Canadian Studies Program Archives | Research & Innovation

New directors appointed to five research centres

fmaquito — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Five 91��ɫ professors have been appointed directors at 91��ɫ research centres.

The new directors are Professor Colin Coates, director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies (RCCS); Professor Laurence Harris, director of the Centre for Vision Research (CVR); Professor Christina Kraenzle, director of the Canadian Centre for German & European Studies (CCGES); Professor David Mutimer, director of the Centre for International & Security Studies (YCISS); and Professor Lisa Philipps, director of the Centre for Public Policy & Law (YCPPL).��

“On behalf of the 91��ɫ research community, I would like to congratulate Professors Coates, Harris, Kraenzle, Mutimer and Philipps on their appointments,” said Robert Haché, 91��ɫ's vice-president research & innovation. “Their leadership expertise will be essential to further strengthening the unique and exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary research, collaborations and partnerships at 91��ɫ’s research centres and institutes.”

Colin Coates (left), Canada Research Chair in Cultural Landscapes, is also professor in the Canadian Studies program at Glendon College and president of the Canadian Studies Network-Réseau d’études canadiennes. His research examines political culture in New France and the history of Canadian utopias. He also conducts research in the area of environmental history, and is an executive member of the Network in Canadian History & Environment – Nouvelle initiative canadienne en histoire de l’environnement, funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Coates has co-edited and authored several books including, Introduction aux études canadiennes: histoires, identités et cultures (with Professor Geoffrey Ewen, Glendon) and Visions: the Canadian History Modules Project (with Professor Marcel Martel, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, along with four colleagues from other universities), Majesty in Canada: Essays on the Role of Royalty among others. Coates won the Lionel Groulx-Yves Saint-Germain Foundation’s prize for Heroines and History – Representations of Madeleine de Verchères and Laura Secord (co-authored with Cecilia Morgan of OISE).

Laurence Harris (right) is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, a member of the graduate programs in Kinesiology & Health Science and in Biology, and has served as chair of the Psychology Department. He is the director the Multisensory Integration Laboratory at 91��ɫ, which investigates how information from visual, auditory, vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile senses is combined by the brain to create our perception of body and space. Applications of his research include the design of virtual environments and improving perception in situations where sensory information is impoverished, such as in the unusual environments of underwater or in space, in ageing or in clinical conditions such as partial blindness or Parkinson’s disease. Recently, Harris ran an experiment on the International Space Station looking at astronauts’ perception of orientation. He is the author of more than 100 scientific articles and has edited nine books on topics pertaining to vision including Vision in 3D Environments, Cortical Mechanisms of Vision, Seeing Spatial Form, and Levels of Perception. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Seeing and Perceiving: a journal of multisensory science.

Christina Kraenzle (left) is a professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics (DLLL) in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. She has served as a CCGES affiliate since 2004 and been a member of the centre’s executive committee since 2005 through her role as the coordinator of the German Studies Program within DLLL. Kraenzle’s research explores modern German literature, film and culture, with a focus on transnational cultural production, migration, travel and globalization. Her recent publications include Mapping Channels Between Ganges and Rhein: German-Indian Cross-Cultural Relations (with Jörg Esleben and Sukanya Kulkarni, 2008) as well as articles in The German Quarterly, German Life and Letters, Transit: A Journal of Travel, Migration and Multiculturalism in the German-Speaking World, and the volume Searching for Sebald: Photography after W. G. Sebald.

David Mutimer (right), a professor in the Department of Political Science, is also the founding editor of Critical Studies on Security and the editor of The Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs. He has been a member of YCISS since 1987 and has previously served as its deputy director. Mutimer was also a visiting professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom (UK), as well as a principal research fellow in the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in the UK. Mutimer’s research considers issues of contemporary international security through lenses provided by critical social theory and explores the reproduction of security in and through popular culture. His research has focused on various aspects of weapons production and control, and more recently on the politics of the global war on terror, and of the regional wars around the world which are being fought by Canada and its allies. Mutimer is presently leading a SSHRC-funded international research project on arms export controls. His recent published work includes journal articles in Studies in Social Justice, The Cambridge Review of International Affairs and Contemporary Security Policy among others.

Lisa Philipps (left) has been a faculty member at Osgoode Hall Law School since 1996. Prior to that, she held appointments in the faculties of law at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia, and has held visiting professorships at Melbourne Law School, University College London and the University of Toronto among other institutions. She served as associate dean research, graduate studies & institutional relations at Osgoode from 2009 to 2011. Philipps' research focuses on tax law, budgets and feminist legal studies. She has published widely on topics, including fiscal transparency, income splitting, gender budgeting, the distributional impact of tax cuts, the tax treatment of unpaid work, charitable tax incentives and more. Most recently she published two co-edited books on Tax Expenditures: State of the Art and Challenging Gender Inequality in Tax Policy Making: Comparative Perspectives.��

In all, 91��ɫ lists 29 research centres and institutes.

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

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Canadian Studies lecture to examine national parks and Canadian identity

fmaquito — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Hosted by the Canadian Studies Program and student club in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, the Canada Like You’ve Never Heard it Before Lecture Series explores everything from economics and indigenous issues to Canadian government and poetry.

The next instalment of the series will be delivered by , a professor in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Environmental Studies and . The lecture will take place Monday, March 21, in 001 Vanier College from 6 to 7pm.

Sandilands is the author of numerous publications in environmental literature, history and cultural studies, including writings on national parts, queer and feminist ecologies, ecocriticism and environmental public cultures.

Sandilands' lecture, titled "A State of Nature? National Parks and Canadian National Identity", places a different kind of lens on Canada's national parks. Anyone who has ever visited one and wondered why there are so many rules, trails and signs in the "wilderness" should consider coming to this free public lecture.

Above: Cate Sandilands and the unnatural signage in the Bruce Peninsula National Park

"Canadian national parks are often referred to as 'national treasures', part of a public understanding of heritage that view them as a sort of repository of the essence of Canada. In this view, parks 'preserve' a nature that is the origin of the nation, a key part of our collective identity as Canadians," says Sandilands.

"In fact, national parks are deeply political creations. They 'organize' nature in specific ways, and have served a variety of economic and other agendas since the first Canadian national park – Rocky Mountains Park, now Banff – was established in 1887," she says.

"This presentation will consider the politics of national parks over the last 125 years, with a particular focus on the dynamics of 'national natures' as they are a part of different economic, political and ideological trajectories for Canadian identity," says Sandilands. "Thinking about parks solely as sites of preservation obscures a far more interesting history."

The Canada Like You’ve Never Heard it Before Lecture Series series showcases the breadth and depth of Canadian scholarship and research at 91��ɫ. The series was organized by Jon Sufrin, coordinator of the Canadian Studies Program. This academic year, several senior faculty and two Canada Research Chairs have delivered presentations.

Sponsors of the series include: the Dean's Office, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies; Stong College; Vanier College; Winters College; New College; Calumet College; Founders College; Students for Canadian Studies; and the Canadian Studies Program.

For upcoming lectures and speaker bios, visit the Canada Like You’ve Never Heard it Before Lecture Series website.

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

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Professor Jody Berland to lecture on cultures of militarization December 8

fmaquito — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Humanities Professor Jody Berland will take a critical look at how militarization has become so common in society that it is now seen as the norm. Berland's lecture, “Cultures of Militarization”, takes place today from 4 in the Vanier Senior Common Room, 010 Vanier College. All are welcome.

The lecture's title and topic are borrowed from , which Berland co-edited with Ryerson Professor Blake Fitzpatrick of the Documentary Media Program. Her work explores how military culture now has such a hold on society that many people cannot remember a time when the military was not a constant presence in their lives.

Right: Jody Berland

This military presence appears either physically or more abstractly through art and society as a whole. As Berland noted in an interview, “While civilian deaths and acts of torture have remained invisible and secret, it’s impossible to miss the images of invasion and imprisonment that circulate the world on the Internet, on TV and in video games.” Her presentation will begin by exploring recent events during the G20 summit in Toronto and then move to a broader examination of militarism in Canadian society.

Cultures of Militarization is a collection of essays penned by 22 international scholars and artists who have each contributed their own perspectives and experiences. Each of the contributions jointly identifies how a military culture brings devastation to communities and individuals.

Berland's lecture is part of the "Canada: Like You’ve Never Heard it Before” Speakers Series, which features open lectures delivered by 91��ɫ faculty. Produced by the Canadian Studies Program and the Students for Canadian Studies Club, the series has an interdisciplinary focus and promotes undergraduate research and study of Canada.

The series is co-sponsored by Vanier College, Winters College, New College, Stong College, Calumet College, Founders College and the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

Submitted by Alison Sanelli, a second-year humanities student; republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Prof. Jody Berland offers a fresh perspective on being Canadian

fmaquito — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Professor Jody Berland takes a fresh look at what it means to be Canadian in her new book North of Empire: Essays on the Cultural Technologies of Space, published by Duke University Press. Launched last month and already labelled by critics as a major contribution to the fields of communication, cultural studies and geography, Berland’s book is a group of essays about how technology creates and transforms our sense of space.

Right: Jody Berland

“Technology has become the focus of our hopes and dreams; my book explores how this has come about and what it means,” says Berland. “I try to make vivid the various connections between technology and the spaces we make, live in, tell stories about, defend or seek to transform. In doing so, I explore the meanings and effects of some of the most powerful themes of the 20th century, including nation, progress, convenience, entertainment and technology itself.”

Focusing on the importance of space to understanding culture, Berland investigates how media technologies have given shape to things we often take for granted, such as territory, landscape, the local, the border, nature, music and time. Her essays concentrate largely on Canada and the United States and centre on the connections and disconnections between how space is traversed, how it is narrated and how it is used.

This theme is traced throughout the essays on topics ranging from free trade and the discourse of entertainment, to the history of player pianos in the context of a growing consumer society animated by the desire for convenience, to the emergence of satellite image technologies in relation to television forecasts and the exploration of space.

“We live in spaces that are shaped in part by technology – technological tools like railways, radio, musical instruments, optical devices – and by cultural technologies of social and institutional change, including nation building, storytelling, mapping, broadcasting, converging and instructing,” notes Berland. “At the same time, these technologies are constantly changing, which contributes to deeply felt tensions about who we are and where we belong.”

Berland chose the essay structure for her book since it allowed her to explore specific historical developments that illuminate her central questions: How has technological change affected the way we relate to musical instruments? In what ways has satellite photography changed the way we think about the planet? How has the television forecast altered the way we think about weather?

It is her hope that readers will pay close attention to particular political or narrative histories that have been made both real and imaginary through the emergence of technologies such as the radio and the Internet. Berland also hopes that they will understand the urgency of exploring these narratives and the ways in which they reinforce and contest one another in personal, cultural and political spheres.

Berland is program coordinator for the Canadian Studies Program in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. She was recently awarded the Association for Canadian Studies 2009 Award of Merit, which acknowledged her contributions to the development and dissemination of knowledge about Canada. Specifically, the award honoured three different activities: the role she’s played as editor of TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies (from 1998 to present); the publication of a significant body of work exploring Canadian history, themes and scholars; and lastly, the cultivation of a new generation of scholars through graduate teaching.

Though the nomination for the Award of Merit was made before her book came out, some of the publications that inspired her win can be found in the new book.

For more information on North of Empire or Berland’s research, e-mail her at jberland@yorku.ca. Copies of her book can be purchased through the .

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