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

Congratulations to Lawrence Kryzanowski (Finance), who, with a collaborator, has won the first Barclays Global Investors Canada award in capital market research, worth $10,000. His partner was Jocelyne Ménard, a senior research analyst in the Toronto-Dominion Bank’s risk management group. Their paper is titled “Migration Behaviour of Long-term Bond Ratings of Canadian Corporate Issuers.” As the Financial Post and National Post noted, most previous research has concerned U.S. bonds.

Lydia Sharman (Design Arts) was interviewed by Bernard St. Laurent on CBC’s Home Run when she was named an outstanding teacher by the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Lynda Goldman and Sandra Smythe Thibodeau were teaching in Concordia’s TESL Centre when they got together to write Canadian Concepts, a series of books for Prentice Hall aimed at immigrants. It was a smash hit, led to an American series of books, and they have gone on to become consultants in workplace skills. An article about the successful duo appeared in the Gazette, when their weekly column on workplace tips was launched in June.

Balbir Sahni (Economics/Centre for International Academic Co-operation) presented a paper at a conference in India in July, on forging better relations between India and Pakistan. Dr. Sahni was interviewed by the Tribune, a major Indian newspaper, about his suggestion of a coalition of apolitical individuals from Indian, Pakistan and the diaspora. He said that Canada, with its official multiculturalism, could play a helpful role. In June, Dr. Sahni, who was born in Pakistan and raised in India, was presented with a life achievement award by Ontario premier Mike Harris on behalf of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce.

Xu Zhao, a student in Journalism, contributed to a collection called Crossing Customs that came out of a course at the Liberal Arts College. Her account of growing up during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 1970s was made into a segment of the local CBC radio program Art Talks on June 9.

Harold Chorney (Political Science) was quoted in an article in the Financial Times of London about Bernard Landry’s sovereignist ambitions. “It’s a bit naïve to think English Canada will go into an equal institutional partnership with Quebec,” Chorney said. A resident of Dollard des Ormeaux, Chorney is running in the municipal election as part of Mayor Pierre Bourque’s team, and has been interviewed widely about his enthusiasm for upgraded transportation between the West Island and downtown.

“Delight in Disorder,” a short story by Jeffrey Moore (Études françaises), was read on August 16 on This Country in the Summer for the pleasure of listeners across Canada. The story was commissioned by the CBC and the Canada Council for the Arts. Moore won the Commonwealth Award for best first book last year for Prisoner in a Red-Rose Chain.

An article published in the Victoria Times-Colonist to mark Victoria Day informed readers that the leader of the Canadian Monarchist League, John Aimers, began the organization in 1971, as “a 17-year-old radical student at Concordia University.” (That would be Sir George Williams University.) The League sends teaching materials to schools, and has a web site (www.monarchist.ca), but, the article noted, “perhaps tellingly,” that its activities are not funded in any way by government.

William Taylor (Management) was interviewed on Newsworld about the tug-of-war over subsidies between airplane-makers, Brazil’s Embraer and Canada’s Bombardier.

Francine Jones (Marketing) was quoted in an article in Marketing magazine by Journalism Diploma alumna Liz Warwick. It was about three massive new entertainment complexes that have opened in Montreal (the Pepsi Forum, Club Med World and the Metaforia Centre). Jones said, “These places need more extreme excitement and escape to counterbalance all the things that are keeping people at home: the Internet, home entertainment centres, etc. In the end, it’s all about numbers.”

James Pfaus (CSBN/Psychology), who studies the neurology of sex, was interviewed by alumna Josey Vogels for Shift magazine on “the advances in technology and our own imaginations [that] have led us to devise ways to improve on or attempt to simulate [the act of copulation.]”

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.