When Wendy Craig started doing her PhD dissertation at York University in the 90s, she put remote microphones on children in the playground. This was the first time anyone had recorded bullying as it was happening, reported Kingston This Week April 11….This study took Craig to where she is today, a leading expert on bullying at Queen’s University….In March, Craig released Bullying Prevention: What Parents Need to Know, a book she co-authored with York University Distinguished Research Professor Debra Pepler and York alumna Joanne Cummings. All three women are directors at the Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network (PREVNet), an initiative committed to eliminating bullying in Canada. Read full story.
Mill Street Brewery brings distilling back to Distillery District
For the first time in almost a quarter century, Toronto’s Distillery District is going to be home to a fully functioning distillery, part of a German-style beer hall opening this month by Mill Street Brewery….While the 1,000-litre batches are a far cry from the 7-million litres a year the Gooderham and Worts distillery produced during its heyday in the 1870s, Mill Street brew master Joel Manning says it’s a thrill to bring the area back to its roots.…Those original distillers left their mark on drinkers worldwide, said York University history Professor Craig Heron in the Toronto Star April 11. “During the late 19th century, the Gooderham and Worts distillery was said to be the biggest distillery in the entire British Empire. It was really considered state of the art.” Read full story.
Steve Koven Trio celebrates its 20th anniversary
It’s all about to come full circle for the Steve Koven Trio, made up of three York University instructors. The jazz group is celebrating its 20th anniversary with special performances in May at the Jazz Bistro in Toronto, the site of the group’s debut album, reported the Canadian Jewish News April 12. Read full story.
Toronto student creates RPG video game in Excel
A Toronto chartered accountant spent two hours a day for five months working in Microsoft Excel – not on financial reports or option-pricing models, but creating a video game, reported Metro April 11. As of Thursday morning, the game had been downloaded by more than a quarter of a million people. Cary Walkin is studying for an MBA at York University’s Schulich School of Business and decided to put the skills he learned in his advanced spreadsheet modelling class to use. Read full story.
Who will hire all the PhDs? Not Canada’s universities
“A persistent theme in current discussions about graduate education and its outcomes is the question of whether Canada is ‘producing too many PhDs.’ While enrollments (and numbers of PhD graduates) have increased with the encouragement of policy, more of these grads now struggle to find employment that matches the level and nature of their education – particularly employment in universities, as tenure-track faculty,” wrote Melonie Fullick, a PhD candidate in York University’s Faculty of Education, in The Globe and Mail April 12. “The question of precisely how many PhDs we ‘need’ is one that’s directly tied to our ideas about the purpose of doctoral education.” Read full story.