dreams Archives | Research & Innovation

Vice-President Academic & Provost Patrick Monahan on the Academic Innovation Fund

fmaquito — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

In the fall of 2010, 91��ɫ's Vice-President Academic & Provost Patrick Monahan announced the establishment of the (AIF) to provide an investment of $2.5 million in support of innovation and change at the University. Applications were invited for funding to support new initiatives advancing 91��ɫ's strategic priorities. Of the applications received, 39 projects, led by faculty, staff and students, were awarded funding.

Over the course of the next year, YFile will be profiling the projects through videos and stories. Today, the camera's spotlight is on Monahan ��Ի��the story of his inspiration for AIF.

Patrick Monahan grins when he recalls his “Aha!” moment, which led to the creation of the Academic Innovation Fund.

Several years ago, 91��ɫ’s vice-president academic & provost had just completed a series of consultations with 91��ɫ community members regarding the , a document that would outline the future academic priorities of the University. What he discovered during that process energized him.

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“As we went through the White Paper a couple of years ago, what impressed me were the people who participated in that process,” he said. “We sat in focus groups and we talked about our ideas, dreams and aspirations for the University. What was so striking was that people had so many great ideas – there were literally hundreds!”

He discovered the main obstacle preventing these ideas from becoming a reality centred on the lack of resources. Monahan had heard of projects in the United States that provided seed funding for academic initiatives. He thought the idea had merit and turned to his colleagues in the Provost’s Office to see if they could find funding that could be used to create a made-in-91��ɫ solution to turn the ideas into working projects.

His inspiration led to the formation of the Academic Innovation Fund of $2.5 million that would provide an initial investment of resources to bring projects from the drawing board to reality. In the fall of 2010, applications were invited from the University community for funding (up to $200,000 each) to support new initiatives advancing 91��ɫ’s strategic priorities in relation to teaching and learning and the student experience.

The response, he discovered, was nothing short of amazing. “It was just fantastic because of the tremendous energy and participation," he said. “The committee was only able to fund 39 of those projects, but all the project submissions were very interesting and innovative, and showed a real commitment to the University and to our students."

The 39 projects funded include clusters of initiatives that support e-learning, experiential education and the student experience. From a project to enhance how first-year students move from high school to university, to a student-run sustainable business initiative, each of the AIF projects is as diverse as the University community. There is a project to create an online enrolment system for new students, a mentorship program for varsity athletes, a partnership between two faculties to develop a blended learning initiative, a community centred action plan for experiential education, and a project to bring public history into the classroom, to name just a few.

All of the projects, said Monahan, reflect 91��ɫ's DNA. "Each of the projects is about engaging people in these ideas," he said. "I hope that what this does is that it shows people what is possible and that we can build on this energy."

Monahan said that many people have told him how excited they are to see their ideas finally becoming a reality. "What I find so interesting is that there are ideas that would never have occurred to someone sitting in an office here in the 91��ɫ Research Tower or even in a dean's office," he said. "Ideas like a project that we have with refugees in Thailand connecting them with researchers and students here in Toronto or a project to teach area youth how to swim."

The AIF projects provide a concrete example of the potential for innovation and engagement that resides in the 91��ɫ community. "It is an example of the idea that the collective brain is always better then a single brain. If you get one hundred people in a room and get them thinking and talking – you are going to get more ideas than with 10 people, five or one. That is what makes this a really successful initiative so far."

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor

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

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Professor Priscila Uppal collaborates on photography exhibit exploring dream-states, trauma, sexuality and texture

fmaquito — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ English Professor (BA Hons. ’97, PhD ’04) has a thing for dreams, sometimes dreaming fragments of poems. She adores the odd dialogue that can only happen in that surreal state of being. So when artist Daniel Ehrenworth, a former fine arts cultural studies student at 91��ɫ, asked her to collaborate with him for his latest photography ��Ի��mixed media installation – Curse.Sleep. (That’s the Thing With Trouble) – Uppal couldn’t resist.

The opening reception for the exhibition, which both Ehrenworth and Uppal will attend, will take place Thursday, Sept. 9, from 6 to 9pm at , 800 Dundas St. W., Toronto.

Right: A photograph from Daniel Ehrenworth's newest exhibit

Uppal has collaborated with Ehrenworth twice before, composing full lyrical poems, interpretations of his photographs, for his exhibitions Holocaust Dream in 2003, which was made into a book, and The Sea of Ending Pt. 1 in 2005. But this time was different. The idea for Curse.Sleep. (That’s the Thing With Trouble) was to “create poetic subtext” or “short, poetic expressions” of the photographs, says Uppal.

They both drew inspiration from the 1958 hit song Sleep Walk by Santo & Johnny. The exhibition also features three audio deconstructions by Ehrenworth of a little-known recording of Sleep Walk by Canadian-born singer Betsy Brye, which features the original lyrics that Santo & Johnny wrote for the song but never recorded.

“This time I see my contribution more as a poetic conversation. We are both very interested in dream landscapes and the space and emotions we inhabit when we dream,” says Uppal. The photos embrace a range of human experience while exploring dream-states, trauma, sexuality and texture.

Left: Part of the Curse.Sleep. (That’s the Thing With Trouble) exhibit featuring the photographs of Daniel Ehrenworth and the poetry of Priscila Uppal

When Uppal first saw Ehrenworth’s photos for his new show, she immediately felt that a brief poetic missive – a line, maybe expressed by the subject of the photo, or something someone in a dream might utter – would be the perfect fit, rather than a full poem. “They’re almost like inner confessions,” she says.

Ehrenworth’s and Uppal’s artistic visions clicked. “When it works it’s so exciting,” says Uppal. For this project, she was able to enter Ehrenworth’s dream space and he was able to enter hers. “Gallery goers can enter their collective dream.” The gallery space is meant to imitate a sleepwalking state.

Uppal describes Ehrenworth's photos as dark, surreal, stark and haunting. People in the photos take on a sort of mythical, hazy appearance. They blend, at times, into the natural landscape around them. Sort of like a dream.

Her poetry will be written on the wall in charcoal next to or below each photograph. Things like: “Anything from the past bites us like insects”, “Where did you misplace your heart?”, “Shake off memories like snowflakes”, “When you’ve forgotten your phone number, the gods will call” or “I’m headed for a fictional horizon.”

Right: A Daniel Ehrenworth photo on exhibit as part of his latest mixed media installation in collaboration with Priscila Uppal

Ehrenworth is a commercial photographer and a photo-based artist, who has exhibited his work at galleries across the country, including Gallery 44 (Toronto), The MacLaren Art Centre (Barrie), The New Gallery (Calgary) and the Khyber Gallery (Halifax).

Uppal is a Toronto poet and fiction writer and the author of the poetry collections , (which was shortlisted for the $50,000 Griffin Poetry Prize), and , and of the novels and . She is the editor of ��Ի�� and the author of . She is on the Board of Directors at the Toronto Arts Council and was poet-in-residence for Canadian Athletes Now during the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic games. Time Out London recently dubbed her “Canada’s coolest poet.”

Curse.Sleep. (That’s the Thing With Trouble) will run from Thursday, Sept. 9, to Sunday, Oct. 3.

For more information and gallery hours, visit the Web site.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer. Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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