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Two feminist researchers receive the Mary McEwan Memorial Award

Featured image for the postdoc research story shows the word research in black type on a white background
Featured image for the postdoc research story shows the word research in black type on a white background

Two York grads are the recipients of 2015-16 Mary McEwan Memorial Award. Helene Vosters (PhD ’15) and Veronika Novoselova (MA ’11, PhD’16) are the recipients of the 2014-15 and the 2015-16 awards respectively.

Helene Vosters

Helene Vosters
Helene Vosters

Vosters, an artist, scholar and activist, is the recipient of the 2014-15 award. She holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies (York University) and is currently a Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Manitoba. Her work explores issues of state violence, the politics of its transmission into social memory, and the role of performance and aesthetic practices in mobilizing resistance. She received the award for her project, titled “Good Mourning Canada? Canadian Military Commemoration and its Lost Subjects. ”

 

Using the Highway of Heroes as a point of departure, “Good Mourning Canada? Canadian Military Commemoration and its Lost Subjects” interrogates the role of Canadian military commemoration in the construction of nationalist narratives and gendered and raced hierarchies of grief. Extending the work of feminist historians, Vosters argues that the displacement of women—as gender-marked bodies—from their historical role as the primary public mediators of mourning, left its new mediators conveniently unmarked. Unlike the invisibility of the marginalized or disavowed “other,” the privileged invisibility of military commemoration’s unmarked mediators is a powerful one that naturalizes the gendered and racialized essentialisms produced by processes of militarism, colonialism, and nationalism.

The theoretical and historical labour of Vosters’ research is done in concert with a process of embodied inquiry in the form of three durational memorial performance projects—Impact Afghanistan War; Unravel: A Meditation on the Warp and Weft of Militarism; and Flag of Tears: Lament for the Stains of a Nation. Following performance and queer studies theorist José Esteban Muñoz, each of these projects engages a disidentificatory and intersectional feminist embrace of the gendered lexicons of violence, war, and peace as a mechanism for resisting the violent essentialisms of militarism and nationalism. As with her examination of the history of women’s lament, through the use of this kind of performance approach, her intention is to make strange military commemoration’s normalizing mournful narratives by drawing attention to their construction and their performances of in/visibility.

Vosters’ scholarly contributions include articles in Canadian and international peer-reviewed academic journals (Performance Research, Theatre Research in Canada, Canadian Journal of Practice-based Research in Theatre, and Canadian Theatre Review), and book sections in Performance Studies in Canada (forthcoming), Performing Objects and Theatrical Things and Theatre of Affect.

Veronika Novoselova

Veronika Novoselova
Veronika Novoselova

Novoselova is the recipient of the 2015-16 award for her project titled, “Networked Publics, Networked Politics: Resisting Gender-Based Violent Speech in Digital Media.”

Novoselova holds an MA and a PhD from York University. In 2016, she completed her doctoral research in the Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist & Women’s Studies. Her dissertation identifies, contextualizes, and analyzes responses to verbal violence on digital media platforms across Canada and the United States.

Located at the intersections of media studies and feminist theory, her most recent research explores how digitally mediated confessions reveal negotiations of privilege and difference in feminist blogging cultures. In addition to teaching and research, Novoselova for the past four years has been serving as a Social Media Coordinator at Feral Feminisms, a peer-reviewed multimedia journal that is based in Toronto.

“Networked Publics, Networked Politics: Resisting Gender-Based Violent Speech in Digital Media” is a qualitative study of digital media that identifies and analyzes feminist responses to violent speech in networked environments across Canada and the United States between 2011 and 2015. Exploring how verbal violence is constitutive of and constituted by power relations in the feminist blogosphere,  Novoselova asks the following set of research questions: How do feminist bloggers politicize and problematize instances of violent speech on digital media? In what ways are their networked interactions and self-representations reconfigured as a result of having to face hostile audiences? What modes of agency appear within feminist blogging cultures?

Drawing on interviews with the key players in the feminist blogosphere and providing a discursive reading of selected digital texts, Novoselova identifies networked resistive strategies including digital archiving, public shaming, strategic silence and institutional transformations. She argues that feminist responses to violent speech are varied and reflect not only long-standing concerns with community building and women’s voices in public context, but also emerging anxieties around self-branding, professional identity and a control over one’s digital presence. This research underscores the importance of transformative capacities of networked feminist politics and contextualizes modes of participation in response to problematic communication.

About the Mary McEwan Memorial Award

Named in honour of Mary McEwan, a feminist psychologist, the Mary McEwan Memorial Award is awarded annually to one PhD dissertation produced per year at York University in the area of feminist scholarship. An awards committee of faculty affiliated with the Centre for Feminist Research selects the winners.

Bharat Masrani says diversity is strength at Schulich convocation

Schulich School of Business has one of the most diverse student bodies of any business school in North America and in today’s global economy this provides a significant competitive advantage, according to Bharat Masrani (BBA ’78, MBA ’79), president and CEO of TD Bank Group.

Chancellor Greg Sorbara, Bharat Masrani and President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri

“In Canada, we see diversity as a strength – not a weakness,” said Masrani to the more than 1,000 graduating students at Schulich’s Spring Convocation, where he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by York University for his achievements in business and the community. “I’m convinced that success, in whatever form, relies on the forces that bring us together, not drive us apart.”

Masrani, who graduated from the Schulich School of Business 38 years ago, is president and CEO of TD Bank Group. He is a champion of York University throughout the TD community, and returns to Schulich frequently as a guest speaker. As part of Schulich’s 50th Anniversary celebrations last year, he was keynote speaker at CONNECT2016.

Masrani became the first member of a visible minority to ascend to the corner office of a major Canadian bank, being appointed president and CEO of TD in 2014. His banking career with TD spans more than three decades of multi-faceted experience. Starting his career at TD in 1987, he has held various roles in four countries, including India where in 1995 he set up the bank’s first offices in Mumbai.

Born and raised in Uganda, in the early ’70s his community was expelled despite being active in the country’s growing economy. Moving to Canada and attending Schulich, he told graduands, he was never denied the opportunities to excel. Masrani said his success was only measured by his level of commitment, his abilities, and character.

Schulich Dean Dezsö J. Horváth and Bharat Masrani

“Bharat Masrani’s extraordinary business career, his global orientation, and his commitment to the principles of diversity and inclusion are an inspiration to our students and graduates alike,” said Schulich Dean Dezsö J. Horváth.

Story supplied by Jason Miller, Schulich School of Business

Dr. Michael Dan urges grads to close the gap for Canada’s Indigenous peoples

On the eve of National Aboriginal Day, Toronto neurologist Dr. Michael Dan visited York University to receive an honorary doctor of laws in recognition of his work in social innovation, as a humanitarian, and for his role as a philanthropist. The degree was awarded to Dan during the convocation ceremony the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies on June 20.

Toronto physician Michael Dan speaks to convocation

Dan is a leading philanthropist, a supporter of human rights, peace in the Middle East, First Nations initiatives and local charities. His career spans the fields of neurosurgery, biotechnology, and hydroelectric power. It was his work with Canada’s First Nations communities that informed the theme of his convocation address. He began by speaking about the Indigenous concept of the importance of the convocation ceremony, and of ceremonies in general.

“One of the most important teachings I have received from Indigenous people is that everything is a ceremony. How we greet each new day is a ceremony. How we address one another in a public space is a ceremony. How we care for and relate to the natural world is a ceremony. In Settler society, we often overlook the importance of ceremony, but not today,” said Dan. “Today is all about ceremony.”

Graduating from university adds anywhere from four to seven years to a person’s lifespan, said Dan, because by virtue of an education, people are better informed and more able to make better health choices over the course of their lives. He asked those present to contrast that advantage with the fact that many in Canadian society are excluded from higher education.

Above: From left, Chancellor Greg Sorbara, Dr. Michael Dan, and York President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri

“Historically, Indigenous people in Canada have had some of the worst educational experiences imaginable. The system of residential schools, invented by Settlers and imposed on them by Settlers, lasted from 1830 to 1996,” said Dan, noting that even today, Indigenous people in Canada, whether living in urban-based or remote reserves, don’t have the same, rich educational experiences and opportunities as other Canadians.

“There’s paradox at the heart of the greatest educational system in the world: an entire segment of society continues to be left behind, much to everyone’s detriment,” he said, noting that these problems don’t get better by themselves. Ironically, in December of 2016, the Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report that inequities in First Nations education remain, even after accounting for the new investments in Budget 2016.

No university education means less opportunity to improve social status, and no extra four to seven years of life. Not surprisingly, Dan noted, the average lifespan of First Nations in Canada is about seven years shorter than the national average. And among the Inuit, the difference is more like 15 years, he said.

He told grads that First Nations children end up in foster care at a rate that is 12 times that for non-Indigenous children and about 25 per cent of the federal prison population is Indigenous. “As Pam Palmeter [a Mi’kmaq lawyer, professor, activist and politician]likes to point out, it costs $100,000 per year to keep someone in prison. That’s roughly the same cost as an undergraduate degree. Today, a typical First Nations youth is more likely to end up in jail than to graduate from high school, let alone attend university.”

When Indigenous people are given the chance to attend university, said Dan, they graduate and find jobs just like everybody else—perhaps even at a higher rate than everybody else. They move back to their communities as teachers, nurses, doctors, and as entrepreneurs, and create economic activity on their reserves.

“It might take another seven generations to reverse the effects of colonization and residential schools, but we have to begin today,” said Dan. “Which means that it will be up to you — the graduating class of 2017 — to do your share of the heavy lifting. So consider this your last homework assignment. Your professors will check on you in 50 years, when Canada celebrates its bicentennial, to see if you’ve closed the social and economic gaps between Indigenous peoples and Settler Canadians. When the educational opportunities, and socioeconomic outcomes, are the same for both groups, then we will have achieved reconciliation.”

Dan closed his convocation address by exploring an Indigenous teaching: the meaning of the phrase “all my relations.”

“In the Indigenous worldview, all the two-legged ones are connected to each other, as well as to the natural world: to animals, plants, mother earth, the four waters, and to the sky above us, including the spirit world—where our life’s journey begins and ends,” said Dan. “All of my relations goes on forever, and we are all on this journey together, connected now by ceremony.

“Let us all travel the river of life together, and make the most of those extra four to seven years, building an even stronger, more equitable, and more inclusive Canada,” said Dan.

A former assistant professor of neurosurgery, Dan left medicine to become chief executive officer of Novopharm Biotech, a division of Novopharm Ltd, the generic drug company started by his father, Leslie. He is currently president of both Regulus Investments Inc. and Gemini Power Corp., a hydroelectric company that builds partnerships with First Nations communities. In 2002, he founded the Paloma Foundation to assist charities in the GTA. Dan is the recipient of many accolades including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Order of Ontario, the Order of St. John, and the Order of Canada.

Steve Paikin tells grads to stay the course of their dreams

Every door that slams in your face is progress, Steve Paikin told graudands during the final Spring Convocation ceremony for students in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies (LAPS).

Steve Paikin

Paikin, a journalist, was the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws at the June 21 ceremony and shared a few words with students about life after graduation.

He is best known as the host of TVO’s flagship current affairs program, The Agenda with Steve Paikin, which explores social, political, cultural and economic matters, and broadens the discussion on issues important to Ontarians.

He has moderated three federal and three provincial election leaders’ debates and has authored several books about politicians, including one about Ontario’s 18th premier, Bill Davis.

Paikin, who places high importance on education, is currently Chancellor of Laurentian University. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2013 and appointed to the Order of Ontario the following year.

Opening with a nod to outgoing York University President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri, and a tribute to Chancellor Greg Sorbara, Paikin said “there is no other chancellor anywhere in the world that I would rather receive this marvelous honour from”.

Chancellor Greg Sorbara, Steve Paikin and President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri

In an effort to keep his speech short and to the point, Paikin told grads he had two pearls of wisdom to offer, the first being “I hope you were nice to your classmates”.

He stressed the importance of creating amicable and positive connections with peers, because one of them could one day become your boss – which happened in his own experience.

Paikin’s second piece of advice was to persevere to follow a passion.

“If you feel you are absolutely, positively meant to do that work, you mustn’t give up until you get there,” he said, reminding grads that every door that slams in your face is progress.

“Remember this advice when it feels too hard and too impossible, and when you’ve received another rejection letter.”

There will be rocky roads, and unexpected challenges, but giving up shouldn’t be an option.

“So keep going keep standing out, keep being outstanding, work hard, have fun, and do what you have now been so well educated to do,” he said.

William MacDonald Evans says the best lesson is how to think

Graduands of York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering and Faculty of Science heard during their spring convocation ceremony on June 22 that the most important lesson learned during their studies was “how to think”.

William MacDonald Evans

William MacDonald Evans, former president of the Canadian Space Agency, spoke to students and their guests during the University’s ninth convocation ceremony after receiving an honorary doctor of laws.

Evans is a distinguished senior federal public servant whose career spans over 30 years in the Canadian space program and includes extensive experience in research, project management, policy development, international relations and senior management in several federal departments. Since retiring, Evans has been a consultant and remains an enthusiastic supporter of York’s Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science and space science programming.

Evans thanked York for the “immense honour”, and remarked that the University is a “major force behind much of Canada’s world-class space science program”. He acknowledged York scientists and engineers for their ground-breaking research on the ozone layer and pollution of the earth’s atmosphere, and praised York’s participation in a space mission set to happen in 2020.

Graduating students, he said, should be honored and recognized for their hard work.

“Now you are ready to leave the York incubator that has been your home for so many years, and make your way into the wonderful but complex world that awaits you,” he said.

Some graduates will enter the workforce, some will continue their studies, but all will have an impact on the world – a world that is changing more dramatically and faster than ever before, he said.

“Some of you may be concerned about how well you may be prepared … but you need not worry. I know from working with so many of your predecessors here at York, that your experience here has given you the academic tools that you need, but also the life skills required for lasting success,” said Evans. “You are indeed very fortunate to be graduates of York University.”

Students graduating may now realize it now, but have learned a lot more than what has come from a classroom, such as vital communications skills, how to be successful team players, how to build meaningful relationships, and how to think.

“Most importantly, you have learned how to think,” he said. “How to reason and how to persuade, those are very key elements of what you will bring to the world. This is what York has given you.”

Chancellor Greg Sorbara, William MacDonald Evans and President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri

He listed some of York’s alumni – a head of state, a Nobel Prize winning scientist, outstanding engineers and scientist, a Canadian astronaut, world famous actors, award winning journalist, business leaders, and provincial and federal politicians – and noted they have all taken their York experience and used it as a base for making the world a better place for all of humanity.

“You have been instilled with the same qualities,” he said.

Evans also reminded graduands that the world they enter today will be vastly different from the world they leave when they exit their careers. When he graduated 53 years ago, he said, at total of 143 people received engineering degrees – none of them women, and only a handful were visible minorities. He also recalled that five years after graduating, NASA placed the first human on the moon using a computer that had only 64 KB of memory, weighing 32 kg and measuring the size of a piece a carry-on luggage.

“Computing power that put a man on the moon is one-millionth of the power of a cell phone that each of us carries in our pockets today,” he said. “All of that happened in a period of 50 years.”

Learning how to think, reason and persuade is what will drive graduands forward in their lives, he offered.

“University taught me the value of learning and instilled in me the curiosity need to learn after university,” he said. “Today we mark the beginning of your ability to impact Canada, and indeed the world.”

Next stop, the Lassonde School’s Transportation Research Symposium June 27

The Lassonde School of Engineering will be hosting the Transportation Research Symposium on Tuesday, June 27, from 8.30am to 3pm in Room 125, Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence, Keele campus.

The Transportation Research Symposium is an interdisciplinary conference focusing on rapid urbanization and the resulting congestion, which has significant economic implications, loss of productivity, increased pollution, and health and safety concerns for commuters and residents of urban areas.

Peter Park

Department of Civil Engineering Professor Peter Park will lead the symposium. Park has more than 20 years of experience as a traffic safety analyst, transportation engineer and planner.

“The idea is to bring researchers together to find areas where we can collaborate,” said Park.

The interdisciplinary symposium will bring together Faculty from the Lassonde School of Engineering, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, Schulich School of Business, and Faculty of Environmental Studies. Participants will consider a variety of topics including GIS data analytics, vision-based technologies, electric vehicles, self-driving cars and more.

For more information contact Paulina Karwowska-Deaulniers at paulina.karwowska-desaulniers@lassonde.yorku.ca or Professor Peter Park at peter.park@lassonde.yorku.ca.

All are welcome to attend, however, organizers ask that you register for the event at http://bit.ly/2tXT5uN.

Two distinguished researchers honoured at convocation

Distinguished research professors Jonathan Edmondson and Joel Katz
Distinguished research professors Jonathan Edmondson and Joel Katz

The Senate Committee on Awards has selected Professor Joel Katz, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, and Professor Jonathan Edmondson, Department of History and Program in Classical Studies in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, as the 2017 recipients of the Distinguished Research Professorship.

A Distinguished Research Professor is a member of the faculty who has made outstanding contributions to the University through research and is one of the highest accolades accorded to a faculty member at York University.

Joel Katz
Joel Katz

Katz received the title of Distinguished Research Professor at Faculty of Health convocation ceremonies on Friday, June 16. Edmondson was awarded his title at LA&PS convocation ceremonies on Wednesday, June 21.

In nominating Katz for the Distinguished Research Professorship, Faculty of Health Professor Rebecca Pillai Riddell states: “Dr. Katz is widely acknowledged to be one of the most powerful international voices in establishing the scientific basis of how the phenomenon of pain is constructed in the mind.”

Faculty who supported the nomination wrote about how unusual it is for a psychologist to be considered an authority in clinical anesthesiology research. Katz is regarded as one of the best authorities in clinical research on postoperative pain.

His exceptional accomplishments have been widely recognized in Canada and internationally and he has received a number of major awards, including the twice-renewed Tier 1 CIHR Canada Research Chair in Health Psychology, the Distinguished Career Award from the Canadian Pain Society, the Canadian Psychological Association Donald O. Hebb Award for Distinguished Contributions to Science, and career scientist appointments from CIHR.

Jonathan Edmondson
Jonathan Edmondson

The nomination for Edmondson offers high praise for the international impact of his prolific, original scholarly research, his contributions to the development of young scholars and his reputation as a good citizen of the University.

In their nomination for Edmondson, York history Professors Benjamin Kelly and Jeremey Trevett state that Edmonson “is a historian of Ancient Rome whose career has been distinguished by major contributions to multiple fields within this broad area of specialization. He is an expert of international renown on Roman Spain, on Roman epigraphy (i.e. inscriptions on stone and metal), on Roman social history, especially family history, and on Roman spectacle.  Mastery of so many different areas of Roman history is highly unusual and Professor Edmondson has a strong claim to be the most distinguished Roman historian currently working in Canada.”

Edmondson is a  Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (U.K.) since 2009 and the corresponding member of the Real Academia de la Historia (Royal Academy of History, Spain).

York University’s Hart House renamed to create safe space for Indigenous peoples

Community members unveil the new name

At a ceremony during National Aboriginal Day at York University on June 21, Hart House was renamed Skennen’kó:wa Gamig, the House of Great Peace. And with that renaming comes the hope for further understanding and reconciliation.

The newly renovated Skennen’kó:wa Gamig will be a welcoming, safe and supportive space for Indigenous students, faculty and staff to come together in the spirit of Skennen’kó:wa (The Great Peace) to celebrate, and to share knowledge and teachings. The new name, Skennen’kó:wa Gamig, comes from both Mohawk and Anishnabe languages bringing together two of the confederacies that uphold and engage in the Dish with One Spoon Wampum territory.

Ruth Koleszar-Green and Vice-Provost Academic Alice Pitt

To Ruth Koleszar-Green, co-chair, Indigenous Council at York U, Skennen’kó:wa Gamig reminds her she has a responsibility to foster peace in the world. The house will be a place where that peace can take root through the understanding and the rebuilding of relationships.

“It’s also really important as students come to the University that they also have the opportunity to learn not only what they’re taught in their courses, but about their history and heritage. Some of those students learn about their history for the first time after coming to York U,” said Koleszar-Green. “This house provides a safe and supportive place for that learning, but it also allows for a space where Indigenous peoples can lead the conversation.”

York U’s Elder-on-Campus and Indigenous Knowledge Keeper Amy Desjarlias
York U’s Elder-on-Campus and Indigenous Knowledge Keeper Amy Desjarlais

The renaming ceremony began with a service by York U’s Elder-on-Campus and Indigenous Knowledge Keeper Amy Desjarlias, followed by a performance by Spirit Wind, a women’s hand drum group.

Gifts were presented to project supporters President Designate Rhonda Lenton, Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School Lorne Sossin and Trudy Pound-Curtis, Interim Vice-President Finance & Administration.

The ceremony included presenting of gifts and heart berries to guests. Above, Osgoode Hall Law School Dean Lorne Sossin and President-designate Rhonda Lenton are offered heart berries by Nancy Johnson, cultural program assistant, Centre for Aboriginal Student Services

“It is truly special to be able to celebrate National Aboriginal Day with the dedication of this space to York University’s Indigenous community, and with its renaming,” said President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. “Skennen’kó:wa Gamig is an important reminder of our ongoing mission to make our campuses open and collaborative places, and to honour our commitment to advance opportunities for Indigenous students across the country.”

Skennen’kó:wa Gamig is on York University’s Keele campus tucked into a forested area next to the York Tipi and Osgoode Hall Law School. The renaming is part of York University’s developing Indigenous Strategy, which includes creating spaces for Indigenous peoples, course content that explores Indigenous life, culture and tradition, and research that is relevant to Indigenous people, expected out this summer.

Unveiling the new name: Skennen’kó:wa Gamig, which comes from both Mohawk and Anishnabe languages and means the House of Great Peace

The house was owned by the Hart family until 1958 then briefly owned by Claude Passy before York University acquired it in 1964. It is on the traditional territory of several Indigenous nations, including the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Anishinabek Nation, the Huron-Wendat, the Metis Nations and the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation.

Earlier in the week, students from Kiiwednong Aboriginal Head Start planted hand-made hearts in the new Heart Garden at Skennen’kó:wa Gamig

Earlier in the week, students from Kiiwednong Aboriginal Head Start planted hand-made hearts in the new Heart Garden at Skennen’kó:wa Gamig, which is a Cindy Blackstock national initiative that pays tribute to children who died in residential schools. Blackstock will receive an honorary doctor of laws at York University’s June 23 convocation ceremony. She is a member of the Gitxsan First Nation and executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.

York U will also host the North American Indigenous Games, July 16 to 23.

Accounting student wins prestigious 2017 Murray G. Ross Award

Administrative Studies student Alamgir Khandwala is the recipient of the Murray G. Ross Award
Administrative Studies student Alamgir Khandwala is the recipient of the Murray G. Ross Award

Administrative Studies student Alamgir Khandwala is the recipient of the Murray G. Ross Award, one of York University’s greatest honours for a graduating student. Khandwala, who received the award at spring convocation, has graduated from the program’s accounting stream. He is being honoured for academic excellence and his significant contributions to life on campus.

Administrative Studies student Alamgir Khandwala is the recipient of the Murray G. Ross Award
Administrative Studies student Alamgir Khandwala is the recipient of the Murray G. Ross Award

“Alam’s active involvement and achievements in all aspects of university life make him an exemplary role model for students and an impressive ambassador for York University at home and abroad,” said  York University President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri.

“Alam exemplifies the best of York,” said Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) Dean Ananya Mukherjee-Reed. “He brings together academic strengths, professional accomplishments, and unconditional generosity when it comes to serving fellow students and the University. I look forward to seeing him flourish in his future life.”

In LA&PS, Khandwala’s professors and peers know him to be always prepared and engaged, a critical thinker and a student who challenges ideas and offers new perspectives. Respected by his peers, he often mentors fellow students.

“I can’t put the feeling of winning the Murray G. Ross Award into words,” said Khandwala. “I personally know the last three recipients of the award, and it is an honour to join their ranks.”

The leadership, defined by passion, integrity, and commitment, which Khandwala has demonstrated at York through his co-curricular activities have improved student life. He has served the student body and this institution as a University Senator and a long-serving member of the Senate Appeals Committee and the Sub-Committee on Honorary Degrees and Ceremonials. He has also served as a member of Student Council of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (SCOLAPS) in many roles, including vice-chair, and has served as treasurer of the Public Policy and Administration Students’ Association.

“These responsibilities taught me how to be disciplined, manage my time and manage my personal, academic, professional and volunteering obligations to be able to reach my goals,” said Khandwala.

“The vast range of opportunities at York, especially the international opportunities, was extremely valuable as it gave me exposure and an avenue to develop myself academically, professionally and personally,” he said. “I now have a better understanding and appreciation of the diverse range of cultures and have become proactive as a global citizen. Being involved was my recipe for success.”

After graduation, Khandwala will be completing York’s Graduate Diploma in Professional Accounting. He’s landed a job at Deloitte, one of the “Big 4”  accounting firms, and plans to work while pursuing his Chartered Professional Accountants designation.

“Throughout my professional journey,” he said, “I aim to use the various opportunities that I encounter to give back to the community.”

York’s 1962 student council established the Murray G. Ross Award in honour of the university’s first president. Khandwala received a medal at his convocation ceremony and a notation on his transcript.

Khandwala is also the recipient of five additional York University-based awards: the Robert J. Tiffin Award for Student Leadership; the Alumni Golden GRADitude Award, expressing York’s gratitude to a student who has made the university a better place; the Award for Outstanding Global Engagement, for engaging in an impressive range of international activities; the LA&PS Outstanding Leadership Award, given to an honours student for enhancing the Faculty’s undergraduate student experience; and the Marilyn Lambert-Drache Award for Initiative in Governance, given to a student council member who strengthens the interests of SCOLAPS.

Everything to gain from community involvement, Wanda MacNevin tells grads

Social worker, activist and author Wanda MacNevin congratulated graduands of the fifth Spring Convocation ceremony on June 20 for their achievement – one, she said, that took her 41 years.

Wanda MacNevin

MacNevin was recognized with an honorary doctor of laws degree by York University during the ceremony, and she shared in the excitement of graduating with hundreds of students from the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies.

For over 40 years, MacNevin has been a leader, activist and author in the Jane-Finch community and has built crucial collaborations with York University. Her career in social work was nurtured by York’s Bridging Program for Women, and she was a founding member of the Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre in 1976.

She has been a strong and consistent force of change in the community, which has earned her several distinctions, including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

MacNevin candidly told graduands that she’s not “used to speaking to such a large and highly educated audience,” and offered to share a story – which is what she does in her job, when speaking with residents and community members, business and government officials, she said.

“What’s scary for someone like me, someone with less education, is trying to inspire you, people with many more years of education,” she said. “So I’m just going to start by telling you a story.”

She shared a story about a young single mother of three, who had survived a bad marriage, was living in government housing and receiving social assistance. With little education, her opportunities seemed limited.

However, along came a Children’s Aid Society worker who saw something in the young mother, and encouraged her to get involved in her community. She started by volunteering to plan outings with similar families, then become a child minder for a local group and then joined the founding board of directors of the new Jane/Finch Centre.

The young mother developed enough skills to be hired as the first staff person of the centre and, over the years, became a program coordinator, took on leadership in other organizations and eventually became the centre’s director of Community Programs.

“In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I was that young woman,” said MacNevin. “Over the years, I have come to understand that nobody succeeds in life without other people. My success, like yours, is connected to others. Mine was fuelled by support from family, friends, colleagues and mentors – people who believed in me.”

Everyone, she said, can contribute to society, and most often, we are strengthened in doing so through working with others. Many opportunities will present themselves to today’s graduates – and at a time when there are significant challenges to society.

“All hands are needed on deck to improve the communities where we live or work, to improve our cities, to improve our country,” she said. “In so doing, we can improve our own lives. I believe that people working together can create stronger communities and a better world. I saw that done in the early years in the development of York University and Jane-Finch.”

Chancellor Greg Sorbara, Wanda MacNevin and President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri

MacNevin shared some insight into the partnership between York University and the Jane-Finch community, which began in the late 1970s when she started visiting campus to learn about opportunities for children of Jane-Finch to experience York.

Her own three children attended York Youth Connection’s summer camp and were exposed to the idea of a university education. York’s programs such as social work, nursing and geography brought students from the University out to Jane-Finch and exposed them to the community. Some faculty, she said, demonstrated social justice work at its best and many of us learned a great deal from them.

It’s also important to acknowledge that the Jane-Finch community brought much to York, she said, such as research partnerships, knowledge sharing, neighbourhood tours, opportunities for student placements and much more.

“York University is one of our community assets. It made a long-term commitment to community engagement and it’s through engagement where social justice work begins,” said MacNevin. “We consider the York-TD Community Engagement Centre, a satellite of the University located in the heart of Jane-Finch, to be a community treasure.”

MacNevin credited those who helped her along her journey and those contributed to her passion for community involvement, and invited grads to be active in their communities.

“So, I say, graduates, go for it. You have nothing to lose, but everything to gain by being involved in community,” she said.