Michael Collins

U of T anthropologist Malcolm Ramsay asks, “Why didn’t the lemur cross the road?”

krisha — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 14:58:45 +0000

U of T anthropologist Malcolm Ramsay asks, “Why didn’t the lemur cross the road?”

krisha Fri, 06/23/2017 - 10:58

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Mouse lemurs, a primate by classification, may provide insight into human behaviour and well-being

Michael Collins

Author legacy

Michael Collins

Faculty of Arts & Science

Students

Graduate Students

Anthropology

International

Global

Something to Google today: mouse lemurs.

They weigh only about 50g and have big brown eyes. You may think you’re looking at a very cute rodent. You’re not.

Despite their name, mouse lemurs are actually primates – and our evolutionary relatives.

“We share a few key features with mouse lemurs like bigger that average brains, similar hands and skeletal structure, and certain visual traits,” says Malcolm Ramsay. “That’s where it ends though. Lemurs, all 100-plus species of them, are incredibly unique and diverse.”

A ��Ƶ anthropology PhD student, Ramsay is studying mouse lemurs in Ankarafantsika National Park in Madagascar. He began his PhD in 2016, under the supervision of Shawn Lehman, an associate professor in the department of anthropology in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

Ramsay is assisted in his research by Andriamahery Razafindrakoto, a student from the University of Antananarvio in Madagascar, and Jean Bosco (Jhonny) Kenedy, a guide in the Ankarafantsika National Park who has been teaching him Malagasy, the national language of Madagasgar.

“Jhonny knows more about the environment of the park and the ecology of the lemurs than anyone I have met,” said Ramsay.

A typical day for Ramsay and his team begins before sunrise. They capture, measure, sample and release lemurs, enter data and reset their traps before turning in for the night.

“Usually it’s the mosquitoes that drive me to bed, but tonight we found a scorpion under the dinner table so everyone went to bed early,” says Ramsay.

Ramsay says that, as a primatologist, he thinks it’s important to study all primates, not just the ones that resemble humans.

“Anthropologists typically study primates such as chimpanzees and ask what makes us uniquely human, but studying lemurs allows us to ask and answer broader questions such as what makes us a primate,” says Ramsay.

“Lemurs have evolved independently from other primates on Madagascar for millions of years and thus have strange traits like nocturnality, seasonal breeding, and female dominance,” he says.

The most important reason to study lemurs though, is they are among the most endangered mammals on earth and rapidly heading towards extinction.

“Humans only arrived on Madagascar in the last few thousand years, and since then many large animals like hippos, giant birds, and at least 15 species of lemurs have gone extinct,” says Ramsay. “The remaining lemurs are mostly endangered and living in rapidly disappearing forests.”

Ramsay says the problem is exacerbated by the fact that Madagascar is one of the poorest countries on Earth and plagued by food insecurity. In this context, it can be challenging to justify saving lemurs when humans need help as well.

However, “By studying the conservation of lemurs we can also find solutions that improve human well-being,” he says. “Many primates, including lemurs, are vital for spreading seeds across forests allowing for new tree growth. A healthy forest has primates and also provides services to people, such as food, water and shelter.

“It is nice to imagine pristine forests with bountiful animals, but that is not the reality on earth. Even in the most ‘remote’ places, humans are having positive and negative impacts on animals. It is important to understand these impacts in order to inform conservation initiatives rather than simply making assumptions.”

While working on his master’s degree, Ramsay looked at the impact of roads: specifically whether or not the mouse lemurs are crossing a national highway in Ankarafantisika National Park. After three months of capturing and recapturing the lemurs he found that while they were crossing the highway, but it was a complicated picture.

“Only the male mouse lemurs were crossing the highway, despite the fact that both male and females need to leave the group they are born into and disperse across new areas,” says Ramsay.

“We also didn’t find any of the typical signs of habitat disturbance – such as lowered body weight which we’d expect to find if there is difficulty finding food.

“So our results on the impacts of roads were varied.”

“Given that we could not clearly say either that roads are good or bad for the mouse lemurs, I think one of the main take-aways from our research is that is shows how complex conservation science can be and we need to learn more about what is actually going on here.”

Horrors of genocide: U of T students travel to Rwanda to study the country's path to justice

ullahnor — Mon, 29 May 2017 17:43:07 +0000

Horrors of genocide: U of T students travel to Rwanda to study the country's path to justice

ullahnor Mon, 05/29/2017 - 13:43

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The Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre is one of the many sites of the 100-day Rwandan massacre that the students visited (photo by Trocaire via Flickr)

Michael Collins

Author legacy

Michael Collins

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Arts & Science

Humanities

Undergraduate Students

It's one thing to study genocide in a classroom, but quite another to visit sites where thousands of people were killed in a brutal extermination campaign.

“You can feel the lasting sorrow and death that has impacted Rwanda when you visit the memorials, and it is visible in how many lives were lost in such violent ways,” said Jennifer Paul, a fourth-year U of T student who is majoring in political science and diaspora & transnational studies. “It's an extremely tragic yet important part of Rwanda's history.”

Paul and other students in Aggrey Wasike’s African Systems of Thoughts course, studied African thought and foundational thinking about issues including Rwanda's genocide. They travelled recently to Rwanda to explore its violent past and to learn about the country's restorative justice initiatives.

The mass graves at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre are laid in three main rows. More than 250,000 victims of the genocide against the Tutsi have been buried at the memorial since 2001 (photo by Chinezelum Azogu)

Students travelled about 30 km south of Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city, to Nyamata Church. Today the site is one of the memorials to the approximately 1 million people who were murdered during the 100 days of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. While serving as a refuge for Tutsis fleeing the Hutu-led militias, Nyamata Church was the site of a massacre.

“It is very important for students from Canada to see for themselves,” said Wasike, an assistant professor, teaching stream in the African studies program at New College. “Talking about something, or learning about something in a classroom does not come anywhere close to experiencing it for real. Visiting Rwanda created vivid memories for students, and they are likely to retain those memories for the rest of their lives.”

Wasike, who was born in Kenya and whose research covers Bantu languages, African languages as well as related issues such as language policy, language and integration in post-colonial Africa, said students learned about how people in the church were killed during the massacre – some were burned to death in the kitchen; children had their heads smashed against the wall in the Sunday School room.

A total of 50,000 people in the area were killed, and skulls and bones of the many victims are on display at Nyamata Church.

From left to right, Pamela Agyei-Antwi, Chinezelum Azogu, Jennifer Paul, Edil Ga'aL, Lydia Ocharo, Fahda Kulmiye, Lecturer Aggrey Wasike, Alphonse Nahimana, Dr. Pascal Nyabinwa from the agricultural board of Rwanda and Sandrine Nkunzimana (photo courtesy of Chinezelum Azogu)

Chinezelum Azogu, a fourth-year Spanish specialist, said visiting the Kigali Memorial's children's room – filled with pictures of children killed during the genocide – made an indelible mark on her.

“It really made me aware that my actions and those of others must always encourage peace and diplomacy to ensure the security of every life, especially such young and innocent lives.”

The trip provided students with exposure to concepts they had covered in class, including retributive and restorative justice.

Azgou said she also learned about how Rwanda has moved forward since the genocide.

“When we visited the genocide memorial sites, we saw graphic evidence of the violence that occurred during the genocide, but when you walk on the streets and drive down the countryside, there is a sense of great peace and calm as if it had never happened,” she said.

“Learning about the genocide from the survivors also highlighted the complexity of human relations and how actions by different actors in society can lead to disastrous consequences.”

Wasike said he thought Rwanda would be a good place to illustrate some of the concepts and ideas in the course. He was able to do so with the support of the Faculty of Arts & Science’s International Course Module program, which enables students to travel to a specific location to experience, in a more immediate way, material from their course.

“Rwanda is in many ways a microcosm of Africa, and I thought it would be the best place to illustrate some of the concepts and ideas that students learn in NEW351,” said Wasike. “Rwanda experienced genocide and had to deal with justice for both the victims and perpetrators. More importantly Rwandans needed to find ways of healing and moving forward as one unified country.”

The wall of names at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre (photo by Chinezelum Azogu)

While Canada and Rwanda are different in many ways, Wasike notes that our own truth and reconciliation process could benefit from Rwanda’s experiences.

“I think one lesson that Canada can learn from Rwanda is that restorative justice is the better option for healing, mending broken relationships, dealing with mistrust and building harmony in any society whose past has dark, criminal and unjust spots,” he said. “Real justice and true healing begins when the victims and perpetrators come face to face with each other in a public space where they engage in an open and frank discussion of the crimes and ills that were committed.

“For restorative justice to be successful, the perpetrators must be sincere, take full responsibility for the wrongs that they committed, and they must be ready to apologize and ask for forgiveness. For their part, the victims must be ready to accept the perpetrators’ contrition, and they must be ready to forgive them... This is important because both the victim and perpetrator must coexist.”

See the top 11 reasons to study the humanities

Does ‘voluntourism’ benefit locals? U of T's global health students investigate in Dominican Republic

ullahnor — Mon, 08 May 2017 21:11:44 +0000

Does ‘voluntourism’ benefit locals? U of T's global health students investigate in Dominican Republic

ullahnor Mon, 05/08/2017 - 17:11

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Short-term medical missions in the Dominican Republic and the island of Hispaniola typically establish pop-up clinics in bateyes (photo courtesy of The 53rd Week)

Michael Collins

Author legacy

Michael Collins

Topic

Global Lens

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Global

Students

Undergraduate Students

International

Service learning and voluntourism – volunteer educational trips – are ways students often respond to global concerns by helping local populations.

Helen Dimaras, an assistant professor at U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, found herself wondering if such volunteer interventions really do help. What if the volunteer trips held more benefit for students and were actually causing harm to the communities they were hoping to help?

So Dimaras and her colleague Lawrence Loh set out to investigate.

In 2014, they took a team of undergraduate students from Dimaras’ third-year human biology course on global health research to the Dominican Republic and an island it shares with Haiti. They focused on migrant workers who work on large sugar plantations and live in communities connected to the plantations, called bateyes, where there is no running water, electricity and many don’t have latrines.

Students conducted surveys on the perceptions of short-term volunteerism from the perspective of foreign volunteers, local communities of migrant workers and local organizations helping them. Community residents emphasized the material benefits – medicine, food and so on. But, there was also evidence of existing stereotypes with international volunteers feeling they have superior knowledge and skills compared with the recipients.

In 2017, Dimaras and another group of undergraduates returned to the bateyes to complete the ‘knowledge to action’ cycle by sharing the research results with volunteers, communities and organizations. Their goal: to generate awareness and inspire action for change.

A photo of one of Dimaras' undergraduate classes in the sugarcane fields (photo courtesy of Helen Dimaras and Ron Wilson)

“Given that my global health research undergraduate students are often the targets of these types of trips, I thought it important to combine this study with their coursework,” said Dimaras. “We travelled to La Romana with The 53rd Week, an organization which advocates for more responsible, locally integrated efforts of foreigners visiting to work in bateyes.

“It was important that we go again in 2017 so that the research does not remain in the academic world, but reaches the individuals and organizations who have the opportunity to apply the results and change practices.”

Dimaras added that the research has highlighted the need for the voice of the community to be heard, ensuring that health-care interventions are designed and implemented with their input.

The research also criticized voluntourist efforts, saying they are “marked by a power differential and the assumption that privileged students from western countries have something to offer to less privileged or marginalized societies.”

“Each partner has something to offer towards meeting a common goal or solving a common challenge,” Dimaras said. “A partnership takes time to develop and develops organically. This can be challenging in the context of short-term visits by different volunteers, but “when solid partnerships are built from the ground up and over time, then the roles where each partner fits can emerge naturally.”

Orianna Mak, a fourth-year global health student, says taking part in the trip allowed her to apply her knowledge in a tangible, real-world situation in order to enact real change.

“Having been involved quite heavily in the international volunteer world, I have always been interested in critiques of short-term volunteering and wanted to understand ways to optimize it,” said Mak.

“The earlier research emphasizes the importance of authentic partnerships. We constantly talk about how important this is in global health, but it wasn’t until I went to the Dominican Republic that I fully appreciated what that meant.”

The undergraduate research trips to the Dominican Republic were offered as part of the Faculty of Arts & Science International Course Modules (ICM) program which enables students to travel to different locations in the world to directly experience what they are studying in class.

Exploring the world of Netflix's ‘Narcos’: U of T students learn about the shadowy world of organized crime in Mexico

ullahnor — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 19:49:52 +0000

Exploring the world of Netflix's ‘Narcos’: U of T students learn about the shadowy world of organized crime in Mexico

ullahnor Fri, 03/24/2017 - 15:49

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U of T students listen to a talk by Mexican Federal Police on problems of security in Mexico during the trip

Michael Collins

Author legacy

Michael Collins

Topic

Global Lens

Mexico

Faculty of Arts & Science

Criminology

Organized Crime

A group of fourth-year students in an organized crime and corruption course at the U of T's Centre for Criminology & Socio-Legal Studies explored the complicated world of Mexico’s narco-insurgency and organized crime.

The students were part of an International Course Module (ICM) designed and led by Matthew Light, an associate professor of criminology & socio-legal studies in the Faculty of Arts & Science. The course module program allows faculty to incorporate real-life international experiences into existing undergraduate courses.

Light said he chose Mexico because the country is the site of the most significant mafia insurgency in the world right now.

“Since the early 2000s, the conflict involving the Mexican government and the drug cartels has caused casualties on a scale similar to an actual war,” said Light. “Parts of the country are now heavily infiltrated by the cartels, and the crisis is highly relevant for Canada as well because Mexico is a close neighbour and a major trading partner.”

Light worked in conjunction with Professor Mónica Serrano of El Colegio de Mexico, a leading expert on Mexico’s security crisis, to line-up meetings, guest speakers and tours for the students.

“I think the students particularly loved the two tours we were given of the Mexican Federal Police headquarters where we saw a remarkable display of law enforcement technology and training methods,” said Light.

But for Michelle Salamat, a double major in criminology & socio-legal studies and ethics, society & law, the security convoy that drove ahead of the U of T group on the way to the Federal Police Tactical Operations Centre was the highlight of her trip. Throughout the trip, the students were protected by an armed convoy of the Mexican Federal Police.

“It was surreal to watch as we followed police officers with huge rifles standing in a pickup truck,” she said. “I was very taken aback by the hospitality and the enormous efforts made by the Mexican police to inform us of the work that they do.”

Gloria Baron, who is combining sociology and criminology & socio-legal studies, says she welcomed the opportunity to see Mexico first-hand because it allowed her to directly witness the reality of that country’s security crisis.

“Getting to see the heavy police presence and to hear different perspectives on the security crisis significantly enhanced my understanding and learning of the subject,” said Baron. “We got to learn, engage and ask questions of different speakers.”

Kimberly Legate, who is studying psychology and criminology & socio-legal studies, says her experience helped her become comfortable asking critical questions and gave her an informed opinion of the drug conflict.

“I learned to not be intimidated by experts in a given field, and to take advantage of every opportunity to ask questions,” said Legate. “The trip also gave me a better idea of the abundance of unique positions available for people with criminology backgrounds.”

Salamat said the connections that the Arts & Science students made with Mexican students from El Colegio de Mexico were informative. Legate agreed.

“We were able to get a first-hand account of what everyday life is like in Mexico, especially through the political and legal changes that have occurred over the past 10 years,” Legate said.

“Many of the Mexican students gave us their opinions on the Federal Police's approach to fighting the drug cartels. It was an amazing experience to hear opinions from both sides of the issue with one student noting that he had a more favourable view of the cartels considering the resources that they have provided to his village back home.”

First Indigenous faculty scholar at U of T's Jackman Humanities Institute connects community through beading

ullahnor — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 18:56:20 +0000

First Indigenous faculty scholar at U of T's Jackman Humanities Institute connects community through beading

ullahnor Thu, 01/26/2017 - 13:56

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Sherry Farrell Racette, the Jackman Humanities Institute’s first Indigenous faculty scholar, bonds with others over beading (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Michael Collins

Author legacy

Michael Collins

Topic

City & Culture

Jackman Humanities Institute

Faculty of Arts & Science

Indigenous

Truth and Reconciliation

Sherry Farrell Racette links past and present Indigenous culture through beading.

The Jackman Humanities Institute’s first Indigenous faculty scholar, Farrell Racette, is an associate professor of Native studies and women’s & gender studies at the University of Manitoba. She is at U of T for the 2016-17 academic year.

Farrell Racette researches Métis and First Nations women’s history. She has edited, written and illustrated books, and this year is preparing her doctoral dissertation for publication. But it is through beading that she connects with her roots and Indigenous women artists.

“Beadwork connects me and stitches me into a lineage of women artists that I strive to stand among,” she says. “There is a magic in beading – that doesn't always happen, but when you get a good rhythm going, it's meditative and therapeutic.”

Sherry Farrell Racette’s beading table at Jackman (photo courtesy of Sherry Farrell Racette)

She learned to bead in northern Manitoba from the late Kathleen Delaronde in The Pas and later from the late Margaret McCauley from Cumberland House in northern Saskatchewan.

“Beading is extremely time-consuming, especially with more ambitious pieces,” she says. “It cannot be rushed.

“You sit in one spot for hours. Your back gets sore and your shoulders get tense. My fingers sometimes cramp. It’s also very hard on the eyes.”

And then there's the needle cuts.

“When beading artist Jamie Okuma posted pictures of her hand – with every finger wrapped in a band aid – and the cuts and marks obvious, it opened things up for me,” says Farrell Racette. “I realized there was no easy place at that level. There was only working through discomfort, putting in the long hours and just getting it done.”

Over the years, she has bonded with others over beading.

“When Jamie Okuma and Charlene Holy Bear started posting pictures of their messy tables, spilled beads and their pitiful hands, it looked like my table, my mess, my hands,” says Farrell Racette. “I was greatly heartened by the fact that I struggled as they did – although my results are much more modest. Among a small group of artist friends, sharing our mishaps and struggles is a way to bead together.”

One powerful notion that she talks about is “beading for a greater purpose.” This idea is perhaps best represented by the artwork, Walking With Our Sisters, where Farrell Racette served as both an installation advisor and contributor.

Walking With Our Sisters consists of over 1,750 beaded moccasin vamps or uppers. These are intentionally not sewn into moccasins so each one represents the unfinished life of one murdered or missing Indigenous woman or girl. The vamps were created by over 1,000 volunteers, a large percentage of whom were first-time beaders.

“Just installing the vamps takes at least three days,” says Farrell Racette. “Physically hard work too, since you lay every pair on the floor. It is emotionally hard, as each pair represents a woman. You alternate between awe at the beautiful beadwork and tears at a child's ‘Miss You.’”

Farrell Racette says people’s response to seeing Walking With Our Sisters is what you would imagine: quiet, hushed, grief, but also hope.

“For people from outside the indigenous community – the extent of the loss is often overwhelming. The enormity of it,” she says. “For people from within, we are remembering our own losses. Walking through is not as hard as installing. Only the people who install the vamps know what is written on the backs. Reading the dedications, especially from children, is heartbreaking. These women were so loved, and are so missed.”

It is in this way that beadwork serves a greater purpose, says Farrell Racette.

“Every bead you sew when you are beading for a loved one stitches a thought, a wish,” she says. “It can also be playful, but that is also therapeutic. There are times when life feels beyond our control. Sometimes I think, well there's nothing I can do about that, but I can manage this little row of beads. I can create something beautiful out of difficulty and pain.”

Farrell Racette says her collective beading will focus on the communities she’ll be part of while she’s in Toronto. She has already beaded with both the Indigenous arts program from OCAD University and the Indigenous literature research group from the Jackman Humanities Institute at the Faculty of Arts & Science.

“I’ll do another with any interested Jackman fellows,” she says. “I will also be beading with a small group at Massey College where I am a visiting resident scholar.”

U of T's Ryan DeCaire learned Kanien’kéha, the Mohawk language, and now teaches it to others

ullahnor — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 21:33:12 +0000

U of T's Ryan DeCaire learned Kanien’kéha, the Mohawk language, and now teaches it to others

ullahnor Thu, 01/19/2017 - 16:33

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Ryan DeCaire is an assistant professor at U of T's Centre for Indigenous Studies and department of linguistics in the Faculty of Arts & Science (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Michael Collins

Author legacy

Michael Collins

Many adult language learners rely heavily on phrase books and the patient ears of others to get by. Learning a new language is very hard work.

Just ask Ryan DeCaire, assistant professor at the ��Ƶ's Centre for Indigenous Studies and the department of linguistics.

As an adult, he chose to learn Kanien’kéha, the Mohawk language, which today has as little as a few hundred speakers, most of them elderly.

DeCaire, who is Mohawk from Wáhta Kanien’kehá:ka Territory, located just east of Georgian Bay, went relatively quickly from no knowledge of the language, “other than a few basic words like ‘hello’, ‘goodbye’ and ‘1, 2, 3’,” to speaking and teaching it to others.

At the Faculty of Arts & Science, he teaches Introduction to the Mohawk Language, Revitalizing Languages and Indigenous Environmental Science and Practice.

That he learned to speak and teach Kanien’kéha to others so quickly is impressive. What makes it inspiring is why he did it.

“In my late teens I began to realize that speakers are dwindling at a catastrophic rate and without strong and appropriate measures to revitalize the language at the community level, I would see my language gone within my lifetime,” he said. “I wanted our future generations to live again with Kanien’kéha as their first language.”

Learning Kanien’kéha was not easy, he says.

“Of course it was [difficult to learn], but what is easy is rarely of great value,” said DeCaire. “The language is more challenging because it is much different than English and other Indo-European languages thus requiring a different approach to learning it.”

DeCaire says one of the challenges is that Kanien’kéha, like many Indigenous languages, is polysynthetic, meaning that words are built from many parts – morphemes – that when put together make up words that are equivalent to entire sentences in English.

“For example, we could say Wa’khenenstaienthokwennì:rene’ — ‘I was on my way to harvest corn for her.’ That’s one word, where in English, we need 10,” said DeCaire.

He says another thing is that Kanien’kéha is not concerned about nouns as the majority of the language is made up of verbs, leading second-language learners to have challenges in shifting their way of thinking.

“For example, when we say cup in Kanien’kéha we say iehnekihrà:tha’ — ‘the thing one uses to drink with,’” said DeCaire.

DeCaire believes that when people lose their language, they lose the essence of who they are as a people.

“Today less than five per cent of our people speak the language at an advanced level or higher, providing much less opportunity to use it and hear it compared to colonial and heritage languages,” DeCaire said. “I think people in general, even our own, often do not see the severity of the situation.

“Language is not just a means of communication. It holds within it an entire worldview that connects us to our land base, our ancestors, and our communities today and in the future. Language is at the heart of social cohesion within our communities and helps to perpetuate and maintain our collective ethos of life affirmation.”

Even with the revitalization efforts of Indigenous language programs, like the one he took at Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa (Our Language Society), DeCaire says the Kanien’kéha language renaissance still has a way to go.

“There seems to be more interest in learning the language even since I started just seven years ago,” said DeCaire. “Unfortunately, though, it is not yet enough. It won’t be enough in my opinion until at least half of the population of Indigenous people speak their language at a highly proficient level.”

DeCaire says it’s especially important for young people to learn their language as it’s a “critical piece in supporting identity, a sense of purpose and belonging, mental and emotional health, and social cohesion in a community.”

He says that studies show that young people who learn and speak their language have higher high-school graduation rates, are more likely to succeed in postsecondary education and are less likely to have mental health problems.

“It is also something that is necessary to connect youth to their traditional land base, their history, their stories and their culture as a whole,” said DeCaire. “This means that young people who speak our language strengthen our families, clans, communities, and nations as a whole.”

Currently DeCaire is doing his part by inspiring students here at U of T.

“What I enjoy the most is that all of the students that I am teaching at U of T have great care and interest in learning about the language and its importance to Indigenous people,” said DeCaire.

He says he can see U of T playing an important and strong role in forming greater partnerships between academia and Indigenous communities.

“There is so much work that is creating exponential positive change in Indigenous communities that many are unaware is happening,” said DeCaire. “With U of T’s involvement in these projects, I believe that this work can be even more successful and our Indigenous studies and linguistics programs can be strengthened. This, for example, is a strong and meaningful means that U of T can be a leader in manifesting the recommendations offered by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

Plastics: this U of T ecologist is working to save the world's oceans and lakes from garbage

lanthierj — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 14:36:10 +0000

Plastics: this U of T ecologist is working to save the world's oceans and lakes from garbage

lanthierj Fri, 10/07/2016 - 10:36

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(photos by Diana Tyszko)

Michael Collins

Author legacy

Michael Collins

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Arts & Science

Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research

Pollution

Subheadline

“The next generation is ultimately going to inherit our lakes and oceans, so I hope to inspire them to protect it better than we have in the past and present”

One of the most memorable and defining moments in Chelsea Rochman’s career occurred during her first research expedition to see what has been referred to as the garbage patch in the North Pacific Ocean.

After five days at sea the expedition reached the area where plastic accumulates. It was a calm day, and on deck two of her colleagues were counting large pieces of plastic as they floated by the boat. All of a sudden the duo called down to Rochman and others for assistance.

“There was suddenly more plastic floating in the ocean than they could count but it was an accumulation of many small pieces,” said Rochman, a new assistant professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology in the Faculty of Arts & Science at the ��Ƶ.

Although she expected to see large piles of floating garbage, Rochman was shocked by what she was seeing.

“When I looked over the bow of the ship, it looked like someone had sprinkled confetti all over the surface of the ocean,” she said. “The plastic pieces were the size of a pencil eraser and smaller.

“We quit trying to count and stood there stunned,” said Rochman. “I sank down to the ground and reflected on the moment.”

As an ecologist, the significance of what she was witnessing was striking.

“Now I could see that plastic debris was not just available to large animals, plastic debris was available to all animals in the food chain. That day it was also clear to me, this debris could not be cleaned up from the middle of the ocean, but only prevented from getting worse.”

Rochman’s research at the School of Veterinary Medicine at University of California, has shown that fish that ingest plastic debris from the ocean suffer a “double whammy” – the plastic itself combined with the pollutants absorbed by the plastic while it has been floating in the sea.

“We found some toxic effects associated with the ingestion of clean polyethylene plastic, but we also found even greater impacts when the plastic had been in the ocean where it accumulated other chemical pollutants,” said Rochman. “This means that plastic debris acts as a multiple stressor.”

Her other work has found that plastic that made its way into oceans is finding its way up the food chain. In one study, Rochman found that one in four fish purchased from fish markets in Indonesia and the USA had anthropogenic debris, including plastic and microfibres in their guts.

“We were certainly surprised to have found debris in so many fish and no pattern among species,” said Rochman. “We were interested in whether the mismanagement of our waste had come back to us in our own food chain. I think demonstrating that opens up many questions about health and food security.”

Rochman shared her scientific evidence at the Our Ocean conference last week in Washington DC. The conference brought world leaders together to learn about key issues in ocean conservation and to make real commitments to help conserve ocean resources.

She says it’s important that scientists be included in policy-making discussions, so that scientific findings reach an audience outside academia.

“I have found that when I put myself out there and make my work accessible to policy-makers, they are eager to hear what I have to say,” said Rochman.

“I fear that if I do not take that extra step to reach out and share my work more broadly, and that if others don't do the same, the scientific evidence may not be used in decision-making simply because it is less accessible.”

In addition to teaching and research at the University, Rochman has also created an outreach program about plastic debris, which she shared with young people around California during her graduate studies and her postdoc. She plans to do the same here in local communities.

“The next generation is ultimately going to inherit our lakes and oceans, so I hope to inspire them to protect it better than we have in the past and present,” said Rochman.

At U of T, Rochman is planning new projects related to microfibres entering the Great Lakes from our washing machines, plastic in seafood, microplastic in the Arctic and designing environmentally and ecologically relevant experiments to ask questions about how microplastic pollution impacts populations and communities of wildlife.

Thinking back to that day on the ocean, Rochman says there are actions everyone can take today and in the future to mitigate the effect of plastic in the environment.

“Solutions are diverse,” she said. “Some examples include the production of more sustainable and safer plastics, reduction in the use of single-use plastic products, more advances and regulated waste management systems globally and to clean up litter on beaches and in the streets.”

“We can reduce our use of single-use plastic by refusing to buy products with plastic microbeads, carrying a water bottle, using tupperware and bringing our own bags to the grocery store,” said Rochman. “We can also carry around our own cutlery and refuse the use of plastic straws. Cleaning up litter in the streets or on the lakeshore helps prevent debris from entering our local watershed.”

Rochman says that even though many of us don’t live near a lake or ocean, that we are all connected to water. Every time we run our sinks, use a toilet, or wash our clothing we are contributing to what goes into our watersheds. She says it’s important to understand how we can protect our local and faraway waterbodies, as they provide major resources to everyone.

“Aside from beauty and recreation, lakes and oceans provide food, energy and even medicine,” said Rochman. “Taking care and thinking about our oceans and lakes is a priority for assuring we have the resources we need to sustain our growing population. As we try to figure out how to feed the people on this planet, food from the sea is often considered as one of the major solutions.”

Read about peak garbage clogging oceans and rivers

Popular science: U of T’s new astronomer-astrophysicist brings science to the people

lavende4 — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 16:09:58 +0000

Popular science: U of T’s new astronomer-astrophysicist brings science to the people

lavende4 Wed, 09/21/2016 - 12:09

Cutline

Renée Hložek holds the observable universe in her hand. The beach ball’s surface represents the furthest we can see in microwave light, the oldest visible light in the universe. (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Michael Collins

Author legacy

Michael Collins

Topic

Our Community

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Faculty of Arts & Science

Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics

Subheadline

On subways or in prisons, Renée Hložek reaches out to share excitement of discovery

Imagine a subway car with a real-life scientist on board who is ready to answer some of the most fundamental questions of the universe like: What is the universe made of? How did it start? And how is it going to end?

That’s the idea behind the Science Train project. Renée Hložek, an assistant professor who joined U of T in January, rode the New York subway to talk with commuters about the origin and development of the universe. The initiative and Hložek were featured in a Time Magazine story.

“I really am passionate about bringing science to people who don't normally engage with science content – or scientists for that matter,” said Hložek who is appointed to the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics and the department of Astronomy & Astrophysics. “If I think of the amazing power of science to take you out of your own thoughts, to give you a perspective on the world that is wholly different – I want everyone to be able to experience that.”

Along with her work on the Science Train, Hložek is also a TED fellow, reaching large audiences through her videos: the one on the death of the universe has been viewed over 400,000 times.

Watch Hložek's TEDEd talk

Through the Prison Teaching Initiative in New Jersey, she has also brought cosmology to inmates who might never have encountered it in their lifetime.

Hložek also tries to inspire and support women in the sciences. She created a mentorship program for South African women scientists called the Hope-Princeton exchange to bring science students from Africa to Princeton University to work on astrophysics projects. Her own scientific journey took her from South Africa to Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar, then Princeton University as a postdoctoral research fellow before coming to U of T.

“As an African scientist, it is easy to feel isolated from the rest of the world,” said Hložek. “My desire is to bring these women to visit for a while so that they can invigorate their respective fields when they return home.”

Read about Hložek's thoughts on what science means to scientists

Hložek, who hopes she can start a similar exchange program here, says she was drawn to U of T by the combination of “excellent theoretical minds and incredible instrument builders.” She also wanted to be in a place “committed to new telescopes, new projects and the cutting edge of observations."

At U of T, she will continue to research supernovae and work in the area of cosmic microwave background. Sometimes called the afterglow of the Big Bang, this light has been travelling to us for over 13 billion years. By measuring the differences in temperature and polarization in different parts of the sky, cosmologists can discern information about the conditions at the beginning of the universe

Hložek is looking forward to teaching a small group of undergraduates in a course on the Physical and Mathematical Universes, one of the Faculty of Arts & Science’s first-year seminars.

And maybe one day you'll see her talking science on the TTC. She hopes she can bring the Science Train to Toronto.

Michael Collins

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