While researching the historical rights of his First Nation’s community of Listuguj in the Gespe’gewa’gig district of the Mi’gmaw on the southwest shore of the Gaspé peninsula for his doctoral thesis, York PhD candidate Alfred Metallic came to believe there was something missing in what he was doing – an integral piece of a larger […]
Writing yourself a feel-good letter can lead to a long-term boost in emotional well-being, although it won’t work if you’re extremely needy, a York University study has found. Individuals who wrote themselves a compassionate or optimistic letter every day for a week were less depressed up to three months later and reported an overall increase in […]
When it comes to Canadian Patient Safety Week, the play’s the thing. Researchers at York’s Faculty of Health have come up with a pioneering way to convey their evidence-based research on what can happen when health-care mistakes are made – they’re putting on a play about it. Seeing the Forest, inspired by a true story […]
People who can no longer recognize faces compensate with heightened voice recognition abilities, says a York University study, which also finds that our brains may identify people and things on separate neurological planes. The study, recently published in the journal Neuropsychologia looked at a rare disorder called prosopagnosia, in which the ability to visually identify […]
The Victorian Studies Network at York (VSNY) will delve into New Directions in Victorian Research at its third annual symposium this Friday. Faculty and students from English, history, political science, science & technology, and the Scott Library will discuss their current scholarship during the symposium, which will take place Oct. 22, from 10am to 2:45pm, […]
York University will host a TEDxYorkU event at Glendon on Saturday, Nov. 6. Based on the popular TED Conference, TEDxYorkU invites speakers to share their important visions for the future and involves audience participants in sharing ideas, addressing new perspectives and spreading inspiration. York University community members are invited to apply to be an audience participant […]
Nominations are now being accepted for the title of Distinguished Research Professor, to be conferred at the spring or fall 2011 convocation. The title of Distinguished Research Professor is awarded for life and evolves into a Distinguished Research Professorship Emeritus/a on retirement. All of York’s Distinguished Research Professors are encouraged to continue their involvement in […]
Collaboration to incubate new ideas and support social entrepreneurs United Way of York Region and York University have launched Change Inc., a collaboration that will incubate and invest in promising innovations to tackle complex social issues and build capacity in York Region. Daniele Zanotti, CEO of United Way, and Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation […]
Ian Mosby (MA '06), a York PhD history student, has won the Nicholas C. Mullins Award for his essay, titled “That Won-Ton Soup Headache’: The Chinese Restaurant Syndrome, MSG and the Making of American Food, 1968–1980”. “I was surprised and truly honoured….I'm very lucky to have had such a supportive group of friends, supervisors, and […]
A waterproof controller designed and built by York University researchers is allowing an underwater robot to go “wireless” in a unique way. AQUA, an amphibious, otter-like robot, is small and nimble, with flippers rather than propellers, designed for intricate data collection from shipwrecks and reefs. The robot, a joint project of York, McGill and Dalhousie […]
A Superior Court justice gutted the federal prostitution law in Ontario on Tuesday, allowing sex-trade workers to solicit customers openly and paving the way for judges in other provinces to follow suit, wrote The Globe and Mail Sept. 29: Justice Susan Himel struck down all three Criminal Code provisions that had been challenged – communicating […]
Almost three-quarters of homeless young people in Toronto say they have been the victim of multiple crimes, a new survey suggests, wrote CBC News online: “Being homeless means constant exposure to dangerous people and places,” said the report, "Surviving Crime and Violence: Street Youth and Victimization in Toronto". It was released Monday. While most criminal […]
You can read how researchers from the Centre for Vision Research at York University used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the effect of video-game experience on the neural control of increasingly complex visuomotor tasks in young men, in the October issue of Cortex, an Elsevier journal, wrote MediLexicon.com Sept. 27: Lead author and PhD […]
The Department of Film in the Faculty of Fine Arts celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and is marking this milestone with a series of events highlighting past achievements and looking to the future. One of the “birthday” productions is The 40 Film, a specially commissioned compilation of one-minute clips from 40 student films made […]
You would balk at getting an iPad wet, but a tablet computer has now been designed to work deep under the sea – not to allow divers to check e-mail, but so that they can communicate with underwater robots working in hard-to-reach or dangerous locations, such as the inside of shipwrecks or caves in coral […]
Without bees, we wouldn’t have coffee to drink at breakfast, tomatoes in your sandwich at lunch or fruit for a snack on the go. While bee populations all over the world are in trouble, there are lots of things individuals can do to create bee-friendly gardens — even if your personal green space is limited […]
Despite good intentions, education systems can still succumb to the influence of flawed perceptions of meritocracy, says York PhD candidate Gillian Parekh (BEd '02, MA '09) in a recent winning paper. That means, in at least two parts of the world, governments' prioritization of economic returns can trump students' rights to equitable and quality educational opportunities. […]
Researchers, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at York University have been awarded over $10 million from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The grants, part of $190.5 million in funding and awards invested across the country, will support over 220 innovative York research projects to improve Canadians’ quality of life while […]
A York University doctoral student, who discovered a new species of bee on his way to the lab one morning, has completed a study that examines 84 species of sweat bees in Canada. Nineteen of these species – including the one Jason Gibbs found in downtown Toronto − are new to science because they have […]
Ontario’s electricity system will continue to lurch from crisis to crisis until a long-term strategy focused on environmental and economic sustainability is adopted, concludes a study led by York environmental studies Professor Mark Winfield. It was published in the international journal Energy Policy this month. The study finds that the conventional approaches to electricity system planning […]