CBC's The Current featured the documentary :

With flood waters wreaking havoc across communities in Canada and the U.S., the immediate concern is to make sure people are safe and to limit damage. Communities typically know how to respond quickly to the physical clean-up, but are unprepared for the consequences. The toll the destruction takes on mental health includes spikes in depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide.

Gulliver, who studies disaster resiliency and recovery in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, volunteers in New Orleans providing mental health support to volunteers and victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.

You can listen to the documentary on . Gulliver's comments begin at the 16:39 mark.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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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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Pregnant with her third child, she was conducting a series of interviews as research for the play, , on loss and how it is transformed, when she lost her son Ethan. “I was just struck by how I was immersed in this phenomena and living it at the same time,” she says. I'm Still Here was co-created with 91��ɫ nursing Professor Gail Mitchell and playwright Vrenia Ivonoffski.

Right: Christine Jonas-Simpson, holding the children's book she wrote, Ethan's Butterflies

Ethan was stillborn at 38 weeks – or, as Jonas-Simpson prefers to say, born still – causing a rent in the universe as she knew it. After the loud silence of her delivery, she remembers hearing a primal scream of agony, realizing some moments later it was coming from her.

Almost a decade later, Jonas-Simpson is about to premiere her third research-based documentary film, about how mothers and their families live with the loss of a child. The premiere will take place Sunday, May 15, from 1 to 3:30pm at the Fox Theatre, 2236 Queen St. E. in Toronto. Tickets are $25 per ticket with proceeds going to Bereaved Families of Ontario-Toronto. To buy tickets, call 416-440-0290 or e-mail info@bfotoronto.ca.

Enduring Love looks at the lives of four women, the agony of loss, the impact the death of their infant has had on them and their families and how they learned to live with their loss. It also traces the importance of recognizing their other children are also grieving, the continuing presence of their deceased child in their lives, the rituals they’ve developed and how they not only endured but have been transformed by their loss. Funded by 91��ɫ's Faculty of Health and the Health Leadership & Learning Network: Interprofessional Education Initiative Fund, the documentary answers the research question, what is the meaning of living and transforming with loss for mothers who experience the loss of their baby?

As one woman in the film says of her family, it was a “seminal event in their lives”; there was a before and an after. The women make the point that many fail to realize that losing their baby, whether at 24 weeks gestation or several weeks after delivery, is a profoundly felt loss that changes, not only them, but their husbands and their children, forever. One of the universally hard moments for these women was going home from the hospital without their baby. It feels so unnatural, says Jonas-Simpson.

It was the experience of losing her own son that guided Jonas-Simpson’s research toward providing a body of arts-based research for others who experienced perinatal loss. She had often used music in her nursing practice and research, and then began incorporating art, drama and film. “With grieving and loss it seemed appropriate to keep going with the arts.” Although, she will write papers on her latest research, she believes presenting her findings with an art-based approach makes it more accessible and touches people in a way a research paper in a journal wouldn’t. “It’s a way of showing the human experience, rather than just telling,” she says.

Being a researcher, I looked at the literature to see what was out there. I was struck by how little there was out there in light of grieving and loss about mothers’ lived experiences. My graduate student, Jennifer Noseworthy, and I are conducting a comprehensive literature review and we’ve only found a few qualitative studies focused on the human lived experience of perinatal loss.” And that moved Jonas-Simpson to conduct research and create resources for others like her.

Enduring Love is her third film. Her first was , while her second, is a short made from footage shot for Enduring Love, which focuses on the surviving children. “These children have an incredible bond and relationship with the babies,” their siblings who’ve died. Jonas-Simpson recently gave a talk and showed Why Did Baby Die? at a Women's Health and Mental Wellbeing Speakers Series event at 91��ɫ.

Some of the children, as seen in Enduring Love, have drawn family portraits years later that have included their deceased siblings. “Grieving and loss isn’t always something we talk about openly, but it is experienced by many, if not all, of us,” says Jonas-Simpson. Even after the physical death, the relationship continues. “It’s still hidden. Perinatal loss is also disenfranchised in our society.” To help grieving children with the loss of a baby sibling, she also wrote the children's book .

Jonas-Simpson started talking about her own experience of losing Ethan, born with vibrant red locks, and how her other two sons, now 11 and 13, have integrated him into their lives as a way to help others. “The children integrate this loss very well,” she says. One of her children even wrote a letter to Ethan as a school assignment, asking if there are dinosaurs in heaven and if it hurt to die. The teacher may have been uncomfortable, but Jonas-Simpson says it’s important to talk about and to understand the continuing relationship following death.

Next, she is hoping to do research on children age three to 18 who are grieving a loss of a baby sibling. Children, she says, are often forgotten about, but they too grieve. “If we can be more open about grief and loss as a natural human experience and if we can begin in the schools with that,” it could be really helpful for the children, she says. She would also like to explore the common and unique threads of grieving around the world.

For more information or to view or buy Jonas-Simpson’s films, visit the Faculty of Health’s Living and Transforming with Perinatal Loss website.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

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

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The screening will take place Friday, April 29, from 6:30 to 8pm in Room 2158 JJR MacLeod Auditorium, Medical Sciences Building, 1 King’s College Circle, University of Toronto.

Right: Timothy Leduc

Following the film, Leduc, author of , will be joined by University of Windsor Professor Emerita Laura Westra (BA ’76, PhD ’05), author of Globalization, Violence and World Governance (Brill, 2011), and Alfredo Barahona, program coordinator of Migrant and Indigenous Rights at KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives and member of the World Council of Churches' Global Ecumenical Network on Migration.

The panel will discuss the issues raised by the film and engage in a discussion with the audience.

Climate Refugees looks at those who have been displaced by a climatically induced environmental disaster, resulting from both incremental and rapid ecological change. This can result in increased droughts, desertification, rising sea levels and more frequent extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, fires, mass flooding and tornadoes. These environmental disasters are causing mass global migration and border conflicts.

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

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When Christine Jonas-Simpson’s son Ethan was born, there was an eerie quiet in the delivery room, and then a piercing wail, wrote .

“The only cry I heard was my own,” she said somberly.

Ethan was dead, “born still” in the language of grieving parents; “stillborn” in the medical vernacular. The umbilical cord was constricted, essentially suffocating the baby in the womb, a condition impossible to detect with an ultrasound.

Jonas-Simpson, who was almost 38 weeks pregnant, knew her son was dead before she went into labour. When he was born, she held Ethan in her arms, stroking his shock of curly red hair. So did her husband.

The nurses were wonderfully supportive, even explaining to Ethan’s young siblings how his air tube was broken, something that could happen to an astronaut. The family was able to mourn on their terms.

(Jonas-Simpson, a professor of nursing at 91��ɫ [Faculty of Health], published a children’s book, , and produced a series of research papers and documentaries on stillbirth, the latest of which, Enduring Love: Transforming Loss, will .)

[You can also watch the channel.]

Unlike Ethan, most babies born still are quickly “disposed of” without being held, named or given a funeral. In much of the world, reproduction is central to a woman’s purpose, so there is profound stigma, and no small measure of blame falls on the mother when childbirth fails to produce a living child.

Newly published data show there are more than 2.6 million stillbirths worldwide each year. The deaths remain largely uncounted, the mothers unsupported and preventive measures understudied.

It is an epidemic – one that claims more lives each year than HIV-AIDS and malaria combined – that quietly unfolds far from the public eye.

The Lancet, in its Thursday edition, has published that aim to shatter the silence by examining the staggering toll of stillbirth – emotional, physical and economic – and proposing practical solutions.

A stillbirth, as defined by the World Health Organization, is one in which a baby dies after reaching at least 28 weeks gestation and weighing at least 1,000 grams. In a country like Canada with advanced medical care, it is 22 weeks at 500 grams. (Loss of a fetus before that time is considered a miscarriage or, if the pregnancy is terminated, an abortion.)

There is a common belief that babies who die in utero were never meant to live. Stillbirths have been seen as a form of natural selection, bad luck, the result of witchcraft – lame 17th-century explanations for a lingering 21st-century scourge.

The other myth is that most stillbirths occur early in the pregnancy. In fact, the opposite is true: The longer the gestation, the higher the risk.

The vast majority of stillbirths are preventable.

In wealthy countries like Canada, where high-tech obstetrics are the norm, stillbirths are linked to smoking, obesity, advanced maternal age, and abnormalities in the placenta and umbilical cord.

J0nas-Simpson's research was also covered by in a story about the prevalence and impact of stillbirths among Inuit communities.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Students interested in how climate change will affect people in Canada and abroad are welcome to attend this free event. You can on CC-RAI's website.

Sun Come Up follows the relocation of some of the Carteret Islanders, a peaceful community living on a remote island chain in the South Pacific Ocean, and now, some of the world’s first environmental refugees.

When rising seas threaten their survival, the islanders face a painful decision: they must leave their beloved land in search of a new place to call home. The film follows the group, who are led by Nick Hakata, as they search for land in Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea 50 miles across the open ocean.

The premiere of Sun Come Up is made possible by . Formed through a partnership between 91��ɫ and the (TRCA), CC-RAI stimulates research and action around climate change and provides resources to help communities become more sustainable.

“CC-RAI aims to engage students, faculty and the wider public in meaningful dialogue around climate change,” said Stewart Dutfield, program and communications manager for CC-RAI. “We support researchers who are exploring climate change’s implications from both a natural and social science perspective. Since both TRCA and 91��ɫ are committed to addressing global issues at the local level, CC-RAI is a natural extension of their partnership.”

When: Friday, April 1, 2011 at 4pm

Where: Nat Taylor Cinema, N102 Ross Building (#28 on the 91��ɫ U map), Keele Campus, 91��ɫ

Tickets: Free, provided you online

Visitor parking is available at the Student Services Parking Garage (#84)

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The film will be screened tonight in the Nat Taylor Cinema, N102 Ross tonight from 6:30 to 9:15pm. Created by New 91��ɫ filmmaker Ellen Weissbrod, this documentary film pays tribute to  and her life. It also explores public responses to a recent major exhibition, held in Rome, New 91��ɫ City and St. Louis, devoted to her work and that of her father Orazio.

The film features an interview with Elizabeth Cohen, 91��ɫ professor of history, women's studies and humanities in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

"Artemisia Gentileschi painted really dramatic and gutsy stuff, and has become one of the heroines of women's history," says Cohen. "As a young woman, Artemisia was raped by a colleague of her father's and there is a trial record that documents her family situation and these events. This archival material is my research area and I speak about it in the film."

But the film is more than historical, says Cohen, because it also represents in a beguiling way the strong and moving responses of modern students and museum visitors to Gentileschi's work and story.

"The film-maker Ellen Weissbrod, from New 91��ɫ, will be present," says Cohen. Following the film, there will be a panel discussion featuring Cohen, along with professors from the Departments of Women's Studies, Film Studies, Visual Arts and History.

A Woman Like That tracks the filmmaker's journey to understand Artemisia Gentileschi in her own times and for 21st -century viewers. It features interviews with scholars and writers who brought the painters' work to North American attention. Weissbrod also travels to Italy to talk with museum curators, art dealers and collectors of Gentileschi's work.

The screening is free and open to the public.

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

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The researchers tagged the raccoons with GPS collars to log their travels throughout the city, recording them at up to 1,500 points over six weeks. They found that the raccoons live in small territories and avoid crossing major streets – which, given the risk of becoming road kill, is a key survival strategy.

The documentary includes detailed graphics of raccoon activity drawn from their research data, which was gathered in Toronto (the raccoon capital of the world). You can watch the full film on .

Prior to airing, the documentary was covered in England's ; The Canadian Press's story on the film was featured in and radio stations in Canada.

Raccoon Nation repeats on CBC News Network March 3 and will air on PBS Nature later this year.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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The world premiere of the 52-minute documentary KOOP: The Art of Wanda Koop will open the 8th annual on tomorrow at The Royal Conservatory, TELUS Centre for Performance & Learning, Koerner Hall, 273 Bloor St. W., in Toronto. A Q&A with Knight, the film’s director and co-producer, along with Koop and critic and urban planner Jane Perdue will follow the screening. The pre-screening reception will start at 6:30pm, the screening at 7pm and a celebration at 8:30pm. KOOP will screen again in Calgary on March 24.

Watch the documentary's trailer on .

Knight’s film looks at Koop as she prepares massive new works depicting archetypal cities and familiar yet disquieting landscapes for two 25-year retrospectives, one at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and another – Wanda Koop: On the Edge of Experience – at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa until May 15. She is an artist who questions how and what people see or notice, and in turn, shows through her art what people missed with their first glance, as well as what remains out of sight.

Right: Katherine Knight

A documentary, filming for Koop began in June as Knight, an award-winning photographer known for evocative landscapes with a strong narrative atmosphere, cinematographer and 91��ɫ alumna Marcia Connolly (MFA ’10) and embarked upon a week-long trip on a freighter along the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City to Port Cartier. Travel has often provided inspiration for Koop. This voyage along one of Canada’s most significant and fabled waterways not only provided a shared experience for the artist and the filmmakers, it also allowed the audience to share in some of the raw visual materials Koop uses to create her art.

"I was making a documentary about an artist who didn't want to be filmed painting," says Knight. So instead, she filmed Koop as she gathered inspiration. "It was about putting the audience into the framework that the artist works in. So the audience can actually travel along with the artist."

The examination of the visual continues as the film looks at the science of vision, colour and perception. It places the audience in the , where Koop has her vision tested by 91��ɫ senior research scientist Olivera Karanovic and Laurie Wilcox, graduate program director in the Department of Psychology, in the 3D Vision Research lab to take a look at how she sees – she apparently has great 3D vision.

Left: Artist Wanda Koop has her vision checked in the 91��ɫ Vision Research lab in the opening scene of the film Koop

The artist’s studio as a factory of the imagination also plays a role in the work created, and the film explores this, taking the audience into Koop’s newly renovated factory, where she makes, archives and markets her artwork. There, hundreds of paintings, thousands of sketches and tables full of the painter’s tools contribute to the visual and physical space.

"I'm really interested in making documentaries about artists that get inside the creative process," says Knight, a longtime friend of Koop and fan of her art. Koop has won several national and international awards for her artistic achievements and was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2006. In 1998, she founded Art City as a storefront art centre in Winnipeg. The goal is to bring together contemporary visual artists and inner-city youth to explore the creative process.

Right: Wanda Koop's studio

Several alumni worked on the documentary, including project editor Jared Raab (BFA Spec. Hon. ’07), who was declared one of the by the Toronto Star. Raab will begin shooting a feature in March with alumnus Matt Johnson (BFA). The score for Koop is by Montreal-based composer Sam Shalabi, who worked on Knight’s 2009 documentary Pretend Not to See Me: The Art of Colette Urban, which was awarded special mention at the Ecofilm Festival in Rhodos, Greece, in June 2010. Pretend Not to See Me will screen at 2011, Thursday, March 17, at 5pm at the Rainbow Cinemas, Market Square, 80 Front St. E. (at Jarvis) in Toronto.

Left: Wanda Koop on the freight boat

Knight co-founded Site(Media)inc. with David Craig in 2006 with a passion to make documentaries and short films. Its first film, Annie Pootoogook, was commissioned by Bravo Canada and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. A professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts, Knight has exhibited her photographs extensively in solo and group shows across Canada and in the United States. Her works are in many public and corporate collections, including the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Banff Centre and The Canada Council Art Bank. She was awarded the Canada Council's Duke and Duchess of 91��ɫ Prize in Photography in 2000 in recognition of the excellence of her work.

Tickets to the opening night of KOOP are $175 per person and can be purchased by visiting the website or calling 416-368-8854 ext. 101.

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

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The radio series, and its companion , features commentary from Professor Debra Pepler. Pepler is distinguished professor in the Faculty of Health's Department of Psychology, senior associate scientist at the , and a member of 91��ɫ's LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict Resolution.

Pepler is an expert on bullying behaviour among teens and children; Part 1 of the radio series sites groundbreaking research she conducted with Professor Wendy Craig of Queen's University into children's bullying activity on schoolyards. Craig and Pepler currently co-lead (Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network), which provides anti-bullying resources for educators, parents and children.

Part 3 airs on January 21, 2011 at 9 pm on CBC Radio 1. Parts 1 and 2 are currently available for download on the . A connected to both the audio and film documentaries is also available with additional resources.

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