York University 2001-2002 Brownbag Research Seminars: New series grapples with issues in healthcare, science and technology

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TORONTO, September 24, 2001 --  The debate over Canada’s healthcare system -- including two-tier access to services, long-term care, nursing shortages and the intellectual property dimensions of biomedical research -- provides the main impetus for the eighth annual Brownbag Research Seminar series at York University.

The seminars provide a public forum for scholars in many fields, such as health, science and technology studies, science policy, etc. to share the latest results of their research.

In addition to this year's focus on heathcare, the series will continue to offer a broad range of topics: the role of the octopus in the development of human neuroscience; brain function and visual auras in migraine headaches; the bioethics of surgically separating conjoined twins; virtual autopsies; links between cancer and diet, and the philosophy of love.

The seminar series, hosted by the School of Analytic Studies and Information Technology in the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies, and co-sponsored this year by York's Centre for Health Studies, was established by Prof. Luigi M Bianchi, professor of Physics and Natural Science.

The seminars are held Tuesdays, 12 to 2 p.m., September through April, usually in the Harry Crowe Room in the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies building. A sampling of fall seminars follows:

Social Determinants of Health: The Case of Heart Disease October 2
Prof. Dennis Raphael (Health Policy and Management / Atkinson, York) – the role that income and its distribution play in the incidence of cardiovascular disease.

Risk and Resilience: Participatory Research with Marginalized Women in Southern OntarioOctober 16
Prof. Barbara Radher (Environmental Studies, York) – the relationship between environment and women’s health among both marginalized and privileged women.

Nurses, Colonialism and the Emergence of Canada's Federal Health Care SystemOctober 23
Prof. Kate McPherson (History/Arts, York) – nurses' work in the Indian Health Services (IHS) from its early days under the Department of Indian Affairs through the reorganization of IHS in 1945 under the Department of National Health and Welfare. *Note: Seminar to be held in the Harry Leith Room, Atkinson.

Histories of Poverty and Health October 30
Prof. Peggy McDonough (Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto) – the relationship between poverty and health, and the failure of most research to consider economic circumstances.

Body Parts, Large and SmallNovember 8
Prof. Ian Hacking (Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto) – how the commercialization of human genes is changing the way people view their relationship to their bodies.

For a complete listing of the seminars, speakers, and available abstracts, visit: http://www.yorku.ca/sasit/brownbag/

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For more information, please contact:

Prof. Luigi M Bianchi
Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies
York University
lbianchi@yorku.ca

Ken Turriff
Media Relations
York University
416-736-2100, ext. 22086
kturriff@yorku.ca
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