York alum named new imagineNATIVE festival director
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Kahstarohkwanoron Lindsay Monture, who graduated York with a bachelor of arts in film and media studies, has been named the new festival director of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, the world’s largest showcase for film, video, audio, digital and interactive media made by Indigenous creators.
In her new role, Monture, who is Kanyen’kehá:ka (Mohawk), Turtle Clan from the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, will select and oversee the festival’s programming team, as well as choose curators and jury members.
Kahstarohkwanoron Lindsay Monture
The position isn’t Monture’s first with imagineNATIVE. Over the course of her 15-year career in media, she has been a programming and industry co-ordinator for the festival. She has also worked on behalf of Indigenous communities elsewhere too, including non-profit organizations such as the Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts, Maoriland Film Festival, Revolutions Per Minute, the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Woodland Cultural Centre and Indigenous Climate Action.
imagineNATIVE launched in 2000 to dedicate itself to presenting the work of Indigenous artists and advocating for Indigenous narrative sovereignty and representation on screen – in Canada and abroad. Last year’s festival screened 19 feature films and more than 100 short films, and was attended by thousands of people. This year’s festival – its 24th iteration and Monture’s first as director – will take place from Oct. 17 to 19.
Goldfarb Summer Institute to explore border politics through art
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The 15th annual summer institute, presented by the Department of Visual Art and Art History at York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD), will offer panels, screenings and talks running until May 19.
Since its inception, the Goldfarb Summer Institute aims to provide University graduate students, and the wider community, the opportunity to engage with critical ideas with prominent national and international theorists, artists, educators, curators and critics.
Organized by AMPD professors Natasha Bissonauth and Tammer El-Sheikh, this year’s institute is titled “Border Forms: (Re)Drawing Lines,” and will consider how many key art historians, artists, curators and more think about the visual through anti-colonial discourse and critical race theory to disturb the white, colonial, Eurocentric roots that undergird the field and the residues that remain in the discipline.
The featured events will investigate how region-specific genealogies are so foundational to art history and what it would mean to trespass the borders so generative in art making and thinking. By emphasizing Black and brown art histories that reorder and disorder the bordered logics of the discipline, and that imagine possibilities for the visual beyond surveillance regimes, the 2023 Goldfarb Summer Institute will examine the border as a political tool, a conceptual device, and an aesthetic gesture.
Among the artists participating in this year’s programming are acclaimed York associate professor and filmmaker John Greyson, visual artist Larissa Sansour, art historian and author Iftikhar Dadi, award-winning Manitoba artist Divya Mehra, curators Sarah Rifky, Eunice Bélidor and Cheryl Sim, as well as doctoral Fellow at the University of Ottawa, Anna Shah Hoque.
Upcoming events include:
May 11, 4 to 6 p.m. Panel Discussion “On Curating Borders,” moderated by Marissa Largo Accolade East Building, Room 244
May 12, 4 to 6 p.m. Divya Mehra in conversation with Natasha Bissonauth Accolade East Building, Room 244
May 18, 2:30 to 5 p.m. Film screening of Photo Booth (John Greyson) followed by discussion with Tammer El-Sheikh Ross Building, N102
May 19, 2:30 to 5 p.m. Film screening of work from Larissa Sansour followed by discussion with Amanda Boulos Ross Building, N102
Sculpture by York professor debuts at Keele and Finch
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By Alexander Huls, deputy editor, YFile
Designed by Brandon Vickerd, artist and professor of visual arts at York University, the 41-foot sculpture made out of Corten steel is titled “The Heights” and is meant to evoke how the history of a place informs its present and future.
Brandon Vickerd
The seed of “The Heights” began in 2020, when the Duke Heights Business Improvement Area (BIA) put out a public call for professional Canadian artists to propose a landmark public artwork that would bring back and reassert the Finch-Keele community after years of construction in the area preparing for the forthcoming Light Rail Transit (LRT) line.
Among the resulting 80 applicants, five artists – including Vickerd – were chosen to submit detailed proposals. Vickerd knew the BIA wanted something that addressed the history and future of the location, so he began researching what architecture had existed near the LRT site in the past. He discovered that, between 1873 and 1956, the one-room Elia Public School once stood near the sculpture’s current location before being demolished to make way for future developments.
For Vickerd, the old schoolhouse, and the education it would have provided as a driver for social and communal change, neatly connected the past to the present with how another school – York University – has helped shape and drive the community it belongs to. He found his inspiration and submitted his proposal to the Duke Heights BIA: a multi-faceted open design and architectural abstraction of the school made of Corten steel, which has a rusted metal finish that he says would give the sculpture a weathered, aged appearance, embodying a quiet assertiveness that is distinctive in its depth and the richness of its colour.
The original Elia School House which once stood near Keele and Finch
Digital rendering of “The Heights” sculpture
The work ahead wasn’t without its pressures. Vickerd, who has previously created sculptures for cities like Edmonton, Thunder Bay, Calgary, Ottawa and others, had never worked on something quite so close to home as York University, where’s he worked for the last 20 years. “I can almost see the location of the sculpture from my office window on campus. I knew all my colleagues are going to be driving by it every day, and our students live in that community,” he says. “There was a pressure of doing something that honoured a community that I was part of.”
Nonetheless, Vickerd’s art often works with notions of history and community, which made “The Heights” project well within his comfort zone. “The way I think about public art is it’s about giving back to the community,” he says. “It can’t be about making something that I just want to see or that I think is cool. It has to be something that comes from that community and contributes back to it.”
The design process – including engineering revisions and community feedback – took six months, then the actual creation took another six months. Vickerd credits the University too with not just the academic knowledge, but practical knowledge he’s gained that enabled him to create projects like “The Heights” sculpture. “It’s the accumulation of years of working with my colleagues and students in a way that can only happen at a university like York, which allows us to push boundaries, try out new ideas, think through things and experiment with materials. So, when opportunities like this come up, we can then better develop projects that are successful and create a greater experience in the community for the people who live it day.”
“The Heights” sculpture by Brandon Vickerd being installed (photo supplied by Brandon Vickerd)
Part of the experience he hopes “The Heights” creates is the opportunity for locals to reflect on the physical, social, and economic changes in the neighborhood with the opportunity to literally see the community in new ways.
“Because its design is open, and there’s so much negative space, it changes and evolves as you move around. It was important to me to give the viewer the opportunity to have the piece shift and change. It’s never static. It’s never just one perspective. I’m trying to connect that to how we experience community and how we experience urban geography. As we move through the city, things change,” says Vickerd.
Currently, the sculpture – funded and managed by Duke Heights BIA, but now a permanent collection of the City of Toronto – is visible because of its size, but not yet accessible for closer viewing. Remaining landscaping and roadwork must be finished first, estimated to take six months, then the piece becomes open to the public.
Vickerd is excited for residents then – and even now – to take in the sculpture, and what he intends it to do more than anything else.
“The goal of this project is to acknowledge the historic significance of the site while celebrating the changing dynamic of the Keele and Finch intersection. ‘The Heights’ accomplishes this through a design that balances the monumental sculpture with a sense of dynamic tension and wonder. This sculpture is about the relationship between time and memory. It reflects on the role of history in providing a guiding light that illuminates a path forward into the future,” he says.
York professors highlight satellites, sustainability in space
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An interdisciplinary project between professors in the Department of Earth & Space Science Engineering and the Department of Computational Arts at York University is promoting sustainability in space.
Resident Space Objects (RSOs), such as satellites and rockets, are frequently launched into space for different missions but are not removed after they serve their purpose or become non-functional. This creates an overcrowded and unsustainable environment which can interfere with space assets and activities.
To tackle this complex issue, Professor Regina Lee from the Lassonde School of Engineering has focused her research on developing satellite technologies for space situational awareness missions. These technologies enable the identification of inactive satellites that should be removed from space and track active satellites that are at risk of collision with other objects. The collected information can then be communicated and used to notify scientists about the status of their satellites, encouraging their removal or other required action.
Regina Lee
“We talk about sustainability all the time, but what about sustainability in space?” says Lee. “We need to start bringing this idea to the public domain, we need to reach larger audiences.” This complex task required an interdisciplinary approach, one which is central to Lassonde and is part of what differentiates the School.
To spread awareness of this issue and make her research more accessible, Lee collaborated with a fellow professor from York on an interdisciplinary creative project that combines art with science, titled “Space Situational Awareness and Us,” and aims to bridge knowledge gaps and address the world’s greatest challenges.
The project was created by Principal Investigator Professor Joel Ong from the Department of Computational Arts in the School of the Arts, Performance, Media & Design (AMPD) at York University, through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) New Frontiers in Research Fund grant.
The project was proposed in 2019 during a speculative conversation between Lee, Ong and their students, as well as data visualization artist Scott Hessels at Sensorium: Centre for Digital Art and Technology, an organized research unit out of AMPD where they discussed different perspectives on the visualization of satellites and space junk. “We realized that there were significant overlaps in our strategies, particularly in the way we were all finding creative solutions to read images, infer data and compose photographs. It made sense for us to take this further and build our skill sets through interdisciplinary experimentation,” says Ong.
Professor Lee and her students posing at the Ontario Science Centre
“Space Situational Awareness and Us” includes several artistic presentations and exhibitions about Lee’s research regarding the environment in space, objects that orbit our planet and space surveillance using small satellites. During March Break (March 13 to 19), one of the artistic presentations, titled “Satellites & You” was demonstrated at the Ontario Science Centre to youth and their families. This presentation was co-written and directed by Lee’s students: Akash Chauhan, PhD candidate, and Vithurshan Suthakar, MSc candidate.
Presentations about Lee’s research were led by her graduate students who engaged with the audience using creative props, interactive demonstrations and informative videos. Youth in the audience were invited to write messages that will travel to near-space and back to earth with one of Lee’s nanosatellites in an upcoming mission.
In addition to presenting her research, Lee used the project to encourage youth to consider pursuing career paths in STEM. “Science is usually introduced to students when they’re older, but I think we should show younger generations what opportunities exist as early as possible,” says Lee. Along with her students, Lee will continue showcasing space research to k-12 classrooms, summer camps and community-based programs over the coming months.
Professor Lee’s graduate students presenting at the Ontario Science Centre.
Another goal for this project was to promote diversity in space sciences and engineering, especially among young girls. “Women are already underrepresented in engineering, but there are even fewer women in space programs,” says Lee. To help inspire girls, Lee ensured that most presentations of her project included at least one of her female students in a major role. “I want to promote women in space in a subtle way, it’s important for young girls to see what is possible.”
Lee will be continuing her work with Ong, developing creative installations that will be displayed at various exhibits, including the Macintosh Gallery at Western University in London, Ont. Ultimately, Lee hopes art can help reignite conversations about satellites. “There was a time when everyone was excited about satellites being launched into space,” says Lee. “I want to bring that passion back.”
York alumni win big at Canadian Screen Awards
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During Canadian Screen Week (April 11 to 16), The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television handed out more than two dozens Canadian Screen Awards to York alumni – from the School of Arts, Media, Performance & Design and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies – recognizing their achievements in film, television and the digital sector.
Victoria Lean (Credit: George Pimentel Photography)
Throughout the week, the Canadian Screen Awards recognized a range of categories, including sports programming, news, documentaries, children’s programming, animation, reality, lifestyle and more. The week culminated in a final ceremony, honouring work in the comedic and dramatic arts.
Going into Canadian Screen Week, more than 45 alumni were nominated across more than 30 different categories. Among the nominees, several York alumni earned multiple awards, including Victoria Lean, who won the Barbara Sears Awards for Best Editorial Research, Best Direction Factual and Best Factual Series for the documentary series We’re All Going to Die (Even Jay Baruchel) which explores the global crises that threaten the Earth’s sustainability, and the solutions that can right the future. Alum Gordon Henderson was also among the Best Factual Series recipients for the series.
Marsha Green (Credit: George Pimentel Photography)
Marsha Green was another multi-winner, earning an award for Best Writing, Drama Series and Best Drama series for The Porter, a series based on the true story of the creation of the first Black-led labour union after the First World War. Alumna Annmarie Morais was also among The Porter‘s Best Drama recipients.
Tracy Galvin earned two awards for separate projects: Best Live Entertainment Special for The Junos 2022 and Best Performing Arts Program for Buffy Sainte-Marie: Starwalker.
The documentary series BLK: An Origin Story, which looks at the untold stories of Black Canadians, earned several awards for York alumni, including Avril Jacobson for Best Picture Editing, Documentary and Jennifer Holness for Best Direction, Documentary Series.
Here is a full list of York alumni winners:
Best Talk Program or Series – 1 Queen 5 Queers Awardee: Aisha Fairclough
Best Sports Host – 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games Awardee: Andi Petrillo
Best Sound, Documentary or Factual – Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On Awardee: Elma Bello
Best Performing Arts Program – Buffy Sainte-Marie: Starwalker Awardee: Tracy Galvin
Best Writing Web, Program or Series – Chateau Laurier: An Unfortunate Turn of Events Awardee: Emily Weedon
Best Biography or Arts Documentary Program or Series – Comedy Punks: Kids in the Hall Awardee: Laura Michalchyshy
Best Children’s or Youth Fiction Program or Series – Detention Adventure Awardee: Lauren Corber
Best Live Production, Social Media – ET Canada Live Awardee: Jodie Davis
Best Web Program or Series Non-Fiction – ET Canada Pride Awardee: Jodie Davis
Best Original Music, Animation – Let’s Go Luna! Dig it Daddy-O Awardee: Ari Posner
Best Web Program or Series, Fiction – Revenge of the Black Best Friend Awardee: Amanda Parris
Best Documentary Program – Sex with Sue Awardee: Lisa Rideout
Best Documentary Program – Sex with Sue Awardee: Sam Dunn
Best Guest Performance, Comedy – Sort Of: Sort of Amsterdam/Sort of I Love You Awardee: Amanda Brugel
Best Original Music, Comedy – Sort Of: Sort of Who She Is Awardee: Vivek Shraya
Best Writing, Factual – Still Standing: Oxford Awardee: Graham Chittenden
Best TV Movie – Swindler Seduction Awardee: Jonas Prupas
Best Writing, Variety or Sketch Comedy – TallBoyz: Don’t wear in front of the song Awardee: Franco Nguyen
Best Reality/Competition Program or Series – The Amazing Race Canada Awardee: Michael Tersigni
Best Picture Editing, Reality/Competition – The Amazing Race Canada: Where is Gurmail Awardee: Michael Tersigni
Best Writing, Children’s or Youth – The Hardy Boys: Captured! Awardee: Ramona Barckert
Best Performance, Sketch Comedy (Individual or Ensemble) – This Hour Has 22 Minutes Awardee: Stacey McGunnigle
Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary – To Kill a Tiger Awardee: Cornelia Principe
AGYU online event to consider role of public art
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The Art Gallery of York University (AGYU) will present “Permanence/Impermanence: The Life of Public Art” on May 4 at 1 p.m, an online conversation featuring prominent global artists discussing the challenges and importance of public art.
The conversation is part of The Uncontainable Collections Research Project presented by AGYU, an annual workshop series initiated in 2022 to make York University’s art collection more accessible to the public and for research purposes.
In the spirit of accessibility, this iteration of the workshop was produced collaboratively by AGYU staff Allyson Adley, Liz Ikiriko and Jenifer Papararo, as well as faculty and students in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design.
The preliminary interview questions were developed with York University graduate class, ARTH 6000, led by Professor Anna Hudson, and will be addressed to the participants who are prominent artists and curators whose work critically engages with notions of “publicness” as it relates to “public art,” “the public sphere,” “public space” and “publics.” They include: Allison Glenn (United States), Vanessa Kwan (Canada), Mohammed Laouli (France, Germany, and Morocco) and Raqs Media Collective (India).
During the online conversation, each participant will give a 10-minute overview of their research and practice before joining a collective conversation that uses public art to counter codified notions of public space. In preparation for this live discussion, pre-interviews with each of the participants will be conducted, addressing the principles and ideals of democracy in how public space is inhabited; how decolonial acts of resistance de-centre monuments that glorify settler-colonial histories; what role communities can play in the commissioning of public art; and the limitations and risks of working in public spaces. Transcripts of these interviews will be available on the AGYU website on April 28.
This iteration of the workshop intends to activate, question and learn from involved arts practitioners discussing public art as a form of inspiration, as community engagement, and as a marker of time and place.
Those who wish to find more information or register, can do so here.
York faculty recognized for research, artistic excellence
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President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton with faculty members Taien-Ng Chan, Jude Kon, Karen Burke, Carl James, Linda Peake and Vice-President Research and Innovation Amir Asif
The outstanding achievements of 70 York University faculty members were recognized on April 12 during the 2023 Research Awards Celebration. The annual event, hosted by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, celebrates the research contributions from York’s community of changemakers over the last year.
“Universities continue to play an oversized role in undertaking the research, creative activities and innovation needed to address the complex, global problems we face. Through the dedication and hard work of York’s community of researchers, scholars, creators and knowledge mobilizers, we are driving positive change and strengthening our impact on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” said President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton. “I congratulate all the honorees and their teams for their efforts in building a brighter, more equitable, and sustainable world.”
Faculty were recognized for their wide-ranging work, including studies to advance greener chemistry, documenting Indigenous resurgence, and for the mathematical modelling of zoonotic threats, in addition to their prestigious appointments, such as being inducted into the Royal Society of Canada, or the Order of Ontario.
“The honourees’ contributions to purposeful research and scholarly activity at York enriches the University greatly,” said Vice-President Research and Innovation Amir Asif. “They have all made their mark in their respective fields and this event is an opportunity to recognize so many of the brilliant minds, gifted artists and imaginative thinkers that call York University home. The University is proud of them.”
The achievements span 10 categories, including the President’s Research Awards.
The recipients of this year’s President’s Research Awards are:
Professor Karen Burke
Karen Burke, associate professor, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, was recognized with the President’s Research Impact Award (PRIA). The PRIA recognizes full-time, active faculty members whose body of research or scholarship has translated into a notable impact on communities, individuals, public policies or practice beyond academe, or translated successfully into impactful commercial or other applications, while significantly and positively contributing to the University’s research culture and reputation.
Burke is a singer, music director, choral conductor and composer in the field of African-American vocal music. Her expertise is in the history and performance practices of Gospel music and has worked with major choral ensembles, organizations, schools, and church congregations. She is the cofounder of the Juno Award-winning Toronto Mass Choir and the founding director of the York University Gospel Choir.
Jude Kong
Taien Ng-Chan
Jude Kong, assistant professor, Faculty of Science, and Taien-Ng Chan, assistant professor, School of the Arts, Performance, Media & Design, were recognized with the President’s Emerging Research Leadership Award (PERLA). The PERLA recognizes two full-time faculty members – one in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and one in the social sciences, humanities and arts (SSHA) – within 10 years of their first academic appointment, who have had a notable impact on their field and made a significant contribution to advancing the University’s international reputation for research excellence while significantly and positively contributing to one or more aspects of the York community’s intellectual life.
Kong is a mathematician and is the founding executive director of the Africa-Canada Artificial Intelligence and Data Innovation Consortium (ACADIC). He is also the executive director of the Global South Artificial Intelligence for Pandemic and Epidemic Preparedness and Response Network (AI4PEP). His research focuses on the use of AI, data science, mathematical models and system thinking to improve decision-making in global health and clinical public health.
Ng-Chan is a writer and media artist whose research explores experimental processes of urban mapping and sound art, “object-oriented storytelling,” and futurist imaginings of everyday life in the Asian diaspora through immersive cinema, both in VR headset and dome projection modes. Her writing ranges from scholarly work to books and anthologies of creative writing, to collaborative multimedia arts websites, and drama for stage, screen and CBC Radio.
Linda Peake
Linda Peake, professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, was recognized with the President’s Research Excellence Award (PREA). The PREA recognizes senior established, full-time, active faculty members at the rank of Professor, with distinguished scholarly achievements, who have had a notable impact on their field(s) and made a significant contribution to advancing the University’s international reputation for research excellence while significantly and positively contributing to one or more aspects of the York community’s intellectual life.
Peake is the director of the City Institute at York University, and a feminist geographer with research interests in the co-construction of subjectivities and urban places, particularly pertaining to marginalized communities in the urban global south, and specifically Guyana. Peake is also co-chair of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Affinity Group on Mental Health, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
York launches production accounting micro-credential program
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York University and Cinespace Studios have partnered to create a production accounting micro-credential program in response to growing demand from the film and television industry.
York Motion Media Studio
The new six-week program will launch June 2023 and be taught in person at the York University Motion Media Studio – an interdisciplinary space for learning, teaching and production located on Cinespace Studios Toronto’s Kipling campus in Etobicoke. The curriculum will teach students the important role production accounting plays in the film and television industry, as well as common systems, tools and techniques used in the profession. The course is also managed by Schulich ExecEd.
“Schulich ExecEd is excited to partner with the York University Motion Media Studio and Cinespace Studios for the Foundations of Production Accounting program,” said Rami Mayer, executive director, Schulich ExecEd. “Accelerated reskilling is the way of the future for mid-career professionals, and micro-credentials have become the way of acknowledging to employers that the new skill has been learned. This program is a wonderful example of its practical use for a real need in an important industry for Ontario and the GTA.”
This latest collaborative venture is part of an ongoing strategic partnership between the University and Cinespace, which renewed its commitment to York in 2022 with $3.12 million in support.
“York University is proud to extend our partnership with Cinespace Studios to deliver this innovative micro-credential in production accounting that fills a need for highly skilled professionals in a growing industry like film and television,” said Sarah Bay-Cheng, dean of York’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design. “The production accounting micro-credential is testament to York University’s commitment to making quality education accessible to diverse learners while preparing the industry leaders to create positive change.”
“Film and television production accountants are in critically short supply globally and this micro-credential program will allow the industry to quickly fill a much-needed role as production volumes continue in the region,” says Ashley Rice, president and co-managing partner at Cinespace Studios.
Those interested in further information can review the micro-credential program’s details and curriculum here.
York students victorious at National Japanese Speech Contest
NJSC contestants, who are the first-prize winners in each category of the year’s respective provincial Japanese speech contests, travelled from all across the country to compete together. This year, 25 contestants in four levels of proficiency faced off at the national contest, which took place at the Toronto branch of the Japan Foundation on March 26. The three York students who finished in prize-winning positions were:
Grand prize (advanced first): Risha Pelchat (AP/JP2010)
Intermediate first: Ava-karie Hislop (AP/JP2000)
Beginners third: Arman Ahmed (AP/JP1000)
Pelchat – a translation student who also won the grand prize at the Ontario Japanese Speech Contest (OJSC) at the University of Toronto on March 4 – flawlessly delivered her speech entitled “Me? ‘Mademoiselle’? ‘Xiao Jie’?” in which she emphasized the importance of small gestures that could evoke feelings of “gender euphoria” among transgender people.
Hislop, a School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design student, presented her speech “Current Artists and Social Media.” She spoke about the negative influence of online reactions to, and evaluations of, art works, arguing that artists should – above all else – strive to maintain their integrity, originality and creativity.
Ahmed, a computer science student, delivered his speech titled “Break the Shell!” in which he used the metaphor of turtles and dragons to illustrate the experience of coming out of his shell following a long-COVID hiatus and discovering new friendships by taking up competitive dragon boating.
From left: Ava-karie Hislop, Noriko Yabuki-Soh, Risha Pelchat, Arman Ahmed and Eri Takahashi
“York students in the Japanese Studies Program have won many top prizes at both the provincial and national speech contests in the past. This year is no exception,” said DLLL Associate Professor Noriko Yabuki-Soh.
Yabuki-Soh, along with department colleague Associate Professor Norio Ota and faculty members Kumiko Inutsuka, Akiko Mitsui and Eri Takahashi, coached the students leading up to the national contest. Yabuki-Soh also served on the 2023 NJSC’s organizing committee.
“We are so proud of those students who worked so hard for this competition,” she added. “I am sure they will endeavour to become ‘ambassadors’ of Canada to Japan in the future.”
York lands top 10 spot in 17 subjects in QS rankings
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York University’s high-quality academic programming continues to position the institution as a leader in post-secondary education and drive positive change to right the future, both nationally and internationally, according to the 2023 QS World University Rankings by Subject report.
The University ranks among the top 100 in the world for three subject areas: English language and literature, philosophy, and for the first time, performing arts.
York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) is internationally recognized as an incubator for performing arts innovation. The first university in Canada to offer jazz and gospel as part of its Music degree program, York continues to advance and modernize its programming for a diverse student performers. More recently, the School’s Theatre and Dance programs collaborated with colleagues in Digital Media and Film, as well as professional partners, to incorporate digital technologies into its programs. The QS rankings demonstrates AMPD is a global example of how performance programs – such as dance, music and theatre – can connect to all forms of arts, media and design to create positive change.
The report, released in March, ranks a total of 54 disciplines grouped into five subject areas: Arts and Humanities; Engineering and Technology; Life Sciences and Medicine; Natural Sciences; and Social Sciences and Management. The 2023 ranking is noted as the biggest QS World University Rankings by Subject, with more than 15,700 programs from 1,594 institutions evaluated.
Rhonda Lenton
“These rankings reflect the world-class education and purposeful research for which York University is known,” says York University President & Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton. “We continue to drive positive change locally and globally guided by our values as a progressive university dedicated to excellence, social justice, diversity, inclusion and sustainability, and we are thrilled that we are being recognized for our leadership in shaping the future of higher education, providing the talent needed for the 21st century workforce, and solving the complex problems facing society today and in the future.”
Among Canadian universities, York ranks in the top 10 in a total of 17 subject areas.
In the QS World University Rankings category of Arts and Humanities, York University ranks in the top five universities in Canada in the subject areas of English language and literature (#4); history (#4); performing arts (#4) and philosophy (#4). The University is in the top 10 in Canada for modern languages (#7); and linguistics (#10).
In the QS World University Rankings category of Life Sciences and Medicine, York University ranked in the top five in Canada for psychology (#5).
The University’s program in the subject area geography (#7) appeared in the top 10 in the QS World University Rankings category of Natural Sciences.
In the category of Social Sciences & Management, York University programs that ranked in the top five in Canada are development studies (#4); and social policy and administration (#4). Listed in the top 10 across Canada for York University are the subjects of accounting and finance (#8); anthropology (#6); business management studies (#8); communication media studies (#8); law and legal studies (#6); politics (#7); and sociology (#6).
QS World University Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).
