Led by Professor Colin Coates (left), Canada Research Chair��in Canadian Cultural Landscapes and professor of Canadian Studies at Glendon College,��the��project is expected to cast light on the impacts of an earlier period of economic “globalization” as a way of better understanding the challenges of current practices.��It is one of eight projects across Canada that has been granted funding in the 2011 Digging into Data Challenge.

Fourteen teams representing Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States have been awarded grants to investigate how computational techniques can be applied to “big data” to change the nature of humanities and social sciences research. Each team represents collaborations among scholars, scientists and librarians from leading universities worldwide.

Coates, who is also the director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at 91��ɫ, is one of the principal investigators on the project titled Trading Consequences,��which received $125,000 in funding. The project��will examine the economic and environmental consequences of commodity trading during the 19th century and��employs information extraction techniques to study large corpora of digitized documents from the 19th century. This innovative digital resource will allow historians to discover novel patterns and to explore new hypotheses through��structured query and a variety of visualization tools.

"Our team of environmental historians is excited to be partners with the Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews in the Trading Consequences project. Canadian economic development has historically been defined by commodity flows, and it is important to understand the environmental impacts of this commerce in the past, just as it is today. The focus on Canadian data will test the techniques created through this collaborative project for mapping the scope and impact of international trade in the 19th century," said Coates.

“91��ɫ is proud to receive recognition in the 2011 Digging into Data Challenge,” said Robert Haché, 91��ɫ’s vice-president research & innovation.��“These important research projects advance knowledge as researchers work collaboratively and internationally to find new ways to analyze, search for and store data using digital and electronic technologies.”

“The Digging into Data Challenge is an international initiative that enables Canadian researchers to take advantage of the huge digital resources now available and to develop close partnerships with overseas universities,” said Chad Gaffield, president of the Social Sciences��& Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). “These exciting projects cross both disciplines and national borders; they lead to new insights into human thought and behaviour.”

The successful cohort of��projects received a total of nearly $5 million in funding from eight international research funding agencies. SSHRC’s contribution of��$869,117 will support Canadian researchers from eight of the fourteen teams. ��

For more information, visit the ���ɱ�������ٱ�.

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

The post Professor Colin Coates to dig into data on international commodity trading appeared first on Research & Innovation.

All talks, unless otherwise specified, take place in the McLaughlin Senior Common Room, 140 McLaughlin College, at noon. The talks are free and open to anyone in the 91��ɫ community.

�մǻ岹��,��Ian Greene (left), master of McLaughlin College, will speak about his volunteer activities in Ethiopia for a Canadian nonprofit organization that helps at-risk children obtain adequate food, shelter and an education so that they can go to school, then university, and then contribute to Ethiopia’s rejuvenation. Find out what you can do to contribute.On��Thursday Sept.��22,��L. H. Gummi justice of the high court of Nigeria along with��several other high court judge, will speak on the differences and similarities between the Nigerian court and the Supreme Court of Canada, which was a model for the Nigerian High Court when it was established.��

Lieutenant-General (Ret’d) George Macdonald (right), the former vice-chief of the Canadian Defence staff,��will speak on Sept. 23 about the��current challenges facing the Canadian Forces as they transition from a combat mission in Afghanistan, deal with the pressures of reduced government funding, and try to manage within a very cumbersome procurement system. Macdonald, a Fellow of McLaughlin College, spent 38 years in the Canadian Forces, retiring in 2004 after three years as the vice chief of the defence staff. He began his military career as a fighter pilot and has occupied staff and command positions at several levels. He has served with NATO in Germany and Norway, and with NORAD in Canada and at Colorado Springs in the US. He currently works as a consultant in defence and security issues in Ottawa.

On��Tuesday, Oct. 25, Sandra Vides Martinez,��a senior student in International Development Studies and��in the Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ, will compare her experiences of working with youth in a Peruvian orphanage and her experiences of working with youth in Toronto. She will be facilitating discussions surrounding the importance of breaking down biases when working with at-risk youth in marginalized communities in conjunction with developing programs that are based on participatory development and capacity building.��Vides Martinez��will draw on her experiences in working with communities in Toronto as well as her work with McLaughlin College's Human Rights, Participatory Growth and Poverty Eradication Project.��

Gregory Tardi, legal counsel to the House of Commons, will speak on Monday, Oct. 31 about��“Accountability to Law as an Aspect of Democracy.”

Then on Thursday, Nov. 24, Tahera Aurban-Ali, who is a 91��ɫ student and a Canadian who was��born in Afghanistan, will provide her passionate analysis of the situation in Afghanistan. She argues that allied (including Canadian) intervention has done a lot of good to promote human rights, but we should be wary of compromises made with the Taliban.

On Wednesday, Nov. 30,��James Sheptycki (right), a professor of criminology at 91��ɫ, will speak about his 20-year career researching transnational crime and policing. This talk coincides with the publication of two new books Transnational Crime and Policing' (Ashgate, 2011) and Global Policing, co-authored with Ben Bowling, professor of criminology at King's College, London (Sage, 2011). In his talk, Sheptycki will reflect upon the role of the researcher the study of "the police" and how this is effected by "globalization".

A��light lunch is served at noon and the talks usually begin at about 12:15pm, followed by a question-and-answer session. Each talk usually finishes shortly after 1pm.

For information on subsequent lunch talk schedules, visit the McLaughlin College website.

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

The post Brain food: McLaughlin's lunchtime talks return for another great year appeared first on Research & Innovation.

The new directors are Professor Colin Coates, director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies (RCCS); Professor Laurence Harris, director of the Centre for Vision Research (CVR); Professor Christina Kraenzle, director of the Canadian Centre for German��& European Studies (CCGES); Professor David Mutimer, director of the Centre for International��& Security Studies (YCISS); and Professor Lisa Philipps, director of the Centre for Public Policy & Law (YCPPL).����

“On behalf of the 91��ɫ research community, I would like to congratulate Professors Coates, Harris, Kraenzle, Mutimer and Philipps on their appointments,” said Robert Haché, 91��ɫ's vice-president research & innovation.��“Their leadership expertise will be essential to further strengthening the unique and exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary research, collaborations and partnerships at 91��ɫ’s research centres and institutes.”

Colin Coates (left), Canada Research Chair in Cultural Landscapes, is also professor in the Canadian Studies program at Glendon College and president of the Canadian Studies Network-Réseau d’études canadiennes.��His research examines political culture in New France and the history of Canadian utopias.��He also conducts research in the area of environmental history, and is an executive member��of the��Network in Canadian History & Environment – Nouvelle initiative canadienne en histoire de l’environnement, funded by��the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Coates has co-edited and authored several books including, Introduction aux études canadiennes: histoires, identités et cultures (with Professor Geoffrey Ewen, Glendon) and Visions: the Canadian History Modules Project (with Professor Marcel Martel, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies,��along with four colleagues from other universities), Majesty in Canada: Essays on the Role of Royalty among others.��Coates won the Lionel Groulx-Yves Saint-Germain Foundation’s prize for Heroines and History – Representations of Madeleine de Verchères and Laura Secord (co-authored with Cecilia Morgan of OISE).

Laurence Harris (right)��is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, a member of the graduate programs in Kinesiology��& Health Science and in Biology, and has served as chair of the Psychology Department. He is the director the Multisensory Integration Laboratory at 91��ɫ, which investigates how information from visual, auditory, vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile senses is combined by the brain to create our perception of body and space. Applications of his research include the design of virtual environments and improving perception in situations where sensory information is impoverished, such as in the unusual environments of underwater or in space, in ageing or in clinical conditions such as partial blindness or Parkinson’s disease.��Recently, Harris��ran an��experiment on the International Space Station looking at astronauts’ perception of orientation. He is the author of��more than��100 scientific articles and has edited nine books on topics pertaining to vision including Vision in 3D Environments, Cortical Mechanisms of Vision, Seeing Spatial Form, and Levels of Perception. ��He is editor-in-chief of the journal Seeing and Perceiving: a journal of multisensory science.

Christina Kraenzle (left) is a professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures��& Linguistics (DLLL) in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.��She has served as a CCGES affiliate since 2004 and been a member of the centre’s executive committee since 2005 through her role as the coordinator of the German Studies Program within DLLL.��Kraenzle’s research explores modern German literature, film and culture, with a focus on transnational cultural production, migration, travel and globalization. Her recent publications include Mapping Channels Between Ganges and Rhein: German-Indian Cross-Cultural Relations (with Jörg Esleben and Sukanya Kulkarni, 2008) as well as articles in The German Quarterly, German Life and Letters, Transit: A Journal of Travel, Migration and Multiculturalism in the German-Speaking World, and the volume Searching for Sebald: Photography after W. G. Sebald.

David Mutimer (right), a professor in the Department of Political Science, is also the founding editor of Critical Studies on Security and the editor of The Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs.�� He has been a member of YCISS since 1987 and has previously served as its deputy director.��Mutimer was also��a visiting professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom (UK), as well as a principal research fellow in the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in the UK.��Mutimer’s research considers issues of contemporary international security through lenses provided by critical social theory and explores the reproduction of security in and through popular culture.��His research has focused on various aspects of weapons production and control, and more recently on the politics of the global war on terror, and of the regional wars around the world which are being fought by Canada and its allies.��Mutimer is presently leading a SSHRC-funded international research project on arms export controls.��His recent published work includes journal articles in Studies in Social Justice, The Cambridge Review of International Affairs and Contemporary Security Policy among others.

Lisa Philipps (left) has been a faculty member��at Osgoode Hall Law School since 1996.��Prior to that, she held appointments in the faculties of law at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia, and has held visiting professorships at Melbourne Law School, University College London and the University of Toronto among other institutions.��She served as associate dean research, graduate studies & institutional relations at Osgoode from 2009 to 2011.��Philipps' research focuses on tax law, budgets and feminist legal studies.��She has published widely on topics, including��fiscal transparency, income splitting, gender��budgeting, the distributional impact of tax cuts, the tax treatment of unpaid work, charitable tax incentives and more. Most recently she published two co-edited books on Tax Expenditures: State of the Art and Challenging Gender Inequality in Tax Policy Making: Comparative Perspectives.����

In all, 91��ɫ��lists 29 research centres and institutes.

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

The post New directors appointed to five research centres appeared first on Research & Innovation.

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.

The post Osgoode Professor Stepan Wood's co-authored book in running for best book on Canadian Politics appeared first on Research & Innovation.

McMurtry, former attorney general of Ontario, will open with remarks on social justice in Canada. Each panelist will speak about a different aspect of the theme, followed by a question and answer period. Robert Latham, director of 91��ɫ’s Centre for International & Security Studies, will talk about rights to mobility and citizenship; sociologist Lesley Wood, about social movement, globalization and policing; and Sara Horowitz, director of 91��ɫ’s Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies, about gender, genocide and Jewish memory.

The two-hour event starts at 1pm in 280N 91��ɫ Lanes.

Research Matters is an annual lecture series showcasing 91��ɫ research and sponsored by the associate dean of research in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS). Dean Martin Singer and Barbara Crow, associate dean of research, will introduce the Jan. 12 panel discussion.

Previous panels have discussed issues such as scholarship and policy development, internationalization and global health, the north, China, knowledge mobilization, pandemic planning and interdisciplinary research. To view videos of the panel discussions, visit the��LA&PS website.

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

The post Chancellor and professors to discuss social justice and human rights January 12 appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Organized by the , the (IRIS) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair��for Reorienting Teacher Education��Towards Sustainability, the Leadership for Sustainable Communities Symposium will focus on learning, leadership and climate change.

Leading experts from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom will gather at 91��ɫ’s Keele campus for the symposium. They will share their experiences and expertise in the area of climate change with students enrolled in summer courses that address issues of sustainability. The focus of the symposium will be a shared dialogue to examine the intersections between education, leadership and climate change.

91��ɫ Faculty of Education Professor Charles Hopkins (right) will open the conference. As the UNESCO Chair��for Reorienting Teacher Education��Towards Sustainability��, Hopkins has developed and continues to coordinate an international network of institutions from 38 countries working on the reorientation of teacher education towards the issues inherent in sustainable development. Hopkins is also an adviser to both UNESCO and the United Nations University regarding the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, which began in 2005 and continues until 2014. A major contributor at previous UN summits on sustainability in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992 and in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002, he��authored��Chapter 36��of Agenda 21 of the Rio Earth Summit Action Plan on Education, Public Awareness & Training. Previously, Hopkins was a superintendent with the Toronto Board of Education.

Following Hopkins' opening comments, David Greenwood (left), a professor in the Department of Teaching & Learning at Washington State University, will deliver the keynote address, titled “Nature, Empire, and Paradox in Environmental and Sustainability Education”. Greenwood conducts research on the relationship between environment, culture, and education; environmental, place-based and sustainability education; and alternative education. He has published widely in journals such as: Harvard Educational Review, Educational Researcher, American Educational Research Journal, Curriculum Inquiry, Educational Administration Quarterly, Environmental Education Research, Canadian Journal of Environmental Education and a host of other publications. Greenwood��is working on his second book, which will��examine place and education.

After��Greenwood's address, a panel of scholars from��IRIS, the Faculty of Environmental Studies and will present their work as it relates to climate change.

Particpating in the panel are:

(left)��is��a professor of biology in 91��ɫ's , an ecologist and��the director of IRIS.��Bazely has��conducted field research in many ecosystems, including arctic tundra, sub-arctic and temperate salt-marshes, deciduous forests, temperate managed grasslands and prairies, and her research findings on white-tailed deer and lesser snow geese have informed wildlife and conservation management in Canada. In 2003, she published a book on the ecology and control of invasive plants with Professor Judy Myers of the University of British Columbia. She is currently leading an interdisciplinary project based in Canada, Norway and Russia on human security in the Arctic, specifically the impact of oil and gas development on people and ecosystems.

Patricia (Ellie)��Perkins (right)��is a professor and��program coordinator for the Faculty of Environmental Studies at 91��ɫ. An��economist who is concerned with the relationship between international trade, the environment and local economies, Perkins��is interested in globalization and how local economies may grow as an antidote to international trade. She also looks at international means of controlling air pollution in the Arctic and at the metals and minerals resource industries.��Perkins is the primary investigator of a (SSHRC) funded research project��titled "Collaborative Research for Equitable Public Participation in Watershed Governance:��Canada, Brazil, Mozambique, South Africa, Kenya". In 2008, she was awarded the 91��ɫ Knowledge Mobilization Course Release for Community Engagement Award. Currently, she is editing a book on feminist ecological economics.

Professor (left)��is director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s Mooting Program as well as its LLB/MES Program.��He is actively involved in the work of the Standards Council of Canada and the International Organization for Standardization in the field of environmental management standards. He has published on numerous topics related to environmental and international affairs, including the ISO 14000 environmental management standards, global environmental governance, sustainability, regulatory reform, corporate social responsibility, Canadian forest law, international relations theory and international fisheries regulation. His current research focuses on the role of voluntary standards for environmental management and corporate social responsibility in the governance of corporate conduct.

In the afternoon, 91��ɫ film Professor Brenda Longfellow, award-winning filmmaker, writer and theorist, will screen her 2008 feature-length documentary Weather Report to symposium participants.

As the world reels from a series of unprecedented weather events, it is clear that climate change is forcing a fundamental re-evaluation of our most basic assumptions about energy, progress and values. Produced with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Film Board of Canada, looks at the dramatically evolving impacts and social implications of climate change. Travelling through North America, the Canadian Arctic, India and China, the film explores how the battle against climate change is implicated in the larger movement for sustainability and global justice.

Winner of the Sundance Channel's Green Award and the Bronze Remi Award at the 2008 WorldFest-Houston Independent International Film Festival, Longfellow's film has earned high praise from climatologists, educators and others in the field.

"Weather Report is a beautifully filmed documentary that travels the globe and is one of the first films to put a human face on the myriad impacts of climate change. Highly recommended,"��said Professor Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the��Yale Project on Climate Change in the��School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at��Yale University.

Left: Brenda Longfellow

"Weather Report masterfully accomplishes something scientists have not been very good at – putting a real, human face on the consequences of global warming and the resulting climate change," said Cindy��Parker, co-director��of the Program on Global Sustainability��& Health in the��Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Following the screening, there will be an informal��round-table discussion on climate change and education with a focus on translating knowledge into action. The discussion will feature contributions from:

Professor Tony Shallcross is��a visiting scholar from Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). Shallcross��is teaching��ecology, ethics and education in the Graduate Program in Education Summer Institute at 91��ɫ. He has��more than��20 years of experience working in schools and is a former deputy head and head of department. Before taking up his post at MMU, he was a lecturer in environmental studies at the University of Edinburgh.

is a professor in��91��ɫ's Faculty of Education where he coordinates the 91��ɫ/Seneca Institute for Mathematics, Science��& Technology Education��and the Graduate Diploma in Environmental/Sustainability Education.��Alsop has taught in primary and secondary schools in inner-city London and coordinated the Centre for Learning & Research in Science Education��at the Roehampton Institute at the��University of Surrey. He has published widely in science and technology education and his recent books include and [co-edited with Larry Bencze and Erminia Pedretti]. He holds affiliated scholarly positions at the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, Mexico; the Roehampton Institute;��and the Centre for Science, Mathematics &Technology Education at the��Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,��University of Toronto. He is associated with a number of activist organizations including The Project for Altruistic Science and Technology Education.

Soni Craik is the acting executive director of EcoSource and has worked for the organization for over four years to extend its educational programming.��Craik links her academic background��with her interest in education for sustainability through child rights.��She has��worked for the International Institute for Child Rights��& Development and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in South Africa as a facilitator of a participatory programs evaluation, specializing in working with elementary-aged children.��Craik has also worked as an environmental education consultant for the Packard Foundation in Ethiopia and for the Child Welfare League of Canada in Cuba on a joint study of Havana’s social systems.

Rebecca Houwer is a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ.��Prior to returning to university, she worked for several years with community-based organizations committed to educating youth.��Her academic interests include: ethics and critical place-based education in urban contexts; participatory action research as praxis; ethical community-university relations; ecology without nature; and, collaborative place-making and place-recovery with, and by, forced migrants.��She��is a research assistant for the $1-million Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) grant by SSHRC led by 91��ɫ social work Professor�� in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

The symposium will conclude with a wrap-up and pledge that will be delivered by Hopkins.

For more information, visit the�� Web site.

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

The post Interdisicplinary symposium focuses on education and climate change appeared first on Research & Innovation.

This is only the second year the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships have been awarded.

“We are delighted with the results of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships competition and the opportunity that this represents for four of 91��ɫ's outstanding doctoral candidates,” says Douglas Peers (left), dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies. "In addition to exhibiting remarkable potential as young scholars, the success of these students is a testament to 91��ɫ's interdisciplinary strengths in areas such as environmental studies and women's studies. The Vanier Scholarships' emphasis on bringing the most promising international students to Canada to study has allowed 91��ɫ to attract three students with great potential."

The winners from 91��ɫ are: Tania Hernandez Cervantes of Mexico, who is studying agricultural economics; Yasin Kaya of Turkey, who is studying��political economy; women’s studies student Healy Thompson of the United States; and history student James D.J. Trepanier of Canada. Each will receive $50,000 per year for up to three years to pursue research that will lead to the growth of the global knowledge base.

Hernandez Cervantes will research alternatives against the global takeover of organic agriculture in Mexico and Canada looking at agro-ecological innovation, rural livelihoods and alternative production, distribution and consumption. Yasin is interested in researching globalization in jeans in a multi-sited ethnography of global economic processes. Thompson will research the protection of vulnerable women looking at northern paternalism and women's sexual and reproductive rights. Trepanier will study scouting and the two solitudes, investigating youth, religion and nationalism in French and English Canada from 1908 to 1970.

This year, 174 scholarships were awarded to doctoral students from Canada and around the world recognized as leaders in their fields of research and in their communities. The Vanier scholars were selected for their exceptional leadership skills and their high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering, and health.

The scholarships are administered by Canada's three federal granting agencies: the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada��and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada. The goal is to build world-class research capacity by recruiting top-tier doctoral students, both nationally and internationally, who will positively contribute to our economic, social and research-based growth for a prosperous future.

For more information, visit the Web site.

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

The post Four 91��ɫ students win Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Professors Caitlin Fisher, David Hood, Joel Katz, Steve Mason, Wendy Taylor and Peer Zumbansen will continue their respective research in digital culture, cell physiology, health psychology, Greco-Roman cultural interaction, experimental particle physics, and transnational economic governance and legal theory.

With the renewals, 91��ɫ maintains its total of 28 research chairs. “Federal research investments are crucial to attracting and retaining the world's best researchers,” said Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. “The Canada Research Chairs program allows us to sustain 91��ɫ’s globally competitive research across health, the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Our researchers’ findings help improve the quality of life, economic, and social well-being of Canadians and people around the world.”

Caitlin Fisher, Canada Research Chair (CRC)��in Digital Culture and film professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts, investigates the future of narrative, interactive storytelling, and interactive cinema in the emerging area of virtual reality research. Her research develops techniques and narrative strategies for use in augmented reality (AR) environments, which is increasingly important for Canada's culture and entertainment industries as AR and associated technologies like smart phones become more commonplace.

Left: Caitlin Fisher

Under her direction, 91��ɫ’s AR Lab, part of the in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts, is conducting research at the forefront of art and science collaborations. The��lab makes use of��both established and emerging technologies to produce innovative research methods, expressive tools for artists and award-winning content that challenges cinematic and literary conventions while enhancing the ways in which people interact with their physical environment and with each other.

David Hood, CRC in Cell Physiology and kinesiology & health science professor in the Faculty of Health, is an internationally-recognized authority in muscle health, exercise and mitochondria. His publications have expanded on the important role that mitochondria play in muscle, and the beneficial effect of exercise in enhancing energy production, preventing cell death and attenuating disease processes.

Right: David Hood

Hood operates one of the world’s most advanced laboratories in the cellular physiology of mitochondria. In January 2010,��he became the first director of the newly opened 91��ɫ Muscle Health Research Centre (MHRC), which is unique in Canada. The MHRC integrates research in mitochondria with biomedical research across the University.

Joel Katz, CRC in Health Psychology and psychology professor in the Faculty of Health, is a world-class researcher in the study of pain. His research has significant impact on the way pain is understood and managed in both preventative and rehabilitative medicine.

Left: Joel Katz

His major accomplishments include using a preventative approach to advance the treatment of acute post-operative pain, increasing our understanding of neonatal pain and how to manage it, identifying factors that predict the transition of acute to chronic pain, and discovering previously unrecognized gender differences in the experience of pain. Katz is coordinator of the 91��ɫ health psychology Graduate Diploma Program, the only��program in Canada offering specialized training in health psychology leading to a diploma.

Steve Mason, CRC in Greco-Roman Cultural Interaction and history professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, explores issues of cultural identity among the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean under Hellenistic and Roman rule (200 BCE to 300 CE). He focuses on Judea and the Jewish Mediterranean diaspora in the context of other diasporas.

Right: Steve Mason

The most important literary sources for these questions are 30 surviving volumes by the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37 - c. 100 CE), and Mason is at the forefront of research into these works. He leads an international team of 14 scholars in supplying Josephus with a new translation and the first comprehensive . He has published five books and many articles on related subjects while editing and co-authoring another seven. He manages the popular online database, , and is completing a volume on the fateful Judean-Roman War of 66 to 74 CE.

, CRC in Experimental Particle Physics and��physics professor in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, studies the high-energy particle collisions at the and at the accelerator. Her research aims to understand matter’s smallest indivisible components and the forces of interaction between them. Taylor is recognized by her peers as an expert in b-quark physics analysis and particle detector electronics development.

Left: Wendy Taylor

Her primary analysis found the first evidence of spontaneous matter-antimatter transitions of B0s mesons, composite particles that contain both a b-quark and an anti-s quark. She contributed to developing a new calorimeter trigger, which allows high-rate data collection. She is now developing low-noise radiation-hard readout electronics for a new particle detector and algorithms to search for the Higgs boson, the particle believed to be responsible for why matter in the universe has mass.

, CRC in Transnational Economic Governance & Legal Theory and professor in��Osgoode Hall Law School, explores globalization’s impact on national political economies, concentrating on changing forms of production and on the politics of privatization and deregulation.

Right: Peer Zumbansen

Zumbansen's��research is advancing the development of both a comparative and methodological perspective of globalization on national political economies.��His work��also explores broader questions concerning political sovereignty and the changing relationship between the state and the market, particularly in the European Union, Canada and the United States. Widely published in both German and English,��Zumbansen is the co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of the .

Gary Goodyear, minister of state (science��& technology), announced the nationwide renewals in Ottawa on March 26. “Our government is investing in science and technology to create jobs, strengthen the economy and improve Canadians’ quality of life,” said Goodyear. “The Canada Research Chairs program is helping our universities develop and attract talented people, strengthening our capacity for leading-edge research, while creating jobs and economic opportunities for Canadians now and in the future."

The CRC program attracts the best talent from Canada and around the world, helping universities achieve research excellence in natural sciences and engineering, health sciences and social sciences and humanities.

For more information, visit the Web site.

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

The post Six Canada Research Chairs renewed at 91��ɫ for $5.7 million appeared first on Research & Innovation.

A Perilous Imbalance: The Globalization of Canadian Law and Governance, a new book co-authored by Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Stepan Wood, shines an urgent light on the dangerous imbalances in contemporary forms of globalized governance.

The book will launch Wednesday, April 7, from 12:30 to 2pm in the Private Dining Room of the Executive Learning Centre in the Seymour Schulich Building, Keele campus.

Co-author and political economy Professor Stephen Clarkson of the University of Toronto, a senior fellow of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, will join Wood, a core faculty member of the�� (IRIS), in introducing .

Left: Stepan Wood

The book advocates for a revitalization of the Canadian state as a vehicle to pursue human security, ecological integrity and social emancipation, and to create spaces for alternative forms of law and governance.

As citizens of a middle power, Canadians know how it feels to be objects of global forces, but they are also agents of globalization who have helped build structures of transnational governance that have highly uneven impacts on prosperity, human security and the environment, often for the worse. A Perilous Imbalance argues that these imbalances need to be recognized and corrected. It situates Canada’s experience of globalization in the context of three interlinked trends, the emergence of a global supraconsitution, the transformation of the nation-state and the growth of governance beyond the nation-state.

Jinyan Li, interim dean of 91��ɫ’s Osgoode Hall Law School; Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation; and 91��ɫ Professor Dawn Bazely, director of IRIS; will give the opening remarks, followed by commentary by Osgoode Professor Craig Scott.

Lunch will be served. For more information, contact Joanne Rappaport, Osgoode��research coordinator, at jrappaport@osgoode.yorku.ca.

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

The post Osgoode professor launches book on imbalances in globalized governance appeared first on Research & Innovation.