Tag: Glendon

Approved tag

Six York University professors elected to the Royal Society of Canada

The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) has elected three York University professors to its ranks as Fellows: Patrick Cavanagh, Glendon; Jonathan Edmondson, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS); and Anna Hudson, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD). It has also elected three new members to the College of New Scholars, Artists & Scientists: Rebecca Pillai Riddell, Faculty of Health; Marlis Schweitzer, AMPD; and Zheng Hong (George) Zhu, Lassonde School of Engineering.

There will be an induction ceremony on Nov. 22.

“York is delighted to see that professors Cavanagh, Edmondson, Hudson, Pillai Riddell, Schweitzer and Zhu have been recognized by the Royal Society of Canada,” said Rui Wang, interim vice-president research and innovation. “These exceptional researchers embody our vision to enhance our impact on the social, economic, culture and overall well-being of the communities we serve,” he added.

Three new Fellows

Academy of Social Sciences

Patrick Cavanagh
Patrick Cavanagh

Patrick Cavanagh, a Senior Research Fellow in psychology at Glendon, is a leading scholar in vision research. He has pioneered new directions in the perception of motion, colour, and shadow and the spatial and temporal resolution of visual attention. His work on the distortion of visual position caused by movement led to a new theory of position perception based in the cortical and subcortical areas of attention and eye movement control. His groundbreaking discoveries have been supported by numerous grants from research councils in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. His affiliation to Glendon and York is the result of a multi-Faculty co-operation, including the Faculties of Health, Science and Engineering, the VISTA research centre and the Office of the Provost.

Academy of Arts & Humanities

Jonathan Edmondson
Jonathan Edmondson

Jonathan Edmondson, Distinguished Research Professor of history and classical studies in the LA&PS Department of History, is an expert in Roman history, in particular in the society, economy and culture of Roman Spain (especially Lusitania); Roman epigraphy; and Roman public spectacles, especially gladiators. He is currently working on cultural interaction and cultural change in the western Roman Empire and the social history of the Roman colony of Augusta Emerita (Mérida, Spain). He co-edited the Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy (Oxford University Press, 2015) and is part of an international team editing all Latin inscriptions of the Roman era (c. 1,500 texts) from Emerita for the second edition of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. In 2016, he launched a new digital humanities project, ADOPIA, a digital atlas of personal names from Roman Spain, which he co-directs with the support of a Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Development Grant.


Academy of Arts & Humanities

Anna Hudson
Anna Hudson

Anna Hudson is a professor and an art historian/curator specializing in Canadian art, curatorial and Indigenous studies. As a York Research Chair and principal investigator of the SSHRC project Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage, Hudson aims to amplify the practice of cultural values by circumpolar Indigenous artists. Drawing from her doctoral dissertation, Art and Social Progress: the Toronto community of Painters (1933-1950), Hudson continues historical research on humanist aesthetics and cultural activism.

 

Three new members

College of New Scholars, Artists & Scientists

Rebecca Pillai Riddell
Rebecca Pillai Riddell

Rebecca Pillai Riddell, a Faculty of Health professor, associate vice-president research and passionate research teacher, has contributed to more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. She has established the first norms for the development of acute pain behaviours in healthy infants, within the context of primary caregivers, through her Opportunities to Understand Childhood Hurt (O.U.C.H.) Lab at York. Internationally, the O.U.C.H. cohort is known to be the largest longitudinal study on healthy infants and caregivers during vaccination to date. Her current research program has been supported by all three federal research councils (Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council and SSHRC), alongside a Canada Foundation for Innovation grant.

Marlis Schweitzer
Marlis Schweitzer

Marlis Schweitzer, an associate professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre, has written and co-edited a number of books, including Transatlantic Broadway: The Infrastructural Politics of Global Performance (2015), When Broadway was the Runway: Theater, Fashion, and American Culture (2019), and Performance Studies in Canada (McGill Queen’s, 2017, co-edited with Laura Levin). She is currently completing an SSHRC-funded monograph on 19th-century child actresses, entitled Bloody Tyrants and Little Pickles: Anglo-American Girls on Nineteenth-century Stages. Schweitzer is past president of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research and current editor of Theatre Survey.

Zheng Hong (George) Zhu
Zheng Hong (George) Zhu

Zheng Hong (George) Zhu is a professor and Chair in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Lassonde School of Engineering. As a Tier 1 York Research Chair in Space Technology, Zhu is currently leading the DESCENT (DEorbiting SpaceCraft using ElectrodyNamic Tethers) Cubesat mission – Canada’s first space debris removal technology demonstration mission – to be launched this year. His research interests touch on a number of topics, including the dynamics and control of tethered spacecraft systems, electrodynamic tether propulsion and space debris removal, space robotics and advanced spacecraft materials. This research resulted in over 140 peer-reviewed publications.

For more information, visit the Royal Society of Canada website.

York University statement regarding the MOU advancing French language post-secondary education

The following statement was released Saturday, Sept. 8.

“Today’s announcement of the MOU for the Université de l’Ontario français (UOF) is a great achievement for French-speaking communities across Ontario and beyond. York University and its Glendon Campus congratulate the federal and provincial governments on this important agreement of financial support that will provide additional resources for French language post-secondary education and respond to the growth and aspirations of the French-language population in Southern Ontario.

With more than 50 years of academic and research excellence, York University’s Glendon Campus provides leadership opportunities that empower students to become fully-engaged local and global changemakers in French and English. York University is pleased to offer its support for this project and looks forward to continuing to work with our French-language post-secondary partners, including the UOF, in exploring a collaborative model that highlights our common interests and finds opportunities to deliver much needed services to the francophone and francophile community.”

Déclaration de l’Université York à propos de l’annonce du protocole d’entente sur l’Université de l’Ontario français

L’annonce du protocole d’entente sur l’Université de l’Ontario français (UOF) faite aujourd’hui est une grande réalisation pour les communautés francophones de l’Ontario et d’ailleurs. L’Université York et son campus Glendon félicitent les gouvernements provincial et fédéral pour cet engagement important de soutien financier qui fournira des ressources additionnelles pour l’éducation postsecondaire en langue française et répondra à la croissance et aux aspirations de la population de langue française dans le sud de l’Ontario.

Avec plus de 50 ans d’excellence universitaire et en recherche à son acquis, le campus Glendon de l’Université York offre des possibilités de développement du leadership personnel qui permettent aux étudiants de devenir des artisans du changement en anglais et en français à l’échelle locale et mondiale. L’Université York est heureuse d’offrir son appui à ce projet et se réjouit à l’idée de continuer à travailler avec ses partenaires de langue française au niveau postsecondaire, y compris l’UOF, pour explorer un modèle de collaboration soulignant nos intérêts communs tout en trouvant des possibilités d’offrir des services indispensables à la communauté francophone et francophile.

Reminder regarding community consultations on Strategic Mandate Agreements 2020-25 (SMA3)

People walk through Vari Hall, which is located on York U's Keele campus

On April 11, the Ontario government announced that the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (TCU) will be implementing the Strategic Mandate Agreements 2020-25 (SMA3) and performance/outcomes-based funding. The SMA is a foundational agreement between the provincial government and each Ontario university, setting out:

  1. Our enrolment corridor over the next five years of the agreement;
  2. Program areas where we anticipate growing; and
  3. Performance indicators that will inform government funding for the period of 2020-25.

Details about SMA3 can be found at: http://vpap.info.yorku.ca/ppy protected/strategic-mandate-agreements/.

The Provost’s Office is committed to holding broad internal consultations to share information about the SMA3 process and to determine how we can best position the University and demonstrate our strengths in a way that aligns with and continues to advance our vision, mission and academic priorities in the SMA3 context.

Members of the community are invited to participate in the upcoming SMA3 consultation sessions:

  • Keele Campus: Thursday, Sept. 12, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in the Moot Court, Osgoode Hall Law School, Ignat Kaneff Building.
  • Glendon Campus: Thursday, Sept. 19, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in the Glendon Senate Chamber.

NSERC Summer Undergraduate Research Conference a huge success

Six undergraduate students won awards at this year’s Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Summer Undergraduate Research Conference at York University.

The students in attendance came from various York departments, and a few even came from other postsecondary institutions, to work in labs across the University with York supervisors.

“Today, you will have the opportunity to highlight the work you did this summer as a research student,” said Alex Mills, associate dean of students, to the attendees. “Congratulations to you on completing what I hope was a rewarding summer full of learning and new opportunities. It will hopefully have given you a richer experience and a greater understanding of what you may want to do in the future.”

Out of 56 students, a dozen gave oral presentations about their research over the summer, while the rest gave poster presentations. A large team of graduate students volunteered to judge the presentations. Jennifer Steeves, associate dean of research and graduate education, and Donald Hastie, associate dean of faculty, presented the winners with their awards.

The research topics included seeing with sound, colon cancer cells, Type 2 diabetes, Lewis Acids, tracking environmental change in Iqallukvik Lake in the Northwest Territories, electron electric dipole moment determination and much more.

From left: Jennifer Steeves, associate dean of research and graduate education; winners of the oral competition Kevin Borsos, Ehsan Yavari and Seja Elgadi; and Donald Hastie, associate dean of faculty

The winners of the oral presentations are:

  • Gold – Kevin Borsos of the Department of Physics & Astronomy (supervisor: Professor Anantharaman Kumarakrishnan)
  • Silver – Ehsan Yavari (NSERC-URSA) of the Faculty of Health (supervisor: Professor Tara Haas)
  • Bronze – Seja Elgadi of the Department of Chemistry (supervisor: Professor Christopher Caputo)
From left: Jennifer Steeves, associate dean of research and graduate education; winners of the poster competition Nadar Allam, Ethan Brooks and Quinton Weyrich; and Donald Hastie, associate dean of faculty

The winners of the poster presentation are:

  • Gold – Nadar Allam of the Department of Physics & Astronomy (supervisors: professors Ozzy Mermut and Bill Pietro)
  • Silver – Ethan Brooks of the Department of Physics & Astronomy (supervisor: Professor Eric Hessels)
  • Bronze – Quinton Weyrich of the Department of Physics & Astronomy (supervisor: Professor Eric Hessels)

Participating students and supervisors came from: the Faculty of Science’s departments of Biology, Mathematics & Statistics, Chemistry, and Physics & Astronomy; the Faculty of Health’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science and Psychology; the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies’ Department of Geography; the Schulich School of Business; the Faculty of Environmental Studies; and Glendon.

Most of the students received an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (URSA), a Dean’s Undergraduate Research Award (DURA) or a York Science Scholar Award.

The DURA’s were funded through Bernadene Magnuson and Earle Nestmann, the Gérard Herbert Award and the Luise Herzberg Award for Women in Science.

See all the participants in the 2019 Summer Undergraduate Research Conference booklet.

Faculty of Science hosts Summer Undergraduate Research Conference, Aug. 20

The Faculty of Science is hosting its 2019 Summer Undergraduate Research Conference on Tuesday, Aug. 20

The Faculty of Science is hosting its 2019 Summer Undergraduate Research Conference on Tuesday, Aug. 20, highlighting the work of some of York University’s top students.

The Faculty of Science 2019 Summer Undergraduate Research Conference takes place Aug. 20

Students will share their work at the conference through oral and poster presentations in the second-floor convention centre of the Second Student Centre. The York University community is welcome to attend the conference. Opening remarks will begin at 9 a.m., followed by oral presentations until noon. A poster session will run from 1 to 2:30 p.m. and the presentation of certificates and prizes will start at 3 p.m.

York students share their research

Most of the summer research students are from the Faculty of Science, but they also hail from the Faculty of Health, the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, the Faculty of Environmental Studies, the Schulich School of Business and Glendon Campus.

“The conference is an incredible opportunity for students to actively learn through each other’s summer research presentations, while also practising science communication with peers and professionals,” said Jennifer Steeves, associate dean of research and graduate education in the Faculty of Science.

The majority of students at the conference received an Undergraduate Student Research Award from the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada, a Dean’s Undergraduate Research Award from the Faculty of Science or a York Science Scholars Award to conduct summer research projects.

York professor delivers speeches at two major international conferences

Clara Chapdelaine-Feliciati
Clara Chapdelaine-Feliciati
Clara Chapdelaine-Feliciati
Clara Chapdelaine-Feliciati

Glendon Professor Clara Chapdelaine-Feliciati was keynote speaker at the International Conference on Media Literacy hosted by the Communication University of China in Beijing, China. The conference took place June 29 and 30.

In her presentation, Chapdelaine-Feliciati discussed the obstacles to media literacy on women’s rights, with a focus on the 1979 United Nations (UN) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. She spoke about her case study of media literacy in Canada. In her keynote presentation, Chapdelaine-Feliciati proposed recommendations to modify international and domestic laws to empower women with media literacy in Canada for the purpose of tackling discrimination in both the public and private spheres. The conference gathered experts from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan as well as the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Nepal, Namibia, Kenya, Zambia, Spain and Finland.

“There is a growing interest for the implementation of the CEDAW, and sharing pathways (good practices) to facilitate access to legal education and information in different countries is crucial,” said Chapdelaine-Feliciati.

To learn more, visit http://news.cssn.cn/zx/bwyc/201906/t20190630_4927331.shtml.

Clara Chapdelaine-Feliciati (centre) is photographed in Beijing, China with the other conference presenters.

Chapdelaine-Feliciati also gave a presentation in French at the International Conference of the Semiotics of Law “The Limits of Law” held at the Faculty of Law at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, in partnership with the Coimbra Institute for Legal Research, May 23 to 25.

Her presentation titled, “Les réserves en droit international ont-elles des limites? Le droit à l’éducation et la Convention relative aux droits de l’enfant” explored the significance of reservations to the right to education in the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was entered by the states’ parties to restrict their obligations under this treaty.

“Reservations expressed by states’ parties epitomize the import of terminology in international law, and the conference on the limits of law explored the boundaries of legal semiotics internationally, with the perspectives of scholars who come from various legal traditions,” said Chapdelaine-Feliciati.

Chapdelaine-Feliciati is assistant professor in International Studies at York University’s Glendon College and a faculty member of the Glendon School of Public and International Affairs. In addition, she is affiliated with the Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies program, through the Faculty of Graduate Studies at York University.

She worked as Child Rights Project Officer at the UNICEF Office of Research in Florence (Italy), within the Implementation of International Standards unit, where she conducted research with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the OHCHR, governments and the private sector. Prior to this, she directed the Canadian Child Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation Research Study at the International Bureau for Children’s Rights.

Chapdelaine-Feliciati articled at the International Criminal Court in the Hague (The Netherlands), Office of the Prosecutor, Prosecution division, and clerked at the Court of Quebec, Youth division in Montreal as well as the Tribunal de Bobigny in Paris (France).

Three York University professors earn York-Massey appointments

York University professors Richard Hornsey, Andrew Dawson and Dayna Nadine Scott have earned Massey College appointments for the 2019-20 academic year. Hornsey, at the Lassonde School of Engineering, has been offered the position of York-Massey Fellowship; while Dawson, of Glendon, and Scott, of Osgoode Hall Law School and the Faculty of Environmental Studies, were awarded York-Massey Visiting Scholarships.

Dr. Rui Wang
Dr. Rui Wang

“We are very pleased that professors Hornsey, Dawson and Scott were awarded these honours,” says Rui Wang, interim vice-president research and innovation at York University. “The York-Massey Fellowships and Visiting Scholarships represent an important opportunity for our academics and researchers to expand their areas of scholarship and contribution to their various disciplines in a broader context.”

Massey College is an independent college situated on the University of Toronto St. George Campus. The fellowship provides the selected faculty member with prime office space in the college for the academic year and the status of a full senior resident of the college, with all privileges enjoyed by senior Fellows. The title “York Fellow of Massey College” remains for life or while mutually agreeable.

Visiting scholars will have a study space in the college and access to all the same privileges as the Massey College senior Fellows. Membership in the Massey Alumni Association is granted to visiting scholars at the completion of their program.

York-Massey Fellowship (2019-20): Richard Hornsey

Richard Hornsey

Hornsey plans to use his sabbatical leave as a York-Massey scholar to explore new avenues of research, combining his interests in technology, engineering education and history. He will focus on the diaries, reminiscences and scientific publications of graduates from the Royal Indian Engineering College near London, U.K., established in 1871 to train engineers for British-ruled India.

His goals are to understand the lives of college graduates in India, their technical and administrative responsibilities and how their education prepared them for their positions. He will also explore the evolving nature of engineering education during its transition into a university discipline.

York-Massey Visiting Scholarship (2019-20): Andrew Dawson

Andrew Dawson
Andrew Dawson

Dawson will use his sabbatical leave to complete his book manuscript, provisionally titled The Political Culture-Violence Nexus: State Legitimacy and Homicide. The book will examine the relationship between state legitimacy and violence through an analysis of two pairs of matched historical case studies: Canada and the United States, and Jamaica and Barbados.

More specifically, the book will apply comparative historical methodological techniques to analyze long-term trends in violence from the mid- to late-18th century to the 21st century. The overarching goal of this research is to compare similarities and differences in the historical homicide rate trajectories of each country to identify factors driving trend divergences.

York-Massey Visiting Scholarship (2019-20): Dayna Nadine Scott

Dayna Nadine Scott
Dayna Nadine Scott

Scott, awarded York Research Chair (Environmental Law and Justice in the Green Economy) in 2018, plans to use her time to begin drafting the book manuscript that will be the centre of her sabbatical scholarship outputs. She is currently working on a book proposal tentatively titled Consent by Contract: Settler Law and Indigenous Self-Determination in Ontario’s Ring of Fire.

“We desperately need to develop some rigorous and principled analysis on the question of what to do when Indigenous governing authorities say no to a project that Canadian regulatory regimes have said yes to,” she says.

More about Massey College

Massey College. Photo credit: Tina Park
Massey College. Photo credit: Tina Park

Massey College consists of graduate student junior Fellows; senior Fellows, consisting primarily of faculty; journalism Fellows; members of the Quadrangle Society (leaders in business, the legal profession and philanthropy); and visiting scholars and alumni, of whom an increasing number come from York University. The college offers an extraordinary experience by providing a community that allows all members to expand their horizons academically, socially and culturally.

The York-Massey Fellowship and York-Massey Visiting Scholarships were open to full-time faculty members planning to go on sabbatical or other leave during 2019-20.

Two Glendon faculty members receive 2019 Principal’s Teaching Excellence Awards

Image announcing Awards

Two faculty members from York University’s Glendon Campus were recognized with awards for teaching excellence on June 7 during Glendon’s Convocation Luncheon.

The 2019 Principal’s Teaching Excellence Award recipients are: Professor Colin Coates, who received the award in the full-time faculty with 10 or more years category; and Duncan Appleton, who was selected in the contract faculty category. The awards are given annually to honour those who, through innovation and/or commitment, enhance the quality of teaching and learning at Glendon.

Duncan Appleton and Colin Coates

“Co-Interim Principal Dominique Scheffel-Dunand and I congratulate Colin and Duncan on their well-deserved awards,” said Ian Roberge, co-interim principal and associate principal, academic, of Glendon Campus. “Although they both bring different approaches to their teaching, they demonstrate inspiring excellence as teachers, as leaders, as mentors, who engage their students with enthusiasm, creativity and a sense of humour.”

Coates is a professor in the Canadian Studies Program at Glendon. He came to Glendon in 2003 when he was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Canadian Cultural Landscapes. Prior to that appointment, he was director of the Centre for Canadian Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

Coates has taught courses in Canadian studies, humanities and history, and he is particularly dedicated to teaching the first-year course in Canadian studies, “Understanding Contemporary Canada.” A historian by training, he conducts research in the fields of early French Canada, environmental history and the history of utopias.

Coates is the founding president of the Canadian Studies Network – Réseau d’études canadiennes (2010-15), the academic association representing Canadian studies scholars in Canada, and has also served as director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at York University.

“I was very touched to receive this award, and I appreciate the efforts of colleagues and students in nominating me for it,” said Coates. “I feel very privileged to teach at our bilingual and multicultural campus. The students who take my courses constantly remind me of the dynamic nature of Canadian studies, how our understandings of Canada are constantly evolving.”

Appleton has taught in the Drama Studies Program at Glendon for many years. His courses perfectly reflect the program’s distinguishing feature in their integration of theory and practice and their emphasis on experiential education.

Appleton has been working professionally in theatre for more than 25 years. As a Dora-nominated designer, manager and technician, he has worked in several cities across Canada. Most recently, Duncan has been pursuing the rapidly developing art of interactive video and kinetic scenery, combining his passions for theatre, photography and microprocessor technology. Duncan has been the technical coordinator of Theatre Glendon since 1999, and has had the pleasure of teaching, collaborating and generally geeking with the hundreds of students who have worked on shows in their beloved black box.

“Receiving this teaching award is a real honour,” said Appleton. “Theatre is inherently collaborative and experiential, so to be nominated by my colleagues and especially my students is very special to me. I hope this means that they have enjoyed working on our projects almost as much as I have. I’m really tickled!”

Glendon awarded funding to expand French-language health-care education

Glendon Co-Principal Dominique Scheffel-Dunand

The federal government, through the Consortium national de formation en santé (CNFS), announced new funding of $1 million over five years to York University’s bilingual campus, Glendon, to improve training in French-language health services. The funding was announced June 27.

Mona Fortier, member of Parliament (Ottawa-Vanier), with Dominique Scheffel-Dunand, interim co-principal of York’s Glendon Campus

With this funding, Glendon will establish a new certificate in dementia and cognitive health and a specialized bachelor’s degree in neuropsychology. These programs will provide health professionals in francophone communities in southern Ontario with meaningful access to training focused on recent advances, strategies and treatment modalities for francophone and bilingual people who are vulnerable to the cognitive problems associated with aging.

The new programs, expected to launch this fall, will offer frontline workers access to French-language expertise in cognitive health, thereby maximizing the health-care workforce’s ability to manage the conditions associated with cognitive impairment while expanding the offer of care in French in southern Ontario.

Those who receive this new training will benefit from hands-on experience, developing skills tailored to the unique realities of francophones in Ontario. The certification will enable them to better serve francophone seniors in their mother tongue, regardless of their needs or particular situations.

“This funding will improve access, build capacity and create needed services for Ontario’s French-language community,” said Rhonda L. Lenton, president and vice-chancellor of York University. “Using a collaborative and inclusive approach, York and Glendon can help fill critical gaps in French-language health services and strengthen connections within the francophone community.”

The number of francophones suffering from a degenerative disease in southern Ontario is expected to increase by 34 per cent by 2020, increasing demand for specialized health care in this domain.

“I am pleased to see the offer of initial, continuing education and research in the field of aging and cognitive health expanded through CNFS,” said Dominique Scheffel-Dunand, interim co-principal of York’s Glendon Campus. “These developments in neuropsychology at Glendon will help address the challenges identified in the field of cognitive health in official language minority communities.”

In addition, Glendon Campus will host a CNFS summer school in 2020 to improve and accelerate the mobilization of knowledge and the sharing of resources, and to augment the crucial collaboration between researchers and frontline, French-speaking health-care workers.

“Our government is committed to facing the challenges of francophone minority communities by promoting access to health services in the patient’s preferred official language,” said Ginette Petitpas Taylor, minister of health. “This funding will strengthen training initiatives and improve access to bilingual health professionals so that members of minority francophone communities can get the best health services possible.”

York community connects with alumni at Plug’n Drive Electric Vehicle Discovery District

Ammon Cherry, BEs student and President of BESSA, explores test drive vehicles at Plug’n Drive Electric Vehicle Discovery Centre.

An event open to the broader York community on June 6 gave guests the opportunity to network with York alumni and test drive electric vehicles.

Ammon Cherry, BES student, explores test drive vehicles at Plug’n Drive Electric Vehicle Discovery Centre

Hosted by the Division of Advancement and the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), the event took place at the Plug’n Drive Electric Vehicle Discovery Centre, which was founded by York alumna Cara Clairman (MES ’93, LLB ’93). Clairman is the president and CEO of Plug’n Drive, which is the world’s first experiential learning facility dedicated to electric cars. The facility is open to the public, where one can explore how electric cars save money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and experience top performance.

Test drive vehicles for the York event included nine different makes and models of electric cars, including the Audi A3 Sportback e-Tron, BMW i3, Chevrolet BOLT and Ford Fusion Energi.

Left to right: Alumni Engagement Executive Director Julie Lafford, York President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton, Plug’n Drive CEO Cara Clairman, Faculty of Environmental Studies Dean Alice Hovorka and Senior Development Officer Amanda Stastook

The event included a lively networking reception where alumni connected with the York University leadership team. Speakers included President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton, Vice-President Advancement Jeff O’Hagan and Faculty of Environmental Studies Dean Alice Hovorka, who spoke to their bold visions for the University.

Clairman gave an insightful talk on the myths of electric vehicles and the changes the centre has made for electric vehicles in Canada, and looked to the future of electric vehicles.

Glendon and FES alumnus Darnel Harris (BA ’11, MES ’15) said the reception was “a great event” that allowed him to enjoy driving electric cars.

“It also allowed me to meet the York University leadership team and learn more about the exciting future of York,” he said.

Photos from the event can be found on the Facebook page.

Visit the Plug’n Drive website to learn more about the centre.