McLaughlin Lunch Talk series resumes with discussion on Germany’s quest for stability
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McLaughlin College will resume its popular Lunch Talk series on Jan. 13 with a presentation by Benjamin Lowinsky.
The York U professor, cross appointed between the Department of Social Science and the Writing Department, will discuss “Germany’s Promising yet Elusive Quest for Stability, Social Harmony and Integration, Security and Peace” in the McLaughlin College Senior Common Room from noon to 1:30pm.
Lowinsky is a Fellow of McLaughlin College and a longtime faculty member in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) where he teaches history, social and political thought, and writing.
His research and scholarship reflect a diversity of topics pertaining to, among other things: American-German relations; American foreign policy and the Cold War; educational policy and practice; digital technology and the metamorphosis of our institutions and values; and recent political, economic and social developments in Germany.
Lowinsky – who is fluent in German and has lived, worked and studied in Germany – has first-hand knowledge of and access to many facets of German life, politics, culture and history.
His experiences in, observations of, and personal connections to Germany add a dimension of personal history and reality to Germany’s quest for a more meaningful role in the European and world order following the Second World War.
Yet, while the prospects for Germany’s success in its quest for stability, social harmony and integration, security and peace appear promising, they are also elusive due to a host of forces connected to the country’s past and to conditions that may be well beyond its control.
It is within this historic clash taking place that Germany’s future takes shape, profoundly affecting its domestic and international conditions and priorities.
All are welcome to attend. Light refreshments will be provided. To RSVP, contact Vicky Carnevale at ext. 33824 or vcarneva@yorku.ca.
The event is hosted by the Office of the Master, McLaughlin College.
Social science Professor Kean Birch and history Professor Boyd Cothran seek to encourage greater social interaction and professional development among members of York University’s largest Faculty. Supported by the Dean’s Office in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), Birch and Cothran have banded with recently hired faculty members to form the LA&PS Emerging Scholars Network (LESN).
Their definition of “emerging scholar” qualifies new faculty – tenure track and contractually limited appointments – who have been hired since 2010 and, after that, anyone in their first 10 years of employment at York.
Birch and Cothran hope to attract pre-tenure and early post-tenured faculty. The network was created to complement University and Faculty initiatives already in place to acclimate professors to life at York.
“York’s a big place, a big institution and it’s often difficult to meet new faculty members and make those kinds of connections, social as well as professional connections, with your colleagues across departments,” says Birch. “People don’t come to campus every day of the week. Your chance of meeting people is always going to be limited by that.
Social science Professor Kean Birch
“If we could establish a network for new, emerging faculty members, we could combine the social and professional in terms of meeting each other, sharing our stories, sharing our experiences and getting to know one another.”
The LESN, through special events and workshops, will offer regular research seminars, increase awareness of available University resources and support, and encourage faculty to support research development and dissemination, as well as introduce new faculty to the unique aspects of York as a place of work.
The LESN has already hosted sessions on collegial governance and the new University Academic Plan, and plans to host a session on developing research grants for the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council this month.
History Professor Boyd Cothran
“In establishing the LA&PS Emerging Scholars Network, we hope to create a greater sense of community for new faculty here at York,” says Cothran. “There is such diversity in experience and background among new faculty, but too often we’re siloed in our home units. Creating a space to come together for social, intellectual and professional exchange will help make York a better place to work for our colleagues and make us all better scholars and more committed community members.”
Birch and Cothran have placed a call out for other faculty to join the LESN steering committee and have launched the LA&PS Emerging Scholars Network website to keep faculty aware of upcoming events.
“We hope LESN will become a central meeting place, a resource and a clearing house where new faculty members can ask questions and share their experiences, from the best place to park or grab a bite to eat to model grant applications and tenure promotion questions,” says Cothran. “We hope it will help build relationships within the cohort across one of the largest universities in North America.”
Study abroad course takes York U students into the heart of Europe’s migrant crisis
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This spring, a group of third- and fourth-year York University students will have an opportunity to take part in an innovative experiential education course that explores what it is like to work on the front lines of the global migration crisis.
Jelena Zikic
The course, Migration, Work and Society – Study Abroad, developed and taught by York University human resources Professor Jelena Zikic, is offered by the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and York International. It takes students on a journey of discovery from Canada to Germany that will see them meet with community groups, staff working in NGOs and government, and migrants in each country.
This is the second year Zikic has led the course, which she says has become particularly significant in the wake of the civil war in Syria and the ensuing refugee crisis. “There are enormous challenges in trying to manage the integration of migrants,” said Zikic. “It is a crisis with huge historic, cultural and financial implications.
“Very rarely [in the past] did we talk about migration issues or teach future leaders and policymakers on this topic outside of the classroom environment,” said Zikic. “This experiential study abroad course at York University provides students with first-hand experience of migrant integration issues and dilemmas in two countries that are often compared and described as leading the way on immigration issues.”
As a researcher, Zikic studies the career transitions of immigrant professionals to understand the personal as well as structural barriers to their career success as well as their coping strategies in the new labour market. The course springs from her own research and personal experience as a student who participated in several international exchanges. Migrants, in particular refugees, face a host of challenges once they have arrived in their new countries. Those who are trained professionals may have to pursue recertification, training or new careers. Integrating into their new communities and countries could involve learning a new language and understanding new laws, governments or educational systems.
Students enrolled in the course will spend three weeks in Toronto in an intensive learning environment. They will participate in a community-based research and learning module focused on current Canadian policies. The students will meet with migrant integration professionals involved in different levels of government, as well as those working in non-governmental and community organizations in Toronto. They will also interview migrants settling in Toronto. The students will learn directly from the course’s Canadian collaborators about issues currently gaining attention in Canada and how the country will deal with the expected 25,000 newcomers and the challenges that lie ahead.
Students in the 2015 cohort on a train in Germany. Pictured (centre) is York University Professor Jelena Zikic.
Students will then travel to Berlin, Germany to meet with German collaborators working in similar roles on the front line of the migrant crisis. They will meet with German migrant integration professionals who will share their views on how Germany is coping with its own challenges.
As they did in Toronto, the students enrolled in the course will interview migrants settling into communities in Germany, participate in the newcomer language classes and meet with community support organizations.
The experiences in both countries provide students with an opportunity to learn about, and critically compare and discuss the successful policies and practices on migrant integration in each country. The experiential learning opportunity, said Zikic, serves as an important vehicle for knowledge exchange between the two countries. Last spring, students were able to critically examine migrant integration issues in both countries and engage in knowledge exchange with the German collaborators.
Students from the 2015 course pose on location in Germany with Zikic (third from the right)
“The course could serve as a model for how to provide Canadian students, employees, policy makers and future leaders with real-world knowledge of migrant integration and how to structure and learn from cross-cultural exchanges,” said Zikic. “Last year, students gained international experience and global citizenship skills that enhanced their chances in the local labour market and increased their career success.”
The students pay a visit to a mosque in Germany
Feedback from the students has been overwhelming and positive. “This trip was truly one of the most memorable experiences of my life,” wrote a student from the 2015 cohort. “Being able to actually experience the things I’m learning about and going to places instead of being in a lecture hall helped me grasp the concepts much more clearly.”
Another student wrote the following reflection: “The tour of the migrant neighborhood in Berlin was one of the most valuable experiences of the course. The conversation we had with the district mothers, as well as the tour around the neighborhood, gave us an insider perspective of the struggles and development of at least one migrant community. What stood out were the stories they shared about their difficulties and successes in reaching out to the immigrants living in Neukölln, and being able to help people, mothers in particular, understand German laws or communicate with their children’s teachers.”
York International is offering information sessions about Zikic’s course and other study abroad opportunities. Click here to download the course brochure. The information sessions, which take place in Room 242 York Lanes, have been scheduled for:
Thursday, Jan. 7, from 11:30am to 1pm;
Monday, Jan. 11, from 2:30 to 4pm;
Tuesday, Jan. 12, from 1 to 2:30pm; and
Wednesday, Jan. 13, from 10 to 11:30am and from 2:30 to 4:30pm.
The deadline for applications to the course is Friday, Jan. 15. For more information, email Zikic at jelenaz@yorku.ca or York International at yuabroad@yorku.ca.
By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor
Departments of Social Science and Communication Studies hand out awards, celebrate student success
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Student success was recently recognized at the annual Social Science & Communication Studies Awards Ceremony, where 43 students were honoured for their dedication and commitment, as well as for their inspiring work both in and out of the classroom.
Held Nov. 19 at the Underground Restaurant, award recipients, professors, support staff, friends and family gathered for the event that highlights student achievements.
The reception featured warm memories and touching stories connected to both the awardees and to the legacies of former members of York’s social science and communication studies communities.
Professor J.J. McMurtry, chair of the Department of Social Science, and Professor David Skinner from the Department of Communication Studies, welcomed guests to the reception and congratulated students on their accomplishments. Associate Dean Diane Beelen Woody, speaking on behalf of Dean Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, also offered warm congratulatory remarks to the award recipients and their guests.
Particular highlights from the ceremony included retired faculty member Eric Koch’s presentation of the award in his name to Bradley
Ferns, which was simultaneously humorous and heartfelt as he offered encouraging words of advice to the recipient.
Another touching moment during the ceremony was when the award recipient for the Criminology Honours Scholarship, Victor Martin, shared words of gratitude to his professors and his family. Martin honoured his father who he stated was “a first-generation immigrant who helped build this country with his hands” and asserted that he would continue his father’s legacy by “building this country with his mind.”
Dalton Kehoe presented the award in his name to Madelle De Leon.
The awards presented by family members included the Arthur Siegel Award (Keshra Hines), the Jerry Durlak Award (Nicole Otieno), the Ellen Baar Award (Kayla Forjan) and the Gina Feldberg Prize (Michael Adia).
The Yasay family presented an award to honour their son, Joshua Yasay, to Stephanie Patt.
Kevin Estrela, an employee of the Alterna Credit Union, presented the Alterna Social Scholarship in honour of Haswell Iron to Delzad Kutky.
Other awards were presented by the program coordinators or members of the departments, including Professors Stephanie Ross, Uwafiokun Idemudia, Ricardo Grinspun, Denielle Elliott, McMurtry, Annette Bickford, James Williams, Mary-Louise Craven, Anne MacLennan, Allyson Lunny, Lisa Drummond and Matthew Tegelberg.
McMurtry presented the final four awards that were available to all students in the Department of Social Science: the Department of Social Science Award (Joyann Smith); the Gordon Lowther Award (Jaspal Dosanjh); the Lillian Lerman Book Prize (Keshra Hines); and the Otto Friedman Memorial Scholarship (Luigi Rulli).
The reception ended with closing remarks by McMurtry and Professor Mary-Louise Craven.
Special acknowledgments were given to the Underground for its assistance, and to the staff in the Departments of Social Science and Communication Studies who helped with the nominations process and preparations for a successful and well-attended event.
A special thank you was offered to Jacqueline Selman, the undergraduate students coordinator in the Department of Social Science, and to Sushma Kanhai-Dupuis, the undergraduate program assistant in the Department of Communication Studies, for their generous assistance in organizing the awards ceremony.
Awards
Department of Communication Studies:
EricKoch Award – Bradley Ferns
Jerry Durlak Award – Nicole Otieno
Dalton Kehoe Award – Madelle De Leon
Riva Orlicky Award – Bradley Ferns
Arthur Siegel Award – Keshra Hines
Penny Joliffe Award – Sophia Goshulak
Work & Labour Studies program:
Neil Reimer Scholarship – Ran an (Kate)
Labour Studies Student Achievement Award – Fidan Topyurek
African Studies program:
Esiri Dafiewhare Scholarship – Valerie Kitchen
Stevenson Scholarships in African Studies – Sara Ghebremusse and Lauren Rattray
Social & Political Thought program:
Undergraduate Student Award – Tenzin Jamyangling
International Development Studies program:
Honours Award – Mark Therien
Health & Society program:
Gina Feldberg Prize – Michael Adia
Health & Society Book Prize – Cindy Lin, Al Yamamoto, Bradley Wilson, Theresah Afrakomaah
Criminology program:
Criminology Honours Scholarship – Victor Martins
Criminology 1650 Book Prize – Michelle Spencer
Joshua Yasay Memorial Scholarship – Stephanie Pratt
Law & Society program:
Law & Society Program Honours Prizes – Rita De Fazio and Lamees Mussa
Jane Banfield Prize – Rebecca Rossi, Prabhjot Badesha and Paul Farruggio
Professor David L. J. Sealey Award – Endi Batino
Urban Studies program:
Marion Miller Urban Studies Award – Loren March and Haru Greco Liu
Frances Frisken Urban Studies Prize – Brittany Recek
Social Science 3700 Urban Studies Prize – Jonathan Kitchen
Lynn M. Bell Urban Studies Achievement Award – Loren March
Latin American & Caribbean Studies program:
Honours Award – Rut Lau
Lydia Covenay Burnett Bursary – Teffori Selassie
WW Anderson Award – Israel Ceron Alsibar and Stephanie Chunoo
South Asian Studies program:
Best Essay Prize – Aqeel Ihsan
Business & Society program:
Honours Award – Ankita Abraham
Heather O’Neill appears in Canadian Writers in Person series, Jan. 12
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Heather O’Neill
Canadian novelist, poet, screenwriter and journalist Heather O’Neill will be the guest at the Jan. 12 Canadian Writers in Person Lecture Series taking place from 7 to 10pm at 206 Accolade West Building.
O’Neill is the nominee and recipient of multiple awards, including the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, as well as the CBC’s Canada Reads, both for her 2006 debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals. The book was also shortlisted for eight other major awards, such as the Governor General’s Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction.
In 2014, she released her second novel, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, which was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and nominated for multiple other awards. Her 2015 short story collection, Daydreams of Angels, also made the longlist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Hear appearance in the lecture series at York will focus on The Girl Who Was Saturday Night.
Born in Montreal, O’Neill lived for a brief time during her childhood with her mother in the American South. She returned to Montreal at the age of nine, and has lived there ever since. She pursued her education at Dawson College and McGill University.
The Canadian Writers in Person Lecture Series, presented by the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LAPS), brings Canadian writers to campus for an up-close and personal event.
Other upcoming events in the series include:
Jan. 26 – Gregory Scofield, Louis: The Heretic Poems
York University honours B. R. Ambedkar, India’s iconic champion of social justice
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Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar as a young man. “I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress women have achieved.” Dr.B.R.Ambedkar (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
York University honoured a pioneering thinker and leader in the realm of social justice and equality, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, with the installation of a bronze bust in the Scott Library. The event took place Dec. 2 at the University’s Keele campus.
Facilitated by the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), the bust was donated by the Ambedkar International Mission (AIM) Canada, Toronto. It was unveiled in the Scott Library by the High Commissioner of India to Canada, Vishnu Prakash.
“I am humbled at the opportunity to unveil the bust of Bharat Ratna Dr. Ambedkar at York University, one of the greatest temples of learning in Canada,” said Prakash. “A great son of India and architect of the Indian Constitution, Dr. Ambedkar devoted his life to the cause of social justice, gender equality and the promotion of education. York University has not only honoured a great Indian, a jurist, an educationist, a humanist, a social reformer, but it has also honoured 1.2 billion people of India.”
Ambedkar was born in 1891 into a Dalit (untouchable) community in India
“Having begun life as a child who had to sit separately so that other children would avoid his touch, Dr. Ambedkar became a leading voice in India’s anticolonial struggle, its struggle for justice, equality and democracy and freedom from discrimination. He not only overcame the obstacles in his own path, but he changed the path for others,” said Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. “For our Faculty, Dr. Ambedkar’s trajectory is of special significance. He derived his understanding of equality and justice from an exploration of many disciplines — history, philosophy, religion, economics and sociology. He then became an academic, an activist, a practitioner of law and finally a legal luminary who drafted the constitution of the world’s largest democracy. Our Faculty tries to achieve exactly this kind of seamless interconnection between liberal and professional education, between scholarship and practice, between active citizenship, activism and critical thought that Dr. Ambedkar’s life portrays.”
In 1990, he was posthumously awarded India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India), for his role in supporting justice, freedom, equality and fraternity.
The bust of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
“Celebrating luminaries like Dr. Ambedkar always serve as a reminder of the work we still need to do to address critical questions of justice, locally, regionally, nationally and globally,” said York’s Vice-President of Research & Innovation Robert Haché said in his speech. “York University has a well-known mandate for social justice, which it strives to realize through its teaching, scholarship, creative activities and engagement.”
After the unveiling, Professor Emeritus Sukhadeo Thorat from Jawaharlal Nehru University delivered his keynote speech. Thorat is a renowned scholar on Ambedkar’s life and is currently Chairperson of the Indian Council of Social Science Research in New Delhi, India. Thorat explored Ambedkar’s thoughts on some of the central contradictions of political equality co-existing with structural inequality in the economic and social realms.
“As a scholar of multiple disciplines, Dr. Ambedkar has inspired many to undertake studies on several issues, particularly on problems of discrimination and on social institutions like the caste system, which exists not only in India, but in many countries around the world,” said Arun Kumar Gautam, president of the Ambedkar International Mission, Canada, Toronto. “We hope that his presence will inspire students and scholars of York University to undertake research on areas to which Babasaheb Ambedkar dedicated his life.” (Babasaheb is the name by which his supporters fondly refer to him.)
Professor Lorne Sossin, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School and special advisor to the president on Community Engagement, also spoke at the ceremony. He mentioned that in a recent popular opinion poll in India, Ambedkar was voted by the people as the “Greatest Indian since Gandhi.” Twenty million votes were cast in this poll.
The installation “has happened in a very auspicious year — Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary,” said Mukherjee-Reed. “As we step out of this room and go our different ways, let us remind ourselves of the tasks that lie ahead of us. If Dr. Ambedkar’s presence in our midst is to have any real meaning… I hope we will come together as a university, a community, scholars, activists, thinkers to take forward the issues of social justice.”
Open Your Mind: A Q&A with York PhD candidate Vivian Stamatopoulos
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Vivian Stamatopoulos
PhD Candidate
Department of Sociology
Appearing at regular intervals in YFile, Open Your Mind is a series of articles offering insight into the different ways York University professors, researchers and graduate students champion fresh ways of thinking in their research and teaching practice. Their approach, grounded in a desire to seek the unexpected, is charting a new course for future generations.
Today, the spotlight is on Vivian Stamatopoulos, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Graduate Studies. Stamatopoulos is exploring the role of children and youth who are caregivers, or “carers” in the family. Many provide hours of unpaid supportive care to family members. Stamatopoulos explores the impact of being a young caregiver and why they are largely invisible.
Stamatopoulos is also the proud recipient of a 2015 President’s University-wide Teaching Award. In her response to YFile, she speaks about the importance of good teaching and the classroom experience.
Vivian Stamatopoulos, PhD candidate, Department of Sociology
Q. Please describe your field of current research. A. My research focuses on children and youth who provide substantial unpaid familial caregiving. These ‘young carers’ are typically under the age of 25 years and provide substantial unpaid support to a family member due to factors including (but not limited to) familial or parental absence, disability, mental health issue(s) or problems with alcohol and/or other drugs. In other parts of the world, these children possess legal rights which afford them a range of educational and employment-based supports, dedicated social service programming and/or weekly stipends to help pay for extra caregiver supports. In Canada, very little is known about these children, the term “young carer” is a virtual unknown and no dedicated federal or provincial policies exist to support their needs.
Q. What inspired you to pursue this line of research? Who or what sparked your interest in this line of inquiry? A. My own experiences as a young adult carer undoubtedly inspired my research. For about 10 years I have been helping to care for my grandparents and at many times have struggled to balance my educational, familial and work-related demands. It was only when I stumbled upon the UK-based Young Carers literature that I realized there were many others (some much younger than myself) going through something similar. I always wondered if other people were in my shoes but realistically, when you (or anyone) is in the thick of caregiving, you don’t really have time to stand back and place yourself within a larger cohort of carers. Only when I was able to do that did I realize I had to learn as much as I could in the area and help raise awareness for these kids across Canada.
Q. How would you describe the significance of your research in lay terms? A. The need for familial caregivers in Canada has grown markedly over the past 30 years and will only continue to grow over the next 30 with our ageing Canadian population, changing family arrangements (for example, dual earner households, lone parent households), the structural shift from hospital to home care and the continued lack of accessible and affordable long-term care housing. Compared to the past, when adult women performed the majority of full-time, stay-at-home child and elder care, today’s demands of familial caregiving are being passed down to youth who are seen as more flexible in providing certain facets of care. Consequently, increasing numbers of youth are taking on more and more of these care duties − duties that often remain unrecognized and unspoken of in their social circles and potentially lead to a range of personal and professional consequences for which these youth are ill-equipped to handle.
Q. How are you approaching this field in a different, unexpected or unusual way? A. Most of the global young carer research has emerged out of social work, nursing and psychology disciplines which have provided predominantly micro-level accounts of youth-based caregiving. My roots in sociology have enabled me to approach the phenomenon from a macro-level perspective, grounding both its recent rises and growing social and political saliency within a historically significant moment of change underway across Western global capitalist society.
Q. How does your approach to the subject benefit the field? A. My research fills a gap in the field by offering a unique socio-historical lens that addresses not only why we are seeing a rise in youth-based caregiving but how the act itself signals a transformation in the life-course trajectories of 21st-century children. Specifically, I reveal how youth-based caregiving signals but one key piece of evidence for the growing incompatibility of previous definitions of “childhood” with post-modern, contemporary society.
Q. What findings have surprised and excited you? A. Pursuing this line of inquiry has been simultaneously eye-opening, heartbreaking and immensely gratifying − my group interviews with a sample of Ontario young carers is particularly meaningful. Probably the most surprising finding involved the lack of awareness on the part of young carers for how much their caregiving was affecting their lives. When initially asked the question, most young carers stated very little to no impact. Only after additional probing did a wide array of unanimously experienced consequences emerge, ranging from: heightened stress and anxiety; limited time for themselves; sleep difficulties; constant worrying about their family member(s); a lack of free time outside of school to socialize with peers or engage in extracurricular activities; trouble completing homework; difficulty concentrating in class; and, increased school absences and lateness. Also surprising was how in the face of substantial hardship, these youth remained remarkably positive and highly valued their caring roles.
Q. Every researcher, from novice to experienced, encounters roadblocks and challenges during the process of inquiry, can you highlight some of those challenges and how you overcame them? A. Without a doubt the largest roadblock thus far has been gaining access to young carers. Most young carers tend to struggle in silence, often unaware they are even caregivers and subsequently do not self-identify as such. I was lucky to build working relationships with the directors of the only three Canadian young carer programs who were able to put me in contact with their young carer user base. Without those organizations, the task of finding young carers would be next to impossible given their current status as a hidden population. This methodological limitation is something I plan on addressing in more depth for my follow-up research.
Q. How has this research opened your mind to new possibilities or new directions? A. Since I have conducted my doctoral research, my mind has yet to stop thinking and planning for the many ways I may extend my postdoctoral research to help advance the budding Canadian young carer movement. Whether it involve collaborating with global young carer experts to launch a multicultural, multiregional, and multinational (3M) young carer survey program to proposing joint partnerships with educational institutions and medical professionals to develop multi-sectoral strategies for recognizing and referring young carers to available supports to, there is much left to do!
Q. Are there interdisciplinary aspects to your research? If so, what are they? A. This field is extraordinarily interdisciplinary. Indeed, most of the experts I have met in the area have come from the medicine (especially nursing), social work and psychology. In the United States, for example, the field emerged due to pediatricians’ concerns for the physical, academic and psychosocial aspects caregiving was observed to have on their young patient’s growth and development. Within Canada, social workers and non-profit community agencies have been instrumental in planting the roots of the movement here.
Q. Did you ever consider other fields of research? A. I initially started my undergraduate career majoring in psychology (having decided I was going to be a psychiatrist) but my exposure to sociology courses during my early undergraduate years changed everything: I quite simply fell in love with the discipline. The thing about sociology is, it is so all-encompassing that it truly is the interdisciplinary discipline. Students will benefit immensely from an education in this field and I firmly believe my specialization in it has made me not just a stronger educator and researcher but more importantly a better human being.
Q. Are you teaching any courses this year? If so, what are they? Do you bring your research experience into your teaching practice? A. While at York University, I have focused my teaching in the area of Sociological Research Methods as I firmly believe students need to properly acquire these skills in order to be successful in any discipline. It also tends to be a course that students fear so for me the challenge and gratification comes from using my real-world research expertise to make the material less daunting and actually fun.
Q. How long have you been pursuing a career as a researcher and teacher? Where are you hoping to go once you have finished your graduate work? Are you hoping to work as a researcher or teacher or both? A. During my undergraduate years at the University of Toronto, I was asked to be a Teaching Assistant for Sociological Research Methods and from that moment on, I was hooked to a career of teaching. My love for research emerged more gradually over the ensuing decade of graduate work and professional research experience. In my perfect future scenario, I will continue teaching and advancing my young carer research at a Canadian or international university.
Receiving the 2015 Presidents University Wide Teaching Award (PUWTA) at Spring Convocation
Q. You recently received a President’s University Wide teaching award; can you talk about your approach to teaching at York University? Are there aspects of your approach that are influenced by your research? A. My approach to teaching has never been merely instrumental. While covering the subject matter is always at the forefront, I aim more broadly to develop a sociological imagination within each and every one of my students, one which I firmly believe lasts within them long after we part. As famous sociologist C. Wright Mills put it, the power of the sociological imagination rests with its ability to connect the personal troubles of man to the broader issues of society. What I find most notable about possessing this mindset is its fundamentally unifying and compassionate quality. It creates what we call in methodological speech, Verstehen, a German term representing a sense of empathetic understanding developed from placing oneself in the position of those one wishes to study. Watching my students move from passively accepting what they may see, hear or read to actively using their own critical eye to recognize oppression and inequality, whilst having the tools to affect positive change, is one of the most fulfilling parts of my job. I think my students truly value this more global approach to teaching that nurtures both the mind and soul.
Q. In your opinion, what are the qualities of a good teacher? A. If you nurture your students and treat them with dignity and respect, it will make all the difference in the world. My students know that I genuinely care for them and have their best interests at heart and I find that goes a long way to not only how they treat me but how I see them treat one another. Flexibility and attention to detail is also critical. Whether it involves enabling my students to bring their young children to class when daycare issues arise or pausing my lesson if I sense just one student is confused, I try to consistently find ways to cater to the unique educational needs of my students. Finally, genuinely loving my subject area and the craft of teaching has enabled me to bring a level of energy and excitement to the classroom that I have noticed is contagious.
Q. What books, recordings or films have influenced your life? A. To this day, I remember the book that made me fall in love with sociology and pursue it as a career –Michel Foucalt’s The History of Sexuality. It was one of the first books I read in my undergraduate (sociology) theory course and its brilliance changed my life. To this day, his legacy as an intellectual, teacher and activist motivates me to be the best intellectual, educator, and activist that I can be.
Q. What are you reading and/or watching right now? A. Right now I am reading Nancy Folbre’s The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values – a wonderfully powerful account of how the reliance on the “invisible hand” of the free market and its competitive individualism facilitates an attendant loss of the other necessary component of a healthy society: “the invisible heart” (i.e., the care system for children, the elderly and the infirm that develops out of an ethic of solidarity and reciprocity). A good friend also recently introduced me the world of podcasts and I just listened to a fascinating one on Freakonomics featuring Anne-Marie Slaughter titled: “Meet the Woman Who Said Women Women Can’t Have It All”.
Vivian after receiving the 2013 John O’Neil Award for Teaching Excellence from members of the Sociology Undergraduate Student’s Association (S.U.S.A)
Q. What advice would you give to students thinking of pursuing a graduate degree or embarking on a research project for the first time? A. Do not be afraid to ask for help and/or speak to fellow graduate students and professors for their advice. In my experience, people are usually happy and willing to provide advice and expertise if given the opportunity. Oh, and do take Sociological Research Methods with me beforehand!
Q. If you could have dinner with any one person, dead or alive, who would you select and why? A. Michel Foucault. For the reasons mentioned above but also because he was known to suffer from horrible bouts of depression that impacted his early educational career. For me, it makes the fact that he forged ahead to become one of France’s most famous intellectuals all the more inspiring.
Q. What do you do for fun? A. I love music so getting out to see some of my favourite artists perform is definitely a key pastime of mine (having most recently seen One Republic, The Weeknd, Banks, U2, Rhye, Death Cab for Cutie, Elbow and Lee Fields & The Expressions). I hate to admit it but I also watch a lot of television. I have an embarrassingly impressive roster of television shows that I follow. I love to get outside and do anything from kayaking to stand-up paddle-boarding to hiking.
York-based team produces international LGBT history exhibit and archive
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A York University-based team has produced an international exhibit and archive that explores U.S. homophile magazine references to various regions in the world in the 1950s and 1960s.
Titled “U.S. Homophile Internationalism,” the exhibit showcases more than 1,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) magazine references to Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Russia, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Marc Stein
The project was headed by historian and York University Professor Marc Stein and a team of six graduate students at York University: Tamara de Szegheo Lang, Marva Milo and Healy Thompson, who are completing PhDs in gender, feminist and women’s studies; Carly Simpson, who is completing a PhD in history; Dasha Serykh, who is completing a PhD in social and political thought; and Shlomo Gleibman, who is completing a PhD in humanities.
The exhibit, featured on OutHistory.org, includes introductory essays, regional bibliographies and digitized images of letters to the editor, news and feature stories, and other items in the homophile press.
“U.S. Homophile Internationalism: An Online Archive and Exhibit of the 1950s and 1960s” is designed for students, scholars and everyone interested in the history of gender and sexuality.
The research team identified three primary uses of these materials: researchers interested in the history of the six regions might find useful references, representations and sources pointing to additional research prospects; researchers interested in the U.S. might use the material to consider how the U.S. was or was not influenced by other countries; and researchers interested in transnational and international communications may use these materials to consider how homophile magazines may have been used as conveyors of textual and visual representations circulated around the world.
“We hope the feature will inspire new work on international, transnational and global LGBT history,” says Stein.
Mary Jo Leddy delivers hopeful message to York community during lecture on refugee crisis
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A timely issue was the focus of the McLaughlin College Public Policy Lecture on Nov. 18, with guest speaker Mary Jo Leddy delivering a talk titled “Crossing the Ocean of Indifference: Canada’s Response to the Refugee Crisis.”
Mary Jo Leddy
Leddy, a professor with Regis College at the University of Toronto, is the founder of Romero House – a community home for refugees. She is also the founding editor of the New Catholic Times and is a celebrated journalist, author, peace activist, refugee advocate, theologian and university lecturer.
The relevant nature of her lecture was highlighted by Professor David Leyton-Brown, a master of McLaughlin College, who remarked on the current refugee situation in Canada and across the globe.
The event opened with a welcome from Diane Woody, associate dean of teaching and learning in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), who noted the Faculty is part of a broader effort at York University to sponsor Syrian refugee families to come to Canada. Woody also spoke on behalf of Dean Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, who sent her regrets for not being able to attend the lecture.
James Simeon, professor and director of the School of Public Policy & Administration (SPPA), introduced Leddy and said it was a rare occasion for the lecture to align with a public policy concern of the day – the world’s refugee crisis and Canada’s response to this humanitarian emergency.
He introduced Leddy as an exceptionally well-educated individual who had worked under the supervision of Emil Fackenheim, a world expert in the Holocaust, during her graduate studies in philosophy.
Leddy is an award-winning author of numerous books and is a highly regarded human rights and peace activist who has earned awards including the Canadian Council of Christians & Jews Human Relations Award, the Gunther Plaut Humanitarian Award, the Ontario Citizenship Award and the Order of Canada. She also holds six honorary doctorate degrees, including one from York University.
During her lecture, Leddy spoke about how the photograph of a dead young child, Alyn Kurdi, washed ashore on a Turkish beach, ignited the passion of people around the world in the belief that we can and must do something in the midst of the worst refugee crisis of the 21st century.
The photograph became a pillar during the federal election campaign, forcing the nation’s leaders to address the global refugee crisis and sparking the new Canadian government’s commitment to bringing 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by early 2016.
Mary Jo Leddy during the McLaughlin College Public Policy Lecture
The Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris have also entered the debate about the number of Syrian refugees that should be brought to Canada. Leddy remarked on how the public image of refugees went from “angels to demons” in such a short period of time after the terrorist attacks.
If we see ourselves as a generous, decent and tolerant society then how is it that our image of refugees can swing so quickly?, she asked, and suggested opinions about refugees should come from meeting and knowing “real refugees.”
Leddy emphasized the importance of knowing “real people” as opposed to knowing only public policies or issues, and suggested we ask, ‘How do public policies affect real people?’
Leddy discussed the issue of security, and shared that she has attended interviews where refugees have been questioned by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). Many of the officials in these agencies do not speak the refugees’ languages or know any of the pertinent details about the countries where the refugees come from. She indicated that she did not find these security and intelligence agencies to be competent, and said this is an area that needs great improvement.
She shared a story about her experience during a refugee’s security interview, recalling that the government official claimed the refugee had no rights. Leddy challenged that statement, only to be told by the official that in the interview, the officials determine what rights the refugee has. This, said Leddy, is unacceptable conduct, but it is characteristic of the wider problem.
Leddy stressed the importance of considering how we see our country. We do not own this country, she said, but rather we share it with others. There needs to be more focus, she said, on what we want to be as a people.
During the Q&A segment of the program, Barbara Hall, Osgoode Hall Law School alumna, former chairperson of the Ontario Human Rights Commission and former mayor of the City of Toronto, stated that during the last federal election a number of former refugees were elected to the House of Commons. This augurs well, she remarked, for future refugee policy in Canada.
Leddy concluded her lecture by stating that Canada has the moral obligation to assist refugees, especially during this humanitarian crisis, and the capability to welcome thousands of them. She called on all Canadians to select the “just” and the “good” path that will provide the best future for everyone.
The lecture was co-sponsored by the Office of the Master, McLaughlin College, the School of Public Policy & Administration (SPPA) and the Master of Public Policy & Law (MPPAL).
English Professor Bruce W. Powe receives six book award nominations
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Bruce W. Powe
Bruce W. Powe
York University English Professor Bruce W. Powe has received six nominations for the Media Ecology Association (MEA) Book Awards, set to take place at the University of Bologna in June 2016.
The nominations are for two of Powe’s books: Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye: Apocalypse and Alchemy (2014), nominated for the Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology, as well as the Erving Goffman Award, the Susanne K. Langer Award, the Dorothy Lee Award and the Lewis Mumford Award; and Where Seas and Fables Meet: Parables, Aphorisms, Fragments, Thoughts (2015), nominated for the Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work.
Nominator Alex Kuskis, who teaches media studies and is on the executive board of the MEA, said, “Bruce’s work is well known by many MEA members and I think he stands a very good chance of winning at least one of these awards.”
Criteria for the various awards can be found on the MEA website.
Powe also has a new book, Decoding Dust (Neo Poeisis Press), set to be published in the spring of 2016.
The York U professor, cross appointed between the Department of Social Science and the Writing Department, will discuss “Germany’s Promising yet Elusive Quest for Stability, Social Harmony and Integration, Security and Peace” in the McLaughlin College Senior Common Room from noon to 1:30pm.
Professor Lorne Sossin, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School and special advisor to the president on Community Engagement, also spoke at the ceremony. He mentioned that in a recent popular opinion poll in India, Ambedkar was voted by the people as the “Greatest Indian since Gandhi.” Twenty million votes were cast in this poll.
