(Demeter Press) explores what it means to be an academic mother and to think about academic motherhood.

Contributors to the book explore both the personal and specific institutional challenges academic women face, the multifaceted strategies different academic women are implementing to manage those challenges and investigate different theoretical possibilities for how society thinks about academic motherhood.

The 468-page book includes a 46-page introduction, 24 chapters, including O’Reilly’s chapter:
"I should have married another man; I couldn't do what I do without him: Intimate Heterosexual Partnerships and their Impact on Mothers' Success in Academe".

Andrea O'Reilly

O’Reilly, who teaches in 91ŃÇɫ’s School of Gender, Sexual and Women’s Studies in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, is also the editor and author of several books, including Toni Morrison and Motherhood: A Politics of the Heart (SUNY Press, 2004) and Rocking the Cradle: Thoughts on Motherhood, Feminism and the Possibility of Empowered Mothering (Demeter Press, 2006).

She is the recipient of the 2010 from the Canadian Association of University Teachers. In 1998 and again in 2009, O’Reilly was given 91ŃÇÉ« Teacher of the Year awards, and in 2007, the Atkinson Dean’s Award for Outstanding Research.

For more information, contact Demeter Press at info@demeterpress.org or visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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The roundtable provided a forum for participants to discuss technological advancements, research partnerships and community collaborations for the benefit of improving health care delivery for citizens.

From left, Altaf Stationwala, president & CEO of 91ŃÇÉ« Central Hospital, Ken Ono, vice-president analytics of NexJ Systems Inc., Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua, Harvey Skinner, dean, Faculty of Health, Robert HachĂ©, vice-president research & innovation at 91ŃÇɫ University

“The 91ŃÇÉ« Leadership Roundtable provided an opportunity to facilitate and create mutually productive relationships with businesses, industry, social service organizations and the municipal and regional leadership of 91ŃÇÉ« Region,” said Robert HachĂ©, 91ŃÇÉ« vice-president research & innovation. “During the session, our keynote speakers provided a great snapshot of new innovations in the health services sector and the exciting opportunities to foster collaborative research partnerships for continued growth and development.”

Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua welcomed all participants to the event and highlighted the importance of forming collaborative networks to improve health care delivery in the region.

“The 91ŃÇÉ« Roundtable was a great initiative to better comprehend and seek solutions to the challenges we face in health care. The thoughtful analysis of the changing dynamics of our system provided much value added to the understanding of what is required to bring about much needed reform," said Bevilacqua.

"Through effective dialogue and collaboration we can find the path that will bring us closer to the answers needed to build an effective, efficient and caring user-friendly health care system. The discussion about the use of technology as an enabler for positive change was a reminder of the incredible opportunities we must seize to move forward and innovate towards the creation of a modern and avant-garde system,” said Bevilacqua.

Speakers at the event included Harvey Skinner, dean of 91ŃÇÉ«'s Faculty of Health; Ken Ono, vice-president of NexJ Systems Inc.; and Altaf Stationwala, president & CEO of 91ŃÇÉ« Central Hospital.

Skinner discussed how a new approach to the management of health care is setting the stage for industry partnerships, creating efficiencies within the delivery of health care and driving new models for teaching and educating the health care professionals of tomorrow.  He presented a new integrated eHealth solution and software development project aimed at enabling patients to monitor their health and wellness, diet and exercise program on a daily basis with the support of a health coach.

The program will help to promote a health active lifestyle, explained Skinner, and will enable health care providers and patients to work collaboratively to improve a patient’s health, minimize dependency on an already heavily-taxed health care system. He  and can lead to job creation for a new Health Coach profession – an individual who will monitor the health and wellness of patients and help them change behaviourthrough the technology.

Ono offered an industry perspective on innovating in the health care sector. He addressed some of the opportunities and surmountable challenges of working with universities to spearhead commercialization vehicles.

Sharing his experiences working collaboratively with 91ŃÇÉ« researchers,  Stationwala presented his perspective on the research agenda that will help to deliver a sustainable health system at 91ŃÇÉ« Central Hospital and the Region of 91ŃÇÉ«.

During a lively question and answer period, the group of more than 40 senior executives and community leaders discussed the continuing importance of investing in research and development, strategies for addressing the innovation needs of businesses and the health care sector, and the role of universities in fostering economic strength in their surrounding cities.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Universities can play a critical role in confronting the democratic deficit pervading politics at every level, 91ŃÇɫ’s will argue in this year’s Giambattista Vico Lecture Feb. 15.

What is to be done, Fallis will ask, about declining voter turnout, strident and polarizing debate, public decision-making dominated by business elites and experts – all signs of a democratic deficit at local, national and international levels. He will argue that the problem must be confronted not just by political parties and parliaments but by universities. Universities are not just institutions of teaching and books, not just institutions of the economy, but institutions of democracy.

Left: George Fallis

Fallis delivers his lecture, “Democratic Deficit: Universities and the Future of Democracy”, in Founders Assembly Hall, 152 Founders College, at 7:30pm.

In his essay “” published two years ago in Academic Matters, Fallis made a similar argument that a university’s responsibility to contribute to democratic life is just as critical as its role in economic development.

Fallis is professor of economics and social science who has published widely on housing, urban policy and constitutional reform. His current research focuses on universities: their roles and responsibilities in the 21st century; the value of undergraduate liberal education; and the role of university-based research in national innovation. His most recent book is .

At 91ŃÇÉ«, the Princeton-educated Fallis has served as chair of economics, dean of the former Faculty of Arts and chair of the Senate Academic Policy & Planning Committee. He has been academic colleague on the Council of Ontario Universities and an auditor of degree programs at Ontario universities.

The annual Giambattista Vico Lecture was named after an 18th-century Italian philosopher of history, culture and myth whose ideas had a profound influence on the humanities and social sciences. 91ŃÇɫ’s former Faculty of Arts launched the Vico lecture in 2000 in memory of Fred Zorzi, late partner of the Toronto law firm DelZotto, Zorzi LLP, which helped endow the annual event.

American social researcher Nancy Fraser gave the 2009 Vico lecture on “Marketization, Social Protection, Emancipation: Toward a Neo-Polanyian Conception of Capitalist Crisis".

This year’s lecture is sponsored by the 91ŃÇÉ« Foundation, the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and Founders College.

To attend the lecture, register online.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Perfectionism is sometimes viewed as a positive personality trait to be rewarded or reinforced, but Dalhousie University psychology professor Simon Sherry believes it is mostly a self-defeating behaviour, wrote :

In professors, the effect can be particularly pernicious: in a new study, Sherry and colleagues found that perfectionism leads to lower research productivity. The findings suggest that professors who display a higher level of perfectionism are less likely to produce publications, garner citations or publish their research in high-impact journals.

“We found that perfectionism trips up professors on the way to research productivity. The more perfectionistic the professor, the less productive they are,” said Dr. Sherry. This could “seriously and adversely impact” their career development. The study was published in the .

. . .

To investigate the issue, he and colleagues of 91ŃÇɫ’s and Paul Hewitt of the University of British Columbia studied the link between perfectionism and research productivity among psychology professors working at universities in the US and Canada. They limited it to their own profession to simplify the logistics and restricted it to universities with graduate programs in psychology.

They contacted 10,000 professors, of whom 1,258 responded using an online survey. The researchers found a “robust correlation” between increased perfectionism and decreased research productivity in the respondents. A higher level of perfectionism was associated with a lower number of total publications and a lower number of first-authored publications. It was also associated with a lower number of citations and a track record of publishing in journals with a lower impact rating.

. . .

If professors suspect they’re perfectionists, Dr. Sherry counsels that they seek professional help. The best treatment options appear to be interpersonal or cognitive behavioural therapy, he added.

Ironically, “perfectionists are often very reluctant to seek help because they see it as tantamount to being imperfect,” he said. As well, perfectionism itself can be a barrier to effective treatment; afflicted individuals might subconsciously sabotage their course of treatment because of unrealistic expectations.

Perfectionist profs have another reason to worry: research has linked perfectionism with depression, suicide and various forms of eating disorders such as bulimia, binge eating and anorexia.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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