Concordia's Thursday Report

Vol. 29, No.17

June 2, 2005

 

Faculty Promotions

 

Art & Science

 

Marcie Frank, English

Marcie Frank, English

Marcie Frank has been teaching Restoration and Eighteenth- century British Literature and courses on gender and sexuality in the English Department since 1991.

She has written essays on diverse topics, including David Cronenberg, Susan Sontag, Montreal comix artists, Rick Trembles and Julie Doucet, as well as Milton, Shakespeare, Dryden and Walpole.

In 2002, she published Gender, Theatre and the Origins of Criticism from Dryden to Manley with Cambridge. How to be an Intellectual in the Age of TV: The Lessons of Gore Vidal will appear this fall from Duke University Press.

Her new project, “The Novel and the Repertory,” which treats the relations between the stage and the novel in Fielding, Haywood, Walpole and Burney, was awarded SSHRC funding in 2004.

 
 James Pfaus, CSBN/Psychology

James Pfaus, CSBN/Psychology

James Pfaus has been teaching in the Psychology Department since 1992 and conducts research out of the department’s Centre for Studies in Behavioural Neurobiology.

His research is generally concerned with the neurochemical and molecular events that subserve sexual behaviour. His research in human sexual function currently is focused on subjective and objective measures of sexual desire in women and men, and exploring the sexual functioning of individuals under stress or with anxiety disorders.

He chairs both the Animal and Human Research Ethics Committees for Concordia. His laboratory is funded by operating grants from CIHR, FQRNT (Quebec), NIH (USA), and NSERC (Canada).

In addition, he holds consulting grants from several pharmaceutical and biotech companies to work on the sexual side-effects of different psychiatric medications and on the identification of new drugs to treat male and female sexual dysfunctions.

 

Elan Mastai: P  Catherine Vallejo, Classics, Modern Languages and Linguistics ro in film

Catherine Vallejo, Classics, Modern Languages and Linguistics

Catherine Vallejo’s principal area of research interest is Spanish-American literature, especially 19th-century Spanish Caribbean, and as related to women.

Her current major research projects include The Women and the Men's Club: Women and Modernismo in the Spanish Caribbean, 1880-1920, and Women Writing the World: Hispanic Women Visitors to the World’s Fairs of 1889, 1893 and 1900, both SSHRC-funded .

She has served as chair of the Department of Classics, Modern Languages and Linguistics since 1999.

She is a journal reviewer, a grant application reviewer, and served as a member of Senate until May 2005. She has taught courses in Spanish-American literature and civilization; women and Hispanic literature; methods of literary analysis, and tutorials on many topics.

She has written books on the Spanish American Short Story and on 19th century Dominican literature, and edited a number of books.

 

Engineering & Computer Science

 

 Robert Paknys, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Robert Paknys, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Robert Paknys was born in Montreal and earned his first degree from McGill University. He subsequently earned a PhD in electrical engineering from Ohio State University (1985).

He was an assistant professor at Clarkson University, and an engineer with MPB Technologies Inc., prior to joining Concordia University in 1989. From 1996 to 2001, Dr. Paknys served as the undergraduate program director the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In 1996 he was an honorary research fellow at the University of Auckland, N.Z., and in 2004 he was a visiting professor at the University of Houston.

His research interests are in computational electromagnetics and high frequency asymptotic methods, with applications to antennas, propagation, scattering, and diffraction.

Dr. Paknys is a member of the Order of Engineers of Quebec (OEQ), the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) and the International Scientific Radio Union (URSI), Commission B. He is a senior member of the IEEE and is presently an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

He has been a consultant for MPB Technologies Incorporated, Canadian Astronautics Ltd., Infield Scientific Incorporated, SNC-Lavalin Inc., and Defence Research and Development Canada.

He was on the IEEE Steering Committee for the 1997 AP-S Conference in Montreal.

 

M. Reza Soleymani, Electrical and Computer Engineering

M. Reza Soleymani, Electrical and Computer Engineering

M.R. Soleymani received a BS from University of Tehran in 1976, an MS from San Jose State University in 1977, and a PhD from Concordia University in 1987.

From 1987 to 1990 he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at McGill University. From 1990 to 1998, he was with EMS Technologies Ltd. (formerly Spar Aerospace Ltd.), where he had a leading role in the design and development of several satellite communications systems.

In 1998, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Concordia University where he is presently a Professor.

His current research interests include digital communications, satellite communications, communications networks, information theory and coding, data compression and source coding.

He holds several patents, and has co-authored a book, Turbo Coding for Satellite and Wireless Communications (Kluwer Academic Publishers, MA, USA, 2002), as well as a number of book chapters in the field.

Fine Arts

 

  Catherine Mackenzie, Art History

Catherine Mackenzie, Art History

Catherine MacKenzie received her doctorate from the University of Toronto in 1984, specializing in 18th-century French architectural theory.

Since coming to Concordia University, she has held a large number of administrative posts, most recently, chair of the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, from 2001 to 2004.

She has shifted her academic interests to issues of race and representation in American art in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a specific concern for the dynamics of expatriate production by women living in China and its reception in the United States.

Her research has also led her to develop a teaching stream that considers the work of artists born in mainland China who have, since the end of the 19th century, permanently or temporarily emigrated to North America and Europe.

 

Elan Masta David Moore, Studio Artsi: Pro in film

David Moore, Studio Arts

Since the mid-1970s, David Moore has been one of Quebec’s most visible artists, exhibiting both nationally and internationally his work in drawing, sculpture, installation art, performance art, video and books.

His work has been the focus of 42 solo exhibitions and has been included in 50 group shows. It was strongly supported by the Musée des beaux-arts de Montreal, the Musée d’art contemporain (Montreal), the Musée de la Civilisation (Quebec City) and the Nickle Arts Museum (Calgary), which held a retrospective of Moore’s work in 1989.

Internationally, he has shown in France, Italy, Austria and Germany, notably in the international exchange Montréal/Berlin at the Hochschule der Kunste, Berlin, in 1989 and in an important overview of Quebec artists, Art actuel: présences québécoises, at the Centre d’art contemporain, in Dordogne, France, in 1992.

Moore has made a number of important public sculpture commissions. In the mid-1980s, he created four outdoor bronze pieces for a building complex in Cité du Havre, and more recently, he completed two significant large public sculpture commissions, aLomph aBram for the Musée du Québec and Site-Interlude for the Lachine Canal Sculpture Park.

His teaching and curriculum development in the Painting & Drawing program has stretched the boundaries of the disciplines.

 

 Eric Mongerson, Theatre

Eric Mongerson, Theatre

Eric Mongerson studied and worked in theatre in the United States for 10 years before coming to Concordia in 1980. He has taught set and lighting design, stage management, theatre administration and theatre technology. His students have designed for Broadway, the Cirque du Soleil and the Stratford (Ontario) Shakespearian Festival.

He has consulted for Scenoplus and the Cirque du Soleil on equipment installation and theatrical problem solving, and has designed lighting for many productions across North America.

At Concordia he has served as technical director, theatre manager, production coordinator, Design for the Theatre coordinator and chair of the department from 1993 to 2002.

He is on the boards of directors of both the Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology / L'Institut Canadien des Technologies Scenographiques (CITT / ICTS) and the Centre québécois de l'Institut Canadien des technologies scenographiques (CQICTS).

 

Katherine Tweedie, Studio Arts

Katherine Tweedie, Studio Arts

Katherine Tweedie is an associate professor in the Photography Program, Department of Studio Arts. She served as chair of the Department of Photography and Printmaking from 1987 to 1989.

She was Associate Dean of Student Affairs (1989-1992) and Associate Dean of Curriculum and Graduate Programs in the Faculty of Fine Arts (1993-1996).

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from McGill University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the State University of New York.

She is the author of numerous articles and reviews and is currently writing a book with her colleague, Dr. Mary O’Connor (McMaster) on the photographic work of Canadian Margaret Watkins. Her video productions include I Lease Wombs, I Don’t Sell Babies (1993), William Klein (1989) and Just Evergon (1988).

She has given conferences and guest lectures at numerous galleries and art schools, including the Banff Centre, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Society for Photographic Education in California.

 John Molson School of Business

 

 Bryan Barbieri, Marketing

Bryan Barbieri, Marketing

Bryan Barbieri has been a member of the Marketing Department for 32 years. He has taught at undergraduate and graduate levels and in virtually all the faculty’s executive programs. For the past 15 years he has taught the required marketing component of the MBA program.

His research and consultation focus on the marketing mindset, marketing competencies assessment, market orientation, and strategy planning. His manuscript A Marketing Approach for the Twenty-First Century has been published in one of Canada’s leading marketing texts.

He won the Faculty of Commerce and Administration’s second Annual Distinguished Teaching Award (1989); the Concordia University Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence (1998); and the Concordia Council Student Life Teaching Recognition Award (1999). In 1990 he was Concordia’s nominee to the Canadian Professor-of-the-Year awards program sponsored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

He has served on many department, faculty, and university committees, and has had several mandates on the Faculty’s decanal team. He is particularly proud to have been a member of the Faculty and Staff Annual Giving Committee that originated the Shuffle walkathon for scholarships.

He has developed training programs for the Canadian divisions of several Fortune 500 companies, served on trade association and government committees, and has been a keynote speaker and symposium leader for trade association conventions.

Prior to joining Concordia, Barbieri held marketing management responsibilities with Avon Canada. He is also a former member of le barreau du Québec.

 

 Manmohan Rai Kapoor, Accountancy

Manmohan Rai Kapoor, Accountancy

Manmohan Rai Kapoor has a BA in economics from Panjab University, an M.B.A. from Concordia University, a Ph D from the University of Toronto and a professional accounting designation of CMA from the Professional Corporation of Certified Managements Accountants of Quebec, an affiliate of the Society of Management Accountants of Canada. Prior to joining academia, he had wide business experience and worked as a controller/manager in multinational corporations in Montreal. He also served on the board of directors of the Professional Corporation of Certified Management Accountants of Quebec. Dr. Kapoor has published in various prestigious academic as well as professional accounting journals, such as the Canadian Accounting Perspectives, Issues in Accounting Education, Canadian Journal of Higher Education, Canadian Journal of Education, CMA Management and others, in the areas of financial, cost and management accounting, and accounting education.

 

 Robert J. Oppenheimer, Management

Robert J. Oppenheimer, Management

Robert Oppenheimer is currently the Director of the Centre for Mature Students and has a long history of significant service contributions to the University.

He helped establish the daycare on the Loyola Campus (Garderie Les P’tits Profs) was its president, and has chaired and contributed to numerous committees, task forces, faculty councils and Senate.

He earned his PhD in Management Studies from the University of Toronto. He has researched, presented and published in areas relating to individual and team effectiveness, communications, negotiations, conflict resolution, gender, leadership, motivation, selection and aboriginal economic development.

He teaches at the graduate and undergraduate levels, primarily in areas relating to organizational behaviour and human resource management. This has included courses in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and Developing Managerial and Interpersonal Skills, which is a course he created as an elective in the MBA program.

He has extensive consulting experience and has conducted workshops and seminars for small and medium-sized privately held corporations as well as with large organizations in both the private and public sectors, including Fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining Concordia, he worked for Nortel Networks, when it was Northern Electric and prior to that, Texas Instruments.

Libraries

 

 Mia Massicotte Promoted to Senior Librarian

Mia Massicotte
Promoted to Senior Librarian

Mia Massicotte, B.A. (S.U.N.Y.), MLS (McGill) joined Concordia University in 1978 as Cataloguing Librarian. Shortly thereafter, she was appointed to a Unit Head position as Catalogue Maintenance and Authority Librarian.

She was promoted to the rank of Associate Librarian in 1984, and in 1988, she was appointed Systems Librarian, a position she held for 8 years. In 1996, she was appointed Assistant-Director for Collection Services where she managed the Library's annual acquisition budget of over $3.5 million, supervised the staff in the Collection Services Division and oversaw the collection development responsibilities of over 20 librarians.

She was a project leader for the implementation of CLUES, Concordia's online catalogue, and coordinated the retrospective conversion of the manual catalogue card records, thus eliminating card catalogues across campus.

She planned and implemented the Library's first Web server, and initiated an Internet-based ordering operation for monographs. She launched Project DART, the document delivery for science & engineering.

In her capacity as Assistant-Director, Massicotte's vision and leadership are reflected in many areas. She actively participated in consortial purchases with CREPUQ and coordinated all pricing and preparatory work for submissions to the CNSLP.

She established a master licence file for joint purchases, negotiated, reviewed and contracted electronic resources. She coordinated the purchase and start up of JSTOR and worked closely with the University Advancement Office in articulating sound policies for the acceptance of gifts-in-kind, outlining assessment procedures and forwarding submissions to the Canadian Cultural Properties Board when necessary.

Ms. Massicotte was Book Review Editor for the Canadian Journal of Information Science. Her scholarly activity has contributed in a unique but significant way to the corpus of professional literature in the field of cataloguing. Her creative thinking, her deep knowledge, her vast experience and her ability to make decisions have had a profound, positive impact on the development of Concordia's Library.