Names in the News

 

Christopher Hinton (Cinema) was the subject of a feature in The Gazette regarding his groundbreaking animation. His latest film, C-Note, was screened at the Montreal International Film Festival.

Baljit Singh Chadha, a member of Concordia’s Board of Governors, was profiled July 25 by Peter C. Newman in Maclean’s magazine as part of a series on the new Canadian Establishment. Mr. Chadha started his own business while he was still a Concordia business student. His company, Balcorp Ltd., imports and exports food products, minerals, pharmaceuticals and forestry products. He was recently asked by the prime minister to join the Queen’s Privy Council.

Jean-Philippe Warren (Sociology and Anthropology), in collaboration with journalist Antoine Robitaille, wrote a weekly series in Le Devoir this summer called “Dix utopias qui ont forgé le Québec.” The articles, written as biographies, presented 10 Quebec visionaries from the era of New France to the 1970s.

James McIntosh (Economics) was interviewed on The Trading Desk (Report on Business TV) about the bank merger guidelines federal finance minister Ralph Goodale may release this fall. McIntosh favours mergers, although he says the government won’t necessarily open the door to them.

Success for All, a program of intensive literacy support, was the subject of an article in The Gazette. The program is offered at two Montreal-area schools, Hampstead and Parkdale, under the direction of Philip Abrami and his team at the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (Education). Abrami told The Gazette’s Allison Lampert that the program could be adapted to bilingual, French immersion and French-language schools, but it would need more funding.

A student summer project led by Judith Patterson (Geography, Planning and Environment) was given feature treatment in The Gazette. The article focused on biology student Leah Nemiroff and students’ research on dog waste composting in the dog run in Notre Dame de Grâce Park.

Second-year film production student Anh Minh Truong, whose film Mon Oeil won the prize for Best Short in a competition organized by the NFB and the Cannes Film Festival, talked about his film on SRC-R (Montreal).

Sheila Arnopoulos (Journalism, retired, and MA Sociology) had an article published on the Facts and Arguments page of the Globe and Mail on Aug. 4 titled “Hoofing it in Hyderabad” that told of the perils of crossing the street in a big Indian city. She was there doing research for a book on the empowerment of women in rural India.

In the Globe and Mail, John Connolly (JMSB) and Zsolt Szigetvari (Communication Studies) described their invention, Zenome, an innovative search directory where editors, not algorithms, decide the relevance of search results.

David Melanson is a Concordia alumnus who is legally blind. He was interviewed for a story in The Gazette about the closing of an employment centre for disabled people. Montreal’s Independent Living Resource Centre lost $42,000 in government funding this year. This directly affected Melanson, a small business owner using the centre.

Journalism graduate Elias Makos was featured in a Gazette story titled “School is great place to work.” He recounted how his experience as a teaching assistant helped him get a position as a technical instructor for the Journalism Department. He says working in the same place you study is a great way to “form relationships with faculty, and that can only help your chances of landing a job in the future.”

Salam Elmenyawi, acting imam of Concordia and McGill, rejoiced at the news that 120 imams from across Canada have condemned in a public statement religious extremism and terrorism, says an article in La Presse. Elmenyawi said this declaration will silence the voices of those accusing the Canadian Muslim community of remaining passive after 9/11.

The Wall Street Journal published a story on July 21 about a recent U.S. “neuroeconomic” study on the possible link between brain damage and investment decisions. Apparently people who experience lack of emotional responsiveness in the brain are more likely to take risks and better invest their money. The article mentions a 2002 study conducted by Peter Shizgal (Psychology) and Princeton’s Daniel Kahneman, who concluded that the thought of winning money triggers in humans the same brain activity as good tastes, pleasant music and addictive drugs.

The Journal de Montréal profiled Concordia graduate Caroline Merola (BFA 86) in July. Now an accomplished comic artist, Merola recently published her latest book, L’Île aux monstres, which tells the story of young Odipo. “I like monsters,” Merola said. “They don’t have race or colour and they come from nowhere, so the children identify with them. Besides, I noticed that kids like to be scared a little.”