York experts profiled for their work, remembered for their contributions, and celebrated by CBC Books
Professor Sean Hillier is prioritizing Indigenous voices in health research. The subject of a profile in University Affairs, Hillier’s work spans Indigenous health policy, technology’s impacts on Indigenous communities, and infectious diseases. Central to his work is the concept of One Health — a United Nations initiative that takes an integrated approach to balancing the health of people, animals and the environment. “My great interest is thinking through Indigenous health and Indigenous health governance and policy,” says Hillier. “I’m very interested in the impacts of tech and AI on Indigenous data governance, on Indigenous sovereignty, and on Indigenous colonization via new emerging technologies.”
Professor Deborah McGregor led a presentation at the recent TechNations 2024 where she discussed a framework that’s been developed for a First Nations-focused source water protection plan as current federal and provincial water governance policies do not adequately protect some First Nations, reports Anishinabek News. “For a lot of communities, water has been contaminated or deteriorated over time,” says McGregor, whose research has focused on environmental and water governance through Indigenous knowledge systems. “We’re trying to develop a process that helps us recognize what we did for thousands of years and the challenges that are our realities right now and how do we work with that.”
Reverend, refugee activist and professor emeritus, Michael Creal died Aug. 23 at the age of 97. A priest in the Anglican Church of Canada, Creal had received the Order of Canada in June in recognition of his lifelong efforts on behalf of refugees. He worked at York starting in the 1960s, as a professor and in positions including head of the division of humanities and founder of the Centre for Refugee Studies.
Petra Molnar, associate director of the Refugee Law Lab, speaks to Nahlah Ayed of CBC Radio‘s Ideas for part three of Brave New Worlds: The Right to Leave, Return and Seek Asylum. At a time when more people are forcibly displaced than at any other point in recorded history, Ayed speaks with guests about where the rights to leave, return and seek refuge in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights came from, and what they could mean today. As a guest on the Legally Speaking podcast, Molnar discusses common legal issues around migration in the U.S., including its criminalization, A.I. discrimination and more.
Professor Laura Taylor talks to The Canadian Press about the history of guerrilla gardening. Taylor says the term was coined in the 1970s in Brooklyn. “The community took over a place where buildings had been taken down because they were unsafe, and then the vacant lot was just left,” she says, adding that the plot “went from a place that was an eyesore to a place where people were growing vegetables and getting food from it.”
Professor Duygu Biricik Gulseren comments on forced returns to the office and the rise of new tech leaving managers in a precarious position as stewards of employee wellbeing. A recent PwC survey shows 45 per cent of respondents have had to learn new skills or technologies in order to do their job, The Globe and Mail reports. The same percentage report their workload has significantly increased. “In the past, there would be time between learning and applying, and now many are doing both at the same time,” says Gulseren. “There’s more to learn, and also not enough time to learn because of the rate of change.”
Professor Winny Shen weighs in on the quest for a better work-life balance being not just a Gen Z issue. Since the pandemic, it’s become common for companies of all sizes to allow employees with desk jobs to work from home or remotely at least part of the time. “Workers are paying more attention to whether an employer offers flexible conditions when they’re considering who they want to work for. And while there are some kinds of jobs where you have to be on site, many employers are realizing that for other jobs the real question is not where you’re located, but what is the best way to get the work done,” Shen tells The Globe and Mail, pointing to a study that found remote workers generally have better outcomes in the work they deliver than office-based colleagues.
Workers are paying more attention to whether an employer offers flexible conditions when they’re considering who they want to work for.
Shen speaking to The Globe and Mail
Professor Emeritus Craig Heron discusses the history of labour day on CBC Radio‘s Metro Morning with host David Common.
Professor Lyndsay Hayhurst and co-author write about “deeply entrenched inequities and challenges facing girls and women in sport, such as body confidence and support for athletes with small children” in an op-ed for The Conversation. Referencing a new initiative, Sport Your Period, that is breaking taboos by paying athletes to discuss their experiences with menstruation, they write about the need for structural change at all levels of sport and recreation. “What’s needed is a more comprehensive approach to menstrual health education for coaches and athletes through the sport organizations that govern global, national and local sport systems,” they write.
Professor Thomas Klassen and former political science student Matthew Cerilli (BA ’24) discuss campaign ethics in an op-ed for The Conversation, referencing Former U.S. President Donald Trump amplifying a misogynist and offensive comment made about Vice President Kamala Harris on Truth Social. “This latest Trump smear takes place as public trust in government is declining in both Canada and the United States,” they write.
CBC Books: Walking & Stealing by Professor Stephen Cain has been named one of 44 Canadian poetry collections to watch for in fall 2024. Cain is the author of six full-length collections of poetry and a dozen chapbooks. Walking & Stealing is a threefold collection of poems about baseball, Toronto and immersing oneself in deep thoughts. Professor Christina Sharpe is celebrated in a look back at some of the award-winning writing of the past year. Sharpe’s Ordinary Notes won the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Sharpe was also awarded the 2024 Windham-Campbell Prize for nonfiction. Her book “explores the complexities of Black life and loss through a series of 248 notes that intertwine past and present realities.”
Reminder: A guided tour of Lake Rosseau is happening on Sunday, Sept. 15. Friends of the Muskoka Watershed (FOTMW) has partnered with Peerless (Sunset Cruises) to host Peer Under the Surface. Leaving the Port Carling dock at 10 a.m., passengers aboard the tour boat will make a net and cruise the Muskoka waterways until noon. “We’ll be going out with dip nets, and equipping everyone on board with magnifying glasses,” says Professor Norman Yan, founding chair of FOTMW and one of the scientists leading the cruise. Tickets are $64 and funds will go towards tackling local environmental issues.
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