York to host conference on Modern Slavery, Human Rights and Development June 26 to 28

Enslavement, slaveholders, international law, wartime abuses and forced marriage are just some of the areas speakers from Canada, the US and the UK will discuss at an upcoming conference on modern slavery. Modern Slavery, Human Rights and Development will take place from June 26 to 28 at York’s Keele campus. The conference is organized by York Professor […]

York University's rover team finishes second in Mars challenge

The York University Rover Team – just call them YURTs – maintained their record of excellence at the international University Rover Challenge (URC) on the weekend, finishing in second place to a team from Poland in the hot deserts of Utah. (CBC also covered the team's success). Above: Members of the York University Rover Team […]

Graduate students to engage with lawyers, political economists and theorists at SSHRC-funded workshop

Some of the top Canadian and international lawyers, political economists, social and development theorists will meet with graduate students this week to analyze and debate the “new constitutionalism”, a central characteristic of the global political economy. It’s another way York students are being given opportunities to engage with the wider community, says York Distinguished Research Professor Stephen […]

Faculty of Education graduate students to present theses on Thursday, May 26

Topics include formation of child soldiers in Uganda and how children use creative work to construct identity Two graduates will present their theses – and compete for prizes – at the Graduate Program in Education Spring Colloquium May 26. Opiyo Oloya (right) (PhD ’10) and master’s graduand Farra Yasin will explain their final academic projects […]

Psychology Professor Ian McGregor explores links between anxiety and compensatory convictions

Research sheds light on human belief in Friday the 13th, Bigfoot, fate, heaven and hell It was during this week, in the lead-up to today’s supernaturally inclined date of Friday the 13th, that I learned the similarity between believing in Bigfoot and believing in The One, wrote columnist Micah Toub in The Globe and Mail […]

Professor Christine Jonas-Smith premieres film on families living with perinatal loss

York nursing Professor Christine Jonas-Simpson has always been keenly interested in loss and grief, how people experience it and how they integrate it into their lives in a continuing way. It was while doing research on daughters who had lost their mothers to Alzheimer’s disease that Jonas-Simpson experienced what she calls “the deepest loss of my […]

Nursing Professors Patricia Bradley and Christine Jonas-Simpson win provincial teaching awards

Pair recognized for graduate and undergraduate teaching excellence Two York nursing professors have won provincial awards for innovative and excellent teaching. At its fourth annual awards ceremony Saturday, the Council of Ontario Universities Programs in Nursing (COUPN) presented Patricia Bradley with the Teaching Innovation Award and Christine Jonas-Simpson with the Excellence in Teaching Award. Above: […]

Tubman Institute hosts Africa conference; topics include latest uprisings in North Africa

An upcoming Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) conference at York – Africa Here; Africa There – will look not only at Africa of the past, but discuss recent and ongoing issues, especially those in North Africa, says conference co-organizer  and York history Professor José Curto. The conference will take place Thursday, May 5, from 8am […]

PhD student Tanya Gulliver: Can Canada handle a Gulf-style oil disaster?

If a monster iceberg (like those now being formed from the melting of the Greenland ice shield) was to collide with the Hibernia platform, says Michael Klare, a noted American oil expert, author and academic, it could prove to be far more devastating than last year’s BP spill, which dumped almost five million barrels into […]

Fine arts professors' plays pack a political punch

Faculty of Fine Arts professors are bringing three plays to Canadian stages this week – each packing a political punch. The thought-provoking plays tackle the Rwandan genocide, the Canadian election and the untraceable ghost population of the city of Whitehorse. A catalyst for dialogue and healing is York film Professor Colleen Wagner’s Governor General’s Award-winning play The Monument. […]