South Asian population Archives | Research & Innovation

Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed speaks to Globe and Mail about Day of Overseas Indians conference

fmaquito — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies focused on South Asia and issues of human development, was interviewed by The Globe and Mail June 10, in a story about the :

The conference is the first of many large events planned for 2011, declared the Year of India in Canada.

Q: What's the conference about for you?

What I really like is that it's not totally about only diaspora issues. It's about the issues of the day: youth issues, gender issues, which are not the issues of one diaspora or another. Our country should be looked at not only as isolated communities. We should have a say in policy-making. People doing jobs they're over-qualified for is not an Indian issue, it's an issue for all of Canada. If not, we lose the sense of Canada as a whole.

Q: How would you describe the Indian diaspora in Canada?

In Canada, we have representation from all over India, with the dominant group being the Punjabi community. In the last few years I've seen more of an effort to have a pan-Indian presence. We do tend to have more engagement with the mainstream, partly because of our prominence in the professions and our facility with English. We had the right colonizers.

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

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Asian Television Network founder supports Fine Arts research and undergraduate students

fmaquito — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Shan Chandrasekar (Hon. LLD ’10) once said that “education is the greatest opportunity.” Now, the founder, president and CEO of Asian Television Network (ATN) has ensured that students in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts will benefit from a unique opportunity.

Making good on a collaboration he first outlined as part of last spring’s convocation address, 91��ɫ’s 2010 honorary-degree recipient and his wife, Jaya, an executive vice-president and vice-president, programming at ATN, pledged $100,000 earlier this month to create the Shan & Jaya Chandrasekar Visiting Artist/Scholar Residency in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts. The commitment is the first step in what Chandrasekar hopes is a long-term association with the University, his family and ATN.

Above: Back row, from left, Paul Marcus, president & CEO, 91��ɫ Foundation; 91��ɫ President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri; Asian Television Network (ATN) President & CEO Shan Chandrasekar. Seated, from left, Faculty of Fine Arts Dean Barbara Sellers-Young and Jaya Chandrasekar, executive vice-president & vice-president, programming, ATN.

“There are untold opportunities for collaboration between artists and scholars and students at 91��ɫ,” he says. “I’m very keen to collaborate with 91��ɫ on initiatives that advance arts and culture around the world.”

Beginning later this year, for each of the next four years the Shan & Jaya Chandrasekar Visiting Artist/Scholar Residency will support a visiting artist or scholar whose expertise includes arts and culture in the South Asian or Southeast Asian region. The candidate will work intensively with 91��ɫ fine arts students and faculty, supporting research and teaching through activities like master classes, lectures, creative/technical demonstrations, art production, and exhibitions and installations.

“91��ɫ is extremely appreciative and grateful for Shan and Jaya Chandrasekar’s generosity,” says Mamdouh Shoukri, 91��ɫ’s president and vice-chancellor. “Shan and Jaya recognize 91��ɫ as an invaluable contributor to Canadian society. They have seen first-hand the impact of our institution in the community, in the province and across this nation."

“Shan is a valued a member of the Fine Arts Advisory Council and has long been an advocate for the arts,” says Faculty of Fine Arts Dean Barbara Sellers-Young. “I share Shan and Jaya’s excitement about what this new residency will mean for our students. The visiting South and Southeast Asian artists and scholars will provide new frameworks for considering the arts and their contribution to society.”

The Chandrasekars have been creating multicultural opportunities in business and the arts since the 1970s when they launched the first television programming dedicated to Toronto’s South Asian community. ATN followed, growing from a single program in 1993 to 33 specialty channels and the first and only 24-hour radio service reaching South Asian audiences throughout North America. In recognition of his contributions to private broadcasting in Canada, Shan Chandrasekar was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame in 2004. Jaya Chandrasekar received the same honour in 2008.

“I’ve always been a bridge-builder, opening doors to diverse avenues of understanding about our world,” says Chandrasekar. “But now I’m working to achieve those goals in a new way, with a new partner.

“Education really is the greatest opportunity. I can only imagine where this exciting collaboration will take us next.”

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Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed: Rabindranath Tagore's teachings particularly relevant

fmaquito — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Although Rabindranath Tagore was a celebrated poet during his time – the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1913 – and a prominent figure in India’s struggle for independence and social justice, he is not well known outside of India today. With the 150th anniversary of his birth coming up this year, 91��ɫ political science Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed hopes to bring this influential intellectual to a wider audience.

To do this, Mukherjee-Reed, director of South Asian studies at 91��ɫ, became a core member of the Tagore Anniversary Celebrations Committee Toronto (TACCT), which will organize a series of events throughout the year to celebrate Tagore. The first is a tribute to Tagore in conjunction with the ’s (ROM) 3rd annual South Asia Heritage Day tomorrow. Mukherjee-Reed will deliver an introduction to Tagore at the ROM theatre.

“Our primary objective is to bring Tagore's work and his worldview into the mainstream, particularly in North America,” says Mukherjee-Reed. “His brilliant work and his profound philosophical worldviews based on equality, humanism and justice have much to offer to us today.”

Right: A photo of Rabindranath Tagore taken during his visit to Canada. Photo by John Vanderpant, Library and Archives Canada.

In addition to poetry, Tagore wrote novels, short stories, essays and plays, and composed music and became a painter in his late sixties. He was also a leading social philosopher and fought for equality and justice for all, striving to build ties beyond borders of race, class, caste, ethnicity and culture. “He had a profound influence on the making of modern India,” says Mukherjee-Reed. His ideas of de-colonization, local self-reliance and autonomy, and a cooperative way of life deeply inspired India’s anti-colonial struggle. His views have influenced Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mukherjee-Reed says as she watches the events in Egypt and Libya, she is reminded of Tagore's words. “No matter how mighty a power is and how much artillery it has at its disposal, if there is a collective will to challenge its illegitimacy, it eventually cannot endure." These thoughts permeate the vast repertoire of poetry and music that became household chants during India’s struggle for independence. "Tagore saw colonialism as one major impediment to equality, but also feared that nationalist, elitist visions of progress would be equally problematic,” she says.

Tagore had great faith in the power of youth and those who would challenge established norms. “One of our aims is to engage the young with Tagore’s ideas,” says Mukherjee-Reed. “Unleashing the creativity inherent in people, particularly the young, was something Tagore strongly advocated.”

Left: Ananya Mukherjee-Reed

His strong belief in the power of education saw him establish two universities in India. “We have a lot to learn from Tagore’s ideas of education,” says Mukherjee-Reed. The first, he named Visva-Bharati, a Sanskrit name meaning "where the whole world forms its one single nest". It brought scholars, artists and students from every part of the world together to create a community, and even touched the lives of ordinary people.

“Tagore’s objective was to break with the traditional model of the university where the elite pursued knowledge for its own sake. It was no accident that Visva-Bharati was located in a village and not in a city, not amidst the urban, British-schooled affluent classes,” says Mukherjee-Reed.

“Very close to Visva-Bharati, Tagore established the Institute of Rural Reconstruction, yet another university designed specifically to serve the rural economy. The predicament of rural India was at the heart of Tagore’s work. His views on this remain very salient in today’s India where the benefits of ‘development’ still elude millions of its citizens.”

For more information or to hear Mukherjee-Reed’s discussion about Tagore on CBC Radio’s Fresh Air and CHRY Radio, visit the website.

For more information about the performances, live music, children’s activities and poetry readings during South Asia Heritage Day tomorrow at the ROM, visit the ’s website.

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

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91��ɫ's Diabetes Prevention Program seeking volunteers for diabetes research study

fmaquito — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

In Canada, the Chinese, South Asian, African and African-Caribbean populations have a very high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is a leading cause of heart disease, stroke, blindness, leg amputation and kidney failure in Canada.

A team of researchers from the Physical Activity & Chronic Disease Unit in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health is working on a new research project investigating ways to prevent this disease and its complications from developing. The Pre-diabetes Detection & Physical Activity Intervention Delivery Project (PRE-PAID) is examining the effectiveness of community-based interventions on the prevention of Type 2 diabetes.

They are looking for Chinese, South Asian, African and African-Caribbean people who have pre-diabetes by screening members of these high-risk populations. 91��ɫ community members who are of these ethnicities are encouraged to take part in the project.

The project, funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion and the Ontario Trillium Foundation, is now working with the Black Creek Community Health Centre and other community organizations to recruit Chinese, South Asian, African and African-Caribbean people who are at risk for developing Type 2 diabetes based on their age (40 to 64 years old), risk factors (family history and weight) and a lack of physical activity.

Half of these people will take part in a six-month, supervised exercise program (free of charge) that will include a variety of fun activities, including dance activities such as socacize, Bollywood, line dancing and other physical activities. The other half of the participants will take part in a six-week educational workshop that provides hands-on instruction for diabetes prevention, including information about diet and physical activity education.

The goal of the program is to prevent people who are pre-diabetic from developing Type 2 diabetes. Previous research has shown that regular exercise and diet are the most effective ways to reduce Type 2 diabetes risk.

If successful, this program will lead to many more similar programs in other communities and prove that community-based interventions are possible and effective in the prevention of Type 2 diabetes.

The PRE-PAID team will be hosting pre-diabetes screening sessions every Monday morning on the Keele campus, from 7:45 to 11am, in 120 Norman Bethune College. Screening sessions will take approximately 20 to 30 minutes.

If you fit the above risk profile and are interested in becoming a participant in the project, contact Chip Rowan, PRE-PAID project coordinator, at 647-378-6777 or stopdiab@yorku.ca.

For more information, please visit the Diabetes Prevention Program Web site.

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New diabetes study on Type 2 diabetes, high-risk populations and fitness enters second phase

fmaquito — Tue, 04 May 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Could screening high-risk populations for pre-diabetes and setting them up with culturally preferred fitness regimes prevent people from developing Type 2 diabetes and the secondary complications of heart and kidney disease, blindness and stroke?

That’s what several 91��ɫ researchers are hoping to find out. If successful, their Pre-Diabetes Detection and Physical Activity Intervention Delivery (PRE-PAID) Program could become the model for provincewide intervention.

91��ɫ Professors Michael Riddell, Norman Gledhill, Veronica Jamnik, Chris Ardern, Jennifer Kuk and Paul Ritvo in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science’s Physical Activity & Chronic Disease Unit in the Faculty of Health, along with 91��ɫ PhD candidate Chip Rowan, PRE-PAID project coordinator, are now deep into Phase 2 of their study and so far the results are promising. They have found there is an overwhelming need for programs such as PRE-PAID, as a high percentage of the participants tested already had pre-diabetes. In addition, there is a real lack of close and affordable fitness programs.

Right: From left, Michael Riddell, Veronica Jamnik, Chip Rowan and 91��ɫ students and certified exercise physiologists Ajay Rampersad and Thomas Bok

The researchers also found that to reach people in high-risk areas they need to tap into existing social networks and make community contacts, as traditional media campaigns are not that helpful. With community engagement, they were able to increase their visibility and build partnerships to fight diabetes.

The goal of the PRE-PAID program is to identify those individuals from the highest risk populations, including Chinese, South Asian, African and African-Caribbean, who have pre-diabetes, and to provide them with targeted, accessible and monitored fitness programs, and hopefully prevent them from developing Type 2 diabetes.

It could save lives and millions of health-care dollars. Health-care costs for the treatment of persons with diabetes in Canada amounts to $9 billion annually. In recognition of this burden, the Ontario Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care has made the treatment and management of diabetes a priority.

“The costs are anywhere between $2,000 and $15,000 a year per person with diabetes in direct and indirect costs, but if we can get that down to around $200 a year in investment for those with pre-diabetes to prevent the disease, that would save a lot. Not only that, but we can probably prevent six cases out of 10,” says Riddell. “We have to show this model will work and will save money in the long run over the health-care costs caused by the complications of diabetes. If we invest now in treating pre-diabetes, it will cost less in the future.”

Left: A participant undergoes a finger prick blood test to check sugar levels

The PRE-PAID Program has screened some 428 people, aged 35 to 64, from the communities of 91��ɫ, Jane and Finch, Malvern in Scarborough, and Agincourt for high risk, and are looking for more participants. A further 350 were given a finger-prick blood test, which measures the amount of sugar coating on red blood cells as a measure of average blood sugar control over the last three months. Of these, 238 were found to be pre-diabetic – all of whom were previously undiagnosed.

Right now, there is no outreach screening or treatment program in the province for people with pre-diabetes. This study, funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion and the Ontario Trillium Foundation, is an important step toward changing that, say Riddell and Rowan.

Through community partnerships, all of those screened through the PRE-PAID Program with pre-diabetes are being given educational training on diabetes prevention and are provided with accessible and culturally preferred exercise sessions for six months.

Right: PRE-PAID participants in a bollyfit class

“The advantage of having the study at 91��ɫ is they can use the students from the School of Kinesiology to hold the classes and many of them are of the same ethnicity as the participants, so we’re breaking down some of the cultural and language barriers,” says Rowan. “Because we are so multicultural here, that really works.”

So instead of expecting study participants to join a gym and run on the treadmill for half an hour a day, the project offers things like bollyfit, socasize, reggaerobics, line dancing and tai chi in easily accessible community centres with certified exercise physiologists, for free. The participants are also asked to incorporate walking into their weekly routine.

Through the PRE-PAID Program, participants who have been identified as pre-diabetic are “provided with the opportunity and the encouragement. Then we track them to see how they comply,” says Rowan. “If it’s going to be sustainable, they really have to make that decision and that commitment.” The participants are assessed at the beginning, at three months and again at six months.

Some of the factors that stand in the way of participating in fitness programs are cost, time and priorities. “People are busy and have other pressing priorities, priorities we can’t even imagine,” says Riddell. “We’re trying to alleviate some of these barriers.”

By looking at studies done in the United States, India and China, “we know that by doing 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week, about 30 minutes a day, five days a week, we can lower the risk of developing diabetes from a state of pre-diabetes by about 50 per cent,” says Riddell. “What is novel about this approach is we want to give them physical exercise that taps into culturally preferred activities. This is the first study I’m aware of that has done that.”

The incidence of pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes continues to rise in Canada. It is estimated that about seven per cent (two million) of Canadians have diabetes with about half of them undiagnosed, while another five to seven per cent have pre-diabetes.

“All the research has shown that exercise is the most effective preventative tool, even independent of dietary change,” says Riddell. So it makes sense that people at the highest risk of becoming pre-diabetic would be caught early on.

The researchers are currently seeking funding for Phase 3 of the project. In Phase 3, the team will recruit an additional 500 to 1,000 subjects and will extend the eligible age range to 18 to 64, as recent findings have shown there is an increasing incidence of diabetes in young people.

The group is presenting some of their preliminary results at the International Congress on Physical Activity & Public Health, May 5 to 8 in Toronto.

For more information, visit the Diabetes Prevention Program Web site or contact Chip Rowan at 647-378-6777 or stopdiab@yorku.ca. For more information about diabetes, visit the Web site.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

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

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91��ɫ's Diabetes Prevention Program seeks volunteers for a new study

fmaquito — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0000

The project, funded by the and the , is now working with the and other community organizations to recruit Chinese, South Asian, African and African-Caribbean people who are at risk for developing Type 2 diabetes based on their age (40 to 64 years old), risk factors (family history and weight) and a lack of physical activity.

If successful, this program will lead to many more similar programs in other communities and prove that community-based interventions are possible and effective in the prevention of Type 2 diabetes.

If you fit the above risk profile and are interested in becoming a participant in the project, contact Chip Rowan, PRE-PAID project coordinator, at 647-378-6777 or stopdiab@yorku.ca.

For more information, please visit the Diabetes Prevention Program Web site.

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

The post 91��ɫ's Diabetes Prevention Program seeks volunteers for a new study appeared first on Research & Innovation.