The $2.5-million project is led by Francine Martineau of the university's French department, but includes 13 fellow researchers and 59 "partners" from Canada, the United States, France and Japan.

The seven-year plan is to study 400 years of family histories to examine how language has shaped communities and cultures.

"We are looking at three fields of expansion from France that are all basically located across the St. Lawrence, which is New France, Louisiana and Acadia," explained co-investigator of 91ŃÇÉ« [Glendon and the ].

"If we just focused on Canada, then we would miss some important components of North American francophonie, mainly Louisiana – and probably one of the most interesting colonial settings as well, because it involved not only colonization from France, but also secondary migration from Acadia – basically the French language continued to live, but in a completely different setting from the original."

According to Mougeon, the project team plans to reach beyond linguistics and also focus on history and sociology. The team includes experts in linguistics, anthropology, history, geography and computer science. "We believe that you can only understand the evolution of language if you can actually place it in its broader socio-historical setting," said Mougeon.

. . .

The research team received the grant from the Major Collaborative Research Initiatives Program of the (SSHRC).

The project’s focus includes four centuries of history of French on the North American continent in three main colonial settings: Louisiana, New France, which is now Quebec, and Acadia.

Mougeon was also interviewed by the (video clip attached) and spoke about the study with CBC Radio Moncton, NB, March 17.

You can also read the project's .

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

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The Conservative leader said that, while the agency has expanded, it has yet to fulfil its central mandate by producing a long-term energy plan.

But one energy expert says the OPA doesn’t deserve all the blame. 91ŃÇÉ« Professor Mark Winfield, of the Faculty of Environmental Studies, says the Liberal government hasn’t enabled the OPA to fulfil its mandate.

“There’s no direction from the government to the OPA,” Winfield said. “There’s no overall vision or strategy about where we’re going.”

The Toronto Sun quoted Professor in its :

The Ontario Energy Board thinks you’re not paying enough for hydro so it’s yanking another $60 out of your wallet.

Ontario hydro ratepayers — already hammered by the HST, time-of-use pricing and rate hikes — will pay an added $240 million a year, the Ontario NDP says.

Officials at the provincial crown agency — whose salaries are paid for through hydro bills — decided earlier this year that utilities should be able to boost their rate of return to 9.85% from 8.39%.

. . .

Gordon Roberts, a professor at the Schulich School of Business at 91ŃÇÉ«, who made a submission to the OEB on behalf of , recommended a lower rate. “It’s generous,” Roberts said. “Clearly, if the answer comes out on the generous side (for utilities), it’s less fair for the ratepayers.”

Roberts also spoke about the hydro profits issue on CBC Radio and CBC-TV, Sept. 23.

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

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Denning will be one of four co-presenters appearing in six one-hour-long episodes of the show "Beast Legends" which will involve her “romping around the world to study tales of legendary creatures.” The information gathered is then brought to the show's Beast Lab, where the creature is created in 3-D computer imagery before being unleashed in the modern world. “Beast Legends” is produced by Yap Films and will premiere on beginning tomorrow at 10pm and running for six weeks. In the fall, the series will air on Syfy.

Left: Kathryn Denning with the skull of an Australopithecus

As one of the show's “beast seekers”, Denning found herself scuba diving in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Fiji with dozens of bull sharks – one of the top three shark species prone to attacking humans – in search of clues to the Fijian shark god Dakuwaqa. Despite the risk of being attacked, she dove with locals without the use of a shark cage. She also tracked stories of the Navajo bird monster in New Mexico, and in France she recorded a recent eyewitness account by a sailor whose boat had been attacked by a giant squid, evoking the medieval tale of the kraken, a fierce multi-tentacled sea monster thought to crush ships and scoop men from ship decks.

The show poses questions like: If these beasts were here today, what would they be doing or eating and where would they be living? says Denning. “Then we bring the data together and create the beast as it would look and act if it was here today.” Bringing the ancient into the present and understanding the linkages between the two is a particular interest of Denning’s, which, to her delight, she got to exercise while on assignment. "I'm interested in how people think of the ancient world and how that gets used in the modern world." She also had the opportunity to explore what she calls a highly innovative yet traditional culture by staying with Fijians in their homes while shooting. She got to experience their culture first-hand and better understand their rapidly changing religious beliefs and how those connect with modern phenomena like ecotourism.ec

The local people believe the Fijian shark god, a former chief who became a god after his death, protects and watches over them. Dakuwaqa not only sees all, but can change shape at will, although his most prominent shape is that of a bull shark. In recent years, a local Fijian operation began regularly diving down to feed the bull sharks by hand without cages to allow spectators to see the animals barrier-free. “I got an astoundingly close look at these beautiful, majestic killing machines,” says Denning. The local shark-feeding specialists have no fear of being attacked. In fact, Denning says, “they have named many individual sharks, and in turn, the sharks seem to recognize these individual humans by smell.” So far there have been no incidents in 15 years of feedings.

Right: Kathryn Denning when she's not chasing legendary beasts

“Some of the beast legends we explored are very old, some more recent. There are many different versions of these myths and they evoke very different images for different people and in different regions,” says Denning. “That’s the really interesting part, the variations from region to region. What the beast does in the stories speaks more to the culture that believes in it than to the beast itself.” These ancient societies had an encyclopedic knowledge of their natural environment but didn’t necessarily know what was over the distant ridge, and that could lead to unexplained tales of beasts.

At the same time, there is still much “we don’t know about the sea” and “there’s a tremendous delight in thinking we haven’t civilized the whole world yet.” That there might actually be beasts out there that humans haven't gotten a hold of yet. “The idea that there are still things that elude us is delicious,” she says.

Denning is joined on the show by Scott Edwards, a professor of organismic and evolutionary biology and curator of ornithology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University; Stephen Leonard, an adventurer and veterinary surgeon based in Bristol, England; and Francis Manapul, a Philippines-born, Toronto-based comic book artist. Together they explored the remote jungles of Vietnam looking for the Wildman, a giant, hairy, bloodthirsty beast similar to Bigfoot, and the Navajo lands of New Mexico for a giant bird predator said to be the size of a small plane. They travelled to Mongolia’s Altai Mountains searching for the griffin, a massive, legendary creature with the head of an eagle, razor-sharp talons and the body of a lion. They also ventured deep into the primeval forests of Poland to find the truth behind ancient legends of a terrifying, fire-breathing dragon known as Smok.

“When we look at these things that seem exotic, they help us to understand ourselves and other cultures better at the end of the day,” says Denning. She admits it's a little different from some of her other academic work at 91ŃÇÉ«, although she was also a part of a documentary that aired in 2007 that looked at the natural history and folklore of vampires. "Tales of the undead are ubiquitous, ancient and always changing," she says, similar to tales about fantastical beasts. Denning hopes viewers of "Beast Legends" will gain a better understanding of animals in their natural environment, as well as other cultures.

Is there any truth to the legends behind these beasts? You’ll have to watch the show to find out.

For more information, visit the "" Web site. The first episode will be the search for the Wildman, followed by the kraken, Dakuwaqa, the griffin, the Navajo bird monster and, in the final episode, Smok the dragon.

The series was covered by the and July 7 via the Canwest News Service:

This is the time of year when young ’uns and oldsters alike gather around the campfire and swap ghost stories – “Bloody bones behind the barn!” – and other tall tales, wrote Canwest News Service July 7. The mythological creatures of the subconscious have a literature all their own. And yet, as the engaging and timely docuseries “Beast Legends” reminds us, in some cultures around the world, mythical beings are not just imaginary, but are believed to exist.

“Beast Legends”, a kind of “Ghost Hunters” for the Beowulf set, follows an eclectic group of experts in their field to far-flung corners of the earth, from the rain-soaked jungles of Vietnam to the mountains of Mongolia.

The experts include 91ŃÇÉ« anthropologist Kathryn Denning, a professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

For more information about when the show will be aired, visit the Web site.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

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

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The Ottawa Sun published a story March 30 about the project that featured Carleton Professor Hugh Armstrong who is part of the project's research team.

How does bringing your own kitchen table to your nursing home room help your incontinence?

Does having a stove in your room — even if the electrics aren’t hooked up — improve your dementia?

A Carleton University researcher will look at the success of some countries — including Sweden’s private rooms with key touches of home — in making long-term care homes livable.

The less-sterling models of elder care will also fall under the scope of a new $2.5 million research project which will include six countries and span seven years.

The project, which is led by 91ŃÇÉ«, will explore how elder care is delivered, organized and financed in Canada, the U.S. and four other Western countries.

“There’s a general perception of a nursing home as an expression of failure,” said Hugh Armstrong, professor of social work at Carleton University and a member of the research team funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

With an aging population of baby boomers poised to hit their senior years, Canada’s state of nursing home care is stuck in what Armstrong calls a “cheap, low-end hospital” model, riddled with resentment, uncertainty and guilt from both residents and their families.

“We want those settings to be decent and good,” said Armstrong.

The complete article is available on .

Armstrong also received congratulations from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation for securing the grant.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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