Concordia faculty, staff and alumni/æ pop up in the media more often than you might think!


Bassel Salloukh (Political Science) was among the experts interviewed on CBC national news last weekend about the bombardment of sites in Afghanistan.

Harold Simkins (Marketing) was one of those interviewed on CBC’s Canada Now about the boom in “loyalty cards.”

Suresh Goyal (Decision Sciences/MIS) was interviewed on CBC’s Newsworld network about RRSP investments in the current economic downturn.

Lorne Switzer (Finance) was on the CTV national news, talking about the devastating losses to Nortel subscribers, and the fact that some disappointed investors are talking lawsuit.

Christopher Byford, who did his master’s degree in media studies at Concordia, wrote an essay for the Globe and Mail, published on July 10. Byford, who went on from Concordia to get a PhD and teach at Brock University and the University of Toronto, is now a bus driver in his hometown, St. Catharine’s, Ont. He was fed up with the low income and marginal status of part-time university teaching, and is much happier now.

A poem by David McGimpsey (English), was the subject of the How Poems Work column in the Globe and Mail’s books section on July 7. Reviewer Paul Vermeersch said that “with so much poetry today written in lofty, sepia-toned language,” Congratulations, Loser “is a breath of fresh smog, with a trace of laughing gas to kill the pain.”

Jean-François Denis (Music), a specialist in electro-acoustic music, was mentioned on Montréal Express (CBF). To mark the 10th anniversary of his label Empreintes digitales, he has issued a compilation CD called Vroum.

Bala Ashtakala (Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering) was interviewed at some length by Pulse News about the fact that local cement structures, including overpasses and bridges, have been crumbling lately.

Peter Rist (Cinema) was interviewed on the local CBC arts program Art Talks about his passion for early Chinese film. He described Shanghai film industry of the 1920s and 30s. Over about 15 years, about 1,000 silent films were made, many with strong roles for women. Art Talks also rebroadcast an interview with Mary Flanagan (then in Communication Studies) about her innovative video game for girls, and CBC’s All in a Weekend rebroadcast an interview with Lillian Robinson (Simone de Beauvoir Institute).

Stephanie Bolster’s name came up in the Globe and Mail recently, in a feature on the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia: “The buzz began in 1998, when Stephanie Bolster won a Governor-General’s Award in poetry with her MA thesis, White Stone: The Alice Poems. . . .” Bolster, who teaches in the Department of English, is anticipating the publication next spring of her next collection by McClelland & Stewart.

Marthe Catry-Verron (Études françaises/IEC) a été citée dans deux articles de la revue Les Affaires du 4 août dernier. Un article traite de la formation pratique des traducteurs du Québec, et donc du programme coop en traduction de Concordia. Lancé en 1992 et le premier au Québec, le programme coop en traduction est encore unique au Canada quant à sa filière anglophone. Dans l’autre article, il est question de localisation, c’est-à-dire de l’adaptation de logiciels et de documents techniques à une langue et une culture étrangères. Un autre défi que Concordia est prête à relever.