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Names in the News
Compiled by Barbara Black
Concordia faculty, staff and alumni/æ pop up
Daniel Salée, Principal of the School of Community and Public Affairs, was a participant in the World Sociology Congress that took place here in July, and was interviewed on CBC radio. He said that lively political debate is a feature of a healthy democracy and a free and open society.
James Stewart (Journalism) has become TheGazette's columnist on seniors' concerns. Stewart had a long career as a reporter, editor and editorialist with the Montreal Star and TheGazette. As well as teaching at Concordia, he is a member of the editorial board of the Concordia University Magazine.
Book reviews have been published on Napoleon's Retreat, a novel by Robert Allen (English/Creative Writing), in TheGlobe and Mail, and of the English version of Fascism and the Italians of Montreal, by Filippo Salvatore, in TheGazette.
The New York Times published a fascinating article about a little-known instance of genocide that quoted Frank Chalk (History). The Herero tribe of what is now central Namibia were nearly wiped out between 1904 and 1907 by German soldiers. As Chalk told reporter Donald G. McNeil Jr., a German geneticist's writings about the region were an inspiration for eugenics ideas in Hitler's infamous Mein Kampf. The Times article was reprinted in several newspapers.
Neil Schwartzman, Director of Concordia's Oscar Peterson Concert Hall, leads a double life as one of Canada's busiest "spam-fighters." (Spam is unsolicited e-mail.) He was interviewed on CBC's Daybreak in late July, and told Dave Bronstetter how he had spent two years developing filters that screen out much of this electronic junk.
Nancy Marrelli (Archivist) and her husband Simon Dardick, who lectures in the Department of English, are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their publishing house, Véhicule. A full-length, illustrated article about their success in a notoriously precarious field of small-press literary publishing appeared in TheGazette'sThis Week in Business supplement.
Anthony Synnott (Sociology and Anthropology) is the author of a 1993 book The Body Social. As reported in several papers in June by the Canadian Press, he told a Montreal audience that hair is "a fascinating instrument of repulsion or seduction." Then four hairy men volunteered for a public full-body wax job.
T.S. Rukmani, holder of the Chair in Hindu Studies, was quoted in a feature article on prolonging life past the conventional lifespan by a writer for the Dallas Morning News and reprinted in a number of papers. She said that a "self-realized" person would likely qualify as the best candidate for a life-extending procedure -- but that if they were truly self-realized, they probably wouldn't be interested.
George Kanaan, Chair of the Accountancy Department, was quoted in an article in L'Actualité in June about the "myth" of youth unemployment. "When the economy is doing well," he said, "our graduates have no trouble finding jobs." Employment rates among freshly minted chartered accountants, CGAs and CMAs are now about 95 per cent.
Kate Bligh, director of last April's acclaimed production of The Playboy of the Western World, was featured in a publication of the Quebec Drama Federation. It was the London native's first major production since she came to Montreal two years ago. She has stage-managed around the world, and founded a troupe in London that continues to flourish.
Dana Hearne (Simone de Beauvoir) wrote a sharp letter of reproof to Maclean's in July, noting that of their 100 "most influential" Canadians, only 16 were women, and they included, to paraphrase her descriptions, a fortune-teller, a supportive wife, a scam artist and a Tory courtesan.
Steven Appelbaum (Management) was quoted in a Gazette article about new advances in employment equity in the public service. He said that Canada is not necessarily ahead of the U.S., and cited application of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Act. He also appeared on CBC Newswatch, saying that private employers find the concept of equal pay for equal work hard to understand, and are more likely to follow than to lead public opinion on the issue.
William Reimer (Sociology and Anthropology) defended his discipline in an interview with the Canadian Press during this summer's 14th World Congress. Sociology is increasing in importance as society gets more complex, he said. Calling the findings of sociologists "obvious," as some critics do, merely illustrates how rapidly their findings have gained general currency.
in the media more often than you might think!