Do you own your DNA profile? A special lecture at York University considers this thorny question
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Myles Jackson
Consider this scenario: Commercial DNA testing kits are easy to use. You spit in a tube, pop it in the mail and in a few short weeks, you learn what countries hold your ancestral roots.
But what are the legal theories of ownership that shape and have been shaped by this genetic information? In the age of these easy-to-access commercial DNA testing kits, these legal theories have become particularly relevant now that private genomics companies are selling datasets containing this genetic information and the companies acquiring this data include drug manufacturers. How secure is this information? Should we be concerned about where and how our genetic information is used? What could go wrong?
Myles Jackson
The Distinguished History of Science Lecture at York University, which takes place Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 3:30 p.m., seeks to consider these questions. Princeton University Professor Myles Jackson will deliver the lecture, and, in his remarks, he will consider the legalities of who exactly owns an individual’s genetic information. Jackson, who is an internationally renowned historian of science, is currently a professor of the history of science at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. An eminent and authoritative explorer of the intersections between science, technology, aesthetics and society, Jackson’s scholarship interweaves economic, commercial, and scientific insights and his inquires span the depth and breadth of molecular science, physics, intellectual property and privacy issues.
The Distinguished History of Science Lecture will take place in Room 010 Vanier College. It is free and open to the public. All are welcome.
The lecture is made possible through the generous sponsorship provided by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) and the Department of Humanities (LA&PS).
Attend a panel discussion on ethical considerations of child-centred studies
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Child in classroom
A special panel on Sept. 23, titled “Recruitment and Reciprocity in Child-Centred Research,” will explore a variety of unique research projects focusing on children and youth.
Organized by Assistant Professor Abigail Shabtay and Assistant Professor Anu Sriskandarajah of the Children, Childhood & Youth (CCY) program (Department of Humanities, York University), the panel includes six professors who will discuss some of the key practical and ethical considerations involved in the recruitment processes for child-centred studies.
It takes place at 10:30 a.m. in the Renaissance Room, 001 Vanier College.
Participating in the panel are: Srikandarajah and Abigail Shabtay; Rachel Berman (School of Early Childhood Studies, Ryerson University); Natalie Coulter (Department of Communication Studies, York University); and Gail Prasad and Lucy Angus (Faculty of Education, York University).
The CCY program has a strong focus on research with children and young people – research that engages children and youth as active participants in the knowledge construction process. A cornerstone of the program is a fourth-year honours research project in which majors conduct their own research projects with child and youth participants. This panel will give students in the York community a better understanding of the practical and ethical considerations involved in this process.
“Conducting research with children and youth is fraught with unique ethical issues,” said Sriskandarajah. “To address some of the key concerns that accompany such research, we have put together this amazing panel to allow students to understand key ethical implications in practice. We aim, through this discussion, to illustrate the importance of reciprocity within the research process whereby reciprocity should be seen as a guiding principle from the onset of the project – from design, to recruitment, to the dissemination of the research.”
Undergraduate and graduate students are welcome to attend, as well as researchers interested in conducting research with children and youth.
“Numerous undergraduate and graduate students across the University begin designing their child-focused research projects this September,” said Shabtay. “With this panel, we hope to provide students with the tools and resources to engage in ethical approaches to research with children, seeing children as active participants in the research process, and giving students practical tools to help with their research project design.”
Theatre Professor Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston wins two prestigious awards
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Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston
York University theatre Professor Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston was recently honoured with two prestigious awards for her research – one from the Canadian Association for Theatre Research and one from the American Anthropological Association.
The Canadian Association for Theatre Research’s Richard Plant Award, named in honour of the association’s cofounder, is given annually to the best English-language article on a Canadian theatre or performance topic. Kazubowski-Houston received the award this year for her “beautifully-written and evocatively argued” article titled “quiet theater,” describing her research with Romani women in Poland. The article was published in the journal Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies.
Kazubowski-Houston’s transnational independent research collective, the Centre for Imaginative Ethnography (CIE), also earned recognition recently, with the GAD New Directions Award from the American Anthropological Association. The award recognizes work that presents anthropological perspectives to publics beyond the academy, across diverse forms of media, with methodological rigour and ethical engagement.
denielle Elliott
CIE is co-led by six sociocultural anthropologists including Kazubowski-Houston and denielle Elliott, a professor in York University’s Department of Social Science. Its five co-curators and 84 current members include scholars, artists, activists and practitioners from around the world. In making their selection, the award committee noted the CIE as an excellent and truly collaborative long-term intervention in the domain of pubic anthropology that fosters experimentation in genre, media and presentation, and in new venues that link anthropology and the human sciences to producers and audiences of across the arts.
YCAR announces 2019 Undergraduate Essay Award winners
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The York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) is pleased to announce its 2019 Undergraduate Essay Award winners: Safa Warsi and Harkit Bhandal.
Safa Warsi is a fourth-year psychology major who has spent time as a research assistant in various psychology labs at York. She is interested in culture and religion, particularly the context of the experiences of minorities in North America. She received the award in the Asian Diaspora category. Professor Richard Lalonde nominated her PSYC 3890 paper, “Views on the Model Minority Stereotype in a South Asian Canadian Context,” for this award. The paper considers the model minority stereotype (MMS), which depicts Asians having certain seemingly positive attributes (e.g. competence and achievement), whilst also having seemingly negative traits (e.g. unsociability and emotional reservation). Research to date on this subject has largely focused on East Asian American samples, while Warsi’s study explores whether MMS exists in South Asian Canadian populations.
Harkit Bhandal’s love for coffee fuels what she enjoys doing most – researching, reading and writing about South Asian diasporic identities. Meghna George, Bhandal’s teaching assistant for AP/ANTH 1120, nominated her paper in the award’s Asia category. “Understandings of Military Power, Intoxication and Love in Kashmir, India” focuses on how clinicians’ and patients’ understandings of substance abuse and addiction at a drug rehabilitation clinic known as the DDC reflect an extension of and resistance to military power in the Kashmir Valley.
A fourth-year undergraduate student, Bhandal focuses the majority of her written and advocacy work on how institutions have produced a negative image of second-generation Punjabi Canadian males. She writes about how second-generation Punjabi Canadian males contest and negotiate their gender performance dependent on the institution in which they interact. Beyond her academic work, Bhandal volunteers at her local women’s shelter. She loves to journal and purchase journals she doesn’t need.
Both papers will be published later this year in New Voices on Asia, a special occasional paper series at YCAR.
Papers for the 2019-20 academic year can be submitted at any time and will be accepted until April 30, 2020.
Serving up a new menu during September for the McLaughlin Lunch Talk Series
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McLaughlin College invites the York University community to come and listen to interesting speakers as they share their knowledge on a variety of topics, and enjoy a free lunch.
The long-running Lunch Talk Series resumes this month, and will present several talks and special events. Students who attend six or more Lunch Talks throughout the year will receive a Certificate of Participation, while those who attend 10 or more will receive a Certificate of Honour.
The talks take place in the Senior Common Room, 140 McLaughlin College, Keele Campus.
Here’s what’s on the menu for September:
Sept. 18 – The Moral and Legal Philosophical Justification of Article 1F Exclusion from Convention Refugee Status
Presented by Associate Professor James C. Simeon, this paper will seek to explicate both the moral and legal philosophical justification for Article 1F of the 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees; that is, the so-called exclusion clauses. All of those who have committed serious international crimes, such as war crimes, crimes against humanity or crimes against peace or aggression, or are guilty of actions that are contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations, or have committed a serious non-political crime prior to their arrival in their host country, are excluded from refugee protection. The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees has described such persons as “undeserving” or “unworthy” of international protection and, therefore, not eligible for refugee protection. But can anyone ever be denied of their most fundamental human rights such as the right to seek asylum? And in the modern human rights era, should anyone ever be labelled as “undeserving” or “unworthy” of international protection?
This presentation runs from noon to 1:30 p.m.
Sept. 19 – UN International Day of Peace Ceremonies and Special Panel
Each year, McLaughlin College recognizes a number of UN International Days with special panel sessions to further the UN’s call for education, public awareness on issues related to peace. This UN International Day is perhaps one of its most important.
All are invited to attend the World Day of Peace Special Panel session at McLaughlin College. The event’s moderator is James C. Simeon, head of McLaughlin College and associate professor at York University
Panel speakers include:
Tamara Lorincz, a PhD canadidate at the Balsillie School of International Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University and a board member of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace. Her talk is titled “Why Peace & Disarmament are Essential to Climate Justice”;
Natalie Rizzo, central Ontario animator of Development & Peace, the Canadian member organization of Caritas Internationalis. Development & Peace supports partners in the Global South who promote alternatives to unfair social, political and economic structures; and
Branka Marijan, a senior researcher at Project Ploughshares. She holds a PhD from the Balsillie School of International Affairs with a specialization in conflict and security. She is a board member of the Peace & Conflict Studies Association of Canada.
This event runs from noon to 2 p.m.
Sept. 24 – Beverley McLachlin: The Legacy of a Supreme Court Chief Justice
Presented by Ian Greene, York University professor emeritus, this talk will examine Beverly McLachlin’s 18 years as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. McLachlin turned the court into a more collegial and consensual court than it had been at any time in the court’s history. Not only was the rate of unanimous decisions around 70 per cent during these years – significantly higher than before or after – but there were no “blocs” of judges who tended to vote together consistently, as there had been under previous chief justices. In a just-published book, Beverley McLachlin: The Legacy of a Supreme Court Chief Justice, Greene and Peter McCormick outline how the character traits developed by McLachlin when growing up in rural Alberta contributed to her success in promoting consensus among the judges about controversial issues such as assisted dying, prostitution and Indigenous land claims. The authors demonstrate how these same qualities carried her through a public showdown with then-prime minister Stephen Harper over an unqualified appointment to the Supreme Court. She was given overwhelming support on her stance by the Canadian and international legal communities. She left the Supreme Court stronger and more respected than ever on the world stage.
This presentation runs from noon to 1:30 p.m.
Sept. 25 – Investing in Yourself: Smart Ways to Cover the Cost of Your Higher Education
Joanne Ong and Elizabeth Kazimi, financial support peers from Student Financial Services, deliver this presentation. Financial literacy is one of the real keys to success at university and this highly interactive workshop will inform students about the many opportunities and resources that will help build wealth while financing a post-secondary degree. Students will learn how to use debt to help them, not hinder them, while completing degree requirements, as well as identify opportunities in spending patterns that can lead to major savings. It will also focus on the three stages of a student loan, what to expect and who is involved in the world of financial aid. It will cover the all-important topic of scholarships and bursaries, but also the many other awards available at York University.
This presentation runs from noon to 1:30 p.m.
Welcome to YFile’s New Faces Feature Issue 2019, part one
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Welcome to YFile’s New Faces Feature Issue 2019, part one. In this special issue, YFile introduces new faculty members joining the York University community and highlights those with new appointments.
The New Faces Feature Issue 2019 will run in two parts: part one on Friday, Sept. 13 and part two on Friday, Sept. 27.
In this issue, YFile welcomes new faculty members in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design; the Faculty of Education; Glendon Campus; and the Faculty of Health.
New Faces was conceived, developed and edited by Ashley Goodfellow Craig, YFile’s deputy editor, with support provided by Lindsay MacAdam, communications officer, and Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor.
York alum returns to launch biography on American Jewish thinker Horace Kallen
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A biography exploring the life of American Jewish thinker Horace M. Kallen will be celebrated during a launch event held at the Israel & Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University on Sept. 15.
The book, Horace Kallen Confronts America: Jewish Identity, Science, and Secularism, is written by Rabbi Matthew Kaufman, a York alumni and reconstructionist rabbi.
This intellectual biography explores the thought and career of Kallen, revealing how his views on science, secularism and religion made on impact on authors, publishers, editors and readers, offering a new lens through which to examine Jewish identity and American pluralism.
Kaufman received a PhD in humanities from York University and has served reconstructionist, reform, and conservative Jewish communities in the United States and Canada for more than 20 years.
The event takes place at 2 p.m. on the seventh floor of the Kaneff Tower at York University. Admission is free, but seats are limited. There will be a kosher (dairy) reception to follow.
Six York University professors elected to the Royal Society of Canada
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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, 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, 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 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, 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, 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 Broadwaywas 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 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.
Indigenous Lecture Series kicks off with a talk by Lindsay (Swooping Hawk) Kretschmer
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This fall, the School of Health Policy & Management and the Faculty of Health introduce the 2019-20 Indigenous Lecture Series on Indigenous Health and Decolonization. The six scheduled lectures in the series will bring Canada’s most respected Indigenous leaders in health care to York University’s Keele Campus to engage in a discussion of the pressing health issues facing Indigenous Peoples in Canada and how we, as an institution, can move forward in our process of decolonization.
Each of the lectures will consist of a 30- to 45-minute presentation by a keynote speaker, followed by a 45-minute facilitated discussion with two or three faculty members. A light lunch will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
Lindsay (Swooping Hawk) Kretschmer
Lindsay (Swooping Hawk) Kretschmer, executive director of the Toronto Aboriginal Support Services Council, will kick off the series on Sept. 12, from 1 to 3 p.m. in the second-floor conference room of York University’s Second Student Centre.
Kretschmer’s family comes from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. She is German and Mohawk, Wolf Clan and her spirit name is Swooping Hawk. She has worked in the non-profit sector for nearly 20 years, most recently as the executive director of the Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy, where she led a full-scale organizational redevelopment plan for programs in Ontario, which included notable revenue, partner and resource advancements. She has served in senior management roles, locally and provincially, for both the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres and Native Child & Family Services of Toronto. She started her community service work as a teenager, 19 years ago, by volunteering at Council Fire Native Cultural Centre. Her areas of expertise include Indigenous social justice issues and well-being, provincial and federal negotiations, program and training development, research and evaluation, policy and advocacy, and capacity and partnership building.
Kretschmer is passionate about Indigenous community well-being and is committed to developing sustainable and measurable solutions for social change and lasting impact. She holds a certificate in women’s studies from York University, an advanced diploma in advertising, an executive-level conflict management and alternative dispute resolution certificate from the University of Windsor Law School, and a diversity leadership certificate from York University’s Schulich School of Business. In 2003, she received the YWCA Young Woman of Distinction Award and she has been featured in a variety of media for her commitment to social change and advocacy.
Following Kretschmer’s talk, there will be an audience Q-and-A.
The series’ Fall 2019 lineup will also include the following keynote speakers:
Oct. 10: Lynn Lavallée, interim director and professor, School of Social Work, Ryerson University
Nov. 14: Dr. Janet Smylie, M.D., St. Michael’s Hospital
Canadian Writers in Person returns with a reading from Zalika Reid-Benta’s debut novel
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If you love meeting talented writers and hearing them read from their published work, or just want to soak up a unique cultural experience, don’t miss the opportunity to attend the Canadian Writers in Person Lecture Series, which launches its 2019-20 season on Sept. 17.
The series features 11 authors who will present their work, answer questions and sign books. Canadian Writers in Person is a for-credit course for students. It is also a free-admission event for members of the public. All readings take place at 7 p.m. on select Tuesday evenings in 206 Accolade West Building, Keele Campus.
This year’s lineup consists of a unique selection of emerging and established Canadian writers, whose writing explores a broad range of topics and geographical and cultural landscapes. Featuring poets, playwrights and prolific fiction writers, the series highlights Canada’s ever-growing literary talent.
On Sept. 17, author Zalika Reid-Benta kicks off the 2019-20 series with a reading from her debut novel titled Frying Plantain (House of Anansi Press). The book’s protagonist, Kara Davis, is a girl caught in the middle – of her Canadian nationality and her desire to be a “true” Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother’s rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too “faas” or too “quiet” or too “bold” or too “soft.” Set in “Little Jamaica,” Toronto’s Eglinton West neighbourhood, Frying Plantain shows how, in one charged moment, friendship and love can turn to enmity and hate, well-meaning protection can become control, and teasing play can turn to something much darker. Reid-Benta artfully depicts the tensions between mothers and daughters, second-generation Canadians and first-generation cultural expectations, and Black identity and predominately white society.
Other presentations scheduled in this series are:
Oct. 1: Tanya Tagaq, Split Tooth, Penguin Random House
March 17: David Bezmozgis, Immigrant City, HarperCollins
Canadian Writers in Person is a course offered out of the Culture & Expression program in the Department of Humanities in York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. For more information, visit yorku.ca/laps/canwrite, call 416-736-5158, or email Professor Gail Vanstone at gailv@yorku.ca or Professor Leslie Sanders at leslie@yorku.ca.
The CCY program has a strong focus on research with children and young people – research that engages children and youth as active participants in the knowledge construction process. A cornerstone of the program is a fourth-year honours research project in which majors conduct their own research projects with child and youth participants. This panel will give students in the York community a better understanding of the practical and ethical considerations involved in this process.
A biography exploring the life of American Jewish thinker Horace M. Kallen will be celebrated during a launch event held at the Israel & Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University on Sept. 15.
Three new Fellows
