Jaime Angelopoulos’ large-format drawing,���ճ󾱱��,��and Julieta Maria’s four-minute digital video,��Soil, are now part of this outstanding collection of works created by then-emerging artists, reflecting ��the evolution of artistic sensibility, technology and expression over the past 35 years.

Right: "Thief" by Jaime Angelopoulos

Toronto philanthropist Samuel Sarick established the Purchase Award in1976 – just two years after��91��ɫ's Graduate Program in Visual Arts was established. Each year since then, one or more works have been selected for acquisition from the thesis exhibitions of students graduating from the program. In addition to serving as a showcase of the leading edge of contemporary work, the collection is an important component of the historical record of the visual arts department and its alumni.

(MFA ‘10) identifies herself as a sculptor who also works in installation and large-scale drawing.

“My drawings often depict aspects of my sculptural forms, while also informing the sculpture-making process,” she said. “My current drawings combine graphic geometric fragments and bright color hues with organic shapes and textures evocative of animals. To reconcile oppositional elements within a drawing is to discover a balance between contradictory ideas.”

Angelopoulos has an upcoming solo show May 4 to 21 at Toronto’s , located at 401 Richmond St. W. The opening reception takes place Friday, May 4 from 8 to 10pm.

Angelopoulos has presented her work across Canada and beyond. Her solo exhibitions and performances include venues such as Parisian Laundry in Montreal, Stride Gallery in Calgary, Anna Leonowens Gallery in Halifax, Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas, Texas, and at the Banff Centre for the Arts.

In contrast to Angelopoulos’ physical art-making, (BFA ‘04, MFA ‘10) is a new media artist working in a variety of media including video, interactive video installations and web. Soil is a prime example of her recent work, which centres on video documentation of staged actions.

Soil shows the artist’s face in profile, open-mouthed, lying horizontally against a white background. Soil starts pouring down from the upper side of the frame, gradually filling her mouth.

“Closeness to the earth implies being close to life and death, to the visceral,” said Maria.

Left: A scene from "Soil" by Julieta Maria

“In the video, I take the soil trying to engage in minimal movement or expression. The openness of the mouth, however, gives a sense of willingness to receive the dirt. It’s a situation that is not resolved, as the soil keeps falling and accumulating. The soil comes from above, as a kind of fate.”

Maria is a co-founder of in Toronto, where she currently serves as executive director. She has participated in several international screenings and exhibitions, including Scope Basel in Switzerland in 2010, the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics in Colombia in 2009, and the Interactiva Biennale in Mexico 2009, among others.

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, which will take place throughout downtown��Toronto, features the work of more than 500 local, national and international artists��

Theatre Professor Shawn Kerwin collaborated with Laurel McDonald to create "", an “art-app” for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The app is one of five interactive installations featured in Technological Displacement, a production of the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab, at the Bata Shoe Museum on Bloor Street.

��

Above: Professor Shawn Kerwin has developed a new art-app for the BlackBerry PlayBook. It will debut at Nuit Blanche.

"Alone Together" uses poetic wordplay and expressive videos to remind us that we can always reframe our relationships. Kerwin developed the piece during her five-month residency at the CFC Media Lab earlier this year.

Technological Displacement is one of the 38 projects in Zone A, whose overarching theme, Restaging the Encounter, attempts to capture the fleeting moment when the political become poetic.

Another project in Zone A is by 91��ɫ visual arts��alumna and multimedia artist (BA ‘73), located in Barbara Ann Scott Park at the heart of College Park. The work transforms a memorable phrase from Canada's national anthem into a giant haiku poem, made from flowers and cut wood floating in a water-filled pond.

Left: True Patriot Love by visual arts��grad Chrysanne Stathacos

The theme of Zone B is The Future of the Present. The works on view in this sector use new technologies to form a vocabulary for a non-pictorial art.

Visual arts grad (MFA ‘96) and her collaborator Lance Winn are contributing , a multimedia work that addresses the nature of surveillance, mechanization and control. Installed at Ryerson University’s loading dock on Gerrard Street, Projektor resembles a prison tower, with a roaming spotlight video projection that exposes a barren prison yard and a prisoner who attempts to escape the light.

Collaborators since 2002, Jones and Winn share a common interest in the mechanisms of reproduction and the impact they have on representation. Their work focuses on the edges of the two-dimensional image and a desire to see beyond the limits of the frame.

Also in Zone B is , an installation at 62 Bond Street by film alumnus (BFA Spec. Hons. ‘02). ��Reibling argues that the dolly shot (where the movie camera glides along rails) is the most revered, powerful and evocative moment in the making of a film.�� To create 12 Hour Dolly, a film crew will set up a circular dolly track and shoot film continuously for 12 hours straight. Located in the centre of the track is a makeshift stage with a single stool.�� One by one, spectators are invited to sit centre-stage and participate in the making of the film, which will be streamed live onto an adjacent wall.

Right: Dylan Reibling's take on the dolly shot took 12 hours to film

Reibling is an award-winning filmmaker whose work, exploring the mechanics of narrative,��ranges from stop-motion animation and drama to interactive prototypes.

Two other 91��ɫ film alumni, (MFA ‘11) and (MA ‘09) co-created , a sound, video and interactive performance installation in the form of a "silent disco" on the P1 floor of The Atrium on Bay’s underground parking lot.��The work grew from the artists’ desire to explore the troubling policies entrenched in national and territorial border politics, and to question access and mobility within those borders. Participants are invited to listen with headphones to musical tracks��with lyrics referencing the text inside passports, and to watch related video projections.��

Bamboat��is a film and video artist whose work centres around aspects of diasporas, critiques of nationalism, and the ways in which the queer body relates to sites of mobility.�� Mitchell is a documentary filmmaker and media artist whose work explores performativity, memory, statehood, space and architecture.

Left: Border Sounds is a sound, video and interactive performance installation by two 91��ɫ film alumni

Maria Coates, a graduate student in art history and curatorial studies, is interning with the curator of Zone C, 91��ɫ art history alumnus Nicholas Brown (MA ‘08), who comes to Nuit Blanche after a two-year stint as curator of Toronto’s Red Bull 381 Projects.

Brown’s theme for Zone C is You had to go looking for it. Convening in the wake of the recent civil unrest around the G20 meeting in the city, the project invites the masses to transform and occupy Toronto's financial district. Artists will open up the area as a place of otherworldly encounter, ambivalent assembly and enthusiastic competition, inverting and misusing the symbolic language of corporate capitalism.

Coates, whose research centres on contemporary Latin American art, is working on , an installation by Mexican-born, Los Angeles-based artist Camilo Ontiveros. The project is a large-scale vigil that invites audience members to light a candle in commemoration of the lost lives of migrant workers in Ontario. It reaches out to individual passersby as well as organizations that represent the interests of labour, including United Food and Commercial Workers Canada and the Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts.

“What attracts��me to Camilo's project in the context of this international, corporate-sponsored, city-run festival is how it offers a space for pause and reflection in honour of something that we tend to overlook,” said Coates.

Coates appreciates the opportunity to intern with Brown – a relationship brokered by Art History Graduate Program Director Anna Hudson. “It’s been great to work with a recent grad whom I could relate to through discussions of contemporary art and what’s entailed in becoming a curator in Toronto. Nick has been a great mentor in guiding me through the process and leaving room for me to perform in a meaningful way,” she said.

Also in Zone C are a performance installation by visual art alumnus (MFA ‘10) and Tibi Tibi Neuspiel, and by John Notten, a visual arts and education graduate (BEd ’87, BFA ‘87).

Right: The Tie Break is a performative re-enactment of the most riveting episode in the history of tennis

Pugen, whose work has been featured in publications such as Artforum and Adbusters, is a recipient of the K.M Hunter Award for Interdisciplinary Art. His collaborative piece, The Tie Break, is a performative re-enactment of the “most riveting episode in the … history [of tennis]” (ESPN): the legendary fourth set tie-break at the 1980 Wimbledon men’s singles finals between Björn Borg and John McEnroe. The matches will take place hourly at 25 minutes after the hour at Commerce Court, North Plaza on King Street.

���dzٳٱ��’s Intensity invites the audience to explore the presentation centre for a luxury condominium development, but delivers a vast and sprawling tent city.��As in the 2002 eviction of Toronto’s waterfront tent city, viewers are forced to move out of their temporary tent homes every few minutes. Installed in the Arnell Plaza of the Bay-Adelaide Centre, this all-night drama echoes the realities of makeshift communities around the world that rise up in the wake of human tragedy.

Left: John Notten's Intensity delivers a vast and sprawling tent city. Viewers must move out of their temporary homes every few minutes in a re-enactment of the 2002 eviction of residents from Toronto's waterfront tent city.

Toronto’s sixth annual Nuit Blanche kicks off at 6:59pm on Saturday, Oct. 1 and runs to daybreak on Sunday, Oct. 2.

With 134 installations, the celebration covers the city’s entire downtown area, from Roncesvalles Avenue in the west all the way to the Distillery Historic District in the east, and from Bloor Street to the Lake Shore. Admission to all events is free.

Photos courtesy��of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche

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, by Zacharias Kunuk and Ian Mauro, will screen simultaneously at 91��ɫ and in Arviat, Nunavut,��on Sept. 27, from 7pm to 9:30pm, in Curtis Lecture Hall F, Keele campus. Three shorts – Introduction to Nanisiniq, Martha’s Gang and Experiencing Climate Change - Inuit Elders and Youth – by Jordan Konek will also be shown, followed by a live by video Q&A with youth and elders from the Arviat community and filmmaker Mauro.

It is a pay-what-you-can event presented by 91��ɫ’s Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) and the Nanisiniq Arviat History Project. It is just one of the ways IRIS is working with the communities most affected by climate change to have their voices heard, said Annette Dubreuil, IRIS director. She hopes to have their message brought to the United Nations climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, in November. The��funds raised through the 91��ɫ film screenings will help��send��three Arviat youth to Durban.

Last year, two 91��ɫ students went to the 16th annual conference on climate change – COP16.��IRIS and the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists will co-host a series of upcoming virtual events in advance of the conference.

91��ɫ��Faculty of Environmental Studies post-doctoral��fellow Rachel Hirsch hopes there will be more opportunities for��further dialogue about climate change��between various interested groups.��"We hope more people will want to collaborate with us in the lead up to the COP17," she says. She is already busy planning more events at 91��ɫ and partnering with outside groups to further the climate change discussion.

Anyone wishing to collaborate, should contact Hirsch at rhirsch@yorku.ca.

For more information about the work IRIS is doing regarding climate change, visit the website.

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

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Hyndman was in Sri Lanka within months of the 2004 tsunami. She saw first-hand not only the devastation wrought by the tsunami, but the complications of delivering humanitarian aid in areas of Sri Lanka and Indonesia that were already conflict-riddled and impoverished. She also witnessed how the natural and man-made disasters intersected to change the political dynamics of both countries – a peace accord in Indonesia and the end of war in Sri Lanka between the government and the Tamils.

Her experiences led to��the recently released book, and companion videos by Hyndman and geographer and humanitarian aid worker��Arno Waizenegger,�� and . To watch the first video, enter the password, "Lhokse". Waizenegger also co-wrote��one of the book's��chapters with Hyndman.

The earthquake-triggered tsunami is estimated to have killed or displaced more than one million people –��three women for every man –��and billions in donations flowed in for relief efforts. Dual Disasters addresses pre- and post-humanitarian aid concerns and offers suggestions that are still relevant today.

“I examine two war zones that were then hit by the 2004 tsunami and trace how the conflict and the environmental disaster shaped one another in terms of outcomes,” says Hyndman of 91��ɫ's Department of Social Sciences in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, who has studied humanitarian emergencies, conflict-related human disaster and displacement for more than a decade. For the book, she focused specifically on Sri Lanka and Aceh, Indonesia.

Left: Jennifer Hyndman

The book examines the inequitable��delivery of humanitarian aid, but also looks at��how the��cultural and political situation in both countries played into that. If more aid��was given to the coastal areas of Sri Lanka, because of their tourist appeal, than to the people in the hinterland, who are hardest hit by war, that imbalance created a “potential and real threat to peace.”��Similarly in��Aceh, Indonesia, international tsunami aid��was earmarked exclusively for tsunami survivors and not for civilians who had lost their homes and livelihoods in the decades old conflict. This became the cause��of tensions and threats recorded in the book by Hyndman and her research assistants.

The problem was that��aid agencies had little latitude to spend donated money.��As it's often designated for specific things,��some agencies collected more money than they could ethically spend, she says. That led to the hiring of sub-contractors who not only didn’t necessarily do the best job, but it also made it more difficult to monitor the funds. This could be remedied if donors gave aid agencies more leverage to spend their donations where needed, says Hyndman, associate director of the .

In addition, aid workers can unintentionally become wrapped up in the politics.��“You need to pay very close attention to the political climate, otherwise you can become a political player in what you think is a humanitarian operation.” That can play out in as simple an act as talking to people living on one side of a road. What the aid workers may not��realize is that the people on one side��of the road are enemies with those on the opposite side, and the workers are seen as allies to one side only.��“The unintended result is that humanitarian aid can actually fuel a conflict or create tensions."

Or, as in the case of the water pumps, what seemed like an easy and fast solution – provide villages with water pumps so they no longer had to dig wells – turned out to be not so��simple in an area of Sri Lanka where tensions were already high between various factions. Bringing in water pumps heightened conflicting interests, instead of��making��life easier. “So unintentionally, a benign water project can fuel a war.”

It is just as important for aid workers to be aware of a country's cultural practices.��One aid agency built much-needed, but culturally inappropriate��housing. The new houses only had one room, when two were required to keep the women separate from the men. Hyndman says many of these issues could be avoided by providing regional cultural and political sensitivity orientation and training to humanitarian aid workers.

Competition between aid agencies for donor dollars was another issue raised by the book, but it has, at least in Canada, been addressed to some extent. Care Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Quebec and Save the Children formed a coalition after the 2004 tsunami to work together.

“It’s an excellent step in the right direction,” says Hyndman.

For more information, visit the .

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

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

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In his new book, , Professor (right) clarifies the fundamentals and importance of CSR and details how a conscientious way of doing business is possible in today’s profit-driven world.

As a teacher of business ethics and corporate social responsibility at the School of Administrative Studies in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Schwartz felt that students needed a book that examined the ethical obligations of a business and which approach is the most appropriate for a company.

“Business students – when they end up becoming managers, executives and CEOs of their company – are going to be making important decisions,” explains Schwartz. “It’s critical for them to have a theoretical position on this debate, which will help guide them to more ethical and socially responsible decisions.”

In his book, Schwartz focuses on several aspects to clarify CSR: the key moral standards that need to be applied in a business decision; the debate between narrow (or profit-based) CSR and broader (or ethics-based) CSR; an examination of the separate and intertwined economic, legal and ethical obligations of a company; and the belief that companies need to engage in providing goods and services that generate value to society in a balanced manner, while remaining accountable to stakeholders.

Looking at four classic, high-profile case studies – the , , and – students can apply their own ethical beliefs to decide on the best outcome. “Many students may discover their theoretical position doesn’t match what they would do when faced with a real business case,” says Schwartz. “That’s the main goal of the book: to force students or managers to realize there are implications with their position on social responsibility.”

Movie villain Gordon Gekko’s “greed is good” credo and the rise of Wall Street showed us the conflict between making money and being ethical; it’s a constant struggle in business. With MBA graduates entering the workforce in unprecedented numbers, how can we expect business people to choose? In his book, Schwartz proves they don’t have to.

“Business students should make money – it’s OK to make money. I think the real question is prioritization,” says Schwartz. “Are you maximizing profit at the expense of harming others? Students need to recognize that they have ethical obligations when they go out into the workplace.”

Although Schwartz recognizes that “good CSR does not always maximize the bottom line,” it’s the long-term effects on the business, its employees, customers and the environment that should be taken into consideration. “Ethics should still take priority to the bottom line when there is a conflict,” he says.

Listen to Schwartz speak about his book:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJMpw1ebVos

CSR can be complex, with room for potential misinterpretation. By demystifying the topic, Schwartz��has provided students with information they need to��grasp the concepts and understand how to implement them successfully. Armed with this knowledge, students choose their own way of achieving ethics in business.

“There is a need for a greater awareness in terms of what the ethical obligations are. It’s not simply maximizing the bottom line and abiding by the law. Ethics goes beyond the law.”

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The (YRDSB) has awarded Murphy,��director of 91��ɫ’s (ABEL) on applied research program in the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, an Outstanding Service Award.

Under Murphy’s leadership, ABEL’s team has worked with teachers in��more over 100 YRDSB schools to help them better understand and integrate technology’s research impacts into their curriculum. Any teacher in 91��ɫ Region’s public district can become part of ABEL; the program is also active in the Toronto, Simcoe County and Upper Grand District School Boards.

Right: Janet Murphy

“We work with teachers from kindergarten to Grade 12 across disciplines to help them ��to best use technology to support their curriculum goals in the classroom,” said Murphy, who received her award on April 25 at the YRDSB’s annual Awards Evening.

This support includes extending the reach of university research and expertise into high school classrooms.��For example, , an interactive learning event led by the Faculty of Science��& Engineering in May, was made accessible to schools across 91��ɫ Region through the ABEL program. Through the effective use of video conferencing, collaborative technologies and streamed on-demand video, the ABEL platform distributed the event’s science content, making it available for classroom use.

ABEL also provides technical support and facilitation to support and enhance YRDSB teachers’ professional learning through a blended learning program. Leveraging interactive technologies, ABEL delivers professional learning to the classroom or school in a variety of online formats, including real-time and/or asynchronous transmission.

“The advantage to ABEL’s approach is that it allows teachers to engage in their individual learning at a time and place convenient to them, apply their learning and then re-visit the archived session as needed. This collaborative approach allows participants to gain feedback from the group about what worked and what didn’t, and continuously improve their practice,” says Murphy. “For example, 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education recently ran a session on teaching mathematics that was streamed live and archived to ensure teachers wanting the latest numeracy pedagogy had flexible ways to access the material.”

Outstanding Service Awards reflect the YRDSB’s commitment to quality, service and teamwork. The recipients��– who may include individuals, teams or departments��– provide extraordinary service that has had a positive impact on the school board’s efforts to achieve its mission and goals.

Typically, those recognized have introduced positive change, significant and permanent improvements to the organization, and/or positively influenced individuals or teams around them to make great contributions.

“Janet received the Outstanding Service Award for her ongoing leadership, vision and commitment to mobilizing new knowledge for 21st-century system change,” said John Steh, manager of Leadership Development, YRDSB. “Her team’s approach has led to new organizational structures and system change, and is an excellent example of social innovation initiated by the District’s participation in the ABEL program.”

”Janet’s recognition reflects her strong leadership and the success of��the entire ABEL team. ABEL’s niche is staying ahead of the technology curve in making 91��ɫ’s research in ICT, pedagogy and digital media accessible to the education community from kindergarten through to Grade 12,” said Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. “Through the partnership with ABEL, the YRDSB has continually demonstrated their commitment to seeking out best pedagogical practices while ensuring teachers have access to the latest professional development. For 91��ɫ, ABEL provides an institutional platform to move the latest research out to schools while helping to attract the best high school students to programs.”

About the ABEL Program at 91��ɫ

Launched with funding support from , Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network, to a consortium led by Shapson, ABEL has nearly 10 years of experience helping teachers to make better use of technology. Through public and private sector partnerships and networks, ABEL has gained national recognition as a research-based authority and leader on the effective use of existing and emerging information communication technologies (ICT) within new models of teaching, learning, training and collaboration.

ABEL’s combination of networks, partnerships and research focus drive institutional transformation and create new opportunities:

• Facilitates community outreach for researchers interested in working with public school boards.
• Demonstrates the value of inter-institutional and jurisdictional collaboration by providing research and outreach platforms.
• Leads the effective use of technology in teaching, training and learning environments.
• Provides a platform for applied research, along with expertise into the effective use of interactive and collaborative technologies.

ABEL’s partners include the , the Ministry of Education’s , the (including��more than��10 school boards), , the , the , the , the and many others.

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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Pregnant with her third child, she was conducting a series of interviews��as research for��the play, , on loss and how it is transformed, when she lost her son Ethan. “I was just struck by how I was immersed in this phenomena and living it at the same time,” she says. I'm Still Here was co-created with 91��ɫ nursing Professor Gail Mitchell and playwright Vrenia Ivonoffski.

Right: Christine Jonas-Simpson, holding the children's book she wrote, Ethan's Butterflies

Ethan was stillborn at 38 weeks – or, as Jonas-Simpson prefers to say, born still – causing a rent in the universe as she knew it. After the loud silence of her delivery, she remembers hearing a primal scream of agony, realizing some moments later it was coming from her.

Almost a decade later, Jonas-Simpson is about to premiere her third research-based documentary film, about how mothers and their families live with the loss of a child. The premiere will take place Sunday, May 15, from 1 to 3:30pm at the Fox Theatre, 2236 Queen St. E. in Toronto. Tickets are $25 per ticket with proceeds going to Bereaved Families of Ontario-Toronto. To buy tickets, call 416-440-0290 or e-mail info@bfotoronto.ca.

Enduring Love looks at the lives of four women, the agony of loss, the impact the death of their infant has had on them and their families and��how they learned to live with their loss. It also traces��the importance of recognizing their other children are also grieving, the continuing presence of their deceased child in their lives, the rituals they’ve developed and how they not only endured but have been transformed by their loss. Funded by��91��ɫ's��Faculty of Health and the Health Leadership & Learning Network: Interprofessional Education Initiative Fund, the documentary answers the research question, what is the meaning of living and transforming with loss for mothers who experience the loss of their baby?

As one woman in the film says of her family, it was a “seminal event in their lives”; there was a before and an after. The women make the point that many fail to realize that losing their baby, whether at 24 weeks gestation or several weeks after delivery, is a profoundly felt loss that changes, not only them, but their husbands and their children, forever. One of the universally hard moments for these women was going home from the hospital without their baby. It feels so unnatural, says Jonas-Simpson.

It was the experience of losing her own son that guided Jonas-Simpson’s research toward providing a body of arts-based research for others who experienced perinatal loss. She had often used music in her nursing practice and research, and then began incorporating art, drama��and film. “With grieving and loss it seemed appropriate to keep going with the arts.” Although, she��will write papers on her latest research, she believes presenting her findings with an art-based approach makes it more accessible and touches people in a way a research paper in a journal wouldn’t. “It’s a way of showing the human experience, rather than just telling,” she says.

Being a researcher, I looked at the literature to see what was out there. I was struck by how little there was out there in light of grieving and loss��about mothers’ lived experiences. My graduate student, Jennifer Noseworthy, and I are conducting a comprehensive literature review and we’ve only found a few qualitative studies focused on the human lived experience of perinatal loss.” And that moved Jonas-Simpson to conduct research and create resources for others like her.

Enduring Love is her third film. Her first was , while her second, is a short made from footage shot for��Enduring Love, which focuses on the surviving children. “These children have an incredible bond and relationship with the babies,” their siblings who’ve died. Jonas-Simpson recently gave a talk and showed Why Did Baby Die? at a��Women's Health and Mental Wellbeing Speakers Series��event at 91��ɫ.

Some of the children, as seen in Enduring Love, have drawn family portraits years later that have included their deceased siblings. “Grieving and loss isn’t always something we talk about openly, but it is experienced by many, if not all, of us,” says Jonas-Simpson. Even after the physical death, the relationship continues. “It’s still hidden. Perinatal loss is also disenfranchised in our society.” To help grieving children with the loss of a baby sibling, she also wrote the children's book .

Jonas-Simpson started talking about her own experience of losing Ethan, born with vibrant red locks, and how her other two sons, now 11 and 13, have integrated him into their lives as a way to help others. “The children integrate this loss very well,” she says. One of her children even wrote a letter to Ethan as a school assignment, asking if there are dinosaurs in heaven and if it hurt to die. The teacher may have been uncomfortable, but Jonas-Simpson says it’s important to talk about and to understand the continuing relationship following death.

Next, she is hoping to do research on children age three to 18 who are grieving a loss of a baby sibling. Children, she says, are often forgotten about, but they too grieve. “If we can be more open about grief and loss as a natural human experience and if we can begin in the schools with that,” it could be really helpful for the children, she says. She would also like to explore the common and��unique threads of grieving around the world.

For more information or to view or buy Jonas-Simpson’s films, visit the Faculty of Health’s Living and Transforming with Perinatal Loss website.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

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

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Please note that only resumes submitted through the described process will be considered.

The posting closes May 2, 2011.

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Can universities cure political indifference? Yes they can, according to 91��ɫ Professor . “Universities must address the democratic deficit,” said Fallis, this year’s Giambattista Vico Lecturer. They can play a critical role in confronting the democratic deficit pervading politics at every level��– declining voter turnout, strident and polarizing debate and public decision-making dominated by business elites and experts.

Right: George Fallis

In a lecture titled “Democratic Deficit: Universities and the Future of Democracy”, delivered��Feb. 15 at Founder’s College Assembly Hall, Fallis, who is professor of��economics and social science in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS),��argued��that the problem of political indifference must be confronted not just by political parties and parliaments but by universities. Universities are not just institutions of teaching and books, not just institutions of the economy, but institutions of democracy, he said.

The current disconnect between the interests of citizens and those in positions of power, Fallis believes, creates widespread skepticism towards our institutions and a lethargy around political participation��– known as “the democratic deficit”.

In examining the sometimes-uneasy relationship between universities and the growing movement towards democracy over the centuries, Fallis stated that universities initially resisted democracy: “Democracy and the university did not develop in parallel.”

“The background is great economic change. We’ve moved from an agricultural to industrial, then service-based and now a knowledge-based economy,” said Fallis.

These momentous economic changes moved the university from a more peripheral role��– preparing a small number of elites��– to the new role of central engine to the economy, providing mass education. This transformation has resulted in the phenomenon of the “multiversity”, with no central theme but many diverse responsibilities.

Above: Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Dean Martin Singer introduces Fallis to the capacity crowd at the 2011 Giambattista Vico Lecture

While originally seen as a democratizing force, especially in the decades immediately following the Second World War, Fallis argues that this mission creep is now forcing universities to all but abandon their role of preparing highly engaged political citizens. Instead, universities’ movement closer to government and to business has created a meritocracy ruled by a class of new patricians��– highly accomplished and successful individuals who feel less responsibility for the general population because they have “earned” their status through intense competition. He describes these new patricians as moving within a privileged Davos culture��– named for the Swiss town where political, business and academic elites retreat each year for the World Economic Forum.

An edited recording of Fallis’ presentation is posted on the��.

The fifth annual lecture��in the series, it was��sponsored through an endowment created by Elvio DelZotto, his brothers Angelo and Leo DelZotto, and other friends and family members. The lecture was created as a tribute to the late Fred Zorzi, Elvio DelZotto's friend and law partner.

has published widely on housing, urban policy and constitutional reform. His current research focuses on universities: their roles and responsibilities in the 21st century; the value of undergraduate liberal education; and the role of university-based research in national innovation. His most recent book is .

At 91��ɫ, the Princeton-educated Fallis has served as chair of economics, dean of the former Faculty of Arts and chair of the Senate Academic Policy & Planning Committee. He has been academic colleague on the Council of Ontario Universities and an auditor of degree programs at Ontario universities.

The annual Giambattista Vico Lecture was named after an 18th-century Italian philosopher of history, culture and myth whose ideas had a profound influence on the humanities and social sciences.

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You can watch the clip on .

Braaaaaaaaaains!

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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