summer 2019
From Coast to Coast to Coast Vik Adhopia Vic 9T2 p. 6
A Tradition of Innovation: President’s Annual Report p. 10
president ’s page
The Fire of Undergraduate by william robins
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Summer 2019 Volume XLVII 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: Vik Adhopia Vic 9T2 in the Goldring Student 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; Courtesy Bader Philanthropies, Inc., Horst Herget
A few weeks ago, I had the great pleasure of visiting a study room in the beautiful Pratt Library, in the company of Victoria University’s chancellor, Carole Taylor, O.C., Vic 6T7, Hon. 1T2. There we met five undergraduate students working as a research team for a Vic faculty member, Ira Wells. Their project is to produce the first critical biography of Norman Jewison, C.C, Vic 4T9, Hon. 0T1, one of Canada’s preeminent film directors, a graduate of Victoria College, and from 2004–2010, chancellor of Victoria University. Jewison has donated his personal archives to Vic, and the students in that room were carefully combing through boxes containing original letters, drafts and media clippings, gathering material that will contribute to a fuller understanding of the significance and social impact of Jewison and his films. Victoria University aims to be at the forefront of current efforts to reconceive the teaching and research aims of Canadian higher education. Since the 1960s, universities in North America have distinguished sharply between their research and teaching missions. Research was seen as the discovery and publication of new knowledge by professors and graduate students, while teaching entailed the dissemination of knowledge to undergraduates through classroom instruction. As our educational environment changes, a new model is emerging where the teaching of undergraduates and the research endeavours of universities are increasingly intertwined. This new model is especially suited to U of T, with its extensive undergraduate programs and strength as Canada’s premier research university. Victoria College is playing a leading role in this important shift by making undergraduate research a prime area for innovation and by including new research initiatives in the sciences, the social sciences and the humanities. Through their involvement in research projects students turn their chosen academic interests into a set of sophisticated skills. Through research, students understand more deeply the parameters, methods and ethics of their areas of study; they participate in new forms of interpretation such as hospital labs, digital maker spaces and entrepreneurship hubs; they gain experience in project design, problem solving and data analysis; and they cultivate habits of communication, teamwork, independence and public engagement. Students become active creators of knowledge at the cutting edge of their disciplines Vic is well positioned to contribute to the reorganization of undergraduate creative inquiry. It has academically strong students, faculty fellows with rigorous research profiles, a library rich with resources, as well as the graduate research strengths of its sister college, Emmanuel. The campus is home to thriving intellectual centres such as the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, the Northrop Frye Centre and the Centre for the Study of Religion and Its Contexts. One of my four presidential priorities is to “Engage Undergraduate Students as Active Creators of Knowledge.” In the last few years Victoria College has created a position of undergraduate research coordinator, launched an Undergraduate Research Day and appointed undergraduate fellows at the Northrop Frye Centre. Vic also coordinates with the Jackman Humanities Institute for the successful Scholars-in-Residence program, where students work on faculty led research projects in the humanities. The Jewison biography project I mentioned above is one of this year’s Scholars-in-Residence offerings. “Education,” said W.B. Yeats, “is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” Experience shows that to fan the fire of curiosity and discovery, nothing surpasses a research opportunity in a student’s chosen field. In the coming years, we will be continuing to help Vic’s teaching staff and research centres broaden opportunities for undergraduate research, and continue to increase the capacity of the libraries to contribute to such cutting-edge projects. To ensure that these initiatives succeed, we are working with our partners at U of T and our donor community to achieve efficient, collaborative structures, appropriate spaces, and reliable resourcing for existing and new undergraduate research programs. I hope that you will join us in celebrating the academic mission of Victoria College as increasingly it becomes a place where creative research thrives, not only for our stellar faculty members, but also for our eager undergraduates.
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Alfred Bader A Remarkable Journey It was with great sadness that Victoria University learned of the passing of Alfred Bader, on December 23, 2018, at the age of 94. Bader was the beloved husband of Isabel (Overton) Bader Vic 4T9, Hon. 9T5 and a friend and major benefactor of Victoria. Alfred was born on April 28, 1924 in Vienna. In 1938, all Jewish children were forced to leave school at the age of 14, but Alfred was able to escape to England via the Kindertransport program. In 1940, with the imminent invasion of the Nazis, German-speaking refugees were deported by the British government as prisoners of war. Alfred was sent as a POW Second Class to Fort Lennox, an internment camp in Quebec. Despite many difficulties in the camp, he received a very good education. When he was released, sponsored by Martin Wolff, a civil engineer, who lived in Montreal, Alfred went on to earn multiple degrees in engineering, chemistry and history from Queen’s University, and a PhD in chemistry from Harvard University. Alfred made his fortune as an entrepreneur in the chemical industry. In 1951, he co-founded Aldrich Chemical Company which specialized in providing quality research chemicals. In 1975, Aldrich merged with Sigma, a leading biochemical company. After leaving Sigma-Aldrich, he was able to pursue his love of 17th-century baroque art including Rembrandt and his followers. A generous philanthropist, Alfred was especially devoted to supporting educational institutions, including Victoria University and Queen’s University. Many past and present
Vic students are familiar with the Bader name thanks to the extensive number of scholarships and bursaries Isabel and Alfred have funded. They are also grateful to the Baders for the creation of the Isabel Bader Theatre, thanks to a landmark gift of $6 million to Victoria University in 1998. Used for lectures, Vic One plenaries, concerts, film festivals, plays and other performing arts events, the theatre is an integral part of Vic’s vibrant campus. In addition, the Baders fund students who wish to study at Herstmonceaux Castle, a remarkable building in England they gifted to Queen’s. Most recently, Bader Philanthropies, Inc., led by his son, Daniel Bader, president and CEO, gave a gift of $1 million to support Vic’s innovative, undergraduate research program, Scholars-in-Residence. “Through supporting the arts and research in the humanities,” says William Robins, president of Victoria University, “Alfred and Isabel Bader have, over many years, championed a vision of liberal education. By supporting students with scholarships and bursaries and providing research opportunities to deepen our students’ ability to understand, appreciate and imagine a healthy human society now and in the future, they have had a significant impact on the Victoria community. We are truly grateful for their tremendous generosity.”
Joining Victoria University Photographs: (Opposite page) Horst Herget; Courtesy Bader Philanthropies, Inc., Horst Herget
Jonathan Hamilton-Diabo Emm 1T1 Victoria University is pleased to announce that Jonathan HamiltonDiabo, previously director of Indigenous initiatives at U of T, will be joining the University as assistant professor in theology at Emmanuel College and June Callwood Professor in Social Justice at Victoria College. He will also serve as special advisor to the president of Victoria University on Indigenous issues. “We are thrilled that Jonathan Hamilton-Diabo will be joining the Victoria community,” says President William Robins. “At both Victoria College and Emmanuel College, the experience of our students, faculty and staff will benefit from his talents as a teacher and from his deep commitment to issues of equity and reconciliation.”
Hamilton-Diabo has a long-standing history of leadership in Indigenous education and community-building at the University of Toronto as a staff member, student and educator. He co-taught “Engaging Aboriginal Theologies” with Tom Reynolds, vice-principal of Emmanuel College, and he will continue to contribute to courses that will equip theological students to be responsive religious leaders in the contemporary Canadian context. It is because of this experience and his extensive relationships across U of T’s three campuses that he was selected to co-chair its Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Steering Committee in 2016. HamiltonDiabo led a diverse group of faculty, students and staff in creating a series of calls to action to address the continuing barriers faced by Indigenous members of our community, including enrolment. At Victoria College, he will lead a new capstone course in “Community-Engaged Research,” and he will help to develop Indigenous content for the curricula of both Victoria and Emmanuel colleges. vic report summer 2019
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VICTORIA COLLEGE EMERGING LEADER AWARD
2 019 WINNERS The Alumni of Victoria College congratulate Lucy Cullen, Lauren Kirshner and Nakia Lee-Foon, this year’s winners of the Emerging Leader Award. This award recognized graduates, 40 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 us as we honour and celebrate the winners at a reception hosted by the Alumni of Victoria College Executive on Wednesday, September 11 at 5:30 p.m.
Lucy Cullen Vic 1T5 has successfully introduced innovative sustainability initiatives to restaurant owners and is changing the industry through her company, Terus. The company has diverted over 104,000 pounds of food waste from going to landfill while at the same time increasing the bottom line of each participating restaurant. Cullen has sat on the Toronto Food Waste Policy Council, and was named one of Canada’s Top 25 Under 25 Environmentalists by Starfish Canada in 2017 and 2018. She is now lending her expertise to the Forward Food program created by Humane Society International. This program aims to reduce the environmental impact of menus across North America, and she is developing its program for the Canadian healthcare market as well as for Canadian restaurants. Cullen also is launching a unique training program in association with the certification body LEAF this fall. It aims to give restaurant owners the tools and information they need to effectively implement the standards she created with Terus, on their own. From waste management to green marketing, it will help restaurants address sustainability in every detail of their operations, and save money in the process.
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Lauren Kirshner Vic 0T5 is a writer, creator-scholar and community arts educator whose programs break down barriers to participation in the arts. She has served as a Canada-Council writerin-residence and is founding creative director of Sister Writes, an awardwinning creative writing organization. Sister Writes is Toronto’s first creative writing and publishing program for women marginalized by factors such as poverty, trauma, and major life transitions. It strives to empower women through workshops and mentorship from acclaimed Canadian writers, public arts events and literary magazines. In 2018, Sister Writes won an ArtBridges Award for remarkable achievement in community arts education. Kirshner’s creative work moves from fiction to non-fiction to memoir and engages with how women experience gender, sexuality, work and family. In 2010, she was named “Best Emerging Author” by NOW. Her novel, Where We Have to Go (M&S), was a finalist for the City of Toronto Book Award. Her writing has appeared in magazines and leading literary journals. Her many community initiatives include a program for LGBTQ+ youth and her Young Authors Project for rural teens was a finalist for an Ontario Premier’s Award. She holds a PhD in communication and culture and is a tenure-track assistant professor of English at Ryerson University.
Nakia Lee-Foon Vic 0T8 is a prolific, qualitative researcher and academic. She is a PhD candidate at U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Her work highlights the healthcare needs of racialized and sexual minority populations. This focus is significant, as research centred on these Canadian populations is lacking. She has published in high ranking journals in the fields of public health, sexual health and AIDS. Lee-Foon has lectured on topics such as intersectionality, at the Centre for Urban Health Solutions, St. Michael’s Hospital; mental health issues affecting youth at the undergraduate and secondary levels; and the social determinants of health impacting Black Canadians, at a national Gender-Based Analysis Plus Forum. Lee-Foon sits on the board of directors for the Black Health Alliance. In 2018, she and colleagues met with the federal Minister of Health and the Public Health Agency of Canada to highlight the need for greater resources and funding for culturally competent, mental healthcare for Black Canadians. These meetings sparked additional consultations with community organizations, stakeholders and allies that led to $19 million dollars of federal funding to support mental health initiatives aimed at Black Canadians.
Photographs: (Opposite page) Courtesy Emerging Leaders; Horst Herget (Mary Jo Leddy)
Register at my.alumni.utoronto.ca/ELA2019 or call 416-585-4500 or 1-888-262-9775. Cost is $10 per person and includes a drink and appetizers. Business casual attire.
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Hong Kong Reunion
Mary Jo Leddy
Home Away from Home
In Pursuit of Justice for All
President William Robins took his first trip to Hong Kong and Beijing this past March. He spent the week meeting up with alumni and current Vic exchange students. The Hong Kong visit culminated in a wonderful alumni reception on March 27, pictured here. Over 40 people attended the event at The American Club. Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to network and to meet Vic’s current president. We owe a special thanks to Andrew Chen Vic 0T8 and Michelle Poon, associate director of U of T’s Asia-Pacific Advancement Office, for their help to Victoria’s Office of Alumni Affairs & Advancement in organizing this special reunion!
Dr. Mary Jo Leddy, C.M., Hon. 1T9, a Canadian writer, theologian, professor, social activist and renowned public intellectual, was awarded a Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa, by Victoria University on May 9. After receiving her PhD in philosophy from the University of Toronto under the direction of Emil Fackenheim, Leddy went on to publish numerous books, some of which include, At the Border Called Hope: Where Refugees are Neighbours, Radical Gratitude and, more recently, Why Are We Here: A Meditation on Canada. She currently serves U of T in several capacities. She is a professor at Regis College and the Graduate Centre for the Study of Theology, she is a senior fellow at Massey College, U of T, and has served on its board and the board of PEN Canada. Since its beginnings in 1991, she been a member of the Canadian Sanctuary Network. Leddy is the founding director of Toronto’s Romero House, a safe haven for refugee claimants and an organization that has fiercely advocated for a just and fair refugee determination process over the last 25 years. She has devoted herself to the relentless pursuit of common good and justice, evident in her active engagement in human rights issues and the peace movement. For her courage, moral vision and tenacity for shaping the common good, Leddy has received honorary doctorates from universities across North America, and she is a member of the Order of Canada.
Photographs: (Opposite page) Courtesy Emerging Leaders; Horst Herget (Mary Jo Leddy)
Where There’s a Will… Victoria University can be designated as a beneficiary in your Will. Here’s an example of a suggested wording: COME BACK TO VIC to re-live those memories of the Wacky Tacky Boat Cruise, intramural sports, Frisbee in the Vic quad and, of course, the Vic Pub! Saturday, November 2, 2019 is your chance to catch up with your University friends! Time: 7 p.m. | Location: Burwash Hall Cost: $40 per person, includes refreshments, a drink ticket and a giveaway! Online registration: my.alumni.utoronto.ca/80spub
I give and bequeath to the Board of Regents of Victoria University, Toronto, Ontario, the sum of $ or % of my estate. 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
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W
ith the benefit of hindsight, it might seem that Vik Adhopia’s choice of journalism as a career was a foregone conclusion. Growing up in Mississauga, Ontario, the Vic 9T2 grad was co-editor of the Port Credit Secondary School newspaper. He looked up to his friend’s father, Toronto Star columnist Walter Stefaniuk. He also ran a ‘fanzine’ and record label on the local indie music scene, hard core punk, to be specific. But during his undergraduate years, it was political science that held his attention. “My consciousness of world politics had been raised in high school,” he says. “And at Victoria College, I became fascinated by political theory.” He took a course called Democracies in Transition, and was hooked. “It opened up a whole new world, intellectually.” When he graduated, he followed in his parents’ footsteps and took a job in insurance, spending a year at Crown Life. When the company moved to Regina, he found himself at a bit of a loss. 6
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An offhand question from his father was the spark that rekindled Adhopia’s interest in journalism: “Didn’t you want to be a journalist at one time?” He did, he realized. He promptly applied to the journalism program at Ryerson University. The two-year program cemented his love of radio, and the CBC featured prominently in this part of his education. His radio documentary course was taught by the legendary author, humorist and radio host Stuart McLean of Vinyl Café fame. He studied broadcast journalism under Suanne Kelman, veteran of CBC’s Sunday Morning, The Journal and Ideas. In the summer between the two years of journalism school, Adhopia took a job teaching English in Japan. The seemingly unrelated experience turned out to be key to his future success. Upon graduation, interviewing for the one, highly sought after CBC internship available to Ryerson journalism graduates each year, he feels that his experiences in Japan gave him an advantage. “The interviewers
by catharine heddle vic 9t3 were interested in hearing how I hit the ground running,” he explains, recalling how he had had to adapt quickly to the unfamiliar environment. “You have to get established quickly and seek out what you need—and that’s what journalism is.” He secured that coveted position and started as a CBC editorial assistant in 1995. He has been with the CBC ever since. In the summer of 1996, after a few years working as a casual, part-time employee, he took a position as a local reporter of national radio news at the CBC bureau in Saskatoon. “It was hard to think of leaving Toronto,” he recalls. “I had driven through Saskatchewan but only stopped once, for my dad to get a speeding ticket.” But the spirit of curiosity kicked in, and soon he was reporting on agriculture and Indigenous issues and learning about what mattered in the Prairies. The cultural differences between his home in Mississauga and life on the Prairies fascinated him. He found himself wanting to know more about Canada. It was a wish that the CBC would fulfil.
Photograph: Doug Husby
VIK ADHOPIA VIC 9T2
Photograph: Doug Husby
Before long, a position opened up in Iqaluit. Much earlier, a mentor had advised him to go north if he ever had the opportunity, and here it was. It was 1997, an exciting time in the north: Nunavut was preparing to become a territory, a notion first proposed more than 20 years earlier. An Office of the Interim Commissioner had just been set up to prepare for the establishment of a territorial government. Faced with the choice of hunkering down against the Arctic cold or learning to snowmobile and embracing all the north had to offer, Adhopia chose the latter. It wasn’t difficult; Iqaluit in those days was bustling and full of life. People were arriving from all over, including a hotel worker named Andrea who would later become his wife. An assignment to cover the bowhead whale hunt proved to be a pivotal moment in his career. The controversial hunt had been banned for half a century, and had just recently resumed. The Inuit were permitted to harvest just one whale that year. Adhopia grabbed a satellite phone and travelled to an old
whaling island called Kekerten to film that year’s hunt. His moving story on the controversial hunt was picked up by the national network morning show. Adhopia’s star began to rise. “It was a big break,” he says simply, “and I was in the right place at the right time.” His modesty belies the challenge of such an assignment. It takes a rare mix of incisive intellect and compassionate respect to tell such a culturally sensitive, politically charged story for a national audience. Eventually, he and Andrea moved to British Columbia, where he worked for a while in Prince George before moving to Vancouver to serve as a local reporter for CBC News. Their son Kirin, now 15, was born during their time in Vancouver. Though he was officially a local reporter, he filled in on national news stories from time to time, drawn by the allure of national airtime. His reporting skills sharpened as he refined his signature mix of bold questioning and a gracious manner, and honed the difficult craft of scripting his own on-air reports. Now recognized as an expert
in broadcast writing, he teaches one of CBC’s in-house courses on the subject. Having worked on two of Canada’s coasts, Adhopia soon turned his attention to the third. In 2006, he accepted a role as a CBC national reporter in Newfoundland, and he and his family moved to St. John’s. During his nine years there, he reported from all over the island, cementing his love for Canada’s farthest reaches. His son, just a toddler when they moved, soon took to Newfoundland, while his wife Andrea, a potter, found her element in the vibrant St. John’s arts scene. Again, he found that he was in the right place at the right time. “Newfoundland and Labrador was experiencing an oil boom at the time,” he recalls. “It was a transformation. Wealth was being generated. There was money to spend on infrastructure. But at the same time, really small communities were dying off.” Adhopia’s job was to report on the boom, but also on its consequences. He particularly remembers the tiny fishing community of Grand Bruit, named vic report summer 2019
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He won’t soon forget Christmas Day in Kandahar that year. He accompanied a junket of Canadian politicians, including Defence Minister Peter MacKay and International Development Minister Bev Oda, who were visiting the Canadian troops. They were joined by a group of French-Canadian entertainers—most of the units stationed in Afghanistan at that time were from Quebec—and by iconic hockey commentator Don Cherry, sporting one of his signature double breasted suits in a camo print. Flying in a Hercules helicopter, the group visited all of Canada’s forward operating bases where the musicians performed. The politicians shook hands and Cherry worked the crowd. It being Christmas, Adhopia took a moment to Skype with his wife. While they were online, an air-raid siren went off and the connection was lost. Adhopia was whisked away to a bomb shelter, leaving Andrea with no information about what had happened. She had no choice but to wait and worry until he could get in touch again to reassure her that no one had been hurt. Other secondments during his time in Newfoundland took him to Ottawa, Calgary and Washington. Filling in as a Washington correspondent, he has covered three U.S. presidents. The defining story of his career, however, may have been his reporting on Newfoundland’s breast cancer scandal in 2008, for which he won a Radio and Television News Directors Association Award. Nearly 400 women with breast cancer were given false negative results to their hormone receptor tests, meaning that they were not offered the potentially life-saving, hormone-blocking treatment Tamoxifen. More than 100 women died before the error was disclosed. The coverage of the scandal led to an inquiry and changes to public health policy in Newfoundland. It also, indirectly, drew Adhopia back to Toronto. In 2015, he was invited to apply for the job of senior reporter with the health unit of CBC News. The family settled in Toronto’s east end, where they planted a garden and Adhopia works on renovating the house, with YouTube as his teacher. After decades away, they enjoy being closer to family. Andrea works for the
City of Toronto and teaches pottery, and Kirin—after what Adhopia calls “a bit of a hard landing”—has settled nicely into high school. As befits a health reporter, Adhopia cycles to his work at CBC headquarters in downtown Toronto. Health is a beat that he enjoys. Though it often means reporting on difficult situations, it also represents an opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives. Recently, for example, his investigative work into the safety regulation of implanted medical devices prompted Health Canada to make changes to the way information is shared with the public. The CBC investigation, dubbed The Implant Files, has given strength to calls for a registry of implanted medical devices. Adhopia takes the responsibility of being a health reporter seriously. “You can’t report on stories that give people false hope,” he says. He also works hard to balance the storytelling aspect of his work—“every story needs a character,” he explains— with respecting people’s personal privacy. “People let you into their lives. They pour their guts out. You have to be very careful with their stories.” Does he suffer from the famous cynicism that plagues so many journalists? “You can be skeptical without being jaded,” he chuckles. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there. My goal is always to challenge assumptions, and to tell thoughtprovoking, in-depth, quality stories.” His advice to anyone seeking to emulate his career in journalism? “Diversify your skills and knowledge. Take advantage of opportunities. Be willing to pick up and move. And take chances. Don’t be afraid.” Photograph: (Opposite page) Horst Herget; Diana Tyszko
for the noise of a large waterfall that rushes through town, down into the protected harbour on Newfoundland’s southwestern coast. With no roads in or out, it could only be accessed by ferry. People got around by ATV. The village, once the winner of Newfoundland’s Tidy Towns competition, had no children, no school; the summer population of 31 dropped to just three people in the winter. In 2009, the provincial government offered residents $90,000 each to relocate, and they did. He also remembers the Cougar helicopter crash of 2009, which killed 17 people off the coast of Newfoundland when the helicopter was on its way to the Hibernia offshore oil rig, leaving just one survivor. “Tragedies at sea are all too common there,” reflects Adhopia sadly. “Many people would be surprised how rugged life is for some people on the east coast.” Of course, reporting has its dangers, too. During his time posted in Newfoundland, Adhopia was seconded to Kandahar, Afghanistan. It was 2010, and there was a war on. He was embedded with the military and any visit off the base required careful negotiations. He was judicious about covering the stories that the army fed him, but also found ways to report stories about the troops, about the risks they were taking and whether their sacrifices were worth it for Canada. Every CBC reporter posted to a war zone is trained in surviving hostile environments, and Adhopia took his training seriously. All the same, he seized every opportunity to get off the base “to take glimpses of real people,” he says, “and find little moments of truth.” One such moment came when he was invited to a shooting range to observe a group of Canadian police officers training their Afghan counterparts. He was struck by how young the Afghan officers were, and how little training they had. Another was at a press conference with the governor of Kandahar province, coincidentally a Canadian. With his slight knowledge of Urdu, Adhopia was able to understand some of the proceedings and was heartened by the tough questions being asked by the Afghan media.
faculty forum
The Politics of Myth
Photograph: (Opposite page) Horst Herget; Diana Tyszko
By Alison Keith What qualities characterize an effective leader? That is the ageold question that animates the Vic One Chambers stream core course, The Art and Literature of Leadership (VIC186Y), for students in commerce and economics, and the question that I have studied for over 30 years at Victoria College in the context of ancient Rome. Trained as a classicist in the literature, history and philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome, I have spent my career investigating the political myths of classical antiquity, their complicated reception history in European and American imperialisms, and their lingering impact in the present day. I am especially interested in the socially marginalized categories, the “outgroups,” of Roman society and Latin literature, and their cultural and metaphorical relations to Roman imperialism, militarism and colonization. For years I taught a course on “women in classical literature” and I still teach one on “women in antiquity,” in both of which I ask my students to explore the rich literary and documentary evidence from the ancient Mediterranean that records female agency— from slave epitaphs in the imperial household at Rome through letters written by women on the borders of the Roman empire in what is now northern England, to wealthy women’s memoirs and occasional poetry. But the greatest archive of evidence about the lives of women, slaves and non-Romans who lived under Roman hegemony in the ancient Mediterranean remains the extensive male-authored literature in both Latin and ancient Greek that survives from the republican period to the fall of Rome and her empire (anywhere from 410 to 1453 CE, depending on the importance we place on Rome and her successor imperial capital Constantinople). Caution is needed in the analysis of these works when investigating the roles of women, slaves and other outgroups in the literature of the Roman male elite, but their study can be richly rewarding. My first monograph, on a series of thematically related tales in the Roman poet Ovid’s wide-ranging Latin epic, Metamorphoses, examined the issues of sexual assault, violent transformation and the silencing of female heroines’ voices in classical myth. These obscure myths, written late in the reign of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, not only document Ovid’s wide reading in Greek literature and his sophisticated poetic reception of Rome’s cultural heritage, but they can also be read as evidence for the social importance of women’s reproductive role in ancient Rome and, more broadly still, they can be treated allegorically as bearing implicit witness to the Roman elite’s loss of political and military entitlements (the silencing of the oligarchic voice), in the new autocracy introduced by Augustus. This book inspired my research in the area of “women in classical literature” and motivated my profound desire to conjoin that research with careful attention to the material context in which historical women lived in classical antiquity, whether Augustan Rome or Hellenistic Egypt—hence my
interest in the politics of myth and the rhetoric of the hierarchy of the sexes, in other words the social uses of literary forms. My second book took up this challenge in an investigation of the role of women in Latin epic, a literary genre of profound social and educational importance in classical antiquity (and its European and American reception) normally conceived as written by, for, and about the men who founded the city of Rome, and then conquered and governed her empire. As the most widely disseminated form of poetry performed by and for an elite Roman male audience, Latin epic constituted an important social technology for the construction and negotiation of gender difference in ancient Rome, and the asymmetrical gender relations on display in the genre both reflect, and reflect upon, Roman hierarchies of gender. My most recent book studies the Roman elegiac poet Propertius, and explores the relationship between elegiac women and women in Roman inscriptions, focussing on the overlap between the names of his literary girlfriends and the inscriptional evidence we have for slave- and freedwomen bearing their Greek names in the imperial city. By documenting the contemporary currency of the Greek names of the elegists’ puellae in Augustan Rome, where their names are resonant of Roman imperial conquest, I believe we can show that Latin elegy (like classical epic) is intimately correlated with Roman imperialism in its celebration of the sexual spoils of military conquest. Alison Keith is a fellow of Victoria College. A professor of classics and women’s studies, she is also the director of the Jackman Humanities Institute.
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As Vic alumni know well, Victoria has many time-honoured traditions, among them the publication of the summer edition of the Vic Report, known as the “President’s Report.” Traditionally this issue updates our alumni on the well-being of Victoria University and on developments over the course of the past academic year. Since last year’s issue and the announcement of my presidential priorities, our focus has continued to be on developing initiatives which will deliver this vision for Victoria’s students and for the wider Vic community. As well, this past year, the senior leadership team has enjoyed the presence of a new colleague, Professor Michelle Voss Roberts, principal of Emmanuel College. In 2018–19 the team especially turned its attention to the presidential priority to ready students to flourish beyond University. As I result I am very excited to announce the development of the “Vic Ready” program which will be launched this fall 2019 and which you will read more about in the pages that follow. This program will provide Vic undergraduates with a coherent plan to tie together their academic and personal narratives. For me, this program is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make a difference in how our University approaches an increasingly important dimension of the student experience, and it represents another occasion where Vic can play a leading role in Canadian higher education.
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Photographs: (Opposite page) Horst Herget; Horst Herget
PRESIDENT’S ANNUAL REPORT
president’s report
Photographs: (Opposite page) Horst Herget; Horst Herget
VICTORIA COLLEGE Victoria College celebrated 15 years of the foundational Vic One program this year. The award-winning program, founded by President Emeritus Paul Gooch and former Principal David Cook Vic 6T9, now offers eight streams covering all the major subject areas in Arts & Science. Every stream includes enrichment experiences such as field placements, visits to archives or labs, meetings with community leaders and professionals, or cultural excursions. Eric Friesen—a broadcaster, music critic and instructor in the Jewison stream—takes his students on a field trip every year as part of an introduction to classical music. “This year we attended the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Director Atom Egoyan joined us beforehand to introduce his approach to it,” says Friesen. “I asked the students to review the production and I was heartened to see the degree to which they were capable of critical thinking and honest, insightful responses to what they took in, especially considering that for most of them this was the very first opera they had ever attended.” One student, Maya James, wrote a review that Friesen says could have been published in The Globe and Mail. Here is a brief excerpt of the less positive comments she had on the opera: How is it fair for Ferrando and Guglielmo to sing about how much they hate their unfaithful women when they did everything in their power to make the girls fall in love with them? They created an incredibly niche circumstance in order to coerce the girls into cheating, and then got mad when they did. . . .The problem in Così fan tutte does not lie in the directors, the actors or Mozart. It all lies in the writing, and the time it was written in. It is disappointing to hear such beautiful music come from such a woman-hating show. If there is one good thing to come out of watching Così fan tutte, it is the knowledge that civilization has come a long way from when it first premiered. Friesen is not the only person who is incredibly impressed by the calibre of the Vic One students. As Angela
Esterhammer Vic 8T3, principal of the College, points out, “Year after year, the great majority of students who began their University career with Vic One graduate with distinction or high distinction. It is very rewarding to hear from graduates that this program was the reason they chose to come to U of T in the first place, and to learn about the positive impact that Vic One had on their options and choices in education, career and life.” Other first-year students experience the benefits of small classes and excellent teaching in Vic One Hundred seminars. These stand-alone seminars, which offer a more flexible alternative to the intensive Vic One program, integrate students into University studies with intriguing themes such as “Psychology and Society,” “Science and Science Fiction,” or “Puzzles, Discovery and the Human Imagination.” Victoria College’s longstanding guarantee that all its incoming students will be able to take at least one small class in first year is now being implemented across the Faculty of Arts & Science, which is introducing new First-Year Foundations Seminars. Both Vic One and Vic One Hundred offer first-year students conversationbased learning, excellent teaching, peer mentorship, first-hand research experiences, and opportunities to engage with the community beyond the classroom. “As we come increasingly
to recognize the value of these factors for success at University and beyond, it is all the more important to sustain these remarkable programs,” says Esterhammer.
EMMANUEL COLLEGE This past year at Emmanuel College was very successful and exciting, with new Principal Michelle Voss Roberts leading the community in important work to reaffirm the College’s mission, vision and values. As part of this vision, the revitalized Centre for Religion and Its Contexts emerged as the place where scholars and religious communities can engage in research, continuing education and conversations about our multicultural and pluralistic context. The College’s newly articulated vision, “to be a leading theological school where students become more deeply rooted in their own religious or spiritual traditions while engaging the beliefs and practices of people of other traditions,” is reflective of Emmanuel’s approach to theological education, rooted in the ecumenical heritage of the United Church of Canada, shaped by its context in Victoria University and in relationship with Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and other religious communities. This year also saw the appointment of three new faculty members to Emmanuel College. Nestor Medina
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and HyeRan Kim-Cragg Emm 0T6 took up their new positions in July 2019 in the areas of religious ethics and homiletics, continuing the remarkable work of retiring professors, Marilyn Legge Vic 7T4, Emm 8T1 and Paul Scott Wilson Vic 7T2, Emm 7T9. Jonathan Hamilton-Diabo Emm 1T1 will continue to assist the school in building relationships with Indigenous communities as a new member of the theology faculty. Throughout this past year, Emmanuel’s faculty worked on two key areas of activity beyond their teaching and research. Voss Roberts reports that these projects took place quietly over the year and, while invisible to most,
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will have a tremendous impact on the community in the longer-term. “I am proud of the work we have done this year to recognize our faculty’s engagement in service beyond the classroom and to improve our methods of assessing Emmanuel’s curriculum,” she says. As Voss Roberts says, “a theological school of our size is naturally collaborative in nature. The challenge is to make faculty service outside the classroom transparent and equitable.” This work includes administration of academic programs, committee service with Victoria University and the Toronto School of Theology and building relationships with a variety of local religious communities. Institutional service also includes assessing the school’s academic programs—often a daunting project. The faculty tackled this concern by designing an efficient and effective method of assessing student academic progress. They clarified the learning outcomes of each program, created new rubrics to measure them, and implemented an annual assessment process based on random sampling techniques. The data gathered through this new process will be critical for the ongoing renewal of the school’s programs as well as for the upcoming accreditation review by the Association of Theological Schools.
One of the presidential priorities is to ready students for life after University. There are a number of initiatives that will contribute to this, including the new Vic Ready program. “Students find it difficult,” says Yvette Ali, registrar, “to make connections between the skills that they are learning at University and how they can apply these skills to the workplace. One of the goals of the Vic Ready program is to help students recognize the transferable skills they have developed during their studies and to support them to develop soft and discipline-related skills that might be applicable to a variety of careers and post-graduate contexts.” Vic Ready is the collaborative program of the registrar’s office, the dean of students’ office and the alumni affairs & advancement office. It will involve a cohort of 100 students who will be learning a variety of skills, taking part in workshops, meeting with alumni to hear about career pathways, and participating in one-on-one advising to help them come up with a personalized, career readiness plan. The goal is to have students join the program at the end of their first year, after they have chosen their area of study. The Vic Ready program has four signature modules: academic and personal development; skills development; career and future readiness; and experiential learning. Vic Ready is a ground-breaking program within the U of T college system. There isn’t a similar program run anywhere at U of T. The registrar’s office is working to strengthen its own skills in providing career-related guidance and postgraduate advice to students. In that context, it hired Emily Greenleaf, associate registrar, student success. Part of her goal is to look closely at providing strong academic support for students: learning support and good academic, career-related advice. Part of the rise in student mental health concerns stems from
Photographs: Horst Herget
OFFICE OF THE REGISTRAR
anxiety about what will happen after University and whether students will be able to find a job which fulfills their ambitions. Vic Ready will serve as a response to these concerns. As the current government is implementing performance benchmarks for universities across the Province, having experiential opportunities which allow students to apply their learning outside the university context will be very important.
Photographs: Horst Herget
OFFICE OF THE DEAN OF STUDENTS In December 2018, the Office of the Dean of Students celebrated a decadeplus of the innovative Humanities for Humanity (H4H) program. Current and past H4H participants, including community members, student mentors, staff and faculty, gathered in the Great Hall at Hart House to celebrate a remarkable program. Community members from shelters, community centres, food banks and libraries join our undergrad students for non-credit, no cost, no stress discussions regarding texts from the humanities in social and political context. “We provide dinners, babysitting, texts, subway tokens, and lectures,” says Kelley Castle, dean. “and great discussion and camaraderie. It’s a true blend of intellectual and personal conversation. Real challenges are addressed with respect and openmindedness that makes the learning very meaningful.” “In the context of challenges for the University to be more connected to the world, for ivory towers to be more open, and for undergraduate students to have robust experiences that are genuine, open and thoughtful without competition and stress, this is a pretty special program. We all feel very lucky to have been doing it all these years,” says Castle. H4H was created by Castle and Trinity’s director of ethics, society and law, Professor John Duncan. It is cohosted by Vic and Trinity. At Vic it has grown in new directions, generating spin-off programs that include Theatre
for Thought (on the history and social importance of theatre), Cultural Concepts (unpacking common perceptions of notions like progress, democracy, and civilization), Culture and Conflict in the Media, and Science in Action—all under an umbrella called Ideas for the World (I4W). About 1,000 participants— undergrad and community members— have completed I4W programs. There are also I4W conferences open to all throughout the academic year on some of the most pressing issues of our time. Campus (Re)Conciliations is an annual conference on Indigenous issues for higher education, entering its fourth year; the eighth annual Minding our Minds: Mental Health in University conference will be held in October 2019; and special topics conferences have included Sex, Gender, and Sexuality on Campus and Loneliness and Isolation in University. The 10-plus year H4H celebration was a moving event. In his remarks, U of T’s well-loved Professor Mark Kingwell called H4H a “radical and important transformational program,” proclaiming it among the most important academic work of his career. Kingwell has lectured in H4H and Theatre for Thought since their inception. Vic alumni, now professors and lawyers, artists and journalists, came back to reminisce about their transformative time as H4H mentors,
citing it as one of the most important experiences during their undergraduate studies. Through tears and laughter, community members shared their pride and enthusiasm for digging deep into “tough University topics [they] thought they’d never talk about”. Certificates are awarded every year, and were presented at the banquet to the community members who were finishing the Fall 2018 session. The award presentation culminated with the certificate for a community member who was a refugee from Afghanistan. Many years before he had delivered pizzas to Victoria College. His certificate was presented to him by a student mentor in H4H, who is heading off this fall to medical school after being a don, a student leader, and graduating with honours from Vic. It was with tears and happiness that she explained
Rehona Vic 1T9 and her father, Amin Zamani
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that the man was her father, and that she had been in the back of the car with him delivering the pizzas years ago. It was tough to tell who was more proud of whom, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. See photo of Rehona and her father, Amin Zamani, page 13. We’re looking forward to many more programs in Ideas for the World, and many more of the uplifting, challenging, deeply educational moments they offer our students and community members to see the world through important texts, ideas and fresh perspectives.
OFFICE OF THE BURSAR
administrative officer. “It’s important that all of our community members feel safe and supported.” To that end, the University has committed to assisting students and employees with training and support programs. Also this past academic year, Victoria welcomed several new employees including Vikas Mehta, the director of physical plant, Andrew Hui, manager of capital assets, and Lyndon Nobre, the director of hospitality and ancillary operations. DeSouza is pleased to welcome them to campus and to have had the support of various review committee members who not only conducted departmental reviews, but also assisted with the search processes for these roles.
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This was an exceptionally good year for acquisitions at the Victoria University Library. The library acquired two books that were owned and annotated by William Blake, thus adding to its renowned Bentley/Blake collection. It is thought that Blake picked these books up at auction, as a teenager. One is a political/satirical book that chronicles 1757, the year in which he was born. He wrote in the beginning, as teenagers do, “William Blake, My Book.” Then he wrote “William Blake” over and over again. The second book is a book of etchings in the style of the artist
Photographs: Horst Herget
From restructuring the Board of Regents, adopting and implementing campus-wide policies, launching a Human Resource Information System,
to hiring new employees, ‘change’ best describes the bursar’s office over the past year. The biggest change involves restructuring the Board, which has resulted in fewer committees and sub-committees. The restructuring should streamline governance and associated systems making them both more efficient and effective, while expanding the number of members serving at the committee level. Elected student representatives will continue to sit on committees and this will broaden student exposure to a wider variety of Board matters with more diverse portfolios. The structure will be reviewed in 2020 to ensure it adequately supports the Board’s goals. Over the next year, Vic’s property committee will be particularly busy as it engages with the City of Toronto on the short- and long-term campus master plans. In response to Bill 132, which requires that publicly funded universities have policies in place to address incidents of sexual violence, the Board voted to approve the new Policy on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment. It also adopted a SmokeFree Policy, joining the rest of U of T in making all campuses smoke free. Both policies reflect Victoria’s commitment to a safe and healthy environment for everyone—its students, staff, faculty and visitors. “The content of both policies was informed by extensive consultations across the University community,” says Ray deSouza, Victoria’s bursar and chief
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Raphael. This influenced his later work, Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The library is continuing to receive items from Pat Taylor for the Kenneth Taylor, O.C., Vic 5T7, Hon. 0T7 archives. These include awards that recognized Ken’s role in the release of hostages in Iran. There is a copy of the Congressional Gold Medal that he received from the U.S.A.—its highest civilian honour. There’s also a baseball that Pat and Ken threw out at a New York Yankees’ game. It is signed by the Yankees, including Reggie Jackson. Vic Report asked: “Do you think the baseball is the most unusual item in the entire collection?” “I think it is!” said Lisa Sherlock, chief librarian. “We have clippings from that time which show the accolades and attention that the event received, photographs from their family life, photographs of him being received by the Shah when he was first appointed to his position in Iran, and copies of memos between Pierre Trudeau and Jimmy Carter at that time. We also have photos Ken with Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, and there is a letter from Jimmy Carter as well as his Order of Canada medal, keys to cities and letters children wrote to him to express thanks. These will be on exhibit in the Pratt Library until September.” Another important recent collection for the Library is the Seamus Heaney/ Ann Saddlemeyer archives. As great
friends, Saddlemeyer rented her Irish cottage to her great friend Seamus Heaney in 1972. There he was inspired to write poetry. His letters wax poetic about the spectacular physical beauty surrounding the cottage. He dedicated books of poetry to Saddlemeyer. She taught in the Department of English and was the master of Massey College. She has sent very rare, special editions of his work, as well as correspondence between him, his family and his wife, and memorabilia such as photographs and posters to be housed at Vic.
OFFICE OF ALUMNI AFFAIRS & ADVANCEMENT Thanks to our generous and engaged alumni, Victoria has had another year of fundraising success. Special thanks to those donors who have made a provision in their Will for Victoria or Emmanuel College. Legacy gifts which were realized in the past year made a significant difference to what we were able to achieve and, each year, continue to play a significant role in assisting the University in achieving both its immediate goals and its longterm vision. For more information on how you can leave a legacy at Victoria or Emmanuel, please contact Sharon Gregory, associate director of planned giving at 416-813-4050.
As mentioned in the president’s introduction, in 2018–19 alumni affairs & advancement worked closely with the registrar’s office and with the dean of students’ office to develop the Vic Ready program. Alumni will play a key role in the delivery of this important new program for Vic and will be invited to offer their expertise as volunteers and mentors to help students prepare for their lives beyond Victoria University. Vic alumni come from all walks of life and have skills, expertise and experience in any number of career paths. If you are interested in becoming involved in the Vic Ready program, either as a mentor to current students or as a participant in other aspects of Vic Ready programming, please reach out to the alumni office at 416-585-4500. We would love to hear from you! Also in 2018–19 President Robins was on the road meeting with Vic alumni from all decades and backgrounds, first at the annual Alumni Reunion in June (formerly known as Spring Reunion) and then in Ottawa, Edmonton and Hong Kong. The president’s trip to Asia included a visit to Beijing where he reaffirmed the relationship between Victoria and Beijing Foreign Studies University. Vic alumni in Hong Kong were thrilled to meet Robins and also delighted to have the opportunity to network with each other. We hope that this camaraderie continues until the next time we are in Asia! Our sincere thanks to all our alumni who gave so freely and so generously this past year to Victoria. The University is indeed fortunate to have such loyal supporters!
Director Alan Taylor Vic 8T1 with President William Robins before a Vic One Plenary.
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CAREERS, AUTHORS, HONOURS The 21st-century university needs to refind its focus as a protected place for the unfettered commitment to knowledge. Course Correction: a Map for the Distracted University (UTP, 2019), written by Paul Gooch, president emeritus, claims that the integrity of the university— its reputation for knowledge—requires autonomy, academic freedom and effective academic governance. The book then asks about the recent focus on the student experience, offers a critique of undergraduate education, and argues for embodied education that takes account of place in an increasingly digital world. Doyali Islam Vic 1T2 was named the winner of PoetryNOW’s 11th Annual Battle of the Bards after a moving reading from her new book, heft (McClelland & Stewart, 2019). She will read from heft in Autumn 2019 as part of Toronto International Festival of Authors’ 40th-anniversary festival. In Melanie (Chandler) Jackson Vic 7T8’s Tick Tock Terror, mystery swings into a teen climber’s life when he scales an amusement ride based on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum. Published in 2019 by Orca Books, Jackson’s young-adult novel pits the climber, Conor, against a crafty con man who tricks him into getting mixed up in theft. Conor’s challenge: how to out-con the con and set things right? Jackson, a 2016 U of T Arbor Award winner, had the honour last year of being selected a TD-CCBC Book Week touring author. Mehak Jamil Vic 1T7 was selected to compete in the OISE finals of the 3 Minute Thesis Competition, with her project, entitled: “Building Resiliency: The Healing Power of Teacher-Student Relationships in Repairing Childhood Abuse.” Jamil loved her undergraduate experience at Vic, where she solidified the basis of her research interests in teacher-student relationships through the Vic One and Education & Society programs. Jamil’s graduate research draws on literature from counselling psychology and social work practice. In her work, she suggests that, because of 16
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2019 VIC BOOK SALE “There is no friend as loyal as a book,” said Ernest Hemingway. Don’t miss the 28th 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. 19 2 p.m.– 8 p.m. Only day with admission fee: $5, students free with ID Friday, Sept. 20
10 a.m.– 8 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 21
11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 22
11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Monday, Sept. 23
10 a.m.– 8 p.m.
Want to volunteer? 416-585-4585 or 416-585-4471 E-mail: vic.booksale@utoronto.ca Blog: library.vicu.ca/friends/blog Want to donate? Books on all subjects and vinyl records are welcome.
BRUNCH IN BURWASH! Remember brunch in Burwash Hall? Come back on September 22 and line up for the famous waffle bar and other treats with fellow guests and students. Sunday, September 22, 2019 | Buffet brunch 10 a.m.–1 p.m. $15 per person ($10 for kids 5–12, 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 if you have questions, please call the Vic Alumni Office at 416-585-4500 or e-mail vic.alumni@utoronto.ca.
its parallels with therapy, the teacherstudent relationship has the power of contributing major repairs to childhood abuse, within an everyday context. The paper was presented at the Master of Teaching Research Conference in April 2019, and is currently under review with the Master of Teaching Research Journal (MTRJ), a peer-reviewed, open-access academic journal, aimed at publishing the work of graduate students, faculty, alumni and associates of OISE. Andromache Karakatsanis Vic 7T8, Hon. 1T2 was one of only eight people to receive an inaugural Argo prize. These prizes recognize “distinguished Greek nationals living abroad.” Karakatsanis is a judge for the Supreme Court of Canada. She was awarded the Contribution to Public Affairs prize. We featured Karakatsanis on the cover of the Winter 2017 issue of Vic Report.
Congratulations to Eva Kushner Hon. 0T6, president emerita of Victoria University (1987–1994), for turning 90 this year! The University will be celebrating her this fall. Kushner has stayed very busy during retirement including publishing a book in 2017 and 2018. Her most recent book, Pontus de Tyard and son oeuvre poétique, was published by Editions Classiques Garnier. The Victoria community celebrated the retirement of Anthony Lennie, director of finance, on March 12. Lennie served Victoria for 22 years and helped transform the financial services portfolio. With the designations of CPA and CGA, he also served as secretary to the Board of Regents’ finance, audit, pension and investment committees. Many of the policies, procedures and accounting mechanisms introduced by Lennie have been replicated by myriad
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universities across Canada. Most recently, Lennie was actively involved as treasurer of the Toronto School of Theology (TST) and assisted its board of directors on a wide variety of financial management matters including the drafting of a memorandum of agreement between the TST and the University of Toronto. In 2012 he received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Council of Finance Officers of Universities of Ontario.
Mary Heinmaa recently celebrated her first anniversary as director of development of alumni affairs & advancement (AAA) at Victoria University. She holds the designation of Certified Fund Raising Executive and was previously the national director of philanthropy at Outward Bound Canada. Heinmaa has thoroughly enjoyed meeting alumni over the course of her first year. “I’ve been tremendously impressed with how Vic has had an indelible impact on its alumni,” she says, “whether it’s been through connections with friends, or as a path to further education and career opportunities. As director, the key focus of Heinmaa’s job is advancement. “I love making connections with people and matching their philanthropic goals with the needs of the University. You could say that I am a matchmaker!” In addition to working for AAA, Heinmaa is an avid volunteer. It is important for her to “make a difference” and she has made this difference at various music, education and social service institutions. “I need to find a personal connection with an organization—and it could be as small as helping my community association or doing something significant on a national scale.”
A lyrical, coming-of-age, debut novel, Cala (Head of Zeus, 2019), by Laura Legge Vic 1T0, blends the occult with the modern, following a small community of women—witches, some locals say— living on the outskirts of their Hebridean society. Legge lives in Toronto. She is a former winner of the PEN International New Voices Award and the RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award, and her work has most recently appeared in The Malahat Review, Hazlitt and World Literature Today.
build practical skills. It’s written with one goal: to be immediately useful. At 93-years young, George Linton Vic 4T7 is a going concern. Once a week, he acts as troubadour to various hospitals in Toronto, including St. Mike’s, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, St. Joe’s, Toronto Western and
Matthew Legge Vic 0T6 has written his first book. Hate crimes are on the rise in many places, as are political polarization and authoritarianism. Are We Done Fighting? Building Understanding in a World of Hate and Division (New Society Publishers, 2019) brings together fascinating research findings from fields such as neuroscience, social psychology, and behavioural economics to consider how we can make respectful and fulfilling interactions more likely. The book offers many surprising insights, stories, and group learning activities in an easy format that will help readers
Mount Sinai. Linton plays for oneand-a-half hours at each of his venues. He is met with overwhelming response. He says, “The enjoyment of the patients really rubs off.” Linton is looking for someone to inherit this mantle and become the next wandering minstrel of hospitals. Maybe you know someone who could fit the bill? Victoria University re-named room 205 in Old Vic in memory of Jean “Jay” Macpherson (1931–2012), on February 14. Macpherson was a professor, poet and humanitarian who taught at Vic from 1957 until her retirement in 1996. Room VC205 is currently a gathering and working space for Victoria’s professors emeriti. Northrop Frye Vic 3T3, Emm 3T6
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supervised Macpherson’s master’s and doctoral work, which she defended in 1955 and 1964, respectively. In 1957 Macpherson received the Governor General’s Literary Award for The Boatman, which was dedicated to Northrop and Helen Frye. The Honourable Wendy B. Malcolm Vic 7T7, a judge of the Provincial Court of Ontario, has been appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario, a member of the Family Court Branch and a judge ex officio of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. Vic welcomed Judy and Rick Wolfe to campus for a “fireside chat” with students of Vic One’s Schawlow stream at the end of March. Judy and Rick are the niece and nephew of Arthur Schawlow Vic 4T1, Hon. 9T3, Nobel Prize winning, co-inventor of the laser. They spoke about Schawlow’s childhood in Toronto, his passion for music— especially traditional jazz—and how he loved explaining science to children and the general public. He was also devoted to autistic causes, as his son, Arthur Jr., had the condition. Melanie Woodin Vic 9T5 has been named the new dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto. A neuroscientist in the department of cell and systems biology, Woodin began a five-year term starting July 1.
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IN MEMORIAM
Edithe Katherine (McGeachy) Lewis Vic 4T3, in Kingsville, Ont., April 25, 2019.
Savigny Warren Atkinson Vic 4T9, in Newmarket, Ont., April 7, 2019.
Helen Jean (Crowther) Long Vic 5T8, in Toronto, April 13, 2018.
Joan Elizabeth (Graham) Bassingthwaighte Vic 5T5, in Seattle, WA, October 16, 2012.
Donald M. MacLeod Vic 4T7, in Toronto, February 26, 2019.
Elmore Herbert Brampton Vic 4T5, Emm 4T8, in Burlington, Ont., March 26, 2019.
James Maguire Vic 6T1, in Bracebridge, Ont., June 2, 2019.
Alan Ross Brereton Vic 6T3, in Collingwood, Ont., December 18, 2018.
Shirley J. McIntyre Vic 5T2, in Toronto, December 18, 2018. Jane Millgate, in Toronto, January 26, 2019. She taught English at Victoria College from 1964–1997.
William (Bill) A. Brock Vic 5T4, in Port Perry, Ont., February 28, 2019. Norma Chatwin Vic 4T7, in North Vancouver, B.C., January 18, 2019.
Janet Elma (Parker) Montle Vic 5T1, in Toronto, May 14, 2018.
Gail Ann Darling Vic 6T6, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, April 10, 2019.
Anne Horne Stirling (Templeton) Nethercott Vic 4T9, in Sarasota, FL., February 8, 2019.
J. Trevor Eyton Vic 5T7, in Toronto, February 24, 2019. David W. Gomme Vic 7T8, in Burlington, Ont., April 5, 2019.
Lois Rosemary (Robertson) Park Vic 5T1, in Sudbury, Ont., February 15, 2019.
Patricia Lillian (Pearson) Hannah Vic 5T0, in Toronto, April 26, 2019.
Geri Nikaido Shiozaki Vic 4T4, in Weston, Ont., May 3, 2018.
Thomas Inglis Vic 5T0, in Toronto, May 27, 2019.
G. William “Bill” Stratton Vic 5T4, in Toronto, March 28, 2019.
Claire Noreen (Davey) Jenkins Vic 5T2, in Burnaby, B.C., March 13, 2019.
Nonie (Robinson) Taylor Vic 3T9, in Toronto, March 9, 2019.
Ethel Mary (Upton) Lapp Vic 4T9, in Scarborough, Ont., May 7, 2019.
Robert Norman Thomson Vic 8T2, in Toronto, November 23, 2017. Robert W. (Bob) Worthy Vic 5T1, in Toronto, April 4, 2019.
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Edil Ga’al Vic 1T8
Photograph: Vic Alumni Office
Graduate Extraordinaire Since winning a Rhodes Scholarship, Edil Ga’al says it has been a bit of an “emotional roller coaster. My family had a lot of tears and a lot of smiles, too,” she says. Ga’al was one of only 11 Canadians to receive the award this year, an award that is arguably the most prestigious international scholarship program in the world. “I’m really grateful. It’s a unique opportunity to meet and learn from brilliant students from across the globe who are committed to challenging some of the world’s most pressing issues through research but also through dialogue. The opportunity to go to Oxford is amazing. It’s a venue where global conversations are being had,” she says. Ga’al graduated in 2018 from Vic with high distinction. She took a double major in African studies and political science, plus a minor in equity studies. At Oxford she plans to continue area studies and development studies. Her longterm goals include doing a PhD in international development and eventually having a career in public service. “I would love to work in the field and really apply the research skills and insights I take away from my experience at Oxford. I could see myself working at a multi-lateral organization,” she says. To win a Rhodes is no small feat. According to the Rhodes’ website, the selection committees seek “young leaders of outstanding intellect and character who are motivated to engage with global challenges, committed to the service of others and show promise of becoming value-driven, principled leaders for the world’s future.” Ga’al embodies these characteristics. Aside from her stellar academic performance, she was deeply involved in extracurricular and co-curricular programming, all the while commuting from Brampton. She was a leader in both the African Studies Course Union and the Equity Studies Student Union; she was a mentee for the First in the Family Peer Mentorship Program; and she took part in Vic’s Ideas for the World programming in its Science and the Public Sphere section. “I’ve had some of the most rewarding experiences at Vic and Ideas for World was definitely one of them,” says Ga’al. “I have had only wonderful and supportive experience of Vic staff and students and I think there’s a real commitment here to fostering and building community. Vic really cares about its students.” Ga’al says, however, that she is “deeply concerned by inequities in the education system.” To combat these inequities she has worked as a research assistant on the LGBTQ Families Speak Out Project, a multi-year study on the experiences of LGBTQ families in Ontario schools. She also spent a summer as a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholar working for the House of Children School in Rwanda. This school has a particular focus on disabled children. “The real connection between the two is inclusivity when it comes to education. Education is such an important and empowering tool. When we are not making that a supportive, inclusive and affirming experience for everybody then we’re really doing a disservice, especially to young people,” she says about these two projects.
In addition to spending a summer in Rwanda, Ga’al spent a summer in Uganda working for DefendDefenders, an eastern and Horn of Africa human rights defenders organization. The group works to “strengthen the work of human rights defenders throughout the region by reducing their vulnerability to the risk of persecution and by enhancing their capacity to effectively defend human rights.” This experience was also very informative for Ga’al. “It was a really valuable opportunity to meet with people who were doing important human rights work in Uganda,” she says. “They were doing amazing work around government accountability, women’s rights and children’s rights. It was wonderful to hear what they were doing in context where they were often experiencing push-back or repression. They were advancing and advocating at both the national and international level.” Regardless of what Ga’al pursues in life, inclusive education will always be a priority to her. “A good education is transformative for people,” she says. “Vic does this—the House of Children School in Rwanda does this. I’ve certainly benefitted from a good education—and I think that’s what drives me to support learning initiatives and advance the issue of an inclusive and supportive educational experience for everyone.”
vic report summer 2019
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on campus
Photograph: Vic Alumni Office
Al Moritz: Poet Laureate of Toronto Al Moritz, holder of the Blake C. Goldring Professorship of the Arts and Society in the Jewison stream of the Vic One program, has been named Toronto’s next poet laureate. As one of the founding professors of Vic One, he is proud of this new appointment and calls Toronto a great “city-state.” He explains that much like ancient Greece, Canada is made up of many little “states” and Toronto is one—it has its own cohesion, its own literary culture. “One can be a Canadian poet and a Torontonian poet, one can be a Toronto citizen as well as a Canadian citizen,” says Moritz. Transfixed by the poems of Edgar Allan Poe since childhood, Moritz was also inspired by the Romantic British and American movements with the likes of Wordsworth, Blake, Whitman, Keats and Tennyson. When asked if he thinks Toronto needs a poet laureate, he says that “Toronto has evolved to the point that it wants a poet laureate. I think it’s part of Toronto’s maturing understanding of the importance of the arts.” Moritz describes his Jewison stream students as “creative and wonderful.” “They constantly challenge and impress me,” he says. “The goal of the program is for students either to be artists or to make art a permanent part of their lives going forward. For instance, their art could be something they did in addition to or as part of a career in the arts, such as being a curator or an arts administrator. They are people who want to keep the arts at the centre of their education but do not want to go to an arts school where they would have a minimal academic side to their postsecondary training. Vic wanted to balance the two things out. ” Moritz was on the search committee for Toronto’s first and second poet laureates—the first being Dennis Lee, O.C., Vic 6T2, Hon. 0T2. Asked if the Vic alumnus has inspired him, American-born Moritz says, “When I came here I didn’t know too much about Canadian poetry or Torontonian poetry
but I had always been interested in these things. For a small literary magazine, I had reviewed some Canadian poetry so I knew some things about it but not much. So one of things I wanted to do was to get acclimatized and rooted here so I read a lot of Canadian poetry. I established my favourite poets and Lee’s Civil Elegies became one of my favourite collections. I’ve had an association with him as a reader for a long time. He’s a founder of Anansi, which is my publisher. Lee still publishes his adult poetry books with them. He’s meant a lot to me as have some other Canadian poets that I might not have discovered had I not come here.”
Snow in May No one today. Too hard, too white, too brilliant the park lies underneath new snow, cold light. May, and noon, yet the city is locked up, even the streets are silent, as if stunned. A sullen fury seems to seal all doors because, so late, heat’s irresistible march is halted for a moment, and the business of spring is buried. But welcome to this freedom from stir and noise that a strong sun brings out when, as in a closed attic through a window, it warms and resurrects the flies, and ends all thought, all love, all hope in the distraction of a chaotic swarm. This, too, is spring, this snow on petals of the first flowering, light flakes blown from the new leaves, the blue sky, and sheaths of ice that bloom with light along the confused branches of the spindle tree. A poem written by Moritz in Muir Park, Toronto.