Chris Garbutt

Under the new measures, Toronto and Peel Region are in the Grey Zone (lockdown) level under the province’s COVID-19 framework beginning Monday, Nov. 23, 2020 for a minimum of 28 days.

During this time, the province is strongly encouraging residents in Toronto and Peel Region to stay home – except for essential travel – and limit their contacts.

The measures instituted under this new status primarily focus on activities such as social gatherings, restaurants and retail settings. As U of T already had significant control measures in place and the majority of activities are being conducted remotely, the implications of the shift to the Grey Zone are limited for the university.

At U of T, the following changes will take effect starting Monday, Nov. 23:

All indoor and outdoor sport and recreation facilities will be closed (virtual programming will continue to be available)
Indoor public events or social gatherings should not be held except with members of the same household
Outdoor events or social gatherings are limited to a maximum of 10 people and participants should practise physical distancing and/or mask wearing

The university continues to focus on the health and safety of our community, following or exceeding public health guidance since the start of the pandemic this spring.

Most classes and exams will continue to be held virtually, except for a limited number of classes that require in-person teaching as permitted under the provincial measures. Libraries continue to offer pick-up services and access to information technology resources for those who need it. Residences remain open and are adhering to safety precautions. Food services are for pick-up only. Student services and supports also continue to be offered.

Research continues both on campus, with safety measures in place, and remotely where possible, and all employees not required to work on campus are working remotely.

As the situation evolves, there may be other changes that need to be made and U of T will continue to follow the direction of public health authorities.

The restrictions are different across regions of the province. Members of the U of T community are encouraged to make sure they are aware of the requirements for the region in which they live.

To get the latest information on U of T’s response to COVID-19, visit UTogether2020.

Turning talk into action: What's next for the National Dialogues on anti-Black racism, Black inclusion

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 15:36:25 +0000

Turning talk into action: What's next for the National Dialogues on anti-Black racism, Black inclusion

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 10/06/2020 - 11:36

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Clockwise from top left (not including sign language translator): Kelly Hannah-Moffatt, Maydianne Andrade, Robert Summerby-Murray, Kofi Campbell, Kimberley Tull and Marie-Claude Rigaud.

Topic

More than 3,000 members of the higher education community – and close to 60 partner institutions across Canada – came together for the first of the National Dialogues and Action for Inclusive Higher Education and Communities. During the two days of conversation, the message that emerged was clear: The time to act on anti-Black racism and to promote Black inclusion is now.

Committing to a national plan of action that will be reflected in a document called the Scarborough National Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education: Principles, Commitments and Actions, participants agreed on the need for a unified approach to fighting structural racism.

Wisdom Tettey, University of Toronto vice-president and principal of U of T Scarborough, says that a charter is a way to bring together the entire sector and ensure commitment to action and accountability for those actions.

“We need to work towards our goal in a comprehensive and co-ordinated manner,” Tettey says. “We can’t just do it in exclusive pockets, or we won’t see real change.”

Tettey says he is confident that a draft of the charter will be ready to share with the higher education community by the end of the year, providing a framework of principles, actions and accountabilities to guide initiatives that confront anti-Black racism and advance Black inclusion.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to act immediately.

“We should all move ahead with bold initiatives at an institutional level,” Tettey says. “The conversations we had during the two days provided us with a huge resource of ideas for how we can go about things.”

At the wrap-up plenary session, speakers echoed the need for changes to begin immediately.

“Obviously we need medium- and long-term (goals), but often we hide behind the idea that it’s not the right time or that we don’t have the resources,” said Kofi Campbell, vice-president, academic, and dean of Renison University College in Waterloo, Ont. “There’s a reason we’re having this conversation right now. It is because public opinion is on our side.”

Clockwise from top left (not including sign language translator in middle panel, top row): Heather Hines, Alissa Trotz, Michael Charles, Desmond Pouyat and Dexter Voisin.

For Marie-Claude Rigaud, associate secretary general at Université de Montréal, the national charter must set specific commitments and accountability for its signatories.

“As universities and colleges, I believe we are best positioned to create bridges toward all levels of education and to lead change,” she said. “As a community within a broader community we have the power and responsibility not only to inspire but to lead this change.”

Rigaud added that now is not a time to be timid.

“Many (participants) voiced the hope that the charter would be a flexible and dynamic instrument, but more importantly a courageous one – one that will dare to be ambitious, with built-in accountability mechanisms.”

Accountability requires measurement and Maydianne Andrade, vice-dean, faculty affairs, equity and success at U of T Scarborough, says it is essential to become better at gathering the right information so we can understand the problem and measure whether initiatives are working.

“To understand whether we are making progress, we need the data and we need to use the data to build targets,” she said. “What is our expectation if we have an institution that is not racist?

“We have to change from structures that centre normative expectations of the student citizens that leave our walls. They shape the institutions while they are here and, more than that, when they leave our walls they shape societies.”

Tettey said that while concrete actions are necessary to see real changes in our institutions and society, he is grateful for the conversations and discussions at the forum since they helped people understand the gravity of the situation.

“I think it was enriching for everyone,” he said. “Many people told me how much they learned just from hearing the lived experiences and the holistic nature of the problem.”

During his opening remarks, Tettey spoke of the power of language and said that when we refer to groups that have been marginalized as “equity seeking,” we are implying that there is another group that is conferring equity upon them. Tettey instead proposed “equity deserving” as a more suitable term because no group should have to seek equity when it is a fundamental human right.

Watch recordings of the plenary sessions at the National Dialogues and Action for Inclusive Higher Education and Communities

Black History Month: U of T researcher's work explores Black history of the Canadian Prairies

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 15:16:14 +0000

Black History Month: U of T researcher's work explores Black history of the Canadian Prairies

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 02/15/2019 - 10:16

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Doing her PhD research, U of T Scarborough's Karina Vernon stumbled upon a historical account of a Black paddler in her Alberta hometown that spawned a thesis on Black Prairie literature and, now, a book on the same topic (photo by Don Campbell)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Humanities

U of T Scarborough

As a graduate student at the University of Victoria, Karina Vernon was ready to focus her PhD on African-American literature when she made a discovery.

Wandering through the library, she came across a shelf of community histories of the place where she grew up.

“I was like, what is this?” says Vernon, who moved at a young age from Honduras to Olds, Alta. and is now an associate professor in English at U of T Scarborough.

Leafing through histories of the region where she grew up, she came across something unexpected: an account of a “Black paddler” gliding along the Peace River in the 1870s.

Until then, Vernon had not thought of the prairies as having much Black history. But, as she came to understand, that history goes back as far as the fur trade and first European contact.

“Growing up, I didn’t see signs of Black history,” she says. “I thought we were the only Black family on the prairies.”

That accidental discovery led her to switch gears and dig deeper in her research to find out more about the writings of Black people in the region. Her research resulted in her PhD thesis on Black prairie literature, and indeed a life’s work that culminates in a book out this summer, The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology.

In the book, Vernon pulls together expressions of the Black experience in a diverse range of genres — personal memoir, oral literature, poetry, short fiction, afrofuturist fantasy, rap, slam poetry — from as far back as the 19^th century.

The first entry in the book is a Black page, to represent the “repertoire” of voices not heard, the voices of those unwritten cultural practices that existed in North America since at least the 18^th century, practices such as dance, singing, storytelling and performance. The Black page “is a kind of placeholder for all that oral culture,” Vernon says.

Black migration arrived to the Prairies in waves over the centuries. During the time of the fur trade, there were Black voyageurs. Black pioneers lived on isolated homesteads and in all-Black communities built to create support systems. Between 1905 and 1911, a large wave of Black migration came from Oklahoma and surrounding states until it was abruptly banned through racist legislation. Vernon’s own family came from Honduras in 1981 after changes in Canada’s Immigration Act removed biases against non-white immigrants.

The Black Prairie Archives will have a companion monograph – an academic analysis that goes into more depth. The two works are the result of more than 10 years of research and Vernon hopes they will bring a hidden and repressed history into the light.

“It’s the kind of book I wish I’d had when I was growing up.”

'I'm energized by the passion on this campus,' new principal of U of T Scarborough says

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 04:00:00 +0000

'I'm energized by the passion on this campus,' new principal of U of T Scarborough says

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 07/04/2018 - 00:00

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Wisdom Tettey (right), who officially became vice-president and principal of the University of Toronto Scarborough this week, takes a tour of the campus with Andrew Arifuzzaman, chief administrative officer (photo by Ken Jones)

Topic

As Wisdom Tettey officially becomes vice-president and principal of the University of Toronto Scarborough this week, he’s got a busy summer ahead of him.

“It’s going to be exciting but hectic,” says Tettey, adding that he's looking forward to his new role.

“I’m energized by the passion on this campus about making a significant impact in the community. There is a commitment to cultivating global citizens whose devotion to advancing society extends beyond the local into the global.”

But first there’s a lot for Tettey to work out. Finding a new home, working out school for the kids, getting up to speed with his new job – all while wrapping up his obligations at the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia, where Tettey was the dean of arts and sciences.

“I still have some scholarly commitments that I have to come through on,” Tettey says.

And he’s going to try to squeeze in a quick vacation with his family – he has a 15-year-old and 9-year-old twins – “just to get a little breather and come back rejuvenated and energized to take on the exciting possibilities that are waiting.”

Tettey, who took a recent tour of the campus and met with colleagues, will be at U of T Scarborough full-time in September. In the meantime, Vice-Principal, Academic and Dean William Gough will serve as acting principal.

U of T Scarborough's atmosphere of diversity and inclusion reflects Tettey's own background. He grew up in a diverse neighbourhood in Accra, Ghana.

“It wasn’t the most privileged neighbourhood,” he says.

Tettey's mother – who he says was his most significant influence – encouraged her children to connect with different people. “Home was the public square,” he says. “My friends would gather in our house. I learned to speak all the different languages, and because of that, people in Ghana have difficulty guessing where I’m from.”

In such an environment, it’s little wonder that supporting diversity became a central value for Tettey. He says he learned very early the values of hard work and serving others.

As an expert in the African diaspora, media and information technology, Tettey is looking forward to continuing his research in Toronto, citing the Centre for Critical Development Studies, the department of arts, culture and media, and the department of political science, as places where colleagues are doing work that dovetails with his own.

“The Toronto community connects me with my research and will allow me to connect with the communities with whom I do my work,” he says.

As principal, he intends to build on the local and global nature of the campus. “These are not different spheres,” he says.

“One of the things that’s striking to me is how the campus values diversity of different sorts – diversity of intellectual perspectives and diversity of backgrounds. When you’re on the campus, it is great to set your sights up and see the diversity right there.”

New health humanities minor at U of T Scarborough

ullahnor — Thu, 23 Mar 2017 16:38:34 +0000

New health humanities minor at U of T Scarborough

ullahnor Thu, 03/23/2017 - 12:38

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Andrea Charise (standing), an assistant professor of health studies at U of T Scarborough, is the lead developer of a program in health humanities (photo by Ken Jones)

Chris Garbutt

Author legacy

Chris Garbutt

Topic

Undergraduate Education

Students at U of T Scarborough now have a new program they can consider – a minor in health humanities – which will be the first of its kind in Canada. This interdisciplinary field explores health, illness and disability through the arts and humanities.

Andrea Charise, an assistant professor of health studies at U of T Scarborough, is the lead developer of the program. She’s also the founding director of SCOPE: The Health Humanities Learning Lab, a new arts- and humanities-based health research and education initiative.

U of T's Chris Garbutt spoke with Charise about the new program.

What is health humanities?

Health humanities, or medical humanities as it’s also sometimes called, can take a few forms from more theoretical discussions of the representation of illness – like AIDS, cancer, dementia or depression – in film, literature, drama or the visual arts, for example. But the field also involves more applied, hands-on practices such as the use of arts-based health interventions like art therapy or “narrative medicine.”

What attracts me to health humanities is how it asks researchers and educators to think about the relationship between the creative imagination of health and illness, and how those ideas get put to work in the “real world.”

Why does it matter?

Health humanities allows us to think more clearly, critically and creatively about the individual experience of health and illness. This focus on what it means to be sick or well distinguishes an arts-and humanities-based approach to health from more conventional approaches to health studies. What’s important to understand is that this does not mean that the arts and humanities are “better” or more important than biological or physiological knowledge of health. My own background is in clinical epidemiology and geriatrics, and I work closely with colleagues in the Faculty of Medicine.

What health humanities uniquely shows us is that the arts and humanities have something to teach us about the complex lived experience of health and illness. The arts and humanities are really good at helping us investigate and imagine ways into that complexity, which is often profoundly unique from person to person. The effects of health policy or illness experiences are often profoundly personal. If we only focus on the “bigger picture” of health, that individual perspective goes missing. That’s why health humanities matters.

Why now?

Health humanities has been around for about 40 years, mostly in medical schools where the arts have been employed to enhance the teaching of clinical skills like compassion and empathy. But the relationship between arts and medicine is an ancient one. Hippocrates, the founder of modern western medicine, famously wrote ars longa, vita brevis, art is long and life is short, in the document we now call the Hippocratic Oath.

What’s new is the idea that health humanities has a place outside of medical education as well. It’s only in the last 20 years or so that we’ve seen the growth of health humanities curricula at the non-professional undergraduate level. Currently, there are about 60 such programs across the United States, but UTSC’s undergraduate curriculum is the very first of its kind in Canada.

Are there any courses specific to this minor?

Yes! Introduction to Health Humanities (HLTB50) is the core introductory course, which I designed and first launched in Fall 2014. It serves as an overview of this field, runs every fall and is open to all UTSC students. It’s really exciting to be in a classroom with students from neuroscience, human biology, mental health, literature and visual arts (to name only a few). Part of the learning that goes on in this course is how to communicate effectively – and creatively – about health and illness with people trained in very different disciplines. That’s something I find really stimulating and rewarding as an educator. For a full list of courses eligible for UTSC’s health humanities minor, check out the SCOPE website. As program supervisor, I’m very happy to answer any questions so students can contact me via my website.

What will students learn, and what careers can they pursue?

Conventional health professions are increasingly recognizing the benefits of skills typically supported by the arts and humanities like textual and visual literacy, aesthetic or “close” noticing, tolerance for ambiguity, storytelling and narrative competence. The health humanities minor develops these skills and capabilities, as well as the ability to collaborate with students and future colleagues from radically different disciplines.

In terms of careers, a health humanities minor will help students chart career opportunities in fields like health communication, community health, as well as basic health professions like medicine, nursing or allied health such as social work or occupational therapy. Health humanities is also a way for students in the arts and humanities to use their knowledge and skills in a more applied setting such as art/drama/music therapy and community health programs.

But health and medicine have a deep history, and this history is influenced by the ongoing legacies of racism, colonialism, sexism and power relationships that emerge from the very fundamentals of language. An arts- and humanities-based education prepares someone to identify and address these issues really well, and health practices, policies and education are in need of people with these knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Why is U of T Scarborough fertile ground for this program?

The fact that this is now home to Canada’s first undergraduate minor in health humanities is proof that this is a place that welcomes and encourages truly innovative and interdisciplinary programs. I think what makes UTSC special is the trust the administration places in its junior researchers, the Centre for Teaching and Learning’s encouragement of educational innovation and a courageous student body that’s willing to come on board – and really co-create – fresh new ways of thinking about the world. My students are constantly engaging our health humanities work with their own lived experiences of race, immigration and other impactful facets of identity.

Polar bear expert explains why this cold winter cannot be used to deny climate change

sgupta — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 10:34:52 +0000

Polar bear expert explains why this cold winter cannot be used to deny climate change sgupta Wed, 03/11/2015 - 06:34

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The seasonal ice used by polar bears is disappearing and “by the end of the century, those bears will be wiped out,” says Gough (photo by Allan Hopkins via Flickr)

Chris Garbutt

Author legacy

Chris Garbutt

Subheadline

William Gough on the changes underway to northern growing seasons and seasonal ice

We’ve survived another cold winter. It almost makes you wonder if this whole “global warming” thing is a sham. It’s not, though. Climate change is, in fact, very real, and it’s possible that we may never see cold winters like this again. U of T Scarborough writer Chris Garbutt sat down with climatologist William Gough for some answers.

We’ve had two cold winters in a row now. What gives?
The students I teach are about 18 or 19 years old, so last winter (2013-14) was the coldest winter since 1994, which might just be the year they were born. So these would be the coldest winters they'd experienced.

It was cold enough to freeze the Great Lakes and that doesn't happen very often. Prior to 1900 it would have been once in five years. Now it's once in 20 years. This could be the last year the Great Lakes freeze over. Maybe once more before 2020. But if the projections are correct, I can't see how there could be another one after this decade.

But didn’t we just have the coldest February in history?
It was a cold winter, but I think the numbers you're hearing in the media are not quite right. If you look at it, it's probably the fourth coldest since 1840.

Worldwide, last year (2014) was actually the warmest year on record. Nobody in Toronto believes that, but if you look at a map of the world, just about everywhere was warming except this small area over the Great Lakes. It's no wonder people in this area are wondering what's going on. We've locally not experienced what the rest of the world has experienced.

Last week, we saw a video of the head of the U.S. Senate Environment Committee bring in a snowball from outside as proof that global warming isn’t real. Does it frustrate you as a scientist when people pull these stunts?
I've encountered this kind of thinking before where we base things on our lived experience. And I get it. We often evaluate our lives based on that perspective. That's why we have climate data and we rely on that to look at trends. The worldwide trend is very clear, with only some variation.

It's a challenge each time, especially because we use the measurement of a worldwide temperature. And so far it's one degree Celsius warmer, and you think, “big deal. I experience that in an hour.” If you go to the future, we're talking about 1.5 to 4 degrees and that doesn't sound so bad.

My research is in polar bears. Hudson's Bay has seasonal ice that exists for eight to nine months of the year. An ecosystem has been built around that. By the end of this century, that ice platform will disappear. Bears use that ice to go out to feast on seals, then come back to land and starve until the ice re-forms and they can feed again. This is how polar bears have survived for eons. If they don't have the ice, they don't survive. So by the end of the century, those bears will be wiped out.

In terms of taking action, I think we’re all trying to use less energy. What else can be done?
Well, think about what the big energy users are. On a personal level it's water heating and space heating. So doing laundry with cold water and insulating your house better. If you've got old appliances, get new ones, because they're more efficient.

But that won't be enough. It really takes a coordinated effort of the nations of the world. There's a little bit of hope, with China and the U.S. starting to talk, and there are lot of people in China who are really engaging in this, which is really encouraging to see.

Based on the projections, some of the changes seem to be inevitable. How do we respond to things that are already happening?
We have to exploit opportunities. No one likes this, because it's like making money off of disasters. But we've got to talk about it.

For example, Northern Ontario has this great clay belt that's marginal in terms of climate right now, but it'll become much better. I work with First Nations communities in Ontario's far north, where there are people who are developing community gardens. The growing season is becoming long enough. In the Great Lakes, there won't be any ice, but shipping will be able to happen year round.

Over the last 15 years, we’ve come to realize that things are going to get worse before they're going to get better. So we have to adapt.

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Oscar talk with alumnus Tom Ue

sgupta — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 10:53:55 +0000

Oscar talk with alumnus Tom Ue sgupta Fri, 02/20/2015 - 05:53

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Toronto

Chris Garbutt

Author legacy

Chris Garbutt

Topic

People across North America will be glued to their TV screens Sunday for the 87th Academy Awards. In a world of streaming video, DVRs and binge-watching, what is the future for the silver screen?

U of T Scarborough writer Chris Garbutt asked alumnus Tom Ue for his thoughts. Ue is a doctoral candidate in English literature at University College London and the editor of World Film Locations: Toronto. (See a photo gallery of Toronto film locations.)

Any thoughts on this year’s list of nominees?
As with any year, there are many worthy nominees and notable omissions. Julianne Moore, for one, is recognized for her career-defining work in Still Alice, but I thought her part in Maps to the Stars is equally deserving. Her co-stars Mia Wasikowska and Robert Pattinson gave equally compelling and psychologically-nuanced performances. Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain were both exemplary in A Most Violent Year.

Guardians of the Galaxy and Live, Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow grossed more than US$300 million and US$100 million in 2014 respectively, and actually got some pretty good reviews. But they only received five technical nominations between the two of them. Do you think there’s a bias against blockbusters in the Academy Awards?
Not necessarily. Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel earned nine nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and it grossed over US$174 million. Clint Eastwood’s mid-budget film American Sniper has made over US$394 million and it received six nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Bradley Cooper. The box office success of these films helps to remind us that the Oscar voters are viewers like us.

Movie attendance seems to have leveled off over the last 20 years. What kind of impact is that having on the film industry?
Filmmakers are coming up with more inventive ways for storytelling, and I think that some of the creative energies in filmmaking have transferred to television, making this an especially exciting time for audiences worldwide. HBO, BBC and ITV are all producing wonderful television programs and redefining how we think about cinema.

We hear stories of how many Canadians have done well in Hollywood. Is that reflected in the Oscars?
I certainly think so! Canadians are very well represented in many categories ranging from music to short films, and from writing to acting. Howard Shore, who won Oscars for music score (2001, 2003) and song (2003) for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, is Canadian and he contributed and continues to contribute to many of David Cronenberg’s films. Sarah Polley was nominated for writing Away from Her (2007), which she directed, and in the same year, Ellen Page received a well-deserved Oscar nomination for her leading role performance in Juno. Christopher Plummer won his first Oscar for Beginners (2012).

Since 1939, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has earned 11 Oscars, 73 nominations and an Honorary Oscar on its 50th anniversary. This year, Montrealer Torill Kove is nominated for her animated short “Me and My Moulton,” which was made with the support of the NFB.

Any U of T connections to the Academy Awards?
U of T alumni have always done very well at the Oscars. Mychael Danna, who studied music composition, won both the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Best Original Score for Ang Lee’s Life of Pi (2012). Fellow U of T music alumni Owen Pallett and William Butler from the Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire were acknowledged for the score of Spike Jonze’s Her (2013). Atom Egoyan was nominated for directing and writing The Sweet Hereafter (1997).

Why are these awards such a big deal, anyway?
The Oscars acknowledge some of the best work in film in any given year and they often introduce us to work that we might overlook. This year I am especially glad to see Marion Cotillard recognized in Two Days, One Night. I hope that this nomination would encourage more viewers to see this excellent film. This international recognition is especially important for independent films and it’s an enormous vote of confidence for new and emerging filmmakers.

So what are your predictions for Oscar night?
To be honest, I would be thrilled to see any of the eight films nominated for Best Picture win. All of the nominees are deserving, and they remind us of why we go to films, telling stories about both the ordinary and the epic.

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TEDx at UTSC: tackling big questions

sgupta — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 08:48:43 +0000

TEDx at UTSC: tackling big questions sgupta Wed, 02/04/2015 - 03:48

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Mandekh Hussein at TEDxUTSC (all photos by Ken Jones)

Chris Garbutt

Author legacy

Chris Garbutt

Topic

What is the value of a university education? How can poetry save a life? How do I keep the promise I made to my new friend?

It was a day of tackling big questions, and even small ones with large consequences, at the third TEDxUTSC conference.

U of T Scarborough student Mandekh Hussein set the tone for the day with her presentation, Why ask Why? “It’s not the answers that are important,” she said. “It’s the questions. Ask questions that ignite a fire.”

Brian Harrington, a computer scientist and lecturer at UTSC, said university students can learn to make an impact early, and their classroom studies are only half of the equation. It’s what you do outside the classroom that completes the picture.

Two speakers zeroed in on our lived environment and how it can be sustainable. Donald Schmitt, noted architect and designer of two buildings at UTSC, asked the audience, “Are we happy in the spaces in which we live or are we just working around what we’ve got?” He challenged delegates to demand more of architects – better light, reduced energy use, better views.

Later, David Bristow, a postdoctoral fellow at U of T’s Centre for the Resilience of Critical Infrastructure, said the infrastructure we take for granted – from roads to hospitals to wireless communications – is constantly at risk. He said we need to change the way we look at our infrastructure and focus on resilience thinking – adding diversity and redundancy of supply.

For UTSC student Teresa Gomes, making a friend from Northern Bangladesh at an international conference was a spark – one that lit the kind of fire described by Hussein. Gomes made a promise to help the girls of her friend’s village get better access to education.

“There are no boundaries when helping someone,” said Gomes (pictured at right). “Each and every one of us is making an impact on the world.”

Poet and UTSC lecturer Daniel Tysdal led participants in an emotional writing workshop, showing that anyone has the tools to write poetry, and it has the power to express feelings that might otherwise be held inside.

The conference closed with Olympic gold medallist Marnie McBean, who argued that there is no such thing as a superhero. Great things are done by normal people who attack a single thing at a time, she said.

Anyone who couldn’t be at the event could watch it live online, and the livestream is still available on the TEDxUTSC website. The event lit up social media, and the hashtag #TEDxUTSC trended nationally on Twitter.

Chris Garbutt is a writer with the University of Toronto Scarborough,

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Translating written English to Chinese is focus of new minor at UTSC

sgupta — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:24:55 +0000

Translating written English to Chinese is focus of new minor at UTSC sgupta Fri, 07/18/2014 - 06:24

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These four Chinese characters translate to English as "English-Chinese translation" (image courtesy UTSC)

Chris Garbutt

Author legacy

Chris Garbutt

Subheadline

Chinese is now the third most commonly used language in Canada

Starting in September, a new minor at the University of Toronto Scarborough's Centre for French and Linguistics will teach students how to translate written English to Chinese.

“The need for professional English and Chinese translation is growing rapidly,” says Helen Wu, senior lecturer in Linguistics at UTSC. “The ability to translate between English and Chinese has become a valuable asset in our global economy.”

Chinese is now the third most commonly used language in Canada, and the demand for translation services is growing in fields such as community service, journalism, tourism, immigration, medical services and legal services. There’s also a need for these skills in government and multinational corporations.

And the program will also deepen the connections between UTSC and its wider community.

“This is a campus that cares about its languages,” says Rena Helms-Park, associate professor in the Centre for French and Linguistics. “The languages we teach reflect the communities around us.”

The minor program will open up 30 spots in its first year. While the focus is currently on translation of English text into Chinese, there are plans to develop programs for Chinese to English translation as well.

Students who complete the program will enter the job market with skills that give them an advantage when those translation skills are required, says Wu, but there are other benefits.

“This program prepares top students who want to go into graduate study in this field because it equips them with both theoretical and practical skills,” she says.

The minor will also give students the skills to get the experience they need to become accredited in translation, both in Canada and China.

For information on the English-to-Chinese Translation program at UTSC, contact Wu at helenxy.wu@utoronto.ca or the centre’s undergraduate assistant at cfl-ua@utsc.utoronto.ca.

Chris Garbutt is a writer with UTSC

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Convocation 2014: from Green Path to PhD program

sgupta — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 10:14:04 +0000

Convocation 2014: from Green Path to PhD program sgupta Wed, 06/11/2014 - 06:14

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UTSC's Serena Song hopes to become a professor (photo by Ken Jones)

Chris Garbutt

Author legacy

Chris Garbutt

Subheadline

Co-op student jumps from undergrad to doctoral studies

When Serena Song was a high school student in Jinan, China, the last thing on her mind was a career in academia.

“I wanted to start a business and make money,” she says with a laugh.

But today, Song, a fourth-year Management student, is headed to the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School to get her PhD in Accounting. And her goal now is to be a professor.

Song came to the University of Toronto Scarborough through the Green Path program. The 12-week program helps students from China adjust to life and study in Canada. The students experience a Canadian-style classroom environment, which includes the expectation of active participation. They also work on academic skills such as English reading, writing and grammar, and get help as they adapt to life in Canada. Once students successfully complete the program, they go directly into first-year undergraduate studies at U of T.

After completing the Green Path program, Soong was admitted to the Management Co-op program in Finance. During her time as an undergraduate, she did well in all her courses, but was most excited by her work as a teaching assistant and as a research assistant.

As a teaching assistant in B- and C-level economics and finance courses, she found she enjoyed seeing students develop.

“I liked connecting with the students,” she says. “It’s so fulfilling to help them solve their problems.”

That passion for problem solving extended to her research work at UTSC. She participated in two projects, both supervised by Professor Ling Cen. The first was an examination of the different information roles of sell-side and buy-side financial analysts in earnings conference calls. The other investigated how adding historical information about a company to sites like Wikipedia can affect the company’s stock price.

“I loved seeing how dedicated our team members were,” Song says.

At the Simon School, Song will be researching the diffusion of corporate governance mechanisms along the supply chain. She’ll examine why and how different companies in the supply chain develop similar forms of governance.

“It’s very rare for an undergraduate to go straight into a PhD,” says Cen. “She has worked really hard and is a great example for other students.”

This wasn’t the only offer she had, but Song cites the Simon School’s prestige, long history and its proximity to Toronto as the reasons for her choice.

“I’m nervous, but I think my past experience shows I’m a quick learner,” she says.

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Chris Garbutt

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