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Food for Fairness Nick Saul Vic 9T0 p. 6
Driving Victoria Forward: President’s Annual Report p. 10
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president ’s page
Campus Encounters by william robins
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Summer 2018 Volume XLVI No. 3 Published under the authority of the Board of Regents of Victoria University in the University of Toronto. Publisher: Louise (Huntingford) Yearwood Vic 8T6, Executive Director, Alumni Affairs & Advancement Editor: Jennifer Little Vic 9T5, Manager, Marketing and Communications Managing Editor: Liz Taylor, Communications Officer Copy Editor: Frank Collins Design: Randall Van Gerwen Cover: Nick Saul at the Regent Park Community Food Centre. Photography by Horst Herget. Vic Report is sent to all alumni, faculty, associates and friends of Victoria University. Published three times a year; circulation 24,000; ISSN 0315-5072. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40741521 Send letters and undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Vic Report c/o The Victoria Alumni Office 150 Charles Street West Toronto ON M5S 1K9 Tel: 416-585-4500 Toll-free: 1-888-262-9775 Fax: 416-585-4594 E-mail: vic.report@utoronto.ca Website: www.vicu.utoronto.ca Do we have your correct address? Please send your updated address, phone number and e-mail address to the Victoria Alumni Office. Please notify us if the graduate named in the address is deceased (enclose obituary or equivalent) and we will remove his/her name from the mailing list. Victoria University respects your privacy and does not rent, trade or sell its mailing lists.
Photographs: (Opposite page) Horst Herget; Lisa Sakulensky
The Vic quad looks wonderful today. Already one of the loveliest spots in the city, the quad bursts with new leaf and flower, thanks to the delayed arrival of spring weather and the year-round care of the Vic grounds crew. Imitating the students who sit with their laptops and books under the trees, I am endeavouring to write this “President’s Message” at my favourite bench in the quad. My back is to the Burwash dorms. The E.J. Pratt Library, Old Vic, the Bader Theatre, and the dining hall, fall within my panorama. Here more than anywhere else, at this hub of the campus, I feel the presence of generations of students, teachers, and staff who have called Vic home. Between paragraphs I get up and walk the paths. Conversations are happening everywhere. I stop to chat with colleagues and students. Students from the Scholars-in-Residence program huddle by the library. Faculty members, fresh from marking spring exams, chat with colleagues about summer research plans. Ushers for a theatre event take advantage of the sunshine to review their plans outdoors. With the change of season and the end of term, we are glad to pause and share our enthusiasm for teaching and learning together in this amazing community. I have brought some reading to the quad as well. It is a moving article on the role of spiritual healing in the process of reconciliation among Canada’s Indigenous and settler peoples, penned by Stan McKay, who will receive an honorary degree from Vic in a few days time. I am struck by Stan’s opening phrases: as infants we depend upon others, as adolescents we struggle for independence, then with adulthood we live into our mutual interdependence. The lesson here concerns relationship-building generally, both as required for reconciliation and as a responsibility for institutions, like universities, that encourage personal transformation. Our students come to University to reach a deeper understanding about themselves. They are keen to grasp the extent to which they are dependent upon a world that they have been born into; the extent to which they can assert their own creative individuality; and the ways they can flourish in relationship to others. Key to this process of discovery is conversation. The exchange of pleasantries in the quad is but a small part of this. More thought-provoking by far are the conversations that take place in academic courses, conversations which are made easier by the small-scale, face-to-face classes offered at both of Vic’s colleges. Just as meaningful are the conversations that occur outside the classroom. It is often through co-curricular involvement, and through after-class and late-night discussions, that students arrive at deeper estimations of their own potential, understandings of their own conscience, and appreciation for their mutual interdependence. The Vic undergraduate education introduces every student to a mix of different disciplines, challenging them to make connections across fields of study. Through conversations in and out of the classroom, these connections are explored and their implications teased out. The buildings I see from my perch in the quad—from the E.J. Pratt Library to Northrop Frye Hall to Old Vic to the Bader Theatre to the dining hall to the residences—have been designed to facilitate such dialogue. While the Vic quad is only one place where such conversations can occur, it beautifully evokes how Vic exists as a place for reflective encounter and deepening understanding. Conversation takes pride of place in the presidential priorities that I developed over the past year in consultation with the Vic community. The document that emerged from this process, entitled Creative Inquiry, Conversation and Community, celebrates the kinds of conversations that take place at Vic, and identifies four key areas where we will foster further dialogue and discussion: practising inclusive excellence, fostering intercultural understanding, engaging students as active creators of knowledge, and readying students to flourish beyond University. This annual “President’s Report” takes a look at these new priorities and the work that we are doing to establish these opportunities for our students. I invite you to peruse this issue and share our excitement for the conversations that will be part of Vic’s future.
newsline
Outstanding Gift of $1M for Emmanuel College Professorship Anonymous Donor Supports Muslim Studies Focus of MPS
Photographs: (Opposite page) Horst Herget; Lisa Sakulensky
Victoria University celebrated the success of Muslim Studies at Emmanuel College, and those who have supported the initiative over the last several years, at a reception on May 8. A highlight of the evening was the announcement of an extraordinary gift of $1 million from an anonymous donor to support a professorship in Muslim Studies at Emmanuel College. The Master of Pastoral Studies (MPS) degree at Emmanuel offers a Muslim, Christian or Buddhist focus. This gift ensures funding for the professorship within the Muslim focus. “This gift shows outstanding leadership and belief in Emmanuel’s vision for Muslim Studies,” says William Robins, president of Victoria University. “It is an extraordinary commitment.” “Our students and professors are exploring how particular religious identities enrich each other in a learning community where Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and those from other faith traditions engage in respectful discussion,” says Phyllis Airhart, interim principal of Emmanuel College. “The generous gift we’ve received for the professorship in Muslim Studies is the latest expression of the remarkable support for our innovative programs.” In anticipation of this and other gifts in support of Muslim Studies, the Victoria University Board of Regents recently passed an amendment to its Statement of Investment Policies permitting alternative investment of endowed funds to allow this gift to be placed in investments that are in compliance with Sharia law. Guests of the event included members of the Emmanuel community, members of the Muslim community representing
a number of GTA mosques and Islamic associations, members of the Emmanuel fundraising advisory council and current students of the MPS Muslim Studies and inaugural graduates of the program. Following the reception, guests were invited to use the ablution facilities and dedicated Muslim prayer room for Maghrib (evening prayers). Nearly all Muslim students at Emmanuel College pursue the MPS degree. They may also opt to take the Certificate in Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy as part of the MPS. The MPS is a two-year, full-time academic degree made up of 20 courses in which six courses are taken in one of the three faith foci. The Muslim focus includes courses in the Qur’an, the history and theological tradition of Islam, Islamic law and ethics, Islamic spirituality and Islamic thought. Students are also required to take one course in another faith focus. This year the College also received a donation to create the Mohamed Mansour Lectureship in Contemporary Islamic Thought. This funding will support two lectures and will attract major thinkers to the University campus. The inaugural lecture was given by Umar Faruq Abd-Allah in April on the topic of “Islam and the Cultural Imperative.” “It is an exciting time to be at Emmanuel College,” says Nevin Reda, assistant professor of Muslim Studies. “The Muslim Studies focus grounds students in Islamic thought and equips them with the practical skills and understanding of the Canadian context needed to become spiritual and community leaders, with careers in chaplaincy, spiritual care and psycho-spiritual therapy.”
Nazila Isgandarova and Naeema Degani
Mohamed Mansour and Omar Patel Emm 1T7
Abdulla Al-Shami and Yucel Durak
Nevin Reda
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VICTORIA COLLEGE 2018 EMERGING LEADER AWARD WINNERS The Alumni of Victoria College congratulate the three winners of the Victoria College Emerging Leader Award, Benjamin Bongolan, Akash Goel and Jennifer Weaver. This award recognizes recent graduates, 35 years of age or under, who have excelled professionally or who have notable accomplishments in their volunteer service, such as community work, humanitarianism and philanthropy. Join the Vic community to honour and celebrate the winners at a reception hosted by the Alumni of Victoria College Executive this fall.
Benjamin Bongolan Vic 0T9 is a strong advocate for LGBTQ2S communities at The 519, a City of Toronto Agency that promotes inclusion, understanding and respect. He has also been a powerful voice for the Filipino community. He was named a 2018 DiverseCity Fellow with the CivicAction Leadership Foundation as one of the leading professionals committed to social impact and city building, and in 2016 he was nominated for a J.S. Woodsworth Award for Human Rights and Equity. Bongolan has provided his insights to many committees and panels, including the Toronto Police Services LGBTQ2S Community Consultative Committee, the City of Toronto’s Youth Space Advisory Committee and Asian Heritage Month events steering committees. He has expertise in the field of immigration and settlement, LGBTQ2S inclusion and youth development.
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As governments tackle the opioid epidemic by increasing funding for harm reduction programs, there is still a lack of understanding about how best to treat patients with addictions in the time around surgery. Akash Goel Vic 1T1 met with national experts in addiction medicine, emergency medicine, psychiatry, family medicine and anesthesiology, to collaborate on a national consensus statement guiding physicians in managing addiction during the perioperative period. Goel identified an issue that affects a highly marginalized patient population, and advocated for a change in practice strategies amongst his Canadian colleagues. Goel is currently completing his specialty training in anesthesiology at the University of Toronto as well as a master’s in public health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
After Jennifer Weaver Vic 0T5 completed her PhD at U of T, she joined the University of California, Berkeley as a post-doctoral scholar. Now the associate director of University Teaching at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Weaver inaugurated the first course for Caltech faculty on teaching in university STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). In addition, she implemented the first short course for Caltech graduate students and post-docs on course design, and she continues to teach both courses annually, as well as a popular creditbearing course on teaching principles in university STEM. She was awarded the James M. King Award for Program Diversity and the Team Impact Award at Caltech, and received recognition for Mentor of the Year. Weaver is a leader on the Women’s Engagement Board and advises many extracurricular campus groups.
Photographs: (Opposite page) Courtesy Emerging Leaders; Vic Alumni Office
Registration will open July 1, 2018. Register at my.alumni.utoronto.ca/EL2018 or call 416-585-4500 or 1-888-262-9775. Cost is $10 per person and includes a drink ticket and appetizers. Business casual attire.
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Calgary
ALUMNI REUNIONS VANCOUVER, CALGARY, TORONTO
April was a wonderful month for reunions! Victoria University headed west to Vancouver and Calgary for alumni receptions with Victoria and Emmanuel College alumni. The April 26 Vancouver event was hosted by Carole (Goss) Taylor, O.C., Vic 6T7, Hon. 1T2, Victoria’s chancellor, and the April 27 Calgary event was hosted by William Robins, president of Victoria University. There was great turnout of alumni in both cities, in addition to the presence of a number of prospective Vic students with their families. Meanwhile, back on the east coast, 120 alumni and friends of Victoria University gathered on April 27 to watch the Toronto Blue Jays take on the Texas Rangers!
Toronto
Photographs: (Opposite page) Courtesy Emerging Leaders; Vic Alumni Office
Jessica Swail Vic 4T8 and Carole Taylor
Vancouver
Words of Welcome and Alumni-Student Partnership Opportunity Vic invites all alumni to share words of encouragement, inspiration, advice and wisdom to the incoming class! Your words of welcome will be printed on Vic letterhead and given to a member of the incoming class during Orientation’s Traditional Ceremony. Submit your contribution by e-mailing vic.alumni@utoronto.ca.
Did you graduate from Vic within the past five years? We are looking for recent graduates to meet with Vic students, either by attending a student event or to be a buddy to help guide them through their Vic experience and their options after University. This is an opportunity to share all of your expert knowledge with our Victoria College students! If you are interested, please e-mail vic.alumni@utoronto.ca and let us know what you studied and what you are doing presently.
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NICK SAUL VIC 9T0
FOOD FOR FAIRNESS N
ick Saul loves his neighbourhood. Across the road from the house he shares with his wife and two boys in Toronto’s Little Portugal community, there’s Tony who shares homemade bread, bowls of soup and gardening advice. He even offers some of the bean seeds that his wife brought back from Portugal, and helps Saul plant them in the 10-foot square garden at the side of the house. If someone faces difficulty, there are lots of families who will step up and organize meals. And there’s four-yearold Elias, who plants a row of carrot seeds and waits eagerly for their green tips to poke up through the soil. You see, as founder and head of Community Food Centres Canada, Saul is all about food.
He loves the look of food, the growing and preparing of it, and, of course, the taste of it. He loves the way it nurtures our bodies and feeds our brains. But what he appreciates most about food is the way that it brings us together. “Never underestimate the power of a great meal cooked with love and shared with others,” he likes to say. It’s an idea that has shaped his career. Born in Tanzania to Canadian parents who were working at the university in Dar es Salaam, Saul moved to Canada with his family at age six. His father taught social sciences at York University. His mother was a high school teacher in the North York Board, and later at York’s Faculty of Education, supporting kids from neighbouring communities to become teachers and
return as educators. Growing up in the Annex, Saul breathed in the life of the city, wearing downtown Toronto like a comfortable shirt. He settled easily into high school. Life changed in grade 10, when he was “yanked out of Jarvis Collegiate” and went to Lisbon for several months to learn Portuguese. He’d need it for life in Mozambique, where he and his family would soon be living, his parents having been invited to work there by the government of the day. As a political and social scientist specializing in Southern Africa, Saul’s father was deeply involved in the politics of the region. His mother helped to plan the history curriculum in Mozambique. In those formative teenage years, Saul learned that “the
Photograph: Horst Herget
by catharine heddle vic 9t3
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Photograph: Horst Herget
Nick Saul at the Regent Park Community Food Centre
world was bigger than our table.” Life was tough at that time for people living in Mozambique. The country was at war; gunfire and raids were commonplace. And there was very little food. As expats, Saul’s family wasn’t as affected as Mozambicans were. But he does recall the scarcity; it was often his job to stand in line for the family’s daily rations of bread and milk. He didn’t experience hunger there, but he learned never to take food for granted. When the family returned to Toronto, Saul went back to Jarvis Collegiate, where he preferred basketball over student council. He may not have been an activist in those early days, but he did care deeply about community, something he found in sport. Africa had taught him that
the world was unjust, and his parents had instilled in him the idea that people coming together in common cause could make real change. After high school, he followed in the footsteps of his grandmother, both his parents and his aunt, and enrolled at Victoria College. He studied social history, allowing him to focus on the stories of people whose voices are heard rarely. On campus, he played basketball, not politics; as part of the varsity team, he practised more than two hours a day. Each night after practice, he would go to Robarts Library to study. He recalls regularly napping on the fourth floor before hitting the books late in the evening. Perhaps it was the stories he heard in his social history classes, or the
model set by his politically active parents, but it seemed inevitable that politics would eventually tap on his shoulder. A chance encounter in 1990 led him to work in the office of Ontario Premier Bob Rae, where he learned the nuts and bolts of the political machinery and came to understand what makes public policy tick. From there, he became a community organizer in Alexandra Park, subsequently did a master’s degree in England, and then worked in a Toronto shelter, where he helped homeless men develop micro businesses and find stable housing. But the idea of the power of food never left him. In 1998 he became executive director of Stop 103— a food bank. There, Saul quickly came to understand that “throwing food at the problem” was not going to solve hunger. The food bank was grim and stigmatizing and the food itself was meagre and unhealthy. “People left the place feeling smaller than when they came in,” he recalls. Furthermore, he learned that the vast majority of people who are food-insecure do not visit food banks and that the majority have some connection to the labour force—but with incomes that are insufficient to meet their basic needs. This realization led him to work with others in the neighbourhood to reinvent the food bank into a community food centre. They envisioned a place where food could be prepared and shared, where it represented opportunity, possibility and hope. He and his collaborators wanted to reframe food in low-income communities, not as charity but as serving up basic rights. Since all good parties end up in the kitchen, The Stop Community Food Centre naturally became a place for people to come together with neighbours, to feel included and to be supported. The organization now has gardens, kitchens, drop-in meals, a café, perinatal health programs and civic engagement initiatives. His work there won Saul the Jane Jacobs Prize in 2008. The Stop’s transformation is documented in the 2013 book that Saul wrote with his wife, writer vic report summer 2018
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Andrea Curtis, in an effort to share the community food centre model with the world. Saul believes that healthy societies find ways to diminish the social distances among people. He sees food as a way to do that. He has long taken inspiration from a statement by Northrop Frye Vic 3T3, Emm 3T6, which opens his book: “The fundamental job of the imagination in ordinary life, then, is to produce, out of the society we have to live in, a vision of the society we want to live in.” The Stop was a step in the right direction; however, the fact remains that four million Canadians—one in eight families, one in six children, 29 per cent of Black Canadians, 33 per cent of single mothers, and 47 per cent of people in the far north—are food-insecure. “It’s hard,” says Saul carefully, “to be proud of a country that leaves so many people behind.” As beautiful as it is, one community food centre is not enough. That’s why in 2012 Saul left The Stop to build Community Food Centres Canada (CFCC), a national organization whose mission is to create health, belonging and social justice in lowincome communities across Canada through the power of food. If that sounds like a lofty goal for something as humble as food, try looking at it through Saul’s eyes: “Food sits at the heart of some of the biggest issues of our time: inequality, climate change and poor health. Food has enormous potential to create connections between people, to express culture, to break down barriers and
to help us build a fair and inclusive community,” he explains. “Food is a way in to a conversation with another person, a chance for us to learn about each other and to build bridges.” CFCC has established eight centres across Canada, with four more coming this year. The goal is to have 20 by 2022. Its work is rooted in the values of dignity, health, belonging and justice. “Community food centres provide a place where people can feel whole again,” explains Saul. The CFCC advocates for anti-poverty policies and adequate incomes that allow all Canadians to be able to make healthy choices. Not one to shy away from activism, Saul describes the work of the CFCC as a marriage of “really good frontline programming and supporting low-income communities to speak out about what needs to change for their lives to be better.” He envisions a day in which community food centres will be as ubiquitous as public libraries, and as free from stigma. They will be places where people eat together, cook together, grow food together and build community together. Saul would like to see us channel the compassion that underpins food charity into a more politicized project, using food as a lens through which to shape a new public discourse. “I believe that civil society is the oxygen for politics,” he says, adding that change happens when there are people who will fight for it, progressive politicians who will listen to it, and thoughtful bureaucrats all working together to
After-school programming at the Regent Park Community Food Centre
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make inclusive ideas and policies for change work. A consumer-led fight for good food has led to an abundance of farmer’s markets, where the prices generally reflect the true cost of good, sustainably produced food. And as much as he loves such markets, Saul knows that in large part, they exist only for the privileged. “The rich get organic; the poor get diabetes,” he explains. “The way we’re going to change this is through politics and policy.” Asked about the planet he envisions for his grandchildren’s grandchildren, Saul says frankly that he hopes there still is a viable one. We currently spend less than eight cents of every dollar on food, he points out, and yet the growing, transporting and disposing of food accounts for 30 to 40 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. That explains Saul’s counterintuitive view: as an activist in the fight against hunger, he believes our food needs to cost us more. He hopes that one day, food prices will reflect the full cost of food, including sustainable farming practices and fair income for farmers and workers alike, as well as its impacts on population and planetary health. He also believes society must support incomes high enough that all people can be at the table for that high-quality food. Today, Saul occasionally cycles through the Vic campus. When he does, he reflects on the inspiration he took from that quote of Northrop Frye’s. “We need to build movements that reflect the future we need to see,” he muses. “If we can rethink food through the lens of health and equity, we can build a better world. Community food centres are tangible examples of health, hope, empathy, caring and justice in action. We need as much of this as possible if we’re going to shift the current narrative of individualism and division toward inclusion, social solidarity and equity.” Back in Saul and Curtis’ garden, the tomatoes, kale, garlic and herbs are growing tall. Their little neighbour, Elias, pulls a tiny, twisted, gnarly carrot from the moist ground, and his young eyes light up with the magic of his creation. Food is indeed a beautiful thing.
Photograph: (Opposite page) Ikoro Huggins-Warner; Vic Alumni Office
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young alumni profile
Weeda Mehran Vic 0T6
Photograph: (Opposite page) Ikoro Huggins-Warner; Vic Alumni Office
Exposing the Hard Truths of Afghanistan Now armed with two master’s degrees and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, Weeda Mehran was only in grade 9 in Afghanistan when the Taliban occupied the country in 1996. Her family managed to flee to Pakistan in 1998. Mehran finished high school there, in a school for Afghani refugees; however, her love of education started here, at Vic, thanks to the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) Student Refugee Program. This program combines resettlement with the opportunity to pursue higher education. The program has grown from placing one student in 1978 to placing over 130 students annually with 80 partner campuses, including Vic. “I came to Vic in 2001 and studied on a part-time basis for the first year. As a WUSC student at Vic I was able to work in the registrar’s office and the E.J. Pratt Library. That was a great experience! I really liked the welcoming environment,” says Mehran. Mehran’s transition to Vic went smoothly but an event was about to alter the world a week after her arrival in Canada— September 11. “Things became more difficult when the political situation changed. Afghanistan was suddenly all over the news and it came out of nowhere. I would hear upsetting comments about how the war in Afghanistan should be handled with nuclear bombs.” Feeling very disconnected from Afghanistan and now worried for her parents’ safety (they moved back in early 2002), Mehran became involved in student debates and discussions to raise awareness about her country. “Getting involved here made me feel a lot more connected to home,” she says. “I was part of the community that would bring in speakers and professors to talk about issues. It connected me to the truth.” Mehran does not shy away from the truth. In fact, every project she undertakes seeks to expose the realities of life in Afghanistan. Even as an undergraduate student, she had a deep interest in the social and political issues of her homeland. Her majors, environment and society, and sociology, allowed her to explore Afghan issues. For example, for a Sociology of Health class, she spent the summer interning with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). She studied why women in certain cities were committing self-immolation. “I turned this into a paper when I went back to Vic. AIHRC let me design my own research and they supported me. This internship was the beginning of my interest in human rights. I realized when I worked there that my research can have an impact on people.” Mehran is the first Afghan woman to graduate from the University of Oxford, in 2007. Her MSc in sociology at Oxford explored educational disparity in Afghanistan, while her MA in international conflict analysis at the University of Kent studied building a democracy in Afghanistan. Her education culminated with a PhD at Cambridge in politics and international studies, with a dissertation entitled “Political Economy of Warlord Democracy in Afghanistan.”
“When I finished my master’s degrees and was working at the AIHRC, I worked on a conflict-mapping project investigating three decades’ worth of war crimes, from the Russian invasion of 1979 to 2001. If I have made any contribution to Afghanistan, this is the most important one,” says Mehran. “It was a very worthwhile project and extremely difficult to research because we have a lot of those warlords, military commanders, and former mujahideen commanders who are in power right now. They have been in power since 2001, the year the Taliban lost control. They have a very dodgy human rights record. During my research I would read witnesses’ testimonies about warlords and mass killings, violations, and war crimes, but they are still in power and they are seen as these important, refined bureaucrats—harmless politicians. That made me interested in the process of statebuilding in Afghanistan. We have launched this state-building project with criminals and warlords.” Currently Mehran is a post-doctoral fellow at Georgia State University, where she is conducting research on many jihadist groups and their media production, including video, music and magazines. She calls the work “horrific and emotionally taxing.” She is also a research consultant at the Afghanistan Public Policy Research Organization and Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, working on development projects and religious radicalization. Prior to these roles Mehran was a visiting scholar at McGill University, where she researched online radicalization of youth by ISIS and the Taliban. “I feel like I have a social responsibility to help people in my country. My parents always encouraged us to help our own people, to stand up and extend a hand to others in need.” vic report summer 2018
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DRIVING VICTORIA FORWARD
Photographs: (Opposite page) Horst Herget; Horst Herget
PRESIDENT’S ANNUAL REPORT
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president’s report
As the third year of my presidency concludes, I continue to reflect on Victoria University as a remarkable place of creative inquiry, conversation and community. In fact, I named the discussion document on my presidential priorities, which was approved by the Board of Regents this past year, Creative Inquiry, Conversation and Community, because of how strongly these descriptors fit the culture at Vic. Within this overarching theme, I have identified four distinctive directions which will drive Victoria forward for the foreseeable future. These include: practising inclusive excellence; fostering intercultural understanding; engaging undergraduate students as active creators of knowledge; and readying students to flourish beyond University. It is then, no surprise, that the focus of this year’s Annual Report is the ways in which our shared work this past year at Victoria has been reflective of these directions—directions, I hasten to add, which have already taken root in the Vic community. In fact, my senior colleagues and their respective teams have been engaged in delivering teaching, programming and services related to these priorities for the past year, as you will read about in the ensuing pages. I hope that you will join me in taking pride in the remarkable work that takes place within your University community. Vic remains a University of many strengths—it is an institution which values respect, resilience and a spirit of inquiry, and encourages its students, faculty and staff to be guided by these same values.
Photographs: (Opposite page) Horst Herget; Horst Herget
VICTORIA COLLEGE The principal’s office, led in the 2017–18 academic year by Stephen Rupp, has continued its work in developing students as active creators of knowledge, with a focus on the Scholars-inResidence program. Further growth of this important new program has resulted in a total of 75 participants registered for the May 2018 residency. This year, in collaboration with the Jackman Humanities Institute, and with a significant gift of $1 million from Bader Philanthropies Inc., the program includes 15 groups of undergraduate researchers living in residence and participating in co-curricular activities. “We had outstanding applicants this year and the research proposals from faculty in the humanities and the interpretive social sciences embraced an impressive range of topics,” says Rupp. On the value of the program, Rupp cites Northrop Frye’s account of university students entering “the engine room of society, seeing the machinery of the human intellect and the human imagination.” Scholars-in-Residence brings faculty and students together to participate in original research. Another way in which the principal’s office fosters undergraduate research is through the annual “Research Day.” Run with the support of the Northrop Frye Centre, the E.J. Pratt Library, the
Office of the Dean of Students, VUSAC, and the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, this special day is a celebration of Vic’s undergraduate research and mentorship achievements and includes Victoria College’s Capstone Symposia sessions, multi-disciplinary poster presentations, and talks by Northrop Frye Centre undergraduate fellows. Topics this year ranged from public art in Toronto to the economic impact of building naval frigates in the 1980s in Canada. The event also showcased Susan McCahan, vice-provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education, Sali Tagliamonte, Canada Research Chair
in the Department of Linguistics, as well as returning undergraduate fellow, Sofia Kavlin-Castaneda who spoke on water insecurity and multi-level governance in the Peruvian Amazon. One of the capstone courses currently offered at Victoria College, taught by Anne Urbancic, is a mentorship colloquium which speaks to an educative continuum and understanding about service to each other in the name of scholarship— a value that has been an essential part of the Vic ethos, from its inception to the present day. These mentors do not teach or mark; they reflect on topics such as engaged interaction and how
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president’s report
EMMANUEL COLLEGE In its efforts to practise inclusive excellence, this year Emmanuel College instituted a new pilot project which will see all new full-time students registered in the Master of Divinity degree program, and who are formally recognized as inquirers and candidates in the United Church, receiving 100 per cent tuition through the John W. Billes grant. For all other students, Emmanuel continues to fund the
Entering Theological College Grant that provides 50 per cent tuition to new, domestic full-time students for up to 10 courses in basic degree programs (MDiv, MPS, MTS, MSMus). Such tuition support reduces financial barriers and increases access to education for all divinity students. Another initiative, the Rosedale Fellows Program, will engage students as active creators of knowledge. This two-year program, made possible by the generosity of Emmanuel College alumni/ae connected to Rosedale United Church, supports two doctoral students per year who anticipate becoming teachers of spiritual care. “They learn to nurture pedagogical connections between theory and practice,” says Phyllis Airhart, interim principal of Emmanuel College, “while exploring the intellectual, practical and spiritual dimensions of theological education.” Emmanuel College is renowned for fostering intercultural understanding. Its reputation is such that an anonymous donor gave $1 million this past academic year to fund a professorship in Muslim Studies. In addition, the College received a donation to create the Mohamed Mansour Lectureship in Contemporary Islamic Thought. This funding will support two lectures, the first one entitled “Islam and the Cultural Imperative,” presented by Umar Faruq Abd-Allah. Other intercultural colloquia and lectureships this year included “Islamophobia and
Naba Choudhury and fellow Emmanuel College colleagues
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Anti-Semitism: Connections and Parallels,” “Buddhist Modernism, Mediation and Mindfulness: What is at Stake?” and “Gently Whispering the Circle Back.” The latter involved viewing a documentary exploring the wounds inflicted by the residential school system and colonization, as well as the journey of healing, transformation and reconciliation. After the film, there was a discussion with Andrew Wesley, elder in residence at U of T’s First Nations House; Maggie Dieter, director of Aboriginal Ministries Circle; and Jonathan Hamilton-Diabo Emm 1T1, director of Indigenous Initiatives at U of T. Emmanuel College is also working with other Toronto School of Theology colleges in responding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action by creating courses and co-curricular programming to foster intercultural understanding.
OFFICE OF THE REGISTRAR Yvette Ali, Victoria College’s registrar, reports that progress has been made this past year to advance the presidential priority of practising inclusive excellence. “We have been doing a great deal on the recruitment front,” she says. “We have done special outreach to Toronto schools, including those in neighbourhoods close to the campus where there are a higher proportion of first-generation and students with greater financial need.” The registrar’s office has made a concerted effort to visit schools, host events and reach out to guidance counsellors to emphasize the learning, co-curricular opportunities and financial aid available at Vic. “We’ve strengthened our connection with at least half a dozen schools in priority neighbourhoods,” says Ali. At the same time, Vic continues to bolster its connections with schools with which it has long-standing relationships, such as the Toronto French School and Humberside Collegiate. Beyond the local level, there are also recruitment efforts at a provincial level, broadening Canadian diversity nicely. “We have representation from all provinces, including a notable increase in applicants from B.C. in recent years, and we are trying to build on that
Photographs: (Opposite page) Horst Herget; Vic Alumni Office
to advise first-year students on paraacademic issues, such as resources available on campus, time-management skills, communication skills, etc. Urbancic says, “Unfortunately my words don’t convey the excitement the mentors have towards their work, nor my pride in their many accomplishments.” This capstone course is an excellent model for supporting students in gaining important life skills that will take them beyond University. And, this year, the principal’s office has been engaged with the registrar’s office and the dean’s office in thinking about transitioning students beyond Vic through the development of both curricula and co-curricular courses. Topics such as communication skills, financial literacy, and presentation skills are just a few of the areas being considered. This important work, along with courses like the mentorship colloquium, will actively support a key presidential priority to ready students better to flourish beyond University.
Photographs: (Opposite page) Horst Herget; Vic Alumni Office
success,” she says. It is also exciting that the international student population is at an all-time high of 22 per cent of the expected incoming class of 828 students. International students are most likely to hail from the U.S., China or India. This growing diversity expands students’ and professors’ horizons and results in diverse perspectives in the classroom. The registrar and her staff have also been working diligently to ready students to flourish beyond University. In collaboration with the dean of students and Vic’s principal, a one-week series called Career Kickstarter was launched. It consisted of five, careerrelated sessions on various topics such as how to apply to grad school, learning about careers in medicine, and working in the social justice arena. Also new this year was a one-year pilot project which saw the creation of a combined learning strategist and case manager role, in which Meghan Litteljohn Vic 0T8 was hired. In her case manager role, Litteljohn deals with complex student cases where a student has a series of challenges (mental health, learning disabilities). Her role is to support them through their studies, help them in navigating the available services, and to create personalized strategies to improve their functioning at school and beyond. “The focus is always squarely on the learning but Meghan often communicates with accessibility services co-ordinators, sometimes a mental health practitioner and other services on campus to make sure the student is holistically supported,” says Ali. In her role as a learning strategist, Litteljohn also meets with students wanting to improve their academic performance. She provides advice and strategies that they can employ to support their learning and to help them with challenges such as writer’s block, exam anxiety, organizational skills and how to be an effective reader. These are all skills that a student will need upon the transition out of University. Through psychoeducational assessments, Littlejohn also works to identify a student’s strengths and longterm goals, which is useful in helping them identify possible career pathways and preferences.
William Robins and John Borrows Vic 8T7, keynote speaker for Campus (Re) Conciliations
OFFICE OF THE DEAN OF STUDENTS Kelley Castle, dean of students, welcomes difficult questions and challenging issues. “It’s about fostering intercultural understanding, and actively practising and engaging in inclusive excellence,” she says. “It’s also about a desire, particularly in the University setting, to have difficult conversations.” At a time when many people shy away from talking about free speech on campus, traditional use of pronouns, or the more recent Bill 132, Ontario’s new Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act, Castle actively encourages it, and views doing so as part of her duty of care as dean. In other words, Castle and her staff are comfortable with being uncomfortable. “We nestle in to discomfort,” she says, “and we get comfortable being there.” One way to move closer to this is through participation in Ideas for the World, co-curricular courses that have brought together community members and students for academic presentations and discussion groups. Now in its tenth year, it continues to be a great success and an academic career highlight for the more than 1,000 people who have participated in the program. A new offering from the dean’s office this past year was the Sex & Gender on Campus conference, open to everyone— students, alumni, faculty, staff and
the broader community. Academic conferences tend to gear toward specific audiences, says Castle, so recruiting and inviting community members from all over the city was key to fostering intercultural understanding and inclusive excellence. “These conferences are part of an effort to make the walls of the University more porous, and to become an engaged participant in the city. It’s important that when we address issues that affect the broader community, we do so in partnership with the community.” In March, the dean’s office led the organization of a second Victoria University conference to discuss its role in responding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, called Campus (Re)Conciliations: Second Listenings. “A lot of what we do at Vic is rooted in the University’s motto Studies Pass into Character and, when studies are broadly conceived, what you learn does pass into your character—learning happens both within and outside the classroom.” Castle wants the University experience to be accessible to all, but recognizes the importance of a signature, personalized experience. “Not all students have the same external support networks—not because families don’t want to help, but because they often don’t have the experience to inform their support,” says Castle. The dean’s office led an information session this past year specifically for vic report summer 2018
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president’s report in a more holistic way; he hopes the building will serve myriad aspects of student life. Recognizing students as active creators of knowledge means dedicating additional space to both creative and academic pursuits. Even better, deSouza hopes the new Northrop Frye Hall will be a net-zero building. “I want the building to exceed all current design standards so that it is sustainable and inclusive for all, for years to come.”
first-generation University students and their families so that they can become more familiar with aspects of University life such as academics, residence and commuter life. The academic year 2017–18 also has seen increased programming for international students who have specific needs. For many, it is their first time in Canada, and with the immediate support of family missing, Castle has designed information sessions for everything from explaining Ontario’s healthcare system to touring students around major city landmarks.
OFFICE OF THE BURSAR Ray deSouza, bursar and chief administrative officer, easily logs 11,000 steps around the Vic campus on any given day and it’s not just for the exercise, it’s because he’s always looking for “places to make right.” Walking through and around buildings provides him with the opportunity to see how students use, or do not use, space; he sees firsthand the signs of early disrepair, or where more lighting is required. It is important to deSouza and his team that everyone who enters the Vic campus feel safe, at home and able to find their place as they study. “Accessible design,” says deSouza, “is increasingly important and a vital component of landscape, urban and educational architecture.” Many students already balance coursework with jobs, family responsibilities and 14
vic report summer 2018
community involvement. And, while Vic’s extensive awards program plays a significant role in offsetting some of the costs of a University education for students, deSouza believes it is just as important to bolster on-campus service to students so that they can find the support required to succeed—all part of practising inclusive excellence. To that end, Victoria University, with leadership from deSouza, has been busy collaborating with the City of Toronto and U of T on long-term campus plans. “Vic continues to be the campus of choice for cultural and community initiatives, and this is a great way for our students to see a city like Toronto come to life on their campus; they see how Vic functions in the broader community and vice versa,” says deSouza. This past year, members of city council, planning, and traffic staff, congratulated Vic on being an excellent team player. Together, they looked at ways of coping with the city’s proposed development plans for Queen’s Park and for additional condo developments on Charles St. W. The two groups were able to compare master plans that include additional paving and walkways, tree canopies, lighting and outdoor seating that benefit students and the greater community alike, and help to soften the impact of densification. Vic’s Board of Regents, on which deSouza serves as secretary, is looking at a plan to reimagine Northrop Frye Hall and to integrate it with the campus
One of the ways in which the Victoria library engages undergraduate students as active creators of knowledge is through its archival and manuscript collections. A Vic One Pearson stream course is an excellent example of this— VIC184, Individuals and the Public Sphere: History, Historiography and Making Cultural Memory. Lisa Sherlock, chief librarian, explains, “Students work with a particular archive of their choosing. Students have to use their own skills to understand the original documents they are working with, which have not yet been interpreted, and must learn, for example, to read the handwriting of the person whose papers they are reading. In this way, students become active creators of knowledge and the expert on the individual whose papers they are studying.” Victoria librarians provide instructional sessions on the nature of archives and how to use archival materials. They also support students as they work their way through a selected archive. “I think many of the students come away feeling less intimidated by using archives and also proud of what they have been able to understand and convey to classmates about that person,” says Sherlock. The library also plays an important role in readying students to flourish beyond University. This year it employed as many as 30 students to work as assistants at the circulation desk, to sign out materials, to shelve books, to take inventories on the collections, and to respond to questions over the phone and in person. The library also employed students this year with technical
Photographs: (Opposite page) Babak; Vic Alumni Office
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Photographs: (Opposite page) Babak; Vic Alumni Office
backgrounds to support the Robert Farquharson Information Commons help desk. All of these students are in second year and beyond; however, for many, it is the first job they have ever had. Each student receives training on serving the public and on how to convey correct information in a very detail-oriented milieu. Students receive annual evaluations, as they would in the workplace, as well as work references. The library participated in U of T’s Work Study Program this past year, employing students at both the undergraduate and graduate level to work in its digitization program and to assist archivists in their projects. As well, the library took part in the Young Canada Works program, a federal government initiative that employs students who are beginning to work in the library and archival fields. It also employed a WUSC student (World University Service of Canada) at the circulation desk—WUSC students come from countries without the same access to post-secondary education Canadians have. This year’s student is from Sudan (see “Young Alumni Profile” on pg. 9 for more about WUSC). Finally, the library also engaged co-op students from the material culture course VIC329, Material Culture Internship, to complete projects with archival documents which they then presented to their class as part of their course assignment.
OFFICE OF ALUMNI AFFAIRS & ADVANCEMENT The 2017–18 academic year has been a busy one for the Office of Alumni Affairs & Advancement (AAA). In the fall of the 2017, the University received a significant gift of $1 million from Bader Philanthropies Inc. toward the Scholarsin-Residence program. “This wonderful gift directly supports the presidential priority of engaging undergraduate students as active creators of knowledge, and is as testament to the remarkable work of the Office of the Principal of Victoria College in developing this program, in collaboration with the Jackman Humanities Institute, and to the advancement team for stewarding authentic donor relationships like the one with the Bader family, over so many years,” says Louise Yearwood, executive director of AAA. “The culture of giving at Vic remains strong and our donors understand that participation is the key to our success! The generosity of the community ensures that Vic continues to achieve excellence in all that it does. All gifts—both big and small—come together in aggregate to ensure that Vic is well supported and remains at the forefront of post-secondary education in Canada and beyond,” says Yearwood. AAA has also worked closely this past year with Emmanuel College and with the Muslim community, resulting in a remarkable $1 million gift given
Darren Cheng Vic 1T6, Vivian Che Vic 1T7, Alisa Mahrova Vic 1T6 and Julie Zhang Vic 1T7 at SHAKER 2018
Daria Murphy
by an anonymous donor to support the MPS program in Muslim Studies (see page 3 for more details). This gift directly ties with the presidential priority of fostering intercultural understanding, an area in which Emmanuel is a recognized leader. The department has also been busy helping students to get ready for their lives beyond Victoria through engaging alumni to act as student mentors. For example, Life after Vic, a careernetworking event run by VUSAC and the dean’s office with support from AAA, featured a number of alumni from a variety of professions and graduating years. The alumni networked at a special pre-reception, and then acted as mentors to the 75 students who attended this special networking dinner in Alumni Hall. As well this past year, alumni engaged with students at an etiquette lunch, at a career kickstarter event run by the registrar’s office, and at the Emerging Leader Award event when the past year’s three winners—Ige Egal, Elise Paradis and Tasha Schumann— spoke about their life journeys beyond Vic and were celebrated for their achievements. As well, Vic alumni stayed engaged by serving on the alumni associations for both Victoria and Emmanuel Colleges (AVC and ECAA), on the Board of Regents, the Senate, on the College of Electors and in many other capacities throughout the year. Vic Report and other publications and media produced by AAA continue to support the current strategic priorities of the University by ensuring that their contents reflect the presidential vision. vic report summer 2018
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milestones
CAREERS, AUTHORS, HONOURS Gregory Baker Vic 6T5, physics professor emeritus from Bryn Athyn College, Pennsylvania, is delighted to announce that Oxford University Press has just released an inexpensive paperback version of his book, Seven Tales of the Pendulum (Oxford University Press, 2018). Written for readers of widely varying backgrounds, Seven Tales describes many remarkable features of the science, technology, history, culture, and even religious symbolism of the deceptively simple pendulum. Something for everyone! (www.oup.com with discount code ASPROMP8). Gerald Helleiner Vic 5T8 has written Towards a Better World: Memoirs of a Life in International and Development Economics (University of Toronto Press, 2018). This book chronicles Gerald’s 40 years of experience working with developing countries and international organizations. As a young academic,
send us your news: vic.report@utoronto.ca
Gerald started out in Africa in the 1960s, doing research on poverty alleviation. The consciousness of his privilege and his experiences in Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa sparked within him a desire to become a practising economist determined to make a positive effort in addressing global poverty. Honoured to be named a 2018 TD Canadian Children’s Book Centre touring author, Melanie (Chandler) Jackson Vic 7T8 has just had a new young-adult mystery published. In Medusa’s Scream (Orca Books, 2017), a young piemaker gets to sell his savoury concoctions outside a thrill ride set in an abandoned gold mine. A made-to-order opportunity, it would seem. But when our budding chef stumbles on a secret in the mine, the dangerous setting heats to boiling. Themes include: cooking, Fraser Valley Gold Rush, Greek mythology and Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Peter Martin Vic 6T8 has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, according to the formal citation, “for his innovative research on interstellar matter and for establishing two world-renowned institutes of astronomy and astrophysics.” Martin currently works at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical
The Rocky Horror Show at Stratford
Where There’s a Will…
It’s just a jump to the left!
I give and bequeath to the Board of Regents of Victoria University, Toronto, Ontario, the sum of $ or % of my estate.
Let’s do the Time Warp again! Save the date and join Vic for the debut of the Rocky Horror Show onstage in Stratford! Watch as Brad and Janet find themselves in very unfamiliar territory, inhabited by the likes of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Don’t miss the freaky fun! SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2018 Cost: $108–$156 plus applicable taxes and fees. Includes show, transportation from Vic, boxed dinner and backstage tour. Performance at 8 p.m. Register online: my.alumni.utoronto.ca/timewarp
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Grace Ji-Sun Kim Vic 9T2 has written a book that examines the intersection of Christian doctrine and the effect that climate change has on women. Planetary Solidarity: Global Women’s Voices on Christian Doctrine and Climate Justice (Fortress Press, 2017) features a diverse range of women theologians that use a postcolonial ecofeminist/womanist analysis in order to weigh in on issues of doctrine, women and climate justice. Planetary Solidarity explores how Christian doctrine might address the interconnected suffering of women and the earth in an age of climate change. Contributors use doctrine to envision possibilities for a deep solidarity with the Earth and one another, while addressing the intersection of gender, race, class and ethnicity.
vic report summer 2018
Victoria University can be designated as a beneficiary in your Will. Here’s an example of a suggested wording:
If you wish to designate a specific bequest (a scholarship, the library, etc.), please contact: Sharon Gregory Telephone: 416-813-4050 Toll-free: 1-888-262-9775 E-mail: sharon.gregory@utoronto.ca
send us your news: vic.report@utoronto.ca
Astrophysics. He studied math and physics while he was at Vic.
2018 VIC BOOK SALE
David McDonald Vic 7T4 has been named winner of the prestigious Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award. First presented in 1985, the award is the highest technical honor bestowed by the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI). The Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award is presented annually to the individual who has made pre-eminent scientific and engineering achievements of proven commercial benefit to the world’s pulp, paper, board and forest products industries, including forestry derived products, their process technologies and their applications. McDonald was presented with the award on April 16 at TAPPI’s annual PaperCon conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“There is no friend as loyal as a book,” said Ernest Hemingway. Don’t miss the 27th annual Vic Book Sale and help support Friends of the Library. The sale is in Old Vic, 91 Charles Street West. Proceeds go to Victoria University Library. Thursday, Sept. 20 2 p.m.– 8 p.m. Only day with admission fee: $5, students free with ID
Want to volunteer? 416-585-4585 or 416-585-4471
Friday, Sept. 21
10 a.m.– 8 p.m.
Blog: library.vicu.ca/friends/blog
Saturday, Sept. 22
11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 23
11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Want to donate? Books on all subjects and vinyl records are welcome.
Monday, Sept. 24 10 a.m.– 8 p.m.
Bruce Meyer Vic 8T0 has authored a new short-story collection called A Feast of Brief Hopes (Guernica Editions Inc., 2018). These stories examine how we respond to the unseen forces that shape our lives and the unexpected. Do we carry our memories of the beautiful moments of life with us into death? And, ultimately, what do we value in life that defines us—from a hat to the shadow of a figure in a window reminding us what we
E-mail: vic.booksale@utoronto.ca
have lost or need to hold on to? These stories of food, love and literature are celebrations of life.
Jennifer Szalai Vic 9T9 has been named the new nonfiction critic for The New York Times.
Terence Scully Vic 5T7 has devoted his academic research and publications to early food and cookery, and to the relationship between them and notions of health and medicine as transmitted from antiquity. His Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570) (University of Toronto Press, 2011) deals with the work of the personal cook of two popes, Pius V and Pius VI, and includes all of Scappi’s 1,500 recipes, an assortment of his menus, a unique set of 27 engravings showing in fine detail the layout and equipment necessary for a noble kitchen of his day, and the secure arrangements made for the cardinals’ meals during the 1549 conclave.
Peter Wyatt Vic 6T6, Emm 8T3, professor emeritus and former principal of Emmanuel College, has been named the 2017 Emmanuel College Distinguished Alumni/ae Award winner. When Peter Wyatt completed his seven-year term as principal of Emmanuel College in 2008, then President Paul W. Gooch remarked that Wyatt was a “true citizen of Victoria University,” and that he passionately and eloquently represented Emmanuel on the senior administrative
milestones
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milestones
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team and in governance in a “spirit that [was] gracious and wise.” Wyatt’s belief in the importance of theological education and its association with leadership roles in the church, his dedication to ecumenism, his excellence in preaching and teaching as well as his work as editor of Touchstone, are just a few of the reasons why he was selected to receive this award. A dinner to honour Peter was held following Emmanuel’s Alumni/ae Day on May 7, 2018.
IN MEMORIAM
Philip Ziegler Vic 9T1, Emm 9T6, Emm 0T2 has published a book that explores the importance of apocalyptic theology called Militant Grace: The Apocalyptic Turn and the Future of Christian Theology (Baker Academic, 2018). Ziegler’s work delves into the significance of apocalyptic readings of the New Testament for systematic theology, and highlights the ethical implications of the apocalyptic turn in biblical and theological studies. Written by a leading theologian and proponent of apocalyptic theology, this primer explores the impact of important recent Pauline scholarship on contemporary theology and argues for a renewed understanding of key Christian doctrines, including sin, grace, revelation, redemption and the Christian life.
Donald Dwight Evans, in Toronto, January 5, 2018. He taught philosophy at Vic from 1964–2008 and was a member of Senate.
Elizabeth (Cunningham) Brown Vic 4T0, in Owen Sound, Ont., January 9, 2018. Robert C. Dowsett Vic 5T0, in Toronto, April 8, 2018. He served on the Board of Regents for Victoria University. Donald E. Erling Vic 5T2, in Cambridge, Ont., April 6, 2018.
Mardi Jane (Saunders) Falconer Vic 5T5, in Toronto, February 13, 2018. Phyllis Jeanne (Yerex) Farrell Vic 5T1, in London, Ont., February 1, 2018. Sandra Novarre (Grant) Hamilton Vic 6T0, in Temiskaming Shores, Ont., February 4, 2018. Darlene Hilliard Vic 6T5, in London, Ont., March 1, 2018.
BRUNCH IN BURWASH! Remember brunch in Burwash Hall? Come back on September 23 and line up for the famous waffle bar and other treats with fellow guests and students. Bring your kids for a special reading of children’s books. Sunday, September 23, 2018 Buffet brunch 10 a.m.–1 p.m. $14 per person ($8 for kids 5–11, 4 and under are free). Cash only, includes tax. This is the same weekend as the Vic Book Sale, so be sure to stop by. For groups of eight or more, or for questions, please call the Vic Alumni Office at 416-585-4500 or e-mail vic.alumni@utoronto.ca.
Cora Doreen (Johnson) Robins Vic 5T6, in Fort Myers, FL, February 27, 2018.
John Edward Lang Vic 6T4, 9T6, in Toronto, May 5, 2018. Donald E. MacLeod Vic 7T2, in Oshawa, Ont., October 13, 2017.
Mary (Pawluk) Strangways Vic 5T6, in Burlington, Ont., February 10, 2018.
Lois Magee Vic 5T3, in Kitchener, Ont., April 22, 2018.
Edra Elizabeth (Wooley) Thompson Vic 4T8, in Vineland, Ont., December 23, 2017.
Philip Maude Vic 6T2, in Toronto, February 24, 2018.
George Tucker Walsh Vic 4T7, in Toronto, December 28, 2017.
Patricia (Wenger) McDowell Vic 6T3, in Ottawa, February 28, 2018.
Charles T. Witherell Vic 5T7, in Toronto, March 14, 2018.
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Ruth E. (Chantler) Balmer Vic 4T7, in Toronto, February 2, 2018.
faculty forum
“Breathe a different kind of air”
Photograph: Vic Alumni Office
by ann komaromi After Stalin, when the terror had passed but fear still remained, Soviet dissident Andrei Amalrik pioneered connections with visiting foreigners in order to help his compatriots break out of the “closed sphere” of the Soviet Union and, as he put it, “breathe a different kind of air.” Amalrik wrote a dissertation at Moscow State University that got him expelled in 1960: he traced the influence of Norman traders on early Russian civilization, work that contradicted the official historical position on Russian culture as a product of Slavs alone. The experience did not make Amalrik less independent. While others remained scared of contact with foreigners, Amalrik sought out Western correspondents, diplomatic staff and foreign students. He told them about nonconformist art and he gave them uncensored texts, among them his own satirical plays and essays. Amalrik argued that the Soviet Rights movement to which he belonged grew from cross-culturally fertilized soil: “Our strongest Western teacher was Martin Luther King and his campaign against violence. But King learned from Gandhi, and Gandhi learned from Tolstoy, whose ideas returned to Russia like a kind of boomerang.” In my research on Soviet dissidence, cultural opposition and underground samizdat (self-publishing), I take inspiration from Amalrik and others, such as Ludmila Alekseeva, Natalya Gorbanevskaia, Dmitri Sakharov, Andrei Siniavsky and Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who passionately believed that art and scholarship, the lessons of the past and dialogue with people from other cultures, were fundamental to constructing a better future for their society. All valued imaginative thinking and scrupulous attention to facts. Each took a critical approach to received opinion and to the official limits on what could be said and thought. Thanks to remarkable dissidents like these individuals, I took my interest in literature out of the library and into the archives and the interview room. I wanted to know how people saw themselves as part of independent groups (dissident communities included rights’ activists and Russian nationalists, unregistered Baptists, rock music fans and others). I wanted to understand what kind of influences they found in history and abroad, and how they formed networks among themselves and with international publics and allies. I found that the familiar universal discourse of human rights was underpinned by a plurality of community interests that energized people at home and abroad. Just as universalizing ideas come to life in particular socio-historical contexts, so literary and artistic works born in one culture grow and live through their reception in other times and places. The works of James Joyce and Vladimir Nabokov, suppressed in the Soviet Union, took on urgent new meanings for readers in the late Soviet Union, who took in their complicated works like precious oxygen and devoted hours to typing and photographing rare foreign editions to give to friends. The addiction to independent culture became
so widespread that poet Lev Loseff likened samizdat to samogon (homebrewed liquor). Dissidence is newly relevant today as we contemplate the spread of authoritarian regimes and populist tendencies around the world. What might it take to renew our commitment to a pluralistic democracy? While alarming stories about Russian interference in elections and social-media platforms suggest the need for government action to protect systems and values, this can only be a partial solution. There can be no social renewal without grassroots engagement. We might adapt techniques of Soviet dissidents: we should take a critical attitude to many institutions and reigning cultural norms of our society (in particular, the effect of for-profit companies and big data on our public life and communications). We must stand up to the fake news and divisive political messages directed at us. We have to hold our elected representatives accountable and support reliable journalism. As a scholar in the humanities, I am especially devoted to cultivating what is not so easily bought and sold in the new economy: commitment to long-term tasks, tolerance of complexity and difference, as well as the imaginative resources and historical knowledge needed to conceive of a society different from the one marketed to us. Literature and history offer the possibility today, too, to “breathe a different kind of air.” Ann Komaromi is a Victoria College Fellow. She is also an associate professor and graduate coordinator for the Centre for Comparative Literature. She is creator of the electronic archive Project for the Study of Dissidence and Samizdat (UTL, 2015), author of the book Uncensored (Northwestern UP, 2015), and editor of We Are Jews Again: Jewish Activism in the Soviet Union (Syracuse UP, 2017).
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on campus
Victoria University Honorary Degrees Conferred
Photograph: Lisa Sakulensky
Victoria University awards honorary degrees to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of graduates of Victoria College and Emmanuel College, and to honour the exemplary lives of individuals who have made remarkable contributions to Canadian society, and communities abroad. The many accomplishments of those considered for the honour reflect the distinctiveness of Victoria University, including fostering diversity and practising inclusive excellence. The high esteem for these honorary degree recipients should be such that, in the awarding of an honorary degree to them, distinction is also brought to Victoria University. At the May 10 Emmanuel convocation, Victoria University conferred honorary degrees upon Cassim Degani (left) and Stanley John McKay (right). Cassim Degani is a surgeon at the Shouldice Hospital and at the Humber River Regional Hospital. He previously served as chief of surgery at the Shouldice Hospital from 1998 until 2006, and at the Doctor’s Hospital from 1991 until 1994. Degani has been an advocate of interfaith dialogue, and, to that end he has been an enthusiastic supporter of the establishment of Muslim Studies at Emmanuel College. He has proven himself a selfless humanitarian through his service and leadership, and by volunteering his skills as a physician in response to major natural disasters, conflicts and invasions. He has taken time off from work to set up medical camps and to assist survivors in Bosnia, Kosovo, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Iraq. In 2016 Degani received the Global Humanitarian Award from the International Development and Relief Foundation, and he was honored in 2012 with the Award of Excellence from the American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin. Degani also received the Jewel of the Community Award from the Mehfil Group of Toronto in 2008, and the Humanitarian Award from the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce in 2000. For his services in Afghanistan and Bosnia, he received the Humanitarian Services Award from the Islamic Medical Association of Canada Trust. Victoria University conferred the degree Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, upon Degani.
Stanley John McKay was instrumental in the United Church of Canada’s national consultation process for the National Native Council from 1982 to 1987. During that time, he successfully advocated for the United Church’s apology for its role in the cultural oppression of First Nations peoples. McKay was the first Indigenous person to lead the United Church of Canada, and he served as the 34th moderator from 1992 to 1994. His enduring commitment to peace, justice and respect shines through his extensive work towards reconciliation. McKay served as the director of spiritual care, Health Sciences Centre (1997–2000) and as the co-director of the Dr. Jessie Saulteaux Resource Centre from 2000 to 2002. McKay has also presented many lectures and workshops about cross-cultural understanding and First Nations spirituality. He presently serves as an advisor in health and education, and he continues to volunteer in community development and education related to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. For his revolutionary work, McKay has received many honours, including a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 1997. Victoria University conferred the degree Doctor of Sacred Letters, honoris causa, upon McKay.