News of Fellows

Stephen Baranyi led a global network of NGOs in 1996-7 concerned with European Union policies in Southeast Asia.  He is currently working on a book entitled People’s Participation and Positive Peace: Options for  Southern Civil Society Organizations and the International Community.

Judith Bernhard maintains her interest in cultural and linguistic diversity and equity issues in education pertaining to minority, immigrant and refugee groups. She and Marlinda Freire were awarded grants from the Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement (CERIS) and SSHRC to support their research with Latin American families and their encounters with the educational system.

Maxwell Cameron is Associate Director of the Centre for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at Carleton University.  In 1997-98 he managed a contract with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade to produce an edited book entitled To Walk Without Fear: The Global Movement to Ban Land Mines which was published by Oxford University Press.  He is currently completing a book on the NAFTA negotiations with Brian Tomlin.

Kim Clark’s research interests include racial, gender and national ideologies as well as anthropological political economy. She is currently working on several article-length manuscripts on early-twentieth century Ecuador examining the relationship between racial ideologies and national ideologies, and on gender, class and nation.

Harry Díaz is the co-director of a development project oriented to support and enhance human resources and capacity building for sustainable development in two Latin American regions through the development of integrated, interdisciplinary training, and research programs at two regional universities (Universidad de La Serena, Chile and Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica).

Ramabei Espinet continues as co-editor of an editorial team working on the CERLAC Caribbean Religions Project which aims to publish an Encyclopaedia of Caribbean Religions.

Margarita Feliciano is working on an anthology of Spanish-speaking women in North America as well as the translation and publication of her own poetry.  She organizes the annual Hispanic festival, “Celebración Cultural del Idioma Español” (CCIE) and created and coordinated a certificate in Spanish-English, English-Spanish at Glendon College, York University.

Nibaldo H. Galleguillos of the Faculty of  Social  Sciences at McMaster University was given a Teaching Excellence Award in March 1998. In December 1997, he made a presentation to the Immigration and Refugee Board (Toronto) on current human rights and issues facing homosexual individuals in Mexico. In October 1997 he presented the paper "Economic Globalization and the State of Human Rights in Latin America's Emergent Democracies" at the Second Annual Conference on Business and Professional Ethics at Wilfred Laurier University.

Luin Goldring is the coordinator of the CERLAC graduate diploma program since July 1997.  She was on parental leave during 1998-1999.  During this time she continued research on the relationship between the Mexican state and Mexicans in the U.S.  She participated in several conferences, including the “Foro Internacional sobre el Voto de los Mexicanos en el Extranjero” at the University of Zacatecas (Mexico), “Engendering Theories of Transnational Migration” at Yale University, and “The Emergence of Transnational Social Spaces” at the University of Gottingen, Germany.

Doris Grinspun facilitated a four day workshop on "Participatory Management and Professional Excellence in Nursing" at the Glover Hospital in Chuquicamata, Chile, during May 1997.  She has been collaborating with several health organizations in Chile on various nursing issues.  She organized a "Taller sobre Protocolos de Atención de Enfermería para Pacientes en Estado de Coma," Toronto, 28-30 April 1999 for Latin American participants, as part of a project she directs on "Developing Centres of Excellence in Rehabilitation Nursing" funded by the Panamerican Health Organization (PAHO).

Ricardo Grinspun engaged in various activities as director of CERLAC and Canadian director of several projects, including the project with the Women's Forum for Central American Integration, the project with the Central American Integration System, and the Youth Internship Program with the Organization of American States. He submitted with Chilean partners a successful proposal to AUCC/CIDA on sustainable rural development in Chile. He also remained very active with the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CALACS).

Judith Adler Hellman won a three year SSHRC grant for a project titled “Reconceptualizing the Mexican Political System: Popular, Middle-Class and Elite Perspectives on Political Change”.  In June 1997, Professor Hellman delivered the Plenary Lecture at the joint session of the Canadian Associations of Asian Studies, African Studies and Latin American and Caribbean Studies in St. John’s, Newfoundland.  She is also currently a member of the Task Force on Human Rights of the Latin American Studies Association.

Michael Kaufman has continued his work on gender issues over the past year.  He has given talks and workshops in Mexico and has been working with UNICEF, UNESCO, and the International Red Cross on issues concerning men and masculinity, and violence against women. His first novel, The Possibility of Dreaming on a Night Without Stars, was published by Penguin in the spring of 1999.  A Spanish translation of one of his articles appeared in Masculinidad/es: Poder y Crisis published by Isis and FLACSO Chile.

John Kirk recently conducted a series of interviews with leading cultural agencies in Cuba. Currently he is working on a book analyzing the nature of Cuban popular culture and conducting a study of Canadian-Cuban joint ventures. John’s regional specializations also include Mexico and Nicaragua.

Kathryn Kopinak was on sabbatical leave from King's College at the University of Western Ontario in the 1997/98 academic year, and working as a visiting scholar in the Department of Population and Social Studies, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in San Antonio del Mar, Baja California, Mexico. She remained there in the 1998/99 academic year on a one year leave of absence. Duties in 1999 included teaching “Economía, Sociedad y Trabajo” in the doctoral program in Social Sciences. She presented "Empleo y Relaciones Laborales. Las Maquiladoras en éxico" (with Jorge Carrillo) at the “Seminario en el Marco del Proyecto: Cambios en la Regulación Laboral Como Consecuencias de la Globalización,” at UNAM, Mexico City, March 4-5, 1999.

Tanya Korovkin completed a project on land utilization and community development in Ecuador as part of her ongoing work with INSTRUCT (Interamerican Network for Sustainable Resource Management and Community Development) with funding by CIDA.  A booklet was published with the results of the project for use in local communities. Her work in progress includes a study of communal tradition in indigenous communities in highland Ecuador.

Louis Lefeber has been working with Liisa North on a joint SSHRC funded joint project for study of the relationship between macroeconomic policies and grassroot enterprises in Ecuador. In this connection he went on a field research trip in March 1998 to investigate small scale cooperatives and industrial concentrations in the Sierra regions of Ecuador.  In 1999 he continues the Ecuador related SSHRC study. Furthermore, he completed and submitted for publication a paper on "Classical vs. Neoclassical Economic Thought in Historical Perspective," a study of the contrasting interpretations of economic growth and development.  He contributed to various CERLAC activities, including the OAS project, and participated in the functions of the Canadian Pugwash Group and Science for Peace.

Jaime Llambías-Wolff was an invited professor for a ten week seminar at the MBA program, University of Santiago, Chile and spoke about “Development and Modernization”. He also conducted a five week seminar at the Chilean Diplomatic Academy, Ministry of External Relations. He also gave a seminar on “Present Demands in Public Health”, School of Medicine, University of Chile in Santiago and was the keynote speaker at a “Seminar on Regional Development” at the University of Atacama, Chile.

Paul Lovejoy completed his three-year term as vice-president of SSHRC as well as his role as Director, Unit of Repatriation, Resettlement and Development at the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University. In addition he is the director of the Nigerian Hinterland Project.

Laura Macdonald was a visiting fellow in 1998 at the Centre for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego.  Her current research project, funded with a SSHRC grant,  is titled “Economic Integration, Human Rights and Civil Society: Transnational Responses to NAFTA”.

Liisa North received a SSHRC grant for her research “Community Development in the Context of Structural Adjustment Programs: The Case of Ecuador.”  She was in Ecuador from January until May 1999 conducting field research. She recently co-edited a volume on the return of Guatemalan refugees with Alan Simmons.

Lynne Phillips’ research focuses on women and development, globalization, and health.  Her work in progress includes a AUCC/IDRC sabbatical internship for Latin America to research, with colleagues in Ecuador and Argentina, the impact of free trade on small-scale farmers. She just received a three year SSHRC grant to do a study on the United Nations.

David Pollock continues as a member of the board of directors of FOCAL, CIIA and SID. He has recently worked with Edgar Dosman on two publications:  To UNCTAD and Back, Spreading the Gospel (forthcoming) and The Life and Work of Raúl Prebisch (forthcoming).

Althea Prince is in the editorial committee of the Caribbean Religions Project.  She is a contributing writer for Outlet Newspaper, St. John’s, Antigua and was featured in Paragraph, The Canadian Fiction Review, “Holding Onto the Core: An Interview with Althea Prince.” She is currently working on a novel, Murder in the Caribbean, as well as projects entitled “Race in the Canadian University Classroom,” and “Rasta Antigua: Journeys Through the ‘Livity’: The Philosophy and Spirituality of Rastafari in Antigua.”

Cecilia Rocha is currently working as the co-ordinator of “Sharing Experiences in Building Healthy Communities,” a project promoting community environmental management in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  The project has been developed in partnership with the Nucleo de Informacao e Estudos para Gestao Ambiental (NIEGA), the Sao Paulo Housing Authority (CDHU), and a number of supporting organizations in Canada, including the Foundation for International Training (FIT) and the Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition (OHCC).

Jim Rochlin continues as Chair of International Relations at Okanagan University College in Kelowna.  He maintains his interest in the political economy of inter-American security with specific interest in Mexico and the Andean Region (Peru, Colombia and Bolivia).

Richard Roman visited Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and El Salvador to consult with unions and peasant groups on issues of neo-liberalism and economic integration. He is currently working on several  projects with Edur Velasco (Universidad  Autónoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco)  including the book Resistance and Accomodation: The Mexican Working Class in Continental Perspective due for publication in 1999.

Judith Rudakoff has facilitated six workshops and interchanges between Cuban and Canadian theatre artists as well as student exchanges with Teatro Escambray. She is currently working on “Rum & Coca Cola,” a stage play which was workshopped at Teatro Escambray in November 1997, given a workshop reading at Toronto’s Factory Theatre in Spring 1998, and a full staged showcase at Montreal’s Teesri Duniya Theatre in Fall 1998.  She is currently working with Teatro Escambray and York theatre students on a multi year collaborative creative venture called “The Garden”.  In Fall 1998 she was named “Honorary Member” of Teatro Escambray.  She is the only foreigner in the theatre’s 30 year history to have been afforded this status.

Alan Simmons has recently completed Journeys of Fear: Refugee Return and National Transformation in Guatemala, a volume he co-edited with Liisa North. Among other activities, he continues with the (SAGIT) Salvadoreans and Guatemalans in Toronto and organized a workshop on labour mobility. He is a member of the Committee on Population and Development (Canadian Federation of Demography) and serves on the editorial board of International Migration.

Paul Wilkinson continues  his  work on the use of the Internet in tourism marketing in the Caribbean.  Specifically he is concerned with the illusions and delusions of cruise ship touring in this region.

Robert Witmer is currently preparing a number of articles and brief entries on Caribbean and Latin American music topics for the Encyclopedia of Popular Music of  the World and The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Vol. 3: North America.  Professor Witmer continues as a  councillor of the Society for Ethnomusicology and as a Consulting Editor for Black Music Research Journal, the “Music of the African Diaspora” monograph series of the University of California Press, and Lenox Avenue: A Journal of Interartistic Inquiry.

CUFA Honors Fellow Member Jorge Nef

Professor Jorge Nef  has earned the 1997 teaching award from the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Association (OCUFA). Nef has been a faculty member at University of Guelph in the Department of Political Science since 1975. He is a fellow of CERLAC and was the co-director of CERLAC’s Ecuador project from 1989 to 1993.  A former president of the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and a specialist in Latin American comparative politics, development studies, comparative public administration, international relations and methodology, Nef has produced 11 books and monographs, 70 peer reviewed chapters and articles and 65 papers and presentations. He has spent time teaching, consulting or doing research in Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama, Europe, Peru, Uruguay, Papua-New Guinea, Ecuador, Argentina and Brazil.

Students praise him for his ability to present complex  issues clearly, his skill at inspiring students to think critically and to challenge the normal perceptions of political issues. His openness and humor inside the classroom and his accessibility outside of it is also much appreciated.

“It is recognition of a career, not just one shot or a number of courses. It recognizes a position, a philosophy and a practice in education. It also signifies more than an award for teaching. It’s an award for education, for the contributions of an individual to the process of creating, shaping and sharing knowledge and culture.”(Jorge Nef)

Deborah Barndt in Profile
by Andrew Macdonald

Professor Deborah Barndt (Deb) joined York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) in 1993 to teach in the areas of  “Critical Education, Creativity and Communication.” Deb’s first contact with CERLAC was prior to 1993 through her involvement with the Latin American Working Group in the early 1980's and later in her role as coordinator of the “Moment Project” at  the Jesuit Centre in Toronto from 1985-1993.

It is hard to imagine the number and diversity of people with whom Deb has participated through popular education programs in Canada, the United States, Nicaragua and Peru since the mid-1970's.   This had its genesis in her PhD work on the methods of Brazilian educator Paolo Freire with poor barrios in Lima, Peru.  Subsequently, in the early 1980's,  Deb was a consultant to the Ministry of Education in Nicaragua.   Reminiscent of her work at FES, this involved popular communication training with literacy teachers and culminated in the book: To Change This House: Popular Education Under the Sandinistas.

In recent years Deb has spent a great deal of energy  tracing the trail of the tomato from the Mexico field to the Canadian table. This work is particularly inspiring because of its success in bringing together diverse groups which are connected to the issues in different ways.   First, it involves both Mexican women who are field labourers as well as Canadian women who are supermarket cashiers. Their stories are shared through photo-stories, cartoon booklets and video letters.  A second project  includes popular educators: IMDEC in Mexico; Highlander in
Tennesee and Food Share in Toronto.  A final  layerof the   process involves the representation from academic insitutions in each of these countries including: two Mexican economists, a law professor from the U.S., Canadian sociologist Ester Reiter of CERLAC; six students in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York, the University of Tennesee and Universidad de Guadalajara.  The project will culminate in two books.  The first is a compilation of essays written by women involved in the project titled Women, Food and Globalization: Resisting/Connecting Across Borders. The second will follow the tomato’s journey and women’s experiences in the post-NAFTA context.

On this theme, Deb has published several articles, the most recent of which is a photo-story entitled “Zooming Out/Zooming In: Visualizing Globalization” in Visual Sociology,  Vol. 12. No. 2. 1998.  Three additional pieces have been published in recent years:  “Tracing the Trail of the Tomato”, in Alternatives Journal, January/February 1996; “Crafting a Global Education: Focusing on Food, Women and Globalization,” in Atlantis Women’s Magazine, Fall 1997; and“Bio-cultural Diversity and Equity in Post-NAFTA Mexico (Or Tomasita Comes North While Big Mac Goes South )”,  Socialist Studies, Vol. 12. No. 1. 1997: 55-69.

I’ve been  fortunate to participate in two of Deb’s courses at FES: Critical Education for Social Change and a workshop in Cultural Production which explored art as a method of resistance.  Particularly inspiring is her consistent energy to foster a learning environment which includes creative thought, rigorous analysis and the passions of its participants.  As well as being an analyst, a teacher, a reseacher and a mom, Deb is a skilled photographer. Last year she presented a show “Who Grows Our Food?” with Vincenzo Pietropaso at the Art Gallery of Ontario.  She is often accompanied by a favorite research assistant, her son Joshua, and  a following of students eager to share a little time of her time and contagious energy.

Dan Benedict Receives Order of Canada

CERLAC is very proud to announce that Dr. Daniel Benedict has recently received the Order of Canada.  Since CERLAC’s foundation in 1978, Dan has collaborated extensively with the Centre as a consultant, advisor, and a friend.  Dan’s inspirational efforts in organized labour and social justice movements both within Canada and abroad make him a worthy recipient of this prestigious honour.

Dan has been been involved in establishing contacts and promoting new projects in the region.  For instance, he was centrally involved with CERLAC’s Chile Project in the 1980s and acted as a liaison between academics and labour activists in Canada and Chile.  His efforts helped to keep socially relevant education and research alive during the Pinochet military dictatorship. In 1988, Dan was a co-organizer of CERLAC’s tenth anniversary conference on Labour Movements and Social Change in Latin America and the Caribbean.  Dan has also generously donated a priceless collection of materials on Latin American labour and politics to CERLAC’s documentation centre.

It is interesting to note that much of Dan’s work in academia was conducted after his retirement from the position as International Representative of the Canadian region of the United Auto Workers in 1983.  This demonstrates Dan has an incredible level of personal energy and ability.  At the age of 81, Dan is writing a history of Canadian auto workers and has already completed a considerable draft.  Dan holds a doctoral degree in Economics from Grenoble University and acted as an Adjunct Professor of Graduate Studies in Sociology and a visiting professor in Political Science at York University.  He has also taught industrial relations at McMaster and Laval Universities and holds an impressive list of conference presentations, book chapters, and journal articles on Canadian and international industrial relations, labour organizations and education, and workplace technology.

Two of Dan’s most impressive qualities are his profound historical and international knowledge of the labour movement, and his ceaseless advocacy of worker empowerment through education both in Canada and abroad.  Buzz Hargrove, President of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), considers him to be the most knowledgeable person in the country, and perhaps in the world, on the Canadian and international labour movements.  Another incredible ability of Dan’s is his capability to use his linguistic strength as a resource in cross-cultural communication.  He speaks English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, some  Finnish, Hungarian and Swedish, and is learning Russian and Mongolian.

Dan has also made significant contributions to worker education in Latin America.  The retired Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Metalworkers Federation, Fernando Melgosa believes Dan’s contribution to be “the most important of any individual outside the region.”  Mr. Melgosa has pointed out that Dan instructed hundreds of Latin American union cadres on industrial relations.  During the 1950s and 1960s he was also involved with Latin American and Mediterranean unions in helping them to devise strategies to deal with repressive military regimes during that era.

Dan’s commitment to worker education has certainly left a mark on Canadian society since the CAW has adopted his vision into the union’s Paid Education Leave program.  Another aspect of society which has felt Dan’s efforts is the social justice movement.  Dan has been a vocal promoter of both adult education and accessible health care.  As Vice-President and now Co-Chair of the Ontario Coalition of Senior Citizens’ Organizations, Dan acts as an effective voice for seniors on issues related to health, income security, pensions, housing, and transportation.

CERLAC is honoured to have been associated with such an exceptional individual.  Dan has remained committed to helping Canadians from all walks of life to improve their conditions and defend their rights.  Dan’s tireless efforts in the realm of labour rights, education, healthcare, and seniors’ rights have made him loved and admired by people of all ages in Canada and Latin America.  Congratulations Dan!

Liddy Gomes Named Honorary Fellow

Liddy Gomes retired from York University on May 1, 1999.  Directors of CERLAC come and go but Liddy represents the thread that has provided continuity, stability and a sense of place for CERLAC Fellows, Associates and students throughout the years.  She has been the source of institutional memory to which they could turn for help and information.  Liddy has an extraordinary loyalty to the Centre.  As its administrator with twenty-one years of uninterrupted and dedicated service, she has contributed significantly to the growth and development of CERLAC since its formation in 1978.  Often working long hours, she has attended to the ever-increasing CERLAC administration all by herself.

As the reputation of CERLAC has grown, so has that of Liddy Gomes.  Her duties have included all matters of institutional arrangements, correspondence, accounting, budgeting, Fellows' travel arrangements, conference organization, guest accommodations, and all other imaginable matters that require attention to detail.  In so doing she has become known everywhere—here and abroad, wherever CERLAC has academic linkages—for her civility, efficiency and ready willingness to help.

In addition to her hard work and dedication, Liddy has shown over the years a delightful sense of humor, and has extended a great personal warmth and hospitality to Fellows, students and visitors alike. While Liddy's work will be taken over by new staff members, she could never be replaced.  The history of her service to the Centre is the history of CERLAC. In recognition of her contributions, Liddy has been named an Honourary Fellow of CERLAC. For her retirement we wish her and her husband Lamberto a long, healthy and fulfilling life.

Louis Lefeber in Profile

When Professor Louis Lefeber is credited as the founding director of CERLAC, he points out that the primary credit belongs to a group of committed, but at that time young, scholars. They had a leading role in obtaining the support of the York University administration for the formation of a centre for Latin American and Caribbean studies. When CERLAC was officially established in 1978, Louis was appointed director as a senior faculty member with Latin American experience.

Louis remained in that post until 1985. Sharing the work with him as Deputy Director was Liisa North, followed by Peter Landstreet. Louis also recalls the devoted help of Liddy Gomes, whom originally he appointed as secretary, but who rapidly advanced to become CERLAC’s office administrator. Major research projects were started and strong linkages were developed with FLACSO, Quito, and various other Latin American and Caribbean institutes and academic organizations. The graduate diploma programme in Latin American and Caribbean studies was also created at that time. But Louis is particularly pleased that it was during his tenure as director that the Centre’s academic independence and disinterested scholarly orientation were solidly established, in spite of various—and occasionally heavy—institutional pressures. He remembers Sidney Eisen, the then Dean of the Faculty of Arts, as one administrator who gave him and CERLAC his unwavering support.

Since his official retirement in 1994, Louis has continued his York association as professor emeritus of Economics and the Graduate Programme for Social and Political Thought (SPT), as well as Fellow of CERLAC and Special roject Advisor to York International. He continues to do research, to write and to publish.

His current work, jointly with Professor Liisa North, has been focussed on Ecuador. His recent publications are on income distribution, employment, rural transformation and agricultural policy with special reference to Mexico and Ecuador. A paper of his on economic thought in historical perspective is forthcoming in a political theory journal.

Louis was born in 1924 in Budapest.  He obtained his baccalaureate in 1942 at the gymnasium of the Pázmány Péter university–alma mater of many distinguished Hungarian mathematicians and scientists–but his subsequent university studies were interrupted by the war, specifically by the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944. Louis went underground and was member of a resistance group that was formed by some former volunteers of  the Hungarian contingent of the International Brigade in the Spanish civil war and other antifascists.

He left Hungary for Italy in 1947 and went to Venezuela in 1948. There he was working first as an oil field hand, then in various maintenance and construction jobs. He returned to his studies in 1953 and received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1957. In 1958 he married his wife Rosalind, a scholar and teacher of  French and later of Sanskrit language and literature. She has recently retired from McMaster University.

In his academic career,  Louis has held an impressive array of teaching positions.  From 1956 to 1961, he was instructor and assistant professor at Harvard University.  From there he moved to MIT as an associate professor of economics. While teaching at MIT Louis also worked as a research associate of the MIT Centre for  international Studies on various India related projects and made many visits of varying durations to that country.  His career at MIT came to an end in 1965, when he objected to the Center’s use of  research on Indian planning for political purposes. His promotion to full professor was held up by the university administration, in spite of the unanimous recommendation of the Department of Economics. (The background to the story was written up in George Rosen, Western Economists and Eastern Societies, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985.)  At that point he accepted an invitation by Andreas Papandreou to work at the Athens Center of Planning and Economic Research and as an advisor to the then Prime Minister George Papandreou. When a royal putsch removed George from office in the summer of  1965, Louis went as a visiting professor to Stanford University, where he was offered tenure and the opportunity to establish a Latin American research centre, both of which he declined. (The latter was subsequently undertaken by Enrique Iglesias of ECLA and IDB fame.) The temptation was great, but both he and his wife decided that they were not made for the California life. Returning to the East in 1966, he took the F.C. Hecht Chair of International Economics at Brandeis University. He came to York at the invitation of Andreas Papandreou in 1972, where he remained active until his official retirement at the end of 1994.

Louis has also been involved in a variety of research and professional activities in many different countries.  In the spring of 1962 he was appointed technical director of the review of the Chilean ten year development plan under the Alliance for Progress (Pan American Union, Committee of Nine) and prepared (jointly with Benjamin Hopenhayn of Argentina) a critical report on the Chilean economy that outlined  many of the reforms that were legislated and partially implemented by the Frei (Christian Democratic) and Allende governments.  At various times he acted as a consultant to diverse UN agencies, the Interamerican Development Bank, the World Bank and the Indian government. In the nineteen-eighties he was personal advisor to Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. For eight years, during the first two terms of the PASOK government, he commuted between Toronto and Athens.

Though Louis does not teach regular classes anymore, he takes an occasional SPT or CERLAC related student for guided research or seminars. He feels he has been lucky as a teacher for having had a number of outstanding students, some of them with distinguished careers. He remains a member of various professional associations,  including the Canadian Pugwash Group and Science for Peace. When not at his desk in Toronto, he enjoys spending time at his cottage on Martha’s Vineyard, looking at the sea and the dunes, and trying to keep the wild grapes from overrunning his trees and bushes.