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Concordia faculty, staff and alumni/¾ pop up in the media more often than you might think!
Arpi Hamalian (Education) is president of the Quebec University Professors Federation. She was quoted by The Gazette August 24 when education minister Fran¨ois Legault suggested offering bonuses to entice new professors. A few bonuses, Hamalian retorted, can't undo years of underfunding.
The Gazette's Susan Semenak tracked down Anne Galler (Library Studies/Education) at a librarians' conference in Minneapolis for an article titled "Cutbacks: Borrowed Time for Libraries." This article was one of a series on school libraries, on which Galler, as president of the Canadian School Library Association, is an expert.
When Pain Strikes, edited by artist Bill Burns, PhD candidate Cathy Busby and Kim Sawchuk (Communication Studies), was reviewed in both national newspapers this summer. The Globe and Mail's Marcus Miller called the collection of essays "beautifully designed, thought-provoking, stimulating and touching." It is published by the University of Minnesota Press.
Marc Gervais, S.J. (Communication Studies) was asked for his views on the Star Wars comeback for a cover article in Maclean's. He said that while there's a veneer of spirituality in the movie, "the big message is one of glorifying power and annihilation, with no room for reflection."
Several of Concordia's video artists had shows over the summer. The Daily Gleaner (Fredericton) reported on one at the new Beaverbrook Art Gallery by Leila Sujir, titled Luminous Stories, and Winnipeg's Uptown magazine covered a show there at the Video Pool by Nelson Hendricks.
Andy Lamey, of the National Post, went to Sherbrooke in June for the Learneds, now known more prosaically as the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities. He wrote about how historians, including Ron Rudin, view the lionization of explorers like Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain. Making heroes of them filled a need in the Canada of the 19th and early 20th century, but the "Great Man" approach to history, Rudin said, is dead. "Our job isn't to root for the team, but to try to analyze the past."
In the Montreal Mirror, Philip Preville took Brooke Jeffrey (Political Science) to task for her recent book, Hard Right Turn: The New Face of Neo-Conservatism in Canada, charging that Jeffrey was too kind to the Liberals. Fair enough, but he went on to say that Jeffrey is the wife of Liberal cabinet minister Stˇphane Dion. Untrue: Dion is married to another Concordia professor, Janine Krieber. However, Jeffrey did run in a federal election under the Liberal Party banner. The Toronto Star gave the book a mixed review.
Centrˇe sur l'ˇmotion was the headline on a warmly appreciative article about jazz artist Jeri Brown (Music). It appeared in the arts section of Le Soleil just before she sang a concert in Quebec City in May. Also in the Music Department, Homage to Jelly Roll Morton, a CD recently released by the Andrew Homzy Ensemble, featuring Charles Ellison and others, was favourably reviewed in the Toronto Star.
A supplement on Canada appeared July 1 in the Indian Financial Express. The educational section characterized Concordia, as one of Canada's largest and most dynamic universities, and gave particular credit to the services provided by the ISO.
Another Indian newspaper, the Indian Express, devoted a column called Elite Institutes to Concordia on July 7. They described us as "a tad different," unusually active in student, faculty and research exchange programs with India. The article described the linkages established in recent years, quoting Reeta Tremblay (Political Science) and Dean of Arts and Science Martin Singer, and mentioning the Centre for International Academic Cooperation, of which Balbir Sahni (Economics) is director.
Debbie Howlett, author of a short story
collection, We Could Stay Here All Night, and a newcomer to the
teaching staff of the English Department, contributed an essay to
The Globe and Mail on August 12.
