TORONTO, September 6, 2001 -- In keeping with York University’s tradition of fostering creative and unconventional thinking, new and expanded spaces and programs this fall offer students solid foundations and the multiple educational choices they need in a rapidly-changing world. York professors engaged in the latest international, collaborative research in the sciences, social sciences, humanities and the arts, bring the fruits of their work directly to the classroom. Conferences and symposia on current issues, from economic globalization to the modern cinema, bring scholars from around the world to the York theatre to share their ideas.
Here’s a sampling of what’s to come in 200l-02.
Places to Be
The Greening of Computers: York’s new Computer Science Building, Canada’s first "cold climate" green university building, is completed on schedule and opens officially in January 2002. The 100,000 sq. ft. building will house the department of computer science, the new York University Engineering Undergraduate Degree program, York’s world renowned Centres for Vision Research and Research in Mass Spectrometry, and other cutting-edge research activities including a new CAVE virtual reality system with an SGI Reality Monster. The building is strategically placed to take advantage of the sun angles and will use both its own waste heat and that of adjacent underground pathways as sources of energy.
The Centre for Fine Arts has seen major renovations this summer, thanks to a generous gift from benefactors Joan and Martin Goldfarb. Visual arts students will return to completely refurbished painting and drawing studios and a brand-new study centre that will make art works accessible to students and researchers. York’s faculty of Fine Arts is one of the largest and most comprehensive programs of its kind in the country, and counts many of Canada’s most accomplished film, visual and performance artists and scholars among its alumni and professors. All programs emphasize contemporary artistic production and processes, including integration of new technologies alongside traditional modes of artistic theory and practice.
The Schulich School of Business/Executive Learning Centre: The ground has been broken on this new 212,000 sq. ft. structure for York’s business school, scheduled for completion in September 2003. Architects Taylor Hariri Pontarini and Robbie/Young+Wright are employing best practices in classroom layout, office design and the use of new instructional wireless technologies to create a 300-seat auditorium, 45 classrooms and three teaching labs. At the centre of the new building is The Marketplace, an informal, open zone for the exchange of ideas in a public forum. The Executive Learning Centre will be an 81,000 sq. ft., 60-suite facility with meeting rooms, seminar rooms, exercise facilities, and a private dining hall. Known as Canada’s Global Business School ™, the Schulich school pioneered the International MBA degree in the early 1990s and enrols more women in executive education courses than any other major business school in the world, reflecting a rapidly changing global business environment. Schulich is one of the world’s top 10 non-U.S. business schools, and the second-highest ranked in Canada, according to the 2001 Financial Times of London global ranking.
The Technology Enhanced Learning Centre (TEL): A joint venture with Seneca College of Applied Arts, the TEL Centre will be the first Canadian learning model to combine the best of theoretical and applied curricula for university and college students alike. The TEL Centre is scheduled for completion in September 2003, and will provide technologically relevant, joint programs for the knowledge-based economy in the fields of applied science, business, health studies, and communications and multi-media. It will also house the TEL Institute, a research unit devoted to finding new ways to support education with the technological revolutions of the 21st century.
New Programs
Responding to Change in Health Care: Located in the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies, the new School of Health Policy and Management responds to the changing demands on Canada’s health care system due to shifting demographics, new medical advances and research, and a more internationalized approach. The school accepts its first class of students this fall and will equip graduates with the knowledge, skills, and critical thinking they need to play decision-making and leadership roles in an increasingly complex health care sector. The school offers a Bachelor of Health Studies degree (BHS) in one of three major options: Health Management, Health Policy, and Health Informatics. Its interdisciplinary approach to studying health management and systems is unique, and students will gain first-hand experience in a professional setting through the Summer Co-op Program offering placements in community health services, government and non-government agencies.
Bridging the Learning Gap: The School of Analytic Studies and Information Technology (SASIT) in the Atkinson Faculty is a creative educational response to "new economy" and "new society" challenges and opportunities. Built from existing departments, it is addressing the need for new approaches to learning and knowledge networking in a society buffeted by global forces and local concerns. SASIT is committed to building curriculum bridges between programs, spanning both liberal and professional studies. It offers BA and BA Honours programs in Business Economics, Conservation and Environmental Studies, Economics, Information Technology, Mathematics, Philosophy, and Science and Technology Studies, in day, evening, and distance education courses. SASIT will move into the new TEL Centre in 2003, which will allow it to further its commitment to prepare students for careers that integrate learning technologies with lifelong learning.
Human Resources a burgeoning field: The School of Administrative Studies in the Atkinson Faculty, one of the largest undergraduate business programs in the country offering a Bachelor of Administrative Studies (BAS), now offers a Bachelor of Human Resources Management (BHRM), the first university degree in HRM in Canada. Courses are taught by award-winning instructors, many of whom also hold senior positions in government and industry.
International Development Studies: This new program offers a coherent set of courses that identify the central issues in the field, and perspectives on the histories, political economies and cultures of developing countries and their diaspora communities. The courses highlight common themes, while emphasizing the diversity of experiences from country to country and region to region. The program also introduces students to specific analytical methods and techniques in the field.
Bringing South Asia closer to home: A new program in South Asian Studies will focus on the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which are currently undergoing significant change and volatility with the onset of globalization and the emergence of religious politics. Courses will be offered in a variety of disciplines including political science, sociology, economics, and international development, and course material will consist of the work of South Asian scholars in the region as much as possible. The program will also look at issues related to diasporic life in view of the large South Asian diaspora in Canada.
Canada’s future public servants: A new certificate in Public Administration offered at Glendon College is a natural extension of Glendon’s long tradition of producing graduates bilingual in French and English to serve at the highest levels of public service in Canadian national and provincial governments. It is a tradition that began with Glendon’s first principal, the distinguished Canadian diplomat Escott Reid, and continues today with Principal Kenneth McRoberts, one of Canada’s foremost scholars on Quebec politics and society. Under his tutelage, Glendon has established the first Chair in Quebec Studies outside the province of Quebec. The new certificate in Public Administration will allow students to better prepare for a career in the public service, as the federal government replaces thousands of retiring civil servants over the next five years with new recruits.
Keeping up with the Digital World: Two special certificate programs this fall will enhance Fine Arts students’ marketability by recognizing special competency in the high-demand digital skills. They are the Cross-Disciplinary Certificate in Digital Media , and the Professional Certificate in Digital Design, both awarded only in conjunction with a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Fine Arts.
Linking Environment, Law & Business: York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), the Schulich School of Business and Osgoode Hall Law School are integrating their complementary fields of knowledge and practice about environmental issues, through joint teaching programs and collaboration in research. Between FES and Osgoode, students can take integrated studies toward a LLB degree and a Masters degree in Environmental Studies. Between FES and Schulich’s Business and Sustainability Program, a joint diploma program in Business and Environment allows students studying towards their masters degrees in the two faculties to integrate courses on business and environment into their programs. Between Osgoode and Schulich, students can take a joint LLB and Master in Business Administration.
York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies and its Centre for Applied Sustainability have played leading roles in advancing research, public policy and public awareness at the community level of environmental issues. The work of FES researchers at York’s Las Nubes rainforest project in southern Costa Rica, supported by the Woody Fisher Fund, is showing Canadians how the survival of our own natural habitats are dependent on sustaining biodiversity in the world’s rainforests.
New Frontiers in Chemistry: The traditional boundaries separating the many sub-disciplines in Chemistry are blurring, and modern chemistry demands a broader, more multidisciplinary approach. To that end, York’s chemistry department is launching programs in three of the hottest new research areas -- Biological Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, and Materials Chemistry. Because of its intimate connection with medicine and health, biological chemistry will continue to be one of the most important areas of study, but it also has a role in many other sectors, such as molecular biology and genomics, pharmacology, forensics and agriculture, to name a few. And wherever we are in the modern world, we are surrounded by materials fabricated by chemists, from the mundane paint on the wall to the sophistication of light-weight computers and flat television screens. In this regard, materials chemistry may be one of the most significant areas of new research over the next quarter-century. All experimental chemists employ the practices of analytical chemistry, from the kinesiologist measuring oxygen consumption during exercise and the pharmacologist determining biodistribution of a drug, to the ecologist monitoring air pollution levels and the Mars Explorer searching for signs of life. It’s an exciting time to be studying chemistry, and York’s chemistry department has devised study plans for students wishing to focus on one of these multi-disciplinary areas.
An Engineering First: York launches its first Engineering Undergraduate Degree program this fall in four streams – Computer Engineering, Engineering Physics, Geomatics Engineering and Space Engineering. These are cutting-edge areas with high demand for skilled people, and build on existing York strengths in computer science, earth sciences, physics and space science. Computer Engineering combines theoretical and practical aspects of computer science, and students will learn how to keep their knowledge and skills current as technology advances. In Physics Engineering, York professors are researching high technology areas such as photonics, fibre optics, atom trapping and semiconductors, and their innovations are passed on directly to students in the classroom. Professors in Space Engineering are involved in a number of satellite space science experiments, including the Stratospheric Wind Interferometer For Transport studies (SWIFT), a satellite instrument that will measure winds in the atmosphere between 15 and 45 km above the surface. SWIFT is being designed at York University in partnership with EMS Technologies in Ottawa, for deployment in 2007.
Teaching Jewish Heritage: The Jack Weinbaum Family Endowment Fund in support of Jewish teacher education will enable York to expand its 20-year-old Jewish Teacher Education program, the only program in North America in which graduates are certified in both Jewish and general education studies. The $500,000 endowment recognizes the role York plays in strengthening traditional Jewish learning, and will enable the program to accommodate more students, increase activities and in-service projects, and promote further research in relevant aspects of Jewish education. Recently, York was the first Canadian host for the annual conference of the Network for Research in Jewish Education, and York’s Jewish Teacher Education program has also been awarded a $150,000 grant by the Pincus Jewish Education Fund for the Diaspora to establish a ‘virtual’ professional development centre for Jewish day school teachers across Canada.
Advancing Health and Fitness: York’s PhD in Kinesiology and Health Science will be launched in January with three streams – Physiology of Exercise, Neuro Control & Biomechanics of Movement, and Health & Fitness Behaviours. Anchored by a core of senior scholars, the program has attracted a strong group of young faculty with substantial funding to conduct health-related research in the areas of health psychology, biomechanics, motor control, and biochemistry and physiology. The program will integrate with, and complement health-related research in other faculties at York and at hospital-based research units.
Things to Watch For
Dance and the Body/Machine: From Da Vinci’s flying machines to digital dance, where does the body end and the machine begin? The Faculty of Fine Arts will co-host a three-day symposium on performance/technology interface, Oct. 26-28, leading up to the 10th annual Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video. The conference, at York’s Keele campus, will include demonstrations by Canadian and international artists and researchers, and all events will be open to the public.
Canada’s French Canadian Communities: York’s Glendon College will bring together opinion leaders from across Canada Oct. 26-27 to discuss the future of French Canada in and outside Québec. Geographically dispersed and increasingly affected by current demographic trends, Francophone communities in Canada are perceiving a need to link up into networks of exchange and mutual support. The colloquium is jointly sponsored by the Glendon Chair in Québec Studies and Laval University in Montreal. Participants will include Guy Bouthillier, President of the Société St. Jean Baptiste, and Gérald Larose, a well-know figure in the Québec trade union movement.
The Modern Greek: York’s history department will host the conference, Modern Greece in a Global Context, March 22-23, to celebrate the endowment of the Hellenic Chair in Modern Greek History by Toronto’s Hellenic Heritage Foundation. The new chair and program in modern Hellenic studies will enable students, including the more than 1,000 students of Greek heritage enrolling each year at York, to study the Greek language, culture and civilization that is the cradle of western democracy.
Social Inequalities: York University will host international scholars at a conference entitled Inequalities of Race, Gender and Class Worldwide, Sept. 14, as part of a series of transnational forums organized with the Tokyo Foundation, the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), Massey University (New Zealand), University of the Western Cape (South Africa), and Howard University (USA). Panelists will address issues such as women’s labour and the corporate food system, the aspirations of Black Canadian youth, the plight of Filipina live-in caregivers, cultural displacement and citizenship, and the place of spirituality in anti-racist thought.
Racism is bad for your health: Chair of the Black Women’s Health Network in Nova Scotia Susan Edmonds will be at York University Sept. 17 to discuss her research findings and address the issue of racism as a determinant of health. Edmonds, a retired nurse and accomplished community activist, is a guest of the National Network on Environments and Women’s Health (NNEWH) housed at York University’s Centre for Health Research. NNEWH is one of five Canadian Centres of Excellence for Women’s Health funded by the federal government. The centres link community and academic partners across the country in collaborative research that explores the ways in which three environments – work, health systems, and policy – shape women’s health practices, perceptions of risk, and health status.
People to See
Jane Urquhart in Person: Acclaimed novelist and poet Jane Urquhart will be at York , Jan.17, 2002 as part of English Professor John Unrau’s unique Canadian Writers in Person series. The series runs annually at York from September through March with leading Canadian writers reading from the best in contemporary Canadian fiction and poetry, giving students the opportunity to talk with the authors of the prose they are studying. Following the success of her two previous award-winning novels – Away and The Underpainter – Jane Urquhart has just completed her newest novel, The Stone Carvers, praised as a moving and original story that shows Urquhart at the height of her artistic powers.
Beacon of South African Drama, Zakes Mda: Prize-winning South African author and playwright Zakes Mda will give a public lecture at York University on Oct.12 during his visit to Toronto for the Canadian premiere of his play – And the Girls in their Sunday Dresses. The 1988 play, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, both foresaw the end of apartheid and warned of other dangers that face the new South Africa today. It is being presented in Toronto Oct. 4-21 by the AfriCan Theatre Ensemble, at Artword Theatre, 75 Portland St., directed by the talented Rhoma Spencer, a York alumna. The AfriCan Theatre Ensemble was founded in 1997 by York University professor of literature Modupe Olaogun and Dora Award-winning playwright and performer George Seremba.
Eminent Historian: Catherine Hall of University College, London, UK will be a guest of York’s history department on Nov. 5 to deliver a paper entitled, Civilizing Subjects: the making of the coloniser, from her forthcoming publication. Hall is noted for her study of the relation between Britain and Empire in the 19th century, looking at how English "identities" are constituted in relation to the many "others" of the Empire, both in the culture of the provincial town of Birmingham, and in the place of Jamaica in the 19th century English imagination.
French Sociologist Alain Touraine: One of Europe’s foremost social theorists, Alain Touraine, whose research on industrial organization, the labour movement and other social movements has made him one of the giants in his field, will be at York this fall. Touraine is currently concerned with the subject, either individual or collective, as the fundamental agent of social movements, and in the creation of society. He will give three public lectures, one at York’s Keele campus on Oct. 22 entitled, Sociology Invaded by the Concept of Subject, and two at Glendon College -- Les femmes comme sujets (Women as Subject) on Oct. 23 in French, and From Systems to Actors on Oct. 25 in English.
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For more information, please contact:
Susan Bigelow
Media Relations
York University
416-736-2100, ext. 22091
sbigelow@yorku.ca
YU/093/01
