The 40-minute film will screen Wednesday, Oct. 19, from 12:30 to 2pm, in the Nat Taylor Cinema, N102 Ross Building, Keele campus.

Right: Tracy Kim Assing

Assing will be on hand to discuss the film and answer questions. The film is a personal exploration of her roots in Arima, Trinidad. Through the film, she examines Trinidad’s indigenous history and the inner workings of the organization which represents these indigenous descendants - The Santa Rosa Carib Community, whose queen, Valentina Medina, is Assing’s great aunt. The community is the only recognized group representing indigenous descendants in Trinidad and Tobago.

The film explores how the story of indigenous people has been recorded, as well as the structure of the Santa Rosa Carib Community, its politics and its beliefs. The future seems uncertain and the Santa Rosa Carib Community may soon have to find a new Queen, but what does it mean to be the Queen? What does it mean to be Carib in Trinidad?

Until now, Amerindian descendants have depended on the stories of their grandparents and great-grandparents for their history, while the indigenous story of survival has been written out of the history books.

Assing’s work on indigenous culture has been published in the Caribbean Review of Books and Caribbean Beat magazine, where she has also served as a contributing editor. She is currently contributing editor for magazine.

The Amerindians premiered at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival in 2010. It is being presented by the Centre for Research on Latin America & the Caribbean, Aboriginal/Indigenous Studies, the Department of Humanities, Latin American & Caribbean Studies at 91��ɫ and the Department of Social Science.

For more information, visit the CERLAC website.

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Hyndman was in Sri Lanka within months of the 2004 tsunami. She saw first-hand not only the devastation wrought by the tsunami, but the complications of delivering humanitarian aid in areas of Sri Lanka and Indonesia that were already conflict-riddled and impoverished. She also witnessed how the natural and man-made disasters intersected to change the political dynamics of both countries – a peace accord in Indonesia and the end of war in Sri Lanka between the government and the Tamils.

Her experiences led to the recently released book, and companion videos by Hyndman and geographer and humanitarian aid worker Arno Waizenegger,  and . To watch the first video, enter the password, "Lhokse". Waizenegger also co-wrote one of the book's chapters with Hyndman.

The earthquake-triggered tsunami is estimated to have killed or displaced more than one million people – three women for every man – and billions in donations flowed in for relief efforts. Dual Disasters addresses pre- and post-humanitarian aid concerns and offers suggestions that are still relevant today.

“I examine two war zones that were then hit by the 2004 tsunami and trace how the conflict and the environmental disaster shaped one another in terms of outcomes,” says Hyndman of 91��ɫ's Department of Social Sciences in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, who has studied humanitarian emergencies, conflict-related human disaster and displacement for more than a decade. For the book, she focused specifically on Sri Lanka and Aceh, Indonesia.

Left: Jennifer Hyndman

The book examines the inequitable delivery of humanitarian aid, but also looks at how the cultural and political situation in both countries played into that. If more aid was given to the coastal areas of Sri Lanka, because of their tourist appeal, than to the people in the hinterland, who are hardest hit by war, that imbalance created a “potential and real threat to peace.” Similarly in Aceh, Indonesia, international tsunami aid was earmarked exclusively for tsunami survivors and not for civilians who had lost their homes and livelihoods in the decades old conflict. This became the cause of tensions and threats recorded in the book by Hyndman and her research assistants.

The problem was that aid agencies had little latitude to spend donated money. As it's often designated for specific things, some agencies collected more money than they could ethically spend, she says. That led to the hiring of sub-contractors who not only didn’t necessarily do the best job, but it also made it more difficult to monitor the funds. This could be remedied if donors gave aid agencies more leverage to spend their donations where needed, says Hyndman, associate director of the .

In addition, aid workers can unintentionally become wrapped up in the politics. “You need to pay very close attention to the political climate, otherwise you can become a political player in what you think is a humanitarian operation.” That can play out in as simple an act as talking to people living on one side of a road. What the aid workers may not realize is that the people on one side of the road are enemies with those on the opposite side, and the workers are seen as allies to one side only. “The unintended result is that humanitarian aid can actually fuel a conflict or create tensions."

Or, as in the case of the water pumps, what seemed like an easy and fast solution – provide villages with water pumps so they no longer had to dig wells – turned out to be not so simple in an area of Sri Lanka where tensions were already high between various factions. Bringing in water pumps heightened conflicting interests, instead of making life easier. “So unintentionally, a benign water project can fuel a war.”

It is just as important for aid workers to be aware of a country's cultural practices. One aid agency built much-needed, but culturally inappropriate housing. The new houses only had one room, when two were required to keep the women separate from the men. Hyndman says many of these issues could be avoided by providing regional cultural and political sensitivity orientation and training to humanitarian aid workers.

Competition between aid agencies for donor dollars was another issue raised by the book, but it has, at least in Canada, been addressed to some extent. Care Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Quebec and Save the Children formed a coalition after the 2004 tsunami to work together.

“It’s an excellent step in the right direction,” says Hyndman.

For more information, visit the .

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

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

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The memorial will take place March 26, at 4pm, at the Cecil Street Community Centre, 58 Cecil St., in Toronto. The 91��ɫ flag will be lowered to half-mast Friday afternoon and will remain at half-mast until 5pm Saturday in memory of Prof. Noble.

Right: David Noble. Photo by Denis G. Rancourt, Wikimedia Commons.

, Prof. Noble taught in the Department of Social Science’s Social & Political Thought Program in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

Prof. Noble was the author of the books and P. His most recent publication was .

He was a  of technology, science and education.

Prof. Noble is survived by his wife Sarah Dopp, daughters Clare, Alice and Helen O'Connor, sister Jane Pafford, and brothers Doug and Henry Noble.

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

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Can universities cure political indifference? Yes they can, according to 91��ɫ Professor . “Universities must address the democratic deficit,” said Fallis, this year’s Giambattista Vico Lecturer. They can play a critical role in confronting the democratic deficit pervading politics at every level – declining voter turnout, strident and polarizing debate and public decision-making dominated by business elites and experts.

Right: George Fallis

In a lecture titled “Democratic Deficit: Universities and the Future of Democracy”, delivered Feb. 15 at Founder’s College Assembly Hall, Fallis, who is professor of economics and social science in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), argued that the problem of political indifference 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, he said.

The current disconnect between the interests of citizens and those in positions of power, Fallis believes, creates widespread skepticism towards our institutions and a lethargy around political participation – known as “the democratic deficit”.

In examining the sometimes-uneasy relationship between universities and the growing movement towards democracy over the centuries, Fallis stated that universities initially resisted democracy: “Democracy and the university did not develop in parallel.”

“The background is great economic change. We’ve moved from an agricultural to industrial, then service-based and now a knowledge-based economy,” said Fallis.

These momentous economic changes moved the university from a more peripheral role – preparing a small number of elites – to the new role of central engine to the economy, providing mass education. This transformation has resulted in the phenomenon of the “multiversity”, with no central theme but many diverse responsibilities.

Above: Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Dean Martin Singer introduces Fallis to the capacity crowd at the 2011 Giambattista Vico Lecture

While originally seen as a democratizing force, especially in the decades immediately following the Second World War, Fallis argues that this mission creep is now forcing universities to all but abandon their role of preparing highly engaged political citizens. Instead, universities’ movement closer to government and to business has created a meritocracy ruled by a class of new patricians – highly accomplished and successful individuals who feel less responsibility for the general population because they have “earned” their status through intense competition. He describes these new patricians as moving within a privileged Davos culture – named for the Swiss town where political, business and academic elites retreat each year for the World Economic Forum.

An edited recording of Fallis’ presentation is posted on the .

The fifth annual lecture in the series, it was sponsored through an endowment created by Elvio DelZotto, his brothers Angelo and Leo DelZotto, and other friends and family members. The lecture was created as a tribute to the late Fred Zorzi, Elvio DelZotto's friend and law partner.

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 91��ɫ, 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.

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Universities can play a critical role in confronting the democratic deficit pervading politics at every level, 91��ɫ’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 91��ɫ, 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. 91��ɫ’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 91��ɫ Foundation, the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and Founders College.

To attend the lecture, register online.

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���� of technology, science and education, Prof. Noble was perhaps best known for his book . Most recently, he published . Until his death, he taught in the Social & Political Thought Program in the Department of Social Science in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

Born July 25, 1945, in New 91��ɫ City, he had held positions at MIT, the Smithsonian Institution and Drexel University, as well as many visiting professorships.

In his role as an academic and critical historian, Prof. Noble's numerous books and writings challenged core ideas and major institutions of technology, science, corporate capitalism and higher education.

The father of three daughters, Prof. Noble enjoyed music, nature and treasured his summers in the Vermont woods spent with his family, friends and colleagues.

He is survived by his wife Sarah Dopp of Toronto; daughters Clare O'Connor of Toronto, Helen O'Connor of Toulon, France and Alice O'Connor of Vancouver; sister Jane Pafford of Arcadia, Florida; and brothers Doug Noble of Rochester, NY, and Henry Noble of Seattle, Wash.

A public memorial service will be announced in the coming weeks.

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Prof. Feldberg made a significant mark at 91��ɫ. She spent a decade at Harvard, first as an undergraduate in biology, then as a graduate student in the history of science and medicine. When settling on a dissertation topic, Prof. Feldberg chose to explore differing American and Canadian approaches to the control of tuberculosis (TB) in the first half of the 20th century. Her husband, Rob Vipond, said that even her historian colleagues wondered why she had chosen to write on such an unfashionable disease as TB. Yet within a few years, the disease was resurgent, TB was “hot” in historical circles, and Prof. Feldberg’s dissertation, now a book titled (1995), had captured the Jason Hannah Medal from the for the best book in the history of medicine.

Right: Prof. Gina Feldberg

Prof. Feldberg's gift for engaging students in the area of health & society was recognized through a faculty-wide award for outstanding teaching in 1990. She was particularly proud of the graduate students whom she mentored. She led the 91��ɫ Centre for Health Studies (now the 91��ɫ Institute for Health Research) through a critical decade of rebuilding health studies at the University, then managed a large and complex research grant on women’s health from 1992 until 2001. At the time of her death, Prof. Feldberg was about to begin a research leave to finish work on an inspired project on the history of salads.

In addition to her colleagues and hundreds of former students, Prof. Feldberg leaves her husband Rob Vipond and their daughter Susanna. A memorial service will be held for Prof. Feldberg in the fall.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Prof. Feldberg's honour can be made to the Princess Margaret Hospital, 610 University Ave., Toronto, for research in multiple myeloma; St. Stephen's Community House, 91 Bellevue Ave., Toronto; or the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, 10 Garden St., Cambridge, MA.

Professor Feldberg was also remembered in an obituary published in The Globe and Mail:

It's safe to say that tuberculosis is not a subject of great interest for most folks – unless, of course, you or a loved one actually has it. Often associated with filth, squalor and Dickensian living conditions, TB, at least in the industrialized world, is commonly, and erroneously, thought to have vanished with consumptive Victorians, and good riddance.

For Gina Feldberg, TB's persistence and treatment were treasure troves, offering up mountains of information on social reform, middle-class values, personal hygiene, and public health policy. She believed that as with AIDS, tuberculosis served as a metaphor for other social ills, and that perhaps like no other disease helped shape modern North American values.

She was a historian of science, specifically of medicine and more specifically of infectious diseases. A probing, inventive scholar, she examined the interplay of illness, class, and the practice of medicine, and how those combine to affect the health of nations.

"If we want policy to be effective," she said, boiling it down, "we need to know why it looks the way that it looks and how we can change it."

At Toronto's 91��ɫ, where she taught in the Department of Social Science and for nine years headed the Centre for Health Studies [now the 91��ɫ Institute for Health Research], she also weighed in on a host of public issues, including women's health, AIDS and Canada's health-care system.

Feldberg, who died in Toronto on July 10 at the age of 54 following a four-year battle with multiple myeloma, focused on the differing American and Canadian approaches to the control of TB in the first half of the 20th century.

The is available on the Globe's website.

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One of several Guyanese faculty at 91��ɫ, Prof. Grant played an important role in fostering links between Guyana and the University. In 1996, Prof. Grant was one of several faculty members to host Guyanese President Cheddi Jagan during his official visit to Canada.

Prof. Grant was cross appointed to the Departments of Political Science and Social Science. He taught in both areas for more than 30 years. He was also affiliated with 91��ɫ's Centre for Research on Latin America & the Caribbean. Dedicated to his students, Prof. Grant was described as an inspiring mentor and friend.

He leaves behind his wife Gwen and three children, their spouses and six grandchildren. Visitation will take place today at the Highland Funeral Home, 3280 Sheppard Ave. E., from 2 to 4pm and from 7 to 9pm. Funeral services will be held on Saturday at 12pm at St. Paul's L'Amoreaux Church, 3333 Finch Ave. E. Interment is at Highland Memory Gardens, 33 Memory Gardens Lane.

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In fact, the research suggests that, while there’s no guarantee that sticking it out will lead to happiness, good marriages often get better later in life.

“They were like honeymooners, some of them,” says , a professor of social science in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, who with her husband, Ben Schlesinger, recently studied 20 couples who had been married at least 45 years by intensively interviewing the husbands and wives separately.

What the happy couples said: Keep busy, maintain a strong social circle, invest energy in your grandkids. The couples reported working hard at their marriages, but not trying to change their partners. They had fun – “these were not dour people,” Aber-Schlesinger says. And they still made plans, even into their 90s. “They didn’t only look back, they also planned ahead.”

The complete article is .

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On March 9, the Globe published an article on the . The story was part of its special report on university research and also appeared in the Report on Business section:

The study of literature is rarely associated with economic growth, yet that is precisely the argument made by Impact Group co-founder Ron Freedman: "The Stratford Festival generates huge economic benefit for the local community. What's its core technology? Old English."

According to Mr. Freedman, who authored a report on the economic role of social sciences and humanities research, this type of research doesn't get its fair share of credit for its contributions to the Canadian economy and society.

Discussions about the role of research in economic growth are usually dominated by the so-called "hard sciences," biomedical and technology in particular, and the Conservative government's recent Speech from the Throne was no exception, with its promises to continue investing in the Science and Technology Strategy, create a digital economy strategy and support advanced research in space-based technologies.

But many in the research community believe that focusing funding primarily on science and technology to strengthen the economy is a mistake. "The humanities and social sciences are moving to centre stage," said SSHRC president Chad Gaffield recently in a speech.

Two projects lead by 91��ɫ professors were mentioned in the coverage:

There are thousands of groups across the country trying to end homelessness. Yet, often being under-resourced, they lack funds to research whether their programs are effective. Enter Professor Stephen Gaetz of 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education and nursing Professor Bernie Pauly of the University of Victoria who teamed up with community partners to help them evaluate their programs and share their great ideas with other communities.

Megan Davies, a professor in the Department of Social Science in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, had long wanted to share the wealth of knowledge she had accumulated about the history of mental health in Canada with young people, wrote the Globe. So, together with Anne Marshall, director of the Centre for Youth & Society at the University of Victoria, she developed high-school material that teaches students to understand their own mental health and be compassionate toward others with mental illness and made it available to teachers online at the Web site CaringMinds.ca.

On March 8, the Globe also published an article on that included 91��ɫ's Knowledge Mobilization program, which partners researchers with community organizations and government policymakers to produce mutually-beneficial research.

“The future lies in exchanging all forms of research not just with industry but with government and with the community at large as well,” says David Phipps, director of the Office of Research Services at 91��ɫ. “In past, the focus has been on technology. Now we are extending it to business, law, the social sciences and the humanities.”

...

At 91��ɫ, Mr. Phipps has two full-time staff working on what he calls knowledge mobilization. To date, they work with the United Way of 91��ɫ Region and The Human Services Planning Coalition of 91��ɫ Region, which represents 15 different social services agencies.

Representatives from those agencies meet regularly with 91��ɫ researchers for what he calls KM in the AM — a knowledge management breakfast — where the agencies get to pick what area of research they want to hear about and a 91��ɫ professor specializing in that area delivers a presentation.

"After that we leave it to the agencies and the professors to follow up," he says.

On March 10, Professor Joe Baker in 91��ɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science in the Faculty of Health was profiled as one of several . It highlighted his research on the benefits of exercise and competitive sport to older people.

“We’re finding that a lot of things that we used to attribute to getting older, like decreases in cognitive functioning, depression and increased substance abuse, are really more a symptom of disuse rather than aging,” says Baker, a member of 91��ɫ’s Alliance in Graceful Aging, a multidisciplinary research team.

He also examines how society’s negative stereotypes about aging influence people’s behaviours as they grow older. “We are very much a culture that values youth and devalues the older person,” he says.

His findings so far suggest people’s expectations about aging play a significant role in their declining physical and cognitive abilities. “We’re just starting to get a handle on how big an influence these negative social stereotypes are on overall health,” he says.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of .

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