Award-winning local authors at Saint Mary’s Reading Series

Authors Frank Macdonald (at left) and Tom Ryan at the Saint Mary’s Reading Series earlier this month.

A pair of very different authors from Inverness kept a full house spellbound at the most recent Saint Mary’s Reading Series event, Dec. 4 in the Patrick Power Library Classroom.

Frank Macdonald shared passages from his hilarious novel, The Smeltdog Man, published in October 2018 by Pottersfield Press. The book tells the tale of a Cape Bretoner who learns to survive in the corporate world after his accidental invention – a marijuana-induced, munchie-inspired ‘Smeltdog’ – evolves into Canada’s most successful fast food franchise, the Good Karma Corporation. 

Macdonald is the award-winning author of A Forest for Calum and other novels, short stories, plays, poetry and songs. He has twice been nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Awards, and is also well known for his long-running column in The Inverness Oran. 

Joining him was Tom Ryan with readings from his gripping new novel for young adults, Keep This to Yourself, published in May by Albert Whitman & Company. Just a few days before the event on campus, the thriller was selected by The Globe and Mail for ‘The Globe 100: Books that shaped 2019’. The story revolves around a gay teenage sleuth in a small coastal town that has been terrorized by a string of murders, including the death of his best friend. Among many great reviews, Quill & Quire calls the novel “both a powerful coming-of-age story and a frequently surprising mystery”.

A 2017 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult Fiction, Ryan has also been nominated for the White Pine Award, the Stellar Award and the Hackmatack Award. His books have been Junior Library Guild selections and chosen for the ALA Rainbow List. He currently resides in Ottawa. Follow his adventures at www.tomryanauthor.com or via his Twitter and Instagram feeds.

The Saint Mary’s Reading Series is open to the public and explores a wide variety of literary genres, from novels to poetry, graphic novels, creative non-fiction and more. Other highlights through the fall season were Anne Compton, Ryan Turner, alumnus Danny Jacobs, and Sylvia Nickerson.  

For updates on events coming up in 2020, follow the Series on its Instagram and Facebook channels, or through the Department of English Language & Literature on Twitter.

Students engage panel on need for peace education

Do we have an ethical obligation to engage schools in peace education? This was the guiding question for a panel discussion at Saint Mary’s when educators from Nova Scotia public schools met with Peaceful Schools International’s Youth Consultant Committee to discuss the need for conflict resolution and peace education programs for Nova Scotian youth.

The panel was organized as part of a Faculty of Education course taught by Prof. Bridget Brownlow entitled Peace Education: International Perspectives and Practice, where the 38 students enrolled in this year’s class examine the themes of peace education and conflict resolution in a global context. In addition to their academic studies, students work towards a Certificate in Conflict Resolution, designed to help them develop the perspectives and skills required to navigate and manage interpersonal conflict.

Having spent this semester investigating peace education initiatives around the globe, reflecting on personal experiences of conflict, and building the skills to resolve disputes, students in Prof. Brownlow’s class had the opportunity to exchange ideas with students and educators from local schools. Five members from the Youth Consultant Committee, all of whom attend Oxford School, were joined by Calvin Scott, the African Nova Scotian Student Support worker for Halifax West High School and Heather Morse, a retired principal with the Annapolis Valley Regional School Board to reflect on the need for conflict resolution and peace education.

Calvin Scott suggested peace education could be a powerful tool to support African Nova Scotian students facing discrimination in the public school system. Helping them navigate the daily realities of racism was, he said, “not only an ethical, but a moral obligation.”

Heather Morse, who reflected on her experiences developing elementary school curricula that incorporated many of the principles of peace education, described the challenges of having to compete with the requirements of the core curriculum. Despite the lack of time and resources for peace education, she said the ideas shared by the Youth Consultant Committee were reason for hope. “I am so impressed by the insight and awareness around conflict resolution we heard today, both from the youth committee and from Prof. Brownlow’s class,” she said.

Brendan Kohls, a student in the class, suggested that conflict resolution skills are often dismissed as being “something kids intuitively pick up along the way. But most don’t. These are real skills, and we all need to learn them.” His classmate, Elaine Brickell Sands, reflected that “it’s hard for most people to take that first step. But in this class, we explore ways to build connections among people from different backgrounds, such as race, religion, gender and so on. I’ve learned that active listening and asking open questions are a great way to draw out our commonalities and overcome our differences.”

This panel discussion builds on Saint Mary’s long history of developing expertise in peace education, established chiefly under the leadership of Dr. Hetty van Gurp, the founding director of Peaceful Schools International and an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Education. The Halifax-based organization, which supports schools that have made a commitment to “creating and maintaining a culture of peace,” now has more than 200 partner institutions around the world.

Prof. Brownlow, the Conflict Resolution Advisor for Saint Mary’s and an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Education, is also the president of Peaceful Schools International. Each year, members of the organization — in partnership with the SMU Conflict Resolution Society — travel to elementary schools around Northern Ireland to facilitate conflict resolution workshops for children affected by sectarian division.

“Working with my students this semester has been such an honour,” said Prof. Brownlow at the end of class. ”A good number of them are varsity athletes with very busy practice and game schedules. Yet they come each week with insightful reflections on how the things we learn in class have an impact on their lives outside the classroom. What more could I ask for?”

Brandon Ihanza, a member of the football team, had the final word. After commenting on how many of his teammates have benefited from developing perspectives on conflict resolution this semester, he said “…so, on behalf of the football team, I’d like to thank you for bringing us all into your class, and for providing us such a positive learning environment.”

Saint Mary's student wins YMCA Peace Medal

SMU student Trayvone Clayton - here with the Hon. Mayann Francis, BA'72, LLD'12 — won one of three 2019 YMCA of Greater Halifax/Dartmouth Peace Medals. (Photo credit: YMCA Greater Halifax/Dartmouth)

This article by Amy Brierley, journalism student at the University of King’s College, was originally written for and published on The Signal. Re-published with permission. Follow Amy on Twitter: @amybrierley

With his community beside him, Trayvone Clayton pushes for peace

Trayvone Clayton is being recognized for his work to create a thriving, more vibrant community — but he says he isn’t doing it alone.

On Tuesday morning, Clayton stepped onto the stage at Halifax’s Pier 21 to accept one of three 2019 YMCA of Greater Halifax/Dartmouth Peace Medals.

“I had to go to school in a suit and everyone was putting me on their Snapchat and social media,” Clayton says, laughing, recounting his friends’ enthusiastic reactions to his win in an interview this week.

When Clayton, 21, first found out he won the award, he was in shock. “I was thankful, but I didn’t really know what to say,” he says. “But I can’t take full credit.”

He says friends Kate Macdonald, DeRico Symonds, Shevy Price, dad Marcus James, and many others in his community have been there with him all the way.

“I have a lot of support behind my back and it’s a great feeling to have that.”

For 31 years, the YMCA has honoured people who have made exceptional contributions to peace building in their communities with the YMCA Peace Medal.

Clayton joined other award winners across the country on Monday in being recognized for their work in, “building and rebuilding conditions of fairness, inclusion, empathy, security, and respect for diversity,” according to the YMCA’s website.

Clayton — a third-year criminology student at Saint Mary’s University, athlete, youth mentor and community organizer — says he’s been there for his community for as long as he can remember.

It was earlier this year, while attending the National Black Canadians Summit in Ottawa, though, that he began to see and speak out about how his experience of discrimination in Halifax reflects larger, systemic racism in Canada.

Through supporting youth in his community to follow their dreams and changing the systems that take those dreams from them, Clayton is making waves in Halifax and beyond.

“My community, Uniacke Square, has always been discriminated against, judged, there’s always been barriers in front of us,” says Clayton.

“I want the kids coming up to be able to do what they feel they can do and have faith in their vision and be able to see that they can be a lawyer, they can be a doctor, they can be a judge, they can be whatever they want to be.”

Amanda Rose, development co-ordinator at YMCA of Greater Halifax/Dartmouth and Clayton’s nominator, says she has seen first-hand the impact Clayton’s advocacy has had on Halifax.

“He is a very strong advocate and role model for African Nova Scotian youth in Halifax, and youth in general,” she says. “He’s very passionate about supporting young leaders in our communities and he does that by being a young leader himself.”

THE POWER OF MENTORSHIP

Last year, one of Clayton’s beloved mentors, the late Wade Smith, received the YMCA Peace Medal. Clayton says this made winning the award that much more special.

“He was a mentor, he was a leader, a true community leader,” says Clayton.

He texted Smith’s wife soon after his win. “I just said thank you for everything, this is clearly all happening for a reason and she said, ‘trust me Tray, he’s up there smiling with all teeth right now.’”

This support is what gives Clayton hope — hope that’s sometimes hard to muster with the loss he has experienced through anti-black violence committed against his friends, family and black communities. And it’s the kind of support he wants to offer other young people.

“It’s definitely a long road ahead, change doesn’t come with a blink of an eye or in one day,” says Clayton.

At a recent community conversation about street checks, Clayton says he stood up to share what was heavy on his chest.

He says he asked the panelists to recognize that black communities have been calling attention to racism in policing for years. Now, he says, government and police must be the ones to reach out to remedy the injustice and mistrust caused by anti-black racism.

Clayton says speaking up in moments that can seem incredibly difficult is crucial to building peaceful communities.

“When kids see me doing the things I’m doing, they’re like ‘oh OK, well I can do it,’” he said. “We have to break down these barriers and break down these walls.”

AMY BRIERLEY

Amy is a journalism student at the University of King's College. She calls Antigonish N.S.--and more recently, Halifax-- home. She cares a lot about communities and the things that make them fair, just and thriving for everyone.

Two SMU honourees for Royal Society of Canada

Two Saint Mary’s faculty members were honoured in Ottawa recently, during the Royal Society of Canada’s annual Celebration of Excellence and Engagement..

Dr. S. Karly Kehoe

Dr. S. Karly Kehoe, Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Communities at Saint Mary’s, has served on the Royal Society’s national executive and Atlantic region steering committee for several years.

At the event, she became Vice-President of its College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, and will advance next year to become President.

The Royal Society of Canada also recognized Dr. R. Blake Brown for outstanding scholarship, naming him a member of its College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. His membership was announced in September but he was officially inducted into the College on Nov. 22.

Dr. Blake Brown

A history professor and Graduate Coordinator for Atlantic Canada Studies, Dr. Brown is one of Canada’s leading legal historians whose research tackles vital questions in the history of law and public policy.

The Faculty of Arts at Saint Mary’s now has five scholars associated with the Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Peter Twohig, Associate Dean of Arts, and Dr. Gavin Fridell, Canada Research Chair in International Development Studies, became members of the College of New Scholars in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Dr. John Reid, Professor Emeritus of History and Atlantic Canada Studies, was elected in 2004 as a Fellow of the Society’s Academy of the Arts and Humanities.

National recognition for Saint Mary’s geographer

Dr. Danika van Proosdij, whose research aims to help coastal habitats adapt to climate change, has just been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS).

“I’m really honoured and grateful for the nomination,” says the Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies. She was inducted to the esteemed organization during its College of Fellows Annual Dinner and 90th-anniversary celebration, held November 21 in the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec.

She joins two other geographers from Saint Mary’s who were previously elected as Fellows: Professor Emeritus Dr. Hugh Millward and the university’s President Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray. Having three Fellows here “speaks to the strength and depth of our program, and our commitment to the discipline as a whole,” says Dr. van Proosdij.

Dr. van Proosdij working at the Converse site.

Just a few days after the gala ceremony, she was back out in the wetlands on a site visit to the Converse Marsh Managed Realignment Site, near Amherst.

She and the Saint Mary’s-based TransCoastal Adaptations team hosted the November 26 visit for a progress update to stakeholders on the five-year “Making Room for Wetlands” project, funded by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Coastal Restoration Fund.

The team has been working collaboratively with Nova Scotia’s Department of Agriculture, CBWES Inc. and other partners in an effort to restore salt marshes in several areas. For coastal communities, salt marshes form the first line of defence against rising sea levels and storm surge, so restoring these ecosystems aims to help protect communities and coastal infrastructure. Work started a year ago at the Converse site, where sections of the old dyke were removed and realigned to allow tidal flow back into the area. Monitoring data collected by staff and students over the summer indicates that 15.4 hectares of salt marsh have been restored and the site is recovering well.

Saint Mary’s is a key player in the Atlantic region’s growing interdisciplinary hub for coastal adaptation research. In another project, “Making Room for Movement”, funded by NRCAN, Dr. van Proosdij and SMU students are exploring the social science element and working closely with Dalhousie’s School of Planning and its School of Resource and Environmental Management. Collaborating with other Saint Mary’s departments is also proving very beneficial.

“As we’re restoring some of these landscapes, a real added benefit has been the inclusion of archaeology,” says Dr. van Proosdij. “Getting an understanding of the historical use of that land helps to inform our restoration design, and to form better connection and communication with rights holders as well as stakeholders. It’s fascinating to be working on a landscape and looking at the juxtaposition between modern techniques and old techniques, and the value of the voices of those who have come before.”

Canada’s national defence within the global context

Left to right: Dr. Marc Doucet, Chair of Political Science; Associate Deputy Minister Gordon Venner; Dr. Margaret MacDonald, Dean of Arts; and Political Science Professor Dr. Alexandra Dobrowolsky

An undergraduate education can provide a very helpful foundation for careers in federal government, students heard recently from one of Canada’s top defence advisors.

“The things you’re studying here are going to be really important,” said Associate Deputy Minister Gordon Venner of the Department of National Defence. “We’re going to need a lot of people with the right skills.”

Speaking to a packed lecture hall at Saint Mary’s on November 21, Mr. Venner also explained that recruitment is an ongoing priority for National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces. Service personnel and civilian employees are tasked with implementing government decisions related to the defence of Canadian interests at home and abroad.

An education in political science, public policy, geography, business, international relations, communications, science or environmental studies can be helpful, to name just a few areas, and so are the abilities to speak other languages and a greater understanding of other cultures, he said.

Mr. Venner’s lecture was mainly focused on the topic, “Understanding Canada’s defence policy within the evolving global security environment”. He was in Halifax to attend the 11th Halifax International Security Forum, but took time out before the conference to speak to students at Saint Mary’s. The lecture was hosted by the Department of Political Science, but was open to students in all disciplines.

Dr. Marc Doucet, Chair of Political Science, said it was a unique opportunity to hear from such a high-level civil servant.

"It is always valuable for students to hear how the topics discussed in class or course readings, in this case the policy-making process that led to Canada's new defence policy, is described by government officials directly involved," said Dr. Doucet.

Mr. Venner was appointed Associate Deputy Minister in 2017, after several years of serving as Assistant Deputy Minister of Policy for National Defence. Previously, he held a number of senior positions with Global Affairs Canada. His regional areas of responsibility have included the Middle East and North Africa and his work has covered issues related to the G8, APEC and the OECD. Mr. Venner was also Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet for Foreign and Defence Policy in the Privy Council Office. He served as Canadian Ambassador to Iran (2004-2006) and Counsellor at the Canadian Mission to the European Union (1996-2000).

Mr. Venner holds a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Western Ontario.

Teachers and professors explore cultural connections

More than 300 social studies teachers from across the province were students for a day on October 25, during their annual professional development conference. Held for a fifth year at Saint Mary’s University, the event included more than 30 workshops around the theme Cultural Connections, some led by professors in the Faculty of Arts.  

“It is such an important and powerful connection that must be kept between our learning institutions, especially as students transition into colleges and universities,” said Dr. Benita Bunjun of Social Justice & Community Studies, whose session focused on cultural relations in the classroom. “I think it’s really important that every year, these workshops show a diversity of people sharing expertise, a multiplicity of people who are educators, transferrers of knowledge, keepers of knowledge.”

She and Dr. Rohini Bannerjee of the Modern Languages & Classics department have been involved in the conference for several years.

“I’m always a little bit nervous about teaching teachers, but it’s also a great privilege because it helps in reminding all of us why we do what we do,” said Bannerjee, who taught a session about the Jewish experience in Mauritius during the Second World War. “Why we find teaching so important, and why being in the classroom with diverse points of view is important. Maybe when they come to hear me speak, they might see that my own lived experience is pretty diverse and that cultural connections are part of my everyday. At the same time, as teachers, we need to help our students create their own stories.”

The conference also included an education trade exhibition and a keynote address by Weldon Boudreau, an Acadian singer and teacher at École Beaubassin. Several off-site sessions took place at the Africville National Historic Site, Ross Farm Museum and the Treaty Truckhouse at the Sipekne’katik (Shubenacadie) River, where participants met with the Grassroots Grandmothers and Water Protectors.

“We really wanted to focus on the role that teachers play in the lives of students when it comes to students’ own cultural identity and how we can effectively celebrate students’ identities by bringing it into classrooms,” said Maureen McNamara, President of the Social Studies Teachers Association of Nova Scotia. “That’s why we asked Weldon to be our keynote; he had a really important story to tell about what it means to be proud of who you are and where you come from, and to understand who you are as an individual. Individual identity is really integral in creating meaningful learning experiences for students.”

Other Saint Mary’s faculty members who led workshops were Prof. Shana McGuire of Modern Languages & Classics on teaching about francophone cultures through film, Philosophy Chair Dr. Shelagh Crooks on strategies for teaching critical thinking; Dr. Rosana Barbosa of History on music and soccer as cultural history teaching tools; and Dr. Min-Jung Kwak of Geography & Environmental Studies on international students in Canada and their families.

A riveting presentation by renowned artist Kent Monkman

Left to right: Dr. Rylan Higgins, Chair of the Department of Anthropology; Raymond Sewell, Indigenous Student Advisor; and Artist Kent Monkman

Kent Monkman discussing his powerful 2017 artwork The Scream (2017, acrylic on canvas, 84” x 126”), now in the collection of the Denver Art Museum.

Screened at the Making Miss Chief event, this is a scene from Another Feather In Her Bonnet | Miss Chief Eagle Testickle & Jean Paul Gaultier. The short film captures Miss Chief’s faux 2017 wedding to the fashion designer at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts. See it on the Kent Monkman Studio’s YouTube channel.

A full house burst into rapturous applause after Kent Monkman’s presentation on October 9, organized by the Saint Mary’s Department of Anthropology. There were two standing ovations: one for the artist himself, another for his two-spirit alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, a time-travelling central figure in many of his paintings, videos and performance art pieces.

Held in the Paul O’Regan Hall at Halifax Central Library, the “Making Miss Chief” event was presented in partnership with the Office of the Indigenous Student Advisor, Saint Mary's University Art Gallery and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Public Affairs (CCEPA).

Monkman treated the crowd of nearly 300 to the first “test run” of a few chapters from his forthcoming book of Miss Chief’s memoirs, to be published in 2020 by McClelland & Stewart. Written with his longtime collaborator Gisèle Gordon, the book emerged from his solo exhibition Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience, which was on view at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) last fall and is now in Winnipeg before heading to Vancouver in the spring.

In the exhibition and the book, Miss Chief serves as the guide on a journey to unpack North American art history “as it’s told through settler culture,” focusing on themes of resilience, sexuality, loss and perceived notions of Indigenous experiences. Among the highlights Monkman shared with his Halifax audience was Miss Chief’s origin story, as depicted in his 2018 artwork Being Legendary.

“I created Miss Chief in 2004 to be this really badass character to reverse the colonial gaze,” he said. Using a broad spectrum of tools ranging from humour to serious critique, the larger goal is to “decolonize Canada … Miss Chief has just become this force.”

The character’s wardrobe took some inspiration from the singer Cher, said Monkman, a fan since his childhood in Winnipeg, where he was the youngest of three brothers who played hockey. “I was terrible at hockey. My act of rebellion was to ask for a Cher wig for my 10th birthday. I got a hockey jersey,” he recalled.

Monkman wrapped up his talk with a screening of Another Feather In Her Bonnet | Miss Chief Eagle Testickle & Jean Paul Gaultier. The short video captures Miss Chief’s faux wedding ceremony to the famous fashion designer, September 8, 2017 at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts. The museum had taken some heat for a headdress piece in an exhibition by Gaultier, which was seen as cultural appropriation, and so invited Monkman to develop an artistic response. 

A member of the Fisher River Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, Monkman currently lives and works in Toronto. He has achieved international recognition, with many solo exhibitions at museums and galleries in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, and screenings at international film festivals. Miss Chief has been at centre stage for site-specific performances at the Royal Ontario Museum, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Compton Verney and the Denver Art Museum.

Find out more about Monkman and get a closer look at his artworks online at www.kentmonkman.com. If you haven’t seen his painting Miss Chief’s Wet Dream, be sure to visit AGNS, which purchased the monumental artwork in 2018. His newest projects include mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People), commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, to hang in its Great Hall starting on December 19, 2019.

Oscar Wilde’s Prison Readings - Celebrating 50 years since the decriminalization of Homosexuality in Canada

Almost 120 years ago, Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for the crime of homosexuality. As little as 50 years ago, members of the LGBTQ+ community would have faced similar persecution, even in Canada.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in Canada in 1969.

These two events — the 50 year anniversary of decriminalization and the “round number” of 120 years since Oscar Wilde’s death — prompted Dr. Goran Stanivukovic, Chair of the Department of English Language and Literature, to approach Collections Librarian Sally Wood with an idea: to collect and display in the Patrick Power Library the books that Oscar Wilde requested while in prison.

From Dante and Dickens, to Tennyson and Wordsworth, to German Grammar, Wilde was a prolific reader and writer even during his two-year sentence. Librarian Sally Wood and Dr. Stanivukovic teamed up to plan the display last year, and have been tracking down the books ever since.

Dr. Stanivukovic launched the display on September 12 with opening remarks about Wilde, the significance of the collection, and the context within which Wilde was tried and convicted.

Anthropology Student Jared Blois performed excerpts from Wilde’s prison writings, reading aloud from De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

Student team promote entrepreneurial thinking across faculties

Meet the new ENbassador team. Back row, l-r: Aaron Graham, Commerce; Jake Chambers, Science; Emaaz Amjid, Science; Guillermo Villerreal De Lara, Arts. In front, l-r: Solana Purdy, Commerce; Amina Khan, Arts; Sambridhi Trikhatri, Commerce.

Last week, the Saint Mary's University Entrepreneurship Centre welcomed a brand new team of Student Entrepreneurship Ambassadors to their ENbassador Program.

These undergraduate students come from all academic faculties. The goal of the ENbassador program is to ignite an entrepreneurial mindset in all students at Saint Mary's and help them to develop skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and resilience.

The team of students ENbassadors will work alongside the SMUEC to help plan, promote, and execute entrepreneurship events on campus throughout the year. These students are excited to share their passion for entrepreneurship and help other students understand the value that entrepreneurial thinking can have, not only for those eager to one day start their own business, but also for those who wish to work for an organization beyond graduation.

The ENbassador Program is a CASE (Community and Student Engagement) funded initiative that uses a multidisciplinary approach to create an entrepreneurial mindset.

Criminology professor testifies in Inter-American human rights case

A Saint Mary’s professor provided expert testimony in a high-profile human rights case heard last week in Barranquilla, Colombia.

Dr. María Gómez

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights held a public hearing on August 27 for the case Rojas Marin y Otra Vs. Perú. It is the first case relating to violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity to reach the highest regional human rights court.

Dr. María Gómez, Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology, served as an expert witness on behalf of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The IACHR is a principal and autonomous organ of the Organization of American States (OAS), which has a mandate to promote and protect human rights in the American hemisphere.

The case relates to Azul Rojas Marín, who was detained by members of the National Police of Peru in Casa Grande on Feb. 25, 2008, allegedly for purposes of identification. Marín claimed three guards exercised physical and sexual violence against her, and that she endured verbal attacks based on her sexual orientation. A transgender woman, Marín identified as a gay man at the time of the detention. A criminal complaint was pursued but 11 years later, no one has been held accountable. Azul took the case to the IACHR, with legal assistance from several human rights advocacy groups.

Dr. Gómez delivered her evidence before a panel of seven judges at the human rights court, as well as legal representatives of both Marín and the State. As part of the requested testimony, she presented her account of the category of "violence based on prejudice" as a tool to identify the context and operations of structural discrimination.

"I think this was a privileged platform to impact the understanding of violence based on sexual and gender prejudice in the Inter-American system of human rights, as well as the role of the State when its agents are the perpetrators,” Dr. Gomez said of the experience, upon returning to Halifax last week.

“But overall, it was a way of supporting the victims of this type of violence and the regional civil society organizations that, under considerable risk, have dedicated their efforts to bring the attention of the human rights system to cases like this. "

The Court reserved judgment and is expected to deliver a decision in the coming months. The hearing was live-streamed in Spanish; the webcast is available at https://vimeo.com/347339620 (Dr. Gomez’s testimony begins at 2:56).

For more background on the case, see:

· Azul Rojas Marín: the historical denunciation of the transgender woman who accuses the Peruvian police of rape and torture, BBC Mundo, August 28, 2019

· IACHR Takes Case Involving Peru to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, OAS news release, August 27, 2018

Dr. Gómez is a Canadian-Colombian academic and human rights activist. Prior to joining Saint Mary’s, she taught at the University de los Andes in Colombia, Eugene Lang College in New York City, and Dalhousie University. She is a co-founder and former general coordinator (2012-2014) of the Red Latinoamericana de académicas/os del derecho (RED ALAS), which seeks to increase the legal academy’s role in advancing sexual and gender equality, and was Regional Program Coordinator at OutRight Action International (2013-2016), for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Her current research focuses on State’s responses to prejudice and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. She is interested in the politics of hate crime, gender and sexuality; political and criminological theories; socio-legal studies; and the intersection between criminology and cultural studies. She is also cross-appointed to the Graduate Program on Women and Gender Studies.

Saint Mary’s PhD graduate wins international award

Dr. Samantha A. Penney

Saint Mary’s University is proud to announce that Dr. Samantha A. Penney, a recent PhD graduate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, has received the prestigious 2019 Kenneth E. Clark Student Research Award from the Center for Creative Leadership and the International Leadership Association.

“It is an absolute honour to have my dissertation research recognized internationally,” said Dr. Penney.

In her award-winning paper on leadership titled Fostering a Psychologically Healthy Workplace through Leadership, Dr. Penney created and validated a scale to assess leadership behaviours that contribute to a healthy workplace, and then designed a workshop and phone-based coaching program which she delivered to leaders in eight organizations across seven provinces.

The training includes knowledge of what a healthy workplace is, leaders’ roles in creating that healthy workplace, and goal setting and skill development to act on that knowledge. “For example, infrequent feedback, such as only having annual performance reviews are a concern in organizations. Research has suggested that employees are more likely to change their behaviour and attitudes when they receive frequent positive and constructive feedback,” she explained.

 “The results demonstrate that leadership behaviours can be trained,” said Dr. Penney, adding that while many of the leadership behaviours identified aren’t new information, giving leaders the tools and training to apply the knowledge is key. “Employees often move up within an organization into a leadership role because they’re good at their jobs, but they don’t always have leadership skills.”

 “Working with leaders and organizations to provide practical recommendations is something that I am very passionate about, and my research ties into my new role of conducting leadership assessments for the purposes of selection and development,” she said.  

“Dr. Penney, and her research, are very deserving of this international recognition,” said Dr. Arla Day, her dissertation supervisor. “Not only does this award demonstrate her expertise and innovation in the area, but it also reinforces the reputation of Saint Mary’s as a high-caliber training institution with a strong level of research expertise in occupational health psychology.”

Background

Dr. Penney recently completed her PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Saint Mary’s. She completed her Master of Science in Applied Psychology at Saint Mary’s and has an Honours Bachelor of Arts from Lakehead University.

She has authored several journal articles and book chapters on leadership and employee well-being, and has presented her work at national and international conferences.

Her experience as an independent consultant and leadership coach, developing both leader-level and employee-level training programs, and as a facilitator, delivering workshops and seminars to corporate clients aligns with her background in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

She recently accepted a role as a Talent & Leadership Development Assessment Analyst at Lee Hecht Harrison Knightsbridge in Toronto.

About the Kenneth E. Clark Award

The Kenneth E. Clark Student Research Award recognizes one outstanding unpublished paper by undergraduate and graduate students each year. It is sponsored by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) and the International Leadership Association (ILA).

Papers are evaluated by 13 CCL research faculty members through a multi-rater, blind review process. Winners of the international award receive a cash prize, and a trip to ILA’s Annual Conference to present the winning paper there and in various multimedia ILA publications.

Dr. Penney follows in the footsteps on another Saint Mary’s alumna in winning this award. Aleka MacLellan, who was then a recent PhD graduate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and won the same award in 2017.