus
York Hall, A Wing
Bergeron Market
Keele Campus
Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence
Central Square Cafeteria
Keele Campus
Central Square
Central Square Tim Hortons
Keele Campus
Central Square
Central Square Booster Juice
Keele Campus
Central Square
Central Square Pizza Pizza
Keele Campus
Central Square
Central Square Starbucks
Keele Campus
Central Square
Central Square Subway
Keele Campus
Central Square
Centre for Film & Theatre Starbucks
Keele Campus
Centre for Film & Theatre
Dahdaleh Cafeteria
Keele Campus
Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Building
Dahdaleh Tim Hortons
Keele Campus
Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Building
Lassonde Palgong Tea
Keele Campus
Lassonde Building
Osgoode Hall Bistro
Keele Campus
Ignat Kaneff Building, Osgooge Hall
Stong College Orange Snail
Keele Campus
Stong College
Stong College Cafeteria
Keele Campus
Stong College
William Small Centre Tim Hortons
Keele Campus
William Small Centre
Winters College Country Style
Keele Campus
Winters College
Winters College Cafeteria
Keele Campus
Winters College
Grad Lounge
Keele Campus
Ross Building
Pod
Keele Campus
Curtis Lecture Halls
For further information, contact John Leva, manager of grounds, fleet and waste management, Facilities Services, at jleva@yorku.ca; or Tom Watt, director of food services, Ancillary Services, at watttm@yorku.ca.
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York to host, lead graduate supervision conference
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One of the foundational relationships of the graduate student experience is the one between student and supervisor. As part of its 60th anniversary celebrations, York University’s Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) is hosting an online graduate supervision conference geared specifically toward supervisors.
Held in partnership with Memorial University of Newfoundland, the conference – called Collaborative, Constructive, Considerate: Fostering Dialogue on Best Practices in Graduate Supervision in Canada – will be held virtually on Friday, May 31 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The conference will bring together graduate supervisors from universities across Canada, with the aim to lead and foster dialogue about best practices in supervisory pedagogy.
Cheryl van Daalen-Smith
“We need to continue talking about principles and best practices,” says Cheryl van Daalen-Smith, conference Chair and associate dean, academic of FGS
The conference is intended to fill a need for schools of graduate studies, which understand that more conversations have to happen about supervision.
“There’s an assumption that one learns to be a supervisor by being supervised themselves,” she says, “when there’s so much more to it.”
A cornerstone of the academic environment, graduate education and the graduate supervisory experience play a pivotal role in shaping students’ academic and professional journeys. This relationship has a profound effect on the quality of research produced, development of academic skills and overall academic experience.
The conference will include a keynote address delivered by Bruce Shore, author of The Graduate Advisor Handbook: A Student-Centred Approach, titled “Connections to Quagmires: Setting Up for Successful Supervision.” A second keynote speech, by Supervising Conflict author Heather McGhee Peggs, will offer practical advice to help faculty manage the most common grad school concerns.
Experts in the pragmatics of supervision, mediating conflict and the requisite principles guiding Ontario universities will participate in a panel discussion to follow, examining the Principles for Graduate Supervision at Ontario Universities, which were developed last year by the Ontario Council on Graduate Studies.
A closing discussion moderated by van Daalen-Smith will end the day, with a focus on the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies Working Group Initiative and its mission to establish a set of national graduate supervision principles.
“We need to celebrate great supervision and foster discussions that identify exactly what it is that makes this pivotal educative role in graduate studies so influential,” says van Daalen-Smith.
The conference is free to attend, and registration is now open via the online form. For more information, visit the event web page.
York’s Institute for Technoscience & Society looks to shape public debate, policy
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Credit: Zoran Svilar
York University’s Institute for Technoscience & Society (ITS), established in 2022 as an Associated Research Centre of the new Connected Minds: Neural and Machine Systems for a Healthy, Just Society initiative, is on a mission to build a global hub focused on the complex relationship between technoscience – the scientific study of how humans interact with technology – and society. In particular, the institute is committed to unravelling the configuration of social power that underpins science, medicine, technology and innovation.
According to Professor Kean Birch, the inaugural director of ITS, the institute was established to cement York’s international standing and reputation in disciplines such as science and technology studies, communication and media studies, design, critical data studies, the history and philosophy of science, and other related fields in which York is a global leader. Aligned with the University’s Strategic Research Plan, especially when it comes to the topics of digital cultures and disruptive technologies, its members are actively engaged in research on the social, political, and economic implications of artificial intelligence (AI) and neuroscience.
Kean Birch
Birch is enthusiastic about the future of research in this area: “We’re seeing a lot of interest in these topics,” he says, “especially in the societal implications of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and other digital technologies.”
He insists, however, the institute’s depth in expertise is not limited to those areas, extending into topics such as the history of science through games design, the global governance of biotechnology and pharmaceutical innovation.
To support this diversity of knowledge, ITS is organized into the following four research clusters to help create synergies and support collaboration:
Technoscientific Injustices, which deals with the implications of emerging technoscience, its impacts on different social groups, and how to create just and inclusive science and technologies;
Technoscientific Economies, which deals with the entanglement of science and with different economies, what kinds of innovation get promoted by which kinds of economy, and how to support responsible and inclusive innovation;
Technoscientific Pasts & Futures, which deals with how the future of science and technology is bound up with our pasts and how the past helps us to build hopeful visions of and policies for the future; and
Technoscientific Bodies & Minds, which deals with the societal implications of prevailing understandings of health risks, diseases, and health-care delivery, as well as how prevailing understandings reinforce social injustices, inequities and divisions.
The institute is making its impact known in Canadian debates about the role of science and technology in society. Recently, Birch was interviewed by the CBC about the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against Apple Inc. for antitrust violations; and his recent opinion pieces about personal data as a collective asset and the social costs of generative AI were published in the Globe and Mail.
ITS plans to continue on this trajectory through regular events and policy briefing papers, as well as interventions in public and policy debates.
“York is incredibly well-placed to make an important social, political, and economic impact when it comes to these issues,” explains Birch, “because of the institutional strength and expertise of faculty and early career researchers here.”
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Schulich partnership seeks to address global infrastructure gap
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Schulich Real Assets – an area within York University’s Schulich School of Business that focuses on tangible investments – is teaming up with the Global Infrastructure Investor Association (GIIA) to offer the next generation of leaders more tools and resources to help them tackle the climate crisis through sustainable infrastructure projects.
This new partnership is designed to help increase private investment into infrastructure projects that are supporting the global transition to cleaner energy.
Jim Clayton
“We look forward to working together with GIIA and its members towards the common goal of promoting an infrastructure investment ecosystem that mobilizes private capital,” said Professor Jim Clayton, the Timothy R. Price Chair in Real Estate and Infrastructure at Schulich and the MREI program director. “We are excited by the alignment and synergy of the collaboration.”
Through new research and educational programming opportunities, Schulich students will now be empowered with knowledge and resources to deliver the infrastructure that communities need to thrive, with GIIA’s global membership base also helping them to expand their networks and experience.
“It is critical to empower emerging leaders in our industry with the skills and specialist knowledge that enables them to unlock the potential for infrastructure investment, so we can grow the market, and bring in the capital to make the major investments that governments alone cannot afford,” said Jon Phillips, chief executive officer of GIIA, which represents 100 of the world’s leading investors and advisors in infrastructure.
“Since Canada is already a hub for innovation in the infrastructure investment industry, partnering with Schulich makes good sense,” he said.
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Staff member illustrates leadership in globally networked learning
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Francesca Boschetti, associate director of the York University English Language Institute (YUELI) in the School of Continuing Studies, gave a talk at the Languages Canada Annual Conference in Vancouver showcasing her groundbreaking work in globally networked learning.
Francesca Boschetti
A collaborative approach to research and teaching that allows students, instructors and researchers from around the world to work together, globally networked learning holds a special place in Boschetti’s heart because of her own journey as a language student and advocate for multiculturalism.
“I grew up in Italy and studied multiple foreign languages throughout my schooling and into university, where I concentrated on language teaching and learning,” explains Boschetti, who has spent her career figuring out how to best weave internationalization initiatives into language programs in the Canadian university setting.
Boschetti’s talk, titled “Globally Networked Learning: Internationalization at Home in English Language Classes,” focused on setting up virtual exchanges to provide students from universities in different parts of the world with an opportunity to connect with each other and enhance their intercultural communication and networking skills.
To illustrate her approach, Boschetti discussed the globally networked learning project she launched in collaboration with York International and YUELI in Winter 2022 – a year-long virtual exchange between English for Academic Purposes students at YUELI and English for Hotel Administration students at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), a university in the Dominican Republic. Students involved in the exchange interacted through online activities, including message board chats, group discussions on Zoom, and friendly competitions and games.
“Cross-cultural communication and collaboration have a transformative power,” says Boschetti. “Witnessing our students thrive in the classroom, honing their language skills, forging new friendships and gaining invaluable cultural insights reaffirms my commitment to fostering an inclusive, globally connected learning environment.”
In her presentation, Boschetti detailed how the institute identified a university partner, designed programming, collaborated with instructors and engaged different cohorts of students. She shared the best practices, learning outcomes, strategies and challenges they encountered.
Many attendees approached her afterwards, seeking advice on how to successfully launch similar programs at their own institutions, which is exactly the response she was hoping for.
“As we thrive to enrich the student experience,” says Boschetti, “initiatives such as virtual language exchanges serve as catalysts for meaningful engagement and intercultural dialogue.”
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