The talk, “Filling in the Puzzle of a Social Justice Framework for Critical Health Research: Lessons Learned from Iris Young and Paulo Freire,” will take place Tuesday, Nov. 20, from noon to 1pm, at 280N 91��ɫ Lanes. Lunch will be served.

As an immigrant woman of color who sometimes is still reminded that she speaks English “with an accent,” Tang is interested in issues that concern access to health and healthcare for racialized social groups, including how race and racism operate to reproduce social and health/healthcare inequities in the everyday.

Moreover, Tang of 91��ɫ’s School of Nursing in the Faculty of Health feels a commitment to participate in the larger project of social justice in her capacity as a critical health researcher and nurse educator. Her most recent research is a qualitative study that examines how social justice education is perceived and implemented in nursing.

To RSVP, e-mail owhchair@yorku.ca by Friday, Nov. 16. The event is sponsored by the Office of Echo Chair in Women's Mental Health Research at 91��ɫ.

For more information, e-mail www.yorku.ca/nkhanlou.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

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The fair showcases a diverse range of vendors selling fair and sustainable products, including arts and crafts, clothing, coffee and chocolate. The event also serves as a forum for faculty, staff and students who are interested in learning more about fair trade. ��

What is fair trade?

On its website, describes fair trade as a “way for all of us to identify products that meet our values so we can make choices that have a positive impact on the world.”

Over the years,��the University has pursued a number of fair trade endeavours. ����

91��ɫ's own Las Nubes coffee (fair trade, organic and shade grown) is served at��nine locations on both campuses. To know more about the Las Nubes project, visit the �ɱ�������ٱ�.��

Right:��91��ɫ's Las Nubes coffee is��shade grown in Costa Rica

Fair trade coffee and Rainforest Alliance tea is served at most coffee shops at 91��ɫ and can be ordered for catering. A number of campus locations serve fair trade coffee. The locations are:��the Central Square Cafeteria, TEL Building Café, Winters Cafeteria, Stong Cafeteria, Freshii, the Osgoode Bistro, Glendon Café, Glendon Eurobaguette, and the Graduate Student Lounge.

The 91��ɫ Bookstore now sells fair trade 91��ɫ t-shirts (which is a first for Canadian universities).��The bookstore will be selling t-shirts at the fair.��To learn more about the Bookstore's fair trade t-shirt initiative,��see YFile, Oct. 11, 2011.

Left: The 91��ɫ Bookstore sells fair trade t-shirts

91��ɫ students have also demonstrated leadership in fair trade. The 91��ɫ Federation of Students Is committed to the Canadian Federation of Students Students for Sustainability campaign and is an active participant in many social justice and sustainability events and campaigns. As well, the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) is a co-sponsor of��Thursday's Fair Trade Fair and can be contacted by sending an e-mail to opirg@yorku.ca.

Coming in early 2012, 91��ɫ�� University will also be launching its��new Sustainability Ambassadors program. To learn more, visit the President's Sustainability Council website or e-mail sustainability@yorku.ca.

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

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An award is given to two faculty members, one in the early career category and another in the established career category, in the areas of research, service and teaching. The awards, which took place Sept. 14, are conferred annually by the Faculty of Health Research & Awards Committee.

“This year’s winners are joining a very illustrious group. Every year the committee is faced with a very difficult task because everyone nominated is quite deserving,” said Gordon Flett, who chaired the adjudication process. “The award itself is a great way of recognizing the outstanding accomplishments, as well as the exceptional commitments that our faculty members have made both within the Faculty of Health and in the broader community.”

Above: Back row, from left, William Gage, associate dean of research & innovation in��91��ɫ's Faculty of Health, Christine Jonas-Simpson, Dianne McCauley and Peter Tsasis. Front row, from left, Mary Wiktorowicz, Marcia Rioux, Mary Fox and Harvey Skinner, dean of the Faculty of Health

Excellence in Research Award (Early Career) – Professor Mary Fox (Nursing)

Fox was honoured for her research in the prevention of bed rest dependency in older adults with complex chronic disease. Fox has been recognized as having made significant contributions to her field. Her work has been critiqued by Canadian Institutions of Health Research (CIHR) peer reviewers as “very innovative”, “highly significant”, and “to be of interest nationally”. A recently funded grant by the CIHR ranked Fox’s application first out of 47, and place it in the outstanding category – the highest attainable category. In addition to serving as a professor in 91��ɫ’s School of Nursing, Fox is an Adjunct scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.

Fox said having her work recognized and knowing that her colleagues and students have taken the time to nominate her “means a lot.”

Excellence in Research Award (Established Career) – Professor Marcia Rioux (Health Policy & Management)

Rioux, a distinguished and internationally recognized scholar, has published 10 books and monographs, over 50 articles and book chapters, and as principle investigator has held nearly $18 million in research grants over the past 30 years. Her nominator describes her as a visionary leader who is changing the way disability is studied and responded to in the context of human rights and social empowerment.

Rioux said the award reflects a significant honour for her as does the support she has received from her colleagues throughout the University. “My work benefits from 91��ɫ’s rich intellectual environment and an international, interdisciplinary research agenda related to social justice and human rights.”

The award came just as her latest book, Critical Perspectives on Human Rights and Disability Law, an edited collection that recapitulates many of the themes of Rioux’s research, was published.

Excellence in Service Award (Early Career) – Professor Dianne McCauley (Nursing)

McCauley is described by her nominator as “an excellent student advocate, not only with individual students, but also, of the student body at large; the kind of solid citizen who makes the School of Nursing successful.”

“It is an honour to be recognized by my colleagues … my colleagues, staff and students have enabled me to be successful in my role and receive this award,” said McCauley.

Well known to faculty and students for her availability and supportiveness to students, McCauley has actively participated in a number of key nursing committees, including the Student Affairs Committee and��the Practicum Committee. Since 2007, she��has served as undergraduate program director of the Collaborative BScN Program in the School of Nursing.

Excellence in Service Award (Established Career) – Professor Mary Wiktorowicz (Health Policy & Management)

Wiktorowicz began her tenure as the chair of 91��ɫ’s School of Health Policy & Management in 2006, the inaugural year of the Faculty of Health. Her colleagues assert that under her leadership, enrolment to the school has almost quadrupled and applicant quality has significantly increased. Additionally, Wiktorowicz has led the development of several new undergraduate programs, and has guided the final stage of development and the launch of the new Graduate Health Program, which includes a pan-University MA and a direct-entry PhD in health.

In addition to her many outstanding accomplishments at the School of Health Policy & Management, Wiktorowicz has actively participated in many committees over the years, spanning across all levels of the University. She has been an integral part of the 91��ɫ Senate and likewise as the 91��ɫ representative for the Ontario Training Centre Diploma in Health Services & Policy Research. Wiktorowicz has also made a sustained contribution to service at the national and provincial levels. Her recent work on the governance of mental health networks has recently been adopted by the Ontario Local Health Integration Networks Collaborative.

When asked what service means to her, Wiktorowicz said, “Service is like planting a seed, and it takes more than a single individual’s contribution to create a beautiful garden. There are amazing people in the school who each day sow the seeds of success. Good things happen when we all contribute. Being recognized among such an exceptional group of colleagues makes this a particular honour.”

Excellence in Teaching Award (Early Career) – Professor Christine Jonas-Simpson (Nursing)

Jonas-Simpson, who says she “loves to teach,” describes her pedagogy as “reflective of an arts-based narrative interpretive human science approach.” Instructor evaluation scores in nursing typically average 3.8 out of 5. Jonas-Simpson’s instructor evaluation scores are consistently 4.88 or 4.99 out of 5. Her students write, “Christine is by far the most caring, understanding, adaptable teacher I’ve ever had. She let us shape our class to suit our learning,” and “Christine epitomizes the human science philosophy that the program subscribes to by valuing her students’ experiences and being truly present with them.”

Jonas-Simpson has created engaging teaching tools through research-documentary films in collaboration with her colleagues from 91��ɫ and the community at large. She and her research colleagues have recently received Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada funding to begin filming the fourth research documentary in a series of inter-professional educational pieces focusing on children’s experiences of the loss of a baby sibling.

Excellence in Teaching Award (Established Career) – Professor Peter Tsasis (Health Policy & Management and Administrative Studies)

Tsasis, who is appointed jointly to the School of Health Policy & Management and the School of Administrative Studies, teaches various disciplines. A nominator remarked, “It is rare to find an individual that can span his teaching across the spectrum of disciplines and deliver exceptional teaching performance.” Tsasis stretches his teaching beyond the lecture hall, mentoring many students in the Research at 91��ɫ program. In 91��ɫ’s Alumni Matters newsletter, one student remarked, “working with Professor Tsasis was one of the best experiences I will ever have in my life.” In one of four letters of support, a student said, “Dr. Tsasis has unequivocally been the best professor I have had.”

Most recently, Tsasis has undertaken an initiative to negotiate with community health service organizations internship placements for students registered in a fourth-year Health Studies Project Management course, giving students the opportunity for enriching field experience. He has also helped to create a new certificate program in Health Service Finance offered jointly by the School of Health Policy & Management and the School of Administrative Studies. This program is designed to provide students with the opportunity for fast-track entry into the certified management accountant designation, while providing a skill set much in need in the health-care industry.

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

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Professor Pat Armstrong, a distinguished research professor of sociology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS); Professor Isabella Bakker in the Department of Political Science in LA&PS; Professor Rishma Dunlop in the Faculty of Education and in the Department of English in LA&PS; and Professor Bernard Lightman in the Department of Humanities, LA&PS, have all been inducted into the society as Fellows.

“On behalf of the 91��ɫ community, I would like to offer our sincere congratulations to four of our faculty members on being named as Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada,” said President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. “This prestigious recognition is well-deserved as Drs. Armstrong, Bakker, Dunlop and Lightman are leading scholars who have made outstanding contributions in research in their fields.”

The society has elected 78 new Fellows, including two Foreign Fellows, and one Honorary Fellow to its ranks for 2011.��The newly elected Fellows will be officially inducted on Saturday, Nov. 26, during a ceremony at the Ottawa Convention Centre.��

Election to the academies of the Royal Society of Canada is one of the highest honours awarded to��Canadian scholars in the arts, humanities and sciences.

Pat Armstrong (right) is an internationally renowned sociologist with expertise in health care and women’s health, social policy, and gender and work.��She has co-authored numerous books on health policy, including They Deserve Better: The Long-Term Care Experience in Canada and Scandinavia, Women’s Health: Intersections of Policy, Research and Practice, and Critical to Care: The Invisible Women in Health Services, among others.��Armstrong is the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation/Canadian Institutes of Health Research Chair in Health Services and Nursing Research and an executive member of both the 91��ɫ Institute for Health Research and the Graduate Program in Health Policy and Equity.��She is the principal investigator for a major collaborative research initiative project titled “Re-imagining Long-Term Residential Care: An International Study of Promising Practices,” which is funded by the Social Sciences��& Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Isabella Bakker (left) teaches International Political Economy, Women and Politics and Public Finance.��A leading global expert in her field, Bakker’s research examines the interplay between feminist perspectives and international public policy, with a focus on how macroeconomics and fiscal policy affect questions of gender and social justice.��Bakker’s published work includes:��Questioning Financial Governance from a Feminist Perspective, Power, Production and Social Reproduction: Human In/security in the Global Political Economy, Beyond States and Markets:��The Challenges of Social Reproduction and The Strategic Silence: Gender and Economic Policy.��She has been a faculty member in the Department of Political Science at 91��ɫ since 1986, and has held visiting professorships at the European University Institute in Florence, the University of California Santa Barbara and the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, among other institutions.��Bakker is a Trudeau Fellow and was named Fulbright New Century Scholar in 2004.��She is the principal investigator of a SSHRC-funded project “Budgeting for Women’s Human Rights in Canada”.

Rishma Dunlop (right) is an award-winning Canadian poet, playwright, essayist, and fiction writer.��She is founding editor of the international online literary journal Studio.��Dunlop’s poetry collections include: White Album (2008), Metropolis (2005), Reading Like a Girl (2004) and The Body of My Garden (2002).��Next month, her fifth book, Lover Through Departure: New and Selected Poems will be published. ��Known for her innovative research that merges scholarly inquiry with artistic production, Dunlop has taught interdisciplinary seminars on research and artistic creation for over a decade. ��In 2009 to 2010, she was awarded the prestigious Canada-US Fulbright Research Chair at the Virginia Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University.��She won the Emily Dickinson Prize for Poetry in 2003, and her non-fiction and poetry have been short-listed for the CBC Literary Awards. She is currently principal investigator on��the SSHRC research initiative on poetry of witness, human Rights and transitional justice.��She is an interdisciplinary scholar, cross-appointed to 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education and the Department of English, where she was coordinator of the Creative Writing program from 2007 to 2011.

Bernard Lightman (left) is an internationally renowned historian and currently the editor of Isis, the quarterly journal of the History of Science Society.��He is also director of the Institute for Science and Technology Studies at 91��ɫ.��Lightman’s area of expertise is the cultural history of Victorian science.��He is editor of the Pickering and Chatto Press monograph series, titled “Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century”, in which��14 books have been published.��His publications include: The Origins of Agnosticism, Victorian Popularizers of Science, Evolutionary Naturalism in Victorian Britain and Victorian Science in Context, among others. Currently, Lightman is working on a biography of the physicist John Tyndall, and he is the founder of an international correspondence project to collect and publish Tyndall’s letters.��The project is being funded by the Mellon Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

For more information on the 2011 Fellows, visit the website.

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

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This special issue, Remembering Barbara Godard, is edited by four of her former colleagues and students – 91��ɫ women's studies Professor Eva C. Karpinski, professors Ray Ellenwood and Ian Sowton of the Department of English, and 91��ɫ alumna Jennifer Henderson, now a professor at Carleton University.

A pillar of the 91��ɫ community, Prof. Godard broadly influenced the fields of Canadian and Quebec studies, translation studies, feminist poetics, semiotics and cultural studies. She was also a founding co-editor of the feminist literary periodical Tessera, a contributing editor of Open Letter and The Semiotic Review of Books, and the book review editor for Topia: A Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies.

She died on May 16, 2010, at Toronto Western Hospital (see YFile, May 19, 2010).

For more information, visit the website.

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

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It is a sad day, said two of his 91��ɫ professors, political scientists and Daniel Drache. Neither were surprised that the young Layton who enrolled in their graduate classes 40 years ago led the NDP to official opposition status��in May��for the first time in Canadian history. He was bright, curious, open-minded, engaging and unfashionably optimistic even then.������

Above: Jack Layton celebrates the NDP's new post-election status at the party's 50th anniversary in Vancouver in June

��

“When he walked into a room you immediately saw the tremendous intelligence of this person,” said Laxer yesterday in an interview. He remembers Layton in one of his graduate seminars on political economy in the early 1970s. “He was also a guy who loved to meet people and respected other people.����

“I knew as soon as I met him that he was someone very special and that he would do important things,” said Laxer, though he couldn’t have predicted how. Layton could have��made a career as an academic, journalist or politician.��

Right: The young Jack Layton, academic

Layton enrolled in 91��ɫ in 1971 to pursue a master’s degree in political science after earning a BA from McGill University. In a 2003 interview following his election as leader of Canada’s New Democrats, Layton told 91��ɫ’s Universe magazine, a monthly published at the time,��that he came to 91��ɫ because his McGill mentor Charles Taylor told him he’d meet some crackerjack political theorists – David Shugarman, Daniel Drache, Jim Laxer, ��(who became his mentor at 91��ɫ) and Fred Fletcher (who became his dissertation chair). And he did.��

Layton grew up privileged in Hudson, Que., a wealthy community west of Montreal. But as a teenager he had noticed how French kids were discriminated against in his community. And “I got involved through church and youth parliament in issues like apartheid, social justice, Medicare, the war in Vietnam,” he said in the interview. His interest in social justice and equity only intensified at McGill where, he said, “there was a gross distortion of wealth that struck me as so wrong.”����

Layton got his first taste of municipal politics soon after arriving at 91��ɫ. He took his first urban politics course with Mike Goldrick and was soon involved in Goldrick’s campaign for a seat on Toronto city council. “91��ɫ became my entrée into what became my career,” Layton told Universe. A year before he completed his PhD in 1983, Layton won a seat on Toronto city council. He was a city councillor for the next 20 years, during which time he also taught at 91��ɫ and Ryerson. In 2003, as the federal NDP’s new leader, he told Universe: “I take what I learned at 91��ɫ and use it almost on a daily basis.”����

“Jack was a fighter for a whole lot of causes,” remembers Laxer. “He fought for the homeless, for the poor.” He was fighting for the environment when few people were. “He was the kind of guy who had huge optimism and didn’t have any use for fashionable pessimism,” said Laxer. “He had conviction that one could make a difference and change things. And he had huge energy and huge intelligence. You saw it in his fights at city hall and in his run for mayor.” After every setback, he never gave up. “He never lost that optimistic spirit.”��

In a message of condolence yesterday, 91��ɫ President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri said the 91��ɫ community was "deeply saddened to learn of the passing of one of our own."�� Layton’s "many contributions to public life were tremendous," Shoukri continued. "He was passionate about politics, and his commitment to social responsibility was unwavering. We were extremely proud that he was an alumnus of 91��ɫ, and he will be missed by all those who had the pleasure of knowing him. His determination, tenacity and enthusiasm will forever serve as a model worthy of emulation by our students.”

Drache taught Layton a course in Canadian political economy.����

"Three things stand out about Jack," said Drache –��his open-mindedness, his��curiosity and the importance he placed on critical thinking in public life and social justice.����

“He saw that one of the avenues to political change came through new ideas,” said Drache. “And he saw the NDP’s legacy as the strategic vehicle for bringing new creative thinking from the margins to the mainstream in public life. It made perfect sense for him to identify with this movement and eventually become a fabulous campaigner for it. His ability to speak in plain language about big and small ideas made him in time a formidable campaigner certainly.”����

Left: Jack Layton in his 2011 campaign portrait

Layton also championed social justice. “People who were vulnerable, families in need, women and newly arrived immigrants – all these critical groups needed help and assistance to get on with their lives. Jack was a real believer in deep affirmative action to correct historical wrongs. I think this sense of social justice became the beacon in his life that guided all of what he did.����

“He had no time for neo-liberalism and its market fantasies, but neither was he particularly ideological,” said Drache. “He was a politician chieftain who was results- and evidence-driven with a strong sense of what was right, even if unpopular. He had a moral compass to his political strategizing and never abandoned it in the face of adversity.”����

Layton reframed this constantly, said Drache. “Jack was happy to look across the spectrum and mix and match policy ideas. He was always more of a pragmatist than a theorist when a grad student, and very independent knowing his own mind. Looking back it becomes very clear that as a young man he was capable of following his own star. He was less ideological than his contemporaries as a grad student at 91��ɫ.��He was also clear about what he wanted to do. Jack was always strong and self-confident without being self-centred and egotistical.”����

Layton put it this way in his 2003 interview with Universe: “What’s most important is to get out and work on issues affecting people and to become totally engaged in your community. That’s the best route and the most legitimate route to becoming involved in politics. Some people go the other route and get law degrees, make connections with the rich and powerful. I prefer the [first] route.”����

A PhD in political science doesn’t hurt if you’re going to go into politics, Layton said. “I found it gave me a chance to really explore ideas like how to accomplish change in society. It taught me an enormous amount about how to think through public policy and consider issues in a thoughtful way. I couldn’t overstate the benefits of having that degree.”��

Right: Jack Layton, optimist

A turning point in Layton’s career was serving as president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities beginning in 2000, said Drache. “He dropped a lot of his left rhetoric as president of the federation and his effectiveness grew. He learned to work with people, to gather and actively build a consensus style of politics. That’s why he also appealed to Quebecers. He came across as a principled leader, a rarity in today’s rough and tumble world of parliamentary politics.����

“He will be sadly and hugely missed,” Drache said. “People esteemed Jack in a way they esteemed Ed Broadbent, Pierre Trudeau and Tommy Douglas. He won the hearts and minds of Canadians and could have been Canada’s prime minister. That’s the tragedy. He was the one person who potentially could have united left and centre Liberals and the NDP. The task will be all the much harder without him. Jack had a special style and people felt a personal connection to Jack. That showed in the unprecedented success of the NDP in the last election.”����

Laxer said: “Jack should have been opening that chapter that was the pinnacle of his career.” He had led the NDP to official opposition. “His breakthrough in Quebec was historic and has changed the country.

“What we have to do now," said Laxer, “is take his qualities of optimism and courage and take them to heart.”��

Layton leaves his wife, MP Olivia Chow. His son, Mike, earned a master’s degree in environmental studies from 91��ɫ in 2006, and has followed his father to Toronto city council. Layton also leaves a daughter and granddaughter.

By Martha Tancock, YFile contributing writer

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

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Organized by the 91��ɫ Centre for Education & Community (YCEC) directed by Faculty of Education Professor Carl James, the School & Community Engaged Summer Education Institute, taking place Aug. 16 to 18 at 91��ɫ’s Keele campus, will feature a program focused on participatory pedagogical practices for inclusive and sustainable education in communities and schools.

Tomorrow morning, Aug. 16, the institute’s first keynote address will feature author and storyteller Itah Sadu who will speak about the role of storytelling and the oral tradition in community building. In the afternoon keynote, Joanna Brown and Maria Trejo��of the Chicago-based Logan Square Neighbourhood Association, will talk about building strong immigrant community schools.

On Aug.17, Amos Key Jr. of the First Nations Languages Woodland Centre in Brantford, Ont., will lead an Elder Prayer Invocation to open up the day. Immediately following the Elder Prayer Invocation, 91��ɫ education Professor Susan Dion, will deliver a presentation about research she��conducted in collaboration with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Aboriginal Education Staff. Dion will discuss decolonizing and indigenizing school communities.

The summer institute wraps on Thursday with a presentation by Professor Beverly Naidus, of the University of Washington, Tacoma. Naidus will��speak about the��need for socially-engaged art practices.The rest of the day's��activities are being presented by FES students under the direction of 91��ɫ environmental studies��Professor Deborah Barndt, who is helping coordinate the summer institute.��

For further information and to register,��visit the ��website.

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

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A��catalyst for dialogue and healing is 91��ɫ film Professor Colleen Wagner’s Governor General’s Award-winning play . This electrifying drama was the inaugural production of Rwanda’s ISÔKO Theatre in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide (see YFile, June 27, 2008).

Left: Actress��Jacqueline Umubyeyi, as Mejra in Colleen Wagner's The Monument. Photo by Nick Zajicek.

Translated into the local Kinyarwanda dialect and directed by , a former student in 91��ɫ’s Graduate Program in Theatre and the founding artistic director of ISÔKO, the play premiered in Kigali and toured throughout Rwanda. Harbourfront Centre’s presents the North American premiere of ISÔKO’s production (with English surtitles) at 91��ɫ Quay Centre in Toronto April 27 to May 1.

Intimately staged and accompanied by song and African drumming, The Monument tells the story of a young soldier who has been convicted of war crimes committed during a genocide. Just as he is about to be executed, a mysterious woman who is both his saviour and tormentor offers him freedom − at a price. Billed as a “profound excavation into the nature of forgiveness”, this highly physical and imagistic production paints a contemporary portrait of a country whose resilient voice continues to be a beacon of hope and reconciliation.

Shortly before The Monument opens at Harbourfront, a second play penned by Wagner – this one a very topical, made-in-the-moment riff on Canadian politics – hits another Toronto stage. Wrecking Ball 12: Are You Dying to Vote? swings into the electoral debate tonight��at Toronto’s Theatre Centre – exactly one week before Canadians head to the polls.

is a fast and furious compendium of short works of political theatre. Playwrights hand over scripts to the directors and performers for rehearsal a mere week before the show, which is performed for one night only – usually to a fully-packed house. Founded in Toronto in 2004, The Wrecking Ball went national in 2008 when it was adopted in cities coast to coast.

Wagner is one of six writers contributing works “both strategically and from their hearts” to the current Toronto edition. The details of her piece have not yet been announced, but if The Wrecking Ball’s track record is any indication, it will be a part of a theatrical romp long remembered.

Showtime is 8pm. The Theatre Centre is located at 1087 Queen St. West at Dovercourt. Tickets are pay-what-you-can at the door.

Another catalyst for political dialogue is the��latest��work by 91��ɫ theatre professor and playwright Judith Rudakoff, which opened in Whitehorse on April 21. The River offers a vivid, poetic and unflinching glimpse into the intersecting lives of marginalized people in the community where it was created. Directed by Rudakoff’s colleague, Professor Michael Greyeyes, the production runs to May 1 at the Yukon Arts Centre Studio theatre.

Above: A map of Whitehorse drawn by Joseph Fish Tisiga, for the "Ashley Cycle" that inspired The River

The River was born out of Rudakoff’s ongoing -supported project Common Plants: Cross Pollinations in Hybrid Reality. In 2008, Rudakoff visited Whitehorse twice to lead her "Ashley Plays" workshop, in which participants collectively devise a cycle of short, site-specific performances that share a character named Ashley and��a common theme – in this case, the theme of "home".

The material developed in those workshops was so compelling that the collaboration continued into subsequent years. Rudakoff worked with local artist Joseph Tisiga and David Skelton, artistic director of Whitehorse’s , a professional company dedicated to the development of live theatre relevant to northern audience��to write the play. Nakai is producing it in partnership with the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition (YAPC).

The three artists drew inspiration for The River from both the extreme natural beauty of the Yukon and the ugliness that beauty can mask. Episodic and non-linear, the narrative is told by members of the largely untraceable "ghost population" of Whitehorse: a derelict vagrant, a missing high-school girl, a Tilley hat-wearing tourist, a transient worker and even an alien abductee.��These disparate voices take the audience on an unbridled journey through a world of longing and belonging that is both real and imagined.

The production aims to promote conversation and action in the community. YAPC is actively inviting and offering free tickets to individuals who might never otherwise attend a production at the Yukon Arts Centre, as well as arranging a special invitational matinee performance at the local Salvation Army shelter. At the end of the run, YAPC and Nakai are co-hosting a community conversation to discuss the issues brought up in the play.

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

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Right: Professor Sanjeev Purshotam Sahni (left), head of strategic human resources and assistant dean of Research��& International Collaborations at Jindal Global Law��School, and Osgoode Hall Law School Dean Lorne Sossin

Osgoode is leading the way among Canadian law schools in this kind of research-driven collaboration in India and in thinking creatively about how to engage legal educators and the legal profession in both countries to achieve mutually beneficial results, says Lisa Philipps, Osgoode associate dean research, graduate studies & institutional relations.

The delegates found the trip valuable both for their current research on transnational legal issues and for the development of Osgoode’s institutional relationships and collaborative programs in India.

“As this Osgoode trip to India vividly demonstrated to those who participated, we have much of value to learn from India, and much to share as well,” says Osgoode Dean .

Above: Professor Charles D. Maddox, assistant director of the Centre for Global Corporate & Financial Law & Policy,��Professor Vikramaditya Khanna, visiting faculty at Jindal Global Law School,��and Philipps, associate dean research, graduate studies & institutional relations at Osgoode,��discuss issues at the symposium in India

Sossin and Philipps were among the Osgoode delegates to attend a two-day joint symposium, , with faculty and graduate students from Jindal Global Law School at O.P. Jindal Global University. The symposium explored issues ranging from access to justice and legal regulation of sexuality to the tax treatment of foreign investment.

Left: From left, Arun Khatri, Jindal Global Law School research associate,��with Dayna Scott, Lorne��Sossin and Allan Hutchinson of Osgoode

It was a continuation of last year’s symposium at 91��ɫ, funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada and Osgoode's , which included a delegation from India (See YFile, Oct. 25, 2010).

“This two-part conference was designed to establish an Indian-Canadian conversation on issues of pressing mutual interest,” says Philipps. “Indeed, too often, a separation of opinions between elements of the global North and global South is presumed insurmountable on issues ranging from climate change to development. In the last five years, from Hong Kong to Copenhagen, critical global issues have been mired in a difference in perspective between nations.”

Right: From left, Philipps; Professor Y.S.R. Murthy, assistant dean of projects & institutional development and executive director of the Centre for Human Rights Studies; and Charles D. Maddox

Through research and collaborations, such as the one with India, “We can facilitate discussions about innovative solutions to local and global policy issues,” she says. “Canada and India have the possibility to play bridge-builders in this North-South dialogue. It is believed that a Canadian-Indian dialogue can adopt a more sober, and potentially incisive, outlook on a range of global policy issues that simply cannot be ignored as yet another decade draws to a close.”

One of the benefits of the collaboration is a Memorandum of Understanding between the two law schools, which is currently being developed to include JD and graduate student exchanges and continued faculty visits. Discussions are underway toward a variety of joint teaching and research initiatives. Osgoode also renewed its student exchange agreement with the National Law School of India at Bangalore and strengthened relations with other law schools, including the National Law University in Delhi.

Left: Professor François Tanguay-Renaud (left), acting director of the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime & Security, and Sanjeev Purshotam Sahni

“Osgoode faculty, staff and students have expressed both interest and excitement to develop more exchanges, internships, joint conferences, research projects and collaborative pro bono projects, just to scratch the surface,” says Sossin.

In addition, Osgoode faculty met with Supreme Court justices, government ministers, independent think tanks, non-governmental organizations and leading members of the legal profession.

A selection of the best new research coming out of this collaboration will be published in an upcoming��peer-reviewed special issue of the .

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

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The event will take place Jan. 13, from 2:30 to 5pm, on the��5th Floor of the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL)��Building, Keele campus. In addition, there will be some short remarks at 3:30pm in 5084 TEL Building, at the south end of the hallway. Refreshments will be served.

The open house will showcase faculty- and student-led research projects, along with short presentations by researchers.

The LaMarsh Centre conducts interdisciplinary research in health, education, relationships and development of infants, children, adolescents, emerging adults and families. Its particular focus is on the health and well-being of Canada’s youth, preventing youth violence and promoting positive development. The aim is to foster a centre of learning, productivity and exchange for new and senior scholars and to create a critical mass of related research activity.

The YIHR takes a determinants approach to health research with sub-areas including diversity and health, health equity and social justice, health and the environment, health law and ethics, health care and health governance. YIHR draws together a range of social, biomedical, environmental and behavioural scientists, as well as researchers from business, law, education and the physical sciences, bridging the divide between the sciences and social sciences to deliver real-world solutions.

The houses the largest university-based survey centre in Canada, conducting major surveys on population health, education, gender, the environment and voting behaviour. It conducts more than 25 survey research projects annually, as well as a range of qualitative research, including focus group studies. ISR staff complete all stages of the survey research process from questionnaire design, sample selection and data collection to the preparation of machine-readable data files, statistical analysis and report writing.

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

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