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 […]

Passings: Professor John Saywell, a pioneering figure at York, dies at 82

University Professor Emeritus John Tupper (Jack) Saywell, noted Canadian historian and a member of the Founders Society of York University, has died. Prof. Saywell, or "Jack" as most knew him, died on April 20 in Toronto. He was 82. Known as the "kid from Cowichan Lake, British Columbia", Prof. Saywell arrived at the University of […]

Four researchers to offer fresh ideas at Saturday's York Circle event

From the ‘burbs to birds and from social justice to Olympic poetry, the next installment of the York Circle’s popular Lecture & Lunch series returns on Saturday, April 30. It promises plenty of new ideas for inquiring minds. As with previous York Circle Lecture & Lunch events, organizers have planned a full day of inspiring lectures […]

Professor Haideh Moghissi's 1999 book on feminism and Islam finds new readers in Indonesia

About five years ago, Haideh Moghissi heard of plans to translate into Indonesian her 1999 book, Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism: The Limits of Postmodern Analysis. She didn’t hear anything more until two months ago when, lo and behold, she learned it had not only been translated, it had been published. Slowly, over the past 12 […]

Professor Obiora Okafor elected to UN Human Rights Council advisory committee

Last week, York law Professor Obiora Okafor was elected to the advisory committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Nigerian-born professor brings his expertise in international law, human rights law,  and immigration and refugee law, especially as it relates to Africa, to the advisory committee. “The committee is the think tank of the […]

Professor Lorne Foster's book reviews major issues from black community perspective

In his recent book, Writing Justice: Voicing Issues in the Third Media, York public policy & equity studies Professor Lorne Foster provides a retrospective review of the burning issues of the last decade from the perspective of Canada’s black community. The launch for Writing Justice (Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 2011) will take place on […]

Passings: Memorial for Professor David Noble to be held Saturday, March 26

A memorial for York University Professor David Franklin Noble, who died in Toronto on Dec. 27 following complications of pneumonia, will be held on Saturday. Prof. Noble was 65. The memorial will take place March 26, at 4pm, at the Cecil Street Community Centre, 58 Cecil St., in Toronto. The York University flag will be lowered to half-mast Friday afternoon […]

Passings: Historian Richard Storr was briefly acting president of York University

Professor Emeritus Richard Storr, a historian who was briefly York's acting president, died earlier this week at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto following a brief illness. Prof. Storr was born and educated in the United States, receiving a PhD from Harvard University in 1949. After teaching at various American colleges, he accepted a position at the […]

Professor Sheila Cavanagh on Toronto's unisex washroom trend

Sheila Cavanagh, professor of sociology at York University [Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies], recently published a book called Queering Bathrooms: Gender, Sexuality, and the Hygienic Imagination, in which transgendered and other queer interviewees discuss the difficulties that divided bathrooms present, wrote the Toronto Star March 4: The evolution of bathroom-stall signage — from […]

Professors report back to Arctic communities on International Polar Year Research

For two weeks in January, two York professors bundled into parkas and flew to Arctic villages along the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline. They were delivering valuable cargo – the results of their International Polar Year (IPY) research. Reporting back to the communities was a condition of receiving IPY research funding in 2007, and after three years […]