York TESOL students promote Canada at Meiji University

Three York University students from the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) certificate program spent a week as assistant teachers in the Meiji Language Program at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan.

The entire teaching team including “Yorkies” with Meiji University faculty
The entire teaching team including “Yorkies” with Meiji University faculty

The program is a one-week course open to Japanese undergraduate students of Meiji University.

TESOL students have been invited to Tokyo since 2007, as part of a long-standing partnership between York University and Meiji University.

Shira Packer, course director in the TESOL program and instructor at YUELI (York University English Language Institute), accompanied TESOL students Jerome Fernando, Siranjivani Mariyadas and Lily McDermott to the spring seminar, which ran March 16 to 22.

Down time in the conversation lounge
Down time in the conversation lounge

The one-week intensive English language course was held at Meiji University’s Kiyosato Seminar House, located in mountainous Yamanashi prefecture.

Affectionately called “Yorkies” by the Meiji faculty and students, the four York representatives conducted one-hour classes of Canadian Studies, where they introduced topics such as Canadian geography, food, sports and music. An excellent opportunity for professional development as language teachers, the TESOL students were also free to observe and participate in content-based communicative English as a foreign language (EFL) classes taught each morning by experienced Meiji University professors.

One important feature of the seminar is the strict “English-only” rule; students can speak only in English from 8am to 10pm. Each evening, the Yorkies mingled with Meiji students in the “conversation lounge”, giving the students a fun opportunity to use English in a relaxed setting after a day’s hard work in the intensive program.

After one week of cultural exchange, language learning and forming friendships, Meiji students gave the Yorkies a heartfelt send-off during the final ceremony at the completion of the intensive course.

Meiji Students raise their flags during Canadian studies
Meiji Students raise their flags during Canadian studies

York’s participation in the annual language exchange is in part funded by Meiji University’s Office of Academic Affairs, as well as the Canadian Studies section of Meiji’s International Office. York students in past years have received support from the York International Mobility Award as well as through the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies (LAPS).

Fernando, a York TESOL student who participated in the seminar this year, describes the experience as unforgettable.

Saying goodbye at the closing ceremony
Saying goodbye at the closing ceremony

“The role of a Yorkie is very special, unique, and one that I’m happy I was able to experience,” He said. “I also really hope that it will be possible for future TESOL students to partake in this once in a lifetime experience.”

The TESOL certificate program at York University includes courses in language education pedagogy, linguistics as well as a practicum in teaching. Upon completion of the certified program, students are eligible for TESL Ontario accreditation as qualified ESL/EFL teachers.

For more information visit tesol.dlll.laps.yorku.ca.

Presentation explores food security crisis in China

A presentation presented in partnership by the School of Social Work and the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) will examine the food security crisis in China on April 19 from 1:30 to 3:30pm.

YCAR event“Food Security Crisis and the ‘People’s Self Protection Movement’ in China” will feature guest speaker Hok Bun Ku of Peking University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University Social Work Research Center.

Food security is not only a big issue in the world, but also a critical issue in China. Recently, food security has been listed as the first major issue to be addressed at the Chinese Community Party (CCP) Economic Work Conference, the Central Rural Work Conference as well as in the published “No. 1 Central Document” in 2014.

Food security in China is related to food productivity as well as food safety. This presentation will discuss China’s food security crisis, its impacts on people’s livelihoods in both rural and urban areas, and the emerging ‘People’s Self Protection Movement’ over the past 10 years.

In response to the food safety crisis, local producers and consumers are not passively waiting for government’s policy change, but actively seeking alternative ways to protect themselves through new rural-urban alliance initiatives.

Ku obtained is a professor and program leader of Master of Social Work (China) in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is also the deputy director of the China Research and Development Network, executive editor of China Journal of Social Work and associate editor of Action Research. In 2007, he became a Fulbright Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis, and in 2012, he also employed as visiting professor by the China Youth University for Political Science.

Ku heavily engages in practice and action research in China. He has been involved in China’s rural development for about 15 years and has written extensively on topics related to rural development, cultural politics, participatory design, social exclusion and marginality, and social work education

The School of Social Work at York University is hosting Ku as a visiting scholar from April to June 2016.

The event takes place at 120 North Ross Building. For more, visit ycar.apps01.yorku.ca/event/ku/?instance_id=466. All are welcome.

Two history professors named to the 2016 Ferguson Prize short list

The Canadian Historical Association named history Professors Joan Judge and Alexia Yates to the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize 2016 short list. The prize recognizes an exceptional scholarly book in the field of history other than Canadian history.

Joan Judge
Joan Judge

Judge was nominated for Republican Lens: Gender, Visuality, and Experience in the Early Chinese Periodical Press. Her book explores a neglected era in Chinese history: the period following China’s first 20th-century revolution, the 1911 Revolution, which ended 2,000 years of imperial rule.

A vibrant and, as yet, little studied commercial culture evolved in this period, and the book “uses one of its most striking, innovative — and continually mischaracterized — products, the journal Funü shibao (The women’s eastern times), as a lens onto the early years of China’s first Republic,” said Judge. “Redeeming both the value of the medium and the significance of the era, it demonstrates the extent to which the commercial press channelled and helped constitute key epistemic and gender trends in China’s revolutionary 20th century.”

Republican Lens develops a cross-genre and inter-media method for reading the periodical press and gaining access to the complexities of the past. Involving the analysis of various textual and visual forms, this method highlights a number of key tensions — between reform and commerce, between epic political agendas and everyday concerns, between male strategies and female tactics — that governed the early Republic.

“It also highlights processes central to the arc of 20th century social change and knowledge culture,” said Judge. These include the entrée of respectable Chinese women into public space and the interaction between “Chinese medicine” and scientific biomedicine.

Andrea Yates
Andrea Yates

Yates was nominated for Selling Paris: Property and Commercial Culture in the Fin-de-siècle Capital. Spanning the period from 1870 to 1921, the book unearths the creation of Paris as it veered through urban transformation and insurrection. Yates digs into how land, buildings and apartments were produced, circulated and consumed, exploring a rarely studied period in the city’s development

Selling Paris chronicles people who have not previously been prominent in the story of Paris’s urban modernity: shady real estate agents, hustling speculators, conservative owners of private property, corporations that were beginning to assemble substantial portfolios of property, and of course tenants who found themselves navigating a new, speculatively produced housing landscape,” she said.

Readers can expect to learn about a rapidly changing market, encountering ordinary Parisians as they attempted to make the housing business work for them, as well as getting to know the entrepreneurs who built “the Capital of Light in the shadow of better known processes of state-led urban development,” said Yates. “In each historical moment — including our own — powerful social, political and economic forces align that can frustrate the effort to make real estate a transparent, easily exchangeable commodity.” The struggles over this process form the heart of this study.

The winner — one of the five authors named on the short list — will be announced on May 31 at the CHA Annual Prize Ceremonies in Calgary.

York U PhD student gets $10,000 fellowship to study effectiveness of poverty protests

Graphic showing different research terms
Graphic showing different research terms

A $10,000 supplemental award will help a third-year York PhD student study the effectiveness of poverty groups’ protest tactics and how government bureaucracies respond to those tactics.

Social work student A.J. Withers, already operating under a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant, is also the recipient of the Aileen D. Ross Fellowship under SSHRC’s Talent Program. The fellowship is awarded yearly to a SSHRC doctoral award recipient conducting poverty-related research in sociology.

“As a long-time anti-poverty organizer, I find research that tells us what we did and how we are structured to be of limited use,” Withers said. “Rather than looking at the organization, I plan to look outwards from the perspective of a member of a group, at ruling relations and how to impact them.”

Withers expects the award to have a significant impact on the dissertation research.

“It means that I can travel to other cities in Canada and the United States to observe different poor people’s groups in action and speak with organizers about their work,” said Withers. “It also means that I can buy good equipment for doing my field research, including a video camera, audio recorder and camera rather than relying on my cell phone.”

The goal of the research is to develop a deeper understanding of how poor people’s organizations make gains and achieve their demands within a neoliberal climate. Withers notes that a lot of social justice activists feel that academic research is often exploitative – researchers take the knowledge activists hold, but don’t give much back in return.

“I designed my project and its methodology so that both the process and the final product will be useful to the organization,” Withers said. “Using participant observation, I will work as an anti-poverty organizer so that my own research labour contributes to the group. The research has the potential to produce knowledge about ruling relations and anti-poverty organizing. It could lead to social justice organizations being more effective.”

Withers draws on personal experience in conducting the research, and said “I have first-hand experience of living in poverty, and survived on social assistance for the better part of a decade. I started working with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty because the systems that create and regulate poverty can and, in my view, need to change. Having been doing the work for over 15 years, I have seen poor people’s organizations make some significant gains.”

However, in the current economic and political climate, poor people have lost much more than they have gained, Withers said.

“I want to examine the minutia of poor people’s campaigns with the hopes of better understanding what makes victories happen so that organizations can be more effective.”

As a third-year student, Withers is at the comprehensive exam writing stage and anxious to get to research for the dissertation.

“I still have a way to go before I begin my research,” said Withers. “I am eager to get into the field. My attention has been somewhat split so far during my PhD because I have also been working on my second book. With any luck, The Healing Power of Domination: Interlocking Oppression and the Origins of Social Work, which I am co-authoring with Chris Chapman, will be out in the next year.”

The goal of the Talent program is to support students and postdoctoral fellows in order to develop the next generation of researchers and leaders across society, both within academia and across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. The program promotes the acquisition of research skills, and assists in the training of highly qualified personnel in the social sciences and humanities.

Centre for Jewish Studies hosts event to launch book on H. G. Alder

The Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University presents a book launch for H. G. Adler – Life, Literature, Legacy on April 14 at 5pm.

Adler CJN adThe books editors are York Professors Sara Horowitz of the Centre for Jewish Studies, Julia Creet from the Department of English, and donor and Centre for Jewish Studies Research Associate Amira Bojadzija-Dan.

H. G. Adler – Life, Literature, Legacy is the first collection of essays in English dedicated to the life and work of German-language author H. G. Adler. Among the international scholars of German, Jewish, and Holocaust literature and history who reveal the range of Adler’s legacy across genres are Adler’s son, Jeremy Adler, and Peter Filkins, translator of Adler’s trilogy: The Journey, Panorama, and The Wall.

Together, the essays examine Adler’s writing in relation to his life, especially his memory as a survivor of the Nazi death camps and his posthumous recognition for having produced a Gesamtkunstwerk, an aesthetic synthesis of the Shoah.

The event takes place in Kaneff Tower, 7th floor and registrations can be made through cjs@yorku.ca or by call 416-736-5823. Refreshments will be served.

York U 3MT winner headed for provincial finals

Benjamin Voloh
Benjamin Voloh

Benjamin Voloh, a PhD student in biology, will represent York University at the provincial Three Minute Thesis (3MT) finals at Wilfrid Laurier University on April 14.

3MT is a research communications competition for graduate students. Developed in Australia by the University of Queensland in 2008, 3MT challenges students to explain their research to a non-specialist in just three minutes.

The 20 competitors in the provincial competition are all winners of local competitions hosted by every university in Ontario. Livestreaming of the event will begin at 10am via: livestream.com/cigionline/events/5142325.

The top three presenters, in addition to a participant’s choice award, will receive cash prizes as well as a chance to compete nationally in Canada’s 3MT competition hosted by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) later this spring.

Voloh placed first in York’s regional competition for his talk “A spotlight in the brain: brain waves underlying the control of attention” which is based on his research on how the brain controls and switches attention in a dynamic and flexible way. In addition to being awarded a $1,000 cash prize, he was also awarded the People’s Choice Award – a $250 prize – as voted by his peers.

Voloh works in the Attentional Circuits Control Lab under Professor Thilo Womelsdorf.

“Attention is like a spotlight; it illuminates the things that are important to us, and overlooks the things that aren’t,” said Voloh. “The problem is that our spotlight can be turned towards the wrong things.

“This is a major problem in many different kinds of mental disorders – for example, in people suffering from depression, the spotlight is turned inwards towards negative thoughts and emotions, and so ‘overlooks’ positive thoughts.”

His research targets brain waves in the anterior cingulate cortex, to engage or disengage the attention spotlight at will in order to induce waves when an individual is focusing on something positive, or scramble the waves to prevent focus on something negative.

York University's 3MT finalists with the judges and Faculty of Graduate Studies deans
York University’s 3MT finalists with the judges and Faculty of Graduate Studies deans

Nada Elassal, a master’s student in computer science, placed second for her talk “Counting the Crowds” based on her work in the Human & Computer Vision Lab in the Centre for Vision Research. She was awarded a $500 prize.

“Crowd counting is vital for crowd safety in public places,” she notes. “Getting instant counts of people in sport stadiums, train stations and shopping malls is key to ensure that maximum capacity regulations are met. Furthermore, the size of a crowd attending political events, such as demonstrations, has major political implications.”

Elassal is building a computer algorithm for automated crowd counting, which works by finding motion regions in images and analyzing the shape and size of different clusters of individuals.

“In the end, my research is exploring whether we can ultimately build a machine that is capable of not only understanding one person, but understanding what happens when many people come together,” she said.

Amrit Dhillon, a master’s student in sociology, placed third for her talk “Lighten up: Skin Lightening and Canadian South Asian Women” based on her research examining the practice of skin lightening among this population. She was awarded a $250 prize.

“Skin lightening is a popular beauty practice taken up mostly by women of colour,” she said. It involves the use of products, treatments and procedures to lighten, whiten and brighten skin tone.

“I examine this issue through the lens of shadeism – discrimination based on skin tone,” she explained. “Shadeism has far-reaching implications among visible minority groups, particularly the South Asian community. This practice links into many transnational networks of beauty ideals, gender norms and ethnicity. My work contributes to a growing body of research that examines the implications of not only racial discrimination, but also discrimination based on skin tone.”

Engaged learning experience brings deeper perspective to Indigenous Thought students

Philip Cote and Jon Johnson show some of Cote's artwork during the tour
Philip Cote and Jon Johnson show some of Cote’s artwork during the tour

A group of students enrolled in Multicultural & Indigenous (MIST) 1050: Introduction to Indigenous Thought was given a first-hand glimpse into local aboriginal history when they boarded a First Story Toronto bus tour recently.

The engaged learning opportunity was organized by Professor Maggie Quirt in the Department of Equity Studies, after she received a portion of a new funding program designed to support indigenous education.

The three-hour bus tour was funded through the Office of the Vice Provost Academic as part of York University’s commitment to supporting Indigenous knowledge in the university curriculum. There have been several projects funded across all Faculties.

The First Story Toronto bus tour is “engaged in researching and preserving the Indigenous history of Toronto with the goal of building awareness of and pride in the long indigenous presence and contributions to the city.”

Leading the tour for the students was York U’s own Professor Jon Johnson (Department of Social Science), who has been involved with First Story Toronto since 2006. Alongside Johnson was fellow First Story tour guide Philip Cote, also of the Centre for Aboriginal Student Services (CASS) at York University.

IMG_3586 IMG_3596 In addition to travelling back 13,000 years in history during visits to significant landmarks such as the Humber River, High Park and the St. Lawrence market, students were invited to participate in several Indigenous rituals.

At a resting spot along the Humber River, Cote and Johnson led a smudging ceremony, followed by a drumming and singing ceremony, and finally the opportunity to partake in a prayer and gift of tobacco ritual. (See the video below).

Fourth-year York U student Gabrielle Aquino said the tour “showed me a side of history and a side of Toronto that I was not aware of, and not appreciative of.”

IMG_3602 IMG_3603Throughout the tour, Cote and Johnson share personal insights as well as documented historical details about what Toronto looked like 13,000 years ago, how it evolved, and other interesting snippets – including Johnson’s entertaining ability to spell long and complex indigenous words.

The origins of locations, such as Toronto and Ontario, and their initial spelling and pronunciations were shared with the group, as well as riveting stories about Toronto’s first murder, the evolution of High Park and insight into exciting archeological sites nearby.

Anquino said this experience in education would be difficult to replicate in the classroom, and felt it was “so insightful” and took her understanding of Canadian history to a deeper level.

“I was so honoured to be able to be a part of such an important practice, and to be exposed and experience first-hand what other cultures do,” she said of the smudging ceremony and rituals performed at the Humber River departure.”

“It puts everything in to a much deeper perspective,” she said.

By Ashley Goodfellow Craig, YFile deputy editor

York faculty participate in 2016 Envirothon workshops

the earth

Throughout the month of April, more than 700 students across Ontario will participate in the 2016 Ontario Envirothon regional competitions. Since 1994, the Ontario Envirothon has supported high school students in learning about our natural ecosystems and fostering a healthier environment through their actions.

Spanning from Toronto to Elk Lake, students join interactive field trips to forests, parks, woodlots, and conservation areas in their region where they participate in workshops focused on the science and sustainable management of soils, wildlife, forests, and aquatic ecosystems. In 15 regions across Ontario, workshops are led by local professionals in fields such as forestry, the natural sciences, resource management, and conservation.

Dawn Bazely
Dawn Bazely

“On April 6, seven teams comprised of 35 high school students will participate in workshop training at York University. The high school students  will take classes in aquatics (hydrology), wildlife, forestry and soil science, and this year, learn about invasive species,” says Faculty of Science Biology Professor Dawn Bazely. Faculty from  the Lassonde School of Engineering, the Department of Geography in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and the Department of Biology in the Faculty of Science at York University, together with staff and students, will work with staff from Forests Ontario (the organizer), the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and Ecosparks, to lead two of the training workshops.

Following workshops, students build their experience through hands-on challenges in the field designed so they apply knowledge and skills to understand challenges facing local ecosystems. Challenges are evaluated by program leaders, with the winning team from each region progressing to the Ontario Envirothon Provincial Championship.

For the third year in a row, the Provincial Championship will be held at Fleming College in Lindsay, Ontario.

Envirothon programs are also held across North America in more than 50 state and provinces. The top team from each state and provincial Envirothon, including Ontario, progresses to the North American Envirothon (NAE). This year, the NAE will be hosted at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario from July 24 to 29, bringing the program to Ontario for the first time.

For more than 20 years, Envirothon has inspired a passion for our natural environment and empowered students to translate that passion into action. By engaging students early on and creating a learning experience that is both engaging and rewarding, students are able to build the foundational skills and knowledge needed to pursue studies and careers in fields related to environmental stewardship.

Talk explores history of LGBTQ community and police organizations in Canada

A presentation by the Centre for Feminist Research & Sexuality Studies will explore the history of the relationship between LGB, trans and queer people and police organizations in Canada.

Alexa DeGagne
Alexa DeGagne

“The Protected, the Targeted, the Criminalized: Changing Relationships between Canadian Police Organizations, and LGB, Trans and Queer People” runs April 12 from 3 to 4:30pm at 519 Kaneff Tower, and features a talk by Alexa DeGagne, 2015-16 visiting scholar in Sexuality Studies.

This presentation examines the history of these relationships in order to consider why and how the recent rapprochement between certain heteronormal LGB Canadian and different police organizations has excluded already marginalized and overly criminalized LGB, trans and queer people, and has at the same time galvanized intersectional social activism among populations that are disproportionately targeted, abused and criminalized by police and the legal justice system.

DeGagne is an assistant professor in Women’s and Gender Studies at Athabasca University. Her research, teaching and community engagement are focused on gender-based and sexuality-based social justice movements and activisms in Canada and the United States.

She will be introduced by by Amar Wahab, coordinator in Sexuality Studies.

The event is co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology. Light refreshments will be served. Plese send RSVPs to juliapyr@yorku.ca. This seminar counts towards GFWS program requirements.

Languages, Literatures & Linguistics professors release new books

Faculty members in the Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics (Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies) have released new books that investigate the intricacies and influences of language.

Philipp Sebastian Angermeyer
Philipp Sebastian Angermeyer

Professor Philipp Angermeyer uncovers the biases and disadvantages facing non-English speakers in New York City’s small claims courts. In his new book, Speak English or What? Codeswitching and Interpreter Use in New York City Courts, Angermeyer focuses on the litigants who speak Haitian Creole, Polish, Russian or Spanish and the judges and court interpreters with which they interact.

“My book investigates the impact of linguistic diversity on justice: does a person who does not speak the language of the court fluently receive a fair trial?” he said.

Drawing from over 200 court proceedings in three court houses and transcripts from over 40 transcribed audio recordings, he explores how the litigants use their limited proficiency of English and court interpreters to navigate the legal system.

“Previous research had been based on the assumption that a competent interpreter is able to put a non-English speaker into the same position as an English speaker,” he said. “My book challenges this view. My study shows that interpreting changes the way that people communicate, in a way that makes it more difficult for those who speak another language to make themselves heard and understood. It argues against the implicit ‘all-or-nothing’ rule of court interpreting, which forces participants to either speak only English or to use an interpreter exclusively.”

Susan Ehrlich
Susan Ehrlich

In Professor Susan Ehrlich’s new book, Discursive Constructions of Consent in the Legal Process, Ehrlich and her co-editors, Professor Diana Eades from the University of New England (Australia) and Professor Janet Ainsworth from Seattle University, showcase the ways in which linguistic perspectives and methodologies can illuminate inadequacies in how consent is understood within the legal system.

“This edited collection provides a linguistically grounded, critical examination of consent in the legal system,” said Erlich. “Based on empirical evidence from a wide variety of legal settings – such as abduction and rape cases, contract law, police interrogations, small claims courts, restorative justice systems – the book highlights the ways in which legal consent is often fictional, at best, due to the impoverished view of meaning and the linguistic ideologies that typically inform interpretations in the legal system.”

The book’s authors – experts in linguistics and the law – examine the complex ways in which language is used to negotiate, give or withhold consent in a wide variety of legal contexts, including interactions with police.

“Consent figures prominently in the legal system and language often plays a central role in its negotiation,” said Ehrlich. “Nonetheless, this is the first book to systematically investigate the linguistic and discursive dimensions of consent in the disparate legal settings in which it is relevant.”

James Walker
James Walker

Professor James A. Walker advocates the sociolinguist’s view in his new book, Canadian English: A Sociolinguistic Perspective. He combines the societal study of language with variation and change in language use, and he highlights the different ways in which sociolinguists collect and analyze data.

Most of the books on Canadian English are either long out of print or are intended as exhaustive reviews of the literature for academics, said Walker.

“This book highlights the study of Canadian English as a dynamic field and takes into consideration not only traditional approaches to and varieties of English in Canada, but also the changing nature of English-speaking Canada as we enter the 21st century,” he said.

In addition to analyzing the ongoing evolution of Canadian English, he delves into other current issues, such as the formation of new dialects and the link between language and social identity.

“This book is primarily intended as a textbook for use in undergraduate courses of different levels,” said Walker, “but the inclusion of background chapters on general linguistics and sociolinguistics means that anyone with an interest in Canadian English should be able to benefit from reading the book.”

Emiro Martinez-Osorio
Emirio Martinez-Osorio

Professor Emiro Martínez-Osorio weaves a narrative of conquest and poetry in his book Authority, Piracy, and Captivity in Colonial Spanish American Writing: Juan de Castellanos’s Elegies of Illustrious Men of the Indies.

“My book examines the intersection between social class, literary taste and political dissent in a series of epic poems about the exploration and colonization of America in the 16th century,” Martínez-Osorio said.

He focusses on the practice of poetic imitation, as well as themes of authority, piracy and captivity. He analyzes the transformation of heroic poetry due to the European encounter with America. The book illustrates how learned heroic verse contributed to the rise of the Spanish-American literary tradition from as early as 1580.

“The book expands our understanding of the intricate and often fraught connection between poetry and history writing,” said Martínez-Osorio. “The book shows that Spanish imperial epic poetry was not a monolithic or univocal discourse, and that even on the side of the so-called ‘winners’ there was room for multiple, alternative and competing narratives that envisioned quite different colonial projects in the realms of Spanish monarchy.”