Justice Fund announces gift to York for Black, Indigenous students’ arts education
Share
This fall, 14 Black and Indigenous students will be eligible to apply for financial support to attend York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), following a $100,000 donation announced at the Justice Fund Summit: Lover of Humanity last week.
Sarah Bay-Cheng
The recently announced Justice Fund Bursaries are valued at $7,143 each. While eligible first-year students will be given priority, the bursaries are open to all Black and Indigenous students in AMPD who demonstrate involvement in community and social-justice work, sharing the vision of the Justice Fund and its co-founders, Yonis Hassan, Noah “40” Shebib and Jermyn Creed.
“We are grateful for the support of the Justice Fund and very proud to be partners in advancing opportunities for youth in Toronto,” says AMPD Dean Sarah Bay-Cheng, who took part in the summit on Aug. 3, where similar partnerships focused on priority communities were made.
Bay-Cheng was also a panellist at the summit’s Fireside Chat – along with Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and John Wiggins, vice-president of organizational culture and inclusion for the Toronto Raptors. Bay-Cheng shared her own experiences, including challenges and arts- and culture-based solutions for youth and underserved communities in the city and beyond.
York University Professor Louise Wrazen of the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), who joined the Department of Music in 2006 and served as Chair from 2010 to 2013 and 2019 to 2021, passed away suddenly on July 14 following a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. She died peacefully in the arms of her husband of 40 years, Alistair Macrae.
Louise Wrazen
The only daughter of the late Ted (Tadeusz) Wrazen and the late Janet Wrazen (née Sidorkewicz) and loving mother of Michael and Emily Macrae, she will be mourned by her beloved in-laws, Jane Hamer (David), Robbie Macrae (Naoko) and Martha Macrae, and by colleagues, alumni and students at York University.
Wrazen earned her bachelor of music in 1979, master of arts in musicology in 1981 and PhD in 1988, all from the University of Toronto. She taught at the Ontario College of Art (now OCAD U) and spent two years at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., as assistant professor and Webster Research Fellow. She completed a further degree in education in 1991.
Wrazen’s research investigated the music and dances of Poland’s Podhale region, Poles from the Tatra Mountains in southern Poland. Her involvement with the Górale was supported not only by ethnomusicological theory and fieldwork, but also her abilities as a fluent Polish speaker, gadulka player and singer. As colleagues recalled, at her first orientation for new students as Chair, she caught everyone’s attention with an electrifying holler, which she shared as an authentic Highlander-style call.
Among her recent research, Wrazen and co-editor Fiona Magowan published PerformingGender, Place and Emotion in Music: GlobalPerspectives, a 2013 volume that included her own article, “A Place of Her Own: Gendered Singing in Poland’s Tatras.” Her final publication – “A View from Toronto: Local Perspectives on Music Making, Ethnocultural Difference, and the Cultural Life of a City” – appeared in Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada (McGill UP, 2019). Wrazen also contributed regularly to various journals, including the Society for Ethnomusicology’s key publication, Ethnomusicology. She was a regular and welcome participant at the society’s annual conference and took on various roles within it as well as in the International Council of Traditional Music, for which she served as a board member. Although Poland and Toronto were never far from her heart, she also joined the movement exploring disability in music and published in that area as well.
Wrazen served as Chair of the Department of Music twice during her career, most recently just prior to the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. It is a testament to her strengths as a leader that a department so dependent on live performance was able to find the resources to teach online during this time. She continued to support the diversity of the department, including jazz, popular music, musicology, world music, composition and all aspects of performance. Wrazen was a dedicated teacher and mentor, supervising numerous MA and PhD students in their own successful careers.
Wrazen will be dearly missed, but very fondly remembered. Her door was always open, both as Chair and professor, and she cared deeply about the health and well-being of all of her colleagues and students. She was a model administrator, a generous colleague, teacher and above all a scholar, who brought her own generosity, grace, humanity, and musicality to the discipline and to the larger artistic and intellectual community at the University.
“The following Górale poem, translated by Louise, seems an ideal way to bid farewell to our colleague and friend,” says Dorothy de Val, professor emerita in AMPD’s Department of Music. “May the ‘bread’ of the poem bring her peace and rest.”
Góry nase góry, wysokie do nieba; muse wos zostawić, muse sukać chleba.
Mountains, our mountains, reaching to the sky, I have to leave you now to go in search of bread.
Written with contributions from Dorothy de Val
$40K donation from Nick Nurse supports AMPD high school initiative
Share
Fifty high school students will have the rare opportunity of learning from Juno-winning artists at York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD), thanks to a $40,000 donation from the Nick Nurse Foundation (NNF), July 24 to 28.
Nick Nurse
“I’ve always been a passionate advocate for equitable access in both sports and the arts. Success, regardless of discipline, should be a testament of merit, discipline and ingenuity – not a question of access or resources,” says Nick Nurse, co-founder of NNF and head coach for the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA. “I know with the support of a globally recognized, academically and socially responsible school like AMPD, this donation can help eliminate barriers, level the playing field and empower the next generation of creative leaders in a city that has a special place in my heart.”
The donation will support bursaries for equity-seeking students, classes, workshops and guest artist visits to the newly renamed the Nick Nurse Foundation Summer Jazz & Groove Lab. A portion of the donation will fund participation bursaries for high school students who are Black, Indigenous and/or people of colour as well as young women.
Participants will work closely with Juno-winning and internationally recognized jazz and gospel artists including AMPD faculty members Professor Sundar Viswanathan, Professor Karen Burke and Lorne Lofsky during the week-long intensive, culminating in a public performance.
“We are extremely grateful for the donation and Nurse’s commitment to improving the lives and futures of Toronto’s young people through the arts,” says AMPD Dean Sarah Bay-Cheng. “With the Nick Nurse Foundation Summer Jazz & Groove Lab, we can provide youth with the necessary resources to positively contribute to society through music and jazz. We are tremendously excited by the opportunities this gift will open for BIPOC students and young women in the local community.”
Mike Cadó
Noam Lemish
“The Nick Nurse Foundation’s generous donation will fuel creative opportunities for young musicians to deepen their interest in contemporary styles of music,” say Lab founders and coordinators Professor Mike Cadó and Professor Noam Lemish. “The Lab will provide a vibrant environment for young people to grow and discover. Hopefully, it will inspire the next generation to create in the pursuit of an inclusive and innovative future.”
The Lab began as an online opportunity for high school students in the Summer of 2021 as the vision of music professors Cadó and Lemish. Now, the Lab is a cornerstone at the University that pioneered the inclusion of jazz and gospel in its music degree program.
Click here for more information on the Nick Nurse Foundation Summer Jazz & Groove Lab.
Philippine Studies Group offers research and publishing funds
Share
York University faculty members engaged in research and research creation related to the Philippines, or its diasporas, are invited to submit applications for funding and publication support by Tuesday, July 25.
The Philippine Studies Group (PSG) at the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) is offering up to five minor research grants worth a maximum of $4,500 each, as well as support for faculty members to publish research in the field of Philippine studies – with the number and value of the latter set to fluctuate based on the number of applications received. This opportunity is open to full-time York faculty, with a preference for early career scholars.
Available minor research and research creation grants are intended for faculty members wishing to explore subject that could include, but are not limited to: Filipino arts, history, cultures, languages, politics, society, economics and environments; Filipino Canadian relations; Filipinos in Canada; Filipinos in the diaspora; and Canadians in the Philippines. Applicants from Faculties across the University are invited to apply. Ideal applications show a clear link to Philippine studies. Where possible, applications that offer opportunities for training and professional development to undergraduate or graduate students are also welcomed.
Further grant information and applications for research and research creation can be found here.
Grants for publication support are intended to assist in covering expenses that will enable or enhance the publication of research in the field of Philippines studies. Eligible expenses include research support, indexing, artwork, copyright clearance, cartography, image reproduction, translation or copy editing. The fund might also contribute towards the cost of a publishing subvention required by a university press.
Information and applications for publishing support grants can be found here.
York University announces 15 new York Research Chairs
Share
Fifteen York University researchers have been named new York Research Chairs (YRC), an internal program that mirrors the national Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program which recognizes world-leading researchers in a variety of fields.
“The York Research Chair program is an important complement to the Canada Research Chair program to advance our efforts to strengthen research and related creative activities across the University and enhance the well-being of the communities we serve,” says President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton. “My warm congratulations to the newest recipients on this achievement.”
This year’s YRCs are the 10th cohort to be appointed as of July 1 since the program was first launched by the Office of the Vice President Research and Innovation in 2015.
“These new chair appointments are the latest example of research intensification at York University, a major priority of our new Strategic Research Plan,” said Amir Asif, vice-president research and innovation. “York Research Chairs receive institutional support that is on par with what their counterparts are provided by the national program. This internal program advances research excellence at York and enhances the research capabilities of our faculty to create positive change.”
The new YRCs will conduct research in a variety of fields that range from human and computer vision to children’s musical cultures to the impacts of climate change on lakes.
The YRC program consists of two tiers. Tier 1 is open to established research leaders at the rank of full professor. Tier 2 is aimed at emerging research leaders within 15 years of their first academic appointment. The Chairs have five-year terms.
Tier 1 York Research Chairs
Rob Allison
Robert Allison, Lassonde School of Engineering York Research Chair in Stereoscopic Vision and Depth Perception Allison’s work as a YRC will study human aspects of virtual and augmented reality. His research program asks: how do we share a common space that is partially or completely virtual? The research results will allow designers to determine whether collaborative experiences and applications are likely to be coherent, consistent and ultimately successful for users. This YRC is administered by York University’s VISTA (Vision: Science to Applications) program, first funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (2016-23).
James Elder
James Elder, Faculty of Health and Lassonde School of Engineering York Research Chair in Human and Computer Vision Elder’s YRC research program is deeply interdisciplinary, integrating studies of biological perception using behavioural and neuroscience methods, computational modelling of brain processes, statistical modelling of the visual environment, and computer vision algorithm and system design. While advancing fundamental knowledge in perception science and AI, this research has application to safer and more accessible urban mobility, social robotics and sports analytics. This YRC is administered by York University’s VISTA (Vision: Science to Applications) program.
Jimmy Huang
Jimmy Huang, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies York Research Chair in Big Data Analytics Huang’s research as a YRC will aim to overcome the limitations of the existing information retrieval (IR) methods for web search and develop a new retrieval paradigm called task-aware and context-sensitive information search for big data. This approach, similar to ChatGPT or GoogleBard, will leverage IR techniques to offer an interactive and dynamic search experience. The program’s research results are expected to provide a deeper understanding of user information needs and generate novel techniques and tools.
Lauren Sergio
Lauren Sergio, Faculty of Health York Research Chair in Brain Health and Gender in Action Sergio’s research as YRC investigates the impact of gender on brain health, for which there is little study. The research program will aim to characterize the gender-related differences in an individual’s behavioural response to impaired brain health and design appropriately tailored interventions to optimize their return to work, duty or sport. The research results will provide medically relevant and fundamental knowledge necessary to develop targeted brain health assessments and interventions that account for gender. This YRC is administered by York University’s VISTA (Vision: Science to Applications) program, first funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (2016-23).
Marie-Christine Pioffet
Marie-Christine Pioffet, Glendon College York Research Chair in Franco-Indigenous Relations in the Americas This YRC is dedicated to the study of texts from the French colonization in America with research focused on Indigenous history and cultural renaissance, European scriptural practices and Indigenous oral traditions, Franco Indigenous intercultural dialogues, and the Great Lakes region, missionary laboratory, and intercultural junction. Pioffet’s research as Chair will rethink Francophone and Indigenous identities and the cultural blending that inspired the writings of the period, while promoting a resurgence of First Nations culture and languages.
Poonam Puri
Poonam Puri, Osgoode Hall Law School York Research Chair in Corporate Governance, Investor Protection and Financial Markets Puri’s YRC explores the role of the corporation in society and the impact of legal rules, as well as market mechanisms and incentives on corporate behaviour in several key areas of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG). These include racial justice, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and climate change, as well as the role of the corporation and financial markets in times of disruptive technological change. Puri’s cutting-edge, empirical, and interdisciplinary research program charts a new course for the modern corporation, casting it not solely as a profit-maximizer for its shareholders, but as a responsible corporate citizen that genuinely considers the interests of a wider range of stakeholders and is accountable to society.
Tier 2 York Research Chairs
Jacob Beck
Jacob Beck, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies York Research Chair in Philosophy of Visual Perception Beck’s work as YRC seeks to combine philosophy and vision science, suggesting new avenues for research in both disciplines. His research explores how longstanding philosophical puzzles about perception can be resolved or recast with the help of vision science. Beck also examines how scientific discussions can be illuminated by philosophy – for example, how numerical perception can be informed by philosophical theories about what numbers are. This YRC is administered by York University’s VISTA (Vision: Science to Applications) program, first funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (2016-23).
Gene Cheung
Gene Cheung, Lassonde School of Engineering York Research Chair in Graph Signal Processing Cheung’s research as a YRC focuses on signal processing and machine learning. Cheung looks at the frequency analysis and processing of big data residing on irregular kernels described by graphs, in an emerging and fast-growing field called graph signal processing (GSP). His research program involves collaboration with both academic and industry partners to apply GSP theory to a wide range of applications including image/3D point cloud compression, denoising, super-resolution, video summarization, movie recommendation, and crop yield prediction. This YRC is administered by York University’s VISTA (Vision: Science to Applications) program, first funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (2016-23).
Andrea Emberly
Andrea Emberly, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies York Research Chair in Children’s Musical Cultures As a YRC, Emberly will take a community-led approach to the study of children’s musical cultures that explores issues around sustaining endangered musical traditions by emphasizing the connection between music and wellbeing. The research program will focus on child-led and intergenerational collaborations that amplify the voices of equity-seeking children and young people who tell their own stories, in their own voices. The work will explore how children and young people are active social agents who locate and activate unique and meaningful pathways to sustain, change and transform musical traditions.
Sapna Sharma
Sapna Sharma, Faculty of Science York Research Chair in Global Change Biology Sharma’s research as YRC will seek to gain a deeper understanding of the ecological impacts of climate change on freshwater availability and quality. Sharma’s research will capitalize on long-term climatic and ecological time series collected from thousands of lakes and apply cutting-edge statistical and machine learning analyses to forecast the impacts of global environmental change on freshwater security and help to explain macroecological patterns, drivers and impacts of worldwide lake responses to climate change. The research program will collaborate with researchers across disciplines to develop technological, natural, health and social solutions to water security.
Sue Winton
Sue Winton, Faculty of Education York Research Chair in Policy Analysis for Democracy Winton’s YRC research program will collaborate with multiple public sector organizations to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education privatization in Canada. Winton’s research will compare policy development, enactment, and effects during and after the pandemic across multiple scales. The research results will create knowledge about local, regional, national and international influences on education privatization and how this process impacts socially disadvantaged groups, teachers’ work and democracy. At York, Winton will establish and lead a cross-disciplinary Community of Practice for new and established researchers with an interest in critical policy research.
Hina Tabassum
Hina Tabassum, Lassonde School of Engineering York Research Chair in 5G/6G-enabled Wireless Mobility and Sensing Applications Leveraging tools from statistics, optimization, game theory and machine learning, this YRC focuses on developing novel network deployment planning, radio access design and dimensioning, radio resource allocation and mobility management solutions to address challenges of higher frequencies like millimeter-wave in 5G and THz in 6G. Tabassum’s research will explore the feasibility of novel multi-band network architectures where THz and optical transmissions can complement the RF transmissions optimally. The research results could form a core for Canadian research on multi-band networks with the potential to connect the unconnected in a seamless, safe and resource efficient manner.
Taien Ng-Chan
Taien Ng-Chan, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design York Research Chair in Marginal & Emergent Media Ng-Chan’s research explores questions of how emergent media (new technologies such as VR/AR) can aid in the development of original digital and immersive storytelling techniques, foster solidarity and community amongst marginalized groups, particularly from the Asian diaspora, and lead to better representation and inclusion of these groups in culture and society. The YRC program will allow for future long-term collaborations and creative activities that will contribute to more diversity and inclusion in the emergent media industries, a greater sense of community for marginalized groups and better cultural representation in storytelling.
Denielle Elliott
Denielle Elliott, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies York Research Chair in Injured Minds Elliott’s work as YRC will explore how ethnographic experiments and transdisciplinary collaborations between arts, neuroscience and medical anthropology can contribute to a fuller understanding of conceptions of self, brain trauma and mental health. Her research program involves a multidisciplinary team that will explore the embodied experiences of people living with brain trauma and brain trauma knowledge-making practices in the clinic and laboratory, as well as their convergences. The research results will increase understandings of the effects of brain trauma, facilitate transdisciplinary collaborations between the arts, science and humanities and highlight how uniquely valuable ethnographic methods are to understanding urgent health priorities.
Cary Wu
Cary Wu, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies York Research Chair in Political Sociology of Health Wu’s YRC program will work to establish a transdisciplinary political sociology of health approach to investigate health inequalities and provide greater understanding of what forces maintain, increase and reduce health inequalities. The research includes theoretical and empirical illustrations that will focus on trust – the belief in the reliability of others and institutions. The program will seek to energize the field of political sociology by introducing a much-needed new research direction that focuses on trust and will advance a unifying theory of trust to explain health inequalities.
Faculty receive support to develop EDI-focused work
Share
The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Service Course Load Reduction Program is an annual fund in the amount of $100,000 for the purpose of providing a course load reduction to support service relating to EDI initiatives by faculty members who self-identify as Indigenous and/or members of racialized groups.
The recipients’ proposed activities are expected to further develop critical EDI-focused work and to have broader impacts across the University.
The recipients and their service initiatives are:
Rachel da Silveira Gorman School of Health Policy & Management: Health
Rachel Da Silveira Gorman
Gorman is the lead faculty and creator of a newly proposed undergraduate program in Racialized Health and Disability Justice (RHDJ) and the founder of the Black, Transnational, and Indigenous Narratives of Disability (BTIND) Working Group. With their course load reduction, they will develop several critical EDI-focused aspects of the RHDJ program, including anti-oppressive pedagogies in assessment and delivery and land-based summer intensive courses, as well as provide weekly support meetings for the BTIND.
Monique Herbert Department of Psychology: Health
Monique Herbert
Herbert will be offering oversight and guidance on the academic-related components of two experiential education initiatives for undergraduate BIPOC students in the Faculty of Health starting in July. The Work Integrated Learning for Black Students in Health will connect students with field placements in their area of interest and the York-MAP Health Equity Research Scholar Initiative for BIPOC students in psychology is expected to run for three years and provide health-related experiences where research, policy and decisions affect their communities.
Yuka Nakamura School of Kinesiology: Health
Yuka Nakamura
Through an decolonization, equity, diversity and inclusion (DEDI) lens, Nakamura will be conducting a review of the School of Kinesiology’s tenure and promotion documents, policies, and procedures, as well as affirmative action plans. In consultation with relevant committees in the School, she will draft revised tenure and promotion documents and an affirmative action plan that will align with the Faculty of Health’s Final Report from the Working Group on Individual and Systemic Racism.
Rose Ndengue Department of History: Glendon
Rose Ndengue
With her course load reduction, Ndengue will be undertaking to enhance the bilingual program in African studies, Black Feminisms and Decolonial studies at Glendon College, a program which she founded by organizing a series of public lectures throughout the year featuring experts on anti-racist, decolonial and feminist issues. As an active member of Glendon’s race-equity caucus, Ndengue will also strengthen the work being done to bring institutional change, notably by enhancing the visibility and expertise of Black, Indigenous and racialized individuals on EDI issues.
Molade Osibodu Education
Molade Osibodu
Osibodu will be using her course load reduction to revive the Baobab Diasporic Collective (BDC), a service activity that she piloted in the 2022-23 year. Recognizing the absence of opportunities to explore Black studies in the Faculty of Education with graduate scholars, the BDC centres Black scholarship and Black thought through the form of a reading group. In collaboration with the BDC participants, Osibodu will develop a course proposal that centers Black studies in education.
Tameka Samuels-Jones School of Administrative Studies: Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Tameka Samuels-Jones
As associate director of the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC), Samuels-Jones will be promoting the mandate of an Equity Working Group, which aims to increase the membership of Black and Indigenous members of CERLAC with a view to increasing diversity within the centre. As head of the Equity Working Group, she will continue her work implementing the policy recommendations from the CERLAC Equity Action Plan.
Sapna Sharma Department of Biology: Science
Sapna Sharma
Sharma will build on the work she presented at the United Nations Water Conference in March 2023. Her transdisciplinary project aims to understand which Canadian communities are most vulnerable to inequitable access to clean drinking water, identifying strategies and policies to mitigate and protect those communities. With the course load reduction, she will continue to showcase the university’s commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and EDI on a global stage.
Wendy Wong Department of Design: Arts, Media, Performance & Design
Wendy Wong
Wong’s initiative focuses on decolonizing and supplementing the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design’s Euro-American centric curriculum through the theme of Transnational Asian Art (TAA). Wong aims to incorporate Asian-centric materials into existing courses, including through a guest lecture series in undergraduate courses, or proposing new courses with specific Asian content. She also hopes to organize an exhibition and symposium to discuss decolonizing strategies through TAA themes.
Reappointment of Sarah Bay-Cheng, dean of AMPD
Share
Le français suit la version anglaise.
Dear colleagues,
I am pleased to inform the York community that, following a consultation process with staff and faculty in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), Sarah Bay-Cheng has accepted our invitation to undertake a second five-year term as dean of AMPD, commencing on July 1, 2024. On June 27, the Board of Governors concurred with this recommendation and approved the renewal.
Sarah Bay-Cheng
Dr. Bay-Cheng has provided outstanding leadership during her first term. Since her arrival at York University, Dr. Bay-Cheng has spearheaded the development and implementation of a strategic plan for AMPD and led the collegial production of a forward-looking AMPD Equity Plan, with clear alignment to the University’s Decolonization, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion goals. She and her team led significant curriculum renewal initiatives in Integrative Arts, Media Arts, the Creative Technologies program for York’s new Markham Campus, and the development of new upskilling micro-credentials. She has expanded virtual learning options for students while also returning more than 80 per cent of AMPD courses to in-person delivery post-COVID. The success of these and other efforts is reflected in recent enrolment growth in AMPD.
Dr. Bay-Cheng has actively fostered a culture of research, scholarship and creative activity which has supported increased grant applications and funding success within AMPD. She has taken deliberate steps to raise the local and international profile, reputation and rankings of AMPD by engaging with external boards and associations, international peer institutions, public media, and local arts organizations. A signature achievement is York’s 2023 ranking by QS Subjects in the top 100 universities in the world for performing arts. York was one of only four schools in Canada to receive this recognition.
As dean, Bay-Cheng has made important contributions to many University initiatives and conversations, including the Goldfarb Gallery Project Committee, the Global Positioning Group, SSRP Steering Committee, University Fund Council, and CUPE 3903 Joint Committee on Job Stability. She instigated York’s Year of the Arts programming which culminated at the 2023 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, featuring a range of special art exhibits as well as music, dance and theatre performances.
Building on the past priorities and values of the School, Dr. Bay-Cheng envisions growing AMPD’s engagement with the strategic areas of health, media, sustainability and data. The dean seeks to leverage York’s expansion in health related fields to develop complementary programming – for example, in health service design, data visualization, and the arts and wellness, to meet a range of workforce needs in the medical and paramedical professions. She seeks to further support the strong relationships that AMPD has developed with the film and interactive media industries to enhance workforce readiness and career opportunities for AMPD graduates. Dr. Bay-Cheng is committed to increasing fiscal sustainability for AMPD while strengthening and promoting its identity in the national and international landscapes to make it Canada’s leading school for socially engaged artists, designers, performers and thinkers who are committed to connecting globally recognized work with sustained local impact.
I would like to thank the members of the community for their contributions to the reappointment process. I would also like to thank Dr. Bay-Cheng for her work and dedication on behalf of AMPD and her deep commitment to the culture of success and innovation that extends across the university as a whole.
I look forward to working with Dr. Bay-Cheng as she continues to bring leadership to this important role. I hope that all members of the York University community will join us in congratulating her.
Please share this announcement with your colleagues as appropriate.
Sincerely,
Rhonda Lenton President & Vice-Chancellor
Renouvellement du mandat de Sarah Bay-Cheng, doyenne de l’École des arts, des médias, de l’animation et du design
Chers collègues, chères collègues,
J’ai le plaisir d’informer la communauté de York qu’à l’issue d’un processus de consultation avec le personnel et le corps professoral de l’École des arts, des médias, de l’animation et du design (AMPD), Sarah Bay-Cheng a accepté notre invitation à entreprendre un second mandat de cinq ans en tant que doyenne, à compter du 1er juillet 2024. Le 27 juin, le conseil d’administration a approuvé cette recommandation de renouvellement.
Sarah Bay-Cheng
Mme Bay-Cheng a fait preuve d’un leadership remarquable au cours de son premier mandat. Depuis son arrivée à l’Université York, elle a dirigé l’élaboration et la mise en œuvre d’un plan stratégique pour l’AMPD ainsi que la production collégiale d’un plan d’équité axé sur l’avenir et clairement aligné sur les objectifs de décolonisation, d’équité, de diversité et d’inclusion de l’Université. Avec son équipe, elle a mené d’importantes initiatives de renouvellement des programmes d’études dans les domaines des arts globaux, des arts médiatiques, du programme de technologies créatives pour le nouveau campus Markham de York, et a contribué à l’élaboration de nouvelles microcertifications de perfectionnement. Elle a élargi les options d’apprentissage virtuel pour la communauté étudiante tout en ramenant plus de 80 % des cours de l’AMPD à des cours en présentiel après la Covid. Ces succès et plusieurs autres transparaissent dans la croissance récente des inscriptions à l’AMPD.
Mme Bay-Cheng a encouragé activement une culture de recherche, d’érudition et d’activité créative qui a permis d’augmenter le nombre de demandes de subventions et de succès financiers au sein de l’AMPD. Elle a pris des mesures concrètes pour améliorer le profil local et international, la réputation et le classement de l’AMPD en s’engageant auprès de conseils et d’associations externes, d’institutions internationales homologues, de médias publics et d’organisations artistiques locales. L’une des réalisations les plus marquantes est le classement de York en 2023 par QS Subjects parmi les 100 meilleures universités du monde pour les arts de la scène. York est l’une des quatre écoles canadiennes à avoir obtenu cette distinction.
En tant que doyenne, Mme Bay-Cheng a contribué de façon importante à de nombreuses initiatives et conversations universitaires, notamment au comité de projet de la galerie Goldfarb, au Global Positioning Group, au comité directeur du SSRP, au University Fund Council et au comité mixte du SCFP 3903 sur la stabilité de l’emploi. Elle est à l’origine de la programmation de l’Année des arts à York, qui a culminé lors du Congrès 2023 des sciences humaines, avec une série d’expositions artistiques spéciales ainsi que des spectacles de musique, de danse et de théâtre.
S’appuyant sur les priorités et les valeurs passées de l’École, Mme Bay-Cheng envisage de renforcer l’engagement de l’AMPD dans les domaines stratégiques de la santé, des médias, du développement durable et des données. La doyenne cherche à tirer parti de l’expansion de York dans les domaines liés à la santé pour développer des programmes complémentaires, par exemple, dans la conception de services de santé, la visualisation de données, les arts et le bien-être, afin de répondre à un éventail de besoins en main-d’œuvre dans les professions médicales et paramédicales. Elle cherche à soutenir davantage les relations solides que l’AMPD a développées avec les industries du film et des médias interactifs afin d’améliorer la préparation de la main-d’œuvre et les opportunités de carrière pour les diplômés de l’AMPD. Mme Bay-Cheng s’engage à accroître la viabilité financière de l’AMPD tout en renforçant et en promouvant son identité dans le paysage national et international afin d’en faire la principale école canadienne pour les artistes, les designers, les interprètes et les esprits socialement engagés qui s’engagent à associer un travail mondialement reconnu à un rayonnement local durable.
Je tiens à remercier les membres de la communauté pour leur contribution au processus de renouvellement. Au nom de l’AMPD, je voudrais également remercier Mme Bay-Cheng pour son travail, pour son dévouement et pour son engagement profond dans la culture de la réussite et de l’innovation qui s’étend à l’ensemble de l’Université.
Je me réjouis de travailler avec Mme Bay-Cheng, qui continue à jouer un rôle de premier plan dans cette fonction importante. J’espère que tous les membres de la communauté universitaire de York se joindront à nous pour la féliciter.
Veuillez diffuser cette annonce auprès de vos collègues s’il y a lieu.
Sincères salutations,
Rhonda Lenton Présidente et vice-chancelière
In pictures: York’s Convocation celebrates Class of 2023
Share
Spring Convocation for York University’s Class of 2023 ran from June 9 to 23, and featured 13 ceremonies at both the Keele and Glendon Campuses.
This year’s Spring Convocation began on June 9 with a ceremony at York’s Glendon Campus, and continued with a dozen more in the following weeks at the Keele Campus. 6,140 graduands received their degrees during ceremonies overseen by the newly inaugurated 14th chancellor of York University, Kathleen Taylor.
View photos from the Class of 2023 ceremonies below:
Graduate students recognized for contributions to Philippine Studies
Share
Eight graduate students from three Faculties at York University are recipients of Philippine Studies Group funding for research, fieldwork and language acquisition.
“These students collectively received $32,000 in funding in support of their work. Their groundbreaking projects promise to make an important contribution to the field of Philippine studies,” said Ethel Tungohan, associate professor of politics and Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism.
Tungohan is a member of the Philippine Studies Group (PSG) at the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR), which brings together faculty and students with an interest in the Philippines, Filipinx migration and diaspora, as well as Philippine studies. PSG’s activities throughout 2023, including this latest round of student funding, are made possible by the support of the Philippine Consulate General in Toronto.
Recently, the PSG awarded $25,000 for fieldwork in the Philippines and the diaspora to six students in geography, politics and music.
“It is very exciting to read about York University students’ projects, which range from in-depth fieldwork examining the gendered dimensions of the Mindanao peace process to intensive language study and cultural immersion in the Philippines,” Tungohan added.
The Philippine Studies Group awardees are:
Myla Chawla
Myla Chawla,a doctoral candidate in political science whose research examines women’s roles and experiences during the Moro conflict and Mindanao peace process in the Philippines. The project seeks to not only make visible the work women have performed during conflict and peace times, but to further unpack how diverse perspectives from Moro, Indigenous and Christian communities have shaped their experiences and visions of peace.
“My time conducting in-person fieldwork in the Philippines has elevated the project with a richer data sample. I have had the ability to speak to both local and professional women on the ground and have been able to witness women’s work in action. Additionally, I have taken part in events pertaining to peacebuilding efforts in Mindanao led by government agencies, NGOs and local women led grassroots movements,” said Chawla.
Ria Jhoanna Ducusin
Ria Jhoanna Ducusin’s project, informed by a political economy of local urbanization and feminist political ecology scholarship, examines how urban flooding results from political decisions, economic interests and power relations; and the ways in which intersectional axes of gender and class shape differential impacts of flood disasters.
“My goal is to strengthen the understanding of the causes, mitigation and experiences of flood disasters in rapidly urbanizing and industrializing coastal cities,” she said.
Ducusin is a second-year doctoral student in geography and a graduate associate with YCAR. Before joining York, Ducusin worked as a science research specialist on climate-smart agriculture and mining impact assessment projects at the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB), and as a lecturer at the Department of Forestry and Environmental Science at Cavite State University.
Romeo Joe Quintero
Romeo Joe Quintero is a doctoral student in human geography. He holds a master’s degree in women’s and gender studies from Carleton University and an honours bachelor of social science in international development and globalization from the University of Ottawa.
His research interests lie around questions of protracted situations of forced displacement and placemaking practices among internally displaced persons in the Philippines. In particular, Quintero will examine the economic and livelihood practices of communities in Mindanao that have been displaced to settlement sties in urban areas by the legacy of violence in the region.
Dani Magsumbol
Dani Magsumbol is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Politics. Her research is an examination of the political economy of emotions, and the affective relationships of citizenship and nationalism; her dissertation focuses this analysis on the multigenerational experiences in families of the Filipino labour diaspora in Canada.
“In my project, I seek to examine not only the immediate effects that being an overseas Filipino worker has on the individual, but also the long-term after effects of how employment and residence outside of national borders alters the experience of citizenship and national membership for members of the Filipino labour diaspora.”
Magsumbol says that fieldwork is vital to this research endeavour. In seeking out Filipino immigrants and members of their family in order to interview them about their individual and familial migration stories, the research actively foregrounds the voices and stories of the migrants who have experienced the disorientation and reorientation of migration and settlement. To this end, she will be collecting data in the form of interviews and focus groups in areas in Canada where Filipinos have chosen to settle in large numbers, such as Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver, as well as lower density provinces such as Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.
Nikki Mary Pagaling
Nikki Mary Pagaling’s research examines the labour market transitions that Filipina women make after completing Canada’s temporary foreign caregiver programs.
“I will deploy an intersectional feminist framework to investigate the extent to which immigration to Canada through a temporary foreign caregiver program shapes Filipina women’s entry into the personal support worker labour force in Toronto,” says Pagaling, who is a master’s candidate in geography.
Antoniel Roca is researching the impact of Filipino-North American diasporic identity on the thought and composition processes of musicians in the Manila metropolitan area. “As a Filipino immigrant, I believe in the importance of the study of diaspora,” he said.
Antoniel Roca
A doctoral candidate in ethnomusicology, Roca’s previous fieldwork in the Philippines touched on the music genre kundiman, and the ways in which it was utilized as propaganda during both the Spanish Filipino and American Filipino revolutions. This provided the historical background needed for his primary thesis.
Roca was also a member of Associate Professor Patrick Alcedo’s dance exhibition as part of Toronto’s inter-university CRAM festival. He has worked in many music disciplines, including classical and gospel choral ensembles, Filipino rondalla and angklung groups, as well as jazz/alternative bands.
Kad Marino and Geneviève Minville each received a language subsidy grant to further their Tagalog studies.
“Language training is an essential part of long-term, field-based and people-oriented fieldwork. The Philippine Studies Group was therefore pleased to provide support for students who are committing themselves to learning the Filipino language and/or regional dialects in the country,” says Professor Philip Kelly, who served on the award adjudicating committee.
Kad Mariano
Mariano, a doctoral student in political science, believes that learning Tagalog is an important step towards his doctoral research goals. “Working with the Filipinx community requires one to navigate the multiple worlds that Filipinx migrants regularly traverse and intersect,” says Mariano.
He adds: “An integral part of this research is interviewing and communicating effectively with members of the Filipinx community. Learning and employing Tagalog will grant access to experiential and community knowledge regarding Filipinx migrants’ perceptions of reconciliation, understandings of colonial relations in the Philippines and Canada, and (non)mobilizations of memory.”
Mariano intends to focus on the Filipinx diaspora and its role in the memory dynamics of reconciliation, assessing migrants’ perceptions of and participation in reconciliation, such as cross-cultural coalition building.
Geneviève Minville
Minville’s research in the Philippines will benefit from the language skills that she will gain this summer, thanks to the language subsidy.
“Having language knowledge is essential for me to connect with my research participants and the communities as well as to give me more confidence to undertake my fieldwork in 2024,” she explained.
A doctoral student in critical human geography, she intends to adopt a participatory approach with communities and engage with local experts and NGOs around issues of forced displacement related to disasters and climate change.
Three York graduate students earn Governor General Gold Medal
Share
Three York University graduates received this year’s Governor General Gold Medals, which recognize the outstanding scholastic achievements of graduate students in Canada. The 2023 recipients are Lawrence Garcia, Kathleen Dogantzis and Aaron Tucker.
The Governor General awards are considered the highest honour earned by exemplary Canadian scholars throughout every level of academia. This year’s awardees offered words of gratitude to their peers and mentors, and expressed what the medals mean to them, ahead of their Spring Convocation ceremonies.
Lawrence Garcia
Lawrence Garcia
Garcia earned a master’s degree in Cinema and Media Studies. Before enrolling at York, Garcia’s academic trajectory was altogether different, having graduated in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering physics from the University of British Columbia. While working as an electrical engineer afterwards, an interest in cinema as a freelance film critic eventually led him to pursue his master’s degree in Cinema and Media Studies in order to explore movies further.
Garcia’s academic pursuits at York focused on experimental or avant-garde cinema, culminating in a thesis – “Signs of Genesis: A Study of Ambiguity in Contemporary Experimental Cinema.”
He credits York faculty for the support he received not just with coursework, directed study, and in-school activities, but also with external opportunities like academic conferences and grant applications.
“The medal is an incredible source of encouragement for me as I move forward with my studies,” Garcia says, who will be entering the PhD program at the University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies this fall, and will continue to explore experimental cinema.
Kathleen Dogantzis
Kathleen Dogantzis
Dogantzis earned a PhD in biology, following the completion of a master of science at York University. Both degrees were done under the supervision of Professor Amro Zayed and saw Dogantzis’ work focus on honey bees and their importance, as well as their complex history as pollinators. Her dissertation – “Understanding the evolutionary origin and ancestral composition of honey bee (Apis mellifera) populations” – sought to gain a deeper understanding of the genetic composition of honey bee populations in order to make more informed decisions about their health and sustainable beekeeping.
Furthermore, Dogantzis’ research involved the development of molecular tools capable of genetically detecting Africanized bees, which are essential in biosecurity as they can help monitor the movement of populations and ensure the sustainability of apiculture practices in Canada and abroad.
“I am honoured to have been nominated and selected for this prestigious award. It means a great deal to me for my work to be recognized. My achievements would not have been possible without the support, mentorship, and contributions from my advisor and colleagues,” Dogantzis says, who looks forward to applying the skills, experiences and values she gained at York to a future role focused on sustainability.
Aaron Tucker
Aaron Tucker
Tucker earned his PhD in Cinema and Media Studies with research focused on facial recognition technology. His dissertation “The Flexible Face: Uniting the Protocols of Facial Recognition Technologies” looks at the triangulation of citizenship, the management of citizenship resources, and the production and maintenance of crises.
Tucker’s work considers how over the past two centuries, facial recognition technologies have been consistently at the centre of that triangulation and their ubiquitous place in the contemporary moment – through advancing technologies – has made it urgent to produce effective regulation and auditing of such systems and the artificial intelligence underlying how they work. Tucker credits his interactions with a number of interdisciplinary spaces at York – including schools and makers both inside and outside the Department of Cinema and Media Arts – for the growth of his understanding of facial recognition, and his ability to communicate arguments to different publics.
His work with Vision: Science to Applications (ViSTA) lab proved pivotal too with providing a foundation in learning about computer vision, and the support of research trips to London U.K., Vancouver B.C., and Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
His work has been published in the journals IEEE Technology and Society and Afterimage, and lead to participation in the 2022 Stanford-Leuphana Summer Academy in Berlin.
“I am so proud to be part of the long history of this very prestigious award, and, at the same time very grateful, to the many people who supported me in the Cinema and Media Arts department and outside academia. It is an individual award but I hope the folks who helped me know that they are a core part of it as well,” Tucker says.
In September 2023, Tucker will begin his SSHRC postdoctoral position at the University of Toronto where he will study the history of artificial intelligence in Canada as a techno-national project, similar to the other nation building activities such as the fur trade, the building of the national railroad, and/or the Canadarm.
About the awards
Pierre Trudeau, Tommy Douglas, Kim Campbell, Robert Bourassa, Robert Stanfield and Gabrielle Roy are just some of the more than 50,000 people who have received the Governor General’s Academic Medal as the start of a life of accomplishment.
Today, the Governor General’s Academic Medals are awarded at four distinct levels: Bronze at the secondary school level; Collegiate Bronze at the post-secondary, diploma level; Silver at the undergraduate level; and Gold at the graduate level. Medals are presented on behalf of the Governor General by participating educational institutions, along with personalized certificates signed by the Governor General. There is no monetary award associated with the medal.
