Megan Easton

First-year student to highlight �山ǿ�� Mississauga's sustainability initiatives on a global stage at COP29

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 15:14:23 +0000

First-year student to highlight �山ǿ�� Mississauga's sustainability initiatives on a global stage at COP29

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 11/11/2024 - 10:14

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Vera Allue, a first-year �山ǿ�� Mississauga student from Spain, is heading to the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Azerbaijan (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Megan Easton

Topic

Our Community

Climate Change

International Students

Sustainability

�山ǿ�� Mississauga

Undergraduate Students

Subheadline

“What’s happening at UTM is truly inspiring, and it’s an honour to spread awareness about it in the global community”

When Vera Allue learned that she would represent the University of Toronto Mississauga at COP29 in Azerbaijan, it reaffirmed her belief that she made the right choice as an international student dedicated to climate action.

A first-year student from Spain, Allue says she didn’t realize the scale of �山ǿ��’s leadership in sustainability until she came to the university.

“I knew everything here was very modern, and I noticed all the small but important ways that the campus promotes sustainability in areas like waste management and food services – but I didn’t know about the systems and infrastructure behind it,” says Allue, who is pursuing a double major in economics and political science with a minor in environmental law and policy.

“Then I read UTM’s [Climate Positive Plan] to achieve carbon-neutrality by 2043.”

The plan, which includes a commitment – adopted by all three campuses – to become climate-positive by 2050, is one of several initiatives that Allue will spread the word about at the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference, beginning Nov. 11 and ending Nov. 22.

She’s also going to showcase �山ǿ�� Mississauga’s local strategies to address climate change, in addition to its array of educational and research programs on environmental issues – efforts that have contributed to �山ǿ�� being named the most sustainable university in the world in the 2024 QS World University Rankings.

“What’s happening at UTM is truly inspiring, and it’s an honour to spread awareness about it in the global community,” says Allue, who also looks forward to sharing her learnings from the conference with the �山ǿ�� Mississauga community when she returns.

For Allue, attending the pre-eminent global gathering on climate change is a culmination of her efforts to engage with and raise awareness about climate issues.

When she was only 15 years old, she started a recycling and wastewater project in her hometown of Soria in northern Spain. “I wanted to educate my peers about what they could do, because climate action is often perceived as something that belongs to powerful stakeholders,” she says.

Allue has also been involved with several international organizations that encourage youth to participate in politics and civil society, with a strong focus on environmental issues: she’s currently a European Union (EU) Young European Ambassador and a member of the European Youth Energy Network, which she will also represent at COP29.

Vera Allue started a recycling and wastewater management project in her community when she was 15 (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

During her short time at �山ǿ��, Allue has gotten involved in several sustainability initiatives, including the UTM Sustainability Ambassador program and the Student Association for Geography, Geomatics and the Environment (SAGE).

She says the support she has received from �山ǿ�� Mississauga’s Sustainability Office in attending COP29 is proof of the university’s steadfast belief in students’ potential to effect change.

“What I'm really looking forward to is bringing to COP29 the sense of belonging and pride that I feel in UTM’s climate action,” says Allue.

“When I first started contributing to the environmental field, I felt like my voice was barely heard. Now I feel so much optimism because I’ve found spaces like UTM that actively encourage young people to speak up and participate.”

Little evidence linking five 'love languages' to healthy relationships, researchers say

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 15:16:15 +0000

Little evidence linking five 'love languages' to healthy relationships, researchers say

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 01/04/2024 - 10:16

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Assumptions around love languages, such as physical touch and gifts, don't hold up to scientific scrutiny, according to research by �山ǿ�� Mississauga psychologist Emily Impett and her research partners (photo via Pexels)

Topic

Research & Innovation

�山ǿ�� Mississauga

Subheadline

�山ǿ�� Mississauga's Emily Impett and her collaborators say good relationships are more like a balanced diet, where people receive a wide range of essential nutrients

Even if you don’t know your love language, you’ve probably heard of the concept.

The theory’s pervasiveness in pop culture has only increased in the 30-odd years since Baptist minister Gary Chapman published his book The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts.

But when psychology researchers at the University of Toronto decided to test Chapman’s main assumptions, they found they don’t stand up to scientific scrutiny.

Emily Impett (supplied image)

“We were very skeptical about the love languages idea, so we decided to review the existing studies on it,” says Emily Impett, a professor in �山ǿ�� Mississauga’s department of psychology who collaborated with graduate student Gideon Park and York University Assistant Professor Amy Muise.

“None of the 10 studies supported Chapman’s claims.”

For example, Chapman uses the language metaphor to represent how individuals tend to prefer giving and receiving love. The notion rests on three premises: that every person has a primary love language, that there are five love languages (physical touch, words of affirmation, acts of service, quality time and gifts), and that when couples “speak” the same love language it improves the quality of their relationships.

But each of these assertions broke down when Impett and her team evaluated them against the 10 studies they reviewed (the team’s results are scheduled to be published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science).

“People determine their primary love language by taking Chapman’s quiz, which forces them to select the expressions of love they find most meaningful,” says Impett, who is also the director of the Relationships and Well-Being Laboratory. “It could be choosing between receiving gifts or holding hands, for example. These are trade-offs we don’t have to make in real life.

“In fact, people report that they find all of the things described by the love languages to be incredibly important in a relationship.”

When it comes to the number of love languages, the studies found inconsistent evidence for the five languages Chapman identifies, while other relationship research shows there are additional ways of expressing and receiving love.

“One key thing to remember is that Chapman developed the five love languages by working with a sample of white, religious, mixed-gender, traditional couples,” says Impett. “There are certain things that are left out, such as affirming a partner’s personal goals outside of the relationship, which might be significant to couples with more egalitarian values.”

Most importantly, Impett and her team found no scientific evidence for Chapman’s central contention that people who choose partners that speak their love language, or learn to speak it, will have more successful relationships.

“There’s no support for this matching effect,” says Impett. “People are basically happier in relationships when they receive any of these expressions of love.”

Impett and her collaborators recognize that people crave easy tools to enhance their love lives – which helps explain why Chapman’s book has sold millions of copies and turned the “love languages” into romantic shorthand.

“Everyone wants to be in a good relationship, so we didn’t just say the love languages are scientifically debunked and stop there,” she says.

The team offered an alternative metaphor – one that’s rooted in research. It proposes that relationships are a balanced diet, where people need a full range of essential nutrients (including the factors described by the five love languages and others such as companionship and emotional support) to nourish lasting love.

“It keeps all expressions of love on the menu and invites partners to share what they need at different times,” says Impett. “It allows for the fact that people and relationships aren’t static and can’t be categorized into neat boxes.”

This is not the first time Impett has put common beliefs about relationships to the test. “I really like challenging these lay ideas because my goal is always to translate the best scientific evidence to therapists and the general public,” she says.

Zarqa Nawaz steps in front of the camera to challenge stereotypes of Muslim women

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 15:23:13 +0000

Zarqa Nawaz steps in front of the camera to challenge stereotypes of Muslim women

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 08/25/2023 - 11:23

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Zarqa Nawaz, creator of the CBC series Little Mosque on the Prairie, has stepped in front of the camera as the lead of the CBC Gem comedy series Zarqa, for which she is also the creator and showrunner (photo supplied by Zarqa Nawaz)

Topic

Subheadline

The Little Mosque on the Prairie creator – and �山ǿ�� Mississauga alum – aims to depict Muslims "in their full humanity" in CBC Gem show

Zarqa Nawaz (photo by Andrew Parry)

Zarqa Nawaz, a University of Toronto Mississauga alumna who is best known as the creator of the hit CBC series Little Mosque on the Prairie, is on a mission to broaden society’s perception of Muslims one laugh at a time.

Her two latest projects to challenge perceptions through the power of comedy are Jameela Green Ruins Everything, a satirical novel wrapped around a thoroughly researched examination of botched U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and the CBC Gem show Zarqa, which features Nawaz in the lead role of a divorced Muslim woman who decides to reinvent herself after learning her ex-husband is marrying a much younger white yoga instructor.

Writer Megan Easton recently spoke to Nawaz as she was putting the finishing touches on Zarqa’s second season and thinking about adapting Jameela for the small screen.

What did you study at �山ǿ�� Mississauga?

I went into the sciences fully intending to be a medical doctor. I come from an immigrant family where there’s huge pressure to choose medicine, law or business. But I had this creative yearning that wouldn’t go away. By about third year it was obvious to me that I wasn’t going to go to med school, but I decided to finish my degree.

What path led you to TV and writing?

I got a journalism degree and a job at CBC, but, again, I could sense that it wasn’t really fulfilling my creative drive. I ended up taking a summer film workshop at the Ontario College of Art and Design and my short BBQ Muslims was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. That was the beginning.

Why did you shift away from TV to writing after Little Mosque ended in 2012?

Little Mosque opened some doors in television, but there weren’t any opportunities for me to be a showrunner, which is what I wanted next. I’d always loved writing, so I wrote my memoir, Laughing All the Way to the Mosque, and decided to start working on my first novel.

What made you write a satirical novel about Muslims, terrorism and ISIS – and how tricky was that?

Very few people are going to read a serious book about these subjects, but people are willing to laugh and then think about what they just laughed at. My publisher rejected it at first, saying the story was too edgy or even dangerous. I worked with a bunch of editors over many years to refine it, but I never changed the fundamental story. It was scary at times not knowing if it would ever get published. And it wouldn’t have, even five years ago. Readers are more ready for this kind of book now.

What genre does Jameela fall into?

None, really. It’s a beach read without a romance, a spy novel, political commentary and a comedy.

The first season of Zarqa launched just months after Jameela was published in 2022, and the second season began this fall. What can viewers expect?

I think it'll surprise people. I wanted it to be even funnier and kookier than the first season.

How does Zarqa compare to Little Mosque?

We took a light touch to the humour in Little Mosque because many Muslims weren’t used to being observed in the media, and they worried that we’d depict them in a terrible light and make things worse. But now they’re more sophisticated about media representation, and there’s more space to go further with the humour in Zarqa.

Zarqa Nawaz coaches Sheila McCarthy on prayer protocol in "Little Mosque on the Prairie" (photo by Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

How do you deal with criticism of your work from Muslims?

There have always been some people who don’t like what I do. I’m used to it. But I stick to my intentions, which are to entertain, inform and educate – to bring Muslims to light in a different way from the stereotypes.

You’re the creator and showrunner on Zarqa – and also the lead actor. What’s it been like acting for the first time?

I only planned to be the lead in the trailer, but my team didn’t want to recast the role when we got picked up by CBC. So I hired an acting coach and put in a lot of hours with her. It also helps that I’m in charge of the editing, so I can always choose my best takes. Acting is a lot more fun than I imagined.

How does the Zarqa character challenge stereotypes about Muslim women?

I wanted to break the stereotype of “the good Muslim woman.” White female characters get to be good and bad, so why don’t we get the full range in our characters? Zarqa is almost an anti-hero. She’s a woman in hijab with full agency over her life who can be catty and horrible. Showing Muslims in their full humanity is part of the evolution of how we’re shown on TV.

What keeps you hopeful, despite evidence of rising Islamophobia in Canada and beyond?

It’s easy to get discouraged, but then you might give up. My attitude is that I’ll do the best that I can with the talent I’ve been given.

'It never came to feel normal for me': Researcher Kaitlin Schwan is on a mission to end homelessness

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 18:20:27 +0000

'It never came to feel normal for me': Researcher Kaitlin Schwan is on a mission to end homelessness

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 01/13/2023 - 13:20

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Kaitlin Schwan, who graduated with a PhD in social work in 2016, is executive director at the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network and a senior researcher at the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (photo courtesy of Kaitlin Schwan)

Topic

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Homelessness

When Kaitlin Schwan was about six years old, she secretly gave her mother’s credit cards to people she encountered living on the streets in Toronto.

“After I saw the realities of homelessness for the first time, I’d lie in bed and think about how painful it must be to have cold, wet feet all day and night,” says Schwan, who grew up in Owen Sound, Ont. and earned a PhD in 2016 from the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. “I didn’t understand credit cards, but I had a sense that they would help somehow.”

Decades after that act of innocent generosity, Schwan is continuing to help those experiencing homelessness and is now a leading researcher on the topic in Canada. She is the executive director of the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network (WNHHN) and a senior researcher at the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness.

“Most children are confused and distressed when they witness homelessness, because kids are deeply empathetic,” says Schwan, who was also recently appointed an assistant professor, status only, at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. “As they get older, they go through a process of socialization where they are taught to understand it as a normal feature of Canadian society. But that normalization didn’t happen for me. It never came to feel normal for me that, in a wealthy nation, people had nowhere safe and warm to live.”

Schwan’s path to her current roles began during her undergraduate degree in women’s studies, when she ran arts-based programs in homeless shelters for youth. “I’d discovered through volunteering that some form of art practice is often central to these young people’s emotional and psychological survival,” she says.

After a master’s degree, where she explored the importance of the arts for unhoused youth, she decided to investigate the broader problem of homelessness from a social work and policy perspective. Her doctoral thesis, supervised by Professor David Hulchanski, traced the history of homelessness in Canada. She credits Hulchanski, the Dr. Chow Yei Ching Chair in Housing, for giving her crucial insight into the political landscape around the subject. “He showed me how policy failures have created and perpetuated homelessness in ways that are deeply unjust and entirely unnecessary,” she says.

The Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network attended the national conference of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness in Toronto, where they led a symposium (photo courtesy of Kaitlin Schwan)

Schwan also points to her mentor, Professor Faye Mishna, for shaping the way she conducts research. “Because of her, I centre the voices and experiences of people with lived experience,” she says. “The depth of her integrity and ethics were foundational to how I developed as a researcher.”

During her PhD, Schwan became interested in the largely untold stories of women and gender-diverse individuals without adequate housing. “Their experiences are unique in that they often live in situations that we call ‘hidden homelessness,’ such as couch surfing, trading sex for shelter and remaining in abusive relationships because they can’t access housing,” she says.

While Schwan was examining these issues as a scholar, her personal life highlighted their critical necessity. “My sister was dealing with significant violence in her life, and the buffer to that was safe housing. Yet so many women have no door to lock against their abusers,” she says. “This first-hand knowledge collided with my research to reinforce my sense that national change was needed in this area.”

Yet the doctoral program soon inspired Schwan to look beyond Canada to the impact she could make in the international arena. A few years after graduation, she contacted Leilani Farha, then the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to housing, after seeing a documentary on her work. Schwan offered to build a research team for her and Farha agreed. When Farha’s UN term ended, the whole team formed The Shift, an international movement to secure the right to housing, where Schwan was director of research until 2022.

Since taking the helm at the WNHHN earlier this year, Schwan has continued this rights-based approach. She says urgent action on homelessness among women and gender-diverse people is essential, given the current context. “The combination of a public health crisis, a decrease in service provision, an increase in violence against women and the pandemic’s disproportionate negative economic impact on women has produced a very difficult housing situation.”

This summer, the WNHHN submitted two human rights claims in partnership with the National Indigenous Feminist Housing Working Group to the Federal Housing Advocate, who is charged with promoting and protecting the right to housing as a human right (as outlined in the 2019 National Housing Strategy Act).

“We developed the claims in collaboration with a group of about 25 women who have lived, or are living, in situations of homelessness,” says Schwan, noting that people with direct personal experience guide all of the network’s initiatives. In November, the group presented at the national conference of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness in Toronto and led a symposium where the Federal Housing Advocate heard deputations from 40 women with lived or living experiences of homelessness.

Schwan said that the participants reported feeling empowered to translate their experiences into policy action. In the next year, Schwan expects that the human rights claims will prompt policy recommendations for the federal minister of housing and diversity and inclusion.

“The depth of my commitment flows from the depth of my care for the women I struggle alongside,” she says. “We know that the solution to homelessness – access to safe, affordable housing – is imminently financially possible in a country with the ninth-largest GDP in the world. This gives me the hope to keep going.”

Level Up! Researchers explore impact of gaming on well-being of LGBTQ+ youth

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 16:02:13 +0000

Level Up! Researchers explore impact of gaming on well-being of LGBTQ+ youth

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 06/15/2022 - 12:02

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(Photo by Alvaro Medina Jurado)

Megan Easton

Topic

Our Community

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

LGBTQ

Research & Innovation

When Dane Marco Di Cesare was a child, he turned to video games for more than entertainment or diversion. As a queer youth, he found them to be a safe place to immerse himself in fantastic worlds – far away from a reality that could be stressful and even unsafe.

“Gaming was an escape for me because I didn’t have a lot of support at school or other places,” he says. “But while I loved building characters and connecting to storylines, I never quite saw myself represented.”

Now, so many years later, Di Cesare is helping to lead the first large-scale international study to examine how the gaming experiences of LGBTQ+ youth and young adults affect their well-being and identity development. Called LEVEL UP!, the study was recently launched by the International Partnership for Queer Youth Resilience (INQYR).

The LEVEL UP! project will explore the impact of positive and negative LGBTQ+ representation in current video games. It is being co-led by Shelley Craig, INQYR’s principal investigator and a professor at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. She says the new study will offer crucial insight into an unexplored facet of the lives of LGBTQ+ youth.

“Even before the pandemic-driven explosion in gaming, video games had replaced music in importance for young people. And we know that at least 10 per cent of gamers over the age of 18 identify as LGBTQ+,” says Craig, who is Canada Research Chair for Sexual and Gender Minority Youth.

Screenshot from the Night in the Woods video game (image courtesy of Secret Lab & Infinite Fall, 2017)

Di Cesare, an assistant professor at Brock University’s Faculty of Education – and still an avid gamer – argues that representation matters. “LGBTQ+ youth seeing themselves meaningfully and appropriately represented within video games can be affirming and have a positive effect on their mental health,” he says.

There’s ample evidence that LGBTQ+ youth regularly confront discrimination, threats and rejection – experiences that result in high levels of depression and anxiety.

“One in three LGBTQ+ youth has attempted suicide and in-person support can be challenging for them to access,” says Craig, whose nearly 25-year career in social work practice and research has focused on developing interventions to support LGBTQ+ youth mental health. “Our research has consistently shown that these young people feel safer online and use technology to improve their mental health.”

Craig founded INQYR to better understand and support the resilience of LGBTQ+ youth and young adults in an increasingly digitized world. The interdisciplinary and multilingual international research partnership is the first initiative of its kind to be funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grant.

In previous studies looking at the online activities of young LGBTQ+ communities, Craig and Di Cesare noticed increasing discussion of video games. “We recognized that studying gaming was an evolution of the work we’d already been doing around digital media and LGBTQ+ youth mental health,” says Di Cesare.

The LEVEL UP! study aims to recruit 5,000 LGBTQ+ youth aged 14 to 29 across Canada, the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Australia to complete an online survey. Participants will also be invited to upload screen shots of specific moments in games they are playing and share why they made them feel strong, validated and proud about their identity.

The survey will include questions about respondents’ gaming habits, observations on LGBTQ+ representation and supportive or discriminatory encounters in games or gaming communities. “We want to know how they feel when they don’t see themselves represented, or when they see representation that’s problematic,” says Di Cesare. “We also want to know if it influences their engagement in different games and gaming spaces.”

He notes that there are now many LGBTQ+-specific gaming communities, and that there’s been some recent progress in LGBTQ+ representation in traditional video games. The quality of representation, however, has been uneven, he warns.

“Unfortunately, some of the representation is quite narrow and stereotypical, and it hasn’t been well-received by certain communities,” he says. “I still hear homophobic and transphobic slurs on gaming platforms. But at least the conversation has started.”

LEVEL UP! research assistant Shannon Cheung, who also regularly plays video games, says inclusive representation is especially important in queer youths’ formative years.

“On a fundamental level, it communicates to me – and so many others, LGBTQ+ or not – that I have a place in our world,” Cheung says. “All the East Asian characters that I grew up with in the early 2000s were martial artists, socially awkward, nerdy high schoolers or seductresses – and none were LGBTQ+. Seeing positive LGBTQ+ representation increasingly show up in video games helps me nurture that younger version of me who thought that, to be accepted in this world, I had to be someone I wasn’t.”

Di Cesare hopes that the study findings will prompt the video game industry to move forward in creating more LGBTQ+ characters and storylines, while encouraging gaming communities to ensure their spaces are welcoming for LGBTQ+ gamers, particularly those with intersectional identities. The research team also plans to share the results with parents, caregivers, child welfare services and the participants themselves.

Di Cesare and Craig are realistic about how much the industry may be willing to change given its emphasis on the bottom line, but they’re optimistic that this research can make a difference.

“In the future, I want kids to see themselves in any game and not worry about hiding their sexuality or gender,” says Di Cesare. “I want them to just play.”

Aishwarya Nair, �山ǿ�� Mississauga's valedictorian, seeks to better understand the complexities of the brain

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 24 May 2022 16:50:17 +0000

Aishwarya Nair, �山ǿ�� Mississauga's valedictorian, seeks to better understand the complexities of the brain

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 05/24/2022 - 12:50

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Aishwarya Nair, a Lester B. Pearson International Scholar from India, is graduating with an honours bachelor of science degree in neuroscience and has been recognized for her volunteer work with the �山ǿ�� Mississauga community (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Topic

Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship

�山ǿ�� Mississauga

When Aishwarya Nair was in Grade 9, neurologist Oliver Sacks’s book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat piqued her interest in the brain and its incredible complexity.

Now, years later, Nair is graduating from the University of Toronto Mississauga with an honours bachelor of science degree specializing in neuroscience.

Not only that, she has been named �山ǿ�� Mississauga’s valedictorian for the Class of 2022.

“I’ve always been passionate about science, but it wasn’t until I read Sacks’s book that something clicked,” says Nair. “It was just so fascinating to me, and I knew that I wanted to study the science of the brain.”

Nair was attending an international high school in Mumbai, India at the time. While India is her home, Nair’s family has also lived in Nigeria and South Africa for long stints – and she knew that she wanted to pursue her post-secondary education in another country.

“I love exploring different cultures, so I was attracted to �山ǿ�� both for its academic reputation and its diversity,” she says.

Receiving a prestigious Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship was also “a huge factor” in her decision, she adds.

Nair remembers getting an Uber from the airport at the start of first year and arriving at her �山ǿ�� Mississauga residence alone. “I’d never been to Canada and didn’t know one person,” she says. “But I immediately felt welcomed, both by domestic and international students.”

Soon after, she began working for Student Housing & Residence Life, where she was the first point of contact for students as a front desk employee. Later, she processed applications and placements. Over three years, she says she developed strong ties to the residence community.

“It’s like a family away from family. Helping international students going through my same journey was an honour.”

Nair also supported fellow international students by mentoring incoming Pearson Scholars.

“As cliché as it sounds, I did it purely for the satisfaction of giving back,” she says. “Coming here with no family or friends was hard at times, but everywhere I went at the university there was somebody offering to guide me.”

In recognition of this and several other volunteer efforts, including facilitating a STE(A)M workshop for teen girls and organizing – and sometimes singing at – campus arts events, she received the 2022 �山ǿ�� Mississauga’s Principal’s Award of Excellence in Student Leadership.

Alongside her extensive community involvement, Nair remained committed to deepening her knowledge of neuroscience. She worked in three different neuroscience labs to gain insight into the field’s multiple sub-specialties. At the same time, she completed minors in biology and philosophy. The latter selection often sparks questions, but she says it was one of the best choices she made. “I was hooked after one philosophy course. It gave me the space to examine the abstract, which balanced out my factual, objective science courses.”

The knowledge she gained in the philosophy department’s bioethics course will also serve Nair well in medical school, which she hopes to begin in 2023. She credits her �山ǿ�� Mississauga courses and research opportunities – along with crucial faculty mentors – for revealing the next destination on her path.

“Coming to UTM, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to be a neuroscience researcher or clinician,” she says. “My experiences here made me realize that working directly with patients is where my heart lies” – just like the doctor whose book first inspired her.

Nair will join �山ǿ�� Mississauga Vice-President & Principal Alexandra Gillespie and �山ǿ�� Mississauga Alumni Association President Dania Ciampini in a reception for 2022 graduates, faculty, staff and librarians on June 9.

�山ǿ�� experts work with local Chinese community to investigate upsurge in anti-Asian racism

geoff.vendeville — Wed, 04 May 2022 15:50:20 +0000

�山ǿ�� experts work with local Chinese community to investigate upsurge in anti-Asian racism

geoff.vendeville Wed, 05/04/2022 - 11:50

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A rally against anti-Asian racism drew hundreds to Toronto's Nathan Phillip Square in March 2021 (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Topic

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Just before the onset of the pandemic, recent University of Toronto graduate Kennes Lin helped launch a website with the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter (CCNTO) for reporting incidents of anti-Asian racism.

The graduate of the master of social work program hadn't expected to see such a rapid upsurge in hate speech and violence. In 2021, the site logged 943 reports – a 47 per cent increase over the year before. Now, to better understand this disconcerting trend, Lin is collaborating on two �山ǿ�� social work research initiatives that focus on Chinese Canadians.

The projects’ lead researchers – Lin Fang and Izumi Sakamoto, both associate professors at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work – have partnered with community organizations to reach a cross-section of Canada’s Chinese population. Though they’re taking different approaches, Fang and Sakamoto are both aiming to explore Chinese people’s past and present experiences of anti-Asian racism, heighten awareness inside and outside Chinese communities, and develop strategies to address the crisis.

“Social work research on contemporary anti-Asian racism and the unique ways it manifests has been scarce, reflecting its low profile in broader society,” Fang says. “This racism has always existed in Canada and elsewhere, but it’s not been at the forefront of most people’s consciousness. COVID-19 was a catalyst, unfortunately, making it more visible and present.”

Fang’s multi-phase research began in late 2020, when she asked Chinese youth to submit photos and visual art representing their thoughts on anti-Asian racism. Called ‘My Script, My Voice,’ the project is co-led by the Hong Fook Mental Health Association and its youth advisory committee, along with the Asian Canadian Living Archive.

“The images and written reflections that accompanied them revealed how young people were thinking and feeling about anti-Asian racism early in the pandemic, and what they were doing to take care of themselves,” says Fang.

From left to right: Kennes Lin, Lin Fang and Izumi Sakamoto (photo of Sakamoto by Johnny Guatto)

To dig deeper, Fang and her collaborators later held focus groups and conducted individual interviews with nearly 40 participants aged 12 to 25. Beyond COVID-19, the youth pointed to the legacy of white supremacy in Canadian society and ignorance as some of the key factors driving the increase in racism against Asians.

The respondents’ personal or witnessed experiences included overt acts, including being pushed or spat on and receiving hateful social media posts, but also offhand comments on their eyes, “natural” math aptitude or poor athleticism. “As they unpacked their memories, many said they felt their experiences were dismissed by others at the time. They also said they felt confused about whether the subtler incidents were really racism,” she says. “This uncertainty isn’t surprising, since racism directed specifically at Asians hasn’t traditionally been covered in schools or the media.”

It’s also rarely mentioned at home. A frequent theme in the focus groups was the relative lack of openness around anti-Asian racism in Asian families. “Parents are often uncomfortable speaking about it because they don’t feel equipped, or they may subscribe to cultural beliefs about keeping your head down and not making trouble,” says Fang, the Factor-Inwentash chair in children’s mental health. “If they’re immigrants, they also could be afraid to rock the boat.” Focus groups with Chinese parents are currently underway to gain more insight into these barriers.

The youth participants said that anti-Asian racism made them feel like outsiders or “foreigners,” triggered fear of being in public spaces and had a negative impact on their mental health. Still, Fang says the process of coming together and finding common ground sparked strength and hope. “They want to talk about it more, and some of them have even been inspired to activism.”

In the next phase of the project, Fang and her co-researchers in the faculty – Assistant Professor Stephanie Begun, Associate Professor Eunjung Lee and Sakamoto – will publicly share what they’ve learned from youth and parents. In co-operation with Lin, who is lead of youth and family services at Hong Fook and an anti-Asian racism advisor at the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter (CCNCTO), they hope to engage Chinese communities in ongoing discussion and education through social media campaigns, peer-to-peer groups, school workshops and parent support groups.

Kennes Lin (far right) speaks at the March 28, 2021 anti-Asian racism rally at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto (photo courtesy of Izumi Sakamoto)

In Sakamoto’s separate pilot study, “2020 in Hindsight: A Virtual Chinese Canadian Dialogue on Race,” Lin has been a key member of the research team from the start. The project is examining how Chinese Canadians from different generations and socioeconomic positions experience anti-Asian racism in the context of increased awareness of racism and white supremacy in the larger society. To do this, the researchers brought together five speakers (several of whom had reported a racist incident on the website Lin helped create) to tell their stories to 30 community participants on Zoom. The second part of the event involved small group discussions facilitated by volunteers, including several social work students who were fluent in Mandarin and/or Cantonese.

“We wanted to include people whose voices aren’t often heard, such as teenagers, seniors, frontline workers in low-income jobs and people with precarious immigration status,” says Sakamoto, who notes that she is Japanese and works from the perspective of an ally. She has collaborated with CCNCTO for the past 20 years as a researcher and advocate focused on issues facing Asian Canadians.

“It has been a privilege to work with Dr. Sakamoto and to be part of this research project, which has allowed me to apply my previous experience in community organizing as well as my experience as a member of the community,” says Hogan Lam, a master of social work student who was involved in the pilot study. “This project has taught me so much. It’s allowed me to rethink my intersectional identities in Canadian society and my relationship with anti-Asian racism as well as white supremacy.”

Similar to the youth in Fang’s project, many of the participants in Sakamoto’s pilot study said they felt unsure about how to process their experiences. “They spoke about not feeling safe at school or in their workplaces, but not being able to articulate exactly how or what,” says Sakamoto. “While some articulated their experience of anti-Asian racism, others expressed a sense of self-doubt and unsureness when experiencing something like a shove on a crowded subway platform, and they wondered whether it was racism. We can attribute this to the insidious nature of racism, but also to the lack of language and resources around anti-Asian racism. Many people aren’t sure how to talk about it.”

While Sakamoto was familiar with the alarmingly high numbers of incidents reported online, she says seeing the faces behind the data prompted a “visceral reaction.” She didn’t expect to hear that high school students are still physically assaulted for being Asian, or that Asian frontline workers still face relentless verbal abuse and violence in Toronto. But the painful narratives forged connections and a sense of community among the participants, says Sakamoto, offering hope that the research team can build on this virtual format. Future possibilities include a town hall and forums with other Asian communities, as well as further research building on Asian identities and activism.

“While I wish the COVID-related racism targeting Asians never happened, the critical mass of incidents and awareness has given the issue a new sense of urgency,” she says. “Ten years ago, possibilities for these conversations among community members and researchers across different walks of life or generations were still limited. Putting experiences into words is a powerful thing.”
Fang and Lin agree that the growing desire in Asian communities to talk about, learn about and do something about anti-Asian racism is cause for optimism. “There’s a word in Chinese that essentially means ‘crisis,’ but within it is the word ‘opportunity,’” says Lin. “I’ve thought a lot about that word over the past two years.”

Researchers examine impact of immigration status and racism on child welfare system

geoff.vendeville — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 15:55:16 +0000

Researchers examine impact of immigration status and racism on child welfare system

geoff.vendeville Wed, 03/02/2022 - 10:55

Cutline

Rupaleem Bhuyan is co-leading a collaborative research project looking at the impact of immigration status and systemic racism on child welfare policies and practices (photo by Harry Choi)

Topic

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Immigration

As someone who works with women and children who have experienced domestic violence, Shaoli Choudhury sees how difficult it can be for them when the child welfare system becomes involved in their lives. If those families are also newcomers to Canada, more problems often arise.

“They worry about having their children taken away, but also about increasing their risk of deportation,” says Choudhury, who oversees three transition houses for YWCA Metro Vancouver. “There’s a lot of uncertainty for immigrant families – and for those of us working in the field.”

To help reduce that uncertainty, she’s partnering with Bordering Practices: Systemic Racism, Child Welfare and Immigration, a collaborative research project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and led by Rupaleem Bhuyan, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, and Mandeep Kaur Mucina, an assistant professor at the University of Victoria’s School of Child and Youth Care.

Shaoli Chaudhury

The initiative involves community partners in both Toronto and Vancouver who are working together to better understand the roles that immigration status and systemic racism play in child welfare policies and practices – especially if one or more family members has precarious status.

“My colleagues and I recognize that there’s a knowledge gap in terms of how the child welfare system interacts with immigrant families,” says Choudhury. “By offering our perspective and learning from the researchers and other service providers, we’re hoping to help bridge that gap and better support families.”

Bhuyan says there are very few guidelines on how to manage immigration status in child welfare. “As a result, the level of awareness about immigration issues varies widely among frontline workers and decision-makers,” she says. “In Ontario and British Columbia, most child welfare policies don’t even use the word ‘immigrant.’”

When it comes to immigrants with precarious status – which can include anyone who is not a Canadian citizen, documented or not – there are even fewer resources.

Travonne Edwards

The absence of language in provincial legislation recognizing the issues that impact immigrant families is comparable to the lack of specific language acknowledging the existence of anti-Black racism for Black families, says Travonne Edwards, a PhD student in social work and a member of the project’s advisory board. He works closely with the Black Community Action Network of Peel as part of his research with the Youth Wellness Lab, which is examining the over-representation of Black families in Ontario’s child welfare system.

“This silence directly influences child welfare practice,” he says. “It allows for ambiguity in interpreting policies and prevents a more critical and nuanced understanding of the issues impacting Black and racialized families that are dealing with precarious status.” Research by Edwards and colleagues has led child welfare agencies to pay closer attention to racial disparities experienced by Black children. He says this project aims to produce a similar evidence base to spark action and reform.

A growing number of people living in Canada are racialized immigrants with precarious status as temporary workers, international students, refugee claimants or non-status residents. “It’s impossible to know the true number, but rough estimates run up to 1.6 million including undocumented immigrants,” Bhuyan says. “These individuals and families confront multiple barriers to accessing social services and experience economic hardship and racism – all factors that affect their interactions with the child welfare system.”

In the project’s title, “bordering” refers to the political and social processes that differentiate groups by race, gender and immigration status. “Lines between ‘us’ and ‘them’ determines who belongs and who has rights in everyday life” says Bhuyan, “so [bordering] shows up all the time in the everyday life of immigrants.”

Working in partnership with community-based researchers and advocates in Toronto and Vancouver, the Bordering Practices research team – with co-investigators Bryn King, an assistant professor in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, and Rhonda Hackett, of the University of Victoria, are taking a multifaceted approach to establish a baseline understanding of how federal and provincial policies shape risk assessment for child abuse and neglect among racialized immigrants.

In addition to policy analysis, the project is committed to advocacy. Last October, the research team and the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario submitted a formal response to proposed changes to Ontario’s Child, Youth and Family Services Act. “We urged the government to provide better guidance for social workers on cases involving children and families with precarious immigration status and recommended an ‘Access Without Fear’ policy, which safeguards people with precarious status against detention or deportation when they’re accessing essential services,” says Bhuyan.

Keisha Facey

The project is rooted in community participation across the fields of child welfare, immigrant services, anti-Black racism and gender-based violence. The aim, says Edwards, is to break down the silos between these sectors and forge connections that will lead to meaningful change for immigrant families in the child welfare system. “There are people in all of these areas doing amazing work, but it’s disjointed. We’re creating opportunities to bring our work into harmony.”

These opportunities include ongoing focus groups with people at various vantage points within the system – from policy-makers and child welfare managers to frontline workers and child welfare advocates – and community forums, where stakeholders can gather to discuss common concerns and goals. The first community event, Silos and Silences: A Forum Shedding Light on Child Welfare and Immigration Status, will take place this Friday.

“Our primary goal is to raise awareness and share knowledge,” says Keishia Facey, a project partner from the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS) who will moderate the forum’s panel discussion. She is the manager of the OACAS’s One Vision One Voice program, which addresses anti-Black racism experienced by African-Canadian families in the child welfare system. “There’s no single, accepted way of protecting the rights of children and families with precarious status, and being part of this project allows us to use our platform to say this needs to change.”

Chizara Anucha

Facey’s colleague, Chizara Anucha, a �山ǿ�� master of social work graduate and community engagement specialist at One Vision One Voice, will lead a workshop following the panel discussion on child welfare risk assessments for Black immigrant families. In another workshops, Choudhury will consider how social workers can manage the immigration status of women experiencing domestic violence when there’s a likelihood of child welfare involvement.

“This research is only meaningful if it includes people who are directly impacted by it,” says Bhuyan, adding that another phase of the project will collect stories from families with precarious immigration status who have been involved in the child welfare system. “We’re creating spaces for conversation so we can continue to build this knowledge together.”

Literature, politics, art: How an early French-Canadian magazine helped shape literary culture

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 04:04:36 +0000

Literature, politics, art: How an early French-Canadian magazine helped shape literary culture

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 12/07/2021 - 23:04

Cutline

La Revue moderne was a general-interest monthly magazine that targeted a mainly a female audience and became French Châtelaine after it was purchased by Maclean-Hunter (images supplied by Adrien Rannaud)

Topic

In his new book, La révolution du magazine au Québec, the University of Toronto’s Adrien Rannaud demonstrates how one of Quebec’s first magazines reflected and advanced literature and culture from 1919 to 1960 – and how its impact is still evident today.

Adrien Rannaud (photo by Atwood Photographie)

“This publication, called La Revue moderne, was an ideal starting point for examining the ways that magazines can shape literature,” says Rannaud, an assistant professor of French Studies at �山ǿ�� Mississauga’s department of language studies.

His research focuses on 19th- and 20th-century Quebec literature, women’s writing, celebrit

y culture and middlebrow literary culture. In all of these areas, he says, studying magazines can be illuminating.

The book’s title refers to how the advent of magazines in the 20th century revolutionized print media.

“Unlike newspapers, magazines were freed from the pressure of reporting on day-to-day news,” he says. “They used images and design to present information in new ways. And they invited readers to take time for themselves to escape from reality, especially with fiction and poetry.”

In the book, written in French, Rannaud notes that English magazines such as Chatelaine, Mayfair and Canadian Home Journal – which co-existed with La Revue moderne – had similarly important roles in the literary world.

“French-Canadian magazines just haven’t received as much academic attention or systematic study as anglophone ones, or as magazines in France,” he says.

La Revue moderne’s founder, who wrote under the pseudonym “Madeleine” and whose real name was Anne-Marie Huguenin, was a celebrity in Montreal’s high society. She wrote for one of the city’s leading newspapers and became known as the “queen of the chronicle.” By the end of the First World War, Rannaud says, she wanted a bigger vehicle to showcase not just her own writing, but that of her fellow up-and-coming young francophone writers.

In the magazine’s first editorial, she laid out her intention to deliver a literary, political and artistic (the three words below the masthead) publication that would “brilliantly attest to the value of our poets [and] writers.” While the magazine was well-received in some circles, its lofty ambitions – and female leadership – didn’t sit well with the male social elite and clergy, says Rannaud. “She was outspoken about her goal of uniting francophone and anglophone culture, and there were a lot of articles that were quite political. It was difficult for a woman in the 1920s to lead an intellectual magazine. She was subject to a lot of anti-feminism.”

The external pressures, combined with commercial necessities, drove Madeleine to shift La Revue moderne’s emphasis away from political and other “serious” content to subjects considered appealing to women. “By around 1922, there were more advice columns, recipes, coverage of society events, and fiction and poetry,” says Rannaud.

It was in this last category, he argues, that La Revue moderne had the most profound effect on Quebec’s cultural history.

Announcement of the co-winners of the La Revue moderne prize. Gabrielle Roy was recognized for one of her first ever published short stories, which appered in the magazine (from the July 1940 issue)

The magazine launched the careers of many authors, poets and writers, including one of the most famous French Canadian authors: Gabrielle Roy, the author of The Tin Flute and other books. One of her first publications was in La Revue moderne. “Quebec isn’t known for avant garde, or highbrow, literature, but it has a thriving popular culture and literature,” says Rannaud. “La Revue moderne helped cultivate that literature by bringing it to a large audience and inspiring other young writers.”

Beyond its significant shaping influence on literature, the magazine kept pace with changing trends in the broader culture. By the 1940s, women’s rights and celebrity news began to take a prominent place in the magazine. The content also became highly interconnected with radio and television culture, featuring articles on the best and latest programs to listen to and watch.

“The profiles on celebrities and attention to other media were, in some ways, very current,” says Rannaud. “These are things we see everywhere in magazines in 2021. So while La Revue moderne was very old-fashioned in its depiction of women, domestic life and relationships, it also helped pave the way for contemporary publications.”

In 1960, Maclean-Hunter bought La Revue moderne and it became French Châtelaine magazine. The new publication built on the original’s cultural and literary foundations, says Rannaud, pointing to the ongoing tradition in several Canadian magazines of authors publishing short stories and book excerpts.

“Without the revolution La Revue moderne participated in, we wouldn’t have the strong relationship between literature and magazines that we have today.”

Can improv boost the confidence of marginalized youth? �山ǿ�� prof partners with Second City to find out

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 21:55:33 +0000

Can improv boost the confidence of marginalized youth? �山ǿ�� prof partners with Second City to find out

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 12/07/2021 - 16:55

Cutline

Daphney Joseph, left, an artist, producer and Second City performer, led an improv workshop series focused on vulnerable youth that was part of a pilot project designed by �山ǿ�� researcher Stephanie Begun, right (photos by Pierre Gautreau and Harry Choi)

Megan Easton

Topic

City & Culture

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Research and Innovation

Youth

Shortly before the pandemic, the University of Toronto’s Stephanie Begun put up some flyers for a free improv workshop at a Toronto homeless shelter for youth. It was an idea she’d been toying with for years – that participating in improv might benefit vulnerable populations.

The exercise turned out to be a big success, leading to more workshops and paving the way for research about the potential role of improv in social work interventions.

“I expected maybe half a dozen people to show up for that first class,” says Begun, an assistant professor at �山ǿ��’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. “I couldn’t believe it when about 30 came out. Not only that, but their response was so positive. At that point, I knew we might be on to something.”

Begun’s research focuses on improving the health and wellness of marginalized youth, including those experiencing homelessness. While she had limited personal knowledge of improv theatre, she was involved in the performing arts growing up and her children went to improv summer camp.

“I loved drama and performance when I was young, and my kids got so much out of their camp,” says Begun, who is also co-founder and co-director of �山ǿ��’s Youth Wellness Lab. “I kept thinking, why aren’t we offering this outlet to other groups of young people who don’t have access to these opportunities? I’ve seen so much brilliance and creativity in these youth through my research. Yet they have so few chances to engage in creative expression that makes them feel good about themselves.”

After the test workshop at the shelter, Begun designed a pilot project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to explore how improv might foster self-esteem, social connectedness and confidence in marginalized youth. She partnered with: The Second City Toronto, an improv and comedy theatre company that provided a facilitator; an after-school program that engages adolescent and teen young women; and a local shelter for youth and women experiencing homelessness.

In the first phase of the project, Begun delivered an online improv workshop series to young, racialized women in the after-school program. “At the time, they were in online school and feeling socially isolated,” she says. “Several of them were very reluctant to try improv because they felt it didn’t suit their introverted personalities, or it simply scared them. Yet, when we interviewed the participants in the end, the ones who had been most nervous were the ones who thrived.”

The participants’ feedback affirmed Begun’s belief that improv could cultivate confidence in this group.

“I didn’t think that I would be very good at this, but I really surprised myself,” said one participant. According to another, “I think improv is really extra-good for young women, as we struggle so much with our self-esteem and with being afraid to take risks. So it is really, really great to focus these activities and ideas on us, because girls and young women around my age really need boosts like this.”

For Daphney Joseph, the artist, producer and Second City improviser who led the workshops, the responses weren’t surprising.

“Improv makes you a more positive person because it relies on the ‘yes, and’ philosophy, which means agreeing and adding onto someone’s idea,” she says. “When everyone supports each other’s ideas, it creates an environment where everyone feels safe enough to take bigger risks.”

The second phase of the project took place on a warm afternoon this fall at a park in Toronto. Women from a nearby homeless shelter took part in a two-hour workshop. Again, the participants’ responses were overwhelmingly positive.

“These amazing women have to improvise every day just to get through life without a home,” says Begun. “But improv workshop activities gave them a break from their stressors and traumas, and they could just laugh and experiment.”

Improv is also an equalizer, Begun says. “No one has an advantage – no matter your education or place in the world. The women said that seeing me jump in and join the activities meant a lot because the activities were clearly just as new and unknown to me as they were for them.”

In follow-up phone interviews, the participants said the workshops created new social connections at the shelter and provided a much-needed injection of fun and humour in their lives. “It got me right out of my head and out of all my anxiety and all my worries,” said one participant. “I felt like I was me again, for the first time in years.” Another commented, “I needed to be able to raise my voice and be heard. It made me feel important and creative.”

Based on the preliminary results of the pilot project, Begun hopes to pursue future research that will quantify improv’s benefits for marginalized youth.

“I see so many possibilities for embedding improv in prevention and intervention programs,” she says. “Not that it would ever replace therapy and other tried-and-tested ways of helping, but it allows young people in tough situations to be social, creative and lighthearted – and it seems that these experiences lead to meaningful realizations in nearly anyone who gives improv a try.”