For five years Glendene Grant has worked non-stop to find her missing daughter and raise awareness about the web of human trafficking she believes her child is ensnared in, wrote Kamloops, BC’s The Daily News, Jan. 13 in a story about her planned appearance at the Alliance Against Modern Slavery’s inaugural conference at York University.
Her daughter, Jessie Foster, 21, was last heard from March 29, 2006. She was living in Las Vegas at the time and may have been caught in a sex-trafficking ring. Since then Grant has tirelessly pursued every clue in her effort to find out what happened. Her work has attracted media attention in Canada and the US as she’s taken her search to Las Vegas.
She’s written about her exploits and findings on human trafficking on blogs and in Crime Watch Canada and Oracle magazines. She even has her own YouTube channel.
The effort caught the attention of Alliance Against Modern Slavery co-founder Karlee Sapoznik, a York PhD candidate in history and a member of the executive committee of The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, who invited Grant to speak at the alliance’s first conference on human trafficking Jan. 28 [at the Keele campus].
Times Higher Education notes York prof’s latest read
Professor Christopher Innes is Canada Research Chair in Performance & Culture in York University’s Faculty of Fine Arts, wrote Times Higher Education Jan. 13, in a story about books currently being read by professors.
Innes is reading Steve Waters’ The Secret Life of Plays (Nick Hern Books, 2010). “I am no playwright, despite secret scripts hidden in my deepest drawer, so it may be surprising to find a book explicitly aiming to be a manual for playwrights at my bedside. In fact, however, this work sees Waters analyze what makes plays work on stage, discussing – brilliantly – Hamlet and Woyzeck as examples of structure and characterization, thereby opening new understandings of drama for everyone.”
More than enough studies on poverty, not enough action
We have become a society disengaged from the pain of our fellow man, wrote Sharon Murphy, vice-president of Canada Without Poverty in a letter to Halifax’s The Chronicle-Herald, Jan. 13, about the number of ignored recent studies on poverty in Canada.
A study in 2010, by Professor Dennis Raphael of York University’s School of Health Policy & Management in the Faculty of Health, stated as its key message that the health of Canadians was much less determined by the health care system than by public policies that influence our living conditions.
There have been a lot of studies and I have no doubt that the people involved in the studies are motivated by genuine concern, wrote Murphy. But we need action from these studies. The research is there. What does it take to act on this research?
Sport psychology consultants aid rehab, return to activity
For the young athlete, the seasoned fitness buff or the person who has simply pledged to take a daily walk, injury can be more than a physical setback, wrote HealthNewsDigest.com Jan. 12. It can trigger psychological effects that can linger long after the physical pain has healed, says Frances Flint, professor in York’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science in the Faculty of Health and a sport injury psychology consultant with the Certified Consultants Association for Applied Sport Psychology.
“Injury can lead to frustration, self-doubt, social isolation and ultimately, depression. Any of these reactions can cause a person to withdraw, even from a much-loved sport or activity,” said Flint, who is a certified athletic trainer and therapist. “The tools we’ve developed in our work with competitive athletes can be very effectively adapted to help all people who want to stay active and fit,” said Flint.