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Professor Allan Rock makes the case on reforming the global refugee system

Allan Rock
Allan Rock

The McLaughlin College Lunch Time Talk on March 11 featured Professor Allan Rock (PC, OOnt, QC) arguing persuasively in support of the World Refugee Council’s 2019 report, A Call to Action: Transforming the Global Refugee System, which lays out the steps necessary to strengthen the global response to forced displacement.

Allan Rock
Allan Rock

McLaughlin Head James C. Simeon introduced Rock as an incredible Canadian and one of the most distinguished and accomplished guest speakers to have appeared at the College’s Lunch Time Talk series.

Rock is president emeritus and a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa, where he teaches about international humanitarian law and armed conflict and international law.

Simeon noted that Rock’s list of accomplishments are nothing short of astounding. He was elected as a member of parliament and appointed the minister of justice and attorney general of Canada in 1993, and served as minister of health in 1997 and as minister of industry and infrastructure in 2002.

Rock served as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations (UN) in 2003 where he led the Canadian effort to secure the adoption of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine meant to safeguard populations from the so-called “atrocity crimes” such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Rock also served as the special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.

Rock was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1988 and was acclaimed as treasurer (president and chief executive officer) of the Law Society of Ontario in 1992. He was a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School in 2017 and now serves on the World Refugee Council (WRC).

Allan Rock
Allan Rock

Rock began his remarks by pointing out there is a record level, and continuously growing number, of forcibly displaced persons in the world today due to unresolved conflicts, ongoing oppression and persecution and a warming planet.

He explained how there is little sharing of the responsibility to provide refugees with protection. Chronic under funding means that refugee services fall far short of their needs. In addition to a lack of mechanisms to hold individual states accountable for current dislocation, climate change, with its attendant rising sea levels, desertification, fires and floods, will likely force millions more people from their homes in the coming decades.

According to Rock, the current global refugee system is broken, and the WRC has identified concrete steps that can be taken to address the ongoing and escalating crisis. He outlined how responsibility sharing, accountability – for both states producing refugees and those committing crimes against them – and new financial vehicles such as “Refugee Bonds” to support host communities are critical measures that should be employed.

Ian Greene, Allan Rock, James C. Simeon, David Leyton-Brown
Ian Greene, Allan Rock, James C. Simeon, David Leyton-Brown

The talk provided an overview of how adopting principles of a common but differentiated state responsibility for refugees, redistributing assets from war criminals to benefit the displaced and establishing private equity vehicles for refugees could make a difference.

Rock also argued in favour of a Global Action Network (GAN) to promote and implement the WRC’s innovative plan of action. He explained how mid-sized states are particularly well-placed to advance a human security agenda by building such a global network for reforming the current broken global refugee system, and pointed to successful examples from the past, such as the landmines initiative that established the Ottawa Treaty.

Rock believes that a new GAN for a new global refugee system is essential to build the momentum to bring about the change necessary to create a new workable and humane global refugee protection system.

The talk concluded with a lively discussion about how to forge a new GAN to bring about changes to our global refugee system.

Those interested in getting involved with the Global Action Network for advancing the WRC’s Call for Action can visit the Centre for International Governance Innovation’s website.

Mothering through a pandemic: COVID-19 and the evolving role of mothers

Black single frustrated woman hold her head with hands sitting on chair in living room, playful kids jumping on couch on a background. Tiredness, depression difficult to educate children alone concept

By Ashley Goodfellow Craig, deputy editor, YFile

Self-isolation, physical distancing, stay-at-home directives – the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed our way of life. Family dynamics are re-calibrating, under unprecedented stress and anxiety, to adapt to a rapidly evolving “new normal.”

Adjusting to being home all day with their children, many parents are also maneuvering to balance working remotely, childminding, running a household and, for those with school-aged children, taking on the role of primary educator – all with access to significantly less resources.

Studies suggest that women are still the top contributors in a family – which raises questions, and concerns, on how mothers will cope with these new expectations and destabilizing restraints.

Andrea O'Reilly
Andrea O’Reilly

Andrea O’Reilly, a professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at York University and founder and director of The Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, has been studying mothering for more than 30 years. She says generally, statistically, women still do far more than men.

“Actual hands-on work? That has not changed. Mothers are still doing 60 to 70 per cent of the ‘grunt’ work on top of paid employment,” she said. (When O’Reilly uses the term “mothers,” she refers to any individual who engages in motherwork, thus the term is not limited to biological mothers but applies anyone who does the work of mothering as a central part of their life.)

And, although research over the last few decades points to a decreasing gap in division of labour in the home, it doesn’t necessarily translate to more equitable labour in the home.

What it means, says O’Reilly, is that mothers are taking on less by “outsourcing” some of their load. Instead of cooking every night, they might get takeout, or they may hire help with domestic duties like cleaning the house or tutoring the children.

“What I’m interested in though, in my research,” says O’Reilly, “is what I call the ‘third shift’ which is emotional labour. This is all the organizing and remembering and planning that mothers take on for the family.”

Things like knowing a child’s shoe size, making dentist appointments, organizing play dates or carpools, knowing how hot or cold they like their soup, remembering homework due dates, assessing their children’s triggers for fatigue, health, boredom, anxiety and so on – these are examples of the emotional load mothers carry all day, every day.

“It’s this type of work that has not been downloaded, and this is the real labour,” said O’Reilly, who has concerns about the physical, mental and emotional health of mothers during the pandemic.

In a pandemic microenvironment, Professor Andrea O’Reilly says we can expect to see the pressures on mothers rise exponentially with added work, stress and anxiety

When there is no separation between work, family, home – what toll will it take on mothers? What are the implications of being a mother in a stay-at-home family during a pandemic?

These homes, says O’Reilly, don’t run themselves. She says the real issue is that mothering is invisibilized; nobody sees this as work, and it’s just something mothers are expected to do. And, under a pandemic microenvironment, we can expect to see the pressures rise exponentially with added work, stress and anxiety.

“There is more pressure on mothers now. We’re expecting mothers to be educators. There is more on the to-do list and we are hearing messages on how to stimulate your child at home, and not to let them fall behind academically, and to use this new time to do something new like learn to play an instrument. The standards are going up when they should be completely relaxed,” said O’Reilly.

What we have to remember, she says, is that “Mothers are frontline workers too.”

Rightly, frontline workers in the public sphere have been praised – and O’Reilly agrees emphatically that this is an important recognition – but she also feels that people are forgetting what mothers are facing, and accomplishing, in the home and under unimaginable circumstances.

“We are looking at what’s happening in the public sphere, which we should be, I’m not mitigating that for a minute, but I think the longer this continues, the more we are going to have to look at how people are coping in their own homes, in particular the people who are running those homes – mothers,” she said. “I think a lot of women are in crisis mode right now and we are only really maybe into our second or third week (of socially restrictive pandemic safety protocol).”

Add into that other circumstances, such as income or employment loss, financial or housing instability, single parenting, new immigrants, mothers in abusive situations, and the stress is amplified.

“We are only a few weeks in, but I’m surprised we are not hearing more people saying ‘What can we do for families? How are the mothers coping?’ I have not heard a single person saying ‘Wow, can you imagine what mothers are going through right now?’”

So how can we provide help for mothers? The first thing is to ask, says O’Reilly. Create a safe space where mothers can talk about what they are experiencing. Whether it’s on the phone, through video chat or social media, we should be open to hearing mothers’ stories.

For scholars like O’Reilly, having a record of what the mother experience is like during a global pandemic will be valuable to look back on, and to learn from.

Image shows two girls doing school work
Homeschooling is one of the added pressures for parents during the COVID-19 pandemic

She also feels strongly that the longer the isolation continues, the more unsustainable it becomes and the more pressure there is to create social policy to help mothers and families. What that might look like, however, is not clear. O’Reilly suggests that policy may need to reframe the definition of “family” for single mothers who need reprieve, or revisit isolation measures for families “trapped” in small apartments with no access to outdoor space – all while respecting and abiding by  protocols so that safety isn’t compromised.

If families remain isolated in way that’s dangerous to their mental health, however, she suggests that over time there will be an increase in non-compliance with pandemic protocols to self-isolate and stay at home.

Her message to mothers for now, is to lower expectations where possible.

“Mothers, now more than ever, need to cut themselves some slack,” she said. “I think for now people are trying to make the best of it, but I wonder about two or three more weeks in, what all this is going to look like.

“I think we should be honouring mother work, and, mothers are deserving of a purple heart for the heroic work they are doing for all us during this pandemic.”

O’Reilly is currently developing an edited collection on Mothers, and Mothering and the COVID 19 Pandemic for Demeter Press and is working on a grant application to study mothers’ experiences during the pandemic as conveyed in social media with the aim of developing social policy to better support mothers and the essential work they are performing. She has created the hashtag #mothersarefrontlineworkers for sharing of information and supporting mothers on social media during the pandemic.

Do you have a story to share about how you are coping, or what you are doing differently, during the COVID-19 pandemic? Email us at yfile@yorku.ca.

The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies moves online

LAPS Zoom Featured image
LAPS Zoom Featured image

It is a “mega” feat for Canada’s largest liberal arts faculty, and it was completed with an unwavering focus on helping students.

More than 1,400 courses taught in York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) are now being taught online. The migration from the classroom to an online format, necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, was a technically challenging undertaking that spanned all departments, operations and support services in the Faculty.

What does such an undertaking require to be successful?

The answer is simple – a collective, all-hands-on-deck mobilization with a steadfast focus on the student experience. The move from classroom to online delivery required professors to revise their course plans and draw on their teaching skills to engage with their students through new mediums. Staff have also mobilized online and continue to offer their support to students to help them navigate and experience productive, meaningful learning during a global pandemic.

LAPS faculty and staff meet via Zoom
More than 250 Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies faculty and staff meet online via Zoom

The Faculty’s eServices team worked night and day to ensure that instructors had the support they needed to deliver their course material and lessons. This included the creation of 300 new Moodle course sites as well as migrating all course evaluations to an online format. Staff in eServices also provided around-the-clock remote support, prepared and loaned out more than 60 laptops to accommodate work-from-home arrangements and provided step-by-step instructions for online tools, including MyApps, the virtual private network (VPN) and Zoom web conferencing.

The LA&PS Academic Advising team also maintained constant online availability to students in need of support and guidance. During the first week of the University’s move to required services, the Academic Advising team interacted directly online with more than 1,000 students. Nearly 500 of these interactions were one-to-one academic advising appointments. Students were able to connect and interact with advisers through email, phone and via Zoom. The team is also looking to establish online “drop-in” hours as a way to further connect and assist students.

In addition to the nuts and bolts of the Faculty’s operations, the LA&PS Internship program moved online and continues to offer workshops and book student appointments through virtual formats. So far, more than 40 students have attended remote internship information and resumé/cover letter workshops. In addition, the Experiential Education team has been encouraging partners to seek work-from-home arrangements for students who are currently on a work term. Tech-savvy LA&PS students are already adding real value to businesses and community organizations during this challenging time.

One student, Amin Akhtar, who is on an internship with the Royal Bank of Canada, was pleased to be transitioned with the rest of the company to a work from home arrangement. His manager reports that they “have continued to perform at an outstanding level throughout these uncertain times.”

Programs and departments are also supporting students forced to leave credited placements because of COVID-19. For example, the Field Education Program in Social Work has devised processes to support alternative ways to help students complete their placements and ensure that they can meet the accreditation standards set at the national level. They have conducted Zoom meetings with undergraduate and graduate students to provide reassurance and support.

The Faculty has found multiple ways to connect with colleagues working remotely. Beyond day-to-day work duties, teams across all units have organized daily check-ins, group activities and other ways to stay positive. Colleagues in advising have organized a “team plank” on Zoom every day at 2:50 p.m. and so far, they’ve reached 45 seconds. The group hopes to work up to 60 seconds by the end of the week. Other teams are hosting morning chats, sharing uplifting pictures, or are indulging in “after-work” social activities using Zoom as a way to connect with each other.

Vina Sandher, field work education manager in the School of Social Work, notes some of the positives of the situation. “We feel closer as a team even though we are not physically close right now,” said Sandher. “Somehow this remote contact has really developed a strong bond amongst us that ‘we are all in this together.’”

Do you have a story to share about how you are coping, or what you are doing differently, during the COVID-19 pandemic? Email us at yfile@yorku.ca.

Students, faculty receive research funding from Canada-China Initiatives Fund

research graphic

Research projects at York University focusing on gender, urbanization and identity in the Greater China Region and in the diaspora in Canada received funding earlier this year from the Canada-China Initiative Fund at the York Centre for Asian Research.

Founded in 2019, the Canada-China Initiatives Fund (CCIF) was created to support scholarly exchanges and research on modern (i.e. post 1911) and contemporary People’s Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, their global reach, their linkages with Canada, or the experiences of the diaspora communities. It was created thanks to the generous support of the Asian Business and Management Program at York University.

The second group of recipients to receive this funding include:

Xin Liu (Cinema and Media Arts)

Every year, schools of salmon find their way back to the banks of the rivers where they were born so that they can relaunch their life cycles. In the end, the salmon that survive mate and then perish. While the end result is a sure death, the salmon are driven by an insurmountable instinct to return home against the strongest of currents.

Through the symbolic parallelism of the salmon run, Upstream is Xin Liu’s 20-minute docufiction film that will explore the identity struggle of Chinese permanent residents in Canada and their immutable yearnings to return home. This film is a component of Liu’s master’s of film production program.

In juxtaposition to the cyclic and inevitable journey of the salmon sun, Liu plans to follow a Chinese permanent resident of Canada who sets out on a journey to relocate back to his hometown in the PRC’s industrial northeast.

Professor Cary Wu (Sociology)

Cary Wu

Not only has the PRC experienced the world’s most rapid urbanization over the last several decades, its large-scale urban transformation is also shaping the forms and fabrics of urbanization in other parts of the world. In this research project, Professor Cary Wu is investigating how Canadian cities are being shaped and transformed by the large-scale of Chinese immigrants and by China’s growing economic power and political influences.

Theoretically, this research will adopt a scenic approach that will focus on the variability of the process and analyze the dimensions, patterns, forms and meanings of how a street or a nation or the world is urbanized. Different cities present different scenes that incorporate and join elements of time, place, characteristics of people, activities like concerts, the built environment and values. Seeing places as scenes provides a way to analyze diverse cities with a common unit of analysis – scenes. This approach generates a scenic urbanization, updating past efforts to capture the core meanings of urbanity.

Empirically, his team will collect demographic and amenities data (e.g., restaurants, grocery stores, shopping malls, parks, and activities) to generate common scenes that are deeply rooted in China’s influences across major Canadian cities including Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Montreal. They will then map out these common scenes and explore how they have and continue to shape social life in Canada.

This research project also offers an opportunity to build long-term collaborative relationships by bringing together urban scholars from York, the Chinese Academy of Social Science, and elsewhere in the PRC, for a workshop on comparative perspectives on substantiable urbanization in China and Canada tentatively scheduled for November 2020.

Professor Linda Peake (Social Science, City Institute)

Linda Peake

Professor Linda Peake, the principal investigator of the SSHRC Partnership grant project Urbanization, Gender, and the Global South: A Transformative Knowledge Network (GenUrb) has received funding towards a two-day workshop on Women and Urbanization in China at York.

The invited speakers from the PRC and North America will engage in discussions on rapid urbanization in contemporary China, the impact of the Sustainable Development Goals on women and cities, and the ways in which working women in Chinese cities are negotiating everyday life within and across new urban geographies of inequality. She anticipates that this workshop will lead to a theme issue of an international peer reviewed journal and the creation of a new urban network.

Christopher Vogel (History)

Christopher Vogel, a doctoral candidate in history, received funds in support of York hosting the third biannual conference of the China Academic Network. Building on previous biannual conferences – 2017 at SOAS and 2019 at l’Université libre de Bruxelles – the theme of 2021 conference will be ‘Making Gender in China.’ It will bring together graduate students, early career researchers and established scholars working on gender in the modern greater China region of the PRC and Taiwan.

The conference will focus on materiality studies by exploring both how gender is being enacted, and how it is negotiated in the process of making things (a poem, a cookbook, a translation, a sword, a piece of furniture, noodles, an online protest, a piece of legislation)… and ultimately, of China (broadly construed) itself. This theme draws on the latest trends in scholarship on Chinese gender studies. Through its focus on materiality, this conference will promote an inter-disciplinary approach to the problems of gender and materiality, and will operate at the forefront of research on gender in China.

The CCIF is open to all faculty and students at York University. The next deadline for applications is Wednesday, July 22.

For more information about the CCIF, visit https://ycar.apps01.yorku.ca/canada-china-initiatives-fund/.

A letter from Spain: Prof. B.W. Powe shares his experience living abroad during COVID-19

writing notes schulich
The following is a letter to YFile from B.W. Powe, associate professor in the Departments of English and Humanities at York University. Powe is living temporarily in Spain and has shared his account of living abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter is dated April 3 and is reproduced with his permission.

To YFile,

I began my sabbatical leave in Andalusia, Spain, in early January. My family came to Cordoba to live and be near our family here, and so I could write. My wife is Spanish, and our little daughter has dual citizenship.

Bruce Powe
B.W. (Bruce) Powe

Every day, I walked across the old bridge into the old city and walked to the University of Cordoba Faculty of Arts and Letters in the Juderia barrio. The library is old and quiet, and it has a superb collection of books in English. The University halls have inscriptions on the walls by Whitman and Neruda. In the lobbies there are homages to Simone de Beauvoir and Madame Curie.

I was working on a new book on on the nature of inspiration, set in Cordoba, and a book on melancholia and the media – the latter a follow up to my recent book, The Charge in the Global Membrane. I was revising another book for Hamilton Arts and Letters (HAL), a revision long overdue. And writing poems. And translating for myself Lorca’s poems and his essay on “Duende.” It’s a way for me to learn Spanish. I was reading Ibn Arabi’s commentaries on the Koran. And reading Unamuno on Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Every day when I walked into the old city, I passed the Mesquite, and walked up the narrow, white-painted streets to the library and to my desk.

Then everything changed.

The virus hit Spain in early March. It swept through the country, and by mid-March, everyone was told to go into quarantine. By March 14, Cordoba was deserted, spectral. The beauty of the old buildings stood in stark contrast to the empty streets. Cafes and tabernas, stores and shops were shut down. Quiet came over the city. Cordoba is a fine city for walking (“strolling,” they call it in the tourist posters), but people immediately withdrew into their apartments and homes. And for the first time, you could hear birds singing when before you could only hear traffic and conversations and radios and children playing and calling out to one another.

We decided to leave the city. (I had invitations to speak about my new book in Bilbao, Naples and Rome; the talks were cancelled.)

We heard Justin Trudeau’s call to come home.

But we decided that leaving was more risky than staying.

My in-laws have a farmhouse outside of Cordoba, at the foot of the Sierra Morenas. We came here over three weeks ago. The campo is small, and nearby other family members have their homes. There’s a fenced-in field, where our little daughter can play. The winter and spring have been unusually warm and sunny, for the most part. (Except for rain and cold earlier this week, with flash flooding in Cordoba and Malaga.)

We talk to our family members and friends through holes in the fences.

Just before the pandemic took hold, I received temporary residence status in Spain – so, I have health care. If you’re living here for a long time, this is automatic for partners of Spanish citizens. My daughter has coverage because she’s a dual citizen.

We were, and are, very lucky.

While it’s greening here, and the Sierras look beautiful, and the air is fresh and clear, and the sun is getting warmer, the news is hard. We have family members who work in the health profession. They’re overwhelmed. One of my wife’s great aunts is in a Cordoba convent nursing home, where the virus is spreading. She’s receiving good loving care. But she’s not allowed visitors and can’t speak to anyone on the phone. My wife does her mindfulness work online, helping people who are in the lockdown here and in Barcelona.

The daily information from Madrid gets harder every day. Shortages are coming. And the Internet is overloading. There have been evenings with blackouts and brownouts. The military has been deployed around the major cities. The borders are closed; air-flights in and from Spain gave been mostly stopped. Only one person at a time is allowed out to the grocery store; each person must wear a face mask if you leave your place. Police patrol the streets, making people comply with the new laws. People comply. Images on TV show well-known sites vacated.

Still, we have good things. We can wave to our nearby family members and sometimes we sit in a circle and have coffee ourselves and talk to them through the fences. My in-laws are happy to have our company. My little daughter likes to sing (off-key, but enthusiastic) and dance in the morning, in the sun, under the palms. Everyone works to keep the farmhouse clean. We’re constantly washing things down, doing laundry. At 8 p.m. every night, people rally to porches and balconies and front steps and rooftops to applaud and cheer for the healthcare workers. You hear the applause and cheers sounding up and down the valley.

I have a small room with a window looking on a green field. I write everyday, and read. I’ve put aside some of my manuscripts because it’s too soon to write about what’s happening. No one truly knows.

Still, what’s struck me is how quiet and still the streets and neighbourhoods are; how dependent people are on the Internet to talk to their families and friends. I keep in touch with York students on email. I’ve marked papers that just came in, and written letters of recommendation. I hear from my colleagues and friends at York University and around the country, who write with concern, when they see CNN and other information sources about the virus in Europe. There’s no sign of an early end to it. But, of course, we hope.

Our return air tickets may not be honoured now. We’re looking at trying to come back in early August. I resume my teaching in the fall.

With good wishes and courage and inspirations and stamina and hope to all at York,

Bruce

Do you have a story to share about how you are coping, or what you are doing differently, during the COVID-19 pandemic? Email us at yfile@yorku.ca.

PhD thesis wins Canadian Studies award

Image announcing Awards

The work of a York University PhD graduate Warren Bernauer has been recognized with a prestigious award that highlights exemplary research in Canadian Studies.

The Brian Long Best Dcotoral Thesis in Canadian Studies Award was given to Warren’s thesis “Extractive Hegemony in the Arctic: Energy Resources and Political Conflict in Nunavut, 1970-2017” by the International Council for Canadian Studies (ICCS).

Warren Bernauer

This ICCS award is designed to recognize and promote each year an outstanding PhD thesis on a Canadian topic, written by a member (or one of his/her students) of a Canadian Studies Association, and which contributes to a better understanding of Canada. The award forms part of ICCS’s strategy aimed at fostering a new generation of Canadianists and underlines the value of their theses.

His thesis was nominated for this award by York University’s Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies.

Bernauer’s PhD dissertation examines the history of conflicts over resource extraction in Nunavut and explains how Nunavut’s government and Inuit organizations have come to support an economy based on energy extraction.

It has also been recognized with the Barbara Godard Dissertation Prize, which is awarded by the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies and is given to the doctoral dissertation on a Canadian topic defended at York University during the calendar year that best advances our knowledge of Canada.

Since completing his dissertation, Bernauer has worked as a consultant to Indigenous and environmental organizations and as a senior researcher at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Bernauer is currently teaching at the University of Manitoba and will begin a Mitacs postdoctoral Fellowship in May.

New book paints vivid picture of mariners’ world in the Age of Exploration

Schotte takes readers on a 250-year journey as the science behind sailing became more sophisticated.
Schotte takes readers on a 250-year journey as the science behind sailing became more sophisticated.

In world history, it wasn’t long ago when the oceans were considered unknowably mysterious as our understanding of the natural world was in its infancy. Additionally, to a mariner in the 1550s, the tides, the heavens, inclement weather and pirates threatened their journey at every step.

This is where History Professor Margaret Schotte begins, and from here she takes readers on a 250-year journey as the science behind sailing became more sophisticated; nations acquired technical proficiency from one another; and sea voyages became increasingly and inextricably bound to cultural and socio-economic developments, capitalism, imperialism, nationalism and more.

Schotte takes readers on a 250-year journey as the science behind sailing became more sophisticated.
Schotte takes readers on a 250-year journey as the science behind sailing became more sophisticated.

To Schotte, navigating the sea provides unique insights into world history during a particularly breathtaking era: The Age of Exploration.

Her richly illustrated book, Sailing School: Navigating Science and Skill, 1550-1800 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019), recreates the experience of learning to sail, a complex apprenticeship that took place not only onboard ships but in classrooms in Europe’s port communities. This scholarly monograph provides a detailed picture of what it meant to become an expert navigator.

Margaret Schotte and her book, Sailing School. Cover reproduced with permission of the publisher
Margaret Schotte and her book, Sailing School. Cover reproduced with permission of the publisher

The book was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and the Barr Ferree Fund.

Author hooks readers at the very start

Edward Riou, age 14 (1776), painted by Daniel Gardner. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.
Edward Riou, age 14 (1776), painted by Daniel Gardner. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

It is immediately clear that Schotte knows how to draw readers into sweeping historic events, enriching the story with detail and accuracy to inspire awe and underscore the significance of nautical advancements.

Chapter One, for example, begins: “At the dawn of the 17th century, a group of nautical men assembled in an elegant home on one of Amsterdam’s grand canals. They gathered around a large table: nine well-to-do men, wearing the flat-brimmed beaver hats and fitted waistcoats fashionable among merchants and sea captains alike.”

Who wouldn’t have wanted to be around that illustrious table?

Skipping ahead, another chapter recounts the heroic tale of a 26-year-old British naval officer, Edward Riou, who kept his damaged vessel, the Guardian, afloat for two months in 1789, thanks to the nautical lessons he’d learned as a student.

Pivotal times in navigation history are highlighted

In this book, Schotte focuses on key points: Seville around 1552; Amsterdam in 1600; Dieppe around 1675; London in 1683; the Netherlands around 1710 and the Southern Indian Ocean in 1789. Within these historic pinpoints, she establishes the socio-economic and cultural context of scientific advancements, such as the drive for commerce and trade in 17th-century Amsterdam or the impact the printing press had on navigation.

She connects nautical history into a broader history of civilization and shows how members of the marine community “shaped politics and finance, appeared in art and literature and pushed for new solutions to long-standing, complex scientific problems.”

Publication commences when navigation was a mishmash of fields

Aristotelian cosmography diagram (1545). Biblioteca Nacional de Espana, Madrid.
Aristotelian cosmography diagram (1545). Biblioteca Nacional de Espana, Madrid.

In telling the story, Schotte starts at the beginning of the accumulation of scientific knowledge, noting that the way sailing was discussed for centuries incorporated a mishmash of fields, including pseudo scientific disciplines such as astrology and the zodiac, alongside cosmology, astronomy, geometry and mathematics.

One of the first steps forward was in 1551, when Spanish humanist Martín Cortés penned a popular book on navigation, which, says Schotte, “set the tone for navigational textbooks for years to come.”

She reminds us, however, that most people were illiterate, and many navigators tended to value experience over book learning. Furthermore, there was resistance to scientific progress: Englishman William Bourne, for example, claimed that experienced captains were resistant to “newfangled tools,” such as maps.

Nations learned from nations, nautical classrooms sprung up

But slowly the introduction of instruments, charts and maps fueled advancements. The interplay among nations, which Schotte discusses, is interesting. The English learned from the Spanish: In 1558, Captain Stephen Borough, from Dover, visited Seville and viewed the instruments and manuals used to teach Spanish navigators, then brought back this knowledge to the court of Queen Elizabeth I.

As well, naval administrators, keen to get a leg up on the competition, sought to find out what neighbouring countries were developing. Soon nautical classrooms, textbooks and examination processes spread across Europe.

Several inventions were game changing

Comparing the 1400s to the 1500s, the average length of voyages more than tripled.

Schotte describes the key instruments that facilitated this great change. For example, by the 16th century, mariners were able to ascertain latitude using news tools like a cross-staff, backstaff or mariner’s ring. A navigator using a backstaff, for example, looked at the sun to measure its altitude.

Three tools, from left: (1) Backstaff (Amsterdam, 1637). Leiden University Library (2313 F 14). (2) Golden Number (1605), from ‘Tractaet des Tijdts' Deur Robert Cuningham (B4179), Collection Maritiem Museum Rotterdam. (3) Traverse board (Amsterdam, 1840-60). Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam.
Three tools, from left: (1) Backstaff (Amsterdam, 1637). Leiden University Library (2313 F 14). (2) Golden Number (1605), from ‘Tractaet des Tijdts’ Deur Robert Cuningham (B4179), Collection Maritiem Museum Rotterdam. (3) Traverse board (Amsterdam, 1840-60). Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam.

The Golden Number was another key tool, albeit non-technical. It involved the navigator counting with his fingers and thumb to figure out the epact – the number of days by which the solar year differs from the lunar year. (Knowledge of sun and stars became increasingly important as well as math skills related to nature and geographic knowledge.)

Early modern navigators also used Traverse boards, wooden boards marked with the points of the compass with holes and pegs by which to indicate the course of the ship and to calculate distance.

From technical advancements to highly charged personal stories, Schotte’s book is a fascinating read.

To read more about Schotte’s work, visit her faculty profile page. To learn more about the book, visit the website.

To learn more about Research & Innovation at York, follow us at @YUResearch; watch our new animated video, which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity, such as Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the snapshot infographic, a glimpse of the year’s successes.

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, Research Communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, York University, muellerm@yorku.ca

New study finds higher social capital and trust leads to better COVID-19 response in some U.S. states

COVID outbreak image
COVID outbreak image

In the United States, those states that are responding more quickly and effectively to the COVID-19 crisis also seem to have higher levels of social capital built up and citizens who trust more in their governments and health agencies, according to new research by York University Assistant Professor of sociology Cary Wu and team.

The paper was published in the journal Contexts.

Social capital refers to the networks of relationships between people who live, work and play in any one place, and speaks to the strength of their communities, workplaces and other social groups.

Cary Wu
Cary Wu

As pandemics such as COVID-19 spread because of our social nature, having high social capital and trust is one way to help prevent spread.

“States with higher trust and social capital are better able to mobilize resources and foster collective actions,” says Wu of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

The researchers found that states with the most social capital and trust positively predicted which ones tended to have higher testing rates. This was regardless of household income, income inequality, racial diversity or whether the states had a Republican or Democratic leaning.

“People with little confidence in their government or health agencies are less likely to comply with prevention and control measures,” says Wu.

The researchers used data from the Social Capital Project to ascertain the levels of social capital and trust in each state.

Do you have a story to share about how you are coping, or what you are doing differently, during the COVID-19 pandemic? Email us at yfile@yorku.ca.

York students shine at National Japanese Speech Contest

National Japanese Speech Contest
National Japanese Speech Contest

Lily Feng
Lily Feng

Three York University students took home prizes at the 31st National Japanese Speech Contest, which was held online for the first time in its history on March 29. The students, each of whom won top prizes in the Ontario Japanese Speech Contest in February, participated in the beginners, intermediate and open categories, comprising three of Ontario’s four representatives in the competition.

Lily Feng placed first in the beginners category, while Anson Wong earned the top prize in the intermediate category. Michael Tracey won second prize in the open category. A total of 26 students from across Canada participated in the contest.

“The York students were outstanding and distinguished themselves among the contestants in the content and performance of their speeches,” said Norio Ota, associate professor in York University’s Japanese Studies program. Ota noted that York has become the leading winner among Canadian Universities in the field of Japanese language education.

Anson Wong
Anson Wong

“I would also like to congratulate Professors Kumiko Inutsuka and Akiko Mitsui,” Ota continued, “who diligently coached these students until the last moment in the final online rehearsal, for their excellent advising and coaching.” Professor Inutsuka as well as Professor Noriko Yabuki-Soh, also served on the contest’s organizing committee.

The York students were pleased with the benefits they gained from participating in the contest. “My experience was enlightening and fulfilling,” said Wong. “The competitions gave me the opportunity to practice my Japanese language skills, as well as to build confidence and new connections with talented people.”

Michael Tracey
Michael Tracey

“This memory will always be with me,” exclaimed Feng. “I truly encourage students to join in on this amazing experience.”

This year’s contest can be viewed on YouTube.

More information about Japanese Studies at York University can be found on the program’s website. Additional details about the competition can be found on the National Japanese Speech Contest website.

My Secret Life: Politics professor posts prolifically about power pop

Dennis Pilon is an associate professor in the Department of Politics in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at York University. He specializes in Canadian and comparative politics with a focus on institutions, electoral institutions, political parties, voting systems, LGBTQ identity and working-class identity. In addition to his academic commitments – including having served as his program’s undergraduate director for six years – this York PhD graduate is raising two children with his husband, plays in a jam band and runs 30 kilometres per week.

Like many runners, he likes to listen to music while he runs. “When I started running, I thought, ‘with all this music, I’ll never run out,’” explained Pilon, an erstwhile collector of more than 5,000 records. “But then I kind of did.”

Pilon began searching for new music to listen to, which put him on a track toward a different kind of running. “I started running across all of this new music that I thought was so great, that it seemed like nobody knew anything about,” said Pilon.

Denis Pilon
Denis Pilon

He was soon chasing an idea that would give him the opportunity to combine his life-long love of music with his passion for informal, creative writing.

“I think every political scientist has thought, “oh I should write a blog,” Pilon joked, “so you can rant about whatever you think. But I thought it would be fun to do a blog that would focus on music.”

And so, in fall 2015, Pilon started Poprock Record, a website where he has posted weekly ever since.

Much like naming a band, finding a name for a music blog was an intricate process. After researching what other blogs were called and finding out which of his ideas were already taken, Pilon set about coming up with a clever name that would be in tune with the style of music he wanted to write about. “It struck me in reading the other blogs that they were too narrow,” he explained. “People make the gap in musical styles much broader than it necessarily has to be. On the one hand you’ve got people who like rock ‘n’ roll, and then you’ve got people who like pop music.

“I always liked the kind of classic rock ‘n’ roll combo sound, but I also like songs that had a very strong melodic quality,” Pilon said. “The musical style that I like, the closest thing that came to it is a genre called ‘power pop,’ a sort of guitar-oriented music associated with the early work by The Who, inspired by the melodic rock and roll of the 1960s and ’70s.

“Often you’ll hear people say things like, ‘Oh, there’s no good music today,’” said Pilon. “I was thinking, ‘Wow, if you like The Beatles, there are tons of bands today that are writing great music that’s not exactly the same as The Beatles, but clearly in the style of that music.’

“It’s definitely rock ‘n’ roll but it’s not screaming guitar solos or guys with spandex playing axes,” Pilon laughed. “That’s why I thought ‘pop rock’ is a better descriptor of the kind of music that I like.

“And then ‘record’ was of course a double entendre,” Pilon explained. “The vinyl record and a record that is an account of something.”

Music has been a constant presence in Pilon’s life. “I grew up with my parents record collection,” he remembered. “They were children of the ’60s and so they introduced me to all of the classics from that era, stretching from the ’50s with Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly into the ’60s, with the Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, some folk and some country and western.”

Much of his early working life was focused on music as well, having worked as a DJ for weddings and on a cruise ship, and hosted a show on college radio. His first career was in commercial radio.

A young Dennis Pilon with his electric guitar, a replica of the 1957 Fender Jazzmaster played by Buddy Holly and Elvis Costello
A young Dennis Pilon with his electric guitar, a replica of the 1957 Fender Jazzmaster played by Buddy Holly and Elvis Costello

Writing about music has been natural extension of his passion for most of his life. “I wrote a lot about music when I was young for school papers and college papers,” Pilon recalled. “I started as a teenager as a creative writer. I think my initial dream was to be a novelist.”

For Pilon, blogging represents a refreshing break from the conventions and formalities of the writing he does for his day job. “I can just write with a kind of enthusiasm for the music.

“I always admired the choppy, certain kind of advertising writing, that you often found on the back covers of records from the 1960s,” Pilon continued. “The write up by the A&R man, the arts and repertoire man – and it would always be a man – would be a sort of description of the act in a very exaggerated way.”

The range of posts on Poprock Record varies from regular features such as “Around the Dial” and “Breaking News” to posts rooted in themes that play on puns of deep rock ‘n’ roll knowledge that act like ‘easter eggs’ for those in the know. In “Is that so gay? The queer poprock of The Smiths and Pansy Division,” Pilon explores some of his own experience into a rumination on queer themes and music. “Telephonic poprock!” delves into the history of the telephone in the genre. “Campaigning for hooks: Vote poprock!,” sees professional and personal blend in a post featuring pop rockers taking up political themes.

Asked which musicians, alive or dead, he would most like to interview for his blog, Pilon chose Bruce Springsteen, who “combines rock ‘n’ roll with a serious appreciation of working-class identity and life,” in a way that is rare in popular culture, or Ezra Furman, “whose music is damn catchy and touches on a host of fascinating themes like gender and class.”

While the hobby is enjoyable and fulfilling for Pilon, his blogging can also benefit some of the artists he writes about, many of whom will use reviews of their music as promotional materials to attract a greater audience. “That’s nice to do,” said Pilon. “I like the idea of being able to help these artists further their careers and get more listeners.”

While he mostly writes about up-and-coming musicians, Pilon was once enthused when Ronnie Spector – of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted 1960s girl group the Ronettes – wrote back to him about a review he wrote about Spector’s cover of Marshall Crenshaw’s “You’re My Favorite Waste of Time.” “That’s like getting a message from a real superstar,” Pilon exclaimed. “It’s totally cool.”

Outside of his busy professional and personal schedule, Pilon tries to write at least one new blog post per week. “There are a lot of blogs that start and don’t continue,” Pilon said. He expects that posting weekly will make the blog continue to look active. “This thing is live, people have a reason to come back every now and then and check in with what I’m doing.”

Pilon, who is currently on sabbatical and learning to “quasi-homeschool” during the COVID-19 outbreak, recently had a chapter on voting systems and diverse representation published in Queering Representation and a chapter on working class politics and identity in Political Ideologies in Parties, Policy, and Civil Society. Today, his music collection is comprised of a modest 1,700 records, approximately. He boasts with a smile that Poprock Record “brings joy to tens of people.”