Priscila Uppal

“Canada’s coolest poet”, 91��ɫ English Professor Priscila Uppal (BA Hons. ’97, PhD ’04), has received one of the country’s highest forms of recognition – election as a Fellow to the (RSC).

Uppal has accomplished a great deal in her 39 years. She has published 10 collections of poetry, two novels, a memoir, a play, an academic monograph and several anthologies. Her poetry includes Traumatology (2010), Successful Tragedies: Poems 1998-2010 (2010), Winter Sport: Poems (2010) and Ontological Necessities, which was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize.

“This is a wonderful achievement for Professor Uppal, who exemplifies the excellence, dedication and engagement of our 91��ɫ faculty," says 91��ɫ President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. "A gifted poet, writer and teacher, she is an incredible role model for our students and for the arts community. On behalf of all of us at the University, I’d like to congratulate her on this special recognition of her contributions.”

Uppal's other work includes the critically-acclaimed novels The Divine Economy of Salvation (2002) and To Whom It May Concern (2009); and the study We Are What We Mourn: The Contemporary English-Canadian Elegy (2009), as well as the memoir Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother (2013), which was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Hilary Weston Prize for Non-Fiction.

“It’s a big honour and it obviously puts me in the company of some very remarkable people, past and present,” says Uppal, who is one of 90 new Fellows announced Tuesday by the RSC. “I’m also thrilled to be inducted at such a young age, which I understand is quite rare.”

Uppal's work has been translated into Dutch, French, Greek, Italian, Korean, Latvian and Serbo-Croatian. Uppal was the first-ever poet-in-residence for Canadian Athletes Now during the summer and winter Olympics and Paralympic games, as well as the Rogers Cup tennis.

“I was very pleased to see that recognition for my work, but also the continued recognition…that creative work is a form of research that is highly respected and it is a field of knowledge that is important and vital to society and to Canadian citizenship,” adds Uppal.

She is looking forward to the opportunity to learn about research and discoveries in drastically different fields from her own. She believes one of the strengths of the RSC is that is brings people together from such diverse disciplines allowing for a cross-pollination of ideas and the spawning of innovative ways of thinking, adapting and approaching one’s work.

“I’m delighted to be a Fellow,” she says. “It’s a great honour to represent the arts at 91��ɫ, but also to represent the field of artistic production and inquiry. It should be seen as not only a legitimate form of research, but also as an incredibly important one that can stand side by side the hard sciences and other more conventional forms of scholarship."

The RSC website states that the “fellowship of the RSC comprises distinguished men and women from all branches of learning who have made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public life”. Uppal will join the ranks of more than 2,000 Canadian scholars, artists and scientists, who have been peer-elected as the best in their field.

Uppal will be inducted as a Fellow in the ’s Academy of the Arts and Humanities on Saturday, Nov. 22 in Quebec City.

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Shakespeare: The Authorship Question, a day-long conference exploring those questions, will take place Saturday, April 7, starting at 11am, at the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre, 139 Centre for Film & Theatre, Keele campus. The conference is open to the public. Tickets cost $30, which will include a light lunch. Reservations must be made, but one can pay at the door.

Over the last century-and-a-half numerous scholars, artists and those who are simply curious have looked at the issue and have suggested quite publicly that the Bard of Avon may not be who we have long thought he was. Those doubters have included Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Henry James, Orson Welles, Helen Keller and, more recently, major artists such as Mark Rylance, first artistic director of the rebuilt Globe Theatre, actor Jeremy Irons and Sir Derek Jacobi. Even a judge from the United States Supreme Court – after hearing the arguments in a legal framework – said there were certainly grounds for reasonable doubt.

In recent years, dozens of books have been published interrogating these and related questions arguing for and against everyone from the standard candidate – the actor-manager from Stratford-upon-Avon William Shaksper (that is indeed how he generally spelled his name) – to  Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford (the current most favoured candidate) to Italian-born and English-raised lexicographer John Florio. Sony Pictures’ recent film, Anonymous, has now drawn the wider public into the discussion.

The conference’s keynote speaker, Mark Anderson (left), author of the critically-acclaimed volume , has his own opinion on Shakespeare’s identity. Anderson will delve into the subject with his talk, "The Bard's New Clothes: Shakespeare's Autobiography and Why the Authorship Controversy Matters".

Professor Don Rubin (right), founding director of the MA and PhD programs in Theatre Studies and series editor of Routledge’s six-volume World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre, will deliver opening remarks. Rubin, president of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association, is currently directing a fourth-year seminar at 91��ɫ on the authorship question.

Montreal actor Keir Cutler will then give a one-hour performance based on Mark Twain’s comic examination of the question, is Shakespeare dead? Cutler has performed the show all across North America.

In the afternoon, there will be a 90-minute panel debate on who wrote Shakespeare’s work, chaired by Rubin with panellists Anderson, Cutler, Italian-born scholar and editor Lamberto Tassinari of Montreal (a major proponent of John Florio), 91��ɫ’s own Canada Research Chair in Theatre – Professor Christopher Innes of the Department of English (arguing for William of Stratford), David Prosser, communications director and former literary manager of the  Stratford Festival, and Michel Vais, editor of the Quebec theatre journal Jeu. There will also be a Q&A session with the audience.

The event is sponsored by the 91��ɫ Department of Theatre in association with 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts, Winters College, Stong College, the Division of Humanities and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Research Fund.

For more information, to register or to support this event, contact Don Rubin at drubin@yorku.ca, or Tasha Gallant, part of the conference’s publicity committee, at Tash89@yorku.ca.

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

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Cádiz, 1812: The Birth of Modern Liberalism will take place Wednesday, March 21, starting at 4pm in the Glendon Hall BMO Conference Centre, Glendon College. The event is free and everyone is welcome to attend as long as seating is available.

There will be presentations by three speakers – 91��ɫ history Professor Adrian Shubert, history Professor José Álvarez Junco of the Complutense University of Madrid and political history Professor Roberto Breña at the Center for International Studies at El Colegio de Mexico – followed by a Spanish musical interlude and a reception offered by Eudaldo Mirapeix, the ambassador of Spain to Canada.

Junco will talk about the political ideas behind the constitution of Cádiz, particularly the contemporary meaning of "freedom" and "nation". A history professor in Madrid, Junco was the former director of the Center for Political & Constitutional Studies, a role that saw him report directly to the deputy prime minister. He was also a member of the advisory committee that prepared the law on Historical Memory of 2007.

Breña will discuss the importance the constitution of Cádiz had in Latin America. The constitution was proclaimed in 1810 in the midst of struggles for independence in most of Spain's American empire, which complicated those struggles.

The idea and funding for the event came from the Embassy of Spain in Ottawa, particularly from Juan Claudio de Ramón Jacob-Ernst, the newly arrived cultural attaché. “Cadiz 1812 is an enormous milestone in the Spanish political and constitutional history. It was our first constitution and arguably one of the most advanced of its time. It marked the passing from the old to the new regime, from dynastic to popular sovereignty, from absolutism to liberalism,” says de Ramon Jacob-Ernst. “It was revolution amidst war."

In the middle of the struggle against the Napoleonic aggressor, elected representatives from all parts of Spain, including the American territories and the Philippines, gathered in a small town besieged by land and sea to assert the sovereignty of the nation.

“It was during this parliament that the word ‘liberal’ was first used as a political label for people who supported constitutional and elected governments. The constitution was intended to apply to Spain and its American colonies, and the colonies sent deputies to sit in the parliament,” says Shubert. He will talk about the constitution's influence in Spain and its colonies, as well as outside the Spanish world, including its reception by one of the forerunners of nationalism in India. “The constitution of Cadiz was also important in other parts of Europe, especially Portugal and Italy."

As de Ramon Jacob-Ernst says, "To put it in Churchillian terms, we could say that Cadiz, 1812 represents our finest hour, the founding stone of our liberal tradition. It was our tragedy and shame that Ferdinand VII, the very same king for whose return from captivity the Spaniards so fierce fully fought, abrogated the constitution when he came back from exile, with the support of the most conservative sections of Spanish society and other European monarchs, fearful of liberalism in their own constituencies.”

The Constitution was revoked following the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, proclaimed again after a revolution in 1820 and revoked again in 1823.

The Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Russian and Latin-American revolutionaries took it as a model for their own constitutions, says de Ramon Jacob-Ernst. “Because of the epic of the moment, the beauty of the text and the failure to make it a living document, the Constitution of Cadiz was soon idealized and look upon ever since with melancholy by Spanish liberals and democrats. Clearly, it laid the foundation for our current Constitution of 1978.”

The event is organized by the Embassy of Spain, Glendon College, 91��ɫ, the Consulate General of Spain in Toronto, Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo and Spain Arts & Culture.

To reserve a seat, e-mail emb.ottawa@maec.es or cog.toronto@maec.es.

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

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Several international observers were asked to oversee the January Taiwan presidential election to ensure freedom and fairness in what was predicted to be an extremely close race. Susan Henders, director of the 91��ɫ Centre for Asian Research (YCAR), was one of them. She’ll be discussing her experience as part of a panel Tuesday.

“Taiwan’s Super Saturday: Perspectives on the 2012 Polls from Canadian Election Observers” will take place Feb. 14, from 3:30 to 5:30pm, at 857 91��ɫ Research Tower, Keele campus.

Invited by the (ICFET), Henders was one of about 21 scholars, business people, parliamentarians and former government officials from eight countries, including Canada, the United States and several in Europe and Asia. This was the fifth time the Taiwanese people have voted directly for a presidential candidate since 1996. In addition, the legislative elections were also underway.

A street rally in support of the Democratic Progressive Party campaign

“There are always issues of freedom and fairness in Taiwan elections,” says Henders, a political science professor at 91��ɫ. “However, there were particular concerns about this one because the presidential race was predicated to be really close. The ICFET wanted some international observers there who could comment on the spot about what might be going on in the days leading up to the polls and also to provide some judgment about the freedom and fairness of the election.”

Michael Stainton (left) in Taiwan with a poster in the background in support of the Kuomintang, the Chinese Nationalist Party, which was re-elected

Henders found the experience interesting and enlightening, and despite Taiwan’s unique situation and challenges, feels it has something to teach other democracies about the conditions that undermine the strength of democracy and the democratic nature of elections. She will join Michael Stainton, a Taiwan scholar and president of the Taiwan Human Rights Association of Canada who was also a member of the ICFET mission, in discussing their experiences as observers at the Tuesday event.

Stainton and Henders will examine how Taiwan’s democracy is affected by the island’s authoritarian past and its relations with China and the United States. B. Michael Frolic, a 91��ɫ political science professor emeritus, will speak about the election in light of Taiwan-China relations and democratization in other contexts. Lois Wilson, a former Canadian senator and president of the World Council of Churches, who was also part of the election observation mission, will also speak at the event.

A meeting for the Democratic Progressive Party campaign, with the presidential candidate and her running mate on the background poster

In the preliminary report following the election, the ICFET observers noted issues, such as vote buying, were a problem in the Jan. 14 polls. They also noted some misuse of government power and a severe imbalance in party wealth and resources, which undermines the freeness and fairness of elections, but is a result of the island’s authoritarian past. Taiwan was under authoritarian rule until the late 1980s and is still trying to throw off the residue of that period in its bid for democracy.

Susan Henders

Taiwan’s particular geopolitical and economic positioning with respect to China and the United States also means that foreign interference in elections remains an issue, says Henders. 

The international election observation report stated that both Chinese and former United States officials interfered in the political process. During the election process, Taiwan and international media reported that Chinese officials were using China’s economic power to try to sway the election outcome. In addition, a few days before the election, a former American Institute in Taiwan chairman commented that Taiwan relations with China and the US would suffer if the opposition won.

“It was that kind of thing we were able to respond to quickly,” says Henders. Head of the ICFET mission Frank Murkowski, former US Alaska governor and senator, publicly condemned the remarks saying the US government should be neutral in the election.

The Taiwanese people are particularly sensitive to the views of US and Chinese officials. Although the US doesn’t recognize Taiwan as a state, it is obliged to protect it militarily. “So if a former US official says anything before an election in Taiwan, it gets a lot of attention,” says Henders.  As Canada doesn’t formerly recognize Taiwan either, “it is particularly important that Canadian people, by participating in the election observation mission, showed support for efforts by Taiwanese people to strengthen their democracy.”

The Central Election Commission counting centre

Henders says the mission should be seen as a small contribution to the long-term building of a stronger democracy in Taiwan by getting rid of old authoritarian legacies and dealing with the power of China. “We were in many ways impressed by the election. We did not hear of issues with ballot counting or the mechanics of the process while we were there, and the candidates on the whole were forthcoming in answering the questions of our observation mission. Taiwan has achieved a lot.”

The ICFET mission visited Taipei, Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taichung and met with candidates or organizers from the three main political parties – the Democratic Progressive Party, the Chinese Nationalist Party and the People’s First Party. They also attended street rallies and campaign events, and visited polling stations. The mission members were present in the Central Election Commission counting centre on election day, they spoke with the media and held press conferences, as well as a public forum on democracy.

‘These kinds of observer missions represent a way civil society groups can be vigilant in helping each other and strengthening democracy,” Henders says.

For more information, contact YCAR at ycar@yorku.ca or visit the YCAR website.

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

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From investigating how typography could reduce medication errors to using math as a tool to teach jazz, Faculty of Fine Arts scholars and practitioners have a fascinating array of research projects to share during the Fine Arts Research Celebration Monday, Feb. 6.

Robert Haché, vice-president research & innovation, and Barbara Sellers-Young, dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, are co-hosting the event, which takes place from 2 to 4 pm in the McLean Performance Studio, 244 Accolade East Building, Keele campus. Everyone is welcome to attend the free celebration, but an RSVP is requested. You can RSVP or call Lia Novario at ext. 33782. Light refreshments will be provided.

Right: Nancy Latoszewski performing

The program features a live dance performance, film clips and four presentations that showcase some of the diverse academic and applied creative work being done by Fine Arts faculty and graduate student researchers.

“This research celebration highlights multi-disciplinarity in the Faculty of Fine Arts, from dance to music to digital media and beyond,” said Haché. “We invite the 91��ɫ research community to join us to learn more about the exceptional research activities taking place in this Faculty.”

“The arts are so much more than entertainment,” says Sellers-Young. “Arts and culture are at the heart of our day-to-day lives, and those who are engaged in the arts – as practising artists, theorists, historians, critics and many other ways – play an important role in shaping civic society and addressing the critical issues of our day. The presentations at the Fine Arts Research Celebration illustrate this engagement and the diverse contributions our researchers are making.”

Visitors to the Fine Arts Research Celebration will be greeted by clips of visual arts Professor Katherine Knight’s vivid feature documentary, . Knight’s film follows the renowned Canadian artist as she prepares massive new works depicting archetypal cities and familiar, yet disquieting, landscapes for two 30-year retrospectives – one at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and another at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa.

Left: Wanda Koop in a still from the film KOOP: The Art of Wanda Koop

Drawing the viewer into the framework in which the artist works, the film explores the science of vision, colour and perception – including Koop’s visit to 91��ɫ’s Centre for Vision Research to have her vision tested in the 3D Vision Research lab. (See YFile story Feb. 22, 2011.)

Design Professor will present a talk, titled “Evaluating Graphic Design for Patient Safety: An investigation of the Use of Typographic Principles to Differentiate Look-Alike Medication Names”.

She was the principal investigator on a recent study conducted at Toronto’s University Health Network, investigating how the principles and practices of graphic design and typography might be used for interventions intended to help health-care professionals make accurate medication selections.

Right: An example of using Tallman lettering with parts of the word enhanced to help distinguish it from similar medication names

“We know that look-alike, or orthographically similar, medication names are one of the causes of medication errors,” says Gabriele. “Tallman lettering (enhancement of words by changing parts of the word to capital letters) is currently recommended to help differentiate similar names.”

In her new study, she tested tallman lettering applied to look-alike medication names alongside other ways of enhancing names using three different scenarios. “Results indicated that tallman lettering might not be as effective as previously reported,” she says. “The research also revealed the importance of designing and testing interventions for specific users in contexts that reflect actual situations and activities in practice.”

In his lecture-demonstration “Music is Math: An effective Approach to Teaching Jazz Improvisation within General Music Education”, Professor Ron Westray��(����ڳ�), 91��ɫ’s Oscar Peterson Chair in Jazz Performance, explores how the mathematical qualities inherent in western music can be used as a tool for ear training through music improv.

“You can view the chord-to-scale relationship in jazz improvisation as virtual data that can be transposed throughout relative and absolute functions, much like basic math,” says Westray. “Translating music into math helps demystify simple improvisation. It levels the playing field and makes it easier for non-specialists to teach jazz improv.”

Westray, an internationally known jazz trombonist, will illustrate the concept by means of a PowerPoint presentation punctuated with live performance examples, including the participation of jazz majors from the Department of Music.

Digital Media Professor Mark-David Hosale will discuss “Nonlinear Narrative as a Conceptual Framework for Media Art”, with an overview of the core technical and esthetic motivations unpinning his work as a media artist.

Right: Digital media art by Mark-David Hosale

“The approach to addressing narrative issues in my work is derived from thinking of narrative as a model of knowledge,” he says. “I see the stories we tell each other and ourselves as an expression of what we know. From this perspective, my works can be understood as knowledge spaces that are a conceptual reflection of a modern understanding of knowledge and nature, which is inherently nonlinear.”

The challenge of capturing the qualities of nonlinear narratives has led Hosale to develop an abstract model useful in the conceptual analysis and practical development of his work. In his presentation, he will explain how the model is based on a composite of operations, structures and characteristics that provide the governing principles behind a software framework and hardware platform.

Canadian dance history is the focus of the presentation by dance Professors Darcey Callison and Carol Anderson, and Professor Emerita Selma Odom. They will read excerpts from their contributions to , an anthology to accompany an exhibition of the same name organized by Dance Collection Danse in partnership with the Theatre Museum of Canada.

During the 1970s dance boom, audiences worldwide flocked to performances. Artists were energized and innovative. In Canada, dance finally found an intellectual home in universities across the country. The decade was also defined in Canada by political, social and cultural debate inspired by second-wave feminism, gay rights, multiculturalism, separatism and nationalism.

How was this turbulent decade reflected in dance? How did the major issues and ideas of the day inspire or influence dancers and choreographers, and how did they respond? Renegade Bodies: Canadian Dance in the 1970s explores how the art form contributed to, and was informed by, this vibrant zeitgeist.

Moving from the page to the stage, dance MFA candidate Nancy Latoszewski will perform a five-minute excerpt from her solo dance, Carriage. The work revisits the challenge she faced in transitioning from the life of a prima ballerina to motherhood. While intensely personal, the work also speaks to the wider experience of undergoing a tremendous life change. Through her choreographic and performance research, with works such as Carriage, Latoszewski investigates how danced narratives can communicate personal stories and contribute to current interests in oral history and storytelling.

In addition to the public presentations, there will be a display of books and materials in other publication formats.

Visitors will have the opportunity to engage with other research projects by Fine Arts faculty on Fine Arts Research Day in Vari Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 29, from 10am to 2pm, as part of 91��ɫ’s Research Month.

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

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Led by Professor Colin Coates (left), Canada Research Chair in Canadian Cultural Landscapes and professor of Canadian Studies at Glendon College, the project is expected to cast light on the impacts of an earlier period of economic “globalization” as a way of better understanding the challenges of current practices. It is one of eight projects across Canada that has been granted funding in the 2011 Digging into Data Challenge.

Fourteen teams representing Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States have been awarded grants to investigate how computational techniques can be applied to “big data” to change the nature of humanities and social sciences research. Each team represents collaborations among scholars, scientists and librarians from leading universities worldwide.

Coates, who is also the director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at 91��ɫ, is one of the principal investigators on the project titled Trading Consequences, which received $125,000 in funding. The project will examine the economic and environmental consequences of commodity trading during the 19th century and employs information extraction techniques to study large corpora of digitized documents from the 19th century. This innovative digital resource will allow historians to discover novel patterns and to explore new hypotheses through structured query and a variety of visualization tools.

"Our team of environmental historians is excited to be partners with the Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews in the Trading Consequences project. Canadian economic development has historically been defined by commodity flows, and it is important to understand the environmental impacts of this commerce in the past, just as it is today. The focus on Canadian data will test the techniques created through this collaborative project for mapping the scope and impact of international trade in the 19th century," said Coates.

“91��ɫ is proud to receive recognition in the 2011 Digging into Data Challenge,” said Robert Haché, 91��ɫ’s vice-president research & innovation. “These important research projects advance knowledge as researchers work collaboratively and internationally to find new ways to analyze, search for and store data using digital and electronic technologies.”

“The Digging into Data Challenge is an international initiative that enables Canadian researchers to take advantage of the huge digital resources now available and to develop close partnerships with overseas universities,” said Chad Gaffield, president of the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). “These exciting projects cross both disciplines and national borders; they lead to new insights into human thought and behaviour.”

The successful cohort of projects received a total of nearly $5 million in funding from eight international research funding agencies. SSHRC’s contribution of $869,117 will support Canadian researchers from eight of the fourteen teams.  

For more information, visit the ���ɱ�������ٱ�.

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

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[1.] 91��ɫ, Canada

91��ɫ’s Department of Film [Faculty of Fine Arts] is Canada’s first, largest and most comprehensive university-based film school. Film programs are taught by 40 award-winning filmmakers and prominent scholars, all active in their field. Students benefit from comprehensive, professional training that blends theory and practice in a free-thinking and creative environment. Five hundred-plus students work in modern learning, production and screening facilities in Toronto, one of the world’s leading film capitals. 91��ɫ offers a mix of graduate and undergraduate programs covering a range of topics. Students explore everything from the role that film and television play in society to genre-specific topics such as the vampire in cinema or crime film.

Asian students with international filmmaking aspirations have a couple of major avenues to choose from. They can give into the Hollywood paradigm and study in LA, where they will be encouraged to conform to the system and join the filmmaking masses. Opposite this, they can seek out smaller, counter-cultural schools that put a priority on the modern film as work of art.

For those intent on pursuing the latter, a school like 91��ɫ is an excellent option. Based in Toronto in Canada, it offers all of the advantages of a North American education without cornering aspiring filmmakers in the Hollywood mindset.

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

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El Muro (The Wall): On Borders, Renewed Exclusions, and Other Nightmares of
In-security
Gilberto Rosas
Thursday, October 13
1:30 – 3:30 pm
764 91��ɫ Lanes

For more information about upcoming events please click the following link /yciss/news/CBSSS.html or email Chris Hendershot (hender@yorku.ca)

The Critical Border Studies Speaker Series is sponsored by the 91��ɫ Centre for International and Security Studies and the Office of the Vice-President Academic and Provost.

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Historian Nicholas Rogers and mathematician Jianhong Wu were named distinguished research professors for sustained and outstanding scholarly, professional or artistic achievement largely accomplished at 91��ɫ.  

Political scientist David Dewitt and education scholar Don Dippo were named University professors for extraordinary contributions to 91��ɫ as colleagues, teachers and scholars.

The following profiles are based on citations given at convocation ceremonies in June:

Distinguished Research Professors

Nicholas Rogers (right) is one of the world’s leading scholars of the political culture of 18th-century British and Atlantic worlds.

In his writing, Rogers blends keen insights into the nature and operation of the early modern state with a detailed understanding of the social and cultural contexts in which it functioned. He has explored a remarkably diverse range of topics, from reactions to press gangs in British ports to religious conflicts amongst London’s crowds, from food riots to public reactions to blunders made by admirals, and even the genealogy of Halloween festivities. His compelling prose, intellectual rigour, powers of synthesis and painstaking archival research has allowed him to produce works that have served as models for subsequent writers on these and other topics. 

In 1999, Rogers was awarded the Wallace Ferguson Prize for his book Crowds, Culture and Politics in Georgian Britain, a study of 18th-century Britain that fundamentally transformed our understanding of early modern Britain and prompted historians to reconsider how they treat the interplay between politics and culture. He brilliantly and persuasively mapped the pathways of political power and identified those who opposed, resisted and deflected its effects.

Jianhong Wu (left) is best known for his groundbreaking work on the application of mathematical modelling to the epidemiology of infectious diseases and was instrumental in establishing the MITACS Centre for Disease Modelling at 91��ɫ. This research has had a direct impact upon public health policy in Canada and abroad. After the SARS crisis in Toronto he was asked to establish a national working group on disease modelling and since then his research has advanced our understanding of H1N1, West Nile virus and avian influenza, to name but a few.

Wu joined 91��ɫ in 1990, and was named Canada Research Chair in Industrial and Applied Mathematics in 2001. He has made fundamental advances in a number of seemingly disparate areas, from wave theory to neural network theory to differential equations and his intellectual achievements have made him an international leader in the field of applied mathematics. His career exemplifies 91��ɫ’s emphasis on interdisciplinarity and on the application of research to real-time issues.

University Professors

Since political scientist David Dewitt (right) joined 91��ɫ in 1984, he has demonstrated the utmost commitment to 91��ɫ through his scholarship and outstanding service to other researchers, and in his two terms as the associate vice-president (AVP) of research in the humanities and social sciences.

Dewitt is a widely respected expert on human security and was instrumental in establishing the 91��ɫ Centre for International & Security Studies. At the heart of his research into arms proliferation, conflicts in the Asian Pacific and the Middle East and national defence policies have always been a concern for managing conflict and the safety of peoples. He has passed these essential concerns on in his mentoring and supervision of generations of graduate students and junior faculty.

As AVP, he has been pivotal in transforming 91��ɫ’s research culture. He has been a motivating force in improving service support for researchers, increasing the number of external grants, creating facilities for organized research units and establishing an influential 91��ɫ presence on national research councils. In all of these endeavours he has been mindful that research is not the exclusive preserve of those in science, engineering and medicine. His constant attention to 91��ɫ’s enduring research strength in the humanities and social sciences has made him an ideal ambassador both to this University and for research and scholarship in all fields of human knowledge.

Don Dippo (right) has made an extraordinary contribution to the University as a colleague, teacher, mentor and scholar. He has played an important, consistent and multifaceted role in the development of the Faculty of Education and to 91��ɫ. Through his teaching, administration and scholarship, he has also helped others learn how and why community engagement matters.

Before he joined 91��ɫ in 1987, Dippo was an elementary school teacher specializing in music. He has brought the same skills, knowledge, dedication, patience and energy he used as a teacher to his academic life to great and wide acclaim.

Dippo has served as graduate program director and twice as associate dean of preservice education. He has spearheaded new initiatives and educational innovations dedicated to enhancing social justice and inclusivity. He has encouraged advanced study that will transform lives and communities. And he has posed urgent and difficult questions.

Dippo devotes long hours to initiatives that involve schools and community organizations. He is actively affiliated with 91��ɫ’s Centre for Refugee Studies. He is sought out by graduate students who enjoy his lively mind and capacious scholarly reach.

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

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