The York University community mourns the loss of Bob (Robert) Accinelli, husband of the late Nancy Accinelli, Vanier College Production’s Executive Producer Emeritus.
Bob (Robert) Accinelli
Bob Accinelli died on Wednesday, July 3. Known for his humour and wisdom to the very end, he is said to have parted after telling his loved ones, “I’m ready, curtain down.”
Whether he was playing charades with his family or diligently studying Italian, Accinelli was an arts aficionado through and through. His love of music and theatre was most publicly reflected in his long-time generous support of York University’s theatre company, Vanier College Productions (VCP).
With a PhD in history from UC Berkeley, Accinelli’s interests extended far beyond the stage. He was an active contributor at the Academy for Lifelong Learning at Knox College and the University of Toronto, a respected scholar and teacher, and – for some time – president of the Canadian Association of American Studies.
As a member of a community group called Democrats & Donuts, Accinelli was known to enjoy friendly debates, particularly about U.S. politics. Loved ones will also remember Accinelli’s love of cycling, hiking, and travel – a penchant that took him from Nunavut to Turkey, California to Ireland.
Accinelli will be dearly missed by his family, friends and the York community at large.
All are welcome to gather on Thursday, July 11 at 2 p.m. to share memories and express condolences until 3 p.m., when a Celebration of Life will be held at R.S. Kane Funeral Home Chapel, 6150 Yonge Street in Toronto.
In lieu of flowers, Accinelli’s family would greatly appreciate donations in memory of Robert Accinelli for York University (Vanier College Productions). All contributions are eligible for matching funds. To learn more, visit www.giving.yorku.ca/InMemory.
Donation creates 36 internship positions for students in LA&PS
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A donation of more than $225,000 from Canada Life to York University will create 36 internship opportunities within community agencies for students in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS).
The donation, which will be granted over three years, supports Community Agency Student Internships (CASI), a unique partnership that enables smaller community agencies to provide experiential educational internship opportunities to students.
This funding helps LA&PS create and expand its internship awards, which provide paid, work-integrated learning opportunities for students. Internships within a range of not-for-profit partners support the pillars of the Faculty, including social and economic justice, equity, inclusion and Indigenous rights.
“Education helps people grow and discover opportunities, and internships are a great way for students to gain valuable work experience and make a positive community impact through the non-profit agencies with which they’re placed,” said Jeff Macoun, president and chief operating officer of Canada Life. “Canada Life is proud to be the founding supporter of the CASI program. By working collaboratively with the University and non-profit agencies, we can empower students to help themselves, and their communities, grow stronger together.”
This project aligns with both the University’s and the company’s priorities in the post-secondary sector, especially as it relates to employability and skills development.
“I’m very grateful to Canada Life for their generous contribution,” said J.J. McMurtry, interim dean of LA&PS. “Experiential education is increasingly important to our students, and now dozens more will have the opportunity to further their learning and gain valuable skills through Canada Life’s gift.”
Internships within LA&PS are established and evaluated under the portfolio of Narda Razack, associate dean of global and community engagement.
“Placements fulfill the broader goals of the University,” she said. “Experiential education is transformative. Our students walk away from these internships with a toolkit of valuable skills, important new connections and vital work experience.”
Passings: Professor Emerita Marilyn Silverman
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Marilyn Silverman, an image from her early years
Professor Emerita Marilyn Silverman, a long-standing member of the Department of Anthropology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at York University, died on Tuesday, June 18 at her home in Montreal.
Prof. Silverman died after a long and courageous struggle with cancer. As a professor, she was fundamental in shaping the Department of Anthropology to its present position as one of the preeminent departments in Canada.
She joined the Department of Anthropology in 1971 as a young lecturer and from 1996 until her retirement she was a full professor. An outstanding undergraduate lecturer and teacher, she was also a superb seminar director and a rigorous yet devoted supervisor at the graduate level.
Silverman’s early field research was conducted in Guyana and Ecuador and her later field research was conducted in Ireland with her partner and departmental colleague at York, Philip Gulliver, who predeceased her last year. She won national and international recognition for the quality of her extensive publications.
Silverman will also be remembered for her long-standing University-wide service, in particular for her active and effective service as a member of the York University Faculty Association, and as a founding member and early co-ordinator of the Latin American & Caribbean Studies program.
A longer obituary on her professional career as an anthropologist will be published later, on the Canadian Anthropology Society website. A celebration of her life will take place in Toronto later this year.
Exhibit depicts the strength, voice and agency of women and girls in war
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Each year on June 19, the world marks the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. On April 23 of this year, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2467, which articulates a survivor-centred approach to the prevention and response to conflict-related sexual violence.
Professor Annie Bunting, front row (right) with project participants, Kigali, 2019. Photo courtesy of Annie Bunting
It is in the spirit of survivor-centred public education and advocacy that the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Partnership Project called Conjugal Slavery in War (CSiW), which is directed by York law and society Professor Annie Bunting, collaborated with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) on a temporary exhibit. The exhibit, “Ododo Wa: Stories of Girls in War,” launched on June 19 on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights website. A web story related to the exhibit can be found at humanrights.ca/story/voices-of-women-and-girls-in-war.
Knowledge Mobilization documents for the project
The web story is a precursor to a temporary exhibit that will open at the museum in October and is the result of a collaborative effort involving Isabelle Masson, a curator at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, CSiW co-ordinator Véronique Bourget and Bunting. For almost three years, they have been working closely to bring this exhibit into existence and mobilize the knowledge gained from the CSiW project. The exhibit is based on the lives of Grace Acan and Evelyn Amony, two Ugandan women who were abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army and held in captivity for many years. Both are now researchers and activists and have been closely involved in all aspects of the development of the exhibit.
Evelyn Amony(second from the left) and Grace Acan (right, checked tunic) in Kigali, 2019. Photo courtesy of Annie Bunting
“Dr. Bunting and her project partners continue to demonstrate leadership in knowledge mobilization (KMb),” says Michael Johnny, manager of knowledge mobilization, Innovation York. “Through meaningful engagement, clear goals and dynamic KMb activity, they are helping connect research and research findings with global audiences. This exhibit exemplifies this important work.”
Curator Isabelle Masson presents the CMHR exhibit at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Vancouver
The exhibit includes images, text, artifacts, animated films, and interviews with Acan and Amony. Original animated films that are part of the exhibit were created by artist Maggie Ikemiya and are based on Acan and Amony’s stories – they both have published memoirs based on their lives in LRA captivity and recovery.
The content of the exhibit is designed to focus on women and girls’ perspectives, their strength, voice and agency rather than on violence and victimhood.
Professors Avi Cohen and Kim Michasiw honoured with University Professorships
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York University has honoured two distinguished faculty members with 2019 University Professorships. The title of University Professor was awarded to Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) professors Avi Cohen and Kim Michasiw.
A University Professor is a member of faculty recognized for extraordinary contributions to scholarship and teaching and participation in university life.
University Professorships
Professor Avi Cohen, Department of Economics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
From left: Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Interim Dean JJ McMurtry, Professor Avi Cohen and Chancellor Greg Sorbara
Over the course of his 35 years at York University, Cohen has achieved an impressive record of scholarship and service, particularly in stimulating teaching innovation among colleagues and enhancing the educational experience of students. A renowned scholar on the history of economic thought, Cohen has uncovered and unified competing theories of economic capital, publishing dozens of chapters and articles in prestigious journals and co-editing four volumes.
Cohen has held numerous positions within the Department of Economics, including Chair; in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, as a member of Faculty Council; and at the university level, as a member of various working groups and committees devoted to teaching and learning and technology-enhanced learning.
Cohen’s greatest impact has been to raise the profile of teaching and learning and advance the use of technology-enhanced learning within the University. He adopted technology in his teaching from an early stage and developed resources for faculty colleagues to support the incorporation of technology into their courses. He extended his expertise to an Academic Innovation Fund project to develop an e-learning strategy for the Faculties of Health and Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, a project that greatly influenced the development and support of online learning at York University.
Cohen was honoured during convocation ceremonies on Wednesday, June 19.
Professor Kim Michasiw, Department of English and the Writing Department, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
From left: Chancellor Greg Sorbara, Professor Kim Michasiw, and President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton
Michasiw has made an extraordinary contribution to the University, most notably through his extensive record of service at the department, Faculty and pan-University levels. He has served as the Chair of the English and Writing departments, associate dean programs and vice-dean in LA&PS, Chair of the Senate Academic Standards, Curriculum & Pedagogy Committee, and as a member of the Senate of York University for close to 20 years. In his posts as associate dean programs and vice-dean in LA&PS, Michasiw played a critical leadership role in launching and managing LA&PS following the amalgamation of the former Faculty of Arts and the Joseph E. Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies. This was displayed through his efforts to advance academic planning, a governance model and a distinctive culture for the new Faculty, as well as his oversight of the more than 100 academic programs housed in LA&PS and mentorship of its academic leadership.
Michasiw also has been deeply engaged in curricular transformations, spearheading two major changes to the undergraduate content and teaching models in the English Department and the creation of a new joint Professional Writing program with Seneca College, which incorporated applied and experiential studies into a theoretical-based curriculum. The joint delivery of the program and experiential learning component were atypical at the time it was established 20 years ago, demonstrating his foresight with respect to pedagogical innovation and commitment to serving the needs of students.
Michasiw was honoured during convocation ceremonies on Tuesday, June 18.
Honorary degree recipient Marcie Ponte tells graduands, ‘There is strength in community’
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Marcie Ponte
A community builder committed to new Canadians was the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree during York University’s sixth spring convocation ceremony. Marcie Ponte, an advocate to promote higher education with immigrant communities, received the honour on June 18 before graduands from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.
Marcie Ponte
Graduating students heard an inspiring speech from Ponte, who is the executive director of the Working Women Community Centre. A small non-governmental organization focused on the Hispanic and Portuguese communities in the 1970s, the organization has transformed in the past two decades under Ponte’s leadership to become a major agency in Toronto, with five community hubs and services in 25 languages.
Her work has impacted many post-secondary institutions, including York, where she has worked with the Portuguese Student Association of York University to promote higher education to Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking communities.
Ponte, who was born in Portugal and immigrated to Canada as a child, shared her own story as a young woman advocating for newcomers, including for herself.
At the age of seven, Ponte, her three siblings and mother moved from Portugal to Vancouver to join her father, who had been settled there about four years, working on building railways. The family moved across Canada a year later to Kingston, Ont., where they stayed for several years and grew their family with three more children.
“Throughout all this, I could feel that both my parents were unhappy, but they sacrificed their wishes and desires to provide greater opportunities for their children,” said Ponte.
At the age of 14, Ponte’s father died suddenly, leaving her mother to raise seven children in a country where she didn’t speak the native language.
Ponte said it wasn’t long after that she pursued her first act of political advocacy, which was for herself.
“My teacher at the time held a meeting with me and a small group of other Portuguese students to tell us that we were not ready for the academic stream in high school,” she said. “We were told that our parents would have to come to the school if they wanted to discuss this with the teacher. I explained that my mother did not speak English, but the teacher’s response was, ‘Well, there is nothing I can do about that’ – and she said the decision was made.”
Determined to fight for her education, Ponte brought in her mother, who spoke in her native tongue and refused to leave until her daughter was accepted into the academic stream.
At age 15, Ponte’s family moved again, this time to Toronto, where she finished high school part-time and in the evenings so she could work to help support the family. She eventually found herself studying community development and political advocacy at Centennial College, and was steered by an instructor there to work in her own community at St. Stephen’s Community House in Kensington Market – so she did.
“I immediately understood why [the instructor] sent me there,” Ponte said. “My senses came alive. There were people there like me – immigrants – who understood each other’s stories.”
Chancellor Greg Sorbara, Marcie Ponte and President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton
She invited her mother to join to help cook alongside other Portuguese women at an event she organized, and said it was the first time in a decade she had seen her mother enjoy life.
“I saw a very different woman in my mother – she was participating in conversations with other Azorean women who shared similar experiences of immigrating to Canada. She loved to cook and she was laughing – she was happy. From the age of seven, until that point, I had little memory of my mother expressing joy.”
That was the moment, she said, she knew she was in the right place and decided to pursue a career helping immigrant women and their families adjust to their new lives in Canada. It has been her life’s work for the past 45 years.
“In the spirit of my first act of political advocacy, you will appreciate for the past 18 years we have been running education programs for at-risk students of Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking descent,” she said. “We have devoted ourselves to ensuring that these students are not left behind and are afforded equal opportunity to achieve academic success.
She urged graduands to approach life with the perspective that everyone belongs in their community. Stand up for people coming here for better lives, and stand up for equity and accessible education for all students, she said.
“In an era where indifference towards newcomers/refugees and where hate is increasingly showing its ugliness, I choose to continue to do this work because I, and we at Working Women Community Centre, believe that everyone belongs in their community,” Ponte said. “There is strength in community.”
York University hosts Borderless Higher Education for Refugees authors’ workshop
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From May 3 to 5, a workshop funded by Global Affairs Canada was organized at York University to bring together authors who will contribute to an edited volume tentatively titled “Borderless university education in Dadaab, Kenya: Theory and Practice.”
The BEHR workshop participants came to York University from the far reaches of the world
The workshop, organized by York University Professor Emerita Wenona Giles of the Centre for Refugee Studies and the Department of Anthropology, and Johanna Reynolds, York PhD student in geography, brought together 33 participants, all of whom have been involved in the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) project in some way. Those attending the workshop included instructors, administrators, researchers, students and funders. They came from Canada, the United States, Kenya and Europe to discuss their contributions to the book. Among the student participants were York graduate students who have worked as TAs and researchers for the BHER project and other administrators and instructors from the University of British Columbia, York University, Kenyatta and Moi universities, and Windle International Kenya.
Giles, along with Don Dippo, University Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University, and former BEHR project manager Aida Orgocka, initiated the workshop and book concept. (Dippo and Orgocka have been with the BHER project since it was first funded in 2010.)
Workshop participants discuss the book concept, which defines higher education as increasingly recognized as crucial for the livelihoods of marginalized populations such as refugees, migrants and other stigmatized groups
Briefly, the book concept defines higher education as increasingly recognized as crucial for the livelihoods of marginalized populations such as refugees, migrants and other stigmatized groups, to enable them to engage in contemporary, knowledge-based global society. “When we first began to develop the BHER project, higher education for refugees claimed little attention,” says Giles. “We entered a space of underfunded education initiatives in protracted humanitarian contexts, with primary education featuring high in humanitarian appeals and limited attention to education in general in the policy context.”
The book will provide evidence that global North-South educational partnerships can work and do produce good results for both the South and North when the participating institutions are prepared to struggle through the challenges of structural inequalities imposed by funding agencies, cultural and pedagogical differences at the institutional levels, and technological deficits in course delivery, among other issues. The contributors to this book also demonstrate that universities can be development actors and papers by emerging refugee scholars, who have begun to participate in and contribute to new knowledge about forced migration as they achieve their undergraduate and graduate degrees, are part of the book. “Our methodological approach in this book is unique, as the contributors have all been involved in some way in the research, administration, teaching and learning, leading to the design, the development and implementation of the BHER project over (almost) a decade, from 2010 to 2019,” says Dippo, who is the current BHER project lead.
In addition to Global Affairs Canada, the authors’ workshop received support from the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at York University.
To learn more about the BHER project, visit bher.org.
Professor Idil Boran holds official event at Bonn Climate Change Conference as primary delegate from York U
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Building collaboration between researchers, climate actors and decision-makers is crucial for strengthening and broadening climate action for a sustainable, equitable and low-carbon future. York University Professor Idil Boran takes a step toward this goal on June 17, when she co-hosts an official side event of the Bonn Climate Change Conference – June 2019 (from June 17 to 27) under the auspices of United Nations Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Idil Boran
Jointly hosted by Boran and Sander Chan (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik/German Development Institute), the official side event, titled “Taking Global Climate Action Beyond 2020 – Accelerating the Sustainable Future We Want,” will bring researchers and practitioners together to discuss priorities for strengthening climate action after 2020. The panellists will share experiences and present their organizations’ good practices. The goal is to take stock of what has been achieved so far and make recommendations for moving forward.
“The panel discussion will present knowledge from research on tracking and measuring actions, give voice to experiences of various actors and set priorities for broadening actions. There is much to learn from the experiences of NGOs and businesses, cities and regions. Panellists will discuss pathways to strengthen the engagement of climate actors in developing countries, building trust and stronger ties with communities at local levels around the world, and forming lasting alliances between actors as well as with governments and the inter-governmental process,” said Boran, adding that these discussions are crucial for just and equitable transformations.
Boran will attend the Bonn Climate Change Conference as primary delegate from York University. Boran has organized official events in the past where she has been featured as host and panellist. Her accreditation as observer is granted by York University Professor Dawn Bazely (Faculty of Science), the contact point for York’s accreditation to UN Climate Change. In her activities at UN Climate Change, Boran works closely with the Constituency of Research & Independent Non-Governmental Organizations (RINGO), one of the nine recognized constituencies.
Official side events form a unique venue for UNFCCC observer organizations to share research, network and explore actionable options, said Boran. This year’s side events speak to the theme “Accelerating the Implementation of the Paris Agreement.”
In addition to co-hosting the side event, Boran will appear in an interview in the Climate Action Studio during the conference. The Climate Action Studio is a platform for showcasing action of non-party stakeholders in the climate change process, through interviews with nominated observers admitted to the UNFCCC process around specific themes linked to the negotiation process. She was selected, together with Sander Chan, to discuss her research in climate action.
“2019 is a critical year for climate action,” said Boran. “The prominence of climate change in the public spotlight has been gaining new heights. Citizens and youth movements throughout Europe and elsewhere are making strides, calling for climate change to become a public policy priority. We see a growing social movement calling to make climate change a priority. Moreover, from around the world, cities and regions, businesses and NGOs, universities and colleges are taking action on climate change.
“Stronger actions are needed at all levels. It is crucial to bring the resources from multiple disciplines from academic research, and build working relations with practitioners on the ground and decision-makers at the international, national and local levels.”
For further information, contact Boran, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, at iboran@yorku.ca.
York professor receives Insignia of Professional Merit from government of Azores
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Maria João Dodman, associate professor of Portuguese & Luso-Brazilian Studies in York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, travelled to the Azores to take part in the celebrations of the Day of the Azores, where she received the Insignia do Governo Regional dos Açores – Medal for Professional Merit.
The recognition is one of the most distinguished honours given by the government of the autonomous region of Azores.
Presenting the medal to Dodman on June 10 was Vasco Cordeiro, president of the Azores.
Maria João Dodman receives the medal from Vasco Cordeiro, president of the Azores.
“I’m particularly honoured to receive such recognition from the Government of the Azores,” said Dodman. “Considering that I came to Canada to search for a better life like many of those immigrant women who came before and after me, this was a surreal moment.
“There is much work to be done and I remain more committed than ever to continue to tell the stories of a people who suffered greatly from centuries of isolation and neglect, who were victimized by corruption, by extreme poverty and violence.”
Dodman immigrated to Canada from the Azores in 1989. Originally a Renaissance scholar, Dodman turned her interests in 2006 to the literature produced in the Azores, and to bringing more awareness to the archipelago’s unique identity. She developed an undergraduate discipline that focuses solely on the Azores, the only of its kind in a Canadian university.
Her research interests include Renaissance literature, colonial encounters and representations of beauty, ugliness and otherness in early modern Iberian literature.
She is also co-founder and co-director of the Canadian Centre for Azorean Research & Studies. In 2016, Dodman published AndarIlha. Viagens de um Hifen (Wanderer. Voyages of a Hyphen), a book of short narratives that focuses on Azorean identity, immigrant issues and hyphenated culture. The book received high praise from literary critics in Portugal and an expanded English translation is slotted for publication in spring 2019 in the United States.
It is mostly in Dodman’s creative work where the Azores appears frequently as a site of inspiration and magic steeped in açorianidade, a concept in which nature, isolation, insularity, sea and volcanic rock triumph over history. Dodman is particularly interested in rescuing marginal voices and their stories of injustice and exclusion.
York hosts young historians for Ontario Provincial Heritage Fair
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Professor Marcel Martel, History Department with Sarah Mai, Ottawa Regional Fair participant
Professor Marcel Martel, History Department, with Sarah Mai, Ottawa Regional Fair participant
Dozens of students from Grades 4 to 11 gathered recently at York University’s Founders College to showcase their award-winning posters on Canadian history. The event was hosted by the Department of History in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), in collaboration with the Archives of Ontario.
This year, the fair featured the work of 90 young people from across the province and was organized with the assistance of York University history Professor Marcel Martel. This is the second year York has hosted the Ontario Provincial Heritage Fair. Martel admits to being a big fan of the event.
“You have young people who are enthusiastic about what they have done and want to share that passion,” said Martel.
One of the projects of the grade school students
The event was standing room only as the participants presented their posters on Canadian heroes, legends, milestones and achievements. In many cases, students revisited some of Canada’s darkest moments in history, such as the recently released report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, the internment of Japanese citizens and the treatment of homosexuals in the public service and military.
“It is important to offer young students the opportunity to share with others their love for history,” said Martel. “I think it’s also an opportunity for them to discover that York is a welcoming place.”
The Heritage Fairs program has provided young students an opportunity to explore Canadian history for more than 25 years.
