Tag: AMPD

Approved tag

Film course runner-up for International E-Learning Award

The online course Cinema and the City’s virtual tour of the history of cinema that uses Toronto as a model has earned York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) recognition far beyond the Ontario capital’s urban boundaries.

Film 1900: Cinema and the City, as it is known in course listings, was the runner-up for 2017’s top e-learning prize in the academic division of the International E-Learning Awards, given annually by the International E-Learning Association. Winners of the academic division awards were announced on Sept. 28 at an international conference in Budapest. The University of Calgary took top spot, with honourable mention going to Fachhochschule Campus Wien in Vienna, Austria. (Submissions for this year’s competition open March 15 and are due by June 10. Contact the Teaching Commons for details.)

Gillian Helfield
Gillian Helfield

“It was a big surprise and I was very pleased to be so recognized,” says Professor Gillian Helfield, the course director, who had received funding from the Academic Innovation Fund to turn the blended course into a fully online offering.

Cinema and the City is geared toward non-film majors, focused on giving them “an understanding of film’s foundations and development as an urban phenomenon and instilling a deeper connection between cinema and the city,” she explains.

“The course illustrates how cities are represented in cinema and how the city is part of cinema, focusing on the mutual influence of the two, beginning in the late 19th century; students see how the city and the cinema ‘grew up’ together.”

Helfield sees the city and the cinema as “benchmarks of modernity and mobility” that helped shape our social environment. The course syllabus takes the students on a tour of cinema and the city, using Toronto as a model. The lectures are filmed partly at city intersections or in neighbourhoods, which correspond to the subject matter of that week’s unit.

For example, lecture two, which is about the development of the Nickelodeon and early silent cinema, is introduced at the corner of Yonge and Adelaide Street, site of the city’s first Nickelodeon theatre; the beginning of lecture three, which addresses the city’s representation in 1930s film as a modern Utopia or Dystopia, is filmed with the Financial District’s skyscrapers in the background. Sports films in lecture eight are discussed using the old Maple Leaf Gardens as a backdrop, while Chinatown is home base for lecture nine’s exploration of urban ethnic identity in the cinema.

For their final assignment, the students are required to create their own “Cinema and the City Tour,” which they must illustrate with a brochure or map. They can combine cinema and the city in any number of ways, such as using urban film festivals, film studios or film locations.

“I want to get the thinking about city and the cinema, but also remind them that Toronto is one of the top film cities in the world,” Helfield says.

The course, which regularly draws between 400 to 500 students, is considered a foundation course within the faculty. In addition to the online lectures, the students are asked to take part in online discussion forums with their fellow tutorial group members and teaching assistants.

“As it is an online course, I try to emphasize the importance of participation and engagement,” Helfield says.

To create and design the course, she worked closely with the staff in AMPD Computing Services, including Technology Coordinator Lillian Heinson.

The team supporting the creation of Cinema and the City: From left, Reiner Bello (Video Production, AMPD), Gillian Helfield (Cinema & Media Arts, AMPD), Lillian Heinson (Instructional Technology Coordinator, AMPD Computing), Sennah Yee (Admin, AIF), Nancy Asiamah-Yeboah (Video Production, AMPD), Natasha May (Teaching Commons)

“We had so much fun creating it,” Helfield says. “There’s also a great crew of students helping us, who filmed me on location, designed the website and created a beautiful jazzy montage to introduce each lecture.

“We’re continually improving it, making it look more cinematic. There’s new software coming out all the time that AMPD Computing keeps abreast of. There’s a great synergy and it’s wonderful to collaborate with other people who love what they are doing and are so good at it!”

Consider the course a gift from current film aficionados to the next generation of film lovers.

By Elaine Smith, special contributing writer to Innovatus

VPRI looking to engage in collegial conversation around Artificial Intelligence

3d rendering robotic hand working with virtual graphic

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is of great interest to the research world today, potentially driving innovative problem-solving. Both the federal and provincial governments have imagined this potential. The Ontario government has invested in the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a flagship of its development in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to make Ontario a source of high-quality professionals and to attract an industrial base of the information technology (IT) and the AI sectors. The Ministry of Research, Innovation & Science is also commissioning a report to develop a provincial strategy.

York has interdisciplinary strengths that give the University a unique ability to engage in AI in a holistic manner, to provide a broader perspective including its impacts on humanity and society

On the federal side, Ottawa has invested $120 million of direct support and $36 million has been allocated for Vector AI chairs for existing and newly recruited individuals. There is also the AI supercluster, in which the federal government is determined to utilize the country’s top research resources.

VRPI starts ongoing discussion on development and application of AI

Recognizing the many Faculties that are currently doing research and pedagogy in AI, Vice-President Research & Innovation Robert Haché invited a highly interdisciplinary team of York University researchers and academics to begin an ongoing conversation about AI late last year. He emphasized that the provincial and federal investments represent a stellar opportunity for the University to engage in the development and application of AI – a sentiment that was also enthusiastically shared by faculty members at the meeting.

Robert Haché

“Given York’s interdisciplinary strengths, we have a unique ability to engage in AI in a holistic manner, to provide a broader perspective including impacts on humanity and society, in addition to the core technology and questions around technology adoption. This unique expertise of York is reflected in the disciplines of participants at the table today,” Haché said at the meeting.

A vast array of expertise and interest was discussed included engineering, computer vision, robotics, mathematics, community and global health, healthcare technology, IT, philosophy, digital arts, gaming in education, finance and investment.

It was clear that participants in the discussion agreed that York has great potential to be a leading member in provincial and federal investments, noting our diverse expertise, ranging from philosophical theories, ethical implications, societal/social context to AI, and biological, computing, engineering and health applications.

Key discussion topics going forward include:

  • AI represents the convergence of AI biologics, genetic manipulation and robotics; and its implications on individual health and human systems (social organization, ethical, moral and legal framework).
  • Machine learning is a broad enough term that will allow opportunities to engage with diverse forms of engineering and science.
  • AI ask big questions, such as What constitutes intelligence? and Do we want machines to be more optimal or to have more human intelligence?
  • Humanists and social scientists, computer scientists, neuroscientists and psychologists need to be involved in this discussion.
  • The ethical and philosophical aspects and social implications of AI are very important, as well as legalities.
  • Global health and AI are very important. Experts in this area need to be part of the discussion.
  • Economics needs to be a large part of future discussions because the labour market is where the most immediate impact of AI will be.
  • Who else needs to be at this table? Building an inventory of all research labs involved in AI research is desirable.

Towards an AI strategy

At York University, there is great enthusiasm to develop a formal strategy around AI, in the Strategic Research Plan and beyond. The momentum around AI is building.

Haché suggested that the strategy would need to be built from the ground up. “This has the potential to become a high-profile institutional priority, but we need to build enthusiasm amongst colleagues, with collegial contributions being key,” he said.

What’s next? A working group that is broadly constituted has been created to define positioning of the AI opportunity in a manner that builds on York University’s core values. This group will be looking for input and volunteers.

Those wanting to learn more about AI are encouraged to attend an upcoming event: Osgoode Hall Law School is hosting Bracing for Impact: The Artificial Intelligence Challenge on Feb. 2. Register today!

Additional resources at York include the Lassonde School of Engineering’s Artificial Intelligence page and Osgoode Hall Law School’s page on legal values in AI. YFile has also covered the topic of AI (example: Lassonde researchers win artificial intelligence challenge). Schulich School of Business Professor Moshe Milevsky was quoted in The Globe & Mail (Nov. 16) on the topic of AI: Artificial Intelligence – coming to an advisor near you. Schulich School of Business Professor Henry Kim was quoted in The Globe & Mail (June 5) in the article Artificial intelligence takes on white-collar duties.

Theatre prof contributes to constructed language in hit sci-fi TV show

The Expanse, features the work of Eric Armstrong
Eric Armstrong
Eric Armstrong

Theatre professors are no strangers to the limelight, but for one York University academic, Eric Armstrong, the cool factor is off the charts. He created the accent for a constructed language called Belter, used in the white-hot sci-fi television series “The Expanse,” set 200 years in the future. This new language, developed by linguist Nick Farmer with the assistance of Armstrong as dialect/accent coach, mashes up six existing languages.

The American series, the third season of which airs 2018, has a captivating premise: Humans have colonized the solar system and Mars has become a military power. One social class has not fared well in this world. The new language belongs to this group of people, called Belters, who survive by scavenging materials in a particular Asteroid Belt.

In this Q&A with Brainstorm, Armstrong  ̶  who teaches voice, speech, dialects and Shakespearean text at York  ̶  talks about the new language and the television show that are taking centre stage in his career.

“The Expanse.” Image reproduced with permission.
“The Expanse.” Image reproduced with permission

Q: How did this gig on “The Expanse” transpire?

A: One day, I got a call from my agent, asking if I knew anything about made-up languages in science fiction shows. I have to admit, I’m a bit of a nerd. I had read a lot about what are called ‘con langs’ or constructed languages in the press, most notably due to “Game of Thrones.” Dothraki and Valyrian are two made-up languages in that show.

When I was brought in to speak with the show creators, they could see that I knew what I was talking about, even though it was a ‘first’ for me.

“One day, I got a call from my agent, asking if I knew anything about made-up languages in science fiction shows. I have to admit, I’m a bit of a nerd. I had read a lot about constructed languages.” – Eric Armstrong

Q: How did your career lead up to this position as dialect/accent coach on a hit television series?

A: I trained to be an actor and worked professionally in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal for about five years. I always felt an attraction to teaching voice. York had an MFA program in this field. One of my mentors was David Smukler, Canada’s foremost voice teacher at the time, who started the voice teacher diploma program here at York. I completed this program, then worked freelance for a year. And from then on, I’ve had full-time voice teaching jobs in Canada and the United States. I returned to York [as a faculty member] in 2003.

York University’s Theatre Program
The Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre at the Keele campus is one of the venues used by York University’s Theatre Program

“Our acting classes at York are diverse; and that diversity motivates me to teach in a way that is inclusive… That’s very rewarding.” – Eric Armstrong

One of the jobs that I took early on teaching was at Brandeis University [Massachusetts] where I was the speech and accents teacher – a narrower niche in the voice teaching field. I felt a little underqualified, so I took the time to do further research. I started to coach professionally in the theatre in Boston. That got me on the path. After that, I went to Chicago, where I started to work on film and television on a much bigger scale. My first film coaching job was with the [British actor] Tom Wilkinson, who had just been nominated for an Academy Award.

Q: Belter is comprised of Chinese, Japanese, Slavic, Germanic and other languages. What was it like developing the accent for this fabricated language?

A: Belter is a creole, a combination of languages. Nick Farmer, creator of the Belter language, studied creoles and used the structure of many creoles to create a new creole. English is at the core of Belter. But he took many of these other languages that you referenced as ingredients.

Diogo, a Belter (played by Andrew Rotilio). Image reproduced with permission.
Diogo, a Belter (played by Andrew Rotilio). Image reproduced with permission

Special feature: Listen to audio of Eric Armstrong reciting Shakespeare with a Belter accent.

To begin with, he created a basic dictionary. For this, he turned to different languages for the source words, then undertook a transformational process to create phonological rules. [Phonology is the study of how sounds are used in language. This includes how sounds interact with each other.]

So, Nick handed me the phonological rules [for Belter] and gave me some samples of what Belter sounded like. As I ‘auditioned’ for the show – really, it was more like an extended interview –  I took those sounds and developed an overall feeling of the language.

At first, Belter felt like Jamaican, also a creole. But we didn’t want it to be exclusively one thing; we wanted it to feel global. So, I took elements from Chinese, European and English accents, and salted them in to the recipe as a means of counterbalancing the Jamaican accent. As a result, Belter seems familiar… but you can’t quite put your finger on it. Later, I was surprised to find out that a Singaporean accent sounds quite a lot like Belter.

Two Belters: Drummer (played by Cara Gee) and Anderson Dawes (played by Jared Harris). Image reproduced with permission
Two Belters: Drummer (played by Cara Gee) and Anderson Dawes (played by Jared Harris). Image reproduced with permission

Q: What’s next for you at York?

A: I’m currently working on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)-funded project on developing accent resources for the Indigenous performance community, which is underserved. This is a mandate I created for myself. For far too long, accent resources have primarily targeted mainstream actors. The industry is dominated by people who look like me, and I would like that to change.

Our acting classes at York are diverse; and that diversity motivates me to teach in a way that is inclusive… That’s very rewarding.

To learn more about the television show, visit the space.ca website. To read an interview with Armstrong in Wired magazine, visit the site. Armstong’s credits are listed in the Internet Movie Database, IMDb. For more information about Armstrong, visit his faculty profile.

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 University announces graduate degrees in digital media

The School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD) at York University has announced three new graduate degree offerings: master of arts (MA), master of science (MSc), and doctor of philosophy in the graduate program in digital media.

Applications are open now for the masters programs which will start in the fall of 2018; the PhD program will begin in 2019.

VR development in the Alice Lab

VR development in the Alice Lab

The program is jointly offered by the Department of Computational Arts (CA), and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). It  provides highly qualified students with the opportunity to do specialized hybrid research work in a program that uniquely combines computational science and artistic practices.

Work in digital media focuses on a broad range of current and emerging forms of digitally supported media, with applications that range from computer games to interactive art.

Across all three digital media graduate degrees, in both courses and project development, students will work within a shared environment that enables them to develop expertise complementary to their research specialization in computational science or artistic practice.

For program specific application information, and a link to the application page, go online.

Graduate research celebrated at annual Scholars Reception

Osgoode teams take first and second at Canadian National Negotiation Competition

Graduate students, faculty and staff gathered at York University’s Faculty of Graduate Studies’ (FGS) Scholars Reception on Dec. 5 to honour recipients of major internal and external research scholarships.

This includes over $31 million in federal, provincial and other major external awards from 2013 to 2016, and approximately $63.3 million in York University awards from 2012 to 2016.

Fahim Quadir, Interim Dean of FGS, interacting with students

“I am delighted and honoured to be part of this wonderful event, which is organized to celebrate your outstanding scholarly achievements,” said Fahim Quadir, interim dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies. “This event is to recognize the many different ways you contribute to York and make the university a better place for pioneering research that contributes to the greater public good. We thank you for making the decision to pursue your graduate education here.”

York University graduate students in attendance at the event

Graduate students from various disciplines spoke about their research and the importance of research support for students. Alison Humphrey, PhD candidate in cinema and media studies and recipient of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, spoke about her research project of creating a science fiction story world titled Shadowpox, exploring civic engagement through the concept of vaccination.

Camellia Bryan, PhD candidate in administration and recipient of the Elia Scholarship, highlighted her work examining the increasing inequality in society by exploring how low-status individuals and groups work to gain agency in organizations.

“The goal of my research is to unlock human potential in organizations through a greater understanding of fairness, diversity, and power,” she said. “Thank you so much for choosing me as an Elia Scholar. Every day I think about the trust and hope that you have placed in me, and each day I work towards living up to your faith in me.”

Erica Tatham, PhD candidate in psychology and recipient of the Vanier Canadian Graduate Scholarship, highlighted her work in developing and validating a questionnaire that measures feelings of normalization with regard to changes in memory and cognition among older adults.

Venilla Rajaguru, PhD candidate in science and technology studies and recipient of the Susan Mann Dissertation Scholarship, spoke about her work on planetary engineering – the process of creating artificial islands that reconstitute planetary spaces into enviro-technological groupings. Rajaguru also shared her hopes of contributing to scholarship in other ways, such as participating in the development of e-learning platforms to improve accessibility to education at the university, and contributing to virtual university networks.

Hosted annually by the Faculty of Graduate Studies, the Scholars Reception provides a space for top-tier students from all disciplines to mix, mingle and network – to learn about the diversity of engaging graduate level research happening at York University.

The Art Gallery of York University sweeps provincial awards

Michael Maranda and Suzanne Carte accepting one of the awards for the AGYU during the OAAG gala

An awards ceremony recognizing excellence in art exhibits, publications, public programs and writing in the public gallery sector in Ontario yielded four awards and one honourable mention for the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU), more than any of the other recipients.

During a gala awards reception on Nov. 27, the Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG) recognized the “outstanding achievement, artistic merit and excellence” in public gallery arts institutions. The annual awards are the only juried, peer-assessed awards of their kind, and they received submissions from 17 cities across the province resulting in more than 125 nominees.

“The AGYU is honoured to win these awards, which shows that public-university galleries can seamlessly integrate all of our stakeholders and community members into single projects that engage and inspire the faculty, staff and students of the University, as well as contemporary artists, locally and internationally,” said Emelie Chhangur, assistant director/curator, AGYU.

The 40th anniversary of the OAAG Awards Gala recognized the AGYU with the following awards:

Curatorial writing awards
Major Text over 5,000 Words – Emelie Chhangur
Paving it Forth

• Jury comments: Art Gallery of York University, Emelie Chhangur, Paving it Forth, creatively and expressively documents Marlon Griffith’s Ring of Fire Procession from its inception as an idea into a process of collaboration with diverse communities, including First Nations and a variety of underserved neighbourhoods, to cumulative effect. Chhangur’s text illuminated the significant role of art in social change. The collective act of performative action and mixed traditions transformed into advocacy for disability rights and a call for the Parapan American Games. The interaction, meetings, communications and symbolic regalia are profusely reflected in the gallery exhibition and its publication.

Griffith’s Ring of Fire was created when he was the 2015 Louis Odette Sculptor-in-Residence in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) at York University, and many AMPD students contributed to the show.

A photo taken during the Ring of Fire Procession

Public Program Award
Creative Campaigning – Sameer Farooq
Behind the Eyes

• This was one of the AGYU’s long-term student engagement projects conceived by Assistant Curator Suzanne Carte. The project was produced as a collaboration between Toronto visual artist and designer Sameer Farooq, the Sherman Health Sciences Research Centre at York (with Diana Gorbet and MRI technologist Joy Williams), the School of Social Work in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, the Department of Film & Video (AMPD) and eight student leaders from the York Federation of Students (YFS), the York United Black Students’ Alliance (YUBSA), Active Minds, and the Visual Art Student Association (VASA). This eight-month engagement was an experimental research-as-performance project that examined the individual as a moving image archive, literally peering into the brain to discover and recover hidden images.

Work during Behind the Eyes

Design Awards
Art Book – Black Dog Publishing & AGYU
Marlon Griffith: Symbols of Endurance

• This is the first monograph on the work of Trinidadian artist Marlon Griffith. Funded by the Partners in Art and co-published with Black Dog in London, U.K., the book extensively documented AGYU’s two-year Ring of Fire Procession, as well as the exhibition Symbols of Endurance that Chhangur curated at AGYU in the fall of 2015.

An image from the Ring of Fire Procession

Exhibition awards
First Exhibition in a Public Art Gallery – Megan Toye
After great pain, a formal feeling comes…

• This is the second time the AGYU has won this award for its Curatorial Intensive exhibitions, a collaborative program of experiential education with AMPD. The AGYU supports and pays for a young curator for two semesters, mentoring them on curating an exhibition from conception to production. This exhibition was curated by York master’s student Megan Toye and featured York University student artists from AMPD’s graduate program. This program satisfies placement credit course for the Curatorial Diploma program in Visual Art and Art History.

After great pain, a formal feeling comes…

Art Writing Award
Honourable Mention – Gabriel Levine
On Splendour, in the publication Marlon Griffith: Symbols of Endurance

• One of the commissioned essays in AGYU’s Marlon Griffith publication by artist, musician, academic and York U alumni Gabriel Levine. Levine received his PhD from York in social and political thought.

“We are especially proud to have been recognized by our peers in the contemporary art community of Ontario for these particular projects because this recognition points to the AGYU’s innovative approach to integrated programming on a variety of scales: books, public programs, experiential education and writing,” said Chhangur.

The AGYU is the most awarded gallery in Ontario.

Spotlight on rising young dance artists in annual Dance Innovations performance

Dance Innovations

Twenty-one rising young dance artists from York University’s Department of Dance, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), will premiere their riveting new solos, duets and ensemble works at this year’s Dance Innovations performance.

From Nov. 23 to 25, Dance Innovations: Up Rising will showcase the work of dance students under the direction of Faculty member Julia Sasso, with choreography instruction by Freya Olafson.

Dance InnovationsUp Rising reflects the imagination, artistry, courage and integrity of AMPD students, faculty and staff, and is dedicated in memory of Professor Emerita Penelope Reed Doob and alumna Selina Margaret Twum.

Dancers present these new works in this performance:

• Hailey Cook – Fragile Balance explores the struggle to achieve stability without obliteration.

• Dylan Caetano – Seven explores negative emotions combining forces to create one entity.

• Shayla Lewis – Has a capricious thought or feeling ever popped into your head at the most unpredictable time? ChAos has the potential to undermine human behaviour, but it can be controlled – exploration and free will is still an option.

• Holly Buckridge – How you appear to the outside world is just one side of who you truly are. OPIA explores identity in two halves: the light and the dark; the observed and the hidden.

• Evan Winther – Investigating “in-between” places and periods of transition, paper-thin coat is an exploration of memory and the past lives of one person across multiple generations and timelines.

• Ashlyn Kuy – Sound Interpreters is a visual embodiment of music. If you could not hear the music, would you still see it? If you plugged your ears, would you still understand?

• Eleanor Martin (exchange student from Chichester, U.K.) – Martin investigates conformity at its most vicious. OH BROTHER! delves into the depths of strict gender roles and the social trends of the 1950s era.

• Serwaa Daley – An exploration of the rave-goer’s mind on psychedelics combined with exhaustion from dancing the night away, Acid House is an experimental work that pays tribute to the underground house subculture of the mid-’80s to -’90s.

• Nicole Robb – Stripping The Membrane investigates the simplicity and intricacies of the human body’s largest organ.

• María Lucía Llano – Through complex physicality and movement patterns, Filter reveals the different neurological connections that influence human activity and emotions.

• Liam Ellington – Z.F.P is a choreographic work that aims to embody the emotions an individual feels as she works through an internal problem.

• Sophie Dow – Long-necked, ship-wrecked, terrified swans, Parasol enters a lavish, melodramatic world of the bourgeois. Washed in red, four “childish queens” are hypnotized and driven to madness by a burning passion and desire for power that will stop at nothing to bask in the spotlight.

• Tara Simmonds (Eechange student from Chichester, U.K.) – Prophecy is a predicted future that is never revealed until the final moment. What occurs in a journey toward the foreseen?

• Connie Oreamuno – T(he)y, Me, Us, I follows two individuals through a turbulent relationship of interdependence.

• Angela Wells – Puzzled is an exploration of how different movements fit together.

• Teadora Paluzzi – exploratio (Latin, for exploration) delves into four elements of dance: shape, space, time and energy. Together with music, the elements are depicted in patterns and movement phrases.

• Meghan Van Der Giessen – Destruction explores the severed relationship between humanity and Earth. It is up to us to stop the ongoing spiral of annihilation.

• Lindsay McBride – Dear Mother acknowledges the constant strain between Mother Nature and humanity. Why must we always take advantage of those who give us life?

• Nina Milanovski – fish[I] is a quartet that began as an autobiographical self-solo. The piece investigates duality and authenticity and how these relate to identity. Can movement be authentic to one’s self? Does your identity affect the way you move?

• Vanessa Boutin – Apperception examines the effects of negativity on the mind. Personal experiences inform and ignite the work’s intensity; the intensity born of one’s deepest, darkest thoughts.

• Natasha Smith – Before there was nothing, which then became everything. Om is the sound that created and is the universe, but what was there before? Playing with the contrast between “before and after,” Create explores what our universe is created from.

Dance Innovations: Up Rising runs at the McLean Performance Studio, 244 Accolade East Building, York University. The cost to attend is $12 to $18. For tickets and information call the box office at 416-736-5888 or visit the box office online.

Performance dates and times include:

Thursday, Nov. 23 and Friday, Nov. 24
Program A – 7pm
Program B – 8:30pm

Saturday, Nov. 25
Program A – 1pm
Program B – 2:30pm

Four York U grad students receive Nelson Mandela distinction for their research

York University master’s student Raghed Charabaty, and doctoral students Kyla Baird, Matthew Robertshaw and Reena Shadaan, have earned Canada Graduate Scholarships (CGS) in honour of Nelson Mandela.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) select up to 10 master’s and doctoral Canada Graduate Scholarship recipients whose work is aligned with one or more of the five areas championed by Nelson Mandela: national unity; democracy, freedom and human rights; leadership; children’s participation in society; and children’s health.

Candidates selected are among the highest-ranked CGS award winners. Doctoral recipients receive funding of $35,000 per year for three years, and master’s recipients receive funding of $17,500 over one year.

Kyla Baird

Kyla Baird – psychology
Baird’s proposed thesis “Risk and Recruitment for the Domestic Sex Trafficking of Minors in Care of Child Protective Services: Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges for Inter-Agency Prevention Initiatives” aims to bring positive change to vulnerable youth.

“Youth in care of child protective services are over represented among underage survivors of domestic sex trafficking,” she said. “My doctoral research involves multidisciplinary and community agency collaboration with child protection and policing agencies to better understand the risks and pathways of youth in care of child protective services into sex trafficking.”

The hope is to create prevention protocols to be used by child protection and policing agencies in order to hinder future recruitment.

Baird is a member of Jennifer Connolly’s Teen Relationships Lab which is affiliated with the LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research.

“Kyla is deeply committed to improving the life outcomes of youth facing adversity and she has worked tirelessly to develop this innovative research project in the Teen Relationships Lab,” said Connolly, Baird’s supervisor. “The results are certain to have a large impact on protecting youth from exploitation.”

“I am so honoured to be a recipient of the Nelson Mandela Distinction Award,” said Baird. “This recognition further motivates me to conduct research that contributes to enhancing human rights and freedom for the most vulnerable youth in our society.”

Raghed Charabaty

Raghed Charabaty – film
Khamseen, the working title of Charabaty’s thesis, is a docufiction film exploring the relationship between mass uprooting, political unrest and the hostility of desertification in the Middle East.

“Building on a number of interviews with diverse displaced people in Lebanon, the project will examine the potency of art cinema as an innovative documentary tool, blending with expressionistic filmmaking to visualize the inner turmoil of a displaced group of people against a hostile landscape,” said Charabaty.

“The scholarship has provided important funding for the research, development, and production of this work,” he said. “It is an honour to have the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council as well as my department at York recognize this project and give it the academic and financial support that it needs.”

Other works by the current film production student can be found at online at Charabaty Films.

Matthew Robertshaw

Matthew Robertshaw – history
Robertshaw’s proposed thesis “The Two Haitis: Cautionary Tale or Postcolonial Epic?” explores Haiti’s role in the colonization and decolonization of French West Africa. He conducts his research in partnership with the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas.

“Before the successful slave revolt and War of Independence (1791-1804), Haiti was the French colony of Saint-Domingue – one of the most lucrative colonies in the world,” said Robertshaw. “I’m going to examine how the disastrous loss of this colony affected the way the French went about designing their second concerted attempt at colonial expansion (post 1871). From there I will turn to the role that Haiti and Haitians played in the articulation of arguments against the French presence in Africa and elsewhere.”

The hope of his work is to contribute to the reevaluation of the non-west in this important aspect of world history.

“I’m excited to be working on this project at York among such supportive and distinguished faculty and students, and I’m honoured to have been granted this award,” he said.

Reena Shadaan

Reena Shadaan – environmental studies
Shadaan is examining practices in the nail salon industry in partnership with the Healthy Nail Salon Network and the Nail Technicians’ Network in Toronto. The majority of her work has focused on justice movements in the aftermath of the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984.

“Nail technicians face reproductive, respiratory, and dermatological issues due to toxic exposures in the workplace, and musculoskeletal issues due to the nature of their work,” she said. “Particularly in Canada, there is an absence of work on the health impacts and concerns of nail technicians due to their work environments – partly because this labour is deeply racialized, and comprised largely of immigrant women.

“My work looks at the gendered implications of environmental disasters (including slow disasters), with focus on those that involve toxic exposures. This includes health-related implications, and environmental justice and reproductive justice leadership and activism.”

Shadaan is currently a graduate associate with the Centre for Feminist Research, and is a member of the Endocrine Disruptors Action Group (EDAction).

Visit the SSHRC website for a full listing of CGS award recipients.

Classical and musical theatre singing will fill York U halls at 2017 Ontario Vocal Showcase

classical music

York University will be filled with the sweet sounds of singing this weekend when its School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) hosts the 2017 Ontario Vocal Showcase of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS).

The showcase is an opportunity for student singers, children and adults from across the province to perform and receive written feedback from a panel of three adjudicators. The singers also compete in various categories for scholarships.

Classical voice adjudications will take place Saturday, while the musical theatre adjudications will be on Sunday. First place winners from all categories will perform at the final concerts at the end of each day’s classes.

Each year, the Vocal Showcase alternates between either York University or the University of Toronto, or Western University or Wilfrid Laurier University.

“This year is our turn. We love to host the event in the Accolade East Building where we can show off not only our excellent new facilities and Recital Hall but also our fine vocal student participants,” said Catherine Robbin, associate professor of classical vocal performance at AMPD and one of Canada’s best known mezzo-sopranos. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for our students to meet their colleagues from across the province as well as to show York’s Department of Music and School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design to prospective new students, their parents and teachers. We are very excited to host this important event.”

The National Association of Teachers of Singing 2017 Ontario Vocal Showcase will feature students from Grade 5 to fourth year postsecondary, as well as young professional and adult avocational singers training under a singing teacher who is a NATS Ontario member. The showcase will take place Nov. 18 and 19 in the Accolade East Building, Keele campus, York University.

NATS is the largest professional association of teachers of singing in the world, with nearly 7,000 members in the United States, Canada and some 30 other countries.

Indigenous storytelling workshop has a profound impact on students

The 19 theatre students who took part in the Indigenous storytelling workshop

Early October, theatre students Kathryn Geertsema and Frank Chung were among a group of 19 students participating in a three-day intensive workshop focused on Indigenous storytelling with Aboriginal elders Muriel Miguel, Penny Couchie and Imelda Villalon.

Theatre students Frank Chung (left) with Kathryn Geertsema

Funded through a grant from the Office of the Vice-Provost Academic that supports the Indigenization of curriculum, the workshop introduced the participants to Miguel’s “story-weaving” technique, which integrates a form of movement analysis known as Laban with a creative, Indigenous approach to story creation and performance.

For Geertsema, the experience gave her a greater appreciation for Indigenous theatre. “The emphasis on storytelling in Indigenous culture is quite different from storytelling in western theatre,” said Geertsema, noting that in western cultures, there is often an emphasis on results. This workshop, she said, highlighted the importance of the journey.

Chung said the workshop changed his understanding and approach to how to tell a story. “In my education and reading there has been a consistent set structure of how to create and perform,” he said. “The workshop introduced the concept of story weaving and the possibility that the story itself can breathe like its own individual spirit; that it is malleable yet concrete at the same time.”

The 19 theatre students who took part in the Indigenous storytelling workshop

To prepare for the workshop, participants were asked to come prepared with stories. They were encouraged to abandon the strict structure they originally intended for their stories in favour of feeling how the story “ought to be told.” Improvisation was an important component and this form of Indigenous theatre merged the preparation for telling the story with the improvisation arising from feeling the story. Participants listened to each other’s stories and sought to find and feel the parallels between the stories.

As part of the workshop, multiple people told their stories, which were then woven, meaning the story was still told, but scattered and chopped up to make puzzles that were then put together. “The weaving made a brand-new creation that was formed from amalgamating two or more stories,” said Chung. “I had never seen new work formed so quickly before in a rehearsal studio. I have worked with my classmates for some time now, but when their work was woven, it was like taking in a breath of fresh air.”

From left: Workshop leaders Penny Couchie and Imelda Villalon with theatre Professor Eric Armstrong

Geertsema had a similar response to the process of story weaving. “It fascinated me how often the stories we told echoed one another – stories we had prepared on our own but were now weaving together,” she said. “Every time people had similar lines or referred to similar emotions, I wondered at how profoundly similar we are as humans, despite the different stories we tell. At the heart of it, we share so many fears and hopes.”

On the last day of the Indigenous Storytelling workshop, participants worked to weave their pieces together using their bodies and voices to tell the stories. One particular partnership involving fourth-year theatre student Sepehr Reybod and theatre Professor Eric Armstrong was particularly moving, said Chung. “To see Sepehr and Eric telling their stories and having moments when they connected was magical to see,” he said. “I began to look past who I thought my teacher was, and instead approached it as two people simply trying to tell a story, express themselves and be honest with who they are.”

“It is always important to learn about other cultures and to realize that the western emphasis on naturalistic theatre and performance is not the form of all theatre and performance,” said Geertsema, something she found particularly important when considering the current goal-oriented culture that focuses on careers and using one’s skills. There’s an equilibrium to be found, she said. “Simply being aware of other performative techniques can enliven one’s creative life tenfold, while also keeping non-western ideals alive.”

For Chung, the lessons learned in the workshop apply to other professions, not just acting. “I would highly recommend it [the workshop] to people who would like to know about Indigenous culture, mindset and simply how to be free and comfortable with who you are as a person. It made me realize the artistry and beauty behind being human, which I feel is something we all need to take more time to appreciate.”