Faculty, students and alumni from York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) will champion creativity and positive change at Nuit Blanche Toronto this Saturday, Sept. 23 from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Exploring this year’s Nuit Blanche theme, “Breaking ground,” work by AMPD community members will consider ideas centred around the natural world, change and innovation through installations, exhibitions and performances from a wide range of artistic disciplines – including cinema and media arts, digital media, theatre and visual art.
The members of AMPD with work at Nuit Blanche are:
Patricio Dávila and Hector Centeno Garcia As part of the Public Visualization Lab/Studio,Dávila (associate professor, cinema and media arts) and Garcia (assistant professor, cinema and media arts) will present an installation in the neighbourhood of Fort York. The installation, entitled “Atmospheres” will be part of The Bentway‘s exhibition of public artwork that explores the urban natural world framed by the Gardiner’s iconic concrete columns.
Elham Fatapour Fatapour (MFA ’21) will produce a video installation in the neighbourhood of Etobicoke. The performance video art, entitled Solitary Stitches, explores an artist’s solitary relationship with the land, using the seemingly domestic art of sewing.
Marcus Gordon Gordon, a PhD candidate in digital media, will mount an interactive instillition in downtown Toronto called Urban Arboretum. The installation uses the voices and sounds of participants to grow computer-generated plants.
Grace Grothaus Grothaus, a PhD student in digital media, will create a light installation in the neighbourhood of Don Mills, titled Sun Eaters, to show people how trees flow with hidden energy.
Andria Keen Keen, an MFA student in visual arts, is presenting an installation titled Reflective Foresight for a Dystopian Utopia for Nuit Blanche Danforth. Keen’s installation speculates what life might be like in 200 years considering factors like population growth, climate change and the evolution of technology.
Five of the AMPD faculty participating in Nuit Blanche this year: (from left to right) Patricio Dávila, Hector Centeno Garcia, Joel Ong, Marissa Largo and Archer Pechawis
Marissa Largo An assistant professor in the Department of Visual Art & Art History, Largo has curated the works of Ephraim Velasco (BFA student, visual arts – studio) at A Space Gallery @ 401 Richmond. A series of digital collages titled The Kakaiba Collection playfully explores Velasco’s diasporic identity through Philippine visual vocabularies and pop culture.
Joel Ong Ong, an associate professor in computational arts and the Helen Carswell Chair in Community Engaged Research in the Arts, is hosting an exhibition in Etobicoke titled In Silence. Created with community advocates in the Jane-Finch neighbourhood, the meditative exhibit visualizes the voices and lived experiences of marginalized communities.
Archer Pechawis An assistant professor in the Department of Visual Art & Art History and the Department of Theatre and Performance, Pechawis will perform a piece titled Daylight, in downtown Toronto. The musical performance examines the phenomenon of Toronto’s buried rivers and streams.
AMPD invites community members who want to be celebrated as part of Nuit Blanche Toronto to reach out to through the Faculty’s social media channel on X, formerly known as Twitter: @YorkUAMPD.
Research asks: do online educational platforms violate privacy expectations?
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Yan Shvartzshnaider, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering, is part of a collaborative project that has received $291,971 in funding from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to analyze the functionality and information handling of online educational platforms to determine if their practices align with user expectations and privacy regulations.
Yan Shvartzshnaider
As online educational platforms quickly became the de facto standard alternative to in-person teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, the urgent transition left many unanswered questions about potential privacy concerns. Through features such as location-based tracking to confirm student attendance and video conferences that can reveal socio-economic indicators in users’ homes, online educational platforms have access to an abundance of highly sensitive information, raising the question: do online educational platforms violate our privacy expectations?
“Everyone has gotten used to this new normal, but no one is asking if these platforms respect established privacy norms,” says Shvartzshnaider. “We want to understand how these educational systems actually work and if they deviate from our privacy expectations.”
In collaboration with researchers from Colgate University, New York University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois and Cornell Tech, this project will involve extensive review of information governance practices put in place by schools to protect students, staff and parents. The research team will also explore the ways in which the pandemic has changed information handling practices, and if these practices contribute to educational values and purposes or violate them.
Knowledge gained from this work will be used for informative guidance, providing relevant stakeholders with useful tools and methodologies so they can better design online educational platforms that prioritize user safety and privacy.
The SSHRC grant represents a unique achievement for a Lassonde professor, highlighting the diverse applications of engineering research, bringing Lassonde and Canada into the international conversation of online classroom privacy, and providing unique learning opportunities for Lassonde students, allowing them to become a part of interdisciplinary research that blends computer science and information technology with social sciences and humanities.
“I’m really excited for this project, which will bring together multiple disciplines,” Shvartzshnaider says. “This SSHRC funding will allow us to get lots of students involved in this important and timely project.”
In prospective work, he will explore the use of learning model systems and virtual reality, aiming to elevate the future of online classrooms, while prioritizing safety and privacy. He will also continue to work alongside Lassonde students and international partners, to collaboratively achieve a unified goal of creating safer, more informed spaces for online teaching.
York’s Well-being Week to focus on mental, emotional health
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York University presents Fall Well-being Week, “Caring for Your Mental and Emotional Health,” taking place Oct. 2 to 6.
A series of free events was designed to help the York community reflect on and practice mental and emotional well-being.
Well-being Week offers a diverse range of workshops, sessions and webinars, with a mix of virtual and in-person activities. There will be opportunities to explore and reflect on personal well-being journeys, including speed painting, managing conflict, art-oriented self care and understanding the impact of food on mental health. Participants are invited to share their experience on social media by using the hashtag #YUWellbeing.
“The aim of these well-being focused events at York is to reduce stigma surrounding mental health, share valuable resources for personal and communal growth, provide opportunities for social connection and ensure everyone knows where to locate support resources,“ said Mary Catherine Masciangelo, assistant vice-president, human resources and chief human resources officer.
York’s Well-being Strategy
York is developing a comprehensive five-year Well-being Strategy as part of its ongoing efforts to systemically embed well-being across its campuses. This strategy, which is a collaborative effort between the Division of Students and the Division of Equity, People & Culture, acknowledges the institution’s mutual responsibility to follow a systemic approach to create an inclusive and supportive environment where all community members have opportunities to flourish and be heard.
“York University is committed to prioritizing well-being among all community members,” added Masciangelo. “This ongoing and intentional effort of dedication to the community is part of the University Academic Plan (UAP 2020-25) priority of Living Well Together. By mobilizing well-being resources, York University strives to provide an inclusive and supportive environment that promotes well-being in a way that is meaningful to its members.”
Over the coming months, all community members are encouraged to provide feedback on the draft Well-being Strategy document. Additional information on the strategy will follow.
To learn more about Fall Well-being Week, its events and to register for sessions, visit the Well-being Week website. For additional resources and support related to well-being and mental health, explore the Well-being website.
Lassonde researchers pursue sustainable change
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Researchers from the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University are gearing up for new interdisciplinary research projects that address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with support from the Lassonde Innovation Fund (LIF), an initiative that provides faculty members with financial support.
This year’s projects aim to find innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, access to clean drinking water, issues in health diagnostics and more. Nearly 80 per cent of this year’s LIF projects involve interdisciplinary work, 50 per cent are led by women and six per cent address multiple SDGs.
Learn more about this year’s LIF projects below.
Project: “Smart contact lenses (SCL) as promising alternatives to invasive vitreous sample analysis for in-situ eye disease studies” by Razieh Salahandish and Pouya Rezai
Razieh Salahandish
Salahandish from the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at Lassonde is collaborating with Mechanical Engineering Professor and Department Chair Rezai along with Dr. Tina Felfeli, a physician at the University Health Network, on an initiative aimed at fabricating smart contact lens (SCL) systems as a non-invasive tool that can detect and analyze disease-indicating biomarkers in human tears. For clinicians, examining biomarkers is an important part of monitoring eye health that can help improve disease detection and patient outcomes.
Pouya Rezai
The SCL systems will be designed to examine two clinically relevant eye condition biomarkers, vascular endothelial growth factor and tumour necrosis factor-alpha. Typically, these biomarkers are isolated from gel-like tissue in the eye, also known as vitreous fluid, using invasive surgical methods. This LIF project poses a convenient alternative that is less complex for medical professionals and more manageable for patients. It also sets a strong foundation for future investigations in this unexplored field.
Project: “Electric gene sensor for disease diagnostics purposes” by Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh
Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are considered the gold standard for detecting genes associated with diseases and were widely used throughout the COVID-19 pandemic for diagnostic purposes; however, PCR tests lack portability and cost-effectiveness, so there is a need for more accessible options.
To address this issue, Ghafar-Zadeh, associate professor in Lassonde’s Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, is developing a novel PCR-like mechanism, which offers several advantages for detecting existent and emerging diseases over traditional detection methods. Advantages include low cost, high sensitivity and user friendliness.
With support from the LIF, Ghafar-Zadeh will explore the use of innovative electronic sensors to detect genes associated with different viruses. Substantial preliminary work shows the sensors’ output is significantly affected by the presence of a virus gene, thereby indicating its corresponding disease. Building on this discovery, experiments will be conducted using known genes to develop electronic software and hardware that can prove the presence of a specific virus gene and its respective disease.
Through successful research outcomes, Ghafar-Zadeh aims to secure future funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to support the implementation of this technology in clinical settings.
Project: “Controlling biofilm formation and microbial recontamination in secondary water storage containers with UV light emitting diodes and targeted cleaning procedures” by Stephanie Gora, Ahmed El Dyasti and Syed Imran Ali
Ahmed El Dyasti
Stephanie Gora
Continuous access to clean running water is a privilege that many global communities do not have. In areas such as refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) settlements, as well as rural and underserved regions in Canada, community members must collect water from public distribution points and store it in secondary containers for future use.
This stored water is highly susceptible to recontamination by various microbial species, including biofilm-forming bacteria, which are microbial colonies that are extremely resistant to destruction.
Syed Imran Ali
Ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are a promising, yet underexplored, method that can be used to inactivate microbial colonies in biofilms and prevent their formation. Civil engineering rofessors Gora and El Dyasti have teamed up with Ali, a research Fellow in global health and humanitarianism at York University’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, on a solutions-driven project to improve water quality in underserved communities using UV LEDs and targeted container-cleaning procedures.
With support from the LIF, the research team will design and develop UV LED-equipped storage containers and analyze their ability to disinfect water in containers with biofilms. Experiments will also be performed to examine the potential benefits of combining UV LEDs with targeted container-cleaning procedures.
Successful results from this project may help ensure clean and safe water for refugee and IDP communities, as well as other underserved regions.
Project: “Smart vibration suppression system for micromobility in-wheel-motor electric vehicles for urban transportation” by George Zhu
George Zhu
Traffic congestion is not only a nuisance for road users, but it also causes excessive greenhouse gas emissions. Recent advances in electric vehicle (EV) technology have found that microvehicles, which are lightweight and drive at speeds up to 35 miles per hour, are a sustainable and convenient alternative to many traditional modes of transportation.
Specifically, micromobility EVs using in-wheel motors (IWMs) are becoming increasingly popular considering their benefits such as high energy efficiency and roomy passenger space. However, these vehicles are susceptible to unwanted vibration and tire jumping, which compromise driving safety and user comfort.
Through his LIF project, Zhu, from Lassonde’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, will design and develop a novel vibration-control technology for micromobility EVs with IWMs. The project will use a SARIT EV to test a smart suspension system, which includes active and passive vibration suppression and absorption systems. This work aims to develop new vibration-control technology, improve user experience and address deficiencies of micromobility IWM EVs. Zhu, who is a co-founding director of the Manufacturing Technology Entrepreneurship Centre, will also use this work to leverage Lassonde’s ongoing collaboration with Stronach International on the SARIT EV project.
Project: “Multifunctional building envelopes with integrated carbon capture” by Paul O’Brien and Ronald Hanson
Paul O’Brien
Global warming is, in part, caused by the energy consumption and generation needed to support daily life, including the operation of buildings. In fact, the building sector accounts for 30 per cent of global energy consumption.
To help reduce greenhouse gas emission from building operations, mechanical engineering professors O’Brien and Hanson are developing and testing energy-efficient building envelopes using Trombe walls.
Ronald Hanson
Trombe walls are a unique technology that can utilize solar energy to provide buildings with passive heat, thereby reducing heating energy consumption of buildings by up to 30 per cent. Inspired by previously conducted studies, this LIF project will explore the multifunctionality of a modified Trombe wall with water-based thermal energy storage, which demonstrates the potential to provide indoor lighting, heated air, heated water and building-integrated carbon capture.
York co-hosts event series celebrating hip-hop’s 50th anniversary
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In celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop culture, Roots Rhymes Collective (RRC), in partnership with the Toronto Urban Journal (“the Urban“) at York University and Hart House at the University of Toronto, will host a multi-part event series called We Do It For The Culture: A Hip-Hop at 50 Event Series, which explores how hip-hop developed from a hyperlocal phenomenon birthed in the Bronx, N.Y., to a global commodity and highly translatable expression of self and community.
From September through to December, the series will centre the lives and contributions of hip-hop practitioners in a series of events hosted on each of Toronto’s university campuses (York University, University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University). With programming that celebrates hip-hop’s contributions to the arenas of culture, education and pedagogy, broadcasting, journalism, filmmaking and curation, the series intends to archive and preserve hip-hop’s history, honour hip-hop culture’s various artistic practices and capacity for social change, build hip-hop networks across various sectors and support intergenerational exchange.
Francesca D’Amico-Cuthbert
“Hip-hop culture has always been more than an expression of the creative arts,” emphasizes Francesca D’Amico-Cuthbert, course director of York University’s Hip Hop and the City course and chief research officer at the New York City-based Hip-Hop Education Center. “In the 50 years since its creation, the culture has shaped the contours of our everyday life, practices and institutions, including the knowledge production practices of the university.”
D’Amico-Cuthbert is also an adjunct professor in York’s Urban Studies program, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, and the director of archives and historical preservation at the Roots Rhymes Collective. The collective, made up of music industry professionals and academics, has created a program intended to work collaboratively with artists to explore the role of hip-hop in social activism, commerce, community-building and storytelling.
The event series will include an array of in-person activities such as fireside chats, professional development sessions, panel discussions, artist workshops, a conference, film screenings and an exhibit talk. Across the many events, the Roots Rhymes Collective will engage a cross-section of artists (MCs, DJs, breakdancers, graffiti artists, beat-makers, producers, directors, photographers and fashion designers), as well as those in sectors adjacent to hip-hop (radio, television, film, education, curation, business and commerce).
A key component of the series will be a commemorative art piece that has been commissioned to celebrate and document Toronto hip-hop history. The piece, The First 50: Toronto’s Hip Hop Architects, was illustrated by incoming first-year Seneca@York student Jones Amare Au-Duke, with curatorial support from Jeff “Spade” Duke (also known as Crazy Roc of the Graffiti Knights). “When I heard hip-hop, it was the first thing I encountered that felt like me,” shares Duke. “To be a part of that history – to see it validated in this art piece – it feels like my contribution to the culture was truly meaningful. I hope that when people see this art piece, especially young people, that they get that same aspirational feeling that I had when I first heard hip-hop.”
With additional event details to be released each week, the first batch of events include the following:
Citizen Kane’s Spade: Toronto’s OG B-Boy, featuring a moderated conversation with Jeff “Spade” Duke, Michele Geister, Main Source’s K-Cut and Down to Erf’s Mathematik (and music by DMC champion DJ Versatile) – Sept. 22
The debut of the art commission The First 50: Toronto’s Hip Hop Architects, which will also be installed and hosted at the Talking Walls Art Gallery at Hart House throughout Fall 2023 – Sept. 22
Know the Ledge: Hip-Hop Education, Pedagogy and Professional Development, for educators interested in learning more about hi-hop culture and how to incorporate it into classroom curricula and pedagogy – Oct. 6
Producers’ Circle, featuring a conversation and workshop on music production and beat-making with Main Source’s K-Cut” – Oct. 18
Lyricist Lounge, featuring a conversation and workshop on rap lyricism with Dan-e-o (of the Monolith Crew) and Keysha Freshh (of The Sorority) – Oct. 27
To learn more about the We Do It For The Culture event series, or to register for upcoming events, visit rootsrhymescollective.com or follow the collective on Instagram @rootsrhymescollective.
Schulich prof releases book on infrastructure, investment capital
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Schulich School of Business Professor James McKellar has published a new book, titled Infrastructure as Business: The Role of Private Investment Capital (Routledge, 2023), which delves into the nuances of private investment capital’s role in real estate, urbanization and infrastructure.
James McKellar
The book reflects the professor’s decades-long expertise and draws upon Schulich’s innovative Sustainable Infrastructure Fellowship Program, where McKellar has been a pivotal figure.
“This book offers insight into an industry not well understood but crucial to the well-being of society and our planet,” said McKellar, whose previous roles at Schulich include director of the Master of Real Estate and Infrastructure program and director of the Brookfield Centre. “Infrastructure affects our ability to address climate change and sustainability mandates. It is an industry sector in which Canada is a recognized global leader through its world-renowned institutional investors.”
Infrastructure as Business brings new emphasis and clarity to the importance of private investment capital in large-scale infrastructure projects, introducing investors, policymakers and other stakeholders to a key element that is surprisingly absent from the discourse on public-private partnerships. Despite the importance of modernizing infrastructure across the globe, governments often face challenges in securing the necessary capital to meet future need, as well as developing policy to meet these goals. Explaining the structure of the private investment universe and flow of private capital in such projects, this book aims to bridge this “infrastructure gap” by elucidating shared terminology, conceptual frameworks and an alignment of goals and objectives between public and private sectors – essential to meet increasing environmental, social and governmental requirements for infrastructure in coming years.
York University Faculty of Health Professor David Hood received a more than $1-million grant over five years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to study the role of exercise, sex and age on muscle decline by delving into the role of lysosomes in clearing out bad mitochondria from muscles.
David Hood
It’s not about a rare illness; it’s about something that impacts all of us. “After cancer and heart disease, musculoskeletal illnesses are one of the biggest burdens on society,” says Hood, a Canada Research Chair and professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science and a pioneer in the study of exercise physiology and mitochondria in Canada. “What’s going on with the lysosomes? Why aren’t they degrading mitochondria the way they should, and can exercise improve lysosomes? We will be studying whether or not the removal of bad mitochondria can be improved by regular exercise, whether there is a biological sex difference between males and females in the removal of mitochondria and whether it’s affected by age.”
Hood, founder of the Muscle Health Research Centre at York, has been studying the synthesis of mitochondria and musculature for decades. More recently, he has taken an interest in the role of lysosomes – the “Pac-Man” organelles responsible for clearing out cellular materials when they no longer function as they should – in the removal process of worn-out mitochondria.
Mitochondria are responsible for producing the energy required to power cells, and like all cellular structures, break down over time and need to be replaced. Previous research shows a lack of removal causes a buildup of free radicals. A lack of energy production is one reason for muscle decline in aging, and exercise helps with the removal of old mitochondria, but he says the role of lysosomes is poorly understood and the research is in its infancy.
To build on this nascent body of evidence, Hood and graduate students from York will look at lysosomes and contracting muscles cells under a microscope, conduct animal studies and look at human tissue via a collaboration with research partners at the University of Florida.
Hood says mouse model studies show that females have more mitochondria in muscle tissue than males, and previous research at York also discovered that they have more lysosomes. Now, he will look at whether the same would be true in humans.
Mitochondrial research has been exploding in recent years, due to its key role in the aging process in general, and while there is much interest in developing a pill that would help along with the mitochondrial renewal process – Hood himself has done studies looking at the role of the antioxidant resveratrol found in red wine, and found it did indeed help mitochondrial function in conjunction with exercise – Hood is not a “magic pill” advocate.
“There’s no doubt that there is a ton of excitement around mitochondria in the research world – more than any other organelle, really – and there is great interest in finding the pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals that can combine with exercise to make mitochondria work better,” says Hood. “With age and inactivity, the more mitochondria deteriorate, and the less likely people are to exercise. This leads to a further decline in mitochondrial function – a feed forward mechanism; however, the inverse is also true – training our body produces more mitochondria and gives us the energy for further exercise, helping to stave off chronic disease. As someone with a lifelong interest in athletics, as someone who teaches exercise physiology to 600 students per year, I’ve got to try to promote exercise, and the mechanisms of its health benefits, as best I can.”
“The support from CIHR for Dr. David Hood’s important research on the role of mitochondria in muscle decline will advance our understanding of how we can mitigate muscle decline to help us age better and healthier,” said Dr. David Peters, dean of York’s Faculty of Health. “The CIHR funding for his work and for that of his York colleagues in areas ranging from self-harm behaviours to the regulation of gene expression, is a recognition of the outstanding calibre of York’s research in health and how that research will benefit society.”
Watch a video of David Hood explaining his research here:
Two York University researchers have published a paper in the journal Communications Biology that examined the early and late life stages of small, developing carpenter bees in the presence and absence of maternal care.
The research considered how despite most wild bees being solitary, one tiny species of carpenter bees fastidiously cares for and raises their offspring, an act that translates into huge benefits to the developing bee’s microbiome, development and health.
Not unlike the positive affect human mothers can have on their offspring, the maternal care of these carpenter bees (Ceratina calcarata) staves off an overabundance of harmful fungi, bacteria, viruses and parasites in the earliest stage of development.
Without maternal care, the pathogen load of these developing bees ballooned, which can impact their microbiome, a critical component of bee health, as well as their development, immune system and gene expression. This can lead, for example, to changes in brain and eye development, and even behaviour. The biggest single fungus found was Aspergillus, known to induce stonebrood disease in honey bees, which mummifies the offspring. In later stages, the lack of care can lead to a reduced microbiome, increasing susceptibility to diseases and poor overall health.
The researchers looked at four overall developmental stages in the life of these carpenter bees, starting with the larvae stage both in the presence and absence of maternal care.
“There are fitness effects resulting from these fungal infections,” says Rehan. “We are documenting the shifts in development, the shifts in disease loads, and it is a big deal because in wild bees there is a lot less known about their disease loads. We are highlighting all of these factors for the first time.”
The developmental changes sparked by which genes were expressed or suppressed, upregulated or downregulated, along with disease loads, depending on the presence or lack of maternal care, created knock-on effects on the microbiome and bee health. These single mothers build one nest a year in the pith of dead plant stems, where they give birth and tend to their offspring from spring to as late as fall. Anything that prevents the mother from caring for her young increases risks of nest predation and parasitism, including excessive pruning of spring and fall stems, and can have huge consequences on their young.
“We found really striking shifts in the earliest stages, which was surprising, as we did not expect that stage to be the most significantly changed,” says Chau. “Looking at gene expression of these bees, you can see how the slightest dysregulation early in development cascades through their whole formation. It is all interconnected and shows how vital maternal care is in early childhood development.”
This study provides metatranscriptomic insights on the impact of maternal care on developing offspring and a foundational framework for tracking the development of the microbiome. “It is a complex paper that provides layers of data and shows the power of genomics as a tool,” says Rehan.“It allows us to document the interactions between host and environment. I think that is the power of this approach and the new technologies and techniques that we are developing.”
She also hopes it will give people more insight into the hidden life of bees and their vast differences, but also similarities. “Often people see bees as a monolith, but when you understand the complexity of bees and that there are wild bees and managed bees, people are more likely to care about bee diversity,” says Rehan.
Additional authors on the paper are Mariam Shamekh, a former honours thesis student and a Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Undergrad Student Research Award recipient, and Jesse Huisken, a PhD candidate and an NSERC postgraduate scholarship recipient.
In this special issue, YFile introduces new faculty members joining the York University community and highlights those with new appointments.
This fall, York welcomes new faculty members in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design; the Faculty of Education; the Faculty of Health; the Lassonde School of Engineering; the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies; the Faculty of Science; the Schulich School of Business; and Glendon College.
Liberal Arts & Professional Studies welcomes 34 new faculty members
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This story is published in YFile’s New Faces feature issue 2023. Every September, YFile introduces and welcomes those joining the York University community, and those with new appointments.
The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) welcomes 34 new faculty members this fall.
“I’m thrilled to welcome new faculty members to LA&PS,” says J.J. McMurtry, dean of LA&PS. “These new faculty members bring rich and diverse expertise to the Faculty that will benefit our students and build on our reputation as leaders in teaching and research. I am immensely proud of the outstanding new cohort of colleagues joining us in LA&PS”.
Mohsen Javdan
Mohsen Javdan Mohsen Javdan is an assistant professor of management information systems in the School of Administrative Studies at York. He teaches information systems courses, including management information systems and business analytics. He holds a PhD from McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business.
Javdan’s research mainly focuses on information technology adoption, particularly in the areas of big data analytics and artificial intelligence integration within organizations. Moreover, he investigates social media analytics from different perspectives. He has worked for more than five years as an information systems and business analyst in transportation and consulting companies.
Hamid Arian
Hamid Arian Hamid Arian is an assistant professor in the School of Administrative Studies at York. He holds aPhD in mathematical finance from the University of Toronto. His research interests include derivatives modelling, financial machine learning, deep learning, algorithmic trading, investment management and risk management.
Saikat Sarkar
Saikat Sarkar Saikat Sarkar is an assistant professor in the School of Administrative Studies at York. He has been a visiting scholar at Melbourne University in Australia, and he previously taught several undergraduate and graduate finance courses at Tampere University in Finland, Jyvaskyla University in Finland and Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Tampere.
Anoosheh Rostamkalaei
Anoosheh Rostamkalaei Anoosheh Rostamkalaei (she/her) is an assistant professor of entrepreneurship and innovation in the School of Administrative Studies at York. Before joining York, she held a faculty position at the University of Kent in the U.K. and postdoctoral positions at the University of Ottawa and Statistics Canada. Before her academic career, she worked as a system analyst, financial analyst and research associate in the private and public sectors.
Rostamkalaei’s primary research interest lies in understanding the nature and consequences of entrepreneurship. Her focus is on understanding how the experience of access to resources varies for different groups of society, and how the variations in access to resources and individuals’ priors translate into different entrepreneurial or post-entrepreneurial outcomes. Her research has been supported by grants and fellowships from Canada’s research councils and published in high-impact journals. She holds a PhD in management from Lancaster University Management School.
Emma Feltes
Emma Feltes Emma Feltes is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at York. She is a legal, political and public anthropologist. Her work examines the structure and operation of Canadian colonialism, with a focus on constitutional law, international law and transnational decolonization, environmental crisis and climate justice.
A settler scholar, writer and anticolonial activist, she draws on more than a decade of experience working in alliance with Secwépemc and Tŝilhqot’in Peoples in interior British Columbia. Her new research looks at state and Indigenous jurisdiction in times of emergency, focusing on decolonial responses to the climate crisis that spring from Indigenous legal orders. She has been a Fulbright Scholar and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropology at Cornell University. Her scholarship and public writing has been published widely, and she holds a PhD form the University of British Columbia.
Tracy Ying Zhang
Tracy Ying Zhang Tracy Ying Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication & Media Studies at York. Before joining York, she was a Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Researcher at Concordia University. Previously, she held postdoctoral fellowships at Queen’s University and Université de Montréal.
Zhang’s interdisciplinary approaches to research and teaching are informed by intersectional feminist perspectives, post-colonial theories and critical political economy analyses. Her multilingual, multi-sited research projects explore the interplays of gender, race, labour migration, body politics and cultural policy in global creative industries. Her research has appeared in many journals, and she has directed and co-produced several independent films. The Flip Side: A Global Circus Story, which she co-produced, was screened at seven film festivals, four international conferences and three college festivals. It won the best short documentary at the DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon.
Nathaniel Laywine
Nathaniel Laywine Nathaniel Laywine is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication & Media Studies at York. Hel is an interdisciplinary scholar, who works at the juncture of intercultural communications, critical pedagogy and media studies. By analyzing the social media, digital marketing, and recruitment strategies of volunteer tourism agencies and international service learning programs that prioritize the pursuit of fun and pleasure in international tourism, he seeks to understand how colonial and imperial legacies continue to shape global humanitarian practices, even when they aspire to rupture these histories.
Laywine has worked as a research consultant and/or project manager on a wide range of projects with Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, Universalia Management Group and Experiments in Feminist Ethical Collaborative Tools & Technologies. He has also previously worked in film development and distribution, with organizations such as the National Film Board of Canada, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Canadian Film Centre and Frontières International Co-production Market.
Kasim Tirmizey
Kasim Tirmizey Kasim Tirmizey is an assistant professor in the Department of Equity Studies at York. He previously taught as an assistant professor (limited-term appointment) in technology and society at Concordia University’s Centre for Engineering in Society and held a postdoctoral fellowship at Queen’s University’s Department of Global Development Studies. He has a PhD in environmental studies from York.
In his teaching and research, Tirmizey draws upon anti-colonial theory and critical political economy for examining technology, food, agriculture and the environment. His teaching philosophy is inspired by popular education and critical pedagogy.
Thomas Kettig
Thomas Kettig Thomas Kettig is an assistant professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics at York. He studies how the sounds of language vary and change through space and time. Some of his research aims to understand why the vowel sounds of English change from one generation of speakers to the next. He has also undertaken the first large-scale, multi-speaker investigation of the vowels of Hawaiian. His work touches on issues in endangered language description, sociolinguistics, quantitative experimental methods, theoretical phonology, historical linguistics and acoustic phonetics.
Before joining York, Kettig was at the University of York in the U.K., where he conducted postdoctoral research related to forensic applications of a sociophonetic experiment and taught courses on phonetics and quantitative methods. He previously taught phonetics at Queens College, City University of New York, and he holds a PhD in linguistics from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Etienne Lalé
Etienne Lalé Etienne Lalé is an associate professor in the Department of Economics at York. He has worked as an assistant professor at the University of Bristol in the U.K. and as an assistant and associate professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
His research focuses on macroeconomics and labour economics, with a special interest in understanding cyclical and secular fluctuations in labour markets. He pursues this objective using both quantitative macro-search models and empirical analyses of large-scale micro datasets, which he often combines into structural modelling of the labour market. His current work can be divided into three main topics: measuring and analyzing labour market dynamics; quantifying the impacts of labour market policies; and understanding the role of alternative work arrangements.
Lalé has published in the leading journals of his field and he holds a PhD in economics from Sciences Po Paris in France.
Jinyue Li
Jinyue Li Jinyue Li is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at York. She has worked as an assistant professor at the City University of Hong Kong and as an assistant professor at the University of Windsor. She has eight years of experience in teaching introductory-level courses, upper-year electives and master’s-level courses. Her work has been published in the Journal of International Money and Finance.
Li also has experience in administrative work such as recruitment, admissions, organizing events and advising students. As a woman of color, her commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is built on her many years of international experience. She holds a PhD in economics and received the Distinguished Instructor Award at the University of Minnesota.
Vikrant Dadawala
Vikrant Dadawala Vikrant Dadawala is an assistant professor in the Department of English at York. He was born and raised in Kolkata, India. He specializes in world literature, South Asian literature and the global Cold War.
He is currently working on two projects: a monograph on themes of disappointment and heartbreak in post-independence Indian literature in Hindi and English; and a book of essays on migration, modernism and ātmā vismriti (self-forgetting).
With a PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania, Dadawala is currently a lecturer on history and literature at Harvard University, where he teaches courses on travel writing, decolonization and the global South Asian diaspora.
Sheetala Bhat
Sheetala Bhat Sheetala Bhat is an assistant professor in the Department of English at York. She is a theatre researcher, artist and playwright. She specializes in South Asian theatre and politics, South Asian diasporic theatre in Canada and Indigenous theatre in Canada. She is currently working on a manuscript on theatrical performances of love as anti-colonial feminist resistance in India and Indigenous theatre on Turtle Island.
Prior to her appointment at York, Bhat was an Arts Without Borders Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Ottawa. She has also worked in professional, community and protest theatre in the state of Karnataka in India. She won the 2022 Robert Lawrence Prize from the Canadian Association for Theatre Research and the 2020 Helsinki Prize from the International Federation of Theatre Research.
Nadia Hasan
Nadia Hasan Nadia Hasan is an assistant professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies at York. She is an anti-racist, transnational feminist, and critical secularism studies scholar and educator. Her research and activism focus on systemic racism and Islamophobia in legal, administrative and discursive regimes, and their relation to Muslim life.
Her focus on feminist and anti-racist research brought her to work in the human rights non-profit sector, where she has led major public advocacy campaigns against Islamophobia in Canada and directed research initiatives in partnership with academic institutions.
A frequent media commentator on issues related to Islamophobia, Hasan co-authored a groundbreaking SSHRC-funded report on systemic Islamophobia at the Canada Revenue Agency, titled “Under Layered Suspicion: A Review of CRA Audits of Muslim-led Charities.” Her current project examines how Muslim women navigate the compounding impact of Bill 21 on employability in the context of COVID-19 lockdowns.
Rukmini Barua
Rukmini Barua Rukmini Barua is an assistant professor of South Asian history in the Department of History at York. Before joining York, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.
Barua’s research examines questions at the intersection of urban politics, labour and emotions, with a focus on colonial and postcolonial India. Her first monograph, In the Shadow of the Mill: Workers’ Neighbourhoods in Ahmedabad, 1920s to 2000s, analyses urban change through the prism of everyday political practice and property relations in the Indian industrial city of Ahmedabad. Her second book project is a historical ethnography of working-class intimacy, conjugality and domesticity in 20th- and 21st-century India. She has a PhD in history from the University of Göttingen.
Elisha Lim
Elisha Lim Elisha Lim (they/them) is an assistant professor in the Department of Humanities at York. Lim researches the intersection of social media, theology and critical race theory, and is currently working on a book called Pious about the rise in distorted identity politics, from ethnic fraud and polarizing populism to hyperbolic corporate solidarity statements.
Lim is also an award-winning claymation filmmaker, and their queer and transgender films, comic strips and graphic novel (100 Crushes, Koyama Press) are documented by Duke University Press and Inanna Press monographs. They have written about algorithms and identity economics in academic journals and the media (the Daily Beast, hyperallergic, Document Journal, TEDxUofT), as well as thematically in their upcoming graphic novel, 8 Dreams About You.
Kael Reid
Kael Reid Kael Reid is an assistant professor in the teaching stream in the Department of Humanities at York. With a background in teaching and learning, they teach core and elective courses in the Children, Childhood, and Youth Studies (CCY) program. Using various ethnographic songwriting methods they developed, Reid conducts research that involves collaborating with children and youth to assist them in documenting and sharing their perspectives and stories through originally composed and recorded songs. Reid uses these songs they compose and record with their research participants as curriculum texts to teach CCY students about the value of learning directly from young people through lyrics and music.
Reid also combines public pedagogy with musical activism related to queer and trans equity by delivering workshops, concerts, and musical keynote addresses to universities and colleges, secondary schools, youth conferences, unions and community service organizations.
Zeyad El Nabolsy
Zeyad El Nabolsy Zeyad El Nabolsy is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at York. He specializes in the history of Africana philosophy with a focus on modern African philosophy. He has published on Amílcar Cabral’s philosophy of culture, methodological debates about racism and ideology in the historiography of philosophy, Paulin Hountondji’s philosophy of science, modern African political and social philosophy (with a focus on African Marxism), and ancient Egyptian philosophy. He is currently working on a comparative intellectual history of 19th-century African philosophy, with a focus on James Africanus Beale Horton (in West Africa) and Rifa’a al-Tahtawi (in Egypt).
His research interests include Africana philosophy, classical German philosophy, and Marxist approaches to the history, philosophy of science and Arabic philosophy.
Tamanisha J. John
Tamanisha J. John Tamanisha J. John is an assistant professor in the Department of Politics at York. She joined York from Clark Atlanta University, where, since 2021, she held the position of assistant professor of international political economy in the Mack H. Jones Department of Political Science. She received her PhD in international relations at Florida International University.
John studies Caribbean development, sovereignty and politics, as well as Canadian foreign policy, economic imperialism, financial exclusion and corporate power. She has published in leading peer-reviewed journals and was the recipient of the 2023 Summer Faculty Residency Award with UNCF Mellon/Programs. She also won the 2022 Best Dissertation Prize from the Caribbean Studies Association for her work “Canadian Banks and Imperialism in the English-Speaking Caribbean.”
Joe Pateman
Joe Pateman Joe Pateman is an assistant professor in the Department of Politics at York. He joined York from the University of Sheffield in the U.K., where he held the position of teaching associate in the Department of Politics & International Relations. His graduate and undergraduate teaching has included courses on oppression and resistance, race and racism in world politics, as well as global politics. He received his PhD in politics from the University of Nottingham.
Pateman is the recipient of two research excellence awards and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles, as well as two co-authored books, including Public Libraries and Marxism (Routledge, 2021).
Amanda van Beinum
Amanda van Beinum Amanda van Beinum is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology. She previously worked as an SSHRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Ottawa Centre for Health Law, Policy & Ethics.
Beinum conducts research projects in the fields of sociology of health and medicine, science and technology studies, critical posthumanism and medical ethics. She has been involved in clinical and ethnographic studies in hospitals and clinics and is an advocate for the incorporation of critical social science perspectives into medical research and practice. She received her PhD in sociology from Carleton University. Her current work, which is part of the international HYBRID-MINDS research consortium, explores embodied social and technological aspects of brain stimulation technologies as emerging therapies for the treatment of psychiatric illnesses.
Safiyah Rochelle
Safiyah Rochelle Safiyah Rochelle is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Science at York. She is a researcher whose areas of interest and teaching centre on contemporary political and legal theory, critical visual and race studies, state violence and criminalization, and the relationship between law, violence and marginalized populations. She received her PhD from Carleton University and is currently working on two projects: the first examines racial governance and redress in the aftermath of state violence; and the second explores the spatial, visual, and imaginative boundaries of mourning and memorialization for victims of mass violence.
Asmita B. Vijis
Asmita B. Vij Asmita B. Vij is an assistant professor in the Work and Labour Studies Program in the Department of Social Science at York. Her current project delves into the role of gender, race and class in the proliferation of the automation industry and data production platforms. It focuses on transnational platform labour chains underpinning AI, highlighting the experiences of women platform workers in India. She is interested in how the processes of digitization and platformization impact the conditions of work, workers and working-class communities.
Vij holds a PhD from the University of Toronto. Her work is interdisciplinary, bringing the fields of labour studies, adult learning, science and technology studies and digital sociology into conversation.
Steffi Hamann
Steffi Hamann Steffi Hamann is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences at York, specializing in international development and food security. She has a PhD in political science and international development studies from the University of Guelph. Prior to pursuing her doctoral studies, she worked as a consultant for the German development agency GIZ, providing policy advice to the Federal Ministry for Development and Cooperation.
Hamann’s research combines her academic background as a political scientist with an interest in agrarian change and sustainable livelihoods. She has been awarded an Ontario Trillium Scholarship, CASID’s Kari Polanyi-Levitt Prize and an SSHRC Insight Development Grant. Her work has appeared in various peer-reviewed outlets and she is a co-author of the book Commodity Politics, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Iván Darío Vargas-Roncancio
Iván Dario Vargas-Roncancio Iván Darío Vargas-Roncancio is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Science at York. Previously, he acted as associate director for the Centre for Indigenous Conservation & Development Alternatives and held a postdoctoral position with the Leadership for the Ecozoic program at McGill University. He also worked for the Everyday Peace Indicators Project as an institutional ethnographer at George Mason University and was a Francisco José de Caldas Scholar.
Vargas-Roncancio’s research focuses on Earth law and the rights of nature, Indigenous legal cosmologies in Amazonia, anthropology of plant-human relations and critical pedagogies. He has published in the Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, the Australian Feminist Law Journal, Sustainability and the Boletín de Antropología, among others, and he has two forthcoming books: Pedagogies for the Ecozoic (Cambridge University Press, co-author) and Law, Place and Plants in Amazonia: Sentient Legalities (Routledge Law, Justice and Ecology book series). He has a PhD in natural resource sciences from McGill University.
Kate Kaul
Kate Kaul Kate Kaul is the assistant professor of writing and critical disabilities, teaching stream, in the Writing Department at York. This new position extends her role as accessibility specialist for the Writing Centre into the life of the Writing Department and the Faculty. Kaul brings experience as an interdisciplinary teacher and scholar of writing and interdisciplinary disability studies, with interests in access-focused teaching, critical theory, disability and the connections between them.
Nicholas Taylor
Nicholas Taylor Nicholas (Nick) Taylor is an associate professor in the Department of Communication & Media Studies at York. He received tenure in 2018, during his 10-year stint in the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University, where he also served for two years as director of the interdisciplinary PhD program in communication, rhetoric and digital media.
Taylor combines critical and ethnographic approaches to analyze the subjectivities, communities and industries associated with professionalized leisure practices. His work has appeared in journals such as Convergence, Critical Studies in Media Communication and New Media & Society. He is also the lead editor of Masculinities in Play (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), the first volume on the intersections of masculinities and games, and LEGOfied: Building Blocks as Media (Bloomsbury, 2020). His areas of interest include gendered politics of place in new media industries, as well as media practices of artists and entrepreneurs who work with building blocks.
Bianca Beauchemin
Bianca Beauchemin Bianca Beauchemin is an assistant professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies at York. Her research interests include Black feminist thought, Black queer studies, queer of colour critique, Black diaspora studies, Black radical tradition, Black Atlantic history, histories of resistance and revolution, and postcolonial studies. She has a PhD in gender studies from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Beauchemin is currently working on an article for the Journal of Canadian Studies’ special issue on Black studies in Canada. In her book manuscript, Arousing Freedoms: Re-Imagining the Haitian Revolution through Sensuous Marronage, she re-narrates the Haitian Revolution through Black feminist and Black queer epistemologies and methodologies. Disrupting the authority of the colonial archive and of prevalent masculinist framings of insurgency discourses, she explores the ways embodiment, labour, sensuousness, spirituality, marronage, resistance and alternative sexualities and genders re-imagine the edicts of freedom and Black liberation.
Johannes Mahr
Johannes Mahr Johannes Mahr is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at York. Before joining York, he was a postdoctoral Fellow in philosophy and psychology at Harvard University. His work uses theoretical and experimental methods to understand human-specific cognition in the light of social practices. He has applied this perspective specifically to the cognitive architecture and function of episodic memory, imagination and temporal cognition. The results of this work have appeared in various journals at the intersection between philosophy and psychology such as Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Perspectives on Psychological Science and Cognition.
Mahr received his PhD in cognitive science from the Central European University. Some of his research interests include philosophy of cognitive science, cognitive psychology and philosophy of memory.
Antulio Rosales
Antulio Rosales Antulio Rosales is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Science at York. Before joining York, he was an assistant professor of political science at the University of New Brunswick. He has a PhD in global governance from the University of Waterloo and the Balsillie School of International Affairs.
Rosales’ research focuses on the politics of state and global capital actors’ interactions in the energy sectors of Latin American countries. His new research is concerned with the expansion of emerging financial assets such as cryptocurrencies and their link to energy infrastructures and political incentives in the Global South.
Eddy Ng
Eddy Ng Eddy Ng is a professor in the School of Human Resource Management at York. He joins the School of Human Resource Management from Queen’s University, where he holds the Smith Professorship in Equity and Inclusion in Business. He was previously the James and Elizabeth Freeman Chair in Management at Bucknell University, and the F.C. Manning Chair in Economics and Business at Dalhousie University.
Ng’s research, which has been funded by SSHRC grants, focuses on managing diversity for organizational competitiveness, the future of work and managing across generations. He has edited and published seven books and more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He is the editor-in-chief of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and co-editor of Personnel Review. He was elected Chair of the diversity, equity and inclusion division of the Academy of Management. Prior to academia, he worked for the TD Bank Financial Group in commercial banking, domestic planning, corporate audit and group human resources.
Bobbi-Jo Virtue
Bobbi-Jo Virtue Bobbi-Jo Virtue is an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at York. She is Ininew (Cree) from St. Peter’s/Peguis Community in Treaty 1 territory. She earned a master’s degree in public administration from Queen’s University and a bachelor of science in criminal justice from Lake Superior State University. She has more than 15 years of work experience in various levels of government, including Indigenous governance.
Virtue has been working as a helper with traditional knowledge carriers and Elders for most of her life. She honours reciprocal relationships with her community, both locally and back home. She is a strong advocate and an active grassroots community member.
Her research interests include public administration, politics and government, policy, Indigenous pedagogy, anti-colonial education, Indigenous governance, justice, Indigenous justice, law, criminal justice, Indigenous language revitalization, gender-based violence and Indigenous matriarchs.
Ilya Archakov
Ilya Archakov Ilya Archakov is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at York. His research interests include multivariate and high-dimensional econometrics, with a special focus on big-data analysis in economics and finance. A substantial part of empirical applications based on this research are related to the field of financial econometrics.
Archakov obtained a master’s degree in economics from the New Economic School in Moscow and a PhD in economics from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Before joining York, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vienna.
Tom Hooper
Tom Hooper Tom Hooper is an assistant professor in the Department of Equity Studies and a historian of 2SLGBTQ communities in Canada. His research has explored the Feb. 5, 1981, bathhouse raids where over 300 gay men were arrested and criminally charged for their sexuality, with a focus on the community resistance to these raids both on the streets and in the courts. Hooper critically examined the construction of dominant queer historical narratives, including the myth that legal changes in 1969 represented the decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada. He also investigated the use and misuse of heritage grants provided to 2SLGBTQ organizations.
