York professor and alumna contributes to world’s largest LGBTQ+ archives

May 3, 2018

Portrait of Nancy Nicol by her partner, Phyllis Waugh. This portrait was commissioned for the induction of Nicol into the CLGA's National Portrait Gallery. Credit: Courtesy of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives — Portrait of Nancy Nicol by her partner, Phyllis Waugh. This portrait was commissioned for the induction of Nicol into the CLGA’s National Portrait Gallery. Credit: Courtesy of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives

Talk about legacy. In spring of last year, York Professor Emeritus Nancy Nicol, documentary filmmaker and activist in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), donated her collection to the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA). The archives then established the Nancy Nicol Collection.

Based in downtown Toronto, the CLGA maintains the world’s largest independent LGBTQ+ archives. Its acquisition of Nicol’s collection is part of a long-term strategy to become a more active resource for the Canadian and LGBTQ+ communities.

Nicol, a York University alumna, describes her body of work, which documents a period of intense change in lesbian and gay rights in Canada between 1969-2009, as “a moving history, charged with optimism and resilience in the face of prejudice and ignorance.” She hopes her contribution to the Archives will be a way of remembering and celebrating this history, will provide vital materials for queer history students and researchers and will inspire future generations.

Nicol’s work reflects 40 years of lesbian and gay movement in Canada

Nicol, active in visual arts, video art, participatory documentary, research and writing since the late 1970s, taught in the Visual Arts Department at York from 1989 to 2016. Here, she assisted in the founding of the University’s Sexuality Studies and the Community Art Certificate programs.

Her contribution to filmmaking and social activism is vast, and it digs deeply into issues of human rights, social justice and struggles for social change. In her compelling documentaries, she interviewed many human rights lawyers, activists and community leaders. As a result, her work brings to life four decades of the history of the lesbian and gay movement in Canada.

Still from The End of Second Class (2006), Supreme Court hearing on equal marriage case. Credit: Courtesy of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives — Still from *The End of Second Class* (2006), Supreme Court hearing on equal marriage case. Credit: Courtesy of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives

Began in 1980s with a series on pro-choice movement

Nicol’s first ground-breaking documentary series was The Struggle for Choice (1986), which depicted the history of the pro-choice movement in Canada. She followed this up with films on women and work, labour struggles, reproductive rights, migrant workers’ rights in Canada and human rights in Northern Ireland.

In the 1990s, Nicol began what became a long-term project that traced decades of lesbian and gay rights organizing in Canada from decriminalization (in 1969) through the battles for human rights, relationship recognition and equal marriage up to 2009.

Her influential work extends beyond the border of Canada. In 2011, Nicol led an international research and participatory documentary project, “Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights,” collaborating with 31 community partners based in Canada, Africa, the Caribbean and India.

The Envisioning project resulted in many outcomes, including publications and participatory documentaries. These works include No Easy Walk To Freedom (2014), which documents the struggle for decriminalization in India, as well as And Still We Rise (2015, co-directed with Richard Lusimbo) on resistance to the anti-homosexuality act in Uganda.

A forthcoming anthology, Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights: (Neo)colonialism, Neoliberalism, Resistance and Hope, will be launched in June, 2018. It is edited by N. Nicol, A. Jjuuko, R. Lusimbo, N. J. Mulé, S. Ursel, A. Wahab and P. Waugh, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

Collection features footage and interviews of From Criminality to Equality series

The Nancy Nicol Collection is compiled of the filmmaker’s work between 1994 and 2009, including uncut footage and full-length interviews that were used in several of her documentaries. The collection features the award-winning documentary series From Criminality to Equality, which is comprised of four films: Stand Together (2002), Politics of the Heart / La Politique du Coeur (2005), The End of Second Class (2006) and The Queer Nineties (2009).

The collection also offers shorts and excerpts from documentaries by Nicol, such as Gay Pride and Prejudice (1994), Proud Lives: George Hislop (2005), Making the Political Appear, Black Queer Histories of Organizing (2006), Proud Lives: Chris Bearchell (2007), From Russia, in Love (2009), One Summer in New Paltz, A Cautionary Tale (2008) and Dykes Planning Tykes: Queering the Family Tree (2011, co-directed by Nicol and M. J. Daniel).

Still from Nicol’s From Russia, in Love (2009). Credit: Courtesy of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives — Still from Nicol’s *From Russia, in Love* (2009). Credit: Courtesy of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives

Collection documents key moments in Canadian history

The Nancy Nicol Collection documents many watershed moments in the nation’s history, including:

The birth of gay liberation in the 1970s;
The struggle for human rights protection, provincially and nationally;
The AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) crisis;
Opposition to gay rights, spanning from the 1970s to the 1990s;
The growth and increasing diversity of LGBT organizing;
The labour movement’s role in queer rights;
Struggles for relationship recognition including the Ontario’s Campaign for Equal Families and the Lesbian Mothers’ Association battle, in Quebec, for queer parenting rights; and
Key Charter rights cases that sought to advance relationship recognition, same-sex marriage, parenting and pensions.

This collection will form a lasting legacy, for both the LGBTQ+ community and all Canadians.

To read a related article published by AMPD, visit the website. For more on the Nancy Nicol Collection, view the website. To learn more about Nancy Nicol’s work, see her faculty profile. For more information on the “Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights” project, visit the blog. To learn more about the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, view the website.

To learn more about Research & Innovation at York University, follow us at @YUResearch, watch the York Research Impact Story and see the snapshot infographic.

By Megan Mueller, manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, York University, muellerm@yorku.ca

Ten York University professors awarded prestigious CFI research awards

April 18, 2018

Featured image for the postdoc research story shows the word research in black type on a white background

Ten professors at York University are among a national class of researchers to receive funding through the Canadian Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF). The infrastructure funding will enable to the researchers to pursue their research.

The funding announcement was made April 11 by Kirsty Duncan, federal minister of science and minister of sport and persons with disabilities. More than $42 million in research funding was awarded to 37 Canadian universities to support 186 new research infrastructure projects.

At York University, Professors Ali Abdul Sater, Caitlin Fisher, John Gales, Lyndsay Hayhurst, Ryan Hili, Ali Hooshyar, John McDermott, Gary Sweeney, Zheng Hong (George) Zhu and Cora Young will receive funding totalling $1,373,745 for their projects.

“York is delighted to have 10 professors from the Faculties of Science and Health, the Lassonde School of Engineering and the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design receive the John R. Evans Leaders Fund from CFI,” said Vice-President Research & Innovation Robert Haché. “A critical strategic investment tool, this funding helps institutions in attracting and retaining the very best researchers who are undertaking innovative and cutting-edge work.”

JELF plays an important research support role for Canadian universities, helping them to attract and retain top talent – particularly early-career researchers – with the state-of-the-art equipment they need to excel in their field.

The funded projects at York University are as follows:

Ali Abdul-Sater (Faculty of Health) – A Molecular Immunology Laboratory to Elucidate the Mechanisms of Immune Regulation Following Exercise ($135,000)

Studies have shown that various exercise activities affect our ability to fight infections and defend ourselves against diseases. Moderate exercise can boost our immune system, which protects us from bacterial and viral infections, whereas prolonged and intensive exercise has the opposite effect. How and why this happens remains unclear. Abdul-Sater’s research looks to answer these two questions and the infrastructure funding will help him determine which guidelines should be recommended to boost the immune system while reducing the incidence and severity of unwanted inflammation, and those that help lower infection risks. His research has important implications for Canadian athletes, who engage in intensive exercises, and consequently suffer from infections that affect their performance, as well as for the general Canadian population.

Caitlin Fisher (School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design) – Immersive Storytelling Lab ($136, 575)

The Immersive Storytelling Lab supports globally relevant content creation and technology innovation at the intersection of augmented reality and the moving image, enhancing Canada’s global presence in immersive digital storytelling. Located at York’s Cinespace Studio facility, the infrastructure supports innovative research-creation and technology development to advance best practices for content creation for immersive experiences, pioneer the ways to see the stories in which we are all already immersed and solidify Canada as a central player in conversations around the social implications of augmented reality. The lab is situated alongside a commercial film studio where researchers and their students can work and train across boundaries of art and engineering, promoting innovation and Canadian leadership in Augmented Reality.

John Gales (Lassonde School of Engineering) – Facility for Assessing the Fire Resiliency of Building Materials ($118,135)

Canada’s fire problem has worsened in recent years with several severe fires, including Lac Megantic, L’isle Verte, Fort MacMurray, and the Kingston Conflagration. Important construction material issues were identified during these fires, leading to increased uncertainty about how existing and future infrastructure responds to and recovers from fires. Gales will establish a laboratory at York University that will focus on developing fire safe, novel and sustainable materials for use in our built environment. The overall vision is for York University to become a national leader in structural fire resilience. The facility and Gales’s research will improve material manufacturing, the construction economy, building codes, designers and above al,l benefit Canadians with fire safe and sustainable infrastructure.

Lyndsay Hayhurst (Faculty of Health) – Digital Participatory Research & Physical Cultures Lab ($49,664)

The Digital Participatory Research and Physical Cultures Lab (DPRPCL) will engage and coordinate stakeholders from across the globe in DPR around physical cultural studies, sport for social justice, health and human rights. Hayhurst’s research uses DPR to explore the ways organizations, communities and marginalized individuals experience sport for development (SFD) initiatives – or the growing use of sport to achieve development objectives such as alleviating poverty and promoting gender equality. Her research program aims to use DPR to extend current SFD studies to re-envision new, more community-oriented and socially just approaches to SFD initiatives. Her research will investigate the role of non-human objects (such as the bicycle) in development initiatives and explore how structural inequalities are exacerbated by global neoliberalism as it is facilitated through corporate-funded SFD programs in Indigenous communities in Canada.

Ryan Hili (Faculty of Science) – Expanding the Chemistry of DNA ($114,626)

Hili’s research focuses on technologies that harness the replicative and encoding power of DNA toward the evolution and discovery of novel molecules capable of serving a range of functions, including artificial antibodies for biomedical research and small molecule catalyst for synthesis of fine chemicals. The infrastructure funding will provide equipment that will enable rapid custom synthesis of DNA, the rapid purification of DNA, monitor the evolution and study the results. Artificial antibodies generated through his research will be used to elucidate protein and carbohydrate function in disease, and implemented in diagnostics screens for biomarkers implicated in human disease; this will directly benefit the health of Canadians and maintain Canada’s competitiveness in biomedical research. The proposed research will also serve to develop new green screening technologies for discovery of catalysts, which can be used to bring fine chemicals to Canadian markets at lower cost and with decreased environmental impact.

Ali Hooshyar (Lassonde School of Engineering) – A real-time digital simulator to develop resilience-oriented protection systems for power grids ($150,000)

There is increasing severity, frequency and diversity of large-scale disturbances that can disrupt normal operation of power systems. The number of major climate disasters has risen substantially, and the grid has been exposed to cyber-attacks due to the expansion of communication-dependent technologies. Geomagnetic disturbances (GMDs) are causing growing concerns for utilities and regulators. Hooshyar’s research will gather the expertise and resources required for developing the next-generation digital protection methods to advance grid resilience. In the short-term, the research will focus on microgrid protection, the effects of GMDs on protection systems and cyber-security of communication-assisted protection systems. The protection methods developed will reduce the likelihood of power outages, provide Canadian relay manufacturers with resilience-oriented protection technologies and contribute to the development of 100 per cent renewable energy systems for Canadian remote communities.

John McDermott (Faculty of Science) – Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting for Muscle Cell Characterization and Purification ($200,920)

Aging primarily concerns organ function, where degenerative changes in organ systems can lead to diseases that limit both the quality and span of life. Heart disease is a major cause of death in Canada and globally. Muscle loss due to cancer drains patients of their energy, quality of life and independence due to a loss of functional muscle mass and mobility. McDermott will receive funding for a fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) system to support research related to muscle development, skeletal muscle loss associated with aging and cancer, and heart disease. He will investigate the role of specific proteins, known as transcription factors, that precisely control gene regulation of skeletal muscle and heart development. The FACS system will yield high quality, purified heart and skeletal muscle cells. The research will provide new knowledge into how heart and skeletal muscle cells grow and mature, treat heart and skeletal muscle diseases and lead to novel strategies to engineer new tissue or drug treatments.

Gary Sweeney (Faculty of Science) – Investigation of mechanisms responsible for diabetes and heart health ($180,270)

There is an established correlation between obesity and metabolic complications in skeletal muscle leading to diabetes and in the heart leading to heart failure. Muscle is the most important tissue in the body for dealing with ingested glucose and if it does not properly contribute to glucose control, then diabetes will develop. The heart must metabolize nutritional fuels to maintain pumping. Previous studies have shown that inflammation is involved in causing dysfunction of muscle and heart, but the mechanisms responsible for regulating these changes have yet to be fully determined. Sweeney’s research focuses on a cellular process called autophagy believed to be required for good housekeeping in muscle and the heart. This project will examine the interaction between innate immunity and autophagy to unravel new pathways via which metabolic dysfunction occurs in obesity to provide new knowledge on mechanisms of obesity-related, immune-metabolic dysfunction.

Cora Young (Faculty of Science) – Adaptable liquid chromatography system for online and offline analysis of trace atmospheric water-soluble compounds ($138,555)

Better understanding of environmental problems caused by pollution, including pollutant fate, air quality, and climate change, are necessary to protect human and environmental health. Study of these problems is limited by the measurements possible with existing methods. The requested unique, state-of-the-science instrumentation will allow development of new measurement methods for several pollutants that harm the environment. These new methods will be used to address gaps in our knowledge of the fate and transport of endocrine disrupting chemicals, sources of air pollution, and drivers of climate change through a combination of laboratory experiments and environmental measurements. The information gained from these studies will allow Canadian policy makers to better understand and predict the negative impacts of pollution and provide the basis for improved regulation.

Zheng Hong (George) Zhu (Lassonde School of Engineering) – Nanotechnology Enhanced Multifunctional Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Space Structures ($150,000)

The driving force of space sector is mass reduction at launch. Zhu’s project will use the JELF infrastructure funding to develop the first manufacturing lab for Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composite materials for spacecraft at York University. CFRP’s high strength-to-mass ratio and superior conformability to complex shapes has led to increasing adaptation of CFRPs in spacecraft to substitute metal parts or replace structures made from several parts with a single CFRP component. CFRPs are typically made of carbon fibre sheets with pre-impregnated polymers called prepregs. Prepregs are layered up as required and cured into a part at high pressure and temperature. A recent paradigm shift in mass saving in space sector is multifunctional CFRPs that integrate non-structural properties by adding carbon nanotubes (CNTs). However, it is not economically viable to pre-impregnate fibres with various CNT-polymer combinations to meet diverse end user requirements. The research seeks to develop a cost-efficient alternative to make multifunctional CFRPs with regular prepregs and CNTs using existing CFRP manufacturing processes. This innovative technology will allow great freedoms in making custom multifunctional CFRPs. The infrastructure will enable the new technology development and speedup its transfer from lab to industry.

York professors, TCDSB teachers launch Filipino curriculum

April 11, 2018

The PASSOC launch event held at the Catholic Education Centre on 8 March 2018

A collaborative project between York University and the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) to create curriculum content that reflects the cultural identity of Filipino students officially launched in March.

York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) faculty associates and TCDSB teachers and staff introduced the final products of the Philippine Arts and Social Sciences in the Ontario Curriculum (PASSOC) project.

Collaboratively developed over the past eight months, the three curriculum packs produced by the project team introduce elementary school students to the Philippines and Filipino migrations through the social sciences, geography and dance.

PASSOC is a pun – in Filipino, the verb “pasok” means to enter. Philip F. Kelly, professor of geography at York, explained that he began this project to provide an entry point where Filipino students would see themselves in the curriculum, but also as a gateway for all students to understand the Philippines and Filipino experiences in Canada.

“The PASSOC project is a groundbreaking achievement because it allows Filipino students, who in some districts can constitute up to 90 per cent of incoming classes, to see their lived experiences and their histories reflected in the curriculum,” said Ethel Tungohan, assistant professor of politics at York. Tungohan worked on the PASSOC Social Sciences curriculum pack.

The curriculum packs include detailed lesson plans that make clear links to Ontario curriculum objectives for Grade 6 social studies, Grade 8 geography and Grades 6 to 8 dance. The lessons are pedagogically rich and innovative. They include slide decks, questions for guided discussions and a range of activities that capture an array of learning styles. They also include instructions for intermittent and culminating assessments.

“Our goal was to develop curriculum material that would fit right in with the work that teachers in Grades 6 to 8 are already doing to address issues of cultural diversity, immigration and global inequality,” said Kelly. “These curriculum packs will now provide teachers with examples and exercises that draw on Philippine culture and society, and Filipino experiences in Canada.”

Merle Gonsalvez, a teacher at St. Ursula (TCDSB), said she is encouraged by the interest in the curriculum packs since they were launched.

“As a board, we are starting to realize that our audience is changing, and I think the ministry should work on keeping up with the diversity we see in our classrooms,” she said. “Seeing the PASSOC example makes me wonder what more we can do for other communities represented in our student body. I think the more we target our curriculum to our audience, the more learning will occur.”

One of the unique aspects of the project is its collaborative approach to curriculum development. YCAR faculty associates Kelly, Tungohan and Patrick Alcedo worked closely with TCDSB teachers Michelle Aglipay, Fredeliza de Jesus, Christella Duplessis-Sutherland, Gonsalvez, Patt Olivieri and Jennilee Santican. They collaborated on all aspects of the project, from thinking through big-picture pedagogical questions to creating exercises for each subject area. The project was coordinated by TCDSB teacher and researcher Marissa Largo.

“Collaborating with TCDSB teachers was one of the best experiences I have had,” said Tungohan. “The TCDSB teachers on the PASSOC team were brilliant and energetic. They helped ensure that teachers will find it easy to adapt the curriculum materials and, most importantly, that the lesson plans we created clearly map onto learning targets for each grade.”

Alcedo, associate professor of dance at York, said this collaboration was a “dream come true” for him as a researcher and performer of Philippine dance.

“Working with TCDSB teachers on Philippine dance is a highlight of my research and teaching career at York. I hope that this historic effort to include folk dances of the Philippines and their fascinating cultural, historical, geographical and material contexts will grow to include secondary students within the TCDSB and beyond,” he said.

The PASSOC curriculum packs were launched at an event at the Catholic Education Centre in Toronto on March 8.

“We were delighted to have more than 30 teachers from across the city learning about the curriculum materials we have developed at the launch event. Our hope is that they will spread the word to teachers across the school board and beyond,” said Kelly.

Gonsalvez has already started implementing the PASSOC curriculum pack in her Grade 8 geography class at St. Ursula Catholic School in Scarborough.

“It is a refreshing change from the typical Eurocentric curriculum,” she said.

“Ultimately, we hope that Filipino kids will see themselves in the mainstream curriculum in a way that affirms and acknowledges their background and experiences,” said Kelly. “We think that this kind of responsive pedagogy will serve to heighten their self-esteem and aspirations as they continue on their educational journey.”

The curriculum packs can be downloaded at the PASSOC project website.

Q&A with Michael Greyeyes on his dance-opera as a vehicle for healing Canada

March 1, 2018

Michael Greyeyes. Credit: Jeremy Mimnaugh

Michael Greyeyes, former Director of the Graduate Program in Theatre at York University and critically acclaimed actor/director/choreographer, joined forces with playwright Yvette Nolan to produce Bearing, a dance-opera about Canada’s residential school system that débuted at Toronto’s Luminato Festival last spring. While the last such schools closed in the 1990s, the aftermath of this painful social experiment to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture, resonates to this day in Indigenous communities and across the nation. It is woven into the present-day fabric of our country.

Bearing was a deeply personal endeavour as both Greyeyes and Nolan’s parents attended residential schools. To create the work, Greyeyes, a Plains Cree, and Nolan, an Algonquin, collaborated with librettist Spy Denommé-Welch, who is Anishnaabe.

In this Q&A, Greyeyes sits down with Brainstorm to talk about the goals and impact of Bearing, what it meant to him personally and the supportive environment at York.

Q: What was the impetus or the driving force behind Bearing?
A: My co-creator and co-director, Yvette Nolan, and I, as Indigenous people, have been dealing with the aftermath of Indian residential schools pretty much our entire lives. Indigenous families are affected by this piece of history in countless ways. It’s akin to someone who has been displaced, like a family from a war-torn country. It’s so significant that it affects your life constantly, even if the war’s over, you’ve moved to another country or your country has rebuilt. Things impact you, they haunt you still.

As artists, we’ve been making work that is marked by this history. Bearing is our deepest examination of that fallout.

Q: What is the story of Bearing?

A: Bearing revolves around a family ̶ a metaphor for a community or a nation. We looked at the family because residential schools broke apart families. At the heart of our drama is a family impacted and torn apart by residential schools.

Over the course of the three acts, we are introduced to this family, they interact with the Canadians around them and, in the end, the family is brought together again. So, the journey for the audience charts the progression of the Indigenous family, how they were separated by this history, by circumstance, by their trauma and, ultimately, how they find their way back to each other.

Q: The final act speaks to a deeper understanding, to healing, to what it means to bear some of the weight of this history. How did you accomplish this?

A: When we look at the body of work that’s out there – and it’s a growing body of work since many people are addressing residential schools in literature, performance and visual art – what I’ve seen is an historical approach, primarily. Indigenous artists are required, quite unfortunately, to educate Canadians around this history.

“History is not gone, forgotten, over. History plays out into our present; it is part of our current experience, our everyday lives.” – Michael Greyeyes

We wanted to present something quite different. This is what I suggested to my collaborators: Let’s look at what residential schools means today, in this moment, on this street. That’s where the drama lives. We did this very purposefully to make apparent, for Canadian audiences, a truth that Indigenous people have been living with for a long time: History is not gone, forgotten, over. History plays out into our present; it is part of our current experience, our everyday lives.

That’s how Bearing is remarkably different compared to other works. It’s about now, about how people survive trauma, how we live with each other, how we collectively live with that trauma.

The premise of the work is this: Unless we, as a larger Canadian community, acknowledge and accept that history, accept our complicity in those events and how this affects all of us – not just Indigenous people – then there really is no chance the nation can move forward as a whole.

Q: Bearing premiered at Luminato. What did it mean to you as an Indigenous person and an actor/director/choreographer to unveil this work to the world?

A: It was a very proud moment for me as the Artistic Director of Signal. Bearing was our most ambitious project. I was particularly proud of the quality of the work.

When Bearing was being created, I was also working on the AMC television series “Fear the Walking Dead,” filming in Mexico. So Yvette, Nancy Greyeyes, my wife and co-choreographer, and Brittany Ryan, our general manager, led the final weeks of Bearing rehearsals.

The strength of that kind of collaboration really came forward. I feel that Bearing is our finest work. It was a collective effort. This represents Indigenous ways of working, of power sharing, and how we communicate and work together.

“Unless we, as a larger Canadian community, acknowledge and accept that history, accept our complicity in those events and how this affects all of us – not just Indigenous people – then there really is no chance the nation can move forward as a whole.” – Michael Greyeyes

Q: What kind of feedback have you received?

A: The feedback was tremendously gratifying. People were deeply moved by the work and struck by its great beauty. With live music, it was a very powerful kind of document. Live theatre affects people in ways that film can never hope to.

I think the experience from audiences was incredibly positive. They walked away from it saying that it was a profound experience. That makes me, as one of the collaborators, deeply proud.

Scene from Bearing. Credit: Dahlia Katz — Scene from *Bearing*. Credit: Dahlia Katz

Q: How has York’s Theatre Program, in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), supported your work?

A: I’ve always felt a great deal of support from my colleagues at York. I’m always impressed by the generosity of the department and my colleagues.

As a long-time York faculty, I recognize the quality of the graduates that we produce. I’m always seeking an opportunity to work with York students and colleagues. For example, Aria Evans, one of our main performers, is a York grad, as is Ervin Chow. Our brilliant costume designer, Joanna Yu is a graduate of the theatre department, as was our award-winning lighting designer, Michelle Ramsay. The chance to work with very talented professional artists from York is truly gratifying.

A related article, “Theatre prof’s dance-opera explores the legacy of residential schools,” was published by AMPD (June 2017). For more information about Greyeyes, visit his faculty page. To learn more about Signal Theatre, visit the website.

To learn more about Research & Innovation at York, follow us at @YUResearch, watch the York Research Impact Story and see the snapshot infographic.

By Megan Mueller, manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, York University, muellerm@yorku.ca

York research, archives part of events that explore Toronto’s culture and history

February 28, 2018

Broadview and Danforth (image: Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections Toronto Telegram Fond)

Events running as part of the annual Myseum of Toronto’s Intersections Festival will share York University research and archival material through an evening of film, an interactive exhibit and a walking tour that explores the city’s cultural and historical diversity.

The Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections (CTASC) of York University Libraries and its community partners present the material as part of the festival, thanks to the work of York archivists Anna St. Onge and Katrina Cohen-Palacios; York History Professor Sakis Gekas, Greek Canadian History Project (GCHP); York History PhD graduates Jay Young (Archives of Ontario) and Christopher Grafos (GCHP); York’s School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD) masters graduate Ananya Ohri (Regent Park Film Festival); and York History PhD candidate Michael Akladios, Coptic Canadian History Project (CCHP).

Film

On Thursday, March 8, from 6 to 7:30pm at the Palmerston Toronto Public Library Theatre, Motion Pictures: Immigration Films from the Vaults of Toronto’s Archives will demonstrate the role of moving images within the creation and dissemination of stories of immigration, and the integral role of Toronto-area archives in the preservation of such films.

CTASC and the Archives of Ontario will screen archival film footage that explores how the medium of film contributes towards – and sometimes questions – narratives of immigration and multiculturalism, and the importance of archives as repositories for key records of the immigrant past.

During the event, the Regent Park Film Festival (RPFF) will present its innovative project Home Made Visible which aims to address an important gap in the preservation and celebration of the home movie footage of Indigenous and Visible Minority Canadians. CTASC is the RPFF’s archival partner in this project.

Interactive exhibit

From March 12 to 24, St. Mark’s Coptic Museum and the Coptic Canadian History Project (CCHP) will present The Journeys of the Copts and their Artifacts, showcasing the culture, immigration, and achievements of Egypt’s Coptic Christian diaspora in Toronto and Canada through three initiatives in public programming.

A multimedia talk on March 12, 22 (6:30pm) and 24 (3pm) will explore the topic of “St. Mark’s Parish: Copts’ Journey Through Toronto’s Places of Worship, 1962-1978.” As well, a new exhibition will share the museum’s history and milestones alongside the stories, challenges, and achievements of 33 Coptic professionals. While displaying the museum’s first artifacts and memorabilia, the museum will also launch a historic series of contemporary narrative icons by iconographer Victor Asaad Fakhoury, which masterfully chronicle events that have affected the Coptic Church and Copts in Egypt since the so-called “Arab Spring” in 2011.

Walking tour

On March 24 and 25 at 10:30am and 2:30pm, A Historical Walking Tour of the Danforth will be led by the Greek Canadian History Project (GCHP) to illuminate Greek immigrant life and the history of Greektown in previously unexplored ways. The event will take participants to important historical sites that currently escape our collective memory.

Broadview and Danforth (image: Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections Toronto Telegram Fond)

Accompanied by materials from CTASC, the tour will highlight political, gender, spiritual, and cultural elements of Greek life on the Danforth from the 1960s to the 1990s, when Danforth was a space where newly-arrived, predominantly semi-rural Greek immigrants intersected with and shaped Toronto’s urban setting.

Tours taking place on March 25 will occur before and after the Greek Independence Day parade, which is an annual commemorative event in Toronto’s Greektown.

All are welcome to attend these events, and individuals are encouraged to RSVP on each event’s website.

For more information, visit the Myseum: Intersections website.

Painter Sandra Meigs to give the 2018 Goldfarb Lecture in Visual Arts, Feb. 27

February 26, 2018

A paintbrush on a palette

Painter Sandra Meigs is the featured speaker for the 2018 Goldfarb Lecture in Visual Arts on Feb. 27, from 6 to 7:30pm, in Room 312, Joan & Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts, Keele campus.

Throughout her career Meigs has explored possibilities for painting as a model of the mind, the physical world and metaphysical thought. She will speak about her use of personal experience as a greater source for universal discovery. In her works throughout the past four decades from Performance with 20 Dresses (1974) to Room for Mystics (2017), there is a common thread of inquiry into what painting actually is: enchantment with form.

For more than 35 years Meigs has created vivid, immersive and enigmatic paintings that combine complex narratives with comic elements. She derives the content of her work from her own personal experiences and develops these to create visual metaphors related to the psyche.

Born in Baltimore in 1953, Meigs studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (BFA ’75), and Dalhousie University (MA ’80). She has lived and worked in Canada since 1973.

Recently retired, Meigs has been a dedicated teacher at the University of Victoria for 24 years and has mentored hundreds of visual art students throughout her professorship. She now resides in Hamilton, Ont.

Admission is free. All are welcome.

The Goldfarb Lecture in Visual Arts is made possible through the generous support of Joan and Martin Goldfarb, long-standing benefactors of the Department of Visual Art & Art History and the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design at York University.

Take a journey through time with Vanier Improv Company

February 23, 2018

Take a journey through time on March 6, when the Vanier Improv Company presents Vic In Time at 8:30pm at the Fred Thury Studio Theatre.

The improvisational theatre group, which runs as part of York University’s Vanier College Productions, presents this show, directed by Sara D’Agostino, assistant directed by Nicole Campbell and stage managed by Soraya Aghbali.

It could be dangerous, might be scary, has potential to be spooky and will definitely be weird. Take a one-way trip … somewhere! Soon! Or later. Or now.

Tickets and passes are on sale at the door (cash only):

$5 at the door
$15 VIC season pass

To reach the theatre, take the stairs or elevator on the east side of Vanier College to the second floor.

For more information, visit the Vanier College Productions website or send inquires by email.

York, TCDSB launch project to introduce Filipino content in Ontario curriculum

February 21, 2018

The PASSOC team

The PASSOC (Philippine Arts and Social Studies in the Ontario Curriculum) project aims to develop new learning materials for Grades 6 to 8 that highlight the Philippines and Filipinos in the diaspora, to support the increasing number of Filipino students in the school system.

The curriculum content is designed to affirm Filipino experiences and identities, and will ‘mainstream’ the Philippines as a topic of study in three subject/grade areas: Grade 6 social studies, Grade 6 to 8 dance, and Grade 8 geography.

The PASSOC team — (Front row): Professor Philip Kelly (geography, LAPS); Jennilee Santican, (St. Maria Goretti); Michelle Aglipay, (St. Brigid); Patt Olivieri, (Curriculum Leadership & Innovation, TDSB); Professor Ethel Tungohan (political science and social science, LAPS); (back row): Marissa Largo, (Mary Ward); Jodelyn Huang (TCDSB community relations officer); Merle Gonsalvez, (St. Ursula); Christella Duplessis-Sutherland (St. Timothy); Professor Patrick Alcedo, (dance, AMPD); Fredeliza de Jesus, (St. Paul)

Since June 2017, faculty associates from the York Centre for Asian Research, professors from York’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and the School of the Arts, Media, Production & Design, along with teachers and staff from the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB), have been involved in developing school curriculum material focused on the Philippines and Filipino migrations.

The curriculum materials developed by the project provide classroom-ready material relating to the Philippines and Filipino communities.

This launch event, which runs from 9am to 2pm in room 519 of Kaneff Tower, will feature presentations and demonstrations by the researchers and teachers who wrote the PASSOC curriculum materials.

The PASSOC project is supported by: Canadian Heritage Canada 150 Fund, York University Canada 150 Fund, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University, and Canada 150 | Unity in Diversity:Fusion of Communities in Canada.

Vanier College Productions stages Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5: The Musical’

February 21, 2018

With themes as relevant today as when it was conceived nearly 40 years ago, the upbeat story of three friends who conspire to take control of their workplace comes to the Fred Thury Studio Theatre when Vanier College Productions stages 9 to 5: The Musical from March 2 to 11.

Based on the seminal 1980 hit movie, the theatre production is about three colleagues who attempt to take control of their company and learn there’s nothing they can’t do.

Pushed to the boiling point by their boss, the three female co-workers concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot. With a plan that spins wildly and hilariously out of control, Violet, Judy and Doralee live out their wildest fantasy, giving their boss the boot.

While Hart remains “otherwise engaged,” the women give their workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down.

Outrageous, thought-provoking and even a little romantic, 9 to 5: The Musical is about teaming up and getting credit, and taking care of business.

The music and lyrics are by Dolly Parton, and book by Patricia Resnick. This production is directed by Catherine Bernardi, with musical direction by Andrew Ascenzo and Yvonne Choi. Choreography is by Kristen Freed, and the stage manager is Vicky Tan.

The production runs March 2 to 11, Wednesday to Saturday at 8pm and Saturday and Sunday at 2pm. The March 10 performance at 2pm is a relaxed performance.

For tickets and information visit Vanier College Productions online.

Deadline to donate a dress to The REDress Project is Feb. 26

February 20, 2018

The Indigenous Students Association at Glendon, in partnership with a number of campus partners, is bringing the The REDress Project to York University this March. In advance of the project, organizers are hoping to collect 300 donated red dresses, which will then be used as part of an art installation. The REDress Project was created in 2010 by Winnipeg-based Métis artist Jaime Black. The donated red dresses will be placed around the University’s campuses to draw attention to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) in Canada.

The REDress Project is part of a week of special events running from March 5 to 9:

On March 5, from 3 to 4pm, in the Glendon cafeteria at the Glendon Campus, Jingle Dancer Wendy Brewster and the drumming group Spirit Wind, will perform
On March 6, from 1 to 2pm, in Vari Hall at the Keele Campus, Wendy Brewster and Spirit Wind return to give another performance.
On March 7, from 6 to 8pm, at the Lunik Co-op Café at the Glendon Campus, Glendon’s Anishinaabe Linguistics Professor Maya Chacaby will give a keynote talk.
On March 8, from 6 to 8pm, at The Underground Restaurant in the Student Centre at the Keele Campus, The REDress Project Creator Jamie Black will deliver a keynote presentation prior to a panel discussion featuring York University Professors Bonita Lawrence, Ruth Kolezar-Green and Nicole Penak with Aboriginal Students Association at York executive member Erin Goulais.

The York University community can take part in the project by contributing their own red dresses to the project. Red dresses will be collected at various locations on the Keele Campus, but only until Feb. 26. Any community member who would like to donate a dress to the project can drop it off at any of the following Keele Campus locations:

The RED Zone (Vari Hall)
Community Safety Centre (William Small Centre)
Office of the President (1050 Kaneff Tower)
Tait McKenzie Centre
ACMAPS (111 Central Square)
Centre for Aboriginal Student Services (246 York Lanes)
Kinsmen Building reception
Office of the Dean, Faculty of Health (HNES 443)
Admission Client Services Welcome Desk (W320 Bennett Centre for Student Services)
Registrarial Services Triage Desk (W120 Bennett Centre for Student Services)
Office of the Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies (York Lanes 230)
Office of the Dean, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (201 Joan and Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts)
Department of Dance, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (301 Accolade East Building)
Department of Cinema & Media Arts, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (223 Centre For Film & Theatre)
Winters College Office (Winters 121)
Department of Visual Art & Art History and Department of Computational Arts, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (235A Joan and Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts)
Office of the Dean, Faculty of Environment Studies (139G Health, Nursing & Environmental Studies Building)

Dresses can also be dropped off at three Dress for Success locations:

188 Lowther Ave., Toronto, ON M5R 1E8
320 Bayfield St., Unit 121, Barrie, ON L4M 3C1
10 Peter St., Orillia, ON L3V 5A2

More about The REDress Project

The REDress Project has a national scope, drawing focus to the more than 1000 unresolved cases of missing and murdered women, girls and two-spirited persons in Canada.

The goal of The REDress Project is to create an open discussion about the gendered and racialized nature of oppression of Indigenous women since colonization. Using donated red dresses, Black creates an installation art project that serves as a visual reminder of the missing and murdered women, girls and two-spirited persons.

More information as it becomes available will be posted on YFile and the York University Events page.

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