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Anthropology Annual Lecture to focus on impacts of colonialism

World War II Museum luggage

Every year, York University’s Department of Anthropology provides faculty, staff and students with a unique opportunity to meet eminent leaders in the field through its Anthropology Annual Lecture. This year’s event, taking place on April 4, will feature Ghassan Hage, a professor of anthropology and social theory at the University of Melbourne in Australia, presenting a talk titled “The Management of Colonial Luggage.”

Ghassan Hage
Ghassan Hage

The Oxford English Dictionary defines luggage as: suitcases or other bags in which to pack personal belongings for travelling; and past experiences or long-held ideas and opinions perceived as burdensome encumbrances. Each of these definitions belongs to a different dimension of life. An ethnographic investigation of the first – looking at customs and habits of people and their cultures – takes us into what we physically carry and how we carry it as we move from one place to another. The second takes us into the psychological around what we carry with us existentially as we move through life.

In this lecture, which will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. in downtown Toronto (exact location to be provided after registration), Hage will discuss how these two dimensions of life intersect and speak to each other when researching post-colonial culture and the impact of the exploitation of colonized people and their lands.

A prominent anthropologist known for his groundbreaking research on the comparative anthropology of racism, nationalism and multiculturalism, particularly in Australia and the Middle East, Hage has published numerous books and scholarly articles exploring the intersections of power, race and everyday life, shedding light on the experiences of marginalized communities in multicultural societies. His work challenges conventional understandings of identity and belonging, offering nuanced perspectives on issues of race, ethnicity and nationalism.

All members of the York University community are welcome to attend this event. For more information and to register, visit the Eventbrite page.

Community leaders to discuss off-reserve Indigenous life

Indigenous drums

Update: New information after publication of this article indicates this event has a new moderator. Up-to-date information is listed below.

York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) is hosting its annual Smyth Dialogues event on April 24, featuring three Indigenous community leaders engaging in a panel discussion centred around off-reserve Indigenous life.

Panellists Christa Big Canoe, Jennifer LaFontaine and Sylvia Maracle will visit York University’s Keele Campus for this hybrid event, taking place both in person and via livestream from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The panel will discuss their work and experiences supporting Indigenous people in Canada who live their lives either mostly or entirely off reserve. All York University community members are welcome to attend.

Christa Big Canoe
Christa Big Canoe
Jennifer LaFontaine
Jennifer LaFontaine
Sylvia Maracle
Sylvia Maracle
Ruth Green
Ruth Green

This special event will be moderated by Ruth Green, special advisor, LA&PS Indigenous issues. A Q-and-A session will follow the panel discussion.

The Smyth Dialogues is an annual public event series made possible through bequests from the late Delmar Smyth – the inaugural dean of the former Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies at York University – and his late wife, Wanita. The event series reflects the pair’s shared desire to profile ideas that help prevent violence and promote peace, justice and human security.

About the panellists

Big Canoe is an Anishinabek woman, mother and lawyer from Georgina Island First Nation who has been before all levels of court, various tribunals and standing committees providing Indigenous perspective and representation. She took a 2.5-year leave of absence from her role as legal director of Aboriginal Legal Services to be senior and then lead commission counsel to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

LaFontaine is a Ukrainian and Métis woman from Duck Lake, Saskatchewan. For the past two years, she has worked in the City of Toronto’s Indigenous Affairs office and is currently the manager of placekeeping. In this role, she works to increase the visible landscape of Indigenous people in the city, including the street names, public art, murals, storefronts and restaurants, and land for Indigenous community to gather for ceremony and culture.

Maracle (Skonaganleh:ra) is a Two-Spirit Mohawk, Wolf Clan member from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territories who has served as the executive director of the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres for over 40 years.

Visit the Smyth Dialogues web page for more information and to register.

Federal government awards York researchers over $1.5M

Lightbulb on book

Two dozen projects led by York University researchers have received more than $1.5 million combined from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council’s Insight Development Grants, announced March 13 by the federal government.

The grants support the development of short-term research projects of up to two years by emerging and established scholars. The York-led projects span a wide range of research, including a study that will explore the different experiences of refugee workers in Canadian meat-packing towns, an assessment of a physical activity program for children with autism and an investigation into the motivations behind firms engaging in artificial intelligence innovation.

“The federal government’s investment in our social sciences and humanities researchers and their diverse projects supports York University’s continued leadership in these critical fields of study,” said Amir Asif, vice-president research and innovation. “This new funding elevates the scholarly pursuits of our researchers across multiple Faculties, enables the development of new research questions and fosters valuable contributions to York’s vision of creating positive change.”  

The 24 York-led projects were among 577 research initiatives to receive funding.

See the full list of the York recipients below.  

Duygu Biricik Gulseren, School of Human Resources Management, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Inconsistent Leadership: Scale Development and Measurement
$69,415

Rebecca Bassett-Gunter, School of Kinesiology & Health Science; and Jonathan Weiss, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health
BINGOCIZE! Evaluating the Feasibility of a Physical Activity Program for Autistic Children
$74,034

Preetmohinder Aulakh, policy specialization, Schulich School of Business
Sustainable Agriculture in the Global South: Prospects and Challenges of Smallholders’ Product Diversification and Marketing Channel Coordination
$67,600

Simone Bohn, Department of Politics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
When Reproductive Self-Determination Remains Restricted: Women’s Strategies of Resistance in Brazil
$74,518

Bronwyn Bragg and Jennifer Hyndman, Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change
Slaughterhouse geographies: Comparing the integration experiences of refugee workers in Canadian meatpacking towns
$63,129

Robert Cribbie, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health
Modern Perspectives on Multiplicity Control
$62,300

Pouyan Foroughi, finance, Schulich School of Business
Private Equity Sponsors in the Leveraged Loan Market
$63,570

Hannah Johnston, School of Human Resources Management, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Regulating algorithmic management in standard employment: A comparison of legislative and industrial relations approaches
$71,209

Ambrus Kecskés, finance, Schulich School of Business; and Anh Nguyen, School of Administrative Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Artificial intelligence and innovation: A causal investigation of why firms produce it, how it impacts their workforce, and how firms evolve as a consequence
$59,883

Chungah Kim and Antony Chum, School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Faculty of Health
Social policy solutions to deaths and diseases of despair in Canada
$74,994

Chloe Rose Brushwood, Faculty of Education
On our own terms: An oral history and archive of queer femme community and culture in Toronto, 1990-2000
$65,097

Ibtissem Knouzi, Department of Languages, Literature & Linguistics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Critical Transitions in the Literacy Development of International Multilingual Students in English-medium Universities: A Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Study
$65,097

Matthew Leisinger, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Cudworth’s conscious self
$36,492

Guangrui Li and Moren Levesque, operations management and information systems, Schulich School of Business
Curse or Blessing: The welfare effects of algorithmic recommendations
$59,005

Zhixiang Liang, School of Administrative Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
The Impact of Institutional Systems on Foreign Direct Investment: A Multilevel Study of Chinese Multinational Enterprises
$63,393

Ann Marie Murnaghan, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Old poles and new stories: archival knowledges and oral histories of C’idimsggin’is and Kurt Seligmann
$70,521

Glen Norcliffe, Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change
Velomobility for disability: the design, production and distribution of cycles that assist the mobility of persons with a disability
$65,209

Ivan Ozai, Osgoode Hall Law School
Realizing global justice through the international tax system
$62,798

Mathieu Poirier, School of Global Health and School of Kinesiology & Health Science; Steven Hoffman, School of Health Policy & Management, School of Global Health, and Osgoode Hall Law School; and Tina Nanyangwe-Moyo, Faculty of Health
Centring gender in the evaluation of international laws
$62,500

Andrew Sarta, School of Administrative Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Imagining Augmentation Possibilities and How Organizations Adapt to the Emergence of Artificial Intelligence
$55,750

Gregory Saxton, accounting, Schulich School of Business
The role of automated bots in the financial and consumer markets
$61,956

Rianka Singh, Department of Communication & Media Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Platform Feminism
$53,363

Jean-Thomas Tremblay, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Eco-subtraction: downsizing the environmental humanities
$47,131

Yishu Zeng, Department of Economics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
The Design of Information Disclosure Policy in Strategic Interaction
$57,238

For a complete list of Insight Development Grant recipients, visit the Government of Canada announcement.

Students create open educational resources to help future learners

Group of students working at a computer monitor BANNER

York University undergraduate students in the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program participated in an initiative to create open educational resource (OER) videos aimed at improving the practicum experience of future program participants.

Students in programs such as TESOL must often complete field placements in a wide range of environments – from post-secondary academic bridging programs to community-oriented Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada programs. Because these environments are unique, students are often unprepared for these teaching contexts.

Saskia Van Viegen
Saskia Van Viegen

That’s why the Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics students in Professor Saskia Van Viegen’s TESL3300 class were assigned a project that could help.

Van Viegen’s 14 students received instruction on digital media creation, then formed groups to complete videos about the diversity of experiential education environments – culminating in the creation of four Creative Commons-licensed OER videos to help orient future English as a second language (ESL) teachers to their practicum. The students did this while completing their own field placement, gaining paid practicum experience and hands-on learning about digital media creation in the process.

Students Matthew Rawas, Tanishia Clarke, and Denise Suarez shre tehir Open Educational Resource video, which was filmed at the English School of Canada (ESC)
Students Matthew Rawas, Tanishia Clarke and Denise Suarez share their OER video.

“I think this kind of digital storytelling project is wonderful,” says Dawei Jin, one of Van Viegen’s students. “At first I wasn’t sure what the connection was between this work and teaching ESL. But after we started, we experienced challenges with collaboration, video editing – all things we didn’t know how to do. We struggled to tell our story, but eventually we figured it out. That’s exactly how ESL students will experience the process of learning English. This program helped me understand the difficulties encountered by our students.”

“This work increases access to work-integrated learning for students, especially equity-deserving students,” says Van Viegen. “It helps them feel more connected to each other, to their program and to a community, by offering enhanced opportunity for participation, stronger partnership with field placement hosts and greater integration with technology.”

ESL 3300 students Oshawnie Ralph and Nicole Cecotka introduce their video, which orients student teachers to doing pkacements in a Language Instructors for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program
Students Oshawnie Ralph and Nicole Cecotka introduce their video, which orients student teachers to doing placements in a Language Instructors for Newcomers to Canada program.

The project was a partnership between TESOL and York University Libraries’ Media Creation Lab, funded by the Co-operative Education & Work-Integrated Learning (CEWIL) Innovation Hub program.

One of the co-founders of the Media Creation Lab, librarian Kris Joseph, sees the initiative as the culmination of a vision the Libraries had for the lab during its inception. “The lab launched in 2022, but I think Saskia’s project is a sign that the booster rockets have been ejected and the shuttle is heading out to explore space. This kind of work ticks all the boxes for us: digital literacy and media creation, experiential learning and the development of open, accessible resources for the benefit of others.”

Sarah Coysh, associate dean of digital engagement and strategy at York University Libraries, adds: “One of the biggest successes of this project was that the grant included funds for a dedicated librarian as well as additional library media lab staff to support the students’ learning and media creation work. Saskia’s foresight in this area ensured York University Libraries had the capacity to partner on this project, and this is a terrific model for future grants, the process for which we have outlined on our new library support for grant-funded research web page.”

The students’ videos, as well as their reflections on the project, are available on YouTube. In addition, full-resolution copies are being deposited into York’s institutional repository, YorkSpace, so they can be discovered and reused by other ESL teaching programs.

Students shine, win at annual Ontario Japanese Speech Contest

Microphone on stand

Four undergraduate students from York University earned top prizes for their language skills at the 42nd annual Ontario Japanese Speech Contest (OJSC 2024) held at the University of Toronto on March 2.

Eight students from the Japanese Studies Program in York’s Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics (DLLL) competed in four different categories – Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced and Open – in front of a large crowd that included contestants from post-secondary institutions across the province, sponsors, government officials, Japanese language education administrators and interested members of the public.

York University’s eight Ontario Japanese Speech Contest contestants, three student helpers and five faculty members.
First row, left to right: Giovanni Di Mauro, Hei Tung Chloe Shek, Keying Ren, Alexa Adams, Wonkyung Lee, Kumiko Inutsuka, Akiko Mitsui and Noriko Yabuki-Soh. Second row, left to right: Eri Takahashi, Secret Shields, Ariel Upiter, Binying Wang, Javier van der Westhuizen, Norio Ota, Risa Hatake and Arianna Carerra.

Of York’s eight student contestants, the four who earned awards for their speeches were:

  • Hei Tung Chloe Shek, who was awarded the grand prize (placing first in the Advanced category) for her speech titled “Views and allies of ‘young carers’”;
  • Secret Shields, who was awarded second place in the Beginners category for a speech titled “My name is Secret”;
  • Binying Wang, who was awarded third place in the Intermediate category for a speech titled “About MBTI”; and
  • Wonkyung Lee, who was awarded first place in the Open category for a speech titled “Liquor or Coffee.”

Shek, who received a return ticket to Japan as the competition’s grand prize, delivered a speech on her personal experience as a young caregiver to her disabled father, detailing how the rest of her family united and handled the situation, and how positive thinking helped her accomplish many things she did not expect.

As a result of their first-place finishes in their respective categories, Shek and Lee will go on to participate in the Canadian National Japanese Speech Contest at the Embassy of Japan in Ottawa on March 24.

Noriko Yabuki-Soh
Noriko Yabuki-Soh

To help prepare the York students for the contest, DLLL associate professors Noriko Yabuki-Soh and Norio Ota, and faculty members Kumiko Inutsuka, Akiko Mitsui and Eri Takahash coached them leading up to the big day. Yabuki-Soh, Inutsuka and Takahashi also served on OJSC’s Organizing Committee.

“It was delightful to see how those eight students, at different levels of proficiency in Japanese, worked as a team,” said Yabuki-Soh, who believes all of the eight York competitors performed at their best.

“They put so much time and effort into this when they practised their speeches in front of their peers,” she said. “Their hard work has paid off. We are so proud of them.”

York researchers appointed new, renewed Canada Research Chairs

innovation image

The Government of Canada has issued a new Canada Research Chair (CRC) appointment to York University Professor Godfred Boateng in global health and humanitarianism, as well as renewed the Chairs of three other faculty members – Ethel Tungohan (Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies), Isaac Smith (Lassonde School of Engineering) and Steven Connor (Faculty of Science).

The CRC program facilitates world-class research at Canadian universities, boosting their global competitiveness, while also providing training opportunities for the next generation of highly skilled personnel through research, teaching and learning.

“From global health to migration policy to planetary science to neurophysiology, York University faculty are at the forefront of research excellence in their respective fields,” said Amir Asif, vice-president research and innovation. “I extend my sincere congratulations to our four new and renewed Canada Research Chairs whose impactful work benefits the lives of both Canadians and people around the world.”

Learn more about the new and renewed chairholders at York:

Godfred Boateng
Godfred Boateng

Godfred Boateng, Canada Research Chair in Global Health and Humanitarianism
Boateng is an assistant professor in the School of Global Health, director of the Global & Environmental Health Lab and a faculty fellow at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research. He is also the principal investigator on a new project called “Retooling Black Anxiety” in the Greater Toronto Area.

As a CRC, Boateng will address global health priorities by focusing on anticipatory, instead of reactionary, approaches. Notably, he will look to further understand the synergistic epidemics of food, water, energy, and housing insecurity and their compounding effects, as well as the impact of environmental degradation and changes in climatic conditions on the health of older adults in sub-Saharan Africa and Canada.

Ethel Tungohan
Ethel Tungohan

Ethel Tungohan, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism
With her CRC renewal, Tungohan, an associate professor in the Department of Politics in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, will build on her work assessing the interconnections between policies, everyday lived experiences and social movement organizing.

She will continue to look at the impact on migrant workers, Canadian discourse, and policies on immigration, labour, and occupational health and safety in the pre-pandemic, pandemic and post-pandemic era.

Isaac Smith
Isaac Smith

Isaac Smith, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Planetary Science
Smith, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering in the Lassonde School of Engineering, will use his CRC renewal to investigate aspects of ice and climate on Mars and other parts of the solar system, including Pluto and Triton, Neptune’s moon.

The research is unique to York University and aims to advance knowledge of Mars’ climate and ice-related processes, in addition to performing glaciological modelling on icy worlds in the outer solar system.

Steven Connor
Steven Connor

Steven Connor, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in the Synaptic Basis of Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Connor, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology in the Faculty of Science, will use his CRC renewal to focus on investigating how specific brain proteins facilitate the transmission of information between brain cells. The research aims to further understand how those proteins influence neural circuit function and activity, and how they can result in autism-like behaviour when compromised. Connor and his research team will also explore the restorative effects of reversing molecular changes linked to the loss of certain brain cells.  

York graduate students explore motherhood

child holding onto mother's skirt

In the midst of ongoing debates surrounding reproductive rights, five York University graduate students had work published in the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative that looks to re-evaluate conventional notions of motherhood beyond essentialist and biological frameworks.

The students’ essays have been published in the Winter/Spring 2024 issue of the journal, which was founded and edited by Andrea O’Reilly, a professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies at York. The biannual, peer-reviewed scholarly journal is dedicated to advancing the discourse on motherhood from a global and interdisciplinary standpoint, offering a diverse array of scholarly insights into the multifaceted concept of motherhood.

Andrea O'Reilly
Andrea O’Reilly

“The defining mission of the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative,” O’Reilly writes in her introductory notes, “is to promote and disseminate the best current scholarship on motherhood, and to ensure that this scholarship considers motherhood both in an international context and from a multitude of perspectives, including differences of class, race, sexuality, age, ethnicity, ability, and nationality, and from across a diversity of disciplines.”

With ongoing support from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, the journal continues to serve as an important platform for advancing an understanding of motherhood.

The five essays – among a total of 11 in this issue – written by York graduate students build on that tradition.

Thea Jones, a PhD student in the Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist & Women’s Studies, critically examines the impact of breastfeeding mandates on breastless parents who have undergone mastectomies in her essay. Jones challenges normative motherhood discourses and highlights the exclusion of non-conforming parenting bodies from mainstream narratives.

In her essay, Ame Khin May-Kyawt, a PhD candidate in the Graduate Program in Social & Political Thought, explores the experiences of socially displaced refugee women/mothers from Southeast Asia to Canada. Through an intersectional lens, May-Kyawt sheds light on how these women navigate their gender norms and identities while fulfilling multiple roles.

Katrina Millan, another PhD student, presents a compelling analysis of post-apocalyptic narratives in her article “Only Mom Can Save the World.” Millan advocates for a queer futurism that challenges heteronormative mandates and offers alternative visions of human futurity.

Winter/Spring 2024 Issue of Journal of the Motherhood Initiative
Winter/Spring 2024 Issue of the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative

Tina Powell, a PhD student in Gender, Feminist & Women’s Studies, addresses the marginalization of mothers in feminist scholarship and economics. Powell calls for an intersectional approach to understanding motherhood, one that acknowledges and addresses the unique challenges faced by mothers in contemporary society.

Sofia Ahmed, a PhD student specializing in feminist and gender studies, delves into the complexities of Muslim motherhood. Ahmed invites readers to explore the myths, challenges and spiritual insights of motherhood through the lens of Islam, celebrating the empowerment and resilience of Muslim mothers in navigating societal constructs.

The students’ contributions not only aim to enrich the scholarly discourse on motherhood, but also underscore the journal’s commitment to fostering inclusivity and representation within motherhood studies, a comparatively new field of academic study that O’Reilly, who has authored and edited more than 20 books devoted to motherhood, has spearheaded.

“I think that good scholarship of motherhood matters,” O’Reilly once told an interviewer. “But for me it matters more when we can use that scholarship in a way to effect societal cultural change.”

Study looks at LGBTQ2S+ workplace discrimination in Canada

LGBTQ rainbow BANNER

A York University research team from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) that researches lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, Two-Spirit and others (LGBTQ2S+) has released a study highlighting the state of workplace discrimination in Canada.

As much as Canada enjoys a reputation as a progressive country friendly to LGBTQ2S+ people, it is not perfect.

Workplace discrimination against sexual orientations, identities and expressions still exists. One York research team sought to seek out to what extent.

“There has not been much empirical evidence to show where we are at in Canada. We are quite happy to have sought an opportunity to gain better understanding of the current state of LGBTQ2S+ workplace discrimination,” says Professor You-Ta Chuang, who leads the project.  

Through a three-stage project titled “Act Up: From managing LGBTQ2S+ identity to changing workplace discrimination” that is funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council, Chuang and his team pursued a project that surveyed 4,205 participants to further understand the prevalence of workplace discrimination against LGBTQ2S+ employees in Canada and how they cope.

The study found that while discrimination against LGBTQ2S+ employees in Canada is declining slightly, its prevalence is still in line with a recent survey by advocacy organization Egale Canada, which showed that 72 per cent of Two Spirit, transgender and non-binary (2STNB) survey participants had experienced workplace discrimination.

The York study found too that perceived discrimination was above the national average in six provinces and territories, with the highest levels in Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

In terms of how participants responded to discrimination, the study found that more than half spoke up when they experienced discrimination, typically by addressing it or suggesting improvements to workplace inclusivity.

Those in Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario and Nova Scotia were found to be most likely to speak up and participants in Alberta and Nunavut were least likely.

The study marks the completion of Stage 1 of the Act Up project. Summer 2024 will see the beginning of Stage 2, which will involve a study examining which emotion regulation strategies used by LGBTQ2S+ employees help them cope with and stand up against workplace discrimination. Stage 3 will then look toward sharing findings with academics in communities to help realize Act Up’s ultimate mission.

“We hope to increase awareness of LGBTQ2S+ workplace discrimination and to see more people (both LGBTQ2S+ employees and allies) are able to speak up against workplace discrimination,” says Chuang.

Department of English gives out writing awards

pens and notebooks banner

York University’s Department of English presents its annual English Awards, which recognize outstanding essays written by students in undergraduate courses across all levels.

Each year the department offers several prizes and scholarships for students in English and creative writing, many honouring former faculty members. Several of the prizes are supported by generous donations from former faculty, alumni and affiliated community members.

As is often the case, several winners produced work that reflected students’, and the University’s, ongoing efforts to pursue progressive new ways of thinking about culture and the world.

For example, student Chance Garratt-Dahan won the Best 1000-level Essay Prize for her essay titled “Story-Telling and the Preservation of Law & Justice.” The Avie Bennet Prize in Canadian Literature went to Rosina Nicolazzo for “Julius Caesar and The Death of a Chief: The Deconstruction of Colonial Knowledge and Reclamation of Indigeneity Through Theatre.”

Other students recognized for their work were:

Best 2000-Level Essay Prize 2022-23
Winner: Charlie Lee for “The Construct of Freedom: Comparing Baldwin and Jacobs.”
Honourable Mention: Sydney Nattoo for “The Tendrils and The Spaces Between: Metafiction in Cat’s Cradle.”

Best 3000-Level Essay Prize 2022-23
Winner: Emily Schuster-Woldan for “Reading a Film: Character Interiority in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club (1989) and its Film Adaptation (1993).”

Best 4000-level Essay Prize 2022-23
Winner: Trevor Froates for “The Swan’s Nest: Shakespeare and the birds of Cymbeline.”
Honourable Mention: Lubna Salama for “On Culinary Poisoning as One of the Fine Arts: Female Poisoners Edition.”

Brian Hepworth Memorial Scholarship 2022-23
Winner: Amor Lomibao for “Racialized Liminality as Suffering in William Blake’s ‘The Little Black Boy’ and Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone.”
Honourable Mention: Joseph Sereney for “Tyranny and the Power of the Female Voice in Pericles, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and The Winter’s Tale.”

Department of English Retirees’ Scholarship 2022-23
Co-winners: Suzanne Gregory and Javeria Rana.

Elizabeth Sabiston Prize 2022-23
Co-winner: Katura Gibb for “A Becoming Silence” and Robert MacIsaac for “Burning the Rule Book: Portrayals of Love in The Lais of Marie de France.”

H.K. Girling Literature Prize 2022-23
Winner: Cody Poisson for “A Great Deal Too Light.”

June McMaster-Harrison Memorial Scholarship 2022-23
Winner: Emma Verrilli for “Authenticity as Personal Legacy: Explorating my Family’s Italian-Canadian Immigrant Experience through Community Cookbook Writing.”
Honourable Mention: Lubna Salama for “On Culinary Poisoning as One of the Fine Arts: Female Poisoners Edition.”

Lucille Herbert Memorial Scholarship 2022-23
Winner: Cody Poisson.

Matthew Ahern Memorial Prize 2022-23
Winner: Jean-Louis Voyer.

Stephanie Stavro Scholarship in English 2022-23
Winner: John Batista.

Teaching Assistants’ Award for Excellence 2022-23
Winner: Madelaine McLaughlin.

Winning essays are preserved in the University’s open-access repository, YorkSpace. They can be found in the English Undergraduate Essay Prizes Collection.

Open Education Month puts spotlight on accessible education

Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change students in class

March is Open Education Month, a time to celebrate open educational resources (OER), which are openly licensed, freely available educational materials that can be used, accessed, adapted and redistributed with limited restriction. York University’s engagement with OER has continued to expand and grow over the recent years, helping faculty create inclusive and adaptable learning environments while advancing a number of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) – specifically, UN SDG 4: Quality Education, UN SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, and UN SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

In an upcoming series of webinars scheduled for this month, Dominique Scheffel-Dunand, an associate professor in linguistics at York and co-lead for Camerise, York’s French-as-a-second-language (FSL) hub, will spearhead efforts to promote the use of Camerise, H5P, and Pressbooks for developing inclusive OER for FSL and English as a second language (ESL). Supported by a $5,000 award from eCampusOntario, Scheffel-Dunand and her co-presenter, education technology consultant Sushumna Rao Tadinada, will deliver these webinars in both English and French.

“The events that York is hosting and participating in for Open Education Month show that the University is making great strides to support the University Academic Plan’s priority of Access to Success,” said Sarah Coysh, associate dean of digital engagement and strategy at York University Libraries. “Open educational practices in the classroom help provide students with access to course learning materials from the first day of classes. Our York eCampusOntario OER Rangers have also been instrumental in helping to spread awareness of open education on campus and providing faculty, staff, and graduate students with training and guidance on embedding these practices into their teaching and outreach programs,”

The first webinar, titled “Creating Accessible Interactive OER with H5P for Language Teaching (FSL and ESL),” on March 14 from 8 to 9 a.m., will demonstrate the use of the Canvas (LMS) and H5P platforms to design massive open online courses (MOOCs) – open-access courses with unlimited participation – in both English and French, focusing on the values of openness and diversity.

The subsequent events will delve deeper into using Pressbooks and H5P to publish interactive and inclusive learning modules.

The second and third event, titled “Libérer la puissance de l’apprentissage interactif et inclusif avec Pressbooks et H5P en FLS et ESL,” will be offered first as a webinar and then as a hands-on workshop by Scheffel-Dunand and Tadinada Ra. Delivered in French, the sessions will illustrate using Pressbooks to publish collections of training modules developed with H5P and made accessible on Lumi, H5P.com, HTML or in PDF format. The two events focus on how to conceptualize the interoperability between various tools and publishing platforms such as H5P or Pressbooks to foster accessible and interactive learning, from K-12 to post-secondary education.

Interested individuals can attend the March 21 webinar from 8 to 9 a.m. or the March 28 hands-on workshop from 8 to 9:30 a.m.

“These webinars and workshop have been co-designed with Ontario educators to ensure stakeholders in FSL and ESL in the province and beyond explore how to author high-quality content and why it matters that such content be discoverable, reproducible and modified for localized contexts to meet community needs for language and culture,” said Scheffel-Dunand.

During the first week of March, eCampusOntario – a nonprofit organization supporting technology-enabled teaching, learning and innovation at Ontario’s publicly funded universities, colleges and Indigenous institutes – will also be hosting several webinars to promote OER and open educational practices. Charlotte de Araujo, an assistant professor in York’s Faculty of Science, and Stephanie Quail, acting director of the Libraries’ Open Scholarship department, were accepted into eCampusOntario’s OER Ranger program last August, making them York’s institutional champions of the use of OER.

De Araujo will be speaking at the eCampusOntario Zoom webinar titled “Designing and Publishing OERs: Creator Panel Discussion” on March 7 from noon to 1 p.m.

“The OER Ranger program has provided us with the opportunity to share the benefits of OERs with our academic community, promoting a collaborative dialogue between stakeholders and encouraging OER integration in our teaching practices,” says de Araujo. “Being able to implement OERs, whether it is a textbook chapter or an ancillary resource to review course content, can be one solution to help alleviate cost challenges, enabling students to freely revisit course material, fostering lifelong learning for all stakeholders.”

Quail adds, “Being an eCampusOntario OER Ranger has provided me with the opportunity to build my network of open education advocates across Ontario, while also co-creating events at York University with my fellow ranger to support faculty, staff and student engagement with open educational practices.”

As York University continues to champion OER and open educational practices, it exemplifies its commitment to accessible and inclusive education, paving the way for innovative pedagogy and community-driven learning initiatives.