SEEDS at York U facilitates science education for refugee families
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A new multidisciplinary grassroots initiative out of York University has launched to engage newly arrived refugee children in science education.
Families residing at COSTI’s Ralph Chiodo Family Immigration Reception Centre in Toronto were taken to Science Rendezvous
The initiative, Science Enrichment and Educational Development for Syrians & Refugees at York University (SEEDS at York U), is raising funds to take the children and their families, from countries such as Syria, Iraq and Somalia, to various science-oriented, educational events.
Families residing at COSTI’s Ralph Chiodo Family Immigration Reception Centre in Toronto were the first to participate, and were taken to Science Rendezvous at the Markham’s Farmers Market earlier this month.
“We are overwhelmed by the tremendous support from York University students, staff and professors who have donated time and money to support the transition and integration of families settling into Canada through science education,” said Sapna Sharma, a York U biologist who is leading the steering committee for SEEDS at York U.
At Science Rendezvous, the children took part in science demonstrations, hands-on activities and experiments, and were treated to a pizza lunch.
“Their enthusiasm for every aspect of the day, including the bus ride to Markham, was infectious,” said Sharma. “A common sentiment expressed by the refugees was: ‘We are happy because we are safe.’ ”
The Mayor of Markham, Frank Scarpitti, was on hand to welcome the families to Science Rendezvous and said “I am especially happy to welcome the refugees here to Science Rendezvous. It is so wonderful to see how Canadians have come forward to welcome new Canadians.”
Volunteer translators, including Jala Rizek and Nahla Salem who are currently graduate students in the Department of Psychology and Schulich School of Business at York University, helped coordinate the transportation and engage in science activities with the families.
“It was a humbling and emotional day for all volunteers to hear of the hardships the families endured, yet the enthusiasm with which they enjoyed their new life in Canada,” said Dawn Bazely, a York U biologist.
SEEDS at York U is currently accepting donations and planning for their next outing.
“The dedication and commitment from York U students to helping improve the lives of others is inspiring,” said Samantha Stefanoff, a York U biology graduate student. “We are encouraged by the support from our scientific and student community as we plan further outreach events this summer.”
Registration is now open for summer science camps at York
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After a successful run last year, the Faculty of Science is again offering innovative and engaging summer programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for youth. The programs use a discovery- and inquiry-based learning approach that fosters problem solving, critical thinking and an overall passion for STEM.
Two separate programs are offered and now open for registration: Science Explorations Summer Camps for Grades 3 to 8, and Helix Summer Science Institute for Grades 9 to 12.
Science Explorations Summer Camps
Two campers enjoy the summer Science Explorations Camp
Science Explorations Summer Camps are week-long educational day camps that run from July 4 to August 26 for students in Grades 3 to 8. The camps are held at the York University Keele Campus, and before- and after-care is available.
Each week, campers will engage in stimulating programs designed to make science fun, accessible, and enriching. They will investigate different topics in STEM through hands-on and exciting experiments that are connected to the Ontario science curriculum. Highlights include Code with Kids!, Mini-Med School, Into the Wild!, and Space Science.
Questions, comments, or concerns can be directed to York Science Engagement Programs at 416-736-2100 ext. 44552 or explore@yorku.ca.
Helix Summer Science Institute 2016
A Helix Summer Science Institute participant
Considered one of Canada’s premier high school summer science enrichment programs for high-performing students, Helix Summer Science Institute provides a series of week-long, non-credit intensive courses from July 4 to 29.
The courses focus on advanced and interdisciplinary science topics that draw upon research being conducted at York University. Streams include Biomedical Sciences, Applied Mathematics, Environmental Biology, Human & Animal biology, Neuroscience and Physics & Astronomy.
Applications will be accepted until June 1. After this date, space will be awarded based on availability. The institute also offers an optional residence program for students living outside of Toronto.
Questions, comments, or concerns can be directed to the York Science Engagement Programs at 416-736-2100 ext. 44552 or helix@yorku.ca.
Open Your Mind: Q&A with education researcher Tina Rapke
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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 Tina Rapke, a professor and researcher jointly appointed to the Faculties of Education and Science.
Rapke’s research is focused on developing and testing classroom-based strategies for teaching and learning mathematics.
Q. Please describe your field of current research
A. Most of my research is about teaching and learning mathematics. I usually focus on situating and studying some cool strategies that I see in classrooms within the literature, and developing and testing strategies based on current literature. Actually, a lot of them are researched right here in York University classrooms.
Tina Rapke
Q. What inspired you to pursue this line of research? Who or what sparked your interest in this line of inquiry?
A. I teach mathematics courses, mathematics education courses, and publish in education journals. It seems natural to do research that allows me to satisfy several of my academic responsibilities. Developing teaching and learning strategies based on current literature, trying them out, and conducting research about them in my own and my colleagues’ classrooms lets me do just that. Plus, I had a really great doctoral supervisor that does similar things. I’ve learned from the best!
Q. How would you describe the significance of your research in lay terms?
A. The research I am involved with is about enhancing the learning and teaching of mathematics. Wow, that’s pretty vague.
Let me give you an example from my own postsecondary classroom. The literature on assessment has inspired me develop a strategy that involves students and their instructor developing exams. I really like the research concerning students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. Anyways, students in my courses, through assignment work, create practice exams, provide full solution keys and write and evaluate each others’ practice exams. I then craft the “live/actual” exam by including some of the questions from the student developed practice exams. Students can then use their experiences of this process and their developed materials as a resource to prepare to write the “live/actual” exam. To see the full details of this process and to read student comments that evidence deep approaches to learning see one of my latest articles. I promise the paper is friendly to people outside of mathematics education!
Q. How are you approaching this field in a different, unexpected or unusual way?
A. I think there are two significant components to the research I am a part of. One is a focus on student thinking, and two, I’ve been mentored by and am surrounded by some amazing people. Ok, so let me talk about about student thinking. Some might say that in my projects, student thinking is viewed as a resource in the classroom and there is an emphasis on ways to elicit and build upon student thinking. To put it in another way, my research and teaching are inseparable from and formed by students’ thinking.
Oh boy, that was a lot. What am I trying to say?
Let me unpack this with another example from one of the courses that I teach at York University in the department of mathematics and statistics, which aims to prepare students for upper-level mathematics courses. The learning objectives of this course are about developing mathematical thinking. I have created an interesting strategy around the idea of reviewing after students take their exams.
After writing an exam, instead of handing back graded exam papers, I hand students back a photocopy of their exam that I took before grading it. I explain to students that they will be assigning a score to their original work and revising it on a question by question basis. The revising and grading of each question occurs after students completed an assignment where they consider, evaluate and provide feedback to anonyomized exam responses that I have selected. I select a few responses that I consider to be of high and low quality. I selected the responses in hopes to draw students’ attention to areas that I feel they are struggling (i.e. help them identify their own areas of difficulty) and to draw their attention to “good” ideas in hopes of offering students a “better” idea to pick up on. This does take a lot of time, but maybe you can try it with just one question you are particularly concerned with when grading an exam from you course.
Notice that this strategy is reliant on and shaped by student responses to exam questions, i.e. it is inseparable from and formed by student thinking. Furthermore, the development/adaptation of this strategy was inspired by some of the literature that talks about using summative tests in formative ways (see link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11125-014-9329-7).
My own experiences indicate that this process helps students make sense of the grade that I have assigned to their work before the process, and encourages further learning. Of course, we collected data and a colleague and I will be sharing students’ assignments and exams scores this summer at conference to make claims about how this review strategy can encourage learning.
Q. How does your approach to the subject benefit the field?
A. There is a very practical component to my research. Furthermore, I have been having a lot of fun doing work that focuses on student thinking. I love my teaching and my research. I hope others, after reading my work or chatting with me at conferences, will use some of the strategies in their own teaching, develop more research-based strategies and have as much fun and success with them as I do/have had.
Q. Every researcher encounters roadblocks and challenges during the process of inquiry, can you highlight some of those challenges and how you overcame them?
A. There is a certain “messiness” involved in classroom-based research. I better not go into too much detail here. What I will say is that things don’t always go as planned and that is what we should expect.J Just roll with it, or in other words, evolve with it. Find me around campus and I’ll tell you more “off the record.”
Q. How has this research opened your mind to new possibilities or new directions?
A. I am continually learning from and about students’ mathematical thinking. I am amazed by how focusing on student thinking can enhance mathematics teaching and learning.
Q. Are there interdisciplinary aspects to your research? If so, what are they?
A. Yes, I do research in mathematics and education.
Q. Did you ever consider other fields of research?
A. Yes, mathematics. I do publish graph theory results in mathematics journals.
Q. Are you teaching any courses this year? If so, what are they? Do you bring your research experience into your teaching practice?
A. In case you haven’t heard enough about my classroom-based research, my colleagues and I will be talking about co-teaching with each other at the Teaching in Focus conference here at York University May 19 and 20). We have had a great time co-teaching and developing other strategies together that focus on mathematical thinking that I have not outlined here.
Q. What advice would you give to students embarking on a research project for the first time?
A. Just “chillax.” Read lots and make your decisions based on existing literature.
Q. Tell us a bit about yourself.
A. I have two young children and a husband that I find to be hilarious. My mom lives with us, which allows for my husband and I to pursue our work. My husband and I are very thankful for having a live-in grandma! Our kids tell us that she is their best friend. One of my kids goes as far as to tell us that they are going to marry grandma – my husband teases my mom and suggests that she might consider someone who can buy her a drink. My family keeps me laughing all day long.
Unfortunately, my family is trying to ban mathematics education from our dinner conversation. Let’s just say it’s not working out so well for them.
Q. How long have you been a researcher?
A. Over 10 years but I consider myself an emerging scholar.
Q. What books, recordings or films have influenced your life?
A. I don’t read much outside of academia.
Q. What are you reading and/or watching right now?
A. My kids have a rule about only watching cartoons on our TV. I have become very good at tuning it out when reading academic pieces.
Q. If you could have dinner with any one person, dead or alive, who would you select and why?
A. I would like to have supper with myself in 20 years. I am excited about how much my perspectives will have changed and developed (and anticipating to feel a little humble and awkward about where I am now).
Q. What do you do for fun?
A. We are currently renovating my husband’s shop to include a poolside bar. Feel free to stop by for a pint and a chat about mathematics education.
Rare transit of Mercury delights York U astronomers
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York University astronomers arrived at the crack of dawn on Monday to prepare for the rare transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun. They were part of a global group of observatories and astronomers who took time to observe the tiny planet as it steadily made its way across the 1,392,000 kilometre (km) face of the Sun. Mercury, which resembled a small black dot, could be seen moving in a deliberate path across the Sun’s vast face. It was travelling at a good clip of 162,000 km an hour, and began its transit at 7:12am, completing the journey at 2:42pm.
Several hundred avid astronomers joined the club online during the transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun. Mercury is seen as a tiny dot on the upper left of the Sun. The live feed was also available on the large scoreboard in the York Lions Stadium.
Several hundred people dropped by to join the York astronomers and members of the York University Astronomy Club. Some like filmmaker Matthew Scatterty, came from as far away as Niagara Falls. “I watched a live stream for a previous event and got hooked,” he said. “So I joined the Astronomy Club at York University. Many people are unaware that it is open to the general public. It has been an awesome experience.”
The Astronomy Club also convened an online chat and provided a live feed of the transit, which was watched by grade school science classes, astronomers and observatories around the world. A camera was mounted at the back of a 480mm telescope equipped with a solar filter (a Meade Instruments Series 6000, with a focal length of 480mm) in order to provide the feed. The entire apparatus, which was situated in one of the two domes at the York University Astronomical Observatory, tracked the Sun and Mercury’s progress. Observatory telescopes equipped with solar filters and the astronomy.blog.yorku.ca live feed continued throughout the day. Solar glasses were made available for everyone attending. The main scoreboard at the stadium also displayed the event.
Usually reserved for Monday nights, the club’s live feed normally runs from 8:30 to 10pm in conjunction with an online radio show hosted by the club and the York University Astronomical Observatory. On Wednesday evenings, the observatory hosts an Online Public Viewing. Both events are free and open to the public and are highly popular with astronomers. Monday’s transit of Mercury was no exception with several hundred tuning in to watch the event and chat with York astronomers. The live feed saved the day for astronomers working in the observatory in Byron, Illinois and those situated in parts of the United Kingdom, as both regions were overcast and viewing the transit was rendered impossible.
“Today, we have 10 staff here by the York Lions Stadium and in the observatory. There has been a steady stream of people visiting, about 20 to 30 each hour and there are several hundred people in the chat room,” said Paul Delaney, director of the York University Astronomical Observatory and the Division of Natural Science in the Faculty of Science.
Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System and is closest to the Sun. Its orbital period is 88 Earth days, which is much faster than any other planet. Mercury has no moons and is named for the Roman god Mercury. One day on Mercury lasts 59 Earth days. Mercury is situated about 77 million km away from Earth and sits about 57.9 million km from the Sun.
The York University Astronomical Observatory and the Astronomy Club at York University presented the Mercury transit event in cooperation with York’s Athletics and Recreation Team. For more information on this and other events, email observe@yorku.ca.
Study finds visual perception of glow can be toggled on and off
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Researchers out of York’s Department of Psychology and Centre for Vision Research have determined that visual perception of glowing surfaces can be “switched on and off” through perceived 3D shapes.
Minjung Kim
PhD student Minjung Kim was the lead author on the study performed in Professor Richard Murray’s lab. Murray, along with Professor Laurie Wilcox, co-authored of the study, which appears in the publication Current Biology.
The study “Perceived three-dimensional shape toggles perceived glow” shows that a perceived three-dimensional shape plays a role in glow perception, and by changing visual cues to 3D shapes vivid percepts of glow can be toggled on and off.
“It examines how people can tell that an object is glowing – that is, creating and emitting light instead of simply reflecting light from the environment around it,” said Murray. “Our work shows that glow perception is more sophisticated than researchers have previously thought.”
An image of “dark-valley” images and “bright-valley” images
Most surfaces reflect light from external sources, but others emit light – or glow. The team of researchers used computer-generated images of wavy surfaces and created “dark-valley” images and “bright-valley” images.
In the dark-valley images, the team rendered the wavy surfaces under diffuse light, so the peaks in the surface were bright and the valleys were dark; in the bright-valley images, the team manipulated the images to invert their 3D shape turning peaks into valleys, and vice versa, so the peaks were dark and valleys were bright.
“Suddenly, the images looked like translucent, glowing surfaces that emitted light from a source inside or behind them,” said Murray.
In the dark-valley images the peaks in the surface were bright and the valleys were dark; in the bright-valley images, the team manipulated the images to invert their 3D shape so the peaks were dark and valleys were bright
These results, he said, are significant because the dark-valley and bright-valley stimuli are almost identical, except for their 3D shape. The experiments show glow percepts can be toggled on and off by changing the three-dimensional shape of a surface and keeping everything else about the image the same.
“This advances our understanding of human vision, as it reveals some of the cues that the visual system uses to solve the difficult problem of seeing light sources and shapes in complex images,” he said. It goes beyond the visual perception of brightness.
The team created a YouTube video explaining these findings and shows the dark-valley and bright-valley images used.
Registration is now open for summer science camps at York
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After a successful run last year, the Faculty of Science is again offering innovative and engaging summer programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for youth. The programs use a discovery- and inquiry-based learning approach that fosters problem solving, critical thinking and an overall passion for STEM.
Two separate programs are offered and now open for registration: Science Explorations Summer Camps for Grades 3 to 8, and Helix Summer Science Institute for Grades 9 to 12.
Science Explorations Summer Camps
Two campers enjoy the summer Science Explorations Camp
Science Explorations Summer Camps are week-long educational day camps that run from July 4 to August 26 for students in Grades 3 to 8. The camps are held at the York University Keele Campus, and before- and after-care is available.
Each week, campers will engage in stimulating programs designed to make science fun, accessible, and enriching. They will investigate different topics in STEM through hands-on and exciting experiments that are connected to the Ontario science curriculum. Highlights include Code with Kids!, Mini-Med School, Into the Wild!, and Space Science.
Questions, comments, or concerns can be directed to York Science Engagement Programs at 416-736-2100 ext. 44552 or explore@yorku.ca.
Helix Summer Science Institute 2016
A Helix Summer Science Institute participant
Considered one of Canada’s premier high school summer science enrichment programs for high-performing students, Helix Summer Science Institute provides a series of week-long, non-credit intensive courses from July 4 to 29.
The courses focus on advanced and interdisciplinary science topics that draw upon research being conducted at York University. Streams include Biomedical Sciences, Applied Mathematics, Environmental Biology, Human & Animal biology, Neuroscience and Physics & Astronomy.
Applications will be accepted until June 1. After this date, space will be awarded based on availability. The institute also offers an optional residence program for students living outside of Toronto.
Questions, comments, or concerns can be directed to the York Science Engagement Programs at 416-736-2100 ext. 44552 or helix@yorku.ca.
Travel fellowship sends York Biology professor to Poland to study poisonous E. Coli
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Logan Donaldson
Logan Donaldson
Thanks to a research and travel grant from the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund (BWF), Logan Donaldson, professor in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, is on route to Poland this month to study E. Coli strains that cause food poisoning.
Donaldson and his team at York are experts in using Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and other techniques to determine the atomic structure of proteins involved in brain cell signaling and viral function.
“Just like the saying ‘A picture is worth a thousand words,’ the detail I gain from my research allows my team to understand the relationship between a protein’s architecture and its function,” explains Donaldson.
The new funding from BWF has provided him with an opportunity to initiate a new research partnership with Grzegorz Wegrzyn’s laboratory at the Katedra Biologii Molekularnej, University of Gdansk, Poland.
Donaldson met Wegrzyn’s team at a conference in 2015, where he shared some of his earlier published research on a viral protein called Ea8.5. This meeting sparked a collaboration between the two teams to explore the molecular differences between clinical strains of E. coli and those normally found in our intestines. Most of the time, infection with a pathogenic strain of E. coli, such as O157:H7, results in a few days of abdominal discomfort; in children and the elderly, there is a risk of kidney failure and death.
Specifically, Donaldson and Wegrzyn are studying a genetic region called exo-xis that is known to affect the life cycle of the harmful E. coli strains, although it is unclear how this is accomplished.
“When we embarked on our research, we weren’t sure what the exo-xis region did,” says Donaldson. “However, my research group recently found that there are a set of proteins made by the region, and we have made progress towards determining these proteins’ atomic structures and functions.”
He is travelling to the Wegrzyn laboratory this month to share his new insights with his collaborators and learn about their findings.
The trainees at York University involved in this research include undergraduate science students Shailee Perez and Ali Rizvi (also 2015 NSERC USRA recipients), and Ludimila Golodetzi, a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry.
Reminder: Drop by the York Lions Stadium on May 9 to watch Mercury cross the Sun
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The York University Astronomical Observatory and the Astronomy Club at York University in cooperation with York’s Athletics and Recreation Team invites the University community to join them in watching the planet Mercury in transit across our Sun on Monday May 9.
Paul Delaney
“Observing the Mercury transit reveals one of the fundamental ways we detect exoplanets orbiting other stars,” said Paul Delaney, director of the York University Astronomical Observatory and the Division of Natural Science in the Faculty of Science. “This event highlights the gravitational embrace stars have for planets and how we can learn so much from such simple observations.”
The last time Mercury made the move was in 2006 and while the next time such an event will be visible in Canada occurs is 2019, after that we will not be able to see such a transit “at home” until 2049.
Observatory telescopes equipped with solar filters and a live feed (astronomy.blog.yorku.ca) will be in place at York Lions Stadium, from 9am to 2pm, with solar glasses available for everyone attending. The main scoreboard at the Stadium will display the event with seating available in the west facing stands. This is a free public event with knowledgeable students and faculty available to answer questions.
Mercury transits the Sun as seen from Earth in 2006. Credit: ESA NASA SOHO
Since the orbit of Mercury lies inside of Earth’s orbit, Mercury passes between Earth and the Sun about 13 times per century. The combination of Mercury’s orbital period and orbital inclination with respect to Earth give rise to the relatively low number of such transit events. From Earth, observers will see this as a small black dot moving slowly in front of the Sun. Toronto is well placed to observe the entire eight-hour event.
The actual transit will start at 7:12am and end at 2:42pm EDT. For more information, email observe@yorku.ca.
Watch Mercury in transit across the Sun on May 9
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Mercury transits the Sun as seen from Earth in 2006. Credit: ESA NASA SOHO
It’s a special event of “astronomical” proportions.
The York University Astronomical Observatory and the Astronomy Club at York University in cooperation with York’s Athletics and Recreation Team invites the community to join them in watching the planet Mercury in transit across our Sun on Monday May 9.
Paul Delaney
“Observing the Mercury transit reveals one of the fundamental ways we detect exoplanets orbiting other stars,” said Paul Delaney, director of the York University Astronomical Observatory and the Division of Natural Science in the Faculty of Science. “This event highlights the gravitational embrace stars have for planets and how we can learn so much from such simple observations.”
The last time Mercury made the move was in 2006 and while the next time such an event will be visible in Canada occurs is 2019, after that we will not be able to see such a transit “at home” until 2049.
Observatory telescopes equipped with solar filters and a live feed (astronomy.blog.yorku.ca) will be in place at York Lions Stadium, from 9am to 2pm, with solar glasses available for everyone attending. The main scoreboard at the Stadium will display the event with seating available in the west facing stands. This is a free public event with knowledgeable students and faculty available to answer questions.
Mercury transits the Sun as seen from Earth in 2006. Credit: ESA NASA SOHO
Since the orbit of Mercury lies inside of Earth’s orbit, Mercury passes between Earth and the Sun about 13 times per century. The combination of Mercury’s orbital period and orbital inclination with respect to Earth give rise to the relatively low number of such transit events. From Earth, observers will see this as a small black dot moving slowly in front of the Sun. Toronto is well placed to observe the entire eight-hour event.
The actual transit will start at 7:12am and end at 2:42pm EDT. For more information, email observe@yorku.ca.
Six graduate researchers honoured with thesis prize
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The 2016 FGS Thesis and Dissertation Prize winners include, from left, Vladimir Paskaljevic, Gabrielle LaFortune, Douglas Hunter, Dana Phillips and Daniel Fitzakerley; award-winner David Moffette is absent from the photo
Six York graduate students were recently honoured for their research contributions in their respective fields. The Thesis & Dissertation Prizes are distributed by the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) to celebrate exceptional master’s and PhD theses from the previous calendar year.
Barbara Crow, dean of FGS, was on hand to present the awards to recipients, who were accompanied by their supervisors and graduate program directors.
“Congratulations to all of you for your incredible contributions to graduate research here at York,” she said, while noting the remarkable depth and diversity of research topics honoured.
Master’s recipients
Vladimir Paskaljevic, Film Absence is Present
Paskaljevic’s thesis, which consists of a 19-minute short film, centres on the emotional aspects of immigration through the experiences of two women: a daughter in Canada and a mother in Serbia.
Supervisor John Greyson stated of the film: “Confidently adopting an idiom of the new neo-realism, and told through a series of minimal scenes and late night Skypes, Absence is Present is notable for its deft script, effective camera work, brilliant understated performances and profound insights into the loneliness and pain that can lie at the heart of parent/child relationships.”
Paskaljevic noted there is no “recipe” in the arts, and that the past two years of his life have brought forth very fruitful conversations and discussions with colleagues in his field.
The Toronto Film Critics Association also awarded Absence is Present the Manulife Best Student Film Award in 2015 out of more than 600 eligible films.
Dana Phillips, Law Let’s Talk About Sexual Assault: A Feminist Exploration of the Relationship Between Legal and Experiential Discourses
Phillips’ LLM thesis challenges the tendency within feminist legal thought to imagine a sharp division between law and lived experience, and specifically between feminist methods that engage legal discourse and those that invoke grassroots narratives grounded in experience.
“This was a chance to reflect on an issue that’s been on a lot of people’s minds in this country,” said Phillips, while referencing the recent Jian Gomeshi sexual assault trial in Toronto. “A lot of feminist energy is being put into the sexual assault discourse in hopes of improving the lived experiences of women.”
She also thanked her supervisor Professor Benjamin Berger for his “above and beyond” support. Berger is now her doctoral supervisor at Osgoode.
Gabrielle LaFortune, Linguistics & Applied Linguistics A Qualitative Study of Anti-Feminist Discursive Strategies in Online Comment Sections
LaFortune’s work investigates anti-feminist backlash in online comments sections of specific social media and mainstream news websites. By providing a feminist critical discourse analysis to the existing literature, her work assists feminists to resist silencing online, and to provide tools for others to engage with it successfully.
“Her thorough and insightful analysis of linguistic data not only demonstrates her strong grasp of the relevant research literature and the methodology of critical discourse analysis, but importantly, it yields original insights about insidious and systemic expressions of sexism in online commentary,” said Philipp Angermeyer, graduate program director in Linguistics & Applied Linguistics. “Her thesis thus makes a significant contribution to the field of language and gender studies, but also has the potential to have a significant impact beyond the academy.”
Five of the 2016 Thesis & Dissertation Prize winners and their supervisors
PhD recipients
Douglas Hunter, History Stone of Power: Dighton Rock, Colonization and the Erasure of an Indigenous Past
Hunter’s dissertation examines the historiography of Dighton Rock, a 40-ton boulder on the east bank of the Taunton River in Massachusetts, and contested artifact of American antiquity. Hunter – an accomplished author whose novels have been a finalist for both the Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction – received unanimous praise for his contribution to our understanding of the settlement of the Americas.
Hunter returned to academia in 2010 after a 30-year absence, and was awarded a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship in 2012. A return wasn’t even on his mind until his future supervisor, Carolyn Podruchny, connected with him over Facebook, and the conversation began.
“[Doug] positioned himself to help bridge the gap for those in and out of the academy, and worked to ensure that history belongs to everybody,” she said.
Daniel Fitzakerley, Physics & Astronomy Antihydrogen Via Two-Stage Charge Exchange
With respect to his work, which ws performed at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research, Fitzakerley notes that it “focused on creating atoms of antihydrogen (the bound state of an antiproton and positron) using a laser-controlled, two stage charge-exchange technique. This technique has the potential to create the coldest, most easily trapped antihydrogen atoms possible, which is crucial for the long-term goal of performing spectroscopic measurements that test matter-antimatter symmetries.”
This work was part of the international ATRAP (Antihydrogen trap) collaboration, an experiment to compare hydrogen atoms with their antimatter equivalents.
Supervisor Eric Hessels spoke highly of Fitzakerley’s doctoral studies at York, from participating in approximately 12 notable publications, to conducting some “amazingly complicated experiments” as major contributions to his field.
David Moffette, Sociology Governing Irregular Migration Logics and Practices in Spanish Immigration Policy
Professor Lorna Erwin, former graduate program director in sociology, said Moffette’s dissertation is “by any standard an exceptional piece of scholarship.
“The intellectual creativity with which Moffette deals with his topic is stunning. His grasp of political sociology, governmentality studies, critical policy studies and the sociology of the law is likewise remarkable.”
While at York, Moffette’s academic excellence was recognized with seven prestigious awards and scholarships. Erwin outlined these achievements, and said “he has been remarkably productive, having published five articles in top-rated, peer-reviewed journals, two book chapters, several book reviews and a number of online reports, in addition to presenting his research at national and international conferences.”
Moffette was also the recipient of the Governor General’s Gold Medal in 2015, awarded to graduate students with the highest academic standing.
