Explore arts, environmental studies and social sciences based-research at a celebration highlighting Public Engagement for a Just and Sustainable World. The celebration is being co-hosted by four of 91亚色鈥檚 Faculties, in collaboration with the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation on Wednesday, April 16.

The event will highlight the research of six 91亚色 scholars, on topics ranging from the past and future of sustainable development to engagement with the historiography of Plains First Nations and Canadian criminal law to the challenges and possibilities of engaging the public to address issues of social justice and equity as it pertains to youth in Toronto鈥檚 inner cities to Canada's history of oil pipeline spills, to Knowledge Mobilization in a Tropical Biological Corridor and more.

鈥淭丑别 Public Engagement for a Just and Sustainable World research celebration highlights the diversity of research programming at 91亚色 that informs and addresses a range of challenges in urban environments, including infrastructure, educational engagement, planning, land use, and more,鈥� said Robert Hach茅, vice-president research & innovation. 听鈥�91亚色 has a broad and diverse community of researchers interested in sustainability.听 It is important for us to continue to support the growth and development of initiatives to enable the recognition of 91亚色 as a Canadian leader in sustainability research. 鈥�

The celebration will take place from 2 to 4pm in the Scott Library Atrium.听The event will feature mini-research byte presentations followed by Q&As from the audience.听 All 91亚色 students, staff and faculty are welcome to attend.

Featured presenters will include: School of Social Work Pofessor and Graduate Program Director Uzo Anucha, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS); Shelley Gavigan, professor, Osgoode Hall Law School; Sean Kheraj, professor, Department of History, LA&PS; Felipe Montoya-Greenheck, professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES); Janine Marchessault, Canada Research Chair in Art, Digital Media and Globalization and professor, Department of Film, Faculty of Fine Arts; and Gerda Wekerle, professor, FES.

Janine Marchessault: Landslide: An Exhibition on Possible Futures

Janine Marchessault

In her talk, Marchessault will engage with the site specific public art exhibition that took place at the Markham historical village in October 2013. The exhibition invited 30 national and international artists to consider the past and future of sustainable development. The most enlightened urban planners and designers have always been interested in public art鈥檚 capacity to communicate across diverse communities, to generate new insights, and to propose generative pathways. The cities of the 21st century need to address the most pressing tensions between ecology and economy; agriculture and development; and diversity and history, says Marchessault. The challenge is to move away from conventional top-down approaches, and instead incorporate participatory and inclusive processes in urban planning.听

Shelley Gavigan: 鈥淟egal History and the Stories We Tell: Reflections on Research into Criminal Law on the Nineteenth Century Aboriginal Plains鈥�

Shelley Gavigan

Gavigan will reflect upon her engagement with the historiography of Plains First Nations and Canadian criminal law and the theoretical and methodological foundations of her recent book, Hunger, Horses and Government Men: Criminal Law in the Aboriginal Plains, 1870-1905 (Vancouver: UBC Press; Toronto: Osgoode Society, 2012).听 She will also discuss unexpected sources that she how she hopes to incorporate into her ongoing research based on lower criminal court records, and the relationship between Canadian criminal law, early Indian Act legislation, and patriarchal relations in the North-West Territories in the nineteenth-century.

Uzo Anucha: How does it feel to be a problem? Youth in Toronto鈥檚 Inner Cities and the Violence of Place-Based Stigma

Uzo Anucha

Youth in Toronto鈥檚 inner cities have been the focus of relentless negative public discourse that brands them as 鈥榩roblems鈥� and their communities as synonymous with youth-on-youth violence, poverty and lack of opportunity. How can community-engaged research with/about/for youth reframe and multiply this single narrative and why does it matter to do so? Drawing from lessons from the ACT for Youth project, Anucha will reflect on the challenges and possibilities of engaging the public to address issues of social justice and equity.

Sean Kheraj:听 An Environmental History of Oil Pipeline Spills in Canada

Sean Kheraj

For more than a half-century,听corporations have transported oil听across Canada via pipelines. And those pipelines have spilled oil. These pipelines听fueled听postwar industrial expansion, but they also leaked, ruptured, and broke, causing millions of litres of oil to spill across land,听waterways, and even a听national park. In his lecture, Kheraj will explore Canada's complicated history of oil pipeline spills.

Felipe Montoya-Greenheck: Knowledge Mobilization in a Tropical Biological Corridor

Felipe Montoya- Greenheck

Montoya-Greenheck will talk about the听Las Nubes Project that is part of the Faculty of Environmental Studies. Las Nubes is a rainforest that forms part of a biological corridor in Costa Rica. 91亚色 has a long-term relationship with local communities and stakeholders, along with a multi-pronged research, education and community engagement program to advance sustainable community livelihoods, well-being and environmental conservation.

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Once again, the 91亚色 English professor is bridging the arts-sports divide as poet-in-residence. Sponsored by Canada Athletes Now (CAN) and other benefactors, she will make poetry of the games and the Olympians 鈥� two poems a day, published online.

You could call Uppal an old hand at this. Since CAN embedded her with the Canadian athletes at the 2010 Vancouver Winter and Paralympic Games (see YFile), she has also versified the Arctic Games and the 2011 Rogers Cup in women鈥檚 tennis at 91亚色 (see ). It was her idea from the start, a novel way for this jogging sports fan and acclaimed poet and novelist to cross-pollinate two usually disparate worlds 鈥� arts and sports.

Priscila Uppal reads poetry at CAN Fund Athlete House in Vancouver 2010

She has immortalized speed skaters and lugers, hockey teams and skiers. Now she鈥檚 going to do the same for swimmers and divers, rowers and runners. It will be the first time she has ever attended the Summer Olympic Games and, for that matter, the Summer Paralympics, which she is also covering poetically.听London听will be a different experience for her听than听Vancouver. In London the venues are far apart, not centralized, so she鈥檚 going to travel by tube to take in events, but not hang out as much with competitors.

Every day, she will post one poem on the CAN website and one on the website. She will read her poems to athletes and 鈥� for something entirely different 鈥� to spectators watching events on giant screens in London鈥檚 Hyde Park. 鈥淢y backpack will be filled with poems I can distribute. It鈥檒l be fun. Most people will be in a good mood, not rushing to work. It鈥檚 a perfect situation for flash poetry or mob-style poetry.鈥�

Like the athletes competing, Uppal has been in training. She鈥檚 boned up on all the sports and created an enormous binder full of rules and vocabulary associated with each one. It will help stimulate her poetry-writing muscle so that she can perform every day and be ready for the unexpected 鈥� like the luger who died on a practice run at Whistler. Some poems will blaze with glory, others will fall flat, she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all part of the process.鈥�

As she has done in the past, Uppal will also be writing about books, film and visual art featuring summer sport for the Literary Review of Canada in her Poet's Corner blog. She鈥檚 going to start with a piece about a book written by French literary critic Roland Barthes asking what is sport and why do humans participate in it. Look for meditations on The Bone Cage, a novel by Angie Abdou about a swimmer; Will Ferrell鈥檚 comedies and why sports are funny; Haruki Murakami鈥檚 writing about running; and Murderball, a documentary about paraplegic rugby players.

Next spring, Uppal will publish a collection her poems in Summer Sport: Poems,听 the companion volume to her Winter Sport: Poems published by in 2011.

Here are the first lines of听a poem Uppal wrote at the request of the British Embassy one year before the Summer Olympic Games were to kick off:

London Calling

Is it just me, or have you noticed
the growing legion of rowers along the Thames,
singles and doubles, fours and eights,
cutting up waves on the way to Trafalgar Square,
where, it is rumored, gymnasts tumble from one embassy
to the next, balancing on beams, vaulting off
to trampoline up to Big Ben to set the clock

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Among the researchers featured in the campaign is 91亚色 humanities Professor Andrea Davis. The campaign profiles the work Davis is doing to alleviate the causes of youth violence.听 Through her research, Davis is working with听community partners to help black youth 听in Canada and Jamaica challenge physical and systemic violence and find new paths toward social and civic engagement. Her work helps young people form new social identities through participation in the arts, social history and literature.听 to view the profile.

"This campaign provides a unique opportunity for researchers across the province to share the wide range of research they do,鈥� says Davis.听鈥淭丑别 project my team and I are leading is certainly only one of many amazing research projects at 91亚色, but it resonates specifically with Ontarians because it addresses immediate questions about youth violence. There is no doubt that the stakes are high, and the potential for change and transformation is enormous."

鈥淭丑别 work of thousands of university researchers in Ontario affects industry, government and community life in a multitude of ways,鈥� says Alastair Summerlee, chair of COU and president of the University of Guelph. 鈥淭hose stories about how researchers help people build stronger communities, get more out of work and leisure time, and achieve a better quality of life deserve to be told.鈥�

鈥淭his campaign will connect more Ontarians directly with researchers and their ideas,鈥� says Bonnie Patterson, COU president and CEO. 鈥淥ntarians can rightly take pride in the fascinating and highly diverse research underway here.鈥�

鈥淭丑别 Research Matters campaign is highlighting the important contributions that University research makes to the lives of Ontarians through the voices of many of Ontario鈥檚 leading university researchers,鈥� said Robert Hach茅, vice-president research & innovation.听 鈥�91亚色 is most pleased that Professor Andrea Davis and her important research is being highlighted in this initiative. Andrea鈥檚 research is making a positive difference in the lives of individuals, locally and abroad. 听Her project identifies youth violence prevention strategies and facilitates opportunities for youth to engage more constructively in their communities.鈥�

Ontario university research is the common thread that ties these and hundreds of other stories together. Visit the COU's website, follow the campaign on Twitter at ,听or join the community on .

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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World Scenography 1975-1990 documents lighting, set and costume design

The book covers set, lighting and costume design for all forms of performance, from theatre and dance to opera and spectacle. Encompassing material from hundreds of contributors, it highlights some 430 significant works from more than five dozen countries.

Co-editors Peter McKinnon, professor of stage design and production in the Department of Theatre, Faculty of Fine Arts at 91亚色, and Eric Fielding, professor emeritus of scenic design at Brigham Young University, Utah, led an international team of researchers and associate editors for the project.

The editors point out that the publication is neither encyclopedic nor a collection of "greatest hits".听 The intent, they say, is to showcase, contextualize and document for posterity 鈥渄esigns that mattered, that made a difference鈥�: seminal designs that had a major impact on the development of the art form, its practice and reception.

Groundbreaking productions cited in World Scenography 1975-1990 include the political puppetry of the American Anti-Bicentennial Pageant at the University of California (1975); English director Peter Brook鈥檚 Mahabharata (1985), which was staged in quarries in France and Australia, as well as in theatres in the US and Spain; and the opening ceremony for the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand.

Notable designers featured include Tony and Drama Desk Award-winner Maria Bjornson of France/UK (Phantom of the Opera, 1988); German designer Achim Freyer, winner of the Prague Quadrennial lifetime achievement award (Woyzeck, 1989; The Magic Flute, 1982); Sun-Hi Shin of Korea (A Bicycle, 1983; An Encounter, 1990); Canadian designer Andr茅 Caron (Cirque R茅invent茅, 1987, 听for Cirque du Soleil); veteran Broadway designer Robin Wagner (A Chorus Line, 1976; On The Twentieth Century, 1978; Dreamgirls, 1981); and 91亚色 theatre听 Professors Teresa Przybylski and Phillip Silver.

World Scenography 1975-1990 is the first publication in a projected three-part series. It builds on the foundation established by Stage Design Throughout the World, a four-volume series edited by Ren茅 Hainaux that concluded in 1975. McKinnon and Fielding are already planning volumes two and three of World Scenography, to span 1990-2005 and 2005-2015, respectively. When complete, the World Scenography series will be the largest, most comprehensive scholarly work on theatrical design ever created.

McKinnon notes that the motivation and passion behind this epic endeavour is the transitory nature of design for live performance. 鈥淭丑别atre design work is as ephemeral as the work of the actor,鈥� he says. 鈥淥nce the show is over, it disappears. If we don鈥檛 photograph, catalogue and preserve our design work, we run the risk of losing it forever.鈥�

The editors of World Scenography are themselves leading contributors to the field.

Peter McKinnon

McKinnon has served as lighting designer for some 450 shows, principally dance and opera, across Canada and internationally, and has produced shows off- and on-Broadway and in Edinburgh, Scotland. A past president of the Associated Designers of Canada, he was an organizer of the Canadian exhibit at the 2007 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. His editorial credits include the international lexicon Theatre Words听and One Show, One Audience, One Single Space by Jean-Guy Lecat.

Fielding has designed scenery and/or lighting for more than 250 productions for stage, film, television and special events. He designed the gold medal-winning American exhibit at the 1991 Prague Quadrennial and created the World Stage Design exhibition, directing its premiere showing in Toronto in 2005. He is a 30-year member of United Scenic Artists 829, a Fellow and former vice-president of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, and former editor of the journal Theatre Design &Technology (TD&T).

World Scenography 1975-1990 is designed by Randal Boutilier (BFA '00), an alumnus of 91亚色鈥檚 Visual Arts Program. The series, to be published both in print and online, is an official project of听the International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians (OISTAT). Both McKinnon and Fielding are long-serving executive members of OISTAT, a UNESCO-recognized organization that draws together theatre production professionals from around the world. The long list of international supporters of the World Scenography project includes the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

McKinnon and Fielding will be in attendance at a reception marking the Canadian launch of the publication on Thursday, April 5, 7 to 10pm at TheatreBooks, 11 St. Thomas Street, Toronto.

For more information, visit the听World Scenography series website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Trombonist Ron Westray, Oscar Peterson Chair in Jazz Performance in 91亚色鈥檚 Department of Music, returns to Toronto鈥檚 Massey Hall on Thursday, Feb. 23 for an innovative youth outreach program.

He will lead 鈥淩hythm Counts鈥�, an invitational workshop for young people, just before his former bandmates, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra led by Wynton Marsalis, take centre stage to perform the highly-anticipated .

Ron Westray

Called , the arts and education outreach program presented by the Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall provides complimentary tickets for selected concerts to youth who might otherwise be unable to attend. The program, now in its 13th season, aims to enhance and broaden students鈥� musical horizons by exposing them to world-class performers and related pre-concert听demo-workshops by noted local performers/educators.

Westray has invited 91亚色 music grad and multiple Juno Award-winning jazz saxophonist Mike Murley to co-host the 30-minute workshop, to be held in Massey Hall鈥檚 intimate Century Lounge. The session is designed to demonstrate the language of jazz and the art of improvisation, to prepare the students for the mainstage performance. Together, Westray and Murley will present an informal mix of commentary, musical demonstrations and historical highlights, followed by a Q&A. Tickets for the workshop and concert have been distributed to more than 150 music students, ranging in age from 12 to 17, at selected schools and community groups in the Greater Toronto Area.

鈥淚 was thrilled to be invited to take part in Share the Music and connect with these young people,鈥� said Westray. 鈥淚 come from the performance world, and it鈥檚 always a pleasure to have the opportunity to play, plus the chance to talk about the music with a fresh audience.鈥�

Westray in performance at the Lincoln Arts Center

鈥淲e鈥檙e delighted to have Professor Westray on board for this event,鈥� said program coordinator Laraine Herzog. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a perfect fit, seeing as he was lead trombonist with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for so many years. His reputation as an incredible performer and educator precedes him 鈥� not to mention his connection with Oscar Peterson, a true Canadian musical hero, through his position at 91亚色.鈥�

Prior to joining 91亚色, Westray toured internationally with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for more than a decade, including a number of performances at Massey Hall.

鈥淲ynton [Marsalis] deserves every honour for his immense accomplishments in building the JLCO, its reputation as one of the finest jazz ensembles in the world, and its remarkable touring reach,鈥� said Westray. 鈥淚 was in the audience when they played Massey Hall last year, and it was like seeing my family from the other side of the fourth wall. I鈥檓 looking forward to seeing these guys play once again, and to helping a new young audience develop a deeper connection to a band and a musical repertoire I feel so strongly about.鈥�

As well as a performer, Westray is an accomplished composer and recording artist. His commissions for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra include the monumental score Chivalrous Misdemeanors 鈥� Select Tales from Don Quixote (2005) and arrangements of the works of Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman. He is well known for his collaborations with Wycliffe Gordon, and has also appeared in concert with such luminaries as Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder, Benny Carter, Dewey Redman, Roy Haynes, Randy Brecker and a host of other pre-eminent artists. A regular on the New 91亚色 City club circuit, he has played premier jazz venues such as the Village Vanguard, Blue Note, Sweet Basil鈥檚, Iridium, Jazz Standard and Smalls, and is a standing member of the Mingus Band. In 2009, he joined 91亚色鈥檚 music department, where he teaches in the jazz program and co-directs the 91亚色 Jazz Orchestra.

Next month, Westray is participating as soloist and clinician at the prestigious Savannah Music Festival. On March 25, he appears as guest soloist with the 91亚色 Wind Symphony, performing Rimsky-Korsakov鈥檚 Trombone Concerto under the baton of 91亚色 music Professor William Thomas.

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The project, Youth and Community Development in Canada and Jamaica: A Transnational Approach to Youth Violence, popularly known as 鈥淧roject Groundings鈥�, opened with two youth forums in Kingston and St. Mary, Jamaica on July 28 and 31. At both of these events, black youth from Jamaica and Canada confronted the systemic violence that marks their lives and initiated a conversation about how they might interrupt these complex patterns of violence.

Right: 91亚色 Professor Andrea Davis addressing a youth forum in Jamaica

Andrea Davis, deputy director of CERLAC and the project鈥檚 principal investigator, says, 鈥淢any youth lack the language and cultural awareness necessary to respond to their environment in a critical and transformative way, and often end up perpetuating forms of social violence themselves.鈥� By bringing Jamaican youth into a conversation with Canadian youth, Project Groundings 鈥渟eeks to facilitate critical national and transnational dialogue that can open up avenues of collaboration among youth across their shared cultural boundaries,鈥� says Davis. This transformative dialogue seeks not only to change the behaviour and action of youth, but also to increase public awareness, affect public policy and contribute to the ongoing body of research on youth violence.听

In the project鈥檚 opening National Youth Forum in Kingston, Jamaican youth grappled with the unique challenges they face, including sexual violence against women, victimization based on sexual orientation, access to education, unemployment, socio-economic disparities in the administration of justice and the absence of effective platforms from which to voice their concerns.

Above: New research听uses art forms, such as drama, to explore the effects of violence on black youth in Canada and Jamaica听

The second youth forum in Woodside, St. Mary, examined the specific concerns faced by rural youth.听Here, youth identified a lack of facilities and resources, including poor roads and inadequate transportation, as their greatest challenges. While they recognized the necessity of agricultural pursuits, they also pointed to the lack of crop diversification and financial compensation as major deterrents leading them off the land.

The question of violence was also central to the Woodside forum, which closed with an impromptu commemoration of the life of Shauna Kaye Shaw, a community youth leader murdered earlier this year. In defiance of the fear brought on by her death, Woodside youth committed to resume youth activities.

Right: Jamaica Youth Theatre performing The Pickney Dem a Dry

As Peter Cumming, coordinator of 91亚色鈥檚 Children鈥檚 Studies Program and president of the Association for Research in Cultures of Young People, says, 鈥淭丑别 most exciting development in the research team鈥檚 first sessions in Jamaica was the moving demonstration of Jamaican youths鈥� eager and serious engagement with issues of violence through their sharing of their own experiences, their animated discussion about possible solutions for societal violence, and their strategic use of the arts, particularly theatre, to represent and confront the enormous pain caused by violence.鈥�

One example of the use of the arts was Jamaica Youth Theatre鈥檚 (YRT) performance of the skit The Pickney Dem a Dry. The skit explores the grief of a mother who learns of the death of her daughter on the streets. While it begins as a personal mourning, it quickly mounts into collective suffering, a disturbing yet inspiring memorial to young people who have died violently. This performance powerfully deployed a poem, a clothesline on which the names of murdered youth were hung and chants based on street graffiti to acknowledge a shared humanity among youth 鈥� 鈥淲e all bleed red鈥�. It also challenged everyone as individuals and nations to 鈥淟ive up! Live up!鈥�

Left: Toronto youth Ebthihal Nabag (left) and Nabi Shash from Nia Centre for the Arts participate in a youth exchange

鈥淚 was humbled by the honesty and courage of these young people,鈥� says Davis. 鈥淏eing able to see the transformative elements of the research and the way young people from both countries embraced and empowered each other was enormously fulfilling.鈥�

This innovative approach to youth violence is funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada and brings together researchers from 91亚色, McMaster University, the universities of Guelph, Ottawa and Waterloo, as well as the University of the West Indies (Mona campus). It also includes three community partners 鈥� JYT in Kingston, the Woodside Development Action Group in St. Mary and Nia Centre for the Arts in Toronto,

The project will host a second youth forum, workshop and photo exhibit in Toronto Oct. 28 and 29.

For more information, visit the CERLAC website or e-mail Andrea Davis at aadavis@yorku.ca.

By 91亚色 graduate student Jan Anderson

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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