From investigating how typography could reduce medication errors to using math as a tool to teach jazz, Faculty of Fine Arts scholars and practitioners have a fascinating array of research projects to share during the Fine Arts Research Celebration Monday, Feb. 6.

Robert Haché, vice-president research & innovation, and Barbara Sellers-Young, dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, are co-hosting the event, which takes place from 2 to 4 pm in the McLean Performance Studio, 244 Accolade East Building, Keele campus. Everyone is welcome to attend the free celebration, but an RSVP is requested. You can RSVP or call Lia Novario at ext. 33782. Light refreshments will be provided.

Right: Nancy Latoszewski performing

The program features a live dance performance, film clips and four presentations that showcase some of the diverse academic and applied creative work being done by Fine Arts faculty and graduate student researchers.

“This research celebration highlights multi-disciplinarity in the Faculty of Fine Arts, from dance to music to digital media and beyond,” said Haché. “We invite the 91��ɫ research community to join us to learn more about the exceptional research activities taking place in this Faculty.”

“The arts are so much more than entertainment,” says Sellers-Young. “Arts and culture are at the heart of our day-to-day lives, and those who are engaged in the arts – as practising artists, theorists, historians, critics and many other ways – play an important role in shaping civic society and addressing the critical issues of our day. The presentations at the Fine Arts Research Celebration illustrate this engagement and the diverse contributions our researchers are making.”

Visitors to the Fine Arts Research Celebration will be greeted by clips of visual arts Professor Katherine Knight’s vivid feature documentary, . Knight’s film follows the renowned Canadian artist as she prepares massive new works depicting archetypal cities and familiar, yet disquieting, landscapes for two 30-year retrospectives – one at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and another at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa.

Left: Wanda Koop in a still from the film KOOP: The Art of Wanda Koop

Drawing the viewer into the framework in which the artist works, the film explores the science of vision, colour and perception – including Koop’s visit to 91��ɫ’s Centre for Vision Research to have her vision tested in the 3D Vision Research lab. (See YFile story Feb. 22, 2011.)

Design Professor will present a talk, titled “Evaluating Graphic Design for Patient Safety: An investigation of the Use of Typographic Principles to Differentiate Look-Alike Medication Names”.

She was the principal investigator on a recent study conducted at Toronto’s University Health Network, investigating how the principles and practices of graphic design and typography might be used for interventions intended to help health-care professionals make accurate medication selections.

Right: An example of using Tallman lettering with parts of the word enhanced to help distinguish it from similar medication names

“We know that look-alike, or orthographically similar, medication names are one of the causes of medication errors,” says Gabriele. “Tallman lettering (enhancement of words by changing parts of the word to capital letters) is currently recommended to help differentiate similar names.”

In her new study, she tested tallman lettering applied to look-alike medication names alongside other ways of enhancing names using three different scenarios. “Results indicated that tallman lettering might not be as effective as previously reported,” she says. “The research also revealed the importance of designing and testing interventions for specific users in contexts that reflect actual situations and activities in practice.”

In his lecture-demonstration “Music is Math: An effective Approach to Teaching Jazz Improvisation within General Music Education”, Professor Ron Westray��(����ڳ�), 91��ɫ’s Oscar Peterson Chair in Jazz Performance, explores how the mathematical qualities inherent in western music can be used as a tool for ear training through music improv.

“You can view the chord-to-scale relationship in jazz improvisation as virtual data that can be transposed throughout relative and absolute functions, much like basic math,” says Westray. “Translating music into math helps demystify simple improvisation. It levels the playing field and makes it easier for non-specialists to teach jazz improv.”

Westray, an internationally known jazz trombonist, will illustrate the concept by means of a PowerPoint presentation punctuated with live performance examples, including the participation of jazz majors from the Department of Music.

Digital Media Professor Mark-David Hosale will discuss “Nonlinear Narrative as a Conceptual Framework for Media Art”, with an overview of the core technical and esthetic motivations unpinning his work as a media artist.

Right: Digital media art by Mark-David Hosale

“The approach to addressing narrative issues in my work is derived from thinking of narrative as a model of knowledge,” he says. “I see the stories we tell each other and ourselves as an expression of what we know. From this perspective, my works can be understood as knowledge spaces that are a conceptual reflection of a modern understanding of knowledge and nature, which is inherently nonlinear.”

The challenge of capturing the qualities of nonlinear narratives has led Hosale to develop an abstract model useful in the conceptual analysis and practical development of his work. In his presentation, he will explain how the model is based on a composite of operations, structures and characteristics that provide the governing principles behind a software framework and hardware platform.

Canadian dance history is the focus of the presentation by dance Professors Darcey Callison and Carol Anderson, and Professor Emerita Selma Odom. They will read excerpts from their contributions to , an anthology to accompany an exhibition of the same name organized by Dance Collection Danse in partnership with the Theatre Museum of Canada.

During the 1970s dance boom, audiences worldwide flocked to performances. Artists were energized and innovative. In Canada, dance finally found an intellectual home in universities across the country. The decade was also defined in Canada by political, social and cultural debate inspired by second-wave feminism, gay rights, multiculturalism, separatism and nationalism.

How was this turbulent decade reflected in dance? How did the major issues and ideas of the day inspire or influence dancers and choreographers, and how did they respond? Renegade Bodies: Canadian Dance in the 1970s explores how the art form contributed to, and was informed by, this vibrant zeitgeist.

Moving from the page to the stage, dance MFA candidate Nancy Latoszewski will perform a five-minute excerpt from her solo dance, Carriage. The work revisits the challenge she faced in transitioning from the life of a prima ballerina to motherhood. While intensely personal, the work also speaks to the wider experience of undergoing a tremendous life change. Through her choreographic and performance research, with works such as Carriage, Latoszewski investigates how danced narratives can communicate personal stories and contribute to current interests in oral history and storytelling.

In addition to the public presentations, there will be a display of books and materials in other publication formats.

Visitors will have the opportunity to engage with other research projects by Fine Arts faculty on Fine Arts Research Day in Vari Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 29, from 10am to 2pm, as part of 91��ɫ’s Research Month.

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

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The conference will take place on Inclusion Day, Jan. 18, from 11:30am to 8pm, at 280N 91��ɫ Lanes, Keele campus. Everyone is welcome to attend the free event.

This is the third annual Inclusion Day at 91��ɫ. Guest speakers will provide participants with internal and external community perspectives “that will no doubt enhance our path of continued learning about the wealth that diversity brings,” says Noël Badiou, director of 91��ɫ’s CHR.

“Inclusion Day provides an occasion to highlight the diversity on our campus and the value and importance of ensuring that each and every member of our greater community, students, staff and faculty, is included in 91��ɫ's activities, whether in the classroom, during extracurricular events, or academic and administrative meetings,” says Badiou.

Left: Noël Badiou

This year's theme of "building allies for equity" is in keeping with CHR's goal of further enhancing the individual understanding of barriers faced by certain members of the 91��ɫ community with a view to exploring ways that we can help eliminate these barriers, he says.

“The key in creating a more equitable community is to further each of our individual understanding of the incredibly rich diversity of our community and be empowered with knowledge about how to value this diversity by being more inclusive, as well as appreciative and respectful of our differences. It is a tall order, but one that can be accomplished by having a growing number of partners and supporters within our community.”

Director of the City of Toronto’s Equity & Inclusion Office, Uzma Shakir will deliver the opening keynote address at noon, along with a panel comprised of 91��ɫ students. A host of talks will follow throughout the afternoon.

The first sessions will include 91��ɫ PhD psychology candidate Kaley Roosen (BSC Spec. Hons. ’07, MA ’09) and Access 91��ɫ discussing disability awareness: The Power of Language, and Professor Faisal Bhabha and second-year law student Adrienne Lipsey of Osgoode Hall Law School looking at the meaning of religious accommodation. The Aboriginal Student Association at 91��ɫ will host a workshop exploring notions of identity for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth and the impact of gender roles and access to cultural resources in urban Aboriginal communities. 91��ɫ student Sana Siddiqui, an MSW student, will explore the historical and political roots of Islamophobia and its current manifestations through a variety of hands-on activities, video clips, case studies and interactive discussion. She will also offer strategies for building networks of allies against Islamophobia.

During the second round of sessions at 2:30pm, Jennifer Dalton (LLM ’06, PhD ’10), a visiting scholar with 91��ɫ’s Centre for Refugee Studies, will present “From Kelowna to Attawapiskat: Forging Aboriginal-Canada Alliances to Build Aboriginal Equity”. She will discuss the continuing inequities that plague Aboriginal communities across the country despite the Kelowna Accord, which sought to bridge the inequity gap. This interactive workshop will emphasize the need to forge positive alliances between Aboriginal communities and the government. Bobby Siu from 91��ɫ’s Equity Studies Department will address “Building Allies for Equity in the Workplace: Some Considerations for Persons with Disabilities”.

A third group of sessions will begin at 4pm, covering topics that look at the purpose of “voice” if no one is listening and relationships for creating change and inclusion. Ragini Sharma, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Education, will hold an interactive workshop Broadening the Vision, Deepening the Roots, from 4 to 5:15pm, where participants can talk about their experiences of religious diversity on campus and will be challenged to broaden their vision beyond an identity based solely on religion.

An evening reception with keynote speaker Tim McCaskell, a social justice advocate and author, will follow the final sessions.

For a full lineup of sessions and speakers, visit the Inclusion Day web page on the Centre for Human Rights website. To register, .

For more information, contact Nythalah Baker, CHR senior adviser, education & communications, at nythalah@yorku.ca or ext. 55682.

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

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Right: The Schulich School of Business

Schulich’s MBA program ranked ahead of those offered by MIT (Sloan), the London Business School, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and INSEAD, and behind Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley and Harvard. Schulich placed first among Canadian schools, second in the world among non-US schools and eighth among North American schools. To view the complete results, click .��

The Economist survey is the only major global ranking that rates business schools on criteria deemed most important to MBA students and alumni – everything from diversity of career opportunities to earning potential and networking opportunities. According to The Economist, the magazine ranks full-time MBA programs on "their ability to provide students with the things that they themselves cite as most important" and weighs each element according to the average importance given to it by students. Student and alumni ratings make up 20 per cent of the survey and 80 per cent is based on quantitative data such as student quality, faculty quality, post-MBA salary and salary increase, and breadth of internationalism of alumni.

During its 23-year history, The Economist survey has tracked and measured the opinions of approximately 250,000 MBA students and alumni on categories they consider to be most important, including:

• the ability of a school to open new career opportunities;
• personal development and educational experience;
• salary increase; and,
• the potential to network, as measured by the internationalism of the school’s alumni and the breadth of its alumni network.

These are some of the key highlights regarding Schulich in this year’s The Economist ranking:

• Schulich ranked second in the world in the category of faculty quality, which looked at factors such as the student/faculty ratio and faculty rating by students (99 per cent of Schulich faculty have a PhD).
• Schulich ranked fourth in the world in the category of recruiter diversity (the number of industries represented by recruiters who hire Schulich graduates) – a reflection of the broad range of industry and functional specializations offered at the school (18 in total).
• Schulich was ranked fifth in the world in the category of salary increase – a measurement that captures the percentage by which salaries increased pre-MBA to post-MBA. Within three months of graduation, Schulich graduates reported an average 127 per cent increase over their pre-MBA salary.
• Schulich was ranked eighth in the world in the broad category of personal development and educational experience, which encompasses faculty quality, student quality, student diversity and educational experience. In the specific category of educational experience, Schulich ranked second in the world. This category included a student assessment of the program and the range of electives offered, the school facilities and the number of overseas exchange opportunities.
• Schulich ranked fourth in the world in the category of internationalism of alumni – a key consideration for MBA graduates interested in seeking global opportunities after graduation. (Schulich has more than 84 alumni chapters in 61 countries and more than 22,000 alumni working in over 90 countries.)

"We're once again extremely proud to be ranked among the very best business schools by one of the world's most respected business publications," said Schulich Dean Dezsö Horváth (left) on Friday following the release of the survey results. "Today's result comes on the heels of another top 10 global MBA ranking for Schulich several weeks ago, when the Aspen Institute rated Schulich’s MBA program number two in the world in a survey that identified which schools are doing the best job of preparing future business leaders for the environmental, social and ethical complexities of modern-day business.

“We believe The Economist and Aspen Institute rankings are largely the result of the quality of our students and faculty, our diverse, innovative and forward-looking curriculum, and our strong international orientation," said Horváth.

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

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The event will take place Jan. 13, from 2:30 to 5pm, on the 5th Floor of the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building, Keele campus. In addition, there will be some short remarks at 3:30pm in 5084 TEL Building, at the south end of the hallway. Refreshments will be served.

The open house will showcase faculty- and student-led research projects, along with short presentations by researchers.

The LaMarsh Centre conducts interdisciplinary research in health, education, relationships and development of infants, children, adolescents, emerging adults and families. Its particular focus is on the health and well-being of Canada’s youth, preventing youth violence and promoting positive development. The aim is to foster a centre of learning, productivity and exchange for new and senior scholars and to create a critical mass of related research activity.

The YIHR takes a determinants approach to health research with sub-areas including diversity and health, health equity and social justice, health and the environment, health law and ethics, health care and health governance. YIHR draws together a range of social, biomedical, environmental and behavioural scientists, as well as researchers from business, law, education and the physical sciences, bridging the divide between the sciences and social sciences to deliver real-world solutions.

The houses the largest university-based survey centre in Canada, conducting major surveys on population health, education, gender, the environment and voting behaviour. It conducts more than 25 survey research projects annually, as well as a range of qualitative research, including focus group studies. ISR staff complete all stages of the survey research process from questionnaire design, sample selection and data collection to the preparation of machine-readable data files, statistical analysis and report writing.

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

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For more than 1,400 years, Muslims have held multiple and diverging views about their religious tradition. Yet especially since Sept. 11, 2001, Muslims are commonly portrayed as homogeneous and dogmatic.

In his new book, , 91��ɫ anthropologist challenges that view. The 253-page volume published by I.B. Tauris and launched at Harvard University this fall features essays by world-class scholars that explore Islam and Muslim societies and cultures from a range of perspectives.

The book arose from a seminar series on Muslim pluralism hosted at the London-based Institute of Ismaili Studies in 2002 and 2003 in response to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, explains Hirji in his editor’s note. “Since that moment, words and images concerning Islam and the histories, beliefs and practices of Muslims have proliferated globally.”

This complex portrait of Islam “challenges the notions that Muslims everywhere are the same or should be the same,” wrote Hirji. Like the seminar series, the book aims not to present the social fact that Muslims are diverse, he added, but to examine how Muslims frame their own diversity over time and in different contexts.

As a social historian as well as an anthropologist in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Hirji is interested in how Muslim societies express their sense of community. He has contributed the first of eight essays in Diversity and Pluralism in Islam, “Debating Islam from Within: Muslim Constructions of the Internal Other”.

Hirji co-authored and co-edited , a comprehensive account of Ismaili history and intellectual achievements, set in the wider contexts of Islamic and world history. He has co-edited Places of Worship and Devotion in Muslim Societies, expected out soon.��He has also recently completed a 25-minute film on Tehreema Mitha (see YFile May 7, 2009), a classical and contemporary dancer from Pakistan, and is working with the Textile Museum of Canada on an exhibition of Muslim material culture and heritage in Africa to open in May.

Right: Zulfikar Hirji

At 91��ɫ, he teaches senior undergraduate and graduate courses on Islam and Muslim societies, visual anthropology and the anthropology of the senses.

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The conference, “Education in Tough Times: Tough Times in Education,” from Oct. 21 to 24 at the Novotel Hotel (North 91��ɫ), features critical historical explorations, innovative research, vivid photographic exhibitions and stimulating discussions of some of the most pressing issues for students, parents and policy-makers in education today.

“Current debates in education locally, nationally and internationally are best understood by examining the rich history of education,” says Professor , former dean of 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education, who organized the conference. “This gathering is a unique opportunity to engage experts and various sectors of the education community. From the vantage point of an informed analysis of the past, we can look toward a wider array of options in policy and practice for the present and a more vibrant and enlightened future.”

Papers and presentations cover a broad spectrum of issues such as religion in schools, lifelong learning, student health, disability, learning difficulties, diversity, gender, assimilation, resistance and accommodation. These topics are reflected in such titles as:

• The Sixties Revolution and the Meaning of Higher Education
• Commies at the Chalkboard: National Security, Teachers and the Long Red Scare
• Montreal’s Little Strikers: Antisemitism, Poverty and Resistance at the Aberdeen School, 1913
• Kids Learn to Smoke: The case of Tobacco Manufacturers’ Pseudo-Anti Smoking Messages and the Pathetic Real Deal − School Curricula
• No Light Without Shadow: Education and Experience at Rochdale College
• Schoolyard Archaeology: Digging for Toronto’s African Canadian Heritage;Canada’s History Crisis of the 1990s: The Public Debate and Its Legacy
• Sex and Social Segregation in English Canadian High Schools: The Interwar Years

The conference features a special exhibition of photographs and short essays titled “A Picture in a Thousand Words“, showcasing education historians using visual sources. It also includes a tour of rare artifacts of the history of Ontario education, which have been preserved at the , on the Keele Campus of 91��ɫ.

“91��ɫ is proud to be the home of the Archives of Ontario and to serve, in this way, as the gateway to the history of education in Ontario,” says Axelrod, whose most recent work analyzes the abolition of corporal punishment in Ontario’s schools. “This repository is an indispensable resource for all serious students of the history of education in this province.”

The Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ, one of Ontario’s largest institutions for higher learning in education, has earned an international reputation for its interdisciplinary approach to research and teacher training in both undergraduate and graduate studies. Its focus on community engagement combined with a rich diversity of conceptual and applied research distinguishes the faculty as a leader in knowledge mobilization in the field of education.

For event details visit the or the Faculty of Education.

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

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"There are better ways of doing many things regarding long-term residential care, more creative ways,” says Armstong. She is confident that the study will come up with ideas on how to improve conditions for workers and residents. “Long-term residences need to be a positive option, not the last resort as it now seems to be in Canada."

Armstrong says people feel shame when they have to admit a family member to a long-term care facility. “People see long-term care as a failure of themselves, their family and the health-care system. The main goal is always to keep them out of long-term care homes, rather than saying how can we make them attractive interesting places to be and work.” People are apologetic for not being able to care for their loved ones at home, but home care is not necessarily ideal either, Armstrong says. There can be issues with caregiver burnout and elder abuse, and it’s often just not a viable option as many women – still the main caregivers – work full time.

Right: Pat Armstrong

“How we treat this vulnerable population and those who provide their care is a critical indicator of our approach to equity and social justice, as well as to care,” says Armstrong. “Long-term residential care is a barometer of values and practices.” It raises questions regarding fundamental human and social rights, the role of the state, as well as the responsibilities of individuals, families and governments.

"Reimagining Long-Term Residential Care: An International Study of Promising Practices" is a seven-year project with $2.5 million in funding from the ’s program. Armstrong will lead an international team of researchers seeking to identify the most promising practices for long-term residential care, ones that treat both providers and residents with dignity and respect. The team is less interested in pointing out what’s broken in the system, than in coming up with promising practices to improve it.

Up until now, there has been little research on residential care in Canada or elsewhere that has taken this kind of approach, says Armstrong. What has been done tends to focus on issues such as patient abuse and under-staffing rather than on issues related to gender and diversity, the relationship between the conditions of work and conditions of care or on policies that will lead to quality care. Meanwhile, the need for long-term residential care in Canada is expected to grow in the face of psychiatric, chronic care and rehabilitation hospital closures, the shift in hospital focus to short-term acute care and outpatient services, and with an aging population, she says.

The research team, which includes physicians, architects, sociologists, philosophers, social workers, historians, political scientists and economists, along with representatives of competing interests, such as employers and unions, will compare practices in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Norway, Sweden and Germany.��They will look at four different themes – work organization, accountability, approaches to care, and financing and ownership.

Left: An elderly woman sits by a window. Photo by Chalmers Butterfield.

In the area of work organization, researchers hope to find care models that better meet the needs and balance the rights of residents, providers, managers, families and communities. Under accountability, they are looking for structures which nurture care and inspire quality workplace relations. They will also investigate financing and ownership models to identify the contexts, regulations, funding and conditions that allow residents and providers to flourish and that ensure equitable access to quality long-term residential care.

“We’re hoping to get the pieces of a kind of mosaic to guide us to a better place for all the countries…to producing an integrated picture of long-term residential care and how to do things differently,” says Armstrong. “In many ways, the approaches to care are the most important.” In this country, the emphasis seems to be more on finances, but it is imperative that approaches to care provide a viable, desirable and equitable option for individuals, families and those who provide care. Both providers and residents need to be treated with dignity and respect in the approaches to care, she adds.

The plan is to have researchers work in all four thematic areas, not just their area of expertise, to help generate new ideas and novel ways of approaching problems. “I emphasize the ideas because we're not just thinking about the residents, but the families, the workers and the governments,” Armstrong says.

Long-term care raises many complex issues dealing with gender, diversity, aging, sexuality and providing medical care once the domain of hospitals. Typically, long-term care residents have been mostly women, currently about 80 per cent, but the number of men in care has increased. So has the number of younger people needing constant care and not served by a hospital. Most care workers are also women, many of whom are from racialized communities. Trying to find the most promising practices is not an easy task and one size will definitely not fit all, but at the same time there is much room for improvement, Armstrong says.

Armstrong, who holds a Canadian Health Services Research Foundation/Canadian Institutes of Health Research Chair in Health Services & Nursing Research, expects the project to create readily usable research.

“We hope the research will make a difference long before the project is done.”

Armstrong is a professor of sociology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and an executive member of both the 91��ɫ Institute for Health Research and the Graduate Program in Health Policy & Equity.

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