Donation

U of T receives $4-million donation to create Chinese-Canadian archive

noreen.rasbach — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 21:55:44 +0000

U of T receives $4-million donation to create Chinese-Canadian archive

noreen.rasbach Thu, 01/31/2019 - 16:55

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A new donation to U of T will create a Chinese-Canadian archive, building on existing collections including that of the Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library (photo by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

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City & Culture

Scarborough business owner donates $2 million to U of T for Tamil studies

ullahnor — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 22:47:00 +0000

Scarborough business owner donates $2 million to U of T for Tamil studies

ullahnor Fri, 01/13/2017 - 17:47

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Sinhala and Tamil New Year in Sri Lanka (photo by Amila Tennakoon via Flickr)

Berton Woodward

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Berton Woodward

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One of U of T’s earliest Tamil alumni has given a historic donation of $2 million to support Tamil studies program.

The gift from Ravi Gukathasan, who is CEO of Digital Specialty Chemicals Ltd. in Scarborough, is the largest single cash gift from an alumnus in U of T Scarborough's history. It will fund an annual post-doctoral fellowship in Tamil studies as well as scholarships, event programming and digital archiving.

“I want UTSC to be a star when it comes to the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, its culture, its language, its perspective in the world,” says Gukathasan. “We have the biggest Tamil diaspora in the world in Scarborough. They need to be proud.”

Read CBC story on donation

UTSC alumnus Ravi Gukathasan's gift to the university will fund an annual post-doctoral fellowship in Tamil studies as well as scholarships, event programming and digital archiving (photo by Ken Jones)

He also sees his gift as a leadership example for other members of the Tamil community to follow.

“I applaud Dr. Gukathasan’s initiative and passionate support of UTSC and am confident that his generous example will stimulate other alumni, not just alumni from the Tamil community, to step forward with game-changing donations,” says U of T Scarborough Principal Bruce Kidd.

The 10-year commitment will fund the $1.25 million Ethan and Leah Schweitzer Gukathasan Fellowship, named for Gukathasan’s two teenage children as well as provide $500,000 for a programming fund, $150,000 for a digital fund and $100,000 for scholarships.

“The gift will add hugely to our ability to expose our campus to what’s going on in Tamil worlds,” says Bhavani Raman, associate professor in the department of historical and cultural studies and chair of the tri-campus Tamil Worlds Initiative programming committee. “We will be able to support young and upcoming scholars from all over the world with the postdoctoral fellowship as well as other visitors.”

She notes that a previous substantial gift from Gukathasan has already allowed U of T Scarborough to sponsor a Tamil studies conference, hold regular public programming on Tamil subjects and work with the U of T Scarborough Library to enhance its Tamil-language collection. She expects to be able to greatly expand such initiatives including the digitization of Sri Lankan Tamil works for global access.

“Beyond U of T, the gift will be a big resource for Tamil studies because there are very few post-doctoral fellowships dedicated to this field,” she says. “My guess is we’ll get many applicants from outside Canada.”

Gukathasan grew up outside Jaffna in Sri Lanka’s Tamil north, then left with the family for the U.K. in 1974. They later re-emigrated to Canada, settling in northern Scarborough, and in 1978, Gukathasan entered what was then Scarborough College, founded just 13 years earlier.

“I was one of only two Tamils in the whole school,” he says.

After gaining his PhD in chemistry at U of T, Gukathasan founded Digital Specialty Chemicals, a highly successful enterprise located on Coronation Drive in southeastern Scarborough, where he has also created a small park and decorated the lobby with Indigenous art.

He’s very proud of his two children with fellow chemist and alumna Caroline Schweitzer whose names are on the gift. Ethan, 18, recently entered chemical engineering at U of T, while Leah, 17 and in Grade 12, wants to study at U of T in evolutionary anthropology.

Gukathasan sees his gift as just the start. “I’m hoping others will follow suit with more money,” he says. “I hope we can keep building this program and make it very, very well-funded and well-rounded.”

Undead or unexplained? Photos, books on the paranormal at U of T's Fisher Library

ullahnor — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:01:35 +0000

Undead or unexplained? Photos, books on the paranormal at U of T's Fisher Library

ullahnor Thu, 01/12/2017 - 18:01

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Fisher Library’s collection of paranormal literature explores everything from spirit photography to seances (photo by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

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Romi Levine

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While modern science helps us understand the world around us, it’s the unexplained that really captures our imagination.

��Ƶ’s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is celebrating our fascination with otherworldly beings in an exhibit called “Investigating the Paranormal,” on display until the end of January.

Curated by Fisher librarian Chris Young and archivist Natalya Rattan, the display draws from a collection of more than 1,500 items from the 18th century until today. The collection was donated by U of T alumnus Adam Crabtree, a former Catholic priest who has been interested for awhile in paranormal experiences.

The collection, which also available online, includes illustrated books, fictional pieces, journals and important literature pertaining to psychical research, which is the study of the paranormal.

This first edition of Puysegur’s work, is signed by the author. It’s of the most valuable books in the collection (photo by Romi Levine)

Crabtree was a Benedictine monk but decided to leave the monastery while studying philosophy at U of T.

After finishing his studies, he became a psychotherapist and began to explore paranormal phenomenon.

“I used hypnosis or trance states to make the work more effective in exploring the inner life of my clients, and in the process, I became very interested in understanding how hypnosis came to be and how the unusual things that were being revealed about the unconscious life of human beings came to light,” he says.

Crabtree’s collection includes books about the paranormal with interesting illustrated bindings (photo by Romi Levine)

Crabtree was attracted to the works of psychical research’s forefathers – Franz Anton Mesmer and his pupil Marquis de Puysegur.

“Puyesgur explored how people talked and what view of the world they had when they were in a mesmerized state,” says Crabtree.

This is the first illustration of a séance from the 18th century. It may even depict Mesmer himself (third from left). Patients are grasping iron rods protruding from the water. They applied them to ailing body parts, to transfer therapeutic magnetism to their bodies (photo by Romi Levine)

Though psychical research is considered a fringe science today, that wasn’t always the case, says Young.

“When it was starting off in the 19th century, people used contemporary scientific methods for it,” he says. “The problem at the time was there wasn’t enough evidential proof that these paranormal activities were actually happening. That’s why it never took hold as a scientific discipline along the lines of chemistry, biology.”

Mainstream fascination in the paranormal also began in the 1800s with social events meant to conjure spirits such as seances and table turning.

Spiritualist events like table turning were popular in the 19th century (photo by Romi Levine)

“Table turning is a type of a seance. Allegedly spirits are communicating with you, but somebody was probably turning it with their foot – who knows? It’s kind of like a ouija board,” says Rattan.

Early photographers also claimed to have captured paranormal phenomenon – a trend explored in the Fisher exhibit.

Ectoplasm is a substance that is said to be visible on mediums when photographed (photo by Romi Levine)

“Photography was fairly new and involved a lot of chemicals to be able to reproduce the photographs,” says Young. “So people would take photographs, and there would be this mirror image of a face or other types of lighting that had been captured and people couldn’t explain it.”

Rattan adds that people at the time thought the likenesses that appeared were people that had died who were important to them.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a member of the Society for Psychical Research (photo by Romi Levine)

Psychical research was so popular in the 19th century that well-known figures like Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle embraced it.

The topic may not be as readily embraced today, but Crabtree’s collection is beginning to spark interest: U of T scholars and even an American PhD student have looked into it.

Can you see the ghostly faces in this photo? Spirits are alleged to have been captured on camera (photo by Romi Levine)