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亚色 maintains its total of 28 research chairs. 鈥淔ederal research investments are crucial to attracting and retaining the world's best researchers,鈥� said Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. 鈥淭he Canada Research Chairs program allows us to sustain 91亚色鈥檚 globally competitive research across health, the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Our researchers鈥� findings help improve the quality of life, economic, and social well-being of Canadians and people around the world.鈥�

Caitlin Fisher, Canada Research Chair (CRC)聽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亚色鈥檚 AR Lab, part of the in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Fine Arts, is conducting research at the forefront of art and science collaborations. The聽lab makes use of聽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鈥檚 most advanced laboratories in the cellular physiology of mitochondria. In January 2010,聽he became the first director of the newly opened 91亚色 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亚色 health psychology Graduate Diploma Program, the only聽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聽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鈥檚 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聽Osgoode Hall Law School, explores globalization鈥檚 impact on national political economies, concentrating on changing forms of production and on the politics of privatization and deregulation.

Right: Peer Zumbansen

Zumbansen's聽research is advancing the development of both a comparative and methodological perspective of globalization on national political economies.聽His work聽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,聽Zumbansen is the co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of the .

Gary Goodyear, minister of state (science聽& technology), announced the nationwide renewals in Ottawa on March 26. 鈥淥ur government is investing in science and technology to create jobs, strengthen the economy and improve Canadians鈥� quality of life,鈥� said Goodyear. 鈥淭he 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.

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Scott, who is the director of聽Osgoode鈥檚 Jack & Mae Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime聽& Security, has been awarded a 2010 Ikerbasque Fellowship by the Bacsque Foundation for Sience. The foundation is a granting agency established by the Government of the Basque Country in Spain in 2008 with the mission to consolidate the Basque Country as 鈥渁 European point of reference for excellence in the field of research.鈥�

Left: Craig Scott

The fellowship will support 12 months of personal research and collaboration with the Transnational Law Research Group of the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Spain. Scott will build on his existing scholarship pertaining to the civil liability aspects of corporate social responsibility聽in relation to human rights and environmental protection, as well as interact with Deusto鈥檚 Trans-Law Research Group to widen the scope of the group鈥檚 study of economic law.

Right: Stepan Wood

Wood, who is the coordinator of Osgoode's Juris Doctor-Master聽in Environmental Studies聽Joint Program and director of the Moot Court Program, has been awarded a Jean Monnet Fellowship at the Robert Schumann Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence,聽Italy.聽Wood will聽complete a project聽titled 鈥淚SO 26000 and the Legitimation of Transnational Governance Authority in the Field of Corporate Social Responsibility鈥� during his sabbatical next year.

Wood is the fifth Osgoode faculty member to have been chosen as a Jean Monnet Fellow at EUI, following Professors Michael Mandel, Craig Scott, Peer Zumbansen and Robert Wai.

Republished courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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CURL聽provides an innovative and visual聽approach to discussions聽involving globalization and cities by giving social scientists, lawyers, urban studies scholars and geographers an opportunity to interact with photographers, digital media artists, documentary filmmakers and their works. It brings an understanding to the issues that wouldn't be possible without weaving an interdisciplinary academic approach together with the artistic, says Gregory Smith, CURL's acting academic director, 2009-2010.

Left: A guest at the CURL launch studies the photos by artist-in-residence Jorge Uzon. Photo by Uzon.

The space itself is a state-of-the-art multimedia and research facility designed to bring people in and get them talking about urban places. There is a gathering area, a small conference room and two labs with equipment for filmmakers and photographers, which include sound mixing and studio recording capabilities, editing software, as well as high-definition digital cameras, lighting equipment and more.

"On the academic side of things, I think the real genesis for this鈥ame from the fact that there was this really great body of literature that was being written, at least for the last聽10 years, about globalization and cities, but that there really wasn't any input by those who focus on the academic side of law," says Smith, a PhD candidate at Osgoode whose research focuses on the role played by law in constructing urban space and society. "The idea was to open lines of communication between people who would traditionally do urban studies and lawyers鈥�.and bring the legal community into the discussion of how cities are run." That idea grew to include not only other disciplines, but visual arts.

Right: From left, Greg Smith and Mars Horodyski at the launch of CURL. Photo by Jorge Uzon.

One of the ways visual arts and the academic side of things will come together is through聽an ongoing reading lab. "We have readings, for example, of work written by filmmakers about cities, as much as we would have, say, a reading from Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, literature, law, urban studies, geography, as widely varied as we can put together," says Smith. The first reading lab in January will look at Toronto, focusing on its growth and the planning decisions that have affected it over the years.

There will also be an online artist-in-residence every month showcasing work that represents some aspects of cities. Photographer Jorge Uzon is the current artist-in-residence. His black and white images of Mexico City and Toronto, which look at how the two cities have changed over the years, are on exhibit at CURL and can also be seen on the CURL Web site.

Left: Greg Smith mingles with guests at the official launch of CURL. Photo by Jorge Uzon.

The equipment is available to those聽with project proposals related to issues that include city life, urban growth, governance and development, that are accepted by CURL. The project leaders need to聽show a聽willingness to collaborate with other CURL members to help nurture the cross-fertilization of ideas and techniques between artists and academics, says Mars Horodyski, a filmmaker and CURL's artistic director, 2009-2010.聽Already there has been interest from faculty members wanting to partner with CURL and use the equipment. CURL is unable to provide funding, so artists must have their own in place.

Left: A guest at the CURL launch reads about the lab's mandate. Photo by Jorge Uzon

"There are a lot of artists doing really interesting city work," says Horodyski, winner of Ryerson University's 2003 Norman Jewison Filmmaker Award for her film Lemonade and of the 2007 WorldFest Houston International Film & Video Festival Golden Remi Award for her latest short, Spoonfed. "The challenge is figuring out how they fit into our mandate. The global cities theme is a pretty broad one."

Horodyski co-wrote the script for Where the Sidewalk Begins: The University and the Global City, a documentary film celebrating 91亚色's 50th anniversary with 91亚色 law Professor Peer Zumbansen, CURL's director and founder of the Critical Research Laboratory in Law & Society at 91亚色's Osgoode Hall Law School. Zumbansen holds the Canada Research Chair聽in the Transnational & Comparative Law of Corporate Governance. A preview of Where the Sidewalk Begins can be seen on the Web site.

Right: Peer Zumbansen

CURL will also host a screening series in the new year beginning with Radiant City, which looks at 21st-century suburban sprawl. The second film, Vernon, Florida, will explore whether or not a place defines the people within it or vice versa.

"In terms of the long term鈥t's more of the process, that's the most important aspect, to find engagement with academics and artists," says Smith.

Left: Mars Horodyski

In addition, there will be ongoing blogs with Smith and Horodyski, as well as others, and book reviews and articles to do with cities in the future on the CURL Web site. "There are lots of ways people can get involved," says Horodyski. In 2010, CURL will also host a conference.

Anyone interested in providing essays, book reviews, urban musings, blogging or photography for online publication, should contact Horodyski at mars@criticalresearchlab.org or Smith at greg@criticalresearchlab.org. For larger project proposals, there is a set of application criteria available. For more information, visit the Web site.

The Collaborative Urban Research Laboratory is at 218 Computer Methods Building on the Keele campus.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

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91亚色 has been awarded a grant to establish a European Union Centre of Excellence(EUCE). Recognized for the excellence, breadth and depth of its European Union (EU) studies and scholarly activities, 91亚色 will receive funding of $480,000 over three years to integrate the University鈥檚 existing research, teaching, outreach and networking activities on Europe and the European Union (EU), and introduce and facilitate new activities on the EU and EU-Canada relations.

91亚色 is recognized as a leader in European studies and has been actively building its concentration in EU studies. Over the past few years, 91亚色 has attracted numerous new European-focused faculty appointments across a variety of disciplines, including law, political science, business, public administration and humanities. The hub of this activity has been the Canadian Centre for German & European Studies (CCGES), whose affiliated faculty and staff form a natural constituency and administrative backbone for the activities planned by the new EUCE.

鈥淲e are tremendously proud of 91亚色鈥檚 leadership and research excellence in European studies,鈥� said Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. 鈥淭he activities of the EUCE will promote understanding and knowledge of the European Union as a major player in the global political and economic system, and will be key in promoting the importance of the EU-Canada relationship, its political, economic, security and cultural dimensions, and the widening range of global and regional issues jointly addressed by the EU and Canada.鈥�

With this award, 91亚色 joins a network of two dozen EUCEs worldwide. 91亚色鈥檚 EUCE will be hosted by CCGES and directed by Willem Maas (right), Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration and professor of political science and public & international affairs at聽Glendon College.

The EUCE鈥檚 multidisciplinary team also includes:

• Burkard Eberlein,聽policy professor in the Schulich School of Business;
• Roger Keil, director of the聽CITY Institute and CCGES, and a professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies;
• Heather MacRae,聽professor in the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS);
• Peter McIsaac,聽professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics,聽(LA&PS);
• Ian Roberge,聽professor聽of聽political science and public & international affairs at聽Glendon College;
• Karen Robson, sociology professor in the Department of Sociology, (LA&PS);
• Craig Scott, director of the聽, and聽professor in聽Osgoode Hall Law School;
• Dagmar Soennecken,聽professor in the聽School of Public Policy聽& Administration, (LA&PS);
• Leah Vosko, Canada Research Chair in Feminist Political Economy聽and聽professor in the聽Department of Political Science, (LA&PS);
• Robert Wai,聽professor in聽Osgoode Hall Law School;
• Peer Zumbansen,聽Canada Research Chair in the Transnational聽& Comparative Law of Corporate Governance and professor in Osgoode Hall Law School.

About the European Union Centres of Excellence

Established in 1998 by the European Union, the network of European Union Centres of Excellence in universities provides information and education about the European Union. In Canada, the objectives of the EU Centres are to increase awareness about the political, economic and cultural importance of the EU-Canada relationship, to promote greater understanding in Canada of the European Union and its policies, and to disseminate information and publicize EU views on issues of interest within regional communities.

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