popular culture Archives | Research & Innovation

New directors appointed to five research centres

fmaquito — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Five 91��ɫ professors have been appointed directors at 91��ɫ research centres.

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.

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Postdoctoral fellow Stuart Henderson's book examines the hip scene in 1960s 91��ɫville

fmaquito — Thu, 26 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

How is "hip" constructed? Is a culture of dissent ultimately a by-product of prevailing sociopolitical forces? Do countercultural events influence mainstream society?

Those questions and more are at the core of Making the Scene: 91��ɫville and Hip Toronto in the 1960s, a new book by 91��ɫ postdoctoral fellow published this month by the University of Toronto Press.

The book examines the history of Toronto's countercultural mecca, 1960s 91��ɫville. Henderson narrates the development of the 91��ɫville scene from its early coffee house days when it was frequented by Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to its drug-fuelled final months.

A cultural historian Henderson is a postdoctoral fellow with the Department of History in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

“I have always found myself drawn to that form of cultural rebellion. I admired the perhaps oversimplified idea of a peace and love movement, and I really loved the music that had been produced from within the ranks of the counterculture,” says Henderson, a self-professed neo-hippie. “So, when I was thinking about how to approach Canadian cultural history, I just aimed straight at this era [the 1960s] and the people I'd always found to be fascinating.”

Left: Stuart Henderson

The true story of the 91��ɫville scene, says Henderson, is about people trying to find a space in which to "perform" a hip identity and stretch the confines that they felt had been imposed on them by society, their parents and other sociopolitical pressures. "They were all looking for something real, something authentic. In their search, they uncovered some pretty amazing stuff and had some really interesting experiences," he says. "But authenticity is elusive and certainly fleeting. It's all about the journey, not the destination, as it turns out. A central point I want people to recognize is that 91��ɫville was not a 'hippie' place. It was a place that came to be closely associated with 'hippies' but people who fit that mold were never the only people hanging around there."

In Making the Scene, Henderson takes a new look at the hip mecca and gives a voice to people not typically heard in the popular stories associated with 91��ɫville – women, working class youth, business owners and municipal authorities. Members of biker gangs, working class kids (who didn't look much like "hippies", says Henderson), media types, store owners, gallery people, artists and musicians were the 91��ɫville neighbourhood. "All of these people were there and few of them would count as 'hippies' in any conventional definition, then or now," he says.

He explores how the 91��ɫville neighbourhood came to be regarded as the symbol of hip Toronto in the cultural imagination. Henderson argues that the popular association of 91��ɫville with the flower power generation was more accurately a close association with the widespread anxiety in the mid-1960s over the "degeneration" of the middle-class baby boomers into unproductive members of society.

The expectation of the time was that the working class and racial minorities would be rebellious and problematic, says Henderson. "The fact that these [hippies] were middle-class teenagers from the suburbs who were dropping acid and growing their hair and losing their virginity was what kept journalists and municipal authorities up at night."

91��ɫville in the 1960s, he says, was always more complicated than the 91��ɫville hippies.

In writing the book, which sprouted from his PhD dissertation, Henderson says there were many memorable experiences. "I got to spend some time with [writer and activist] who was a hero of mine. She was an astoundingly committed philanthropist and activist, and she always positioned herself at the forefront of battles to protect people from a system which had forgotten them," he says. "We spent an afternoon together a few months before she died and I was just so appreciative of her desire to participate in this project at such a late stage of her illness. I'll never forget that when I asked her why she was willing to come talk to a stranger under these circumstances, she just said: 'Oh, well, I trust the process. Write a good book'."

His next project involves a cultural history of the communal residence and alternative education experiment of the era, Rochdale College on Bloor Street. "I am writing a sequel of sorts to the 91��ɫville book. I am working on a book on Rochdale College and what I have termed 'hip separatism' in the 1970s," he says. "While 91��ɫville saw people performing cultural difference right there in the open," he says, "Rochdale remained closed to outsiders and tourists and represents a certain retreat from the integrationist, even evangelical, politics of '60s-era hip youth."

Despite his fascination with the 1960s, Henderson says that if he could dine with anyone, dead or alive, his choice would be Canadian artist Tom Thomson. "I have some good buddies who died too young. It'd be nice to see one of them again, but how do you choose? So, I'll be a Canadian cultural historian and say dinner over a campfire with Tom Thomson somewhere in Algonquin Park on a star-filled night. But mostly because I really like camping."

Henderson is on Twitter under the handle .

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor

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

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Professor Alison Halsall joins Red Riding Hood popcorn panel

fmaquito — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

The National Post’s included , adjunct professor of English literature at 91��ɫ [Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies]. She has published articles on “South Park” and Harry Potter, and is working on a study of the Victorian legacy in graphic novels:

“ has all the marks of [Catherine] Hardwicke as a director [said Halsall]: sprawling soft-focus tree sequences, slow-motion dream sequences, the fetishization of extreme angst among teens (those exchanges between Peter and Henry are just too funny), and her man-candy shots.

…. I agree that it had no irony, and therein lies the missed opportunity of the film.

…. I enjoyed Julie Christie – the linking of the grandmother with the wolf for much of the film was one of the more intriguing details. Too bad they didn't pursue this. Unfortunately, Red Riding Hood neither rethinks nor revises the fairy tale. It was gory, but if it wanted to produce a gory version of the tale, it could have been even more gory!

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

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From Roman times to today, covered in one mother of a book

fmaquito — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

The Romans were celebrating mothers in about 1250 BCE when they began honouring Cybele, the mother goddess. Even so, motherhood throughout the ages has not always been given the respect it deserves. That’s something 91��ɫ women’s studies Professor Andrea O’Reilly knows a little about. She is general editor of the recently released Encyclopedia of Motherhood, a three-volume, 1,520-page book devoted to mothers and motherhood. The project has already from The Toronto Star and CityNews.ca.

“Over the last 25 years, the topic of motherhood has emerged as a central and significant topic of scholarly inquiry across a wide range of academic disciplines. A cursory review of motherhood research reveals that hundreds of scholarly articles have been published on almost every motherhood theme imaginable,” says O’Reilly, who coined the term "motherhood studies" to acknowledge and demarcate motherhood scholarship as a legitimate and distinctive discipline.

"Indeed, similar to the development of women studies as an academic field in the 1970s, motherhood studies, while explicitly interdisciplinary, has emerged an autonomous and independent scholarly discipline in the last decade," she says. "This intellectual tradition of maternal scholarship both made possible and created the need for an encylopedia on motherhood."

Founder and director of the newly formed (developed from the former Association for Research on Mothering at 91��ɫ), O'Reilly approached contributors and compiled articles by some 300 women scholars throughout the United States, Canada and beyond for the book.

The , the first scholarly reference devoted to the subject, covers a vast array of topics, including how the study of motherhood is almost completely ignored in archeology, mothers in popular culture, hip mamas, influential maternal theorists, the economics of motherhood, psychoanalysis, fertility, guilt, ecofeminism, refugees and the future of mothering. The encyclopedia touches on mothers, and what it means to be a mother in almost every country. It also looks at mothers in film, books, art and poetry, as well as in the Bible.

“The publication is for me a significant moment in motherhood scholarships as it confirms that motherhood has indeed arrived as a legitimate and distinct academic discipline and scholarly field." says O'Reilly. "As well, the encyclopedia, in bringing together for the first time over 700 motherhood topics from A to Z, from aboriginal mothering to zines, and in providing a detailed summary and a bibliography for each topic, is an invaluable resource for anyone – students, journalists, writers, researchers, community agencies – in need of an overview of a particular motherhood topic and/or interested in doing further research on the subject matter.”

Left: Andrea O'Reilly

The book delves into the anthropology of mothering, a discussion on advice literature for mothers, a chronology of motherhood and mother activists. It explores the concept of bad mothering, absentee mothers, alcoholism, ethics, HIV/AIDS, race, slavery, lesbian and bisexual mothers, breastfeeding and more. In addition, it examines terms, concepts, themes, debates, theories and texts of motherhood within history, geography and academia.

To O’Reilly (BA Hons. '85, MA '87, PhD '96), the publication of the encyclopedia is like the coming of age of mothering research. The scholarship of motherhood has been legitimized and recognized, she says.

She introduces the Encyclopedia of Motherhood with a quote from author Adrienne Rich: “We know more about the air we breathe, the seas we travel, than about the nature and meaning of motherhood.” And that is exactly what O’Reilly hopes the encyclopedia will change, that it will provide a glimpse into all things associated with and to mothering. The publication of the encyclopedia demarcates motherhood as an academic discipline and points to the future.

O’Reilly is the author of and . She is also the editor of 14 collections.

For more information, visit the Web site.

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

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Music professor on how Justin Bieber leveraged digital media to became a global sensation

fmaquito — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Keeping up that intense feeling of personal connection via the Internet is incredibly important in marketing to the Justin Bieber demographic, says Rob Bowman, who teaches popular music in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts, wrote The Globe and Mail May 29:

“You’re appealing to a certain adolescent group who’ve got fairly innocent notions of romance,” explains the specialist in soul music and Grammy award winner for best album notes. “These 12- and 13-year-olds...it’s a huge part of the bonding aspect, this innocent crush.”

As his popularity has ballooned, the singer has cultivated that crush. Plenty of celebrities have discovered the Internet, and its power to let them tell strangers what they had for breakfast. But in this case, the payoff is more tangible. Bieber fanatics have proved eager to help market him, fuelling his sales as well as his celebrity.

It likely takes him a matter of minutes to copy a message such as this one sent by fan @GillianLovesJBx to his Twitter home page – “@justinbieber Do u respond to a simple I Love You? :)” – and then reply, for all the world to see, “I love u 2...i love all u ladies :).”

. . .

Those millions of young fans are attracted by the same characteristics as other teen heartthrobs, says Bowman, citing such boy band predecessors as the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync. “That’s following in a trend that started about 10, 15 years ago, where you have white groups packaging R&B but in a very safe, homogenized way.”

Rob Bowman is an associate professor in the Department of Music. The rest of the article is .

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Washington State University prof wins Fulbright to lecture at 91��ɫ

fmaquito — Mon, 17 May 2010 08:00:00 +0000

A professor of women’s studies at Washington State University (WSU), Noël Sturgeon will lecture and conduct research in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) in the fall 2010 term after being awarded a Distinguished Fulbright Lectureship.

Sturgeon’s internationally known research on the relationship between environmental and social justice movements, her planned collaborative research with 91��ɫ faculty and her graduate course on environmental justice cultural studies qualified her for the award.

The Fulbright Scholar Program, sponsored by the United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs, sends 800 faculty and professionals abroad each year to lecture and conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields.

Right: Noël Sturgeon

“FES at 91��ɫ is the largest environmental studies program in North America,” says . “I’ll have a chance to work with prominent scholars and graduate students in a rare interdisciplinary environmental studies context, defining and expanding the new field of environmental justice cultural studies.”

Her most recent research examines environmental messages portrayed in popular culture since the late 1980s. In one chapter of her recent book, , for example, Sturgeon has identified a consistent formula in popular movies that inaccurately depicts an inherent spiritual closeness of indigenous people with the natural world. This stereotype appears repeatedly in movies such as and .

Sturgeon believes this misrepresentation is just the beginning of where these plots go awry in terms of real solutions to current environmental problems. Typically, these formulaic storylines then morph into action-adventure dramas where the heroic American white male archetype, who has “seen the light” – usually through romantic involvement with a native woman or an attachment to a special animal – bonds with the indigenous culture to save them from the “bad guys”, for example other American-like white males who are fixated on conquering land and indigenous people for their own gain.

To Sturgeon, these movies are insidious on many levels, but especially because they leave moviegoers empty in terms of environmental solutions that are just and fair for all. “While people today might admire the many traits typically assigned to indigenous people, fantasizing that all would be better environmentally if we could just become hunter-gatherers or escape to another planet is a dangerous fantasy,” says Sturgeon.

And when these formulaic plots become focused on the fight for colonization, real solutions for global environmental action are bypassed. “I’ve spoken with students who have left Avatar feeling powerless about issues surrounding environmentalism – they are given no tools for correcting injustice or saving the planet,” she says.

Her book unpacks a variety of cultural tropes, including ideas about Mother Nature, the purity of the natural and the allegedly close relationships of indigenous people with the natural world.

Sturgeon is on the graduate faculty for the WSU American Studies program. In addition to environmental cultural studies, her research and teaching interests include feminist theory, social movements, and theories of globalization and transnationalism. She is widely published in peer-reviewed journals and is also the author of .

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

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YCISS issues a call for papers on pop culture and world politics -- Deadline April 14, 2010

fmaquito — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ will host a major international conference on November 4 and 5 that will bring together more than 120 students, academics and artists to examine interactions between popular culture and world politics. For further information, visit the Popular Culture & World Politics Conference Web site.

The conference, which is hosted by the 91��ɫ Centre for International & Security Studies follows two successful events, hosted by the University of Bristol in 2008 and the Newcastle Universityin 2009. 91��ɫ's conference will be the third Popular Culture & World Politics Conference. This year's event seeks to continue the growing conversation on the intersections of various forms of popular culture and the study of world politics from a range of disciplines and practices in the social sciences, humanities and the arts.

Conference organizers are currently seeking collaboration and proposals for performances, screenings, panels or individual papers, on any aspect of world politics and popular culture. The two-day conference will also involve a series of performances, exhibitions and public events to be held at 91��ɫ and other parts of Toronto that will explore the dynamic links between popular culture, performance and world politics through cinematography, photography, art, music, video games, television and the Internet.

The conference intends to showcase Toronto-based artistic projects, pieces and performances related to the theme of world politics and international relations. The organizers welcome any proposals for collaboration or involvement based on the above themes from members of the 91��ɫ community and local artists.

If you are interested in attending the conference, you should submit a brief abstract, limited to 250 words, of your paper or performance. Click here to learn more. The deadline for submissions is April 14.

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

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