Drama

Get That Hope: Alumna and former U of T Mississauga instructor premières latest work at Stratford Festival

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 15:27:55 +0000

Get That Hope: Alumna and former U of T Mississauga instructor premières latest work at Stratford Festival

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 08/29/2024 - 11:27

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Andrea Scott says she wrote her latest play, Get That Hope, after seeing Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, asking herself, “Why don’t we have plays like this about Black Canadian families?” (photo by Helen Tansey)

Kristy Strauss

Topic

Our Community

Alumni

Drama

Faculty of Arts & Science

Humanities

Theatre

U of T Mississauga

Subheadline

Andrea Scott's play tells the story of a Toronto family in the lead-up to a Jamaica Independence Day celebration

Andrea Scott has never forgotten the moment when her dreams of becoming a writer were quashed.

It was during a Grade 9 English class.

“I remember proclaiming something I felt was very literary and my English teacher shot me down so quickly,” says the ��Ƶ Mississauga alumna and former instructor at U of T Mississauga. “It killed my desire to be a writer and I’ve never forgotten her.”

The death of Scott’s writing ambitions would prove to be premature. She just wrapped up a contract writing for Disney and recently her play Get That Hope, which tells the story of a family in the lead-up to a Jamaica Independence Day celebration, made its debut at the Stratford Festival.

Scott’s journey to becoming an award-winning playwright and screenwriter began when she temporarily gave up on writing in high school, and turned her attention to the stage. She received an honours bachelor of arts degree in theatre and drama studies through U of T Mississauga’s joint program with Sheridan College, with a minor in English.

She later earned a master’s degree in drama through U of T’s School of Graduate Studies and the Faculty of Arts & Science. 

She recalls being “an annoying theatre kid” at U of T Mississauga, but says she had many professors who encouraged her and gave her a well-rounded theatre education.

“It is good to have a three-dimensional education regarding the ‘why’ of certain stories and the historical context,” Scott says. “I have a lot of those books still on my shelf because they inform how I write.”

Following graduation, she pursued an acting career in Toronto. As she auditioned for TV shows, she noticed a theme: Black characters often supported the protagonist – who was usually white – and didn’t have robust stories of their own.

When she auditioned for the role of a grieving mother who had lost her son to gun violence, she turned her attention back to writing.

“I was like, ‘Yeah ... I could write better than this,’” Scott says.

She wrote her first play, Damaged, a one-woman show that debuted at b current’s rock.paper.sistahz festival. Her second play, Eating Pomegranates Naked, was included in the SummerWorks Performance Festival.

It was a turning point for Scott.

“There were people lining up to see the play who did not know me and had never heard of me, and that felt very validating,” she says, adding that the play also earned her the RBC Arts Professional Award. “That was the moment where I realized, ‘Maybe I could do this.’”

Scott continued to achieve success with her plays, including Better Angels: A Parable, Don't Talk to Me Like I'm Your Wife (produced by her production company, Call Me Scotty Productions) and the award-winning Controlled Damage. She also taught playwriting to undergraduate students in U of T Mississauga’s department of English and drama.

In 2020, Scott worked in the writers’ room on the CBC/BET production The Porter. Following that, she worked on Murdoch Mysteries for three seasons and wrote four episodes.

“Murdoch Mysteries was a huge achievement for me,” Scott says. “I never assumed that I would ever get a job quite like that.”

Scott recently wrote for the upcoming Disney series High Potential, which stars Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) with Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas as showrunner.

“The first time that I got to walk into the Disney lot, it just did not seem real,” she says. “It was a dream come true.”

On Aug. 10, Scott made her Stratford debut with the world première of Get That Hope. She says she was inspired to write the play after seeing Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

“All I kept thinking was, ‘Why don’t we have plays like this about Black Canadian families?’” she says.

Scott is working on a new play called Truthfully Jackie about Jackie Robinson’s time playing for the Montreal Royals in 1946.

While she has seen success throughout her career, Scott says she has also faced challenges – including not being taken seriously enough.

“I’m a woman, I’m a Black woman, and I’m really tiny – like five feet tall. But I have this voice, and I try to use it to make sure people take me seriously,” she says, adding that her advice for budding writers is to not take criticism to heart.

“Reacting emotionally to something that was maybe constructive criticism won’t help you,” Scott says. “Also, write and write and write – and don’t close off any kind of source material that you can be inspired by. You never know where it might come from.”

Get That Hope runs until Sept. 28 in the Stratford Festival's Studio Theatre.

U of T student's musical, based on an Oscar Wilde classic, to debut at Hart House Theatre

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 13:22:32 +0000

U of T student's musical, based on an Oscar Wilde classic, to debut at Hart House Theatre

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 04/17/2023 - 09:22

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Anthony Palermo wrote and directed The Gray: A Wilde Musical in Concert, which explores self-expression, generational queer trauma and what it means to find home in LGBTQ+ spaces (supplied image)

Topic

Undergraduate Students

Months before graduating, ��Ƶ Mississauga student Anthony Palermo will stage a production of his play based on Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray – but with an edgy 1970s glam-rock twist

From April 20 to 22, Hart House Theatre will present an in-concert version of a new work titled The Gray: A Wilde Musical in Concert, a twist on the Wilde classic.

First produced as an audio version (currently streaming on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube) last year by the Victoria College Drama Society, The Gray will make its onstage debut at Hart House.

The musical is the brainchild of Palermo, executive producer of the English & Drama Student Society (EDSS) at U of T Mississauga. Palermo is an actor, director, writer and composer who is graduating from U of T/Sheridan College’s theatre and drama studies program this spring. In addition to directing the production, Palermo also created the book, music and lyrics for The Gray.

“Hart House is very special to me – a wonderful platform, Palermo says. "It has been a place of connection – I’ve been able to network with so many theater professionals and artists.”

The Gray is only the latest work in a recent string of successes for Palermo. Last year, they were invited by the Musical Stage Company to compose and direct music for One Song Glory, a musical-theatre training intensive for youth, and also were a featured artist-in-residence for Soulpepper Theatre Company's Queer Youth Cabaret. Last June, Palermo wrote and performed a one-person musical that was reprised at the EDSS Performance Arts Festival in December.

In addition to The Gray, Palermo wrote and directed another musical, Mythic Women and their Cabaret to Save Humanity, at U of T Mississauga last year. They also directed Dog Sees God (Winter 2021) and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Fall 2022) with the Victoria College Drama Society, and are currently directing Angels in America at St. Michael’s College.

Palermo’s television work includes the CBC series Workin’ Moms and Macy Murdoch, a spinoff of Murdoch Mysteries.

Informed by real events in queer history

Inspired by Wilde’s enduring story and set in David’s Disco – a nightclub that briefly existed in Toronto’s Gay Village in the late 1970s – The Gray follows Dorian, a young singer-songwriter determined to become a star. After his photograph is taken, he becomes obsessed with the image and the power it holds. With an original, glam-rock-inspired score, the musical explores self-expression, generational queer trauma and what it means to find home in LGBTQ+ spaces.

“The inspiration came from events in the queer history of Toronto, with which I've always been fascinated, as well as [journalist] Justin Ling’s book Missing from the Village,” Palermo says. “I became extremely engrossed with that past as well as the queer themes in Wilde’s novel, and they sort of blended together in my mind.”

“It's significant to have [The Gray] on stage and to have queer bodies performing. This is really special.”

From left: Nick Palazzolo, Nell Khayutin, Giustin MacLean, Stevie Hook, Jacob Moro, Anthony Palermo and Liam Peter Donovan (supplied image)

From audio to onstage

The Gray was first produced as an audio drama, picking up wins at the U of T Drama Coalition Awards last year. From there, Palermo was contacted by Doug Floyd, director of theatre and performance art at Hart House, who connected him with playwright and director Aaron Jan, who helped with the stage adaptation.

Palermo recalls how his connection to Hart House goes all the way back to when he was in high school.

“In Grade 11, I wrote my first musical for the National Theatre School Festival. We went to regionals and performed on the Hart House Theatre stage,” says Palermo, who also worked at the theatre as a U of T work-study student.

Palermo credits Floyd and the rest of the Hart House Team – including education and production coordinator Gillian Lewis and marketing assistant Lindsey Middleton – for their support over the years.

“They were such grounding forces for me – they helped me build confidence,” Palermo notes.

As Palermo looks ahead to graduation, they have some advice for other students who dream of the bright stage lights.

“Get involved everywhere – work as a producer for a theatre company at U of T, gain experience as a designer … There are many different facets," Palermo says.

"Try everything at least once, because we have such a rare opportunity at U of T and at Hart House to be able to participate in so many things.”

U of T alumnus Mark Crawford back on stage for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 19:31:55 +0000

U of T alumnus Mark Crawford back on stage for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 08/31/2022 - 15:31

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Mark Crawford, a drama and theatre alumnus of U of T Mississauga, has hit the Toronto stage as a cast member of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (photo by Ann Baggley)

Negin Neghabat-Wolthoff

Topic

Mark Crawford, an alumnus of the ��Ƶ Mississauga, says he’s grateful to be part of the ensemble cast for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which is currently playing at Toronto’s CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre.

The acclaimed actor and playwright says being in the cast of Harry Potter offers some stability in a volatile industry that still hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic (the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre raised its curtain earlier this year for its first full season since 2020).

“The thing about being a theatre artist is that you’re a gig worker,” Crawford says. “This means that, most of the time, you’re working in five- or six-week intervals, piecing together contracts as you go.

“Apart from the opportunity to work on a fantastic play and as part of a wonderful team, being in Harry Potter has granted me stability, which is something I've learned not to take for granted.”

While Harry Potter is sold out every night, audience numbers at other theatres are still down, which affects budgets and creates challenges for those working in theatre arts.

“Many people I used to know and work with have, sadly, left the industry,” says Crawford. “That’s something that we can’t ignore in the aftermath of the pandemic.”

Mark Crawford as the Station Master in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child photo by Evan Zimmerman)

The early days of the pandemic were bleak for the theatre industry. A production of Crawford’s award-winning 2014 play Stag & Doe was cancelled in early 2020 and future productions were tentative at best. It was just one of many cancellations during a difficult time.

Despite the pandemic restrictions, the actor and playwright kept busy.

In 2020, Crawford wrote and produced Don’t Get Me Startered, a podcast production about a sourdough starter that gets out of hand that was commissioned for CBC’s Pandemic Chronicles. In 2021, he staged Chase the Ace during a tour across Ontario, playing all the roles in the one-man comedy about a big-city DJ forced to take a job at a small-town radio station during the pandemic.

Then, in March 2022, he debuted a short film Priya Tate: Super Taster, which centered around a picky eater with a unique gift.

Community, connection and understanding

The son of farmers from Glencoe, Ont., Crawford is well known for his observations of small-town life through themes of community, connection and understanding, as well as his skillful blending of drama and humour. His plays have been featured in theatres across the country and internationally.

Being in the cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has brought back many memories from Crawford’s student days at U of T Mississauga, where he studied theatre and drama.

“Harry Potter is a highly physical show with a lot of movement in it,” Crawford explains. “I've been reminded a lot of my movement classes from 18 years ago at UTM. It's amazing how long those lessons stay with you.”

Over the years, Crawford’s path has often crossed with others who attended U of T Mississauga. “We laugh and commiserate together about our work and the industry,” he says. “We have that immediate connection through our time at UTM.”

In addition to attending classes and making connections, Crawford’s advice for current students in his field is to cultivate other interests, hobbies and even career prospects.

“It’s important to be able to keep busy and be able to make a living when you are between gigs or when faced with something unpredictable like a pandemic,” Crawford says. “You must be able to do other things to support yourself at times. There's no stigma attached to that. In this industry, you can feel highly successful at times, but you can also feel the opposite. It is nothing short of a rollercoaster ride.”

Mark Crawford in Chase the Ace at Festival Players of Prince Edward County in 2021 (photo by Imagine Photography)

When he is not staying in Toronto for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Crawford lives in Stratford, Ont. with his partner and fellow actor Paul Dunn.

Birds, bees, and drag queens

Since the spring of 2022, Crawford’s plays have returned to stages across North America. His play, The Birds & The Bees, debuted with U.K.-based companies and will soon run in North American theatres.

Crawford works with other U of T alumni – including fellow actor Sara Farb and stage manager Jessica Severin, in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – which runs at least through December. But preparations for his newest play are already well underway. In 2023, The Gig, a play about drag queens and conservatives, will debut in Hamilton’s Theatre Aquarius.

“My new play, The Gig, is the biggest play I’ve written so far in terms of cast and theatre size,” Crawford says. “The scale of this project is exciting.

“I just want to keep telling stories and entertaining audiences. That's what keeps me happy and motivated.”

From hip-hop to healthy soil: 56 U of T researchers receive Connaught New Researcher Award

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 13:03:29 +0000

From hip-hop to healthy soil: 56 U of T researchers receive Connaught New Researcher Award

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 09/17/2020 - 09:03

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Lauren Cramer, one of 56 Connaught New Researcher Award recipients at U of T, is using architecture to theorize about hip-hop and the points of articulation between the aesthetics of Blackness and visual culture (photo courtesy of Lauren Cramer)

Paul Fraumeni

Topic

Our Community

Cell and Systems Biology

Anthropolgy

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Biology

Cinema Studies

Connaught Fund

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Drama

Earth Sciences

Economics

Electrical & Computer Engineering

English

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Faculty of Medicine

Faculty of Music

Geography and Planning

History

Humanities

Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology

Management

Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Philosophy

Political Science

Psychology

Rotman School of Management

When you think of hip-hop, what comes to mind?

For many, it might be music. But Lauren McLeod Cramer is quick to point out that music is only one part of hip-hop’s broad culture – a culture that touches on everything from the way we speak, to the clothes we wear, to matters of race and identity.

The assistant professor at U of T’s Cinema Studies Institute will be exploring hip-hop’s global influence even further in a new research project called “A Black Joint: Hip-Hop and the Architecture of Blackness,” where she will use architecture to theorize about hip-hop and the points of articulation between the aesthetics of Blackness and visual culture.

“This project is about hip-hop and space,” says Cramer, who joined U of T in 2019 after earning her doctorate in communications from Georgia State University. “I realized that when I was talking with students about race and critical race theory, and about Blackness, it was clearer to them when I put it in spatial terms.”

“It is easier to understand visually or in 3D. I think of Blackness not as a characteristic of the body but as a way of seeing or experiencing space – from buildings to neighbourhoods.”

Cramer is one of 56 winners of the Connaught New Researcher Award, which recognizes assistant professors within the first five years of a tenure-stream academic appointment (see full list below). The awards, part of U of T’s commitment to fostering excellence in research and innovation, are designed to help recipients establish a strong research program and increase their competitiveness for external funding.

This year’s recipients, who will share $1 million in funding, represent the broad spectrum of research undertaken at U of T in the humanities, life sciences, social sciences and physical sciences and engineering.

“Lauren McLeod Cramer’s research reflects the broad range of scholarship at the ��Ƶ and the Connaught New Researcher Award plays a key role in supporting such important and emerging areas of study,” says Ted Sargent, vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“I want to extend my congratulations to Professor Cramer and all of the other award winners this year. I’m personally looking forward to seeing where this exceptional group of investigators takes their work in the years to come.”

As for Cramer, she says that “hip-hop visual culture has grown to include a staggering number of objects: music videos, films, photography, digital art, painting and even architecture.”

She says her project will explore the spatial nature of hip-hop through a wide range of objects from different cultural spaces and times, including: the choreography of Beyoncé’s “Formation” music video, the subterranean architecture of “the sunken place” in Jordan Peele’s 2017 horror film Get Out, Charles Gaines’s fine art photography and architect David Adjaye’s noted public buildings, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture (part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.).

Cramer says that once we are past the pandemic and can travel more easily, the Connaught award will enable her to see that architecture first-hand.

“I was incredibly excited after I was told I had won one of the awards,” she says. “I believe that hip-hop allows Blackness to travel through space. Thanks to this funding, I can now map that space.”

In response to the protests against anti-Black racism surrounding the most recent incidents of police brutality – including the killing of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake – Cramer says it’s necessary to approach issues “at the appropriate scale” if you want to have a serious conversations about anti-Blackness.

“Racial difference is made and enforced through space: urban planning, environmental action, transportation and the built environment,” she says. “So, it is helpful to think about anti-Blackness in the spaces that we occupy, including pop culture.

“That means looking at architectural design, both real – like Adjaye’s work – and imagined, such as in in hip-hop music videos, as a way to understand how race is formed. What is particularly interesting to me is how hip-hop visual culture’s experimental aesthetics might also show us how Blackness can deform space.”

The funding for the Connaught New Researcher Award comes from U of T’s Connaught Fund, which was founded in 1972 when the university sold the Connaught Medical Research Laboratories for $29 million. This year, the Connaught New Researchers program has awarded funding to 14 researchers in humanities, nine in life sciences, eight in physical sciences and engineering, and 25 in social sciences.

Here is the full list of winners of the 2020 Connaught New Researcher Award:

Humanities

Mark Campbell, department of arts, culture and media, U of T Scarborough

Urvashi Chakravarty, department of English, U of T Scarborough

Lauren McLeod Cramer, Cinema Studies Institute, Faculty of Arts & Science

Anup Grewal, department of historical and cultural studies, U of T Scarborough

Ellen Lockhart, Faculty of Music

Christian Pfeiffer, department of philosophy, U of T Scarborough

Adrien Rannaud, department of language studies, U of T Mississauga

Anjuli Raza Kolb, department of English and drama, U of T Mississauga

Laura Risk, department of arts, culture and media, U of T Scarborough

Victor Rivas, department of Spanish and Portuguese, Faculty of Arts & Science

Timothy Sayle, department of history, Faculty of Arts & Science

Avery Slater, department of English and drama, U of T Mississauga

Anna Thomas, department of English and drama, U of T Mississauga

Elizabeth Wijaya, department of visual studies, U of T Mississauga

Life Sciences – Social

Amaya Perez-Brumer, Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Nicholas Spence, department of sociology, U of T Scarborough

Life Sciences – Molecular

Scott MacIvor, department of biological sciences, U of T Scarborough

Adam Martin, department of physical and environmental sciences, U of T Scarborough

Heather McFarlane, department of cell and systems biology, Faculty of Arts & Science

Glenn Mott, department of biological sciences, U of T Scarborough

Derek Ng, department of biology, U of T Mississauga

Nicole Novroski, department of anthropology, U of T Mississauga

Scott Yuzwa, department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology, Faculty of Medicine

Physical Sciences

Merve Bodur, department of mechanical and industrial engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Xu Chu, department of Earth sciences, Faculty of Arts & Science

Gwendolyn Eadie, David A. Dunlap department of astronomy and astrophysics, Faculty of Arts & Science

Dan Gregory, department of Earth sciences, Faculty of Arts & Science

Nicolas Papernot, Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Silvana Pesenti, department of statistical sciences, Faculty of Arts & Science

Ting-Kam Leonard Wong, department of computer and mathematical sciences, U of T Scarborough

Masayuki Yano, U of T Institute for Aerospace Studies, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Social Sciences

Elizabeth Acorn, department of political science, U of T Scarborough

Andrea Allen, department of anthropology, Faculty of Arts & Science

Martha Balaguera Cuervo, department of political science, U of T Mississauga

Michael William Best, department of psychology, U of T Scarborough

Waqas Butt, department of anthropology, U of T Scarborough

Laurent Cavenaile, department of management, U of T Scarborough

Nicole Charles, department of historical studies, U of T Mississauga

Akash Chattopadhyay, department of management, U of T Mississauga

Alexandre Corhay, Rotman School of Management

Negin Dahya, Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology, U of T Mississauga

Michelle Daigle, department of geography and planning, Faculty of Arts & Science

Claudia Milena Diaz Rios, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Greg Distelhorst, Centre for Industrial Relations & Human Resources, Faculty of Arts & Science

Jim Goldman, department of economics, U of T Mississauga

Cassandra Hartblay, department of anthropology, U of T Scarborough

Christopher Higgins, department of human geography, U of T Scarborough

Janelle Joseph, Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Arlo Kempf, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Fikile Nxumalo, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Rachel Ruttan, Rotman School of Management

Jason Spicer, department of geography and planning, Faculty of Arts & Science

Anton Tsoy, department of economics, Faculty of Arts & Science

Mark Wade, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Jue Wang, department of geography, geomatics and environment, U of T Mississauga

Jennifer Wemigwans, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Hamilton, pirates and Roman horror stories: 10 new courses at U of T Mississauga this fall

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 15:59:35 +0000

Hamilton, pirates and Roman horror stories: 10 new courses at U of T Mississauga this fall

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 08/25/2020 - 11:59

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Lin-Manuel Miranda is Alexander Hamilton and Phillipa Soo is Eliza Hamilton in Hamilton, the filmed version of the original Broadway production (photo courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures)

Topic

Undergraduate Students

There’s literally something for everyone in this year’s crop of new ��Ƶ courses.

At U of T Mississauga, for example, students will be able study everything from the horror stories of ancient Rome to chilling tales of present-day pirates and music and literature lessons that reference Public Enemy and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

There is even an opportunity to learn the language of ancient Greece – the first time in four decades the introductory course has been taught on the campus.

Here are 10 of the more unique and unusual additions to this year’s U of T Mississauga timetable:

Anthropology of illegal activities

From Italian mafia to pirates on the Indian Ocean, the new anthropology course Racketeers, Smugglers and Pirates: Anthropology of Illegality (ANT216H5) explores illegal activities around the globe. Taught by Assistant Professor Firat Bozcali, this second-year undergraduate course explores anthropological approaches to the study of illegal activities, drawing on case studies of mafia organizations, piracy on the Indian Ocean, human trafficking and contraband smuggling operations in South America, Africa and the Middle East.

“Students should take this course if they want to learn more about how states create and actively participate in illegal economies or how certain activities come to be considered illegal yet socially legitimate,” Bozcali says.

Histories of here and now

Two new courses from the department of historical studies reflect on the past to make sense of the current pandemic, and to better understand the university’s place in local history.

A History of the Present (HIS2135F), taught by Christopher Petrakos, assistant professor, teaching stream, looks to past pandemics to better understand our current times. The second-year course covers some of the more dramatic and consequential pandemics in history, including the Black Death, the Spanish Influenza outbreak and, of course, COVID-19.

“This course puts pandemic disease at the centre of history and historical change,” Petrakos says. “Any student interested in making sense of our chaotic and bewildering present should take this course.”

In the introductory first-year course, A History of Here (HIS104H5), Assistant Professor Brian Gettler explores the deep and fascinating history of Mississauga and the GTA, U of T Mississauga and U of T more generally.

“This course introduces students to the historian’s craft, to institutions and people who preserve material and immaterial traces of the past,” Gettler says. “This moment when we are all feeling a certain disconnect from the world around us affords a remarkable opportunity to reflect on place and space, especially those in which we would be finding ourselves if it weren’t for COVID.”

Using psychology to understand economic patterns

What causes bubbles in the stock markets? Why don’t wages fall during a recession? In Macroeconomics and Psychology (ECO352H5S), Assistant Professor Nathanael Vellekoop applies insights from psychology to help third-year students better understand macroeconomic questions concerning central banking, unemployment, inflation and savings.

“Psychology can have a large impact on economic behaviour, including our collective consumption patterns, and even result in swings in the stock markets and housing markets,” Vellekoop says.

“This is a different way of looking at macroeconomics.”

From Bertold Brecht to Hamilton

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Joni Mitchell, Public Enemy and Bertold Brecht may not appear to have much in common, but Music and Literature (ENG261H5), a new course taught by English and drama studies lecturer Brent Wood, draws a line through their work to show how melody, rhythm and texture interact with language, story and performance. Through weekly podcast-style lectures and remote discussions, Wood will take students on a genre-spanning tour of how African-American and Anglo-American musical storytelling have been used by performers to effect social change.

“Music appeals to one part of the human brain, while language appeals to another,” says Wood. “Developing an understanding of the ways these modes of expression and communication have come together in song and performance in North America is a crucial step towards understanding cultural history and the dynamics shaping our contemporary moment, as well as our own personal responses to these arts.”

Revealing the mysteries of the genome

Genetic information shapes almost all aspects of life. But how is this information organized and inherited? How does it influence individuals and how does it help us understand disease? Epigeneticist Katharina Braeutigam, an assistant professor of biology teaches Molecular and Structural Genomics (BIO417H5 ), a new fourth-year biology course that reveals how the genome is packaged, expressed, replicated and repaired.

“This course explores a question central to all biology: How is genome information used to make living organisms? We will cover really modern aspects of biology in a form that is accessible and exciting for students,” Braeutigam says.

It’s all Greek to me?

For scholars seeking a solid grounding in classics, the department of historical studies has launched several new courses focusing on ancient Greek and Roman history. Assistant Professor Mareile Haase teaches The Trojan War: Archeology and Myth and Religion in Graeco-Roman Egypt (CLA404H5). The fourth-year course pulls at the twined threads of archeology and myth about the fabled war and touches on the present-day conflict between archeologists and ancient historians interpreting the evidence.

“Many consider Homer’s epics on the Trojan War and its aftermath to be the beginning of the Western literary tradition,” says Haase. “But the Trojan War also had an enormous influence on more popular imaginings and still resonates in contemporary society, from contemporary writers such as U of T alumna Margaret Atwood to the movie Troy starring Brad Pitt as Achilles.”

For those who like a little gore with their history, Horror and the Grotesque in Ancient Rome (CLA395H5S) delves into gruesome topics like cannibalism, the supernatural and the monstrous feminine body to reveal to third-year students what frightened, shocked and repulsed ancient Romans.

The course is taught by Assistant Professor Rebecca Moorman, who is also teaching Introductory Ancient Greek (GRK211H5S) – the first time in over 40 years that the subject has been offered on the U of T Mississauga campus. The intensive introductory course is aimed at beginners and provides a solid base for intermediate Greek courses.

“A lot can be lost in translation, especially when the original text was composed thousands of years ago,” Moorman says. “Studying ancient Greek gives students access to the original words of Homer, Plato, or Sophocles and allows us to keep this knowledge alive. Ancient Greek can also help to teach modern grammar and English terminology and, for those who like puzzles, its complex system of noun cases and verb forms offers many delightful – if at first frustrating – riddles to solve.”

Getting up close with medieval history

Microhistory focuses on a small part of the past, as if the historian is holding a microscope rather than a telescope to examine earlier societies. In her fourth-year historical studies course Microhistories of Medieval and Early Modern Europe (HIS420H5F), medieval scholar Mairi Cowan turns the lens onto events of the Middle Ages, including the tale of a Welsh rebel who was hanged in 1307 and pronounced dead, but then turned out to be alive.

“Students will focus on small things to answer big questions, acknowledge the limits of what historical sources can convey and see that the details of everyday lives were as rich centuries ago as they are now,” says Cowan, an associate professor, teaching stream.

Meet Alexandra Gillespie, the new vice-president and principal of U of T Mississauga

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 20:48:47 +0000

Meet Alexandra Gillespie, the new vice-president and principal of U of T Mississauga

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 08/21/2020 - 16:48

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(photo by Drew Lesiuczok)

Topic

Alexandra Gillespie assumed the role of vice-president and principal of U of T Mississauga on July 1.

An internationally renowned humanities researcher, Gillespie is chair of U of T Mississauga’s department of English and drama and will serve in her new role for a five-year term.

Writer Patricia Lonergan recently sat down for a virtual chat with Gillespie in effort to glean a few personal details and talk about her priorities and leadership style – and to get a sense of how she plans to support the U of T Mississauga community during COVID-19.

What do you enjoy most about being at U of T Mississauga?

I love the community, the physical environment and the connections to Mississauga and western GTHA (Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area), which is such a vibrant and growing part of Canada.

If you could give advice to yourself when you were a university student, what would you it be?

It’s true what everyone tells you. Your time at university are some of the best years of your life because you’ll never again have this opportunity to make the growth of your mind, the growth of your intellectual interests and the growth of your skills as a thinker your dominant focus. This is an extraordinary moment in your life and you’ll look back on it and remember that feeling of exhilaration. Be proud of what you’re doing and what you’re achieving right now.

What would people be surprised to learn about you?

I spend my spare time taking photographs of insects, fungi and slime molds. Nature mesmerized me as a child and that never went away. I pivoted in my late teens towards the arts because I was equally mesmerized by the amazing things humans can create. What brought me back to crawling, growing, living things was having kids and remembering that joy. It’s a family hobby now.

What has your biggest life lesson been to date?

Becoming a parent for me was a key moment in learning that I couldn’t plan for everything – I couldn’t control everything. The best I could do was play the cards I was dealt. Learning to let go like that has made me a much happier, grounded human.

What is your favourite book or movie?

I guess it’s Jane Austen’s Persuasion. It’s a close call for Middlemarch (by George Eliot).

Where’s your favourite place in the world to visit?

New Zealand (home).

What is your secret to being productive?

Having a really amazing team of people around me. It’s the only thing that works for me.

What does leadership mean to you?

Leadership is not about me. It’s about seeing what other people need and trying to provide that. It’s about knowing what I need and trying to draw that from other people. Leadership is about community and about realizing the potential of a community.

What are some of the ways you plan to connect with the university community?

I am interested in exploring new ways to hold town halls because sometimes the format amplifies the same voices again and again. I am also going to hold a principal’s check in, where I invite particular people to hear their views. I also want to make more use of social media, including video content.

The nature of work and the skills that future employers will be looking for have been disrupted by COVID-19. What is the role of post-secondary institutions in responding to these changes?

I think that COVID-19 has accelerated changes that were already under way. We were already seeing the shift to automation of tasks. It will also accelerate the extent to which people are expected to work in flexible ways. We have a responsibility to ensure our students are literate in these ways and are able to understand algorithmic reasoning and basic data analytics. We also have to realize there are things that humans do that cannot be automated. The pandemic highlighted how much humans operate socially and how much we need one another. We need to understand why that is, why that matters and develop students’ skills for communication and interpersonal relationships.

How can alumni support students and recent grads?

I think it’s important for alumni to understand that, even if they graduated five years ago, the world that our graduating students are entering is incredibly different from the one they entered in terms of what’s happened to the economy in the last six months and the last few years. We need to harness what they bring and be aware that they may also need a leg up.

The call for dismantling systemic racism across all institutions, both public and private, has gained momentum over the last few months. What are some of your top priorities when it comes to diversity and inclusion?

To start, it’s making sure we understand that diversity and inclusion are two different things – that we spend a lot of time thinking about diversity and not enough thinking about inclusion. What does it look like for our students, faculty and staff who come from different backgrounds to be successful? How do we make these environments where people can thrive? If I look at the top echelons and they’re all one colour or they’re all one gender, then I know we don’t have true excellence. My top priority is really straightforward. It’s to work relentlessly until there are changes. It’s easy to say those words. What does real change look like? It looks like bringing a lot of new people to the table and creating action plans and implementing those action plans.

What are your priorities for your term as principal?

Excellence is my first priority. I want to take the extraordinary growth that was done by the leadership at UTM before me and propel UTM to a new space of excellence. Equity and diversity, research and teaching are all part of excellence. I want to step up our commitment to Canada’s Indigenous Peoples and think about reconciliation, partnerships, listening and our relationship with Indigenous Peoples, especially those to whom we owe a special relationship here in southern Ontario. The third piece is sustainability and biodiversity. We’re facing crises in the way we as humans live in the world. It is my priority that we, as an institution, are part of a global reorientation of that relationship and we continue to reorient that relationship in our immediate environment.

How can the U of T Mississauga community support your vision?

Communicate with me. Tell me what I need to do and what they need. I want to hear about the ambitions of our students and all our staff, including our grounds people and custodial staff. I want to hear from academics and managers. I want to know how we can do better and how I can do better. The best way the community can support me to achieve this vision is to talk to me. I love to hear from people.

What message do you want to send out to the community?

I’m aware that I’m starting this job at a very difficult juncture and I’m aware that it’s more difficult for some than others. The effects of the pandemic, global economic depression and racial injustice are obviously uneven. We will do our best as a community if we come together, with that awareness, to confront the challenges that are in front of us. Those of us with privilege have a responsibility to try to lift those with less privilege in our community. That is how UTM will thrive.

Alexandra Gillespie appointed vice-president and principal of U of T Mississauga

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 15 May 2020 13:11:23 +0000

Alexandra Gillespie appointed vice-president and principal of U of T Mississauga

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 05/15/2020 - 09:11

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Internationally renowned humanities researcher Alexandra Gillespie will serve as vice-president and principal of the ��Ƶ Mississauga from July 1, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2025 (photo by Julia Bewcyk)

Topic

Jackman Humanities Institute

Meric Gertler

U of T Mississauga

Professor Alexandra Gillespie, an internationally renowned humanities researcher, has been appointed the new vice-president and principal of the ��Ƶ Mississauga, where she is the chair of the department of English and drama.

The appointment runs from July 1, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2025.

“I would like to congratulate Professor Alexandra Gillespie on her appointment to this vital position of leadership, both at U of T Mississauga and the wider U of T,” said U of T President Meric Gertler. “Professor Gillespie is an accomplished and innovative researcher and an outstanding teacher and mentor. She is also a talented administrator.

“I look forward to working with her in the advancement of UTM and U of T as a whole.”

Gillespie is widely recognized as an exceptional scholar, a dynamic and creative leader, and someone who is dedicated to the advancement and well-being of others. As chair of her department, she has championed innovative approaches to research and pedagogy, and made equity, diversity and inclusion central to her mandate.

“I am delighted by the appointment of Professor Gillespie as the next vice-president and principal at U of T Mississauga,” said Vice-President & Provost Cheryl Regehr. “She has demonstrated her deep passion for and commitment to UTM over many years. With her compelling vision and inspired leadership, I am certain that she will set an exciting path forward for the campus and the broader community during the next five years.”

Gillespie is a scholar of 14th-century writer Geoffrey Chaucer and principal investigator of U of T’s new Institutional Strategic Initiative on Global Book Science. Her 2006 book, Print Culture and the Medieval Author, showed that pre-modern ideas about authorship shaped Western printing technologies while her forthcoming monograph, Chaucer’s Books, explores the literary history and philosophy of the book sciences.

Gillespie’s interdisciplinary work in medieval literary studies and book history has given her extensive experience building international scholarly networks. As director of the U of T Old Books New Science Lab, she and her team have received over $2.5 million in funding, much of it in partnership with U of T Libraries. The international research initiative uses non-destructive analytic techniques to investigate the origins and development of books in their project titled The Book and the Silk Roads.

Gillespie said she is incredibly proud to be a part of the U of T Mississauga community and thrilled with the opportunity to lead the campus. “This is a challenging time for folks at UTM, as it is for everyone,” she said. “But our community is resilient, and our outstanding students, teachers and researchers are poised to transform Canada and the world. I am hugely hopeful about the future and honoured to work with UTM’s dedicated staff to lead our vibrant and exceptional institution.”

Gillespie joined U of T Mississauga as an assistant professor in 2004. In 2010, she won U of T Mississauga’s Award for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence in recognition of her outstanding work in the classroom and as a mentor to student researchers. She has served as associate chair and undergraduate director of English in the English and drama department, and currently serves U of T Mississauga as a vice-presidential special advisor in research. In 2016, she founded the Jackman Humanities Institute’s tri-campus Digital Humanities Network. Prior to joining U of T Mississauga, Gillespie worked as a management consultant in New Zealand’s education sector. She was a Bradley-Maxwell Junior Research Fellow at Balliol College in Oxford, and a Munby Fellow at Cambridge University Library.

Gillespie holds a DPhil and MSt in English from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar, after completing her BA (Hons) in English at Victoria University of Wellington.

Gillespie succeeds Professor Ian Orchard who has served as acting vice-president and principal since September 2019, and Professor Ulrich Krull, who began his term as vice-president and principal in July 2017.

Theatre student at U of T Mississauga takes the show online amid COVID-19

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 19:58:21 +0000

Theatre student at U of T Mississauga takes the show online amid COVID-19

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 04/01/2020 - 15:58

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Muhaddisah Batool (bottom left) played the first servant in the recently streamed live performance of The Taming of the Shrew (screenshot via Zoom)

Undergraduate Students

Amid theatre closures and live show cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one theatre and drama studies student at the ��Ƶ Mississauga is finding new ways to connect with other artists to share their talents with a worldwide audience.

Muhaddisah Batool, a third-year student, recently took part in a live-streamed performance of The Taming of the Shrew, which is part of an initiative called The Show Must Go Online. Created by Glasgow-based actor, filmmaker and writer Robert Myles, The Show Must go Online consists of weekly readings of the complete plays of Shakespeare in the order they are believed to have been written.

The actors, each appearing from their own homes over the video-conferencing app Zoom, practised a few times before the live show, Batool says, adding that it was interesting to navigate the technology while performing, including lags in the video. There was also a lack of immediate feedback from the audience.

“I felt like I was performing in a void,” Batool says. “We didn’t have anything except our acting.”

The Taming of the Shrew was the second performance Myles streamed on YouTube, consisting of a cast of 22 actors from across the globe who volunteered their time. Batool, who plays the first servant, says she was “over the moon” when she first learned she landed a part in the performance.

With theatres closed due to the pandemic, U of T Mississauga student Muhaddisah Batool is finding ways to share her art online (photo by Miranda Wiseman)

Before the live performance started, the players, each plugged in from their own homes, introduced themselves to the audience. Most were professional actors. Flattered that she had been chosen to participate, Batool says she felt pressure to not only represent theatre students, but also Canada.

Being in separate spaces posed some challenges, especially for such a physical play. Handing props between characters required creativity. Batool says they deliberately changed the items to draw attention to the form. For example, a glass of red wine handed to one character changed to white wine when it showed up in the other frame. Batool says when she had to yank off Petruchio’s boot, the actor playing Petruchio (from his home in Los Angeles) showed his leg being pulled, and then she pulled her own boot into her frame before taking a whiff and commenting it smells terrible.

The performers had been told to be more emphatic or exaggerated to help match the energy levels they’d find in a room filled with 100 people. After the show, audience feedback was shared with the cast so they could see that people around the world enjoyed – possibly even needed – the performance.

After the show stopped streaming, the actors stayed online to chat with one another for about an hour, despite the difference in time zones.

“I was surprised … we felt such a connection to each other,” Batool says.

This is the second performance Batool has done online since the pandemic closed theatres. Recently she used Instagram Live to share an altered version of a solo performance project she had planned for her theatre class. That performance, she says, was for “personal artistic fulfillment.”

Now that she has been involved with The Show Must Go Online, she plans to put her name forward for their upcoming rendition of Antony and Cleopatra or Measure for Measure, two plays she’s long wanted to do. In the meantime, she will explore the digital medium further by adapting works of literature and presenting the characters as if they were YouTube stars.

A firm believer that live theatre needs to be accessible to a broad audience, Batool says there’s a need to share art with as many people as possible. She is heartened to see some of the larger theatres are finally putting their archival footage online. “I am glad this is happening,” she says.

'It's a great honour': Eleven U of T faculty named fellows of the Royal Society of Canada

perry.king — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 13:53:13 +0000

'It's a great honour': Eleven U of T faculty named fellows of the Royal Society of Canada

perry.king Tue, 09/10/2019 - 09:53

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From left to right: Pamela Klassen, Kathleen Gallagher and Heinz-Bernhard Kraatz are three of 11 U of T researchers named fellows of the prestigious Royal Society of Canada (all photos by Perry King)

Perry King

Topic

Our Community

Physical and Environmental Sciences

Awards

Drama

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Medicine

History

Hospital for Sick Children

Humanities

Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology

Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Physics

Psychiatry

Religion

Research & Innovation

Royal Society of Canada

St. Michael's Hospital

surgery

Theatre

U of T Scarborough

University Health Network

Pamela Klassen studies religion’s impact on the world at large. Kathleen Gallagher sees theatre as a way to understand students and their education. Heinz-Bernhard Kraatz is designing tools to detect biomolecules that cause cancer and other diseases.

They are just three of 11 ��Ƶ researchers named fellows of the prestigious Royal Society of Canada – considered a major achievement for scholars in this country.

The other new fellows from U of T are: Cheryl Grady, Eric Jennings, Sidney Kennedy, Zheng-Hong Lu, Locke Rowe, Kimberly Strong, Yu Sun and Michael Taylor. (See the full list below.)

“The ��Ƶ congratulates its newest Royal Society of Canada fellows on their achievement and looks forward to the outstanding work they will continue to produce as members of the national academy,” says Vivek Goel, vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“These 11 researchers, representing a wide array of disciplines, are contributing to new knowledge, insights and innovations that impact the lives of Canadians and people around the world.”

Founded in the 1880s, the Royal Society of Canada recognizes scholars and their work in order to help them build a better future in Canada and around the world.

Fellows have made remarkable contributions in the arts, humanities and sciences and will be mobilized to contribute knowledge, understanding, and insight through engagement with the Canadian public.

They are nominated and elected by their Royal Society of Canada peers.

U of T’s 11 new fellows will join over 370 Royal Society of Canada fellows from U of T, and more than 2,000 active fellows overall.

Pamela Klassen

A professor in the department for the study of religion, Klassen seeks to understand how religion shapes our world – in the past, present and imagined future.

Since joining U of T in 1997, she has researched religion, gender and secularism in North America, the intersection of gender and medicine and the role of Christianity in Canadian colonialism.

“Religion is at the heart of some of the most challenging issues in the contemporary world,” says Klassen, adding that it plays an integral role in personal decision-making, social structure and politics.

The subject has led Klassen down several seemingly disparate roads of inquiry. They include: research into Mennonite women refugees during the Second World War; the role of religion in the home birth movement; and the history of medicine, including the role of medical missionaries.

She describes her work as “people focused.”

“I want to take care to reflect on what people have told me in interviews or from diaries and letters I’ve found in archives in a way that is respectful of their stories – but set those stories in a wider context so we can learn from them in a broader political, social way,” says Klassen, who previously won an American Academy of Religion award of excellence.

Such personal engagement laid the groundwork for Klassen’s 2018 book The Story of Radio Mind: A Missionary’s Journey on Indigenous Land. The book, which combined meticulous historical research and many conversations with Indigenous historians and knowledge holders, examines the life of Frederick du Vernet, an early 20^th-century Anglican archbishop who journeyed through Ojibwe, Ts’msyen and Nisga’a territory and came to condemn the devastating effects of residential schools run by his church.

Klassen’s work on the book also led to the Kiinawin Kawindomowin Story Nations project, an interactive website that Klassen and her students continue to work on in consultation with the Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre of the Rainy River First Nations. It focuses on a diary Du Vernet wrote on an 1898 visit to Rainy River, and includes many stories of Ojibwe women and men expressing strong resistance to the missionary presence.

“My work has always been animated by – this is more grandiose than I want to make it sound – questions of injustice that I see around me and how religion plays into various kinds of inequality, or how religion shapes the political world in which we live,” Klassen says.

She thanks her peers for nominating and appointing her as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

“It’s a great honour to be nominated and accepted,” she says. “It’s a community of such a wide array of scholars – people from so many different fields – so to have the recognition of colleagues from across the humanities really means a lot to me.”

Kathleen Gallagher

A professor in the department of curriculum, teaching and learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Gallagher uses theatre to understand young people’s views on life in and out of the classroom.

Gallagher, who is interested in questions of pedagogy, artistic practice and the social contexts of schooling, sees theatre as a “mode of inquiry” that’s yielded important insights into young people’s views on democracy, civic engagement and inequality.

In order to conduct her global, ethnographic research, Gallagher has relied on collaborations with graduate students, who she calls her “most important intellectual community,” as well as the active participation of youth. Such collaborations are a “lifeblood,” she says.

“I can’t imagine operating as a researcher in any other way, frankly,” says Gallagher, who is cross-appointed at the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies and won a U of T President’s Impact Award last year. “The richness and the contributions of young people in my research projects make it possible for me to do the work I do.”

Gallagher has also worked with playwright Andrew Kushnir on Towards Youth – a play Kushnir wrote that brings to life the concept of hope among youth in drama classrooms around the world that Gallagher’s research has explored. She describes the collaboration with Kushnir as “next level” because working with a professional playwright gave her an opportunity to communicate some of her research findings to a broad audience. It was also an opportunity to work with a professional playwright.

“To be able to be in a long-term, close dialogue with someone who brings a whole other set of professional skills, understandings and experience to that research, is a gift with untold value,” she says.

Gallagher hopes her Royal Society of Canada fellowship opens up more avenues for cross-disciplinary work.

“The idea that I’m going to walk into new intellectual terrain with researchers beyond my U of T network is enormously exciting to me,” she says. “It feels like a new beginning.”

Heinz-Bernhard Kraatz

A professor in the department of physical and environmental sciences at U of T Scarborough, Kraatz wants to prevent diseases by creating tools that can help spot their underlying causes.

Kraatz is focused on creating new sensor materials that allow him to detect biomolecules, such as DNA and proteins – and even biological processes – that play a role in everything from cell division to cancer and viral infections.

He’s also conducting research that looks at the underlying molecular causes for conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.

“We’re looking at identification of organisms at the genetic level, but we’re also looking at detection of pathogens in the environment,” says Kraatz, who is also U of T Scarborough’s vice-principal of research.

Finding ways to translate such research into real-world solutions can take decades – which is why Kraatz is grateful for his lab colleagues and students who have helped push ideas forward.

“You can have this crazy idea and a non-optimal model system to work it out,” he says. “But taking that next step to go to a model system that actually does allow you to answer that question in a definitive way – it’s really important.”

He hopes his passion for science rubs off on his students.

“I love discussing science with my students, first of all. This is fun, this is a dialogue. Students have ideas – I have ideas and we sort of bounce them off each other,” he says. “Students come up with brilliant ideas and offer some brilliant solutions to problems.”

In his role as vice-principal of research, Kraatz works to promote outstanding research and scholarship in all disciplines at U of T Scarborough while also advancing collaborations and enhancing the research environment for students.

He considers himself a role model at the university – a responsibility he takes seriously.

“Ultimately, [the fellowship] enhances visibility and you have an obligation to contribute to the Royal Society, but also to university life by mentoring young faculty and students,” says Kraatz.

“Making sure they’re on a productive path going forward is critical.”

Here is the full list of new Royal Society of Canada fellows from U of T:

Kathleen Gallagher, department of curriculum, teaching and learning
Cheryl Grady, department of psychiatry, and Baycrest Health Sciences
Eric Jennings, department of history
Sidney Kennedy, department of psychiatry, University Health Network, St. Michael’s Hospital
Pamela Klassen, department for the study of religion
Heinz-Bernhard Kraatz, department of physical and environmental sciences, U of T Scarborough
Zheng-Hong Lu, department of materials science and engineering
Locke Rowe, department of ecology and evolutionary biology
Kimberly Strong, department of physics
Yu Sun, department of mechanical and industrial engineering
Michael Taylor, departments of surgery and laboratory medicine and pathobiology, and the Hospital for Sick Children

Maanjiwe nendamowinan: U of T Mississauga's newest building honours the past, looks to the future

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 14:03:51 +0000

Maanjiwe nendamowinan: U of T Mississauga's newest building honours the past, looks to the future

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 08/23/2019 - 10:03

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The new building at U of T Mississauga was unofficially opened last year. The name Maanjiwe nendamowinan, chosen in collaboration with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, means a "gathering of minds" (photo by Drew Lesiuczok)

Topic

Truth and Reconciliation

U of T Mississauga

The ��Ƶ Mississauga has announced the official name of its newest building that acknowledges both the Indigenous history of the land and the future of the campus.

The new building, erected in place of the original 1967 North Building, unofficially opened its doors in September 2018. While construction crews completed landscaping and interior finishes, a university committee reviewed name suggestions – more than 700 in total – for the new structure.

An overwhelming number of submissions focused on Indigenous themes, leading to a collaboration with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN) on whose traditional territory the campus now stands. Following careful consideration, MCFN recommended Maanjiwe nendamowinan (pronounced Mahn-ji-way nen-da-mow-in-ahn), a formally endorsed Anishinaabemowin name meaning “gathering of minds.”

The university will celebrate the new name at an upcoming opening ceremony.

“On behalf of the entire U of T community, I would like to thank and congratulate all those involved in the naming of this key building on the UTM campus, including the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation,” said President Meric Gertler. “It reflects our commitment to engagement with Indigenous communities as we work together to lead the process of reconciliation.”

“I am pleased and honoured that UTM’s newest academic building will be known as Maanjiwe nendamowinan, meaning ‘gathering of minds’ in Anishinaabemowin,” said U of T Mississauga Acting Vice-President & Principal Amrita Daniere. “It captures, so perfectly, the spirit and purpose of this building, and reflects the land on which the campus operates and U of T’s ongoing response to the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

“We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation for bestowing the name of Maanjiwe nendamowinan on this beautiful building,” she said.

“This is a major step forward on reconciliation with the Mississaugas of the Credit and UTM,” said MCFN Councillor Veronica King-Jamieson. “Through naming a building in Anishinaabemowin – Maanjiwe nendamowinan or ‘the gathering place for good minds to come together’ – this is what education is about.”

“Our vision is to have an Indigenous hub at UTM that attracts Indigenous students as they seek higher education while enabling them to stay connected and grounded to their history and identity,” King-Jamieson said. “We are honoured that UTM created space for not only the Mississaugas of the Credit through this collaboration, but for all Indigenous Peoples.”

Maanjiwe nendamowinan is designed by Perkins+Will and built by Stuart Olson Inc. The six-storey, 210,000-square-foot building replaces the original North Building and completes the renaissance of the northern portion of campus. It features an airy, six-storey atrium and event space, 40,000 square feet of new classroom space with cutting-edge technology, active learning classrooms and more than 500 new study spaces. It houses the departments of English and drama, philosophy, historical studies, language studies, political science and sociology and the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre. Sustainability features, such as rainwater recycling, energy-efficient mechanical systems and green roof space, resulted in a LEED Silver designation.