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York University research leaders recognized at annual celebration

York University research leaders were recognized on Feb. 24 for their outstanding achievements during the fourth annual York U Research Leaders celebration.

Hosted by York University President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri and Vice-President Research and Innovation Robert Haché, and Celia Haig-Brown, associate vice-president research, who officiated as event MC, the University celebrated the outstanding research achievements of several York researchers, students and postdoctoral fellows.

Above: The researchers honoured at the York U Research Leaders celebration
Above: The researchers honoured at the York U Research Leaders celebration
Above: York President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri
Above: York President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri

Researchers and students were recognized for achievements that ranged from being appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada to being the lead for a Partnership Grant award by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada to being appointed a Canada Research Chair to being the lead on a large scale research grant from the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada and more. This year’s Research Leaders event was dedicated in memory of Lassonde School of Engineering Professor Nick Cercone, who was posthumously recognized for his research achievements.

“Every year for the past four years we have gathered at this event to recognize research excellence and success across the University – and each year it becomes clearer that York researchers are taking their place among the world’s leading scholars and experts,” said Shoukri. “The work of our scholars actively enriches the atmosphere of learning at York University, and is at the heart of our efforts to train the next generation of thought leaders.”

Shoukri introduced the keynote speaker, Pat Horgan, Vice-President Manufacturing, Development & Operations at IBM Canada.  Horgan spoke about the tremendous impact of York research and the importance of industry-academic collaborations in the broader community, highlighting York’s research partnerships with IBM Canada.

Above: York Vice-President Research & Innovation Robert Hache, Bridget Stutchbury, Rebecca Pillai Riddell and York President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri
Above: York Vice-President Research & Innovation Robert Haché, Distinguished Research Professor Bridget Stutchbury, who is the recipient of the 2016 President’s Research Excellence Award, Professor Rebecca Pillai Riddell, who is the recipient of the 2016 President’s Emerging Research Leadership Award, with York President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri

“Today marks our fourth annual York University Research Leaders celebration,” noted Haché in his remarks. “We plan to continue growing the tradition – the celebration of our research and scholarly accomplishments – and the valuable contribution that research, scholarship and creative activity at York is making to society.”

Haig-Brown noted each research leader’s individual accomplishments as they were presented with gifts by Shoukri and Haché. The list of researchers, postdoctoral fellows and students who were honoured is as follows:

Stacey Allison-Cassin, Associate Librarian, Reference Department, Scott Library

Alidad Amirfazli, Interim Chair and Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering

Kristin Andrews, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Uzo Anucha, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Ali Asgary, Associate Professor, School of Administrative Studies, Disaster & Emergency Management, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Peter Backx, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Biology, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science

Jacob Beck, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Benjamin L. Berger, Associate Dean (Students) and Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School

Sampa Bhadra, Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science

Margaret Boittin, Assistant Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School

Deborah Britzman, Distinguished Research Professor, Faculty of Education

Annie Bunting, Associate Professor, Department of Social Science, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Rosemary Coombe, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Law, Communication & Culture, Department of Anthropology & Department of Social Science, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Michael Daly, Associate Professor, Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering

Paul Delaney, Senior Lecturer, Department of Physics & Astronomy and Director, Division of Science, Faculty of Science

Mario DiPaolantonio, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education

Christo El Morr, Assistant Professor, School of Health Policy & Management, Faculty of Health

James Elder, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Lassonde School of Engineering and Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health

Samantha Fashler, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health

Seth Feldman, Professor, Department of Cinema & Media Arts, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design

Book prize winner FES Professor Sheila Colla (centre) with Pat Horgan, Vice-President, Manufacturing, Development & Operations, IBM Canada and York Vice-President Research & Innovation Robert Haché
Book prize winner FES Professor Sheila Colla (centre) with Pat Horgan, Vice-President, Manufacturing, Development & Operations, IBM Canada and York Vice-President Research & Innovation Robert Haché

Stephen Gaetz, Professor, Faculty of Education

Kathleen Gould-Lundy, Department of Professional Learning, Faculty of Education

Jinthana Haritaworn, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies

Jane Heffernan, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Faculty of Science

Jimmy Huang, Professor and Director, School of Information Technology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Demian Ifa, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science

Lesley Jacobs, Professor, Department of Social Science and the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Ray Jayawardhana, Dean and Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science

Jennifer Jenson, Professor, Faculty of Education

Hui Jiang, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Lassonde School of Engineering

Jolin Joseph, Teaching Assistant, Department of Gender, Feminist & Women’s Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Mark Jurdjevic, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of History, Glendon College

Stanislav Kirschbaum, Professor and Chair, Department of International Studies, Glendon College

Fuyuki Kurasawa, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and York Research Chair in Global Digital Citizenship

Christopher Kyriakides, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and Canada Research Chair in Socially Engaged Research in Race and Racialization

Richard Last, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Regina Lee, Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering

Barry Lever, Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science

Mary Elizabeth Luka, Sensorium Centre for Digital Arts & Technology, School of Arts, Media, Performance & Design

Kyo Maclear, Education Program, Faculty of Graduate Studies

Heath MacMillan, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science

Tom McElroy, CSA/ABB/NSERC Industrial Research Chair and Professor of Atmospheric Remote Sounding, Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering

Susan McGrath, Professor, School of Social Work, Lassonde School of Engineering

Deborah McGregor, Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School and Faculty of Environmental Studies and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Science

Scott Menary, Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science

Sushanta Mitra, Associate Vice-President Research and Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering

Haideh Moghissi, Professor, Department of Equity Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Lewis Molot, Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies

Noa Nahmias, History Program, Faculty of Graduate Studies

Norio Ota, Associate Lecturer, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Debra Pepler, Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health

Marie-Christine Pioffet, Professor, Department of French Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Emanuel Rosonina, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science

Adrian Shubert, Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Gunho Sohn, Associate Professor, Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering

Paul Sych, Associate Professor, Department of Design, School of Arts, Media, Performance & Design

Salvatore Totino, Course Director, Faculty of Education

John Tsotsos, Distinguished Research Professor, Canada Research Chair in Computational Vision, Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Lassonde School of Engineering

Sean Tulin, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science and Canada Research Chair in Particle Physics and Cosmology

Doug Van Nort, Assistant Professor, Department of Theatre and Department of Digital Media, School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design and Canada Research Chair in Digital Performance

Christopher Vanden Berg, Political Science Program, Faculty of Graduate Studies

Peter Victor, Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies

Leah F. Vosko, Professor, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Gender & Work

Graham Wakefield, Assistant Professor, Department of Visual Art & Art History and Department of Digital Media, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design and Canada Research Chair in Interactive Information Visualization

Derek Wilson, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science

Thilo Womelsdorf, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science

Jianhong Wu, Professor Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Faculty of Science and Canada Research Chair in Industrial & Applied Mathematics

Gerald Young, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Glendon College

Dessi Zaharieva, School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Faculty of Health

Amro Zayed, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science

Book Prizes and Awards

Bonnell, J. (2014). Reclaiming the Don: An Environmental History of Toronto’s Don River Valley. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Colla, Shiela, Williams, P., Thorp, R. & Richardson, L. (2014). Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Cothran, B. (2014). Remembering the Modoc War: Redemptive Violence and the Making of American Innocence. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Gilbert, J. (2014). Sexuality in school: The limits of education. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Hoffmann, R. (2014). An Environmental History of Medieval Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jenkins, W. (2013). Between Raid and Rebellion: The Irish in Buffalo and Toronto, 1867-1916. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

McGriffin, E. (2014). Subduction Zone. St. Johns: Pedlar Press.

Smardon, B. (2014). Asleep at the Switch: The Political Economy of Federal Research and Development Policy since 1960. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

The winners of the Undergraduate Research Fair, held earlier in the day in Scott Library, were also recognized at the Research Leaders event. University Librarian Joy Kirchner spoke about their achievements and highlighted the importance of undergraduate research.

Undergraduate Research Fair students pose for a group portrait at the York U Research Leaders event
Undergraduate Research Fair students pose for a group portrait at the York U Research Leaders event

Dean and Associate Vice-President Graduate in the Faculty of Graduate Studies Barbara Crow followed Davidson and highlighted graduate student research at York.  Her remarks were presented in front of a slideshow of various students’ achievements.

Shoukri presented Distinguished Research Professor Bridget Stutchbury, Faculty of Science, with the 2016 President’s Research Excellence Award and Professor Rebecca Pillai Riddell, Faculty of Health, and York Research Chair in Pain and Mental Health, with the 2016 President’s Emerging Research Leadership Award.

Stutchbury was honoured with the 2016 President’s Research Excellence Award for her significant contributions to outstanding research on the ecology, behaviour and conservation of birds.

Pillai Riddell was recognized with the 2016 President’s Emerging Research Leadership Award for establishing the first norms for the development of acute pain behaviours in healthy infants, within the context of primary caregivers through her (the Opportunities to Understand Childhood Hurt [OUCH]) Lab at York.

For more information on the President’s Research Award recipients, see the Feb. 22 YFile story.

Susan Swan featured guest at Glendon for Michael Ondaatje Reading Series

Susan Swan, who in 1983 burst onto the literary scene in Canada with her concept novel The Biggest Modern Woman in the World, will headline the March 1 Michael Ondaatje Reading Series event at Glendon College.

Susan Swan
Susan Swan

The series is sponsored by Ondaatje – who taught English literature for a number of years at Glendon – and by Glendon’s Department of English. It brings contemporary Canadian writers and poets to Glendon to read from their recent work and discuss the writing process. The lectures are free and open to the public. The March 1 event runs 4 to 6pm in the Senior Common Room.

Susan Swan, a one-time chair of the Writer’s Union of Canada (2007-08), is also a retired faculty member of York University. A journalist, feminist and political activist, Swan’s impact on the Canadian literary and political scene has been far-reaching.

The Biggest Modern Woman in the World was nominated for both the Governor General’s Award and the Books in Canada First Novel Award. Her erotically charged novel The Last of the Golden Girls, published in 1989, followed this first novel. In 1993, she published The Wives of Bath, “a darkly humorous tale about a murder in a girl’s boarding school” which drew upon her own experience as a young woman attending Havergal College in Toronto. It was nominated for both the UK’s Guardian Fiction Prize and the Ontario Trillium Book Award.

In 1996, she published a collection of short stories entitled Stupid Boys are Good to Relax With, and in 2004 she published her next novel, What Casanova Told Me. Most recently, in 2012, she published The Western Light, a Canadian bestseller that is a prequel to The Wives of Bath.

For more on this event, or the series, call Patricia Munoz at 416-736-2100 ext. 88175.

UC Berkeley Professor Irene Bloemraad to deliver special lecture at Glendon on Feb. 22

Irene Bloemraad
Irene Bloemraad

University of California, Berkeley, Sociology Professor Irene Bloemraad will give a talk at Glendon on Feb. 22, from 2 to 4pm in the BMO Conference Centre.  Titled “Unity out of Diversity or Utter Failure? Debating and Evaluating Policies of Multiculturalism and Immigration,” the talk will draw upon Bloemraad’s internationally recognized expertise, which is focused on the nexus between immigration, politics and national identities.

Bloemraad’s talk will assess the attacks on “multiculturalism” by political decision-makers and commentators in immigrant-receiving countries, as well as the academic debate. She asks: Can immigrant-generated diversity lead to unity, or are we fated for fragmentation? Synthesizing across a number of published studies, she will evaluate whether policies that recognize and accommodate ethno-racial and religious diversity help or hurt integration.

Among Bloemraad’s many publications is Becoming a Citizen: Incorporating Immigrants and Refugees in the United States and Canada, which examines immigrants’ acquisition of citizenship and political participation in the United States and Canada, comparing the impact of government settlement and multiculturalism policies. Her current projects examine the link between immigration-driven diversity and public-minded engagement, the visibility and influence of immigrant organizations, and the political socialization of immigrants and their native-born children.

The Thomas Garden Barnes Chair of Canadian Studies at Berkeley, Bloemraad received her PhD in Sociology from Harvard University. She is a Senior Fellow with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

Bloemraad’s talk will help to set the stage for an international conference Cultural Diversity and Liberal Democracy: Models, Policies & Practices, which will take place at York University’s Glendon campus on April 19 and 20.  Organized by the Glendon School of Public & International Affairs, the conference will feature keynote addresses by Danielle Juteau (Université de Montréal), David Miller (Oxford), Alan Patten (Princeton) and Ratna Omidvar (Global Diversity Exchange, Ryerson University).  More than 30 scholars and researchers from Canada, the United States and Europe, will present reports on their research.

CERLAC Internal Speakers Series features Glendon’s Alejandro Zamora

Alejandro Zamora, professor in the Department of Hispanic Studies at Glendon, will be featured as the guest speaker on Feb. 3 when York U’s Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) presents an event in its International Speaker Series.

Alejandro Zamora
Alejandro Zamora

Zamora will give a talk entitled “Undoing modern subjectivities: Childhood, infancy and the contemporary Mexican novel of deformation” from 4 to 5:30pm at 956 Kaneff Tower.

In this presentation, Zamora will explore Bildungsroman, Künstlerroman, coming of age novels and the like and how they have been conceptualized and studied on a biologic or developmental assumption – that it is the child or the young who becomes the adult.

The process, as put by critics, is portrayed “in reciprocal allegories of self-making and nation-building,” resulting in novels that are “a symbolic form of modernity”.

This talk proposes a different reading of novels of childhood (Bildung and others) based on a comparative analysis – that children are a deconstructive figure for the adult. It proposes that it is actually the adult who is on a quest for infancy, engaged in a narrative process of self-unmaking and questioning, by this very process, the formation by which one becomes adult in a specific context, according to specific values. These are, therefore, novels of deformation.

Drawing from theories of the subject by Giorgio Agamben and Walter Benjamin, this talk will focus on the case of the contemporary Mexican (deformation) novel.

Zamora holds a Licenciatura degree in Hispanic literature from the UNAM, and a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Montreal. His scholarly interests are literary and cultural theory, contemporary novel and discourse analysis. His publications include the book Jugar por amor propio (Bern: Peter Lang, 2009) and several scholarly articles and book chapters.

The event is sponsored by CERLAC. For information, visit the event page. All are welcome to attend.

Open Your Mind: A Q&A with Francis Garon, political science professor at Glendon

Appearing at regular intervals in YFile, Open Your Mind is a series of articles offering insight into the different ways York University professors, researchers and graduate students champion fresh ways of thinking in their research and teaching practice. Their approach, grounded in a desire to seek the unexpected, is charting a new course for future generations.

Today, the spotlight is on Francis Garon, associate professor in the Department of Political Science, and the School of Public and International Affairs at Glendon.

Garon has focused his research interests on deliberative democracy, public policy, and immigration and integration issues.

Francis Garon (image: Jennifer Cote)
Francis Garon (image: Jennifer Cote)

Q. Please describe your current research

A. I’m interested in how we collectively talk about diversity issues in democratic societies. More precisely, I take an empirical approach to what is called deliberative democracy, which means free, open and informed communication between equal citizens in order to reach collective binding decisions.The basic idea is that voting no longer suffices to legitimize policy decisions and that some other forms of participation need to be put in place.

My particular take is to examine how printed media represent discourses in the public sphere during public deliberation on immigration and integration issues.

Q. Every researcher encounters roadblocks and challenges during the process of inquiry, can you highlight some of those challenges and how you overcame them?

A. It remains a real challenge to take an ideal such as deliberative democracy and to try to give it an empirical content. In other words, taking a political philosophy and “extracting” from it indicators that well reflect its substance is no easy task. Also, since my dedicated graduate students did all the coding manually, it proved to be very labor intensive. However, it’s been rewarding. I presented this work at different conferences around the world and each time the general sense is that the research was inspiring and innovative.

Q. How are you approaching this field in a different, unexpected or unusual way?

A. Empirical research on deliberative democracy is still in its infancy. First developed as a democratic ideal, it is now the subject of empirical research in order to see how real-world interactions approximate the ideal. The research has progressed recently in that regard, but every endeavor remains kind of “unusual”.

Q. What inspired you to pursue this line of research? Who or what sparked your interest in this line of inquiry?

A. I was amazed by how public debates on immigration and integration issues have proliferated over the last decade in most Western societies. Coming from Québec, I followed closely the whole debate on “reasonable accommodation” and more recently the one on the “Charter of values”. So, I wanted to find a way to explore, from a research perspective, how these debates are conducted and what outcomes that they produce.

glendonQ. Are you teaching any courses this year? If so, what are they? Do you bring your research experience into your teaching practice?

A. I’m teaching courses on diversity issues at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. What is more interesting to me is to explore with the students the multiple layers of signification when we address different models for dealing diversity. My aim is to make students realize that an idea such as “multiculturalism” has many different meanings. It can mean the simple fact that modern societies are culturally diversified; it can represent a political philosophy that states that liberal democracies have the responsibility to protect and promote diversity; it can mean an overarching policy framework such as the one we have in Canada.

These multiple layers are often conflated in public discourses. For example, it is always interesting to hear leaders such as Angela Merkel or Nicolas Sarkozy saying that multiculturalism has failed, whereas these two countries did not go really far into it.

In a more provocative way, I want the students to know that multiculturalism is not the only way to deal with diversity. In the Canadian context, this simple idea sometimes feels as a taboo. So, it’s interesting to see how students justify their positions on these issues.

Q. What advice would you give to students embarking on a research project for the first time?

A. The first research that one does is always overwhelming. It’s a long process that involves different steps that need to  come together. Of course, you have to be passionate about your research topic. At the same time, the first research needs to be feasible. In other words, I would say that the challenge is to strike a balance between passion and feasibility. Appropriate support is also essential.

Tell us more about you:

Q. If you could have dinner with any one person, dead or alive, who would you select and why?

A. It might not be very original, but it would be Barack Obama. As a political scientist interested in public deliberation, he seems to be the personification of the “deliberative democrat”! As hard as it is in the U.S. these days, he’s always trying to engage in meaningful debates with opponents on substantive and important issues.

Q. What do you do for fun?

A. Play tennis!

Fourth-year Glendon student Tetyana Klimova awarded Killam Fellowship

Tetyana Klimova
Tetyana Klimova
Tetyana Klimova
Tetyana Klimova

Fulbright Canada has awarded fourth-year Glendon student Tetyana Klimova with a prestigious Killam Fellowship, funding a semester-long exchange to the University of Washington, which she started earlier this month.

Born in Ukraine, the international relations and Canadian politics student in Glendon’s Political Science department will be taking her appreciation and interest in global politics to Seattle in January. By learning French in Glendon’s bilingual environment, she hopes to gain a better understanding of world politics, crediting her professors with sparking her interest in Canada-U.S. relations.

Klimova recently completed an independent study with Professor James Laxer on Canada-U.S. relations and plans to apply her learning to broaden her understanding of this bilateral relationship. Her immersion in the American university will provide her with a first-hand look at the micro- and macro-interactions between Canada and the United States and how this affects the rest of the world.

She’s currently completing a bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in sociology and a certificate in law and social thought. Klimova hopes to use her academic research and real-world experience to pursue future studies at law school and a career in international law and social justice.

The Killam Fellowships Program is a competitive program providing an opportunity for exceptional undergraduate students from universities in Canada and the United States to spend either one semester or a full academic year as an exchange student in the United States or Canada respectively. The program provides a cash reward of US$5,000 per semester, a three-day orientation in Ottawa and a three-day spring seminar in Washington.

Fulbright Canada is sponsored by the United States Department of State and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade & Development. It is a binational, treaty-based, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization, governed by an independent board of directors, charged with identifying and supporting the very best and brightest in Canada and the United States.

Celebrated author Lawrence Hill will present the annual Centre for Refugee Studies Lecture tonight

theillegalCelebrated author Lawrence Hill will present the annual Centre for Refugee Studies Lecture tonight from 6:30 to 10pm, in Room A100 in the Centre of Excellence on the Glendon campus. Hill will speak about his new novel The Illegal (2015).

Hill is an award-winning Canadian novelist, essayist and memoirist. He is the author of the international bestselling book, The Book of Negroes (2007), which was made into a television mini-series.

The Illegal tells the story of Keita Ali, a talented marathon runner growing on the island of Zantoroland and his escape into Freedom State following the failure of his running career. Freedom State is a wealthy island nation that has elected a government bent on deporting the refugees living within its borders in the community of AfricTown. Ali can stay safe only if he keeps moving.

The Illegal casts a satirical eye on people who have turned their backs on undocumented refugees struggling to survive in a nation that does not want them. Hill’s depiction of life on the borderlands of society urges us to consider the plight of the unseen and the forgotten among us.

Published in the fall of 2015,  The Illegal has received the following accolades:

  • Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media: The Pierre Berton Award: Winner,
  • CBC’s Canada Reads 2016 – Longlisted,
  • Selected for the National Post’s 99 Best Books of 2015,
  • Selected for the Globe and Mail’s Best Books of 2015,
  • Selected for CBC’s Best Books of 2015.

The event is free, but organizers are requesting that those interested in attending RSVP by email to int@glendon.yorku.ca.

The Centre for Refugee Studies Lecture is co-sponsored by the Glendon School of Public and International Affairs, the Office of the Principal of Glendon College, and the Harriet Tubman Institute.

More about Lawrence Hill

Lawrence Hill is the son of American immigrants — a black father and a white mother — who came to Canada the day after they married in 1953 in Washington, D.C.

Growing up in the predominantly white suburb of Don Mills, Ontario in the 60s, Hill was greatly influenced by his parents’ work in the human rights movement. Much of Hill’s writing touches on issues of identity and belonging.

Hill is the author of 10 books. His 2007 novel The Book of Negroes (also published as Someone Knows My Name and Aminata) won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book and both CBC Radio’s Canada Reads and Radio-Canada’s Combat des livres. In 2013, Hill wrote the non-fiction books Blood: the Stuff of Life (which formed the basis of his 2013 Massey Lectures) and Dear Sir, I Intend to Burn Your Book: An Anatomy of a Book Burning. Along with director Clement Virgo, he co-wrote a six-part television miniseries based on The Book of Negroes, which appeared on CBC TV in Canada and on BET in the USA in early 2015. His fourth novel, The Illegal, was published by HarperCollins Canada in 2015 and will be released by WW Norton & Co. in the United States in January 2016.

Two Glendon students play pivotal role in resettling Syrian refugees

glendonTwo students out of York’s Glendon College have been working tirelessly to help with the federal government’s efforts to welcome and resettle Syrian refugees into Canada.

Zyad Mohammed and Ahmed Al-Tameemi, both second-year students in Glendon’s Master of Conference Interpreting program, have been on the ground in Toronto and Montreal to welcome and assist refugees as they arrive in Canada.

Mohammed has been involved with supervising 30 Arabic interpreters who assist Canada Border Services Agency officers with the point of entry; Al-Tameemi is responsible for supervising 24 Arabic interpreters.

Al-Tameemi was featured in a recent Global News clip when he was working as an interpreter for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. To view the clip, visit Global News.

The Master of Conference Interpreting program at Glendon is a pioneer among interpreting programs worldwide. It was the first program to train interpreters online, and the first to train students for the conference market.

For more on the program, visit glendon.yorku.ca/interpretation.

Keep reading YFile for an upcoming story and interview featuring Mohammed and Al-Tameemi.

York U launching Syria Response and Refugee Initiative Project with a special event on Jan. 18

camp

York University is officially launching its Syria Response and Refugee Initiative with a special community information session, website unveiling and reception on Monday, Jan. 18, from 12:30 to 3pm in Room 519, Kaneff Tower on the Keele campus.

The first event is a Lifeline Syria Challenge refugee sponsorship information session, which will run from 12:30 to 2pm. It will be led by staff from the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program and York project staff, and will be of interest to individuals in newly formed sponsorship teams and anyone considering forming or joining a refugee sponsorship team.

At 2pm, there will be a celebration to officially launch the project, share news of current initiatives and unveil the project website for guests, sponsorship team members, researchers and anyone interested in learning more about York University’s efforts.

Organizers request that individuals planning to attend either or both events should submit their RSVP to http://goo.gl/forms/5DBmmP2kRq.

The Syria Response and Refugee Initiative, with support from Osgoode Hall Law School, is housed within, and strongly supported by York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies. The project was conceived and developed as a way of bringing together University community members, researchers and donors to help rally their efforts to support refugees and their families and to further promote knowledge of refugee and forces migration issues.

Lorne Sossin
Lorne Sossin

“York University’s response to the global refugee crisis and in particular the remarkable initiatives around the arrival of Syrian refugees reflects York’s longstanding commitment to supporting our communities and pursuing social justice,” said Osgoode Hall Law School Dean Lorne Sossin, special adviser to the president on community engagement. Sossin is helping coordinate the initiative at York University.

“The commitment, generosity, compassion and leadership demonstrated by so many people at York – students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and supporters – has been and continues to be truly inspiring,” said Sossin.

As part of its overall efforts, York University is collaborating with Ryerson University, the University of Toronto and OCAD University, in the Lifeline Syria Challenge to facilitate private sponsorships, raise funds and engage volunteers in a coordinated effort to bring Syrian refugees to Canada.

As part of this response, last fall, York turned to its community to establish campus sponsorship teams, who are working to raise a minimum of $27,000 each and have committed to supporting a Syrian refugee family for their first year resettling in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

“It has been incredible to see the outpouring of enthusiasm to support refugees at York University. Even before we began to widely promote our programs York U community members have stepped up to sponsor Syrian and other refugees while exploring further ways to support refugees as well,” said John Carlaw, project lead for the Syria and Refugee Awareness Initiative.

To date, six York University teams have formed and are actively working to raise the necessary funds to sponsor refugee families. More teams are being actively recruited. At the launch event, community members will have an opportunity to meet some of the team members and hear more about their efforts. To support and learn more about the teams, visit the York page on the Lifeline Syria Challenge website.

Any members of the University and wider committee interested in getting involved in or keeping updated about the Lifeline Syria Challenge at York can register their interest at http://bit.ly/1W6TjrG.

Christina Clark-Kazak
Christina Clark-Kazak

The University has a long history of proactive work in refugee studies. The Centre for Refugee Studies at York University and the positive impact refugees have made to research centres, faculties and initiatives over several decades means that York is particularly well positioned to play a positive role. “Originating out of the documentation project for Operation Lifeline during the Indochinese Boat People resettlement in the 1980s, the Centre for Refugee Studies is pleased to host this project as the most recent York-based initiative to support refugees,” said Christina Clark-Kazak, director of the Centre for Refugee Studies. “We are encouraged by the depth and diversity of responses to Syrian refugees from across the University.

Information on these events can be found on the Centre for Refugee Studies refugee-related events calendar. This launch forms part of Refugee Awareness Week, a York student-led initiative that will be holding events from Jan. 18 to 21, including tabling in Vari Hall and a model refugee camp in the Upper Bear Pit during the day on Jan. 19. A volunteer information session for students interested in the Lifeline Syria Challenge at York will also be held.

York University and the World University Service of Canada

The Syria Response and Refugee Initiative launch will include attendance by members of the University’s student chapters of the World University Service of Canada (WUSC).

These committees at the Glendon and Keele campuses represent one of best, long-standing and most meaningful ways for York community members to get involved in refugee support and sponsorship, said Carlaw. As of 2015-16, York University and its students have sponsored and helped 25 refugee students settle in Canada from 11 countries. Support has been ongoing since the first sponsorship in 1987/1988 out of Founders College.

As part of its response to the global refugee crisis the University has significantly expanded its commitment to refugee sponsorship through these two student-led committees. Beginning in 2016, it will increase refugee sponsorship from one or two to five new refugee students per year, providing four-year tuition waivers for each student. One of these will be for a graduate student each year. It will also waive residence fees for the first year and provide a basic meal plan for each student, while providing these students with access to work-study positions for four years.

York University community members can support bursaries for both WUSC and non-WUSC refugee students, such as the Centre for Refugee Studies Bursary for Refugee Students. To learn more, click here.

Student-led WUSC Committees oversee campus activities to provide support to sponsored refugees and the committees are actively seeking new members to assist with refugee sponsorship commitments.

For more information, visit the Keele campus WUSC Committee Facebook Page or contact the group at wusc.york@gmail.com, or drop by the Glendon College WUSC Committee Facebook Page or contact the group at: wuscglendon@hotmail.com.

International Humanitarian Law Conference explores terrorism’s effect on the laws of armed conflict

The third annual International Humanitarian Law Conference (IHLC) will explore the topic of how the laws of armed conflict are affected by terrorism.

IHLC posterThe event, sponsored by the Canadian Red Cross, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Glendon School of Public & International Affairs, and Glendon College, will take place on Jan. 22 from 1 to 6pm at the BMO Conference Centre, Glendon Hall.

Titled “Canadian Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Conference: How Terrorism Affects the Laws of Armed Conflict,” the event will focus on the challenges that the issue of terrorism presents to the laws of armed conflict.

As contemporary conflicts involve increasingly greater numbers of non-state armed groups, understanding international rules that apply to diverse terrorist groups/organizations is essential to bringing about their compliance with international law.

This conference, which will be held in English, will bring together experts in the field, academics, representatives from the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement and representatives from the Judge Advocates General’s Office to discuss the challenges, obligations and the applicability of IHL to terrorist  groups and acts of terrorism.

The conference segment runs 1 to 5pm, and will be followed by an informal reception from 5 to 6pm.

To RSVP, visit the Canadian Red Cross website. For more on the event, visit redcross.ca/how-we-help/international-humanitarian-law/conferences–trainings-and-events.

This conference is eligible towards the Law Society of Upper Canada’s (LSUC) CPD requirements as substantive hours only. Note: This program is not accredited for professionalism hours or the new member requirement. Visit lsuc.on.ca for more information.