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York U health researcher tackles TB stigma through partnership in India 

Global health


By Corey Allen, senior manager, research communications

As a leading international teaching and research university, a key focus at York is global health research, particularly on pressing issues facing the Global South – developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and parts of Asia.  

To conduct this purposeful research abroad, York faculty work with their counterparts in other countries to forge international partnerships, based on an inclusive and decolonizing approach.  

Such work aligns with York’s Global Engagement & Internationalization Strategy, launched earlier this year. The strategy reflects a commitment to Advancing Global Engagement, one of the six priorities for action in the University Academic Plan. 

One country that York has strong engagement with is India, particularly in the field of health-related research. A soon-to-be launched seed fund at York for research internationalization will prioritize many new and existing partners in the country. The University is also a member of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, a non-profit organization that promotes academic, government and business connections between India and Canada. 

Amrita Daftary
Amrita Daftary

In India and elsewhere, York researchers draw on their expertise in health sciences, health management and health informatics, among other health-related fields, to collaborate on studies about infectious diseases, such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis (TB), which affects many people living in the Global South. This work explores not only combatting the diseases themselves but also involves researchers working to understand their socio-economic consequences.

One such researcher is Amrita Daftary, an associate professor in the School of Global Health and the School of Health Policy & Management.   

“Global health research requires trust and good will built upon long-standing relations, which York has allowed me to sustain,” she says. “My colleagues and I have many points of connection, not transactional in nature nor tied to a single grant. Through these international collaborations, I am grateful my work can have a global impact.”  

Daftary’s research focuses on the social determinants of tuberculosis, primarily in South Africa. But Daftary grew up in India, a country with nearly 25 per cent of the world’s TB burden, where she witnessed first-hand the stigma and isolation faced by people living with TB.  

“Tuberculosis is fully preventable and curable, but it’s rampant in forgotten populations,” says Daftary, who is also the founder of the Social Science & Health Innovation for Tuberculosis Centre, a virtual network of scholars who work to address the global TB epidemic. “Bringing attention to this neglected illness has always been a focus of my work, which is why my research partnerships in India are incredibly meaningful to me.”  

Daftary has lived outside of India for more than two decades, but over the past several years, she has travelled to her home country to work in partnership with the Foundation of Medical Research (FMR), a national research organization affiliated with Mumbai University.  

It is here where Daftary has been involved with several TB studies run by FMR, acting as an adviser on qualitative research methods and providing her expertise as a social scientist to improve clinical care for TB.  

In one study, Daftary conducted a knowledge-building workshop with former patients, or TB survivors, to better understand decision-making when confronted with symptoms related to TB, such as coughing up blood, fever and weight loss, among others. The workshop helped highlight patient priorities in the clinical treatment of TB.  

Using insights from the workshop discussion, Daftary co-authored an article alongside other experts, including FMR’s current director Nerges Mistry, and TB survivors themselves. Published in the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, “Person-centred care in TB” advocates for a more holistic and human approach in health-care systems.

Amrita Daftary and Nerges Mistry in India
Amrita Daftary (third from left) and Nerges Mistry (fourth from left) in India.

Daftary’s work in India also considers structural barriers, like gender inequality, that can impact how women with TB access health care and encounter various forms of stigma. She’s done some of this work by supervising Tahiya Mahbub, a postdoctoral Fellow at York, who was based in Mumbai.  

With approval from FMR’s ethics committee, and collaborations with the Médecins sans Frontières’ Mumbai chapter, Daftary and Mahbub used photovoice – a unique research method that involves study participants photographing themselves and their experiences – to explore how women with drug-resistant TB dealt with stigma, and how photovoice helped mitigate it. 

The findings, detailed in “‘One by One, TB Took Everything Away From Me’: A Photovoice Exploration of Stigma in Women with Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Mumbai,” shed light on their painful lived experiences encountering stigma, ranging from a loss of self, status and mobility to abuse and distress, and feelings of shame and hopelessness. More positively, the method was found to be useful in building a collective resiliency among the study participants.   

The study helped inform patient counselling sessions and identified the participants’ needs for their families to be included in counselling, as well as a desire for improved communications skills among nurses and doctors who monitored them long term.   

“Patients can often feel like they are robots or told they can’t leave their house or go near anyone,” says Daftary. “There’s a real demoralizing approach to care. We need to listen to people who’ve lived through it to tell us how we can do better.”  

Daftary last visited India in late 2022 for her work. She hopes to continue her ongoing collaborations with FMR and others in India as new opportunities emerge, having now established such strong relationships in the country. She’s particularly interested in pursuing student and faculty exchanges in the future.  

“My work with FMR and my collaborators in India is beyond any one project,” she says. “I hope that we can continue to collaborate on our shared goals to address TB, to engage with communities affected by the disease, and to strengthen knowledge exchange and quality research together.”  

The Foundation for Media Research’s connections to York also include their work on a research project funded by AI4PEP, a York program that supports various health-care projects in 16 countries in the Global South. Led by Jude Kong, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Science, FMR’s project is called “Wastewater-based Surveillance for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) for Early Warning and Engendering Stakeholder Response Through Artificial Intelligence.” One of FMR’s trustees, Nadir Godrej, also serves as a member on York’s India Advisory Council. For more information on this project, visit yorku.ca/science/2023/09/12/york-u-program-helps-fund-16-global-south-health-care-hubs-to-combat-infectious-diseases. 

York researchers receive federal funding for knowledge mobilization projects 

Lightbulb with orbs over an open book


By Corey Allen, senior manager, research communications

Four York University researchers are among the latest recipients of Connection Grants from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). 

Richard Saunders, Johanne Jean-Pierre and Yvonne Su from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, and S. Nombuso Dlamini from the Faculty of Education, were awarded the funding for various knowledge mobilization activities related to their different research projects.  

The grants fund activities like research events, workshops and community outreach, and are intended to spark new connections between academic and non-academic partners, and collaboration between the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. 

Saunders’ project, “Resource Nationalism and African Mining Policy Innovation: Mobilizing New Research and Engaging Key Stakeholders,” received $49,991. Saunders and his team will organize several outreach activities, including policy workshops on mining reform in Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, an international research conference at York, and a policy seminar in Ottawa for government officials, African diplomats and non-governmental organizations. Saunders, along with undergraduate and graduate students, will also produce policy briefs on mining sector reforms for distribution across multiple African and Canadian platforms. 

Jean-Pierre’s project, “Symposium: Designing a flourishing future and researching with Black communities in Canada,” received $13,934. The grant supports a conference to be held at York on Nov. 20, bringing together French- and English-speaking Black interdisciplinary scholars to discuss how to conduct research with Black Canadian communities ethically and effectively. Findings from the conference will be shared in a research brief and two open-access, peer-reviewed articles to improve research methods for social scientists and health scholars who engage with Black and other historically excluded populations.   

Su’s project, “Stories of Change: Listening to Global South Perspectives on Climate-Induced Migration,” received $49,945. The SSHRC funding will support a 10-episode educational podcast that will highlight Su and her colleagues’ research, while also focusing on the voices and stories of marginalized people and groups most impacted by climate change – displaced people and migrants, Indigenous communities and grassroots organizations in the Global South. Launch events for the podcast will also be held in Toronto, Nairobi and Berlin.  

Dlamini’s project, “Exploring Connections between Black Youth Civic Participation & Identity,” received $40,636. The project, which also includes York’s Godfred Boateng and Tannaz Zargarian from the University of Fraser Valley, will involve a workshop and two webinars on the access and management of data on the contributions of Black people to Canada. The events will highlight existing and new Canadian research on Black youth civic participation and bring together scholars, youth and community service workers. A hands-on “DIY toolkit” on data access, collection, analysis and management will also be developed for students and service worker participants.  

The four York researchers were among the 64 awardees across the country to receive the latest round of Connection Grants from the SSHRC totalling $1,910,441.  

International project promotes healthy cities, transportation

bicycles in front of tree

York University School of Kinesiology & Health Science Professor Alison Macpherson, and postdoctoral visitor Emily McCullogh, travelled to Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, to collaborate on CapaCITY/É, a joint project focusing on sustainable transportation interventions.

The CapaCITY/É project, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Australia’s National Health & Medical Research Council, is comprised of population and public health researchers from 10 jurisdictions across Canada and Australia – including York University.

From left to right: Dr. Ben Beck (Monash University), Dr. Emily McCullogh (York University), Dr. Alison Macpherson (York University), and Dr. Lauren Pearson (Monash University).
From left to right: Ben Beck (Monash University), Emily McCullogh (York University), Alison Macpherson (York University) and Lauren Pearson (Monash University).

Its goal is to explore transportation infrastructure with safe and inclusive design to support the uptake of walking, cycling and using public transit. CapaCITY/É will lead analyses of implementation processes and outcomes, health equity and mobility impacts, as well as develop a novel framework to guide this meaningful work across cities and urban environments. All ages and abilities (AAA) infrastructure and speed management investments are key built environment changes that the CapaCITY/É team are looking at.

“Cities that prioritize a safer, more equitable built environment are more likely to have greater uptake of sustainable transportation, and CapaCITY/É will help us to understand ways to achieve this,” Macpherson notes.

Macpherson and McCullogh’s research trip to Australia was motivated by the project’s intent to leverage transportation systems and experts elsewhere to further CapaCITY/É progress. For example, one objective of the project is to develop a novel “skeleton framework,” geared towards implementing sustainable transportation interventions such as AAA infrastructure and speed management strategies. Currently, there are no implementation science frameworks designed specifically for sustainable transportation infrastructure and this work closes this gap. The goal is for the framework to help guide cities as they work to implement these interventions in their specific contexts.

The “skeleton framework,” once developed, will undergo review from other members of the CapaCITY/É team and be refined to reflect, and address, the barriers and enablers for sustainable transportation interventions across Canadian and Australian urban settings.

“Meeting with members of the Australian team certainly strengthens this research,” says York’s McCullogh. “We were able to discuss key differences and similarities between our two road safety contexts that will inform the development of the ‘skeleton framework,’ as well as the other CapaCITY/É objectives.”

“Key to multinational research is intentionally bringing together ideas in a meaningful and applied way,” says postdoctoral Fellow Lauren Pearson from Monash University. “Emily and Alison’s recent trip to Melbourne enabled them to not only embed themselves within our research team, but to gain a thorough understanding into the inner workings and complexities of our transport and public health systems.”

“The partnership between Canadian and Australian researchers, and city partners, is critical to advancing implementation of sustainable transport interventions,” said Associate Professor Ben Beck from Monash, “and our Sustainable Mobility and Safety Research Group at Monash University are delighted to be furthering our deep collaborative relationships with York University and the wider CapaCITY/É team.”

It’s a critical component of the CapaCITY/É project, now in the first of its six-year span, to exemplify interdisciplinary collaboration, as the team consists of researchers with a breadth of expertise in applied public health, preventative medicine, epidemiology, geography, urban planning, political science and sociology.

“Our work is really motivated by what we were hearing from municipal staff and from NGOs who are now an embedded part of the CapaCITY/É team,” says Meghan Winters, the project’s lead principle investigator, from Simon Fraser University. “They wanted to learn more from other cities – what worked, what the barriers were and how they overcame them. Over the next years, these are the conversations we will be hosting.”

Visit the CapaCITY/É website for updates: capacity-capacite.ca.

Film screening highlights Department of Dance residency

New production of Pina Bausch’s 'Rite of Spring’ features a cast of 37 dancers from 14 African countries. Florent Nikiema featured centre. Photo credit: Maarten Vanden Abeele

On Nov. 1, the Department of Dance and the Harriet Tubman Institute will host a screening of the biographical documentary MABOUNGOU: Being in the World as part of dancer and choreographer Florent Nikiéma’s guest artist residency at York University.

Florent Nikiéma
Florent Nikiéma

As part of the residency – which began Oct. 14 and will end Nov. 3 – Nikiéma has been working with the students of the York Dance Ensemble, the Department of Dance’s pre-professional performance company for third- and fourth-year dance majors, on the creation of a new piece. Alongside this process, Nikiéma is also guest teaching each of the dance program’s undergraduate modern dance classes, including Traditional and Current Dances of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Department of Music’s West African Drum Ensemble course, as well as two courses in the Drama and Creative Arts program at Glendon.

“We are so fortunate to have an artist of Florent’s international standing working with our undergraduates,” says Susan Lee, assistant professor in dance and the artistic director of the York Dance Ensemble. “Exposing our students to different working processes and to new creative ideas is an invaluable experience for them.”

Nikiéma will also be collaborating with Associate Professor Ian Garrett in the Department of Theatre on the lighting and projections design for the new piece that will premiere in February 2024.

A practitioner of contemporary African dance and music, Nikiéma studied under Senegalese artist and African modern dance pioneer Germaine Acogny at the École des Sables before his engagement with Tanztheater Wuppertal in Germany. In November 2022, Nikiéma toured in Toronto as part of the groundbreaking remount of Pina Bausch’s iconic 1975 work Rite of Spring with an all-African cast. During his time in Toronto, Nikiéma came to York University to give a contemporary African dance workshop. His class was so well-received that Associate Professor Bridget Cauthery applied for a Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council Knowledge Mobilization grant to bring Nikiéma back to York for a longer period.

Nikiéma’s creative work is informed by his deep knowledge of traditional West African dance forms, Acogny technique and by concepts from Western European concert dance. His choreography prioritizes ecological attunement to landscapes and to the non-human. Stating that “human beings have lost the true meaning of the term cohabitation with nature and its components,” Nikiéma’s new work for the York Dance Ensemble will respond to his concerns for environmental disaster.

In addition to the screening, there will be an artist discussion panel featuring four artists all originally from Africa, now living in the diaspora: Governor General’s Performing Arts Award-winner Zab Maboungou; Executive Director of the African Dance Ensemble Isaac Akrong; dancer Pulga Muchochoma; and Nikiéma. The event is sponsored by PUBLIC, the journal of arts, culture and ideas.

“This Department of Dance and Special Tubman Talk event presents an opportunity for African-based choreographers to define their approaches to creating, teaching and performance that cannot be reduced to normative definitions of traditional or contemporary dance,” says artist/scholar Collette “Coco” Murray, who will be moderating the discussion panel. “I look forward to having this important and far-reaching conversation with my colleagues.”

For more information and to register for this free event, follow this link: events.yorku.ca/events/maboungou-being-in-the-world-film-screening-artist-panel.

President’s 2023 Annual Report reinforces York’s commitment to driving positive change for a better future

2023 President's Annual Report

La version française suit la version anglaise. 

Dear York community,

York University has always been an innovator bringing together our commitment to access, meaningful connection, excellence and driving positive change. This past year has been no exception. Despite the challenges facing the higher education sector and a rapidly changing global environment, our community has continued to work collaboratively to magnify our positive impact through bold programs, research, and creative activities and strategic initiatives dedicated to sustainability, equity and global engagement.

Recognized by Times Higher Education as one of the top 40 universities in the world for advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, we continue to amplify our impact on the goals at the heart of our University Academic Plan 2020-2025: Building a Better Future. Some of the many achievements we have made in these areas are captured in the 2023 President’s Annual Report, from pedagogical innovation and expanded program offerings, including experiential education, micro-credentials and globally networked learning; groundbreaking interdisciplinary research projects across diverse fields, including a first-of-its-kind $318-million initiative about socially responsible technologies; and new initiatives that break down barriers to academic and professional success; to transformative collaborations with partners that span the York Region to Guyana and the Philippines, and involve international organizations such as UNITAR.

Beyond celebrating the collective spirit and drive for excellence that defines our university, this report is a reminder that together, we have the power to right the future. As we look ahead, there is much to be excited about, including the official opening of the Markham Campus in Spring 2024, a transformative revisioning initiative for our Glendon Campus, progress on our School of Medicine proposal, the ongoing development of our Keele Campus and so much more.

Thank you for your continued dedication to York University and to our shared vision. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that this decade has thus far been rife in crises, from global conflict to systemic inequality, racism and discrimination, health pandemics and climate change. Universities have never been more important for producing the leadership, the research and the globally connected partnerships needed for a brighter, more inclusive and sustainable tomorrow.

Read the President’s Annual Report.

Kind regards,

Rhonda Lenton
President and Vice-Chancellor

Le Rapport annuel 2023 de la présidente renforce la détermination de York à susciter des changements positifs pour un avenir meilleur

Chers membres de la communauté de York,

L’Université York a toujours fait preuve d’innovation en associant sa volonté de favoriser l’accès, des liens précieux, l’excellence et de susciter des changements positifs. L’année qui vient de s’écouler ne fait pas exception à la règle. Malgré les défis auxquels le secteur de l’enseignement supérieur est confronté et l’évolution rapide de l’environnement mondial, notre communauté a continué à collaborer pour amplifier son incidence positive grâce à des initiatives et des programmes audacieux, des activités de recherche et de création et des initiatives stratégiques consacrées au développement durable, à l’équité et à l’engagement planétaire.

Reconnue par Times Higher Education comme étant l’une des 40 meilleures universités au monde pour la promotion des objectifs de développement durable (ODD) des Nations Unies, York ne cesse d’amplifier sa contribution aux objectifs sur lesquels son Plan académique universitaire 2020-2025 (PAU) : Bâtir un avenir meilleur est axé. Le Rapport annuel 2023 de la présidente met en vedette quelques-unes des réalisations accomplies dans ces domaines : innovations pédagogiques et offres de programmes élargies comprenant l’éducation expérientielle, des microcrédits et l’apprentissage en réseau international; projets de recherche interdisciplinaire révolutionnaires, dont une initiative sans précédent de 318 M$ dans le domaine des technologies socialement responsables; nouvelles initiatives éliminant les obstacles à la réussite académique et professionnelle; et enfin, collaborations transformatrices avec des partenaires allant de la région de York au Guyana et aux Philippines, qui impliquent des organisations internationales comme l’UNITAR.

Au-delà de la célébration de l’esprit collectif et de la volonté d’excellence qui caractérisent notre université, ce rapport rappelle que nous avons tous et toutes le pouvoir d’être présents pour l’avenir. Cet avenir s’annonce prometteur avec l’ouverture officielle du campus Markham au printemps 2024, un repositionnement transformateur du campus Glendon, la progression de notre proposition d’école de médecine, la mise en valeur continue du campus Keele, et bien plus encore.

Je vous remercie pour votre dévouement constant envers l’Université York et notre vision commune. Je m’en voudrais de ne pas reconnaître que cette décennie a été marquée jusqu’à présent par des crises allant des conflits mondiaux à des inégalités systémiques, sans oublier le racisme et la discrimination, les pandémies sanitaires et les changements climatiques. Les universités sont plus importantes que jamais pour former les leaders, les chercheurs et chercheuses et les partenaires internationaux qui sont indispensables à des lendemains meilleurs, plus inclusifs et durables.

Lisez le Rapport annuel de la présidente.

Cordialement,

Rhonda Lenton
Présidente et vice-chancelière

Bernard H.K. Luk Lecture explores Hong Kong diasporas

Notes lecture workshop meeting

Presenting the sixth annual Bernard H.K. Luk Memorial Lecture in Hong Kong Studies at York University this year is Joseph Chan, a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Research Center for Humanities & Social Sciences, Academia Sinica in Taiwan.

Chan will deliver a lecture titled “Freedom, Loyalty, and Home: Reflections on the Life of the Hong Kong Diaspora” on Oct. 27 in 280N York Lanes.

The recent waves of migration from Hong Kong to different parts of the world have occurred against the backdrop of unexpected and drastic political changes in their home city. Alongside the traumatic uprooting and resettlement of life, many of these newly formed, politically driven diasporas have encountered subtle struggles related to values and identity that are difficult to articulate, potentially leading to misunderstandings in communication.

In this lecture, Chan aims to unravel some of these subtle struggles through the lenses of freedom, loyalty and home. What types of freedom have the diasporas acquired, and which ones have they forfeited? Is politically motivated migration an indication of severing ties with one’s native home, or is it an alternative means of reaffirming loyalty to one’s place of origin? What defines a home for them? What tensions exist between the diasporas and those who continue to reside in Hong Kong?

“The lecture will complicate the dominant discourses in diaspora studies,” says Professor Yuk-Lin Renita Wong, Chair of the organizing committee, “as the current post/de/anti/neo-colonial theories fail to adequately capture the Hong Kong experience in between empires.”

Chan has taught political theory at the Department of Politics & Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong for 30 years. In the spring of 2019 and 2020, as well as the fall of 2022, he served as a global scholar and visiting professor at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. His recent research interests encompass Confucian political philosophy, contemporary theories of democracy and equality, and civil society studies. He is the author of Confucian Perfectionism: A Political Philosophy for Modern Times (Princeton, 2014) and co-edited East Asian Perspectives on Political Legitimacy: Bridging the Empirical-Normative Divide with Melissa Williams and Doh Shin (Cambridge, 2016). His work has been published in numerous international journals.

This year’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library at the University of Toronto. All are welcome and can register here.

About the lecture

A teacher and colleague, Professor Bernard H. K. Luk (1946-2016) was an internationally recognized authority on the history of Hong Kong. Endowed by Luk’s friend and former student Vivienne Poy, the Bernard H. K. Luk Memorial Lecture in Hong Kong Studies was created in honour of his work. Organized by a group of Hong Kong scholars at York University, the lectures and accompanying events focus on Hong Kong as a distinct society, its influence on the wider world or the experiences of the Hong Kong diaspora.

Decade of Lassonde prof’s work recognized by award

Award medallion that has the number 1 on it

Marianna Shepherd, an adjunct professor in the Centre for Research in Earth & Space Science (CRESS) at York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering, received a Distinguished Service Award from the Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP) in recognition of nearly a decade of serving as a scientific secretary.

marianna shepherd
Marianna Shepherd with her award.

SCOSTEP is a thematic body of the International Science Council that aims to strengthen and share knowledge on solar-terrestrial physics across broad scientific communities. In collaboration with members from over 34 countries, SCOSTEP brings its vision to life through interdisciplinary and public outreach programs and projects related to sun-Earth connections.

As scientific secretary, Shepherd’s list of responsibilities included organizing international symposia, facilitating educational programs and supporting international collaborations. In doing so, she has helped contribute to the elevation of SCOSTEP’s global impact.

“It’s very heart-warming to be recognized for my efforts over the years; this is a full-circle moment,” says Shepherd. “This acknowledgement is more important than the medal I received, as I saw my role to be more than just a scientific secretary. When I was a graduate student, I didn’t have much support from my supervisors, so I wanted to use my position at SCOSTEP to positively impact the experiences of other graduate students and young scientists. I wanted to share my experience and knowledge, make people feel comfortable doing science and create equal footing. I believe this is a way to help people and, in particular, young scientists to be creative and stimulate them to do their best.”

Shepherd’s notable work at SCOSTEP includes giving presentations to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space at Scientific and Technical Subcommittee meetings held in Vienna, as well as managing and organizing the SCOSTEP Visiting Scholars (SVS) program. The SVS program provides young scientists and graduate students with formal training opportunities at prominent solar-terrestrial physics laboratories and institutions such as the National Aeronautics & Space Administration, the European Space Agency and the Japanese Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, thereby helping participants gain the necessary skills and experience to advance their future scientific goals.

Shepherd also assisted in organizing the 13th Quadrennial Solar-Terrestrial Physics Symposium, held in Xi’an, China in October 2014. This event and other experiences prepared her for one of her most challenging and rewarding projects at SCOSTEP – single-handedly organizing the 14th Quadrennial Solar-Terrestrial Physics Symposium at York University in July 2018.

“It took a lot of hard work and international organization to make the conference a success. I had to build it from the ground up,” says Shepherd. “I’m very appreciative of the amount of support I received from York throughout the process; the right people came into my life at the right moment.”

She expresses gratitude for the support she received from Lassonde’s CRESS; professors James Whiteway, Mike Daly, Spiros Pagiatakis and Regina Lee; as well as the former associate vice-president, research of York University, Professor Celia Haig-Brown.

“After receiving my award, many of the graduate students I worked with called to congratulate me and thank me for the help I had provided,” she says. “I’m grateful for the experience I had at SCOSTEP; this whole process has given me moral satisfaction.”

Award honours work advancing knowledge of Slovak history

glasses and pen resting on notebook

York University Professor Emeritus Stanislav Kirschbaum has been honoured for his contributions to advancing knowledge of Slovak history.

Stanislav Kirschbaum
Stanislav Kirschbaum

On Sept. 20 via Zoom link with Slovakia, Kirschbaum of the Department of International Studies at Glendon College was awarded the Daniel Rapant Prize at the conclusion of an academic conference organized in Bratislava by Matica Slovenská.

Matica Slovenská is a historic Slovak cultural institution founded in 1863, which, since 1995, awards this medal to persons recognized for their contributions to the development of the historical sciences and their efforts to make Slovak history and the life of Slovaks known at home and abroad. It is named after Daniel Rapant, a professor at Slovak (now Comenius) University in Bratislava, who was the most outstanding Slovak historian of the 20th century, and is considered generally to be the father of Slovak history.

Kirschaum, who taught at Glendon College from 1970 to 2022, is recognized internationally as a leading expert on Slovak politics and history. His book History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival (2nd edition, 2005) is the first comprehensive history of the Slovak people, not just in English but in any non-Slovak language, as is his Historical Dictionary of Slovakia (3rd edition, 2014).

In addition, he has published 60 scholarly articles in English, French, German and Slovak on various aspects of Slovak history and politics. For his overall scholarship in international studies, Kirschaum was made a chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques de France in 1994, promoted to the rank of officier in 2015 and elected Fellow of Royal Society of Canada in 2002.

The Daniel Rapant Prize is considered one of the most prestigious awards in Slovakia.

Canadian Observatory on Homelessness to co-host event exploring youth transitions

Hand reaching out for help

York University’s Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH) will co-host an international symposium on youth transitions from child protection services that will bring together over 100 policymakers, researchers and service providers from across Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

From Oct. 12 to 13, the International Transitions from Child Protection Symposium in Richmond, B.C., will examine the challenges associated when youth “age out” of the child protection system and lose the supports they once received.

This transition often finds youth without appropriate housing, education, employment or emotional support, making them susceptible to homelessness and other adverse outcomes. A COH study called “Without a Home”  found that 57.8 per cent of youth experiencing homelessness were involved with child protection services in the past. Furthermore, Indigenous children make up a disproportionately large percentage of children in care, with those experiencing homelessness even more likely (70.5 per cent) to report involvement with child protection services. 

The symposium, co-hosted with A Way Home Canada, will further consider the subject, as well as the gaps and challenges within the systems meant to protect and support vulnerable youth. Addressing the transition experience requires a comprehensive, multi-sector approach that spans government at all levels and various sectors, including social services, health care, policing and justice.

The event’s sessions will explore how to improve transitions by bringing together decision-makers, researchers, policymakers, service providers, and people with lived experience in child protection and youth homelessness. The goal is to identify promising practices and opportunities for action, ensuring successful transitions to adulthood, preventing youth homelessness and fostering positive life outcomes.

The symposium represents a first-of-its-kind opportunity for governments, communities and researchers to learn, grow and work together to co-design what partnerships, actions and shared responsibility can look like. It is sponsored by the Home Depot Canada Foundation and Porticus.

Those interested in attending can see the full agenda here and register here. Those with questions are encouraged to contact David French at dfrench@awayhome.ca.

York University bolsters international reputation through THE World Rankings

York University has climbed in the latest Times Higher Education (THE) World Rankings and continues to establish itself as a beacon of excellence and a leader in international outlook.  

 York University is now in the 351-400 band – a significant improvement from the last few years where we were above the 400 mark.

The World University Rankings assess university performance to inform students, academics and those within higher education of institutional missions and successes. It considers data for three main areas: research, impact and teaching. This year, York has placed in the 300s out of more than 1,900 universities worldwide. 

The University’s upward movement in the rankings reinforces York’s exceptional international co-authorships, commitment to collaboration and overall international reputation as a global influencer.  

The World University Rankings also spotlight York as a leader in research quality, placing the University above the median score for Canadian institutions. This exemplifies York’s commitment to pioneering new knowledge and setting new standards of research excellence. This success builds off York’s recent performance in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, which saw York rise 103 spots to 353rd in the world.  

York’s performance in these rankings can be attributed to its steadfast commitment to advancing global engagement and transformative research, underscored by York’s status among the top 40 sustainable and progressive universities worldwide, as previously reported in the THE Impact Rankings, which measures universities’ contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.