Concordia faculty, staff and alumni/æ pop up
Dennis Murphy (Communication Studies) was interviewed
several times on the subject of propaganda, on which he teaches a
course, à propos of the war in Kosovo. He was on La Fin du
monde est à sept heures (TQS), Daybreak and Breakaway
(both on CBC Radio).
Two excellent articles about Music Professor Andrew Homzy's
expertise on the music of Duke Ellington appeared in April, one
by Paul Wells in the National Post, and another by Irwin
Block in TheGazette. The articles marked the 100th
anniversary of Ellington's birth.
Concordia's English profs are in print everywhere. Carol
Margaret Davison wrote a full-page review for the National
Post of a book about the Marquis de Sade. There have been a
spate of articles about the success of Trevor Ferguson's
thriller set in Montreal, City of Ice, including an
article and big photo in Maclean's: (Ferguson, who has
lectured in English, wrote this book under a nom de plume,
John Farrow.) Catherine Bush had a profile of playwright
Tomson Highway in En Route magazine.
An article appeared in the February issue of Qubec
Science about the work of Wagdi Habashi (CFDL) in
testing and perfecting aerodynamic design through computational
simulation.
Anne Whitelaw (Communication Studies) was quoted in Marketing
magazine on the controversial ads published by the Quebec
government after the last federal budget. She admitted that the
ads, which showed blood-transfusion bags, among other things,
were "visually stunning," and certainly got the
attention of the feds, who responded in kind.
A large painting by Guido Molinari (Studio Arts,
retired) was purchased by the new Beaverbrook Art Gallery, of
Saint John, N.B., and according to the Telegraph-Journal,
provoked some comment for its non-objective style. Bi-serial
bleu-orange, shown at the 1968 Venice Biennial, is a series
of bold vertical stripes. To those who mutter, "I could do
that," curator Curtis Collins responds, "No, you can't.
You have to have some serious background in colour theory, and
these are very exacting paintings to create."
Lawrence Kryzanowski (Finance) was quoted in the National
Post when former Montreal Exchange chair Dominik Dlouhy
sharply criticized the Exchange's decision to concentrate on
trading derivatives. Kryzanowski agreed on many points, but said
the trend is irreversible.
Several newspapers, starting with TheGazette, reported
that Sean McEvenue (Theological Studies) has deduced that
the writer of part of the Old Testament of the Bible was a woman.
The second part of the Book of Isaiah, chapters 40 to 55, is
already held by many scholars to have been written by another
person 150 years after the prophet. McEvenue's analysis of the
Hebrew text indicates that it includes feminine forms of verbs
that have been mistranslated through the centuries.
The Toronto Star reviewed The Mountain is Moving:
Japanese Women's Lives, a recent book by Patricia Morley
(English, retired). Reviewer Judy Stoffman found that its
strongest element was the close attention given to little-known
novels by Japanese women.
Cathy Busby and Kim Sawchuk (Communication
Studies) were interviewed by alumna Shelley Pomerance on Art
Talks (CBC Radio One, Saturdays at 5 p.m.) about their book When
Pain Strikes.
Ira Robinson (Religion) was quoted in Hour about
the growing interest in Kabbalah, or mystical Judaism. He said
that Montreal Jews are fairly conservative, and while the
movement is flourishing here, it is less evident than in Toronto.
Patsy Lightbown (TESL) was quoted in articles recently
in TheGazette ("French immersion at the
crossroads") and Le Devoir ("Les parents sont
nombreux rclamer plus de cours d'anglais.") She said
that results are excellent both for early-immersion and
submersion (bain linguistique) in the second language.
Catherine Kidd (English) was praised to the skies by Hour,
which called her "one of the genuine stars of the
spoken-word and literary scenes." She mounts the stage
"in a bloody butcher's apron, wielding a large knife and a
stuffed bunny. The audience stares, almost frightened, as this
powerful performer delivers dense, textured metaphors."
Hard Right Turn: The New Face of Neo-conservatism in
Canada, a book by Brooke Jeffrey (Political Science)
was reviewed on the editorial page of the National Post on
May 4 by Barbara Yaffe.
