| VOLUME 28, NUMBER 20 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1998 | ISSN 1199-5246 |
The cover of York music professor Rob Bowman's book, Soulsville U.S. A.
Booker T and the MG's. "The greatest instrumental soul group in the world."
The Stax studio in the late 1960s.
Jesse Jackson and Stax head Al Bell give clenched-fist salutes, during the singing of the black national anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" at the Wattstax concert, Aug. 20, 1972.
It must have been one truly swinging time back in mid-December 1997 at BB King's club on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. That's when a galaxy of America's rhythm and blues and soul-music greats turned out to celebrate the long-awaited publication of York music professor Rob Bowman's Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records.
They were also there to applaud the presentation of gold records to such former Stax artists as Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Sam and Dave, Booker T. and the MG's, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, the Bar-Kays and Jean Knight for such classic R&B recordings as "Theme from Shaft," "Respect Yourself," "Soul Limbo," "Walking the Dog," "B-A-B-Y," "Soul Man," "Knock on Wood," "Soul Finger" and "Mr. Big Stuff."
For Bowman, especially, the by-invitation-only event, with music under the direction of legendary producer Steve Cropper, must have been a blast. After all, Soulsville U.S.A. had been long in the making. The book is the culmination of a challenging labour of love that the Toronto native began in the summer of 1985 researching and writing the story of Stax, one of America's two premier R&B record companies of the 1960s and early 1970s.
"My initial motivation was simple," Bowman writes in his introduction. "Although born and bred in Toronto, I had long been intoxicated by the music, black and white, of the Southern United States. Consequently, when it came time to do my Ph.D in ethnomusicology, I enrolled at the University of Memphis. I chose a Southern school because I wanted to live within the culture that had produced wave upon wave, genre upon genre of the most exciting music I had ever known. It seemed obvious to me that I might just get that much closer to grokking the essence of this music if I actually lived within the culture that had produced it."
His decision to tell the Stax story came at a time when eight books had been published about the Detroit-based Motown record label, but none had been written about Stax, located in Memphis, despite "the importance of [its] legacy" and the enormous impact the records produced by the company had had on popular music.
It is hard to imagine that anyone in the world including the major players in the Stax saga knows as much as Bowman does about every conceivable aspect of Stax Records. So consumed has he been with Stax Records and its music that, over the years, when not researching and compiling material for Soulsville U.S.A., he has produced or written liner notes for three nine-disc and ten-disc box sets that chronicle the history of Stax. The combined liner notes, he writes in Soulsville's introduction, are about half the length of the 400-page book.
Bowman at once musicologist and fan has been nominated for three Grammy Awards. He won the 1996 Grammy in the Best Album Notes category for his 47,000-word monograph for The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles Volume 3: 1972-1975, a ten-CD box set that he also co-produced. He was instrumental in the making of a film documentary, The Soul of Stax, has produced a four-part radio special about Stax, has written numerous academic and popular-press articles on Stax artists for a variety of publications and has delivered innumerable lectures on the subject of Stax.
Indeed, he concedes, in some respects researching Stax became a full-time job. He conducted over 200 interviews with "virtually every artist, songwriter, session musician, engineer and producer, as well as all three owners and several of the key personnel ... [in milieus] ranging from roach-infested homes, reflecting the most abject poverty you could imagine, to mansions in the East Hamptons."
Much of Soulsville U.S.A. is derived from those interviews and the author frequently allows the players to tell their part of the story in their own words. Bowman also succeeded in interviewing FBI personnel, police, bankruptcy judges and lawyers, and consulted court records in connection with the company's sorry end.
"When I first began writing the history of Stax, I thought I was writing about a bunch of records that I loved," Bowman writes. "I quickly realized the story was much richer than that. As [a racially] integrated company in Memphis, Tennessee in the 1960s, Stax was a political and social phenomenon. As its ownership passed from being white to half white/half black to 100 per cent black, Stax also became important as an innovative black business enterprise. The tale of its gradual unravelling at the hands of the United States government, CBS Records, and Memphis's Union Planters Bank begged to be told."
Born as Satellite Records in 1957 and dead through financial strangulation by 1975, in its earliest days, the company that became Stax Records was a mom-and-pop operation that doubled as a record shop. By the early 1970s, when it employed more than 200 people, a visitor was shocked to encounter "a bunkerlike atmosphere with the studio and offices being patrolled by armed guards and guard dogs." Pistol-whippings were not uncommon, an unhappy songwriter threatened an employee of the affiliated music-publishing company with castration and generalized paranoia was the order of the day.
Though there is no doubting the accuracy and depth of Soulsville, U.S.A. (it is impressively thorough), and though it comes complete with footnotes, a selected bibliography and index, Bowman's book could never be accused of reading like a standard-issue academic treatise. It is hard to imagine a similar treatment of Stravinsky's (or even Glenn Gould's) life.
For starters, there are the chapter headings all incorporating song titles, including: "Cause I Love You: 1957-1960," "Gee Whiz: 1960-1961," "Knock on Wood: 1966," "Do the Funky Chicken," and "Walking the Back Streets and Crying: 1975."
Sometimes, notably when commenting on the quality of a recording, Bowman can't resist employing the hip, music argot of the era. Obviously enamored of much of the Stax recording catalogue, the author never hesitates to weigh in with an enthusiastic opinion of a musical track when it's called for.
"Mind-crushing" is how he labels one record. "Another slab of burning up-tempo soul" is how he describes another. Of the Otis Redding recording, "Security," he writes, "The net result is absolutely sublime." A sideman's contribution to the mix on a Staple Singers single is "some mighty crunchy rock-and-roll guitar on the fade."
When it comes to recounting the business practises of the company's owners and deal-makers, the profits and losses and successes and failures, Bowman peels the heart off his sleeve. Though it is apparent he has little sympathy for the "vicious" dealings of the bankers and CBS Records executives who forced the once prosperous label into bankruptcy, he is fair and objective in explaining how they were able to take advantage of the Stax owners' lack of managerial and business acumen.
To some extent, Soulsville is a fan's notes writ large. But it is much more than that. The trainload of details that Bowman gathered in the process of researching the story and the candid quotes by so many of the principal players help him to capture the times and the contexts where it all happened, as well as the personalities who made the music and did the deals.
Among the book's more than 60 black and white photographs are shots of Jesse Jackson and Stax president Al Bell giving clenched-fist salutes during the singing of the Black National Anthem at the Wattstax festival in 1972, Otis Redding relaxing at his ranch in the last year of his life, and Isaac Hayes proudly showing off his peacock-blue, newly gold-plated Cadillac, equipped with a refrigerated bar and a television set, and 24-carat-gold exterior parts, after scoring big with the theme from the movie, "Shaft."
In the 1990s, many of the Stax artists, continue to perform and a few Booker T. and the MG's, Otis Redding, and Sam and Dave have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "In every one of these artists, a little bit of Stax Records, the 'little label that could,' lives on," Prof. Rob Bowman, academic and music fan, writes.
"It's a legacy that makes the world just a little bit richer place to live."
Throughout the frigid winter of 1996/1997, a pair of stalwart drivers for the Federal Express courier company, Richard Guimond and Mennen Hasson, wore shorts on the job. In the process, they raised $7,000 on behalf of an innovative, Toronto-area charity called Share the Warmth.
Staffed primarily by Osgoode Hall Law School student-volunteers, Share the Warmth is a registered, charitable organization that has succeeded in raising almost $100,000 to provide heat to needy Toronto-area families, seniors living alone and relief agencies since it began in 1996.
The Share the Warmth program "isn't about money we de-emphasize money," says founder Edward de Gale, a third-year Osgoode Hall student. Instead, Share the Warmth provides direct, elemental needs-relief to low income households and relief agencies over 50 families and almost 40 agencies in the winter of 1996/1997 by purchasing energy on their behalf from participating utilities.
"The fact that we don't give money people see the program as abuse-proof," says de Gale. "It really resonates with people.
"We convert cash to oil, electricity and gas heat in winter for those in need," de Gale says. "And it's 100 per cent conversion. All the donations we get go out as energy." The recipients are able to allocate the funds normally used for their utility expenses to the provision of other basic necessities.
A self-described "alternative charity," Share the Warmth is the only one of its kind operating in Ontario, according to the campaign literature. "Unlike traditional charities, which absorb at minimum 13 per cent of community donations to cover administrative costs, Share the Warmth directs 100 per cent of donations to recipients."
Operating costs are offset with the help of corporate partners, such as Levi Strauss and Co., Consumers Gas, National Trust, Federal Express and Sun Printing.
Toronto Hydro, East York Hydro, Etobicoke Hydro, York Hydro, North York Hydro and the Scarborough Public Utilities Commission, currently being amalgamated to serve the new, enlarged City of Toronto, also are partners in the program. "The utilities are enamored of it," says de Gale.
A mailing of 530,000 Share the Warmth pamphlets went out with utility bills as part of the current campaign. Customers are invited to enclose their donation with their utility payment or send it directly to Share the Warmth.
Others companies, such as law firm Fasken Campbell Godfrey are represented on the Share the Warmth advisory committee. And close to 60 Osgoode Hall students help run the program. "Nobody is paid. Everybody's a volunteer," de Gale says.
On Dec. 4, 1997 at Metro Hall, then-Mayor of Toronto Barbara Hall officially declared the day Share the Warmth Day. That evening, the student volunteers and many Share the Warmth corporate partners attended a reception hosted by Fasken Campbell Godfrey in their offices 42 floors above the corner of Bay and King Streets. It was the kick-off of the annual Bay Street Challenge, a friendly competition among half-a-dozen Bay Street firms to determine which can raise the largest contribution for Share the Warmth.
"Share the Warmth is unique in that it channels 100 per cent of the funds, and it helps the utilities in that someone's bill will be paid," Robert Shirriff, chair of Fasken Campbell Godfrey, told Obiter Dicta, the Osgoode Hall Law School student newspaper. "It's really a no-lose situation that benefits everybody concerned."
A new partner for the program is the Daily Bread Food Bank. "They helped us set up a dedicated phone line," de Gale says. "People seeking assistance from the program call us and we help them fill out the forms. They're available at approximately 50 libraries throughout Toronto." The food bank also donated a computer.
"We even had the U.S. Consulate participate," de Gale says. "They gave us almost $500." And Osgoode Hall students kicked in $400 at a Hallowe'en pub celebration.
The utility company in the City of Cambridge has expressed an interest in seeing the program established in that community, and there have been queries from the law-school communities of Ottawa, Windsor and London.
Now, in the midst of their third annual fund-raising campaign, Share the Warmth organizers wish to alert the York University community to their vital work. "We would love to find a way to get the greater York community involved, and to have York as a corporate sponsor," says de Gale.
"The program was born here. It wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for Osgoode. What we do is so common-sensical."
To contact Share the Warmth, telephone or fax 650-8093 or email: info@share thewarmth.org. The web site is at: http://www.sharethe warmth.org.
As Ian Jones of Covenant House told those assembled at the Dec. 4, wine-and-cheese reception, "As you go back to your warm homes this evening, remember that a few dollars in heat to a relief agency can mean the difference between staying open or having to turn away a young person asking for shelter."
As the Share the Warmth slogan has it: "A little warmth goes a long way."
Left: Federal Express drivers Richard Guimond and Mennen Hasson.
Former Toronto mayor Barbara Hall (centre) declared Dec. 4, 1997 Share the Warmth Day, in the excellent company of (left to right) Osgoode Hall law students Ruth Goba and Sanjay Kutty, Share the Warmth founder Edward de Gale, St. Stephen's Community House executive director Carol Roberts and Osgoode Hall student Tyler Inkster.
Jacques Aubin-Roy Prize awarded to Glendon employee Karine Frankian
Glendon College has awarded the annual Jacques Aubin-Roy Prize to Karine Frankian, secretary of the Department of Economics at the college since 1993. The prize is given to a bilingual employee who demonstrates excellence in the performance of duties, and cooperation and loyalty to the college, and attempts to "develop harmony amongst the York/Glendon communities."
"Karine Frankian always tries to go unnoticed," reports Imagine, the Glendon College newsletter, "But the students, faculty and staff of the college would find it hard without her help. Her remarkable kindness and professional support are held in high esteem. ...
"For many people, Karine, sensitive to everyone's slightest need, is the very antithesis of impersonal bureaucracy. Her enthusiasm inspires many others to approach their work in a spirit of joy, harmony and cooperation."
After obtaining a degree from the Glendon School of Translation in 1984, Frankian worked for a short time at the Frost Library. In 1985, she was employed on an interim basis by Jacques Aubin-Roy and, the following year, she began working on a full-time basis in the Department of French Studies, later moving to the International Studies and Canadian Studies Program, and, in 1993, to the Economics Department.
"Karine feels that Glendon made her what she is today," Imagine reports.
"'It's not the campus, it's the mentality, a completely different atmosphere in the workplace. People have [...] an open mind and there is a level of tolerance here.'"
John & Mike's Award goes to third-year student Sanjay Patil
Environmental studies student Sanjay Patil is this year's recipient of the John and Mike's Award, made annually to an undergraduate with a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 8.0 and demonstrated leadership in extra-curricular activities at York and/or the community.
The third-year student's community involvement has included serving as constitutional chair of MYLink (the Mayor's youth council of Brampton), helping to coordinate Brampton's annual Ride for Heart event and serving as MYLink representative on the Police Steering Committee. He is president of the Brampton Young Liberals Association.
Patil's culture and heritage "are very important to me," he says. At York, he demonstrates this commitment through his membership in the United Indian Student and South Asian Issues Discussed organizations. Through serving as youth representative for the Kannada Sangha cultural organization, he received a Ministry of Citizenship volunteer award. This year, he is a member of the Hindu Students Council.
He has volunteered at Caravan for four years and, last year, was selected as mayor of the New Delhi Pavilion.
He is on the executive of the York Debating Society and will represent York at the World Debating Championship in Greece. A member of the Undergraduate Political Science Council, he is also president of the York Model United Nations delegation that will travel to Boston for the Harvard National Model United Nations.
He is a Faculty of Arts Student Caucus councillor and represents Arts students on the Executive Committee of the Faculty of Arts Council.
Patil involves himself in environmental causes and organized an eco-bazaar so that organizations and companies could set up displays to demonstrate to students what they have done to help the natural environment.
Marketing professor at Rutgers
Ian Middleton, a professor of marketing at the Schulich School of Business, currently is a visiting professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
One of the courses he is teaching at Rutgers is international marketing, something he experienced during his years with the J. Walter Thompson (JWT) advertising agency, according to Marketing magazine. His other courses are in advertising and marketing communications.
Middleton began his advertising career with JWT in London, England, then moved to Canada and ran his own ad agency before heading up Enterprise Advertising Associates in 1982. He left Canada in 1989 to manage JWT Tokyo for two years.
The author of Advertising Works recently earned his PhD in business administration at the Schulich School of Business and will return to teach there in summer 1998.
Feminist film pioneer dies
Kathleen Shannon, the founder of the National Film Board's controversial women's unit, Studio D, died of lung cancer in a Kelowna, B.C. hospital in January.
The veteran film director was the featured speaker in the James Beveridge Lecture Series presented by York's Film and Video Department on Oct. 27, 1997. In 1996, York presented her with an honorary Doctor of Letters.
Shannon's presentation in October included a screening of the 50-minute National Film Board film, Kathleen Shannon on Film, Feminism and Other Dreams, which premiered at the Montreal Film Festival in summer 1996.
During the dozen years that Shannon headed Studio D, she oversaw the production of roughly 100 films, including the Academy Award winners, I'll Find A Way and If You Love This Planet.
Former banker will head new school
Paul Cantor, former chief executive of National Trustco Inc., has been named the first head of the Toronto International Leadership Centre for Financial Sector Supervision, which will be located at the downtown Toronto campus of the Schulich School of Business.
Beginning in July, the centre will offer leadership training for government managers who lead banking, securities and insurance authorities around the world, including central banks. It will get more than $1-million in startup funding from the World Bank and the federal government's Department of Finance.
Cantor has also been a top executive at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and was chief executive of Confederation Life Insurance Company at the time it failed.
"Most of my background was in the international field, and I wanted to return to it," Cantor told the Toronto Star. "I think the experience I gained at National, where we placed great emphasis on training, will help."
The recent turmoil on international financial markets demonstrates the need for strong government regulators around the world, he said.
York athlete bowls perfect game
Michelle Inamoto, a York kinesiology and health sciences student, bowled a perfect 300-point game in a 10-pin match in January.
She is only the second woman ever to bowl a perfect game at a Greater Toronto alley. Her resulting, triple-game score of 781 is the highest ever achieved by a Canadian woman bowler.
Bowling is a "highly mental" game that takes enormous concentration and the ability to psych out opponents, particularly at the tournament level, Inamoto told the Toronto Star's Gail Swainson.
She works out three times a week in order to be fit enough to heft her 7-kilogram Blue Hammer ball, she said.
Eating earth may be good for you
"Geophagy" eating earth for medical reasons may be a valid practice, according to a study conducted by Professor William Mahaney, Department of Geography and Urban Studies (Atkinson), and University of Toronto professor Susan Aufreiter.
Using a technique called instrumental neutron activation analysis, Mahaney and his colleague obtained a precise chemical breakdown of soils eaten by people in China, Zimbabwe and the U.S.
The Chinese sample was a fine, light, yellowish soil from Hunan province, and was used as "famine food" as recently as the 1950s, according to the researchers' report, which was published in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. Soft clay from Stokes County in North Carolina was said to be good for general health. A third sample, collected in Zimbabwe, was a red soil from termite mounds, eaten to soothe upset stomachs.
Mahaney and Aufreiter found the Chinese soil to be rich in iron, calcium, vanadium, magnesium and potassium all of which would be in short supply in times of famine. The North Carolina soil was rich in iron and iodine, important to the health of children and women of childbearing age, and often missing from the diets of the poor.
Kaolinite, the principal ingredient in the commercial diarrhea treatment, Kaopectate, was found in the soil from Zimbabwe.
University fighting bid for giant crematorium at Jane and Steeles
York University was recently approached by North York Councillor Peter LiPreti on behalf of a group of homeowners from the Jane and Finch area. The homeowners were hoping to collect support from the York University community in their fight against a proposed six-oven crematorium at the north-east corner of Jane and Steeles. This crematorium would be the largest in North America, and York University is concerned about mercury from the crematorium chimney stacks.
York University is immediately downwind from the proposed site and has agreed officially to support the North York opposition to the crematorium.
The average person aged 30-55 has approximately 15g of mercury in their dental fillings. This mercury will evaporate during the cremation process and be emitted via the chimney stacks. Mercury, a heavy metal, has been linked to mental retardation in young and unborn children and exposure during pregnancy has also been linked to miscarriages. Mercury is a confirmed carcinogen and neurotoxin which affects the central nervous system and can cause brain damage in young and unborn children.
In addition to mercury, dioxins and furans, which are known carcinogins, will be emitted. Dioxin exposure has been shown to cause severe liver damage and to have reproductive and developmental effects.
The City of Vaughan has approved the crematorium, but the North York homeowners group has successfully appealed the project to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). The OMB hearing began Feb. 2, and is expected to continue for 20 days. Peter Victor, Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies, is scheduled to appear at the OMB on Feb. 19 to speak about the mercury emmissions from the crematorium.
For more information about this very important fight, contact Deborah Alexander at Lumbers, or via e-mail at deboraha@yorku.ca.
Deborah Alexander
Faculty of Environmental Studies
York's Institute for Social Research has launched Canada's first annual survey of the quality of life in Toronto, and will expand the initiative next year to include an ongoing comparison with the country's second largest city, Montreal.
"This survey will be significant locally, regionally, and nationally for several reasons. First of all, the results will give us an early indication of how people in the expanded Toronto feel their new government is managing the additional responsibilities handed down by the provincial government," said institute director Paul Grayson.
"And secondly, when we expand our survey to include the views of Montrealers, it will be the country's first on-going survey comparing the quality of life in Canada's two largest cities."
Grayson, who is also a professor of sociology, said the original initiative called for a telephone survey of 400 Torontonians and 400 Montrealers, but the effects of January's ferocious ice storm on Montreal would have made communication difficult and would have biased the results.
Instead, the initial survey will canvass 800 Torontonians. The annual comparative survey of 400 residents in each of the two municipalities will follow in a year's time.
The survey will focus on the following areas:
* Use and evaluation of neighbourhoods. ("How safe do you feel walking in your neighbourhood after 11 pm?")
* Use and evaluation of parks and recreation areas
* Housing ("Are you happy with your landlord?")
* Use of, and satisfaction with, schools;
* Leisure time activities. ("Are you pleased with variety of movies, sports events, festivals, galleries, theatre?")
* Assessments of city services. ("Does your city do a good job on garbage collection, clearing snow, caring for parks and roads, keeping the city clean?")
* Responsiveness of the municipal political system. ("Do councillors do a good job? Do they favour certain groups?")
* Police and crime. ("Do you think crime is increasing or decreasing? Do police do a good job or do they favour some groups over others?")
* Transportation. ("How's traffic in your city? Public transit?")
* Use of, and satisfaction with, health services. ("Are you happy with the medical care you receive?")
* Psychological well-being. ("How happy are Torontonians?")
* Jobs and employment security
* General characteristics of the cities ("Do people of different backgrounds and languages get along?")
Grayson said reports based on the information collected will focus on matters such as the extent to which the quality of urban life varies between Toronto and Montreal; change in the quality of life from one year to the next; and the extent to which quality of urban life is related to factors such as income, ethno-racial origin, and gender.
He looks forward to sharing the results of the first survey with the Toronto community around the middle of March, Grayson said.
Playwright, dramaturge and York theatre professor Judith Rudakoff explored the relationship between theatre and cultural survival, as well as the use of imagery by Canadian woman playwrights, Feb. 5 in the first of her two public lectures in the Premier Lecture Series at York.
The lecture was entitled, "I am a War, My Voice is a Weapon: Five Statements on the Importance of Voice, Identity and Otherness in Canadian Culture, and How they are Reflected in Contemporary Canadian and Cuban Theatre." It examined "how theatre can be the last line of defence in the war against cultural obliteration, by allowing us to adopt our own unique voice and sense of identity."
Rudakoff's second lecture is entitled, "Re/calling the Wild: Mythological Aspects of the Feminine in the Plays of Judith Thompson, Sally Clark, and Connie Gault," and explores the meaning and use of imagery by contemporary Canadian woman playwrights. It is on Thursday, Feb. 12, 7-8:30 p.m., in Stedman Lecture Hall A.
Applications are invited from members of the academic community for the position of Academic Advisor of Founders College. The appointment is normally for a three-year term and includes a one-third release time from teaching or its equivalent. Candidates should have an interest in undergraduate education and the development of the College's mandate in the Faculty of Arts. Applications should be received no later than March 9, 1998 by J. Webber, Room 321, Founders College.
The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) was among several organizations and institutions of higher learning that participated in the federal government's recent trade mission to Latin America.
The AUCC signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chilean Council of University Rectors (Consejo de rectores universidades chileans) to promote greater cooperation between Canadian and Chilean universities in areas such as student and faculty exchanges and research collaboration.
As well, the AUCC and Mexico's National Association of Universities and Higher Learning Institutions (Asociación Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones de Educación Superior) agreed to promote greater cooperation between Canadian and Mexican universities.
The Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) also was part of the Team Canada '98 mission and signed a memorandum of understanding with Chile's Centro de Investigacion y Desarrollo de la Educacion (CIDE) (the Centre for Research and Development) to establish a business relationship that will be used to develop commercial exchanges and cooperation in education and training.
The ACCC represents 175 Canadian colleges and technical institutes and promotes industry-education linkages nationally and internationally through technology transfer, human resource development and other initiatives. The CIDE is an independent academic centre whose main concern is education for the poorest segments of society.
The ACCC also agreed with Chile's Programa Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones en Educacion (PIIE) (Interdisciplinary Research Program in Education) to establish a business relationship that will be used to develop commercial exchanges and cooperation in education and training. PIIE is a non-profit, academic institute that conducts theoretical and practical research on the economy and society.
In Argentina, the association signed memoranda of understanding with the Government of the City of Buenos Aires (Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires) and La Fundacion Banco Mayo of Buenos Aires to establish business relationships that will be used to develop commercial exchanges and cooperation in education and training.
Seneca College was an active participant in the Team Canada mission and made a number of agreements with Latin American partners. These included an agreement of institutional cooperation with the INACAP (Instituto Nacional de Capacitacion) organization of Chile to develop and promote training and education in areas common to both institutions and promote student curriculum integration between Chile and Canada. The agreement covers student exchanges, cooperative education programs for students at both schools, exchanges for professors, and access for graduates to specialized programs, post-graduate programs and other courses.
In Argentina, Seneca and Wintec Energy Management Corporation of Toronto signed a memorandum of understanding for project cooperation with the National University of General San Martin for the joint design, construction and operation of the Centre for Sustainable Development, Energy and the Environment.
The centre will provide a local source of academic development and skills training in sustainable development, as well as research, policy and program development with particular emphasis on greenhouse gas emission reduction strategies, clean generation of electricity, and air and water pollution control. The centre represents an initial investment of $5.5-million, shared equally by Wintec and Seneca, and potential sales of Canadian-made technologies and services of $10-million per annum.
Through a separate agreement, Seneca and the Argentinian university's faculty of engineering will develop and implement training programs related to environmental engineering, energy efficiency and clean-energy generation.
Seneca and Wintec have agreed with the National University of Lomas de Zamora that they will design and develop energy and environmental training courses. The agreement also covers the creation of an international business program by the university and Seneca's school of international business.
Nipissing University, North Bay signed an exchange agreement with Universidad Diego Portales of Santiago, Chile that allows the exchange of business-administration faculty and students.
Similarly, Nipissing and North Bay's Canador College together agreed with Mexico's Instituto Tecnologico y d Estudios Superiores de Monterrey to establish a student exchange program in the field of business administration. Canadore and Nipissing jointly offer a Bachelor of Applied Technology degree in business information systems that corresponds to programs at the Mexican institute.
The Université de Sherbrooke and the Universidad de Chile in Santiago signed a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of a master's degree focused on pedagogy in health sciences at the Chilean university's Faculty of Odontology.
Also in Chile, Sherbrooke representatives signed separate agreements with the Universidad Catolica de Chile and the Universidad de Los Lagos that will encourage cooperation in the field of education, primarily through teacher and student exchanges and joint research projects. Sherbrooke's education faculty also will establish a master's program in teaching (major in psychopedagogy) at Universidida Educares in Santiago. Courses will commence in April.
In Argentina, the Université de Sherbrooke agreed to implement teaching programs at the Universidad Austral in Buenos Aires, and to establish joint research projects and exchange students and professors and technical and scientific information. Sherbrooke will be providing expertise in environmental studies in order to help develop master's level programs and research and technology activities at the Universidad Nacional de Lanus.
Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (SIFC), which specializes in indigenous, university-level education and research, signed a memorandum of understanding with Chile's Universidad de la Frontera to work together to create an international indigenous university. The university will use new technologies to link higher-education initiatives of indigenous people around the world into a world-wide virtual university. Universities in Nicaragua and Chiapas, as well as indigenous groups in Ecuador and Guatemala, have already agreed to be part of this effort.
SIFC also agreed to exchange faculty and staff with the Indigenous Institute of the Universidad de la Frontera of Chile. This project aims to train 10 Canadian youth to work in different Latin American countries.
The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) signed a memorandum of agreement with Minera Escondida Limitada, a major Chilean mining company, to operate the Instituto Profesional Escondida for five years. The main objective of the $20-million deal is to implement BCIT's apprenticeship training system in the electrical, heavy-duty mechanic, millwright, welding and industrial engineering trades.
College of the North Atlantic, St. John's, Newfoundland agreed with the Universidad Santo Tomas de Chile to establish exchange programs for students and faculty, and jointly develop distance education capability, private sector partnerships and the use of information technology to develop business opportunities.
Distance-education programs and delivery-management systems that have been developed in Newfoundland and Labrador will be adapted and implemented by Universidad Santo Tomas in Chile and elsewhere in Latin America, thanks to an agreement with Memorial University in collaboration with a consortium of public and private sector agencies.
Alberta's Olds College and CFT Paine of Chile's Sociedada Nacional de Agriculture Corporation agreed to exchange students for technical training and workplace practicums. A group of 10 to 15 Chilean students will be trained on contract for eight months in Alberta. Canadian students will undergo a similar experience in Paine, Chile at the three-year, post-secondary agricultural college. Olds is also assisting CFT Paine in developing a new turf-grass technology, and in preparing Chilean students for enrolment in the Alberta institution's applied horticulture degree program.
Université Laval signed a letter of intent with Universidad del Salvador for the exchange of professors and students in all the teaching and research fields addressed by the two universities. The agreement lasts for five years.
The University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon will collaborate for five years with the Universidad Nacional de la Pampa in research education and programs on the functioning and management of agro-ecosystems. Work will focus on soil management, crop adaptation and improvement, and pest management.
Télé-Université, a distance-learning university in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, signed agreements with the Universidad Nacional de Lanus and the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba to examine the possibility of putting distance-learning in place at each of the Argentinian schools.
Confederation College, Thunder Bay signed letters of intent with Maimonides University of Buenos Aires to pursue common academic, scientific and technological objectives. The college also agreed with La Escuela Tecnica de Aviacion Profesional to develop a multi-media program to assist with the teaching of English for pilots at Argentina's oldest aviation school, Colegio Alto Vuelo.
Capilano College, North Vancouver, B.C. signed a memorandum that will lead to the exchange of faculty, development of curriculum and training of management trainees from Canada and Mexico. Young Canadian managers will be placed in internship management positions in Mexico. Mexican managers will study in Canada to develop links with Canada and Canada's partners in Asia.
Nino Ricci
Corrado Paina
Deborah Verginella
Frank Paci
A Feb. 5 talk by novelist Nino Ricci has launched a lecture series on the Italian-Canadian imagination. The series, entitled "The Italian-Canadian Imagination, Narratives, Myths, Symbol: Five Voices," is sponsored by the Mariano A. Elia Chair in Italian Canadian Studies.
Ricci, who graduated from York in 1981, began his presentation with a reading from Where She Has Gone, the final instalment in his trilogy of novels, which began with Lives of the Saints, winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction, and continued with In a Glass House. Following the reading, he discussed the genesis of his career as a novelist and his relationship to his Italian heritage.
The next lecture in the series, by novelist Frank Paci, is Thursday, Feb. 12, 4-6 p.m. in the Founders College Senior Common Room (Rm 305).
Paci has been called "the most important Italian-Canadian novelist writing in English" by the Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature. His novels include Black Madonna (1982), about a young Canadian woman who shuns her Italian background, Under the Bridge (1992) and Sex and Character (1993). Paci was born in Pesaro, Italy in 1948 and immigrated to Canada with his parents in 1952, settling in Sault Ste. Marie.
The third lecture (March 5, 4-6 p.m., 305 Founders) will be by Michelle Alfano, a freelance writer and editor, whose work has been anthologized in the 1995 Journey Prize Anthology and Prentice Hall's Contemporary Canada. Alfano is the editor of the literary quarterly, B & A New Fiction, and currently is at work on a novel entitled Opera.
The series' fourth lecture will feature poet and writer Corrado Paina and actress Deborah Verginella, who together will present readings of Paina's poetry. Paina, whose book Di Corsa is a collection of short stories about immigrant life in multicultural Toronto, will also discuss his work as a poet and writer with Italian roots. The presentation is slated for Thursday, March 19, 4-6 p.m., 305 Founders.
Filmmaker Paul Tana, director of Caffé Italia and the critically-acclaimed La Sarrasine, will introduce a screening of La Sarrasine as the fifth lecture in the series on Thursday, April 9. The screening is being presented in collaboration with the Italian Film Society of Canada.
La Sarrasine is set in 1904 and tells the story of an Italian immigrant couple caught in the tensions between Montreal's Italian and French-Canadian communities. The presentation will begin at 8 p.m. at the National Film Board of Canada's John Spotton Theatre, 150 John Street (corner of John and Richmond Streets).
"I'm delighted that this series could bring together such a range of talented Italian Canadians," says Elio Costa, professor of Italian studies and the acting program director of the Mariano A. Elia Chair. "This series builds on the 25-year history of York's Italian Studies program by celebrating the rich contributions of the Italian community in Canada, through research, teaching and community events."
The Brownbag Research Seminars, Tuesdays, noon-2 p.m. in the Harry Crowe Room, Atkinson College, are presented by the Department of Science and Technology Studies. Following are the presenters' abstracts of the final lectures in the 1997-1998 series.
Feb. 24, Complexity and Mathematical Models in Biology, Professor Paul Thompson, Philosophy and Biology, University of Toronto
With increased attention to non-linear systems in mathematics and physical sciences, dealing with the complexity found in biological phenomena has become more tractable. Sophisticated mathematical models can now be constructed of systems that are more isomorphic with actual biological systems. Drawing on some elementary examples in the context of "artificial life" and developmental biology, I will attempt to illustrate the power of mathematical models in dealing with complexity in biology.
March 3, Reconstructing Darwin's Species Concept, Professor David Stamos, Seneca College, Centennial College
Although by far the majority of modern biologists, historians and philosophers of biology who have commented on Darwin's species concept in the Origin have taken him literally to mean that species are not objectively (extra-mentally) real, a few have scratched beneath the surface and have argued that Darwin was in fact a species realist after all, most notably Ghiselin (1969) and Kottler (1978). Accepting this line of interpretation, Beatty (1958) and Stamos (1996) took the further step of providing strategy interpretations in order to explain Darwin's nominalistic definitions of species. Ghiselin, and Beatty (1985) following after him, however, have argued that, although Darwin was a species taxa realist, he was nevertheless a species catgegory nominalist. Darwin did, after all, conclude in the Origin that "we shall at least be freed from the vain search for the undiscovered and undiscoverable essence of the term species," and a few years earlier he claimed in one of his letters to Hooker that the term "species" is "undefinable." (On this issue Kottler, by the way, is silent.)
In this talk, I shall briefly recapitulate the reasons for believing that Darwin was a species taxa realist. But the bulk of the talk will be devoted to making a case for the view that Darwin was also a species category realist. In spite of Darwin's nominalistic comments on the species category, an attempt will be made to reconstruct Darwin's mature species concept and to distill it into a definition of the species category. This reconstruction will be based mainly on Darwin's taxonomic practice as revealed in the Origin and his correspondence. Also, time permitting, the significance of this reconstruction for the modern debate on the species problem will then be briefly examined.
March 10, Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Social Contract, Professor Gail Kellough, Department of Social Science, Faculty of Arts, York University
[Abstract not available.]
March 17, The Cultural Enframing of Nature: Histories of Nature during the German Romantic Period, Joan Steigerwald, Department of Humanities/Faculty of Arts, and Environmental Studies, York University
During the German Romantic Period there was a critical awareness of how one's view of nature was informed by one's theoretical perspective. It had become common by the end of the eighteenth century to distinguish a merely descriptive natural history from a genuine history of nature, a history of nature which sought to discern the cause nexus underlying natural phenomena, to bring the relationships of plants and animals under an idea. But there were different ways in which such an ordering of nature might be framed. A painting by Carl Ludwig Kaaz, "View through an Open Window," represents a view of nature through a window frame on which rests an artist's palette, an eyeglass and a book of poetry. This paper will examine how three prominent figures of the Romantic period, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Alexander von Humboldt and Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling developed their histories of nature by drawing upon such cultural implements.
March 24, Thoughts on a Sociology of Divergent Knowledge: Finding More Common Ground at the Intersection between Science Studies and Cultural Studies, Bart Simon, Sociology, Queen's University
Conventional approaches in science studies are grounded in largely neo-Durkheimian assumptions about the relation between social order and truth, which assert that knowledge is the product of stable social and or socio-material relations. It is often argued, however, that this view does not adequately account for power relations in the production of knowledge. Drawing on the work of Steve Shapin, Bruno Latour and Donna Haraway, as well as empirical work in the study of scientific controversies, this paper will attempt to combine the explicit concerns with power found in cultural studies of technoscience with conventional constructivism in science studies, by arguing that we need to question our assumptions about social order and be more attentive to the production of socio-material difference or divergence in the making of technoscientific knowledge.
March 31, Cyborg Temporality, Professor Moira Campbell, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University
[Abstract not available]
April 7, Confronting Ethical Dilemmas in Genetics: Bringing Medical and Societal Issues into the Classroom, Judy Libman, Bethune College, York University
In my Natural Science course in Bethune College, Biomedical Ethics and the New Genetics, we explore a fast-changing landscape of genetic possibilities and realities. Students who take this course in fufillment of their Natural Science requirement will likely not be exposed to further contact with formal science learning, and yet at this stage in their lives, they will probably soon be facing their own significant medical and reproductive decisions. The problematic yet immediate issues posed in this course make it an ideal vehicle for teaching and practising critical thinking. This talk will focus on some of the new ethical dilemmas that have arisen from the Human Genome Project, and will discuss some case studies from both the clinic and the classroom.
April 14, The Networked City: The Information Economy and its Effects, Graham Todd, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, York University
Since the early 1970s, the internationalization and restructuring of domestic economies have both accelerated and expanded in scope and scale. During this time, cities have been described in a variety of ways within the disciplines of economic geography and political and economic power; as specific locales for firm-to-firm relations; and as particular points of accumulation in the capitalist system of production. At the same time, governments have begun to look at economic policy in a way that focuses more on the local and regional scales of activity as bases for potentially globally competitive export-oriented growth. Urban locations have emerged as objects of critical analysis and strategy and as the focal points of public policy.
According to its pundits and promoters, in the developed core countries a new economy premised on information networks has begun to emerge. Just as Fordism set the stage for postwar growth, so too this new model of economic development is set to transform "old economies" and reshape existing urban hierarchies: this new economy is global placeless even. But the new urban space which these developments portend is conceivable as both a cybernetic location within a global network, and as a real place where the construction and deployment of local infrastructure is what enables "competitive advantage." Castells refers to the increased emphasis on the flows and the organization of the storage and movements of data in the contemporary economy as evidence of the emergence of a new mode of economic development, replete with a new urban form: the "informational city." William Mitchell has in part described the "architecture" of such a city. In this talk I briefly summarize existing literature and sketch out the contents of further research in the area that I wish to pursue.
My presentation will deal very generally with themes that concern politics of place-making in the networked city. I will touch upon the following: new forms of work, "information" vs "information technology( [IT], local labour markets and the information technology sector, and implications of IT for urban politics and spatial development.
SSHRC
Research Development Initiatives
Under this new program, SSHRC is inviting proposals that elicit and support a variety of activities which will contribute to the structuring, integration and transfer of knowledge in the social sciences and humanities. Support may be for a variety of activities, which may include meetings and electronic gatherings, networking and communication initiatives, intensive research institutes, and state-of-the-art activities. It is expected that the average grant will be between $10,000 and $25,000. The Council, however, will consider requests for up to $50,000 in one year or up to $150,000 over three years.
Deadline: February 27 (future deadlines are June 30 and October 30)
Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute
Visiting Lectureship for Canadian Scholars
The Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute promotes understanding between India and Canada, mainly through facilitating academic activities. The Institute funds research, links institutions in the two countries, and organizes seminars and conferences. Under its Canadian Studies Program, the Institute sends a Canadian scholar to India for three weeks to give lectures and conduct seminars on Canada. The value of the award is a return ticket to India, local travel, and living expenses.
Deadline: February 15
Asahi Shimbun Foundation
Fellowship Program
The Fellowship Program is intended to provide promising young scholars (under the age of 40), artists, journalists and others of foreign nationality with the opportunity of a year's stay in Japan to develop their own academic or professional expertise, as well as their knowledge of Japan, while at the same time contributing to international understanding and cooperation. Fellows will receive economy-class air tickets to and from Japan, premium for traveller's insurance for the period of the Fellowship, and a grant to defray research and living expenses.
Deadline: February 28
Canadian Foundation for Dietetic Research
Research Grants
The CFDR provides grants to support research in dietetic practice. Priority research directions include:
* outcomes of intervention objective measures of the effect of a nutrition intervention in all practice areas; * new roles for dietitians in meeting health needs of all Canadians implementation and evaluation of novel service delivery in new environments; * identification of vulnerable groups and their nutritional needs enhanced understanding of who are the nutritionally vulnerable, their nutritional needs and means to address these needs; * determinants of food choice identification of factors and attitudes that influence the food choices made by consumers. Amount requested can be up to $10,000.
Deadline: February 15
Deadline Dates
mid-February
Donner Canadian Foundation: Grants
Environmental Youth Corps: Environmental Youth Corps Program
February 14
Council for Tobacco Research-U.S.A., Inc.: Program of Research Support (preliminary application due; full application due May 31)
February 15
American Museum of Natural History (New York, NY): Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Fund
Canadian Heritage (Department of): Multiculturalism Program (Arts Apprenticeship)
Canadian Foundation for Dietetic Research (CFDR): Research Grants
Cancer Research Society, Inc.: Fellowships; Research Grants
French Embassy in Canada: Unilateral Programs (Participation in International Symposia by French or Canadian Scientists)
Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International (The Diabetes Research Foundation): Research Grants (first two pages of application due; full application due March 1)
Leukemia Society of America: Translational Research Program (preliminary application due; full application due March 15)
Manning Awards Foundation: Manning Awards
Muscular Dystrophy Association of Canada: Summer in the Laboratory Fellowships
Norwegian Nobel Institute: Nobel Institute Fellowships
RP Eye Research Foundation: Fellowships; Grants (Equipment, Operating); Scholar Program
Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI): Canadian Studies Program (Visiting Lectureships for Canadian Scholars)
February 19
Physicians' Services Incorporated Foundation: Various Grants
February 27
SSHRC: Research Development Initiatives
February 28
Asahi Shimbun Foundation: Asahi Fellowship Program
March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation: Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Research Awards (abstract due; full application due May 31)
Thyroid Foundation of Canada: Research Fellowship
The Office of Research Administration (ORA) would like to remind faculty members of these research opportunities with upcoming deadlines. Deadlines listed are those of the granting agencies. Applications for external sources of funding (i.e., outside York) must be submitted to ORA before forwarding them to the agencies. To assist in meeting these deadlines, it is recommended that applications be submitted to ORA one to two weeks prior to the deadline dates.
For more information, please contact ORA at -55055 in S414 Ross Building (e-mail: research@yorku.ca).
by Matt Milovic and Cora DuskOn the weekend of Friday-Sunday, Jan. 30-Feb. 1, York was the proud host of the annual Residence Life Conference. This conference provides an opportunity for residence Dons to come together and share their experiences as Dons in order to facilitate growth as effective leaders.
This year's conference, entitled "Lean On Me," set a record for the number of Ontario universities represented. Every university in Ontario, except for one, attended. In addition, Concordia University and McGill University attended from Quebec. Western Illinois University, University of Detroit, and the University of New York all attended, as well.
All York delegates and organizers were very proud and honoured to have our president, Dr. Lorna Marsden, as the keynote speaker on Saturday morning. Dr. Marsden motivated and inspired the delegation with her speech, which proved to be insightful and thought-provoking.
Delegates left incredibly impressed with York and grateful for the hospitality provided by residence staff, most of whom graciously billeted two delegates for the weekend. During closing remarks at the Sunday luncheon in Founders Dining Hall, the entire delegation of 346 rose to their feet with energetic and enthusiastic applause of appreciation for an amazing weekend. Delegates from other universities could be heard chanting: "Go, York! Go, York!"
Everyone who volunteered their time to help had a fantastic time with this opportunity to showcase both of York's campuses. This conference marks one more item on a very long list of accomplishments that York has to be proud of. It is one more reason for all of us here at York to utter, "Go, York! Go, York!"
Matt Milovick and Cora Dusk were the co-chairs of the Residence Life Conference.
Kitty McConnel is an Able York Committee member, and she is pleased about the many successes of the seventh annual Access Awareness Event throughout the university in January.
The lucky winner of the January draw is Valerie Baddon, Office of the Vice-President (Academic Affairs). The ticket seller was Carolyn Cannon.
