The screening will take place Friday, April 29, from 6:30 to 8pm in Room 2158 JJR MacLeod Auditorium, Medical Sciences Building, 1 King’s College Circle, University of Toronto.

Right: Timothy Leduc

Following the film, Leduc, author of , will be joined by University of Windsor Professor Emerita Laura Westra (BA ’76, PhD ’05), author of Globalization, Violence and World Governance (Brill, 2011), and Alfredo Barahona, program coordinator of Migrant and Indigenous Rights at KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives and member of the World Council of Churches' Global Ecumenical Network on Migration.

The panel will discuss the issues raised by the film and engage in a discussion with the audience.

Climate Refugees looks at those who have been displaced by a climatically induced environmental disaster, resulting from both incremental and rapid ecological change. This can result in increased droughts, desertification, rising sea levels and more frequent extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, fires, mass flooding and tornadoes. These environmental disasters are causing mass global migration and border conflicts.

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

The post Professor Timothy Leduc to discuss climate refugees at film screening April 29 appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Last week, 91��ɫ law Professor Obiora Okafor was elected to the advisory committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The Nigerian-born professor brings his expertise in international law, human rights law,  and immigration and refugee law, especially as it relates to Africa, to the .

“The committee is the think tank of the Human Rights Council,” says . “It’s where the thinking begins.” He sees participating on the committee as a form of public service and an opportunity to make an impact at a relatively high level.

Okafor (left) was nominated by Nigeria to represent Africa on the 18-person committee for the next three years. The Geneva-based committee meets twice a year.

The son of an Ibo lawyer concerned about social justice, Okafor studied, practised and taught law in Nigeria before coming to Canada. He won a scholarship to the University of British Columbia, earned two graduate degrees and joined Osgoode Hall Law School in 2000.

“Human rights gave me a language and framework for expressing my concerns about social justice,” says Okafor.

At Osgoode, the award-winning teacher lectures on international human rights law, human rights in Africa and the international law of south-north relations.

His most recent research projects include a study of human rights activism in Nigeria and a comparison of refugee rights in Canada and the United States post 9/11.

He is also affiliated with 91��ɫ’s , the and the Graduate Program in Socio-Legal Studies.

Okafor has served as an expert panellist for the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent and a human rights consultant for the British Department for International Development. He has been a visiting scholar at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, and in Harvard Law School's Human Rights Program.

“I’m interested in a full range of issues, but the preponderance of my work is on human rights in Africa,” he says.

He has written three books: ; ; and .

He has also co-edited three books: ; ; and .

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

The post Professor Obiora Okafor elected to UN Human Rights Council advisory committee appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Students interested in how climate change will affect people in Canada and abroad are welcome to attend this free event. You can on CC-RAI's website.

Sun Come Up follows the relocation of some of the Carteret Islanders, a peaceful community living on a remote island chain in the South Pacific Ocean, and now, some of the world’s first environmental refugees.

When rising seas threaten their survival, the islanders face a painful decision: they must leave their beloved land in search of a new place to call home. The film follows the group, who are led by Nick Hakata, as they search for land in Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea 50 miles across the open ocean.

The premiere of Sun Come Up is made possible by . Formed through a partnership between 91��ɫ and the (TRCA), CC-RAI stimulates research and action around climate change and provides resources to help communities become more sustainable.

“CC-RAI aims to engage students, faculty and the wider public in meaningful dialogue around climate change,” said Stewart Dutfield, program and communications manager for CC-RAI. “We support researchers who are exploring climate change’s implications from both a natural and social science perspective. Since both TRCA and 91��ɫ are committed to addressing global issues at the local level, CC-RAI is a natural extension of their partnership.”

When: Friday, April 1, 2011 at 4pm

Where: Nat Taylor Cinema, N102 Ross Building (#28 on the 91��ɫ U map), Keele Campus, 91��ɫ

Tickets: Free, provided you online

Visitor parking is available at the Student Services Parking Garage (#84)

The post CC-RAI research partnership to host Canadian premiere of 'Sun Come Up' April 1 appeared first on Research & Innovation.

In an order issued Friday on an appeal by failed refugee claimant Bingrou Xu, the judge eight times repeated that the credibility findings by Immigration and Refugee Board member David McBean were "unreasonable".

McBean rejected Xu’s refugee claim last summer, stating 14 times that the claimant’s story was unsatisfactory and lacked credibility. Xu fled Belize in 2007 with his two children, claiming his wife was shot to death in a botched robbery of their convenience store and his family continued to be threatened.

“The (refugee) board’s conclusion . . . appears to have been based on the cumulative effect of the ‘discrepancies, contradictions and other problems’ that the board identified,” Justice Paul Crampton ruled.

. . .

Data analysis by Osgoode Hall Law School Professor revealed last week that McBean granted asylum to none of the 169 cases assigned to him since his 2007 appointment, with most of his rejections citing claimants' credibility as an issue. The data also showed several board members had extremely high acceptance rates.

Rehaag's and reveals startling differences in the acceptance rates of individual adjudicators. His findings were later .

Rehaag is also a member of the .

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

The post Judge blasts ruling by refugee board member with zero acceptance rate appeared first on Research & Innovation.

In fact, the board insists that each decision must be examined on a case-by-case basis.

“Statistics on the acceptance and rejection rates of individual IRB members who determine refugee claims made in Canada require context,” Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) spokesperson Anna Pape said Friday. “Each refugee protection claim referred to the IRB is reviewed on the evidence presented in that individual case and decided on its merits. Each case is unique.”

The IRB was responding to a by Osgoode Hall [Law School] Professor  that found a wide range of rejection rates among its members, even when dealing with claims from the same country.

The findings have already cast doubt on IRB member David McBean’s ability to judge fairly. McBean rejected all his asylum cases since his 2007 appointment – 62 in 2010, 72 in 2009 and 35 in 2008. 

Rehaag also discussed the study, which examines the practices of the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board and reveals startling differences in the acceptance rates of individual adjudicators, on CBC’s “As It Happens”, “Au Dela De La 401” and “Le Telejournal Ontario” March 4.

Rehaag is also a member of the .

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

The post Refugee board disputes Professor Sean Rehaag's study on bias and refugee boards appeared first on Research & Innovation.

According to an analysis of IRB data obtained through an access-to-information request, McBean was one of a handful of board members who granted asylum in fewer than 10 per cent of cases last year, said the Star. The others were Anna Brychcy (6.45 per cent), Pasquale A. Fiorino (6.93 per cent), Michele Pettinella (6.67 per cent), Edward Robinson (4.29 per cent), Carolyne Wedgbury (9.66 per cent), Andrea Wojtak (2.94 per cent) and Colleen Zuk (9.46 per cent).

“There is a concern of bias,” said Osgoode Hall Law School Professor , who obtained and analyzed the data. “It is an issue if the case outcome hinges on who made the decision. You’re lucky if you had Cathryn Forbes (who granted asylum in 35 out of 35 cases). If you had David McBean, you would have no chance.”

Individual claimants may vary in their personal profiles and circumstances of persecution even if they are from the same country. However, the discrepancies remain when Rehaag controlled the variables such as the country of origin of the claimants.

Rehaag said his data also showed that those claimants who had legal representation at the asylum hearing tended to have a much higher success rate (48.58 per cent) than those who were unrepresented (11.79 per cent). Refugee board members are appointed by the government from a pool of qualified applicants who must pass an exam to prove their knowledge of immigration and refugee issues. The terms are between one and three years. They are paid in the range of $102,300 and $120,400 a year.

Rehaag is also a member of the .

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

The post Osgoode Professor Sean Rehaag's study raises concerns about bias on refugee board appeared first on Research & Innovation.

The process takes anywhere from six months to 15 years.

A new law passed this year, Bill C-11, is expected to expedite applications and reduce the current wait-list of about 55,000 claimants. Canadian refugee claimants either stay with family or friends, at homeless shelters or, if the government considers them a security threat, in jail. The onus is on the claimant to prove that he or she faces persecution in the country of origin. Rejected applicants are deported, though many stay in Canada illegally.

The country is on track to receive about 20,000 refugee claims in 2010. Canada once accepted as much as 89 per cent of the applicant pool but now admits half that.

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

The post Centre for Refugee Studies provides statistics on refugee status in Canada appeared first on Research & Innovation.

The , run out of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and the Centre for Refugee Studies, teaches students how they can improve the settlement experience of refugees and newcomers to Canada. It aims to better their knowledge of national and international immigration policies, and to teach them how to address the emotional and psychosocial needs of clients of varying cultural backgrounds. Everyday issues such as how to access benefits and navigate online government services are also tackled.

“Working in this setting, you are dealing with people who have lost everything. We need to be able to give them the tools to start their lives over,” says Luis Alberto Mata, who graduated with the program’s first class at the end of March. After completing the course, Mata landed a job as a settlement and employment counsellor at the Mennonite New Life Centre of Toronto. He helps newcomers, immigrants and refugees to access health benefits and housing, provides job search guidance, and assists with applications for citizenship and residence.“The knowledge I obtained was very valuable,” he says. “I not only upgraded my skills – I was also able to network with settlement workers and agencies. This course really pulled everything together for me.”

Mata, who has extensive experience working with internally displaced people in his native Colombia, says the course enabled him to put his skills to work within a Canadian context.

The program was developed with a flexible format in mind so that those working full time in the sector could access it, according to Victoria Caparello, acting director of 91��ɫ’s Division of Continuing Education.

“This program has proven to be pivotal in providing a Canadian context for those who are currently working with not-for-profit and government organizations dealing with refugee issues and settlement programs both nationally and internationally,” Caparello says.

91��ɫ was also able to offer subsidies of up to $500 per student for those who were otherwise not eligible for other tuition subsidies.

The certificate consists of three components:

• International Conventions & Canadian Legislation provides participants with an overview of the Canadian refugee determination system as well as the international conventions and remedies applicable to refugees. Among the topics examined are refugee hearing and pre-removal risk assessment (PRRA) procedures, the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement, and special populations of refugee claimants (sexual minorities, claimants with disabilities, child claimants). It also looks at the broader role of various non-governmental organizations in refugee law and policy.
• Settlement Theory & Practice deals with settlement policies adopted by the countries receiving refugees. Students review case studies and examine the history of different nations’ refugee policies in order to help understand the refugee experience and how it interrelates with Canadian refugee policies.
• Trauma, Psychological and Psychosocial Issues and Vicarious Trauma critically examines concepts of emotional, psychological and social distress as they relate to the experience of newcomers. Students learn to identify trauma-specific reactions and help ameliorate them. Cross-cultural responses to traumatizing experiences are discussed, including the potential limitations of western psychology when dealing with newcomers from different cultures.

91��ɫ’s Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS) is engaged in research on refugee issues. It informs public discussion as well as policy development and practice innovation by international, governmental, advocacy and service organizations and it supports teaching in refugee and migration studies. As part of its commitment to strengthening the capacity of front-line workers in providing services to refugees, it currently runs a number of professional development programs, including the CRS Summer Course on Refugee & Forced Migration Issues. Efforts are currently underway to launch an online distance education program that would make the program available to settlement workers outside the GTA area.

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

The post Program teaches students how to improve refugee settlement experiences appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Vanessa Lamb (right), a second-year doctoral candidate in geography, is the 2010 Vivienne Poy Asian Research Award recipient. Her research interests include the politics of the environment and development, feminist political ecology and critical science studies.

Lamb received her master's degree from the University of Wisconsin, where she researched and studied the interdisciplinary understandings of conservation. Prior to attending 91��ɫ, she worked for the Bangkok-based organization TERRA, a regional non-governmental organization (NGO) that works on environmental issues within the Mekong Region. As a doctoral student she has worked as part of the Challenges of Agrarian Transition in Southeast Asia project team.

The award funds will assist Lamb in her dissertation fieldwork during the 2010-2011 academic year. Her research looks at knowledge-making and claim-making practices around resources of the Nu-Salween River, which supports an estimated six million people in China, Burma and Thailand as a source of livelihood and food. She will conduct interviews with local residents, activists, engineers and others connected to a large hydroelectric development project along the river at the Thai-Burma border. Specifically, her research will consider how different knowledges produced about the river interact and influence decision-making processes around development.

The award is named for Canadian Senator Vivienne Poy. It assists a graduate student in fulfilling the fieldwork requirement for the Graduate Diploma in Asian Studies.

Ei Phyu Han (left) and Rae Mitchell are the 2010 YCAR Language Award recipients. Han, a doctoral candidate in geography, will study Thai, while Mitchell, a master's candidate in social & political thought, will use the funding to study Hindi in anticipation of her 2010 fieldwork in India.

Han is examining gender identity formation of Karen refugees from Burma along the Thai-Burma border to learn how it is influenced by different actors and power groups at multiple sites of displacement. Her research aims to demonstrate how identity is influenced by place and therefore shifts during the process of being displaced because it is continually being renegotiated. This research has the potential to help improve resettlement programs, and she hopes it can play a role in future Canadian refugee policy changes.

"Although I am now a Canadian citizen, I migrated to Canada at the age of six from Burma with my family in the aftermath of the brutal repression of peaceful demonstrations in 1988," says Han. "I believe that this project is important not only for the ways that it can influence policy and resettlement program changes, and its engagement and contribution to academic knowledge, but also because it is integral to learning more about the growing humanitarian crisis in Burma."

She completed her coursework and set the foundations for her fieldwork in the summer of 2009 in Chiang Mai, Thailand, by making contacts with NGOs and by taking Thai language courses. The YCAR Language Award will assist in the continuation of these studies. She will begin her fieldwork this month working with the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, Women's Education for Advancement & Employment and the Karen Youth Organization.

Right: Rae Mitchell

Mitchell's research interests include resistance, social movement theory, engaged Buddhism and social anarchism. Her current research focuses on Gandhian perspectives of the body, including the methods utilized by Gandhi to transform his body (and self) from British subject into revolutionary satyagrahi. She's also interested in the ways that Gandhian approaches to social and political transformation are being adapted and utilized by female members of the Mahila Shanti Sena (Women's Peace Force) in Northern India.

She will complete a four-week intensive Hindi language-training course at the Jaipur School of Hindi in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The school is run in affiliation with Shashvat Sansthan, a local NGO working for the welfare of Rajasthan’s tribal-indigenous communities. Mitchell will also be travelling with University of Toronto Professor Reva Joshee and Jill Carr-Harris, a development worker in India, throughout central India for three weeks in October to explore possible research collaboration on Ekta Parishad's struggle for land and forest rights for marginalized and indigenous peoples in India.

Mitchell holds a combined bachelor of arts (BA) in peace studies and anthropology with a minor in religious studies from McMaster University.

The YCAR Language Award was created to support graduate students in fulfilling the language requirement for the Graduate Diploma in Asian Studies and to facilitate awardees master's or doctoral-level research.

Ferdinand Dionisio Caballero (left), a master's candidate in social anthropology, is this year's recipient of the David Wurfel Award. The award will aid him in his fall archival fieldwork in the Philippines where he will focus on the entangled relations between the Catholic Church and the Filipino people.

The David Wurfel Award provides financial support to an honours undergraduate or master's graduate student who intends to conduct thesis research on the topic of Filipino history, culture or society.

Caballero's major research paper will be an anthropological inquiry on religion, colonial subjects, post-colonialism and history. More specifically, he is interested in exploring and understanding the dynamics of power relations between religious institutions and the people.

He holds a BA in anthropology with a specialization in ethnographic studies from Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta.

The award was established in 2006 by Senior YCAR Research Associate David Wurfel. He wanted to contribute to the emergence of a new generation of Filipino leadership that is grounded in the country’s history, culture and public affairs. Wurfel is a Philippine specialist who received his PhD from Cornell University's Southeast Asia Program.

Heather Barnick (right) is the 2010 recipient of the Albert C.W. Chan Foundation Fellowship. A doctoral candidate in the Department of Social Anthropology at 91��ɫ, her current research interests are related to the anthropology of media, digital anthropology, and techno-science with a specific focus on the visual and material cultures of video games and massive multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs).

Last month, Barnick began ethnographic fieldwork in Shanghai, China, following the ways in which online role-playing games have become significant sites for the formations of new national and cultural imaginaries in mainland China. Her fieldwork is supported by the Albert C.W. Chan Fellowship and a Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada doctoral scholarship.

This research follows on the heels of a project initiated by China’s General Administration of Press & Publication (GAPP) to encourage the production of 100 domestically produced MMORPGs. The narratives and imagery integrated into games developed under GAPP’s initiative frequently make use of famous fictional stories, such as the Journey to the West, and historical battles, such as Genghis Khan’s exploits and the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Focusing on the perspectives of youth from Shanghai, Barnick’s research will examine how these adapted histories come to have new meanings for life in the present. The primary goal is to understand how notions of national and cultural belongings and identities are continuously formed, expressed and re-imagined by Shanghai youth through their participation in MMORPGs produced in China.

Barnick earned a BA in sociology and anthropology from the University of Prince Edward Island and a MA in social and cultural anthropology from Concordia University.

The Albert C.W. Chan Foundation Fellowship was established by the Albert C.W. Chan Foundation to encourage and assist 91��ɫ graduate students to conduct field research in East and/or Southeast Asia and was made possible through the support of the Albert C. W. Chan family.

Adnan Amin (left) was selected from a strong group of graduate and undergraduate applicants to represent 91��ɫ at the Global Initiatives Symposium in Taipei next month. This opportunity is provided by the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Amin's winning essay, “When East Meets West: A Personal Essay on Intersections of North American and East Asian Education”, reflected on his experiences as an English as a second language (ESL) teacher in Taiwan.

Last year, Amin graduated from 91��ɫ with an honours double major degree in English and history, completed his concurrent bachelor of education degree, and held a position as student senator for the Faculty of Education Students' Association. Amin has also held an international internship in the English Department of the Hong Kong Institute of Education and taught ESL in Taiwan. He is currently pursing his master of education degree at 91��ɫ.

Amin's research interests are in teaching and learning strategies, immigrant experiences, English language learning and digital media technology. He currently works as a school settlement worker in Toronto high schools where he helps newcomer students and families with settlement needs.

The Global Initiatives Symposium will be held at the National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan, from July 12 to 16. It will bring together emergent leaders from around the world to discuss critical global issues. The topic for 2010 is The Emergence of New Giants: Evolution or Revolution. Participants will also take part in several days of cultural tours in Taiwan following the symposium.

Amin’s opportunity to represent 91��ɫ at the symposium was made possible by the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office and the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

For more information on any of the awards, visit the YCAR Web site.

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

The post 91��ɫ Centre for Asian Research awards six graduate scholarships to fuel innovative research projects appeared first on Research & Innovation.

“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.

The post From Roman times to today, covered in one mother of a book appeared first on Research & Innovation.