WINTER TERM 2024
Congratulations to Aiman Ramizy for being awarded the Harvey Skinner Excellence in Global Health Prize, which is given to the full-time undergraduate student enrolled in the Specialized Honours or Honours Global Health program who received the highest grade in the first year of their program.
Congratulations to Lisa Freire and Soltani Mohammadi for being awarded the Paul McDonald Excellence in Global Health Prize, which is given to the full-time undergraduate student enrolled in the Specialized Honours or Honours Global Health program who received the highest grade in the second year of their program.
Congratulations to Catherine Tsasis for being awarded the Lesley Beagrie Excellence in Global Health Prize, which is given to the full-time undergraduate student enrolled in the Specialized Honours or Honours Global Health program who received the highest grade in the third year of their program.
Congratulations to Stephanie Tenkorang for being awarded the Beryl Pilkington Excellence in Global Health Prize, which is given to the full-time undergraduate student enrolled in the Specialized Honours or Honours Global Health program who received the highest grade in the fourth year of their program.
Congratulations to Nurzha Abam and Gurher Sidhu for being awarded the Firdosi Mehta Service in Global Health Prize, which is given to undergraduate students enrolled in the Specialized Honours or Honours Global Health program in any year who has demonstrated excellent and impactful service to the School of Global Health, Faculty of Health, York University, and/or the community in being an agent of change.
Professor Godfred Boateng presented his paper “Food Insecurity and Psychosocial Well-Being: A Malawian Study” at the 2024 Canadian Sociological Association Conference.
Professor Tarra Penney is part of the team that has been funded by the New Frontiers in Research Fund for their project BioCAM4 – Biodiversity Integration in Climate Adaptation & Mitigation Actions for Planet, People & Human Health.
Professor Steven Hoffman will join the Wellcome Trust, the world’s third-largest foundation supporting global health research, for an 18-month secondment as interim chief of staff.
Professor A.M. Viens has been reappointed as a member of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Public Health Ethics Consultative Group, which provide advice on ethical issues and questions related to agency programs and services, and issues of national significance to the practice of public health in Canada, including issues arising both nationally and internationally.
Two global health undergraduate students, Ann Kwarteng and Hafsa Ugas, were awarded Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA) supporting undergraduate students to gain research experience. Ann Kwarteng, a SSHRC USRA recipient, will be exploring intergenerational experiences with mental health and policing among Black families in Ontario. Hafsa Ugas, a CIHR USRA recipient, will be investigating the relationship between respiratory illness and housing insecurity among people living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya. Both will be supervised by Professor Godfred Boateng.
Post-Doctoral Fellow Dr. Chloe Clifford Astbury presented on One Health innovations taking place in China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Philippines at a World Health Assembly side event on One Health and pandemic prevention in practice, co-organized with the Geneva Health Forum and Four Paws International.
Professor Mathieu Poirier presented a poster at the Geneva Health Forum showcasing the AMR Policy Accelerator team’s findings from an evidence review on migrant and refugee healthcare barriers affecting antibiotic use.
Professor Mathieu Poirier is joining the UNGA Multistakeholder Meeting in New York City, contributing to the preparatory process for the high-level meeting on AMR. Discussions will focus on key priorities, challenges, and solutions for addressing AMR globally.
Professor Godfred Boateng facilitated the inaugural workshop for the Canadian-African-Central-American One Health Monitoring and Evaluation (CAfCA-OHME) network at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research.
The School of Global Health has launched its search for a Sessional Assistant Professor in Global Health (teaching stream) to commence January 1, 2025 (application deadline: July 1, 2024).
The Global Strategy Lab, who has a number of investigators who are SGH Faculty, including Professors Hoffman, Penney, Poirier, and Viens, is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Professor Godfred Boateng presented a poster at the 2024 Health Effects Institute Annual Conference in Philadelphia. This presentation explored the relationship between exposure to extreme temperature and cognitive function among older adults in Ghana.
The 2024 World Health Assembly Simulation (WHA SIM) will take place between May 2 and 3.
Professor A.M. Viens co-organized the Designing a Regional Health Governance Approach symposium at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Professor Mary Wiktorowicz and global health alumna Fiona Harris were co-authors on an article entitled One Health Governance Principles for AMR surveillance: A Scoping Review and Conceptual Framework.
Professor Amrita Daftary, with colleague Dillon Wademan from the Desmond Tutu TB Centre at Stellenbosch University, publishes on the chronicity of tuberculosis disease in the edited collection Routledge Handbook on Anthropology and Global Health. The chapter is featured on World TB Day 2024 by the South African news outlet, Daily Maverick.
For World TB Day 2024, Professor Amrita Daftary speaks on the social dimensions of drug-resistant tuberculosis at the Emerging Resistance to Novel TB Drugs symposium at Columbia University Irving Medical Centre and Mailman School of Public Health.
For World TB Day 2024, Professor Amrita Daftary writes with South African colleagues on addressing the epidemiology, determinants and impacts of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Professors Mary Wiktorowicz and A.M. Viens, along with post doc Chloe Clifford Astbury, attended the research meeting of their Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance funded research project Designing One Health Governance for Antimicrobial Stewardship (DESIGN) to present research results and discuss progress on the project objectives.
The Government of Canada has issued a new Canada Research Chair (CRC) appointment to Professor Godfred Boateng in Global Health and Humanitarianism. As a CRC, Dr. Boateng will address global health priorities by focusing on anticipatory, instead of reactionary, approaches. Notably, he will look to further understand the synergistic epidemics of food, water, energy, and housing insecurity and their compounding effects, as well as the impact of environmental degradation and changes in climatic conditions on the health of older adults in sub-Saharan Africa and Canada.
Professors Mathieu Poirier and Steven Hoffman, and post doc Tina Nanyangwe-Moyo, have been awarded funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for their project on Centring Gender in the Evaluation of International Laws.
Global Health undergraduate student Richard Wu, Global Health alumna Mirianna Georges, and World Health Assembly Simulation Research Coordinator Megan George were all at the 2024 Consortium of Universities for Global Health annual conference in Los Angeles presenting their research.
Adjunct Professor Patrick Fafard and colleagues were awarded the 2023 Ken Young Prize for the best article judged to represent excellence in the field published in Policy & Politics, for their paper Analysing the ‘follow the science’ rhetoric of government responses to COVID-19.
Professor Mathieu Poirier and Adjunct Professor Susan Rogers Van Katwyk joined Canadian experts and government representatives at the Pandemic Agreement Regional Engagement Series to discuss Canada’s role in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Professor Mary Wiktorowicz discusses the global rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the policies that have been passed surrounding AMR in the latest issue of the York University Magazine.
The All in Good Health Podcast team has officially released their first episode, now available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. In the inaugural episode, they explore the foundations of global health, aiming to introduce this complex field in an accessible and engaging manner. All in Good Health is a student-led podcast at York University dedicated to fostering conversations about health equity on a global scale.
Professor Mary Wiktorowicz recently co-authored a paper entitled The urban political ecology of antimicrobial resistance: A critical lens on integrative governance in Social Science & Medicine.
Professor Mathieu Poirier recently published a paper on Systematic comparison of household income, consumption, and assets to measure health inequalities in low‑ and middle‑income countries in Nature Scientific Reports.
Professor Amrita Daftary publishes a systematic scoping review on patient acceptability towards video-based directly observed treatment for tuberculosis in the Journal of Clinical Tuberculosis and Other Mycobacterial Diseaes with School of Global Health undergraduate students/alum, Rumia Owaisi and Leah Goldschmidt.
Professor Amrita Daftary, together with Dr Jeremiah Chikovore at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa, writes a telling editorial on stigma and mental health in infectious diseases, in her role as an invited guest editor for BMC Global and Public Health.
Congratulations to Aiman Ramizy, Lisa Freire, Sandra Taghizadeh Toossi, and Ravneet Kaur Manoria on being awarded the Global Health Entrance Scholarships! These scholarships are dedicated to promoting excellence in the undergraduate Global Health program at York University, with a value of $5000 each selected on the basis of academic merit.
Professor Oghenowede Eyawo has been featured for his work with the Black Students Mentorship Program.
Professor Godfred Boateng will be a panellist at the Harriet Tubman Institute’s 2024 Black History Month Opening Ceremony. This year’s theme and discussions are focussed around Black Educators and Black Education.
Professor A.M. Viens will join the Global Health Student Association‘s Trivia Night: Are You Smarter than the GHSA? on January 30 from 6-8pm (Calumet 100)
Professor Godfred Boateng was successful in obtaining funding from the National Institute of Health and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development for his two-year project on Household Energy Insecurity, Health and Sustainable Livelihoods in Colombia.
FALL TERM 2023
Professor A.M. Viens was invited to participate in a meeting with other academics working on human rights with Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay, President and Country Rapporteur for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, as part of her visit to Canada.
Professor James Orbinski published an opinion piece in the Global and Mail newspaper on why the humanitarian horror in Gaza must end.
Professor Amrita Daftary co-directed a meeting on Tuberculosis and Equity at the Brocher Foundation in Geneva from November 20-22 together with social science scholars, community members, and global leaders. Yuliya Chorna (PhD Anthropology) was among her featured students.
Professor Amrita Daftary chaired a plenary on AI-generated Tuberculosis Care and Prevention and at the Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris (November 15-18), among a number of featured presentations.
Global health undergraduate student Richard Wu was part of a group awarded the Best Overall SDGs in Action Project for their Sustainable Protein Sources project.
Postdoctoral Fellow Chloe Clifford Astbury and Professor Tarra Penney, along with SGH colleagues Kristen Lee, A.M. Viens, and Mary Wiktorowicz, share the findings from a review of policies to prevent zoonotic spillover in Globalization and Health.
The School of Global Health has launched its search for an Assistant Professor in Experiential Education in Global Health (teaching stream) to commence July 1, 2024 (application deadline: November 1, 2023).
The School of Global Health has launched its search for an Assistant Professor in Global Health Knowledge Mobilization and Implementation Science (professorial stream) to commence July 1, 2024 (application deadline: November 1, 2023).
Professors Mathieu Poirier and A.M. Viens will join the Global Health Student Association‘s Meet the Professors event on November 2 from 6-8pm at Bethune College (BC 203A)
Conor Macis, PhD candidate from the University of Bristol Law School, provided a guest lecture on Neoliberalism, Globalisation, and Antimicrobial Resistance in our Global Health Ethics course (GH 4010), as part of his overseas institutional visit.
Dr. Amrita Daftary has been featured in YFile, profiling her work on reducing tuberculosis stigma through partnership in India.
Professors Ahmad Firas Khalid and A.M. Viens were featured in YFile about how the World Health Assembly Simulation provides a chance to students to experience first-hand how global health policymakers at the World Health Organization make decisions.
Professor Mathieu Poirier presented on evaluating national border closures to control COVID-19 at the 2023 Canadian Conference on Global Health.
Professor Tarra Penney is the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research, which recognizes faculty members undertaking ground-breaking research in the Faculty of Health.
Professor Jessica Vorstermans is the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, which recognizes faculty members providing quality teaching in an inclusive and supportive environment in the Faculty of Health.
Join us for a guest lecture that explores the transformative journey from student life to firsthand experiences in the realm of global health, which will be moderated Alison Humphrey (Research Fellow, Global Strategy Lab). Youth, Health and Life in Masiphumelele: In Conversation with Asiphe Ntshongontshi is happening on October 20th at 1pm in Accolade West, Room 106 at York University (registration required).
Dr. Susan Rogers Van Katwyk’s (Adjunct Professor) Health and Hope event with Professor Dame Sally Davies at the UN General Assembly was a success! If you missed it, you can watch the recording here (starting around the 37 minute mark).
Professor Steven Hoffman (Global Health) and Professor Caitlin Fisher (Cinema and Media Arts) were successful in the funding of their SSHRC grant application “Mobilizing the Arts for Global Health: A Virtual Museum of Antimicrobial Resistance”.
Professor A.M. Viens and Victoria Cassar (global health undergraduate student) co-authored a peer-reviewed paper entitled “Carving the Meat at the Joint: The Role of Defining how Animals are Viewed and Treated in the Governance of (Re-)Emergent Pandemic Zoonoses in International Law” in the journal Law & Policy.
Mirianna Georges (undergraduate global health student) was successful in the funding of her CIHR grant application examining the gendered differences in the relationship between housing insecurity & diarrheal infection in Kenyan informal settlements, supervised by Dr. Godfred Boateng.
Essete Tesfaye (global health undergraduate student) has been awarded the Murray G. Ross Award, given to a graduating undergraduate student in recognition of outstanding academic excellence and contributions to York University.
Victoria Cassar (global health undergraduate student) has been awarded the Gold Medal for Academic Excellence & Outstanding Leadership, given to a graduating undergraduate student in the Faculty of Health who has demonstrated academic excellence and outstanding contributions to undergraduate student life at York University.
Essete Tesfaye (global health undergraduate student) has been awarded the Gold Medal for Academic Excellence & Outstanding Leadership, given to a graduating undergraduate student in the Faculty of Health who has demonstrated academic excellence and outstanding contributions to undergraduate student life at York University.
Asma Adam (global Health undergraduate student) has been awarded the Silver Medal for Outstanding Leadership, given to a graduating undergraduate student in the Faculty of Health who has demonstrated outstanding leadership skills and potential through involvement and initiative in Faculty of Health organizations and activities.