The series is designed to introduce students and faculty to recently published and emerging research on North and South Korea and their relations with their Northeast Asian neighbours, such as China and Japan. Over the last decades, the number of Korean studies specialists at 91亚色 and in the Toronto area has grown exponentially from a few faculty members to a few dozen, says Kim. The series hopes to highlight this change and offer a forum for researchers, students and the local Korean-Canadian community.

The first year of the series will focus on 20th-century Korean history, with scholars speaking on imperialism, the Second World War, the Korean War, forced migration and the social issues associated with the formation of the DPRK and the ROK.

Takashi Fujitani will present the first lecture of the series Monday, Nov. 26 at 3pm at 280A 91亚色 Lanes, Keele campus. His talk, co-presented with the Department of History, examines 鈥淩eflections on Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II鈥�. Fujitani is the Dr. David Chu Professor and Director in Asia Pacific Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan (1998) and co-editor of Perilous Memories: The Asia Pacific War(s) (2001). His most recent book Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II (2011) will form the basis for this lecture.

Fujitani will reflect on his reinterpretation of nationalism, racism and wartime mobilization during the Asia-Pacific war. He uses parallel case studies of Koreans recruited or drafted into the Japanese military and of Japanese Americans mobilized to serve in the US Army, to examine how the US and Japanese empires struggled to manage racialized populations while waging total war. He demonstrates that the United States and Japan became increasingly alike over the course of the war, perhaps most tellingly in their common attempts to disavow racism even as they reproduced it in new ways and forms.

Kim will discuss her research on everyday life in Pusan as a refugee capital Feb. 7, 2013 when she delivers her talk, 鈥淩efuge, Relief, and Resettlement in the Temporary Capital Pusan, 1950-1953鈥�. She will focus in on the most salient characteristics of wartime Pusan: overwhelming poverty, increasing marketization that was predominantly illegal or informal and its role as a US military base.

The final speaker in the series is Andre Schmid, a professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. His current research interests include the history of the cultural Cold War in post-Korean War peninsula, as well as early 20th century peasant movements. He is the author of Korea Between Empires, 1895-1919 (Columbia University Press), winner of the Association of Asian Studies John Whitney Hall award, and has published in journals such as Journal of Asian Studies, South Atlantic Quarterly and Yoksa munje yon'gu. In his talk, Schmid will examine the reconstruction of North Korea and the role of socialist living. The date of this talk in late March 2013 is to be confirmed.

The second year (2013-2014) of the series will concentrate on issues of labour, migration, mobility and cultural change experienced at the turn of the 21st century. The 91亚色 Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) hopes to turn the series into a larger project inviting international scholars by 2014, says Kim.

For more information about the YCAR Korea Speaker Series, contact the 91亚色 Centre for Asian Research at ycar@yorku.ca.

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The screening will take place聽Wednesday, March 21 at 280N 91亚色 Lanes, Keele campus. A light lunch will be served starting at 12:30pm with the film beginning at 1pm. It鈥檚 free and open to the entire 91亚色 community.

[stream provider=youtube flv=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DFZzesdSPdeI%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded img=x:/img.youtube.com/vi/FZzesdSPdeI/0.jpg embed=false share=false width=400 height=300 dock=true controlbar=over bandwidth=high autostart=false /]

is an award-winning film that challenges viewers to re-examine how they think about race. The film follows youth leader and motivational speaker Anthony McLean as he runs a groundbreaking mentorship program for black teens in Brampton, the most demographically changing Canadian city. In doing so, McLean is forced to re-examine his own identity. The film deals with issues of racism, stereotyping, identity and what it really means to be 鈥渂lack鈥� or 鈥渨hite鈥�.

Following the screening of Colour Me, Sherien Barsoum, the film鈥檚 director, and McLean will lead the audience through a discussion, as well as answer questions about the film and its messages about diversity and identity.

International Day for the Elimination of Racism is observed annually on March 21, because it was on that date in South Africa in 1960 that police opened fire and killed 69 people as they were peacefully demonstrating against Apartheid.

For more information about the film, visit the website. To learn more about combatting racism, visit the 听飞别产蝉颈迟别.

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In a 2009 study by 91亚色 in Toronto, Professor Kerry Kawakami and her team found that participants 鈥� despite believing they would be upset and speak out against racism 鈥� were likely to remain indifferent or less upset when personally witnessing racist behaviour against a black person. Moreover, they were likely to pass off the racist comments as being a joke or in good humour.

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Polling suggests young people favour the Greens, Liberals and New Democrats: parties that have demonstrated some commitment 鈥� however limited 鈥� to urban issues in this campaign. A politically engaged youth is thus important for the civic and social health of our urban regions. But as comedian Rick Mercer has quipped, 鈥渁s far as any political parties are concerned,鈥� young people 鈥渕ight as well be dead.鈥�

As any political scientist will tell you, in a pluralist liberal democracy, those who make the most noise 鈥� by voting, organizing, lobbying 鈥� are more likely to have their issues addressed by government. Pluralism implies many groups of relatively equal power jockeying for position and influence in political life.

We live, however, in a country of great social and economic inequality where money and power, two things youth lack, go a long way to securing an audience with the governing classes. Young people have power in numbers, but organizing and exercising that power around common interests is never easy. Through advocacy groups and party politics, seniors have flexed their political muscle this election, pushing the parties to address their immediate concerns, from home care to public pensions; youth have yet to flex theirs.

Urban youth have their own issues: environmental sustainability and the livability of cities are major concerns. The young are more frequent users of public transit and would benefit from a federal role in building the green transportation infrastructure our country so desperately needs. Funding for the arts and athletics are also a priority of urban youth, who recognize their value in facilitating creative expression and promoting social cohesion in the highly diverse landscapes of Canadian cities.

Then there are the myriad social problems facing many of today鈥檚 urban youth, problems the political parties have failed to highlight this campaign. For instance, in Toronto 40 per cent of black students do not graduate from high school. Drug-addicted youth in Vancouver鈥檚 downtown east side struggle to secure housing and access to services. Racialized youth face discrimination and outright racism in urban labour markets and in their contact with police and the criminal justice system. The young are disproportionately represented in the ranks of our cities鈥� precariously employed; those workers struggling to make ends meet working temporary, part-time or multiple jobs with low wages and few benefits. And there are the extremely high rates of poverty and incarceration of young aboriginal people in cities such as Winnipeg and Regina.

As in any federal system, politicians will squabble over whose jurisdiction these issues fall under. It鈥檚 time to move beyond these squabbles and recognize that urban youth, and our cities in general, would benefit from a strong federal urban presence and the development of a federally-led urban strategy. Stephen Harper explicitly opposes such a notion; he鈥檚 committed to a model of governance in which the feds do not 鈥渋nterfere鈥� in the business of the provinces and municipalities.

But a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach from the feds is not desirable either. Municipal governments are best placed to evaluate the needs of local populations, including youth. Cities have been important drivers in the design and innovation of Canadian social services and social programs. Any federal urban strategy with a youth component should recognize this and respect the diversity of Canadian cities. For instance, a program to address street gangs (with gang-exit and gang-intervention initiatives) in a city such as Regina in which aboriginal youth are disproportionately involved in gang life will necessarily take a different form than programs in Montreal or Toronto.

In any progressive era of Canadian politics, the federal government has exercised its federal spending power to alter Canada鈥檚 approach to issues that were essentially within provincial jurisdiction. In the fields of education, welfare and health care, the feds have influenced provincial and municipal policies and program standards.

Beyond providing necessary funding to cash-strapped cities, a federal urban youth strategy could establish principles that govern access to programs and services without becoming excessively involved in their design and delivery. Pairing universal programs with targeted investments based on the social citizenship, social rights and democratic participation and engagement of young people is vital to building such a strategy.

But an urban youth strategy is not likely to emerge unless it is fought for and demanded by young people themselves. In urban centres across our country, many youth are active in civic life, but often in ways that don鈥檛 conform to the politics-as-usual of parties and elections. Other youth speak the language of distress and despair, with gunshots or requests for spare change on our city streets. Whatever the manifestation of their voice, politicians ignore urban youth at our cities鈥� peril.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Published by Duke University Press, Homophobias looks at these questions through critical interrogations and analysis of diverse sites where homophobic discourses are produced, including New 91亚色 City, Australia, the Caribbean, Greece, India and Indonesia, as well as American Christian churches. The idea is to uncover the complex operational processes of homophobias and their intimate relationships to nationalism, sexism, racism, class and colonialism.

In the book's preface, Murray notes聽that the term "homophobia" had moved into the global sphere. This got him thinking about the term's meaning and the existence of homophobia. "Homophobia had gone global, and to be accused of being homophobic was to be accused of something more than just not liking homosexuals; furthermore, this accusation now carried potentially serious economic and political repercussions." He hopes the book will be the initial step in answering some of the questions the term homophobia raises.

Left: David Murray

Murray聽gathered researchers from a diverse range of ethnographic sites "to demonstrate how homophobia is a phenomenon that has no centre or origin, but more importantly, to examine how, or if, a transnational, comparative and聽ethnographically informed perspective might extend, challenge or change our understandings of homophobia."

In part one聽鈥� "Displacing Homophobia" 鈥� some of the issues the contributors examine include聽homophobia in New 91亚色's gay central, American Christian homophobia and homophobia as racism. In part two 鈥� "Transnational Homophobias" 鈥� they look at homosexual hate in Jamaica, political homophobia in Indonesia, as well as the Barbadian media. In examining these issues, Homophobias provides innovative analytical insights that expose the complex and intersecting cultural, political and economic forces contributing to the development of new forms of homophobia.

Murray, the director of the Graduate Program in Women鈥檚 Studies at 91亚色, is the author of .

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鈥淚 was surprised and truly honoured鈥�.I'm very lucky to have had such a supportive group of friends, supervisors, and colleagues at 91亚色 who helped and encouraged me to write this particular paper,鈥� says Mosby.

Right: Ian Mosby accepts the Nicholas C. Mullin Award in Tokyo from Society for Social Studies of Science council member Nina Wakeford of the University of London, UK

His paper, published last year in the journal examines the 鈥渄iscovery鈥� of the Chinese restaurant syndrome in 1968 and subsequent reactions by the medical community, scientists, public health authorities and the general public to dangers posed by the common food additive monosodium glutamate (MSG) and by Chinese cooking more generally.

鈥淚 was originally attracted to this topic because I was curious as to why Chinese restaurants often had prominent 'No MSG' signs in their windows and on their menus even though MSG was a common ingredient in all kinds of processed foods ranging from potato chips to canned soup,鈥� says Mosby.

鈥淭his curiosity quickly led me to a surprising number of scientific and medical studies from the 1960s and 1970s examining something called the Chinese restaurant syndrome. As it turned out, these studies ended up being a fascinating window into the interplay between ideas about race, food culture and industrial food technologies during the postwar period.鈥�

In his paper, Mosby argues that "Chinese restaurant syndrome was, at its core, a product of a racialized discourse that framed much of the scientific, medical and popular discussion surrounding the condition. This particular debate brought to the surface a number of widely held assumptions about the strangely 鈥榚xotic鈥�, 鈥榖izarre鈥� and 鈥榚xcessive鈥� practices associated with Chinese cooking which, ultimately, meant that few of those studying the Chinese restaurant syndrome would question the ethnic origins of the condition.鈥�

What happened is that Chinese restaurant syndrome became synonymous in medical and popular literature with Chinese cooking even though MSG was widely used by major American food manufacturers, he says.

And, as Mosby discovered, the debate over MSG and聽its possible short- and long-term health effects,聽which have been claimed to range from聽mild discomfort up to brain damage, continues today.

The Nicholas C. Mullins Award is handed out annually by the for an outstanding piece of scholarship by a graduate student in the field of Science & Technology Studies. Mosby was presented with聽the award at the 2010 annual meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science at the University of Tokyo.

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Those questions and more are at the heart of , a new collection of essays edited by 91亚色 history Professor Myra Rutherdale published this spring by McGill-Queen鈥檚 University Press.

The book examines the crucial role women have played in health and medicine as nurses and midwives, particularly in the remote geographical areas that dominate Canada鈥檚 landscape. As the book's editor, Rutherdale assembled a national contingent of scholars from nursing, women鈥檚 studies, geography, native studies and history to supply the essays and anecdotes that are contained within its pages. The result is a comprehensive volume that provides insight and understanding into the two centuries of history and courage of the women working on the front lines of health care and medicine in Canada鈥檚 remote communities.

"I was inspired to gather these works together into one collection because I was made aware that there were many scholars working on the history of outpost nursing and midwivery in rural Canada," says Rutherdale. "It struck me that there would be common themes across the country and across the two centuries explored in this book. Most particularly I thought that the perspective of 鈥榯he periphery鈥� would be useful to explore."

"Were these women, especially the trained nurses, acting as agents of the state or in the best interests of agencies like the Red Cross? To what extent were they actually autonomous?" asks Rutherdale. "And, were they merely reinforcing the sometimes racist and social inequities that seemed to be part of many of the federal government schemes?"

Left: Myra Rutherdale

"Did they, for example, work with midwives from northern communities, and how did they respond to medical traditions which were already established in the communities before their arrival? What motivated these women nurses and midwives to take up their work in the first place?"聽notes Rutherdale.聽"Were they just looking for adventure or were they women who wanted to advance in their chosen careers?"

The essays contained in the book also explore themes of religion, colonialism, social divisions and native-newcomer relations. Special attention is paid by Rutherdale to nursing in Aboriginal communities and the relations of race to medical work, particularly in connection to ideas of British ethnicity and conceptualized meanings of whiteness.

Rutherdale聽looks at the experience of nurses in Newfoundland and Labrador, northern Saskatchewan, northern British Columbia and the Arctic. The book features essays on topics such as Mennonite midwives in Western Canada, missionary nurses and Aboriginal nursing assistants in the Yukon.

"There were many interesting submissions and several fascinating stories. The Mennonite midwives explored [in an essay] by University of Waterloo history Professor Marlene Epp were especially interesting since they were so integral to the communities in which they worked. Not only were they midwives but they also worked as undertakers and arranged bodies for funeral rites," says Rutherdale.

Right: A nursing station in Iqaluit

What she discovered in compiling the book was that creativity was a key attribute for the women profiled within Caregiving on the Periphery. "The midwives and nurses who worked on the periphery had to work often alone, or sometimes with just one partner, and they had to work quickly to ensure the survival of their patients," says Rutherdale. "They did not necessarily have the opportunity to consult doctors or to speak with teams. They had to do their best under some harsh circumstances. They had to be skilled and confident in themselves. Nurses were trained 鈥榥ot to diagnose,鈥� but they often found themselves having to do just that, and quickly. They were tested in these communities and had to work hard."

That quality of creativity was also a key element for some of the research that went into the book, says Rutherdale, as there were challenges associated with the fact that some of the nurses, midwives and patients did not leave聽detailed primary source material. "As is evident from this collection, there are some very innovative ways to get around this frustrating lack of evidence," says Rutherdale. She cites an article by Judith Young, professor emerita of nursing at the University of Toronto. "One example of this is the excellent article by Judith Young who researched midwives in 19th-century Toronto. She used directories and land purchase records as well as other official documents to trace the existence of these fascinating midwives 鈥� records that might not be turned to for the questions which she ultimately answered. Sometimes one has to be innovative and creative to find traces of the human past."

Rutherdale also drew on the creativity of her 19-year-old son when she was seeking an appropriate title for the book. "I always find titles rather challenging. I had several titles, most of which were not favoured by family, colleagues or publishers," says Rutherdale. "Finally, I hashed it out with my son who has two parents who are historians so he has heard his fair share about Canadian history throughout his life. He thought Caregiving on the Periphery made a lot of sense given what the authors were trying to highlight in their collective works. And how does one disagree with an opinionated 19-year-old?"

Above:聽Donalda McKillop Copeland with her interpreter and his friends, Southampton Island, early 1950s.聽Rutherdale is researching the experiences of McKillop Copeland.

Rutherdale teaches Canadian history, with a special focus on 20th-century Canada and native-newcomer relations in the Department of History in 91亚色's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. She also teaches聽courses on the history of the body and Canadian women's history.

Her current research project is on the history of the introduction of westernized medicine into northern Aboriginal communities. "I look at the history of traditional medicine and ask what changes took place when doctors and nurses moved to northern communities to establish nursing stations and small hospitals," she says. "Northern Canada is still woefully under-served in terms of access to health care and there are many inequities that still exist in northern communities. The infant mortality rate is high, and women are still being sent to the south to deliver their children. This is ridiculous in 2010."

Caregiving on the Periphery is available online through , and .

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor

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In his lecture, 鈥淎sian Identity: Becoming Canadian鈥�, Choy will review his personal insights into life as an in-between citizen, living as a hyphenated Chinese-Canadian for most of his life. Choy 鈥� born in Canada in 1939聽鈥� will explore how he feels now that he has "become a Canadian." No more hyphens. He will expose the prejudices and racism that still prevent many people from feeling that they belong in Canada as full-fledged citizens. The irony is that these prejudices and racist attitudes are found from both inside and outside one's ethnicity and colour,聽Choy says.

The event, which will be held May 25, from 7 to 9:30pm in the McLean Performance Studio, 244 Accolade East Building, Keele campus, will be chaired by Vivienne Poy,聽Canadian senator聽and patron of Asian Heritage Month in Canada.

Right: Wayson Choy. Photo by Raymond Lum.

Choy, a member of the Order of Canada, has appeared as a subject in Wayson Choy: Unfolding the Butterfly, a full-length documentary film by Michael Glassbourg, and is featured on the co-produced China-Canada documentary . His latest book is聽 and he is currently working on his third novel and fifth book. His other publications include , and , which was called one of the 100 most important books in Canadian history by the . His work has been translated into Hungarian, French, German and Dutch.

He is a聽professor emeritus of聽Humber College, where聽he is currently a faculty聽member聽for the Humber School for Writers Summer Program. In 2002, he was made companion of Fronteir College in recognition of his outstanding services for furthering literacy awareness.

The discussant for the Asian Heritage Month Lecture will be English Professor from 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

The lecture will be paired with a performance of OrienTik/Portrait, which features the intricate and mesmerizing choreography of former 91亚色 student Alvin Erasga Tolentino and fellow dancer and 91亚色 grad Andrea Nann (BFA Spec. Hons. '88). The pair will be joined by taiko drummer Jordy Riley and classical pianist Alison Nishihara.

Their performance will explore an Asian identity that is diverse in culture, creating a bridge between the identities of Canadians and the rest of the world. In OrientiTik/Portrait, sound and movements integrate and weave together in an enriching layer of moments in time. It highlights the experience, mediums and high artistry of each artist. Their aim is to capture the resonance and transparency with the meeting of two performing mediums.

The event is presented by the 91亚色 Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) as a part of the 2010 Asian Heritage Month Festival with support from the following groups:聽91亚色,聽the Office of the Vice-President Academic & Provost, the Faculty of Fine Arts, the Graduate Program in Dance, the Asian Heritage Month Canadian Foundation for Asian Culture (Central Ontario) Inc. (partially funded by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage), the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and community partner the .

Light refreshments will follow the event. Due to space restrictions, RSVPs are required. Contact YCAR at ycar@yorku.ca or call 416-736-5821. For more information, visit the YCAR Web site.

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Ontario nurses are experiencing racism on the job to the point they are segregated into certain units within hospitals and onto certain shifts, wrote The Peterborough Examiner July 15, in a story about research by 91亚色 Professor Tania Das Gupta.

Visible minorities are especially vulnerable, Das Gupta, chair of 91亚色鈥檚 Department of Equity Studies, said.

Das Gupta revealed her findings in a book earlier this month after surveying nurses through the Ontario Nurses鈥� Association, drawing on 593 responses from nurses across the province, 18 in-depth interviews and arbitration cases. 鈥淲e have as a society reached a point where it鈥檚 not acceptable anymore to use racial slurs or do name-calling,鈥� Das Gupta told Sun Media yesterday. 鈥淩acism is not too blatant anymore...so the way in which it manifests itself is very systemic and subtle.

鈥淎t the end of the day, what you find is that it is nurses of colour who get disadvantaged.鈥�

In her book, Real Nurses and Others: Racism in Nursing, Das Gupta details the survey found 41 per cent of nurses that responded said they had been made to feel uncomfortable because of their race, colour or ethnicity, including 82 per cent of black nurses, 80 per cent of Asian nurses, 50 per cent of South Asian nurses and 57 per cent of Central or South American nurses.

Das Gupta鈥檚 study also found 25 per cent of white nurses said they had been made to feel uncomfortable because of their ethnicity or religion.

The racism ranges from comments about accents and physical attributes to a failure to recognize a nurse鈥檚 skills and knowledge, she said. That racism can translate into who works where in a hospital, Das Gupta said, with more minorities being relegated to less desirable units and work hours.

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