A new book by Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Stepan Wood (LLB '92) and University of Toronto political economist Stephen Clarkson has been nominated for the 's prestigious for the best book on Canadian politics.

Examining Canadians’ complicated roles as agents and objects of global forces, shines an urgent light on the dangerous imbalances in contemporary forms of globalized law and governance. From French and British colonial politics to the SARS epidemic, Canadians have long known how it feels to be objects of global forces. But they are also agents who have helped build structures of global governance that have highly uneven impacts on prosperity, human security and the environment.

Right: Stepan Wood

The winner of the 2011 Smiley Prize will be announced at the Canadian Political Science Association Annual Conference in Waterloo, Ontario, on May 17.

A Perilous Imbalance examines Canada's experience of globalization in the context of three interlinked trends: the emergence of a neoconservative global “supra-constitution”, the paradoxical retreat and expansion of the Canadian nation-state and the growth of unconventional forms of governance beyond the state. It advocates a revitalization of the state as a vehicle for pursuing human security, ecological integrity and social emancipation, and for creating spaces in which progressive, alternative forms of law and governance can unfold.

With its critical analysis of the challenges faced by middle powers such as Canada in a globalizing world, A Perilous Imbalance further cements Osgoode's pre-eminence in the study of international and transnational legal issues, says Wood. The book has been very well received. Reviewers have praised it as “sophisticated, bold and accessible,” “important reading for anyone seeking to assess Canada’s legal and political engagement with globalization” and “a comprehensive account of Canada’s entanglement with globalization’s legal rules and institutions.”

The Smiley Prize honours the life and work of the late Donald V. Smiley (1921-1990), a leading Canadian political scientist and former Professor Emeritus at 91��ɫ. It is awarded each year to the best book published on Canadian government and politics – one award for an English-language book, one for French.

“I took an advanced seminar with Professor Smiley when I was an undergraduate political science major at 91��ɫ in the 1980s,” recalls Wood. “He fostered a challenging yet friendly atmosphere that brought out the best in his students. I feel particularly honoured to be associated with his name again after so many years.”

The book was the fruit of a cross-disciplinary collaboration that began when Wood and Clarkson were both virtual scholars in residence at the now defunct Law Commission of Canada. Working with Clarkson, whose contribution to the study of Canadian and North American political economy was recently recognized with the Order of Canada, was a highly rewarding experience for Wood.

“Collaborating with Stephen was a pleasure from start to finish,” says Wood. “Our very different knowledge and expertise complemented each other nicely and Stephen has been an exceptionally generous and supportive colleague and friend.”

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

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Published by Duke University Press, Homophobias looks at these questions through critical interrogations and analysis of diverse sites where homophobic discourses are produced, including New 91��ɫ City, Australia, the Caribbean, Greece, India and Indonesia, as well as American Christian churches. The idea is to uncover the complex operational processes of homophobias and their intimate relationships to nationalism, sexism, racism, class and colonialism.

In the book's preface, Murray notes that the term "homophobia" had moved into the global sphere. This got him thinking about the term's meaning and the existence of homophobia. "Homophobia had gone global, and to be accused of being homophobic was to be accused of something more than just not liking homosexuals; furthermore, this accusation now carried potentially serious economic and political repercussions." He hopes the book will be the initial step in answering some of the questions the term homophobia raises.

Left: David Murray

Murray gathered researchers from a diverse range of ethnographic sites "to demonstrate how homophobia is a phenomenon that has no centre or origin, but more importantly, to examine how, or if, a transnational, comparative and ethnographically informed perspective might extend, challenge or change our understandings of homophobia."

In part one – "Displacing Homophobia" – some of the issues the contributors examine include homophobia in New 91��ɫ's gay central, American Christian homophobia and homophobia as racism. In part two – "Transnational Homophobias" – they look at homosexual hate in Jamaica, political homophobia in Indonesia, as well as the Barbadian media. In examining these issues, Homophobias provides innovative analytical insights that expose the complex and intersecting cultural, political and economic forces contributing to the development of new forms of homophobia.

Murray, the director of the Graduate Program in Women’s Studies at 91��ɫ, is the author of .

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

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Sturgeon’s internationally known research on the relationship between environmental and social justice movements, her planned collaborative research with 91��ɫ faculty and her graduate course on environmental justice cultural studies qualified her for the award.

The Fulbright Scholar Program, sponsored by the United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs, sends 800 faculty and professionals abroad each year to lecture and conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields.

Right: Noël Sturgeon

“FES at 91��ɫ is the largest environmental studies program in North America,” says . “I’ll have a chance to work with prominent scholars and graduate students in a rare interdisciplinary environmental studies context, defining and expanding the new field of environmental justice cultural studies.”

Her most recent research examines environmental messages portrayed in popular culture since the late 1980s. In one chapter of her recent book, , for example, Sturgeon has identified a consistent formula in popular movies that inaccurately depicts an inherent spiritual closeness of indigenous people with the natural world. This stereotype appears repeatedly in movies such as and .

Sturgeon believes this misrepresentation is just the beginning of where these plots go awry in terms of real solutions to current environmental problems. Typically, these formulaic storylines then morph into action-adventure dramas where the heroic American white male archetype, who has “seen the light” – usually through romantic involvement with a native woman or an attachment to a special animal – bonds with the indigenous culture to save them from the “bad guys”, for example other American-like white males who are fixated on conquering land and indigenous people for their own gain.

To Sturgeon, these movies are insidious on many levels, but especially because they leave moviegoers empty in terms of environmental solutions that are just and fair for all. “While people today might admire the many traits typically assigned to indigenous people, fantasizing that all would be better environmentally if we could just become hunter-gatherers or escape to another planet is a dangerous fantasy,” says Sturgeon.

And when these formulaic plots become focused on the fight for colonization, real solutions for global environmental action are bypassed. “I’ve spoken with students who have left Avatar feeling powerless about issues surrounding environmentalism – they are given no tools for correcting injustice or saving the planet,” she says.

Her book unpacks a variety of cultural tropes, including ideas about Mother Nature, the purity of the natural and the allegedly close relationships of indigenous people with the natural world.

Sturgeon is on the graduate faculty for the WSU American Studies program. In addition to environmental cultural studies, her research and teaching interests include feminist theory, social movements, and theories of globalization and transnationalism. She is widely published in peer-reviewed journals and is also the author of .

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

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