Assessing global human progress with a new environmental twist

The International Development Studies program at Saint Mary’s is teaming up with the School of Social Sciences at Mahatma Gandhi University in India to co-host a virtual panel discussion on Monday.

The purpose of the April 19 event is to take a closer look at the 2020 Human Development Report, the 30th anniversary edition of the yearly report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Titled “The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene,” this latest version is quite different from its predecessors, introducing a new environmental lens to the report’s annual Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI typically tracks human progress in countries around the world by measuring such factors as a nation’s health, education and standards of living. For the 2020 report, the HDI also took the countries’ carbon dioxide emissions and material footprints into account. By adjusting the index to reflect planetary pressures, the report paints a sobering picture of humanity’s progress by making the wellbeing of both people and the planet central to the definition of human development.

“It’s a unique opportunity to have an international discussion,” says Dr. Gavin Fridell, SMU’s Canada Research Chair in International Development Studies and one of the panellists. “This report is quite different, and represents a massive turning point, so it’s worthy of us having a more serious discussion about it.” 

Joining him on the panel are Dr. Kate Ervine, also a faculty member in the IDS program at Saint Mary’s; Dr. Joseph Tharamangalam of the Sociology & Anthropology department at Mount St. Vincent University; and Dr. C.T. Aravindakumar, Pro-Vice Chancellor and faculty member in the School of Environmental Science, Mahatma Gandhi University. The panel’s moderator is Dr. Sabu Thomas, Vice Chancellor (President), Mahatma Gandhi University.

“The report is not very optimistic,” Fridell notes, adding the pandemic has also changed thinking around human development, further highlighting economic inequalities and environmental pressures.

“COVID-19 is teaching us a lot of things,” he says. “We have learned that in an emergency, we are capable of slowing down our economic growth … but who pays the price? And the report isn’t saying that we have to end economic growth, but constantly increasing economic growth is not compatible with the climate crisis.”

Each panellist will begin with a brief presentation, then the event will open up to a Q&A discussion. Similar conversations have been taking place around the world since the report’s release in December, but this is the first such public forum in the Maritime provinces. See the UNDP’s December 15 announcement for more details and perspectives about the 2020 report.

“While humanity has achieved incredible things, it is clear that we have taken our planet for granted,” Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy Youth, said in the announcement. “Across the world young people have spoken up, recognizing that these actions put our collective future at risk. As the 2020 Human Development Report makes clear, we need to transform our relationship with the planet — to make energy and material consumption sustainable, and to ensure every young person is educated and empowered to appreciate the wonders that a healthy world can provide.”

Open to the public, the panel discussion begins at 10:30 am on Monday. See the event listing on the SMU Events Calendar for more information and the Zoom links. 

Bridget Brownlow receives Paul Harris Fellow Award

Bridget Brownlow

Saint Mary’s University’s Conflict Resolution Advisor and president of Peaceful Schools International, Bridget Brownlow, has received the Paul Harris Fellow Award from the Rotary Club of Halifax Harbourside.

The award, established in 1957, is given to a community member that has made an outstanding contribution to the community. Brownlow is being recognized for her notable service with Peaceful Schools International, teaching peaceful education to children from over 200 schools around the world.

The Paul Harris Fellow Award has been received by many household names, including: Mother Theresa, polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk, N.S. Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang, and former Saint Mary’s President Colin Dodds.

Congratulations Bridget!

SMU archaeologist brings history into focus with LiDAR and 3D tech

Dr. Jonathan Fowler is bringing Nova Scotia’s historic settlements into sharper focus, using advanced digital tools to combine archival maps with landscape data in his research and teaching at Saint Mary’s.

“This is about as close as you can get to time travel without a DeLorean,” says the associate professor of archaeology. Instead of going Back to the Future, the texture mapping technology offers a fresh approach to viewing the past, showing in stunning detail how our farmlands and fortresses looked hundreds of years ago.

In a current project, Fowler shows how Fort Anne National Historic Site would have looked in 1706, combining a centuries-old military map with a 3D terrain model created from current aerial Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data. 

“Airborne LiDAR has become a powerful tool for archaeologists to tell the stories about our heritage while also providing historical information for us to study and interpret,” says Fowler, who teaches in the Department of Anthropology.  

LiDAR technology has been around for decades, but the provincial government’s open data model is enabling an explosion of new research in many disciplines. Free LiDAR data is now available for much of Nova Scotia through GeoNOVA’s DataLocator Elevation Explorer portal. Aircraft mounted with LiDAR transmitters and receivers fly over landscapes across the province, emitting pulses of light energy. This provides detailed data about the ground surface, and archaeologists can filter out trees and other high vegetation to see a bare surface model.

To process LiDAR data, Fowler’s go-to is the Surfer surface mapping platform from Golden Software of Golden, Colorado. He has been using it for years to visualize geophysical survey data, and more recently to collate and analyze LiDAR data with old maps. The technology “essentially drapes historical maps over digital 3D models, creating a vivid visualization of the former landscape,” he explains.  

For his Fort Anne images, Fowler used high-resolution scans of historic maps of the fortress: a 1706 military map from France’s National Archives, and a 1753 map from the Library of Congress, showing the site under British rule. He put them through a georeferencing process in a Geographical Information System (GIS) program, then used LiDAR data to create a ‘bare Earth’ 3D surface model of the area’s current topography, minus vegetation and buildings. Combining them in Surfer created a 3D map revealing the original layout of buildings within the fort’s ramparts and beyond.   

“Interestingly, most of the fort’s buildings no longer exist, but some structures still stand today in [the town of] Annapolis Royal and are among the oldest buildings in Canada,” says Fowler.

Fowler hopes to unearth new information about Fort Anne and its surroundings. As he has in Grand Pré and other projects, he can use the new 3D imagery as a guide to return with Ground Penetrating Radar to further investigate what remains hidden beneath the surface.

“Dr. Fowler’s research demonstrates the value of visualizing and modeling multiple diverse data sets to gain deeper scientific insights,” adds Blakelee Mills, CEO of Golden Software.

In another study of the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site, Fowler used a map dating back to 1745, after the New England siege. Though Parks Canada rebuilt much of the town’s outer wall during the 20th century, LiDAR data shows evidence of the craters left when the British military attempted to demolish the site in the mid-1700s.

Aside from its research benefits, fun, and aesthetic value, this approach to historical mapping holds great potential for explaining landscape histories with vivid visualizations.

“Rather than asking someone to imagine a past environment, we can digitally render it in 3D, resulting in a much more immersive experience of the past,” says Fowler.

“As a teacher of history, archaeology, and heritage resource management and interpretation, I am thrilled that these tools are becoming more affordable and user friendly. We are presently integrating them into several of our archaeology courses, including Archaeological Remote Sensing, Landscape Archaeology, and Cultural Resource Management Archaeology.”

For more details on the Fort Anne project, read Dr. Fowler’s articles on LinkedIn and Facebook. Follow his updates on Twitter at @ArchInAcadie.  

An evening across the ocean with Doireann Ní Ghríofa

William Wordsworth defined poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility …” On March 4, the Irish Studies program welcomed acclaimed Irish writer Doireann Ní Ghríofa as guest speaker for its annual D’Arcy McGee Lecture, showing that Wordsworth is not alone in seeing poetry as a matter of feelings and inspiration. 

Ní Ghríofa is a poet and essayist who writes in both Irish and English. Her prose bestseller A Ghost in the Throat, an inventive hybrid of essay and fiction, was crowned Book of the Year at the 2020 Irish Book Awards. She also has six award-winning poetry collections, the most recent of which is Lies (an Irish Times Book of the Year and Irish Independent Book of 2018). 

“To give a lecture like this isn’t something that I’m used to at all,” Ní Ghríofa confessed at the outset of the virtual public lecture, which drew over 100 people. “I’ve no academic expertise that would qualify me to do so, well beyond what I’ve taught myself in quite a muddled way. I’m just a person who has slowly, over many years and with many missteps, taught themselves to become a writer.”

Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Ní Ghríofa added that she came to writing comparatively late in life: “I held a passion for reading, though, much earlier – I was a very bookish child, the kid who wants to bring home more books from the library than my arms could ever carry – but I only began to write in my late twenties, and I’ve never shaken off my astonishment at the fact that a life can take a drastic turn like that, that we can suddenly become absorbed in a new devotion, that feels like it comes upon us totally unexpectedly, and we find that it has changed everything.” 

Through her poetry, Ní Ghríofa explores the journeys of birth, death, desire, and domesticity. In her talk, she revealed how grief and motherhood sparked her way into poetry: “For a long time, I struggled to speak of that grief, but poetry allowed me a way to speak of the pain and longing and the loss that I felt, even after my subsequent children were born, for that first lost pregnancy,” Ní Ghríofa said before reciting a selection from “Sólás” in the book Lies, her collection of poems with a refreshing yet crafty presentation in both tongues.

“This poem grew from the moment I learned that in Irish folklore, the souls of miscarried and stillborn infants were believed to return as little birds – sedge-warblers – to comfort their mothers with birdsong,” she added. 

The poet also explained why her lecture focused on these interconnections between grief and literature. “My younger sister Éibhleann died very recently,” she said. “It’s such a painful loss, and something I can’t really bring myself to speak about very much. It’s a particularly lonely time to lose a family member, with the pandemic, when we’re are deprived of the company and comfort of others. But my writing practice has helped me through these difficult days and kept my head above water, if only barely some days, by connecting again with how grief has been such a deep source of my work.”

After thanking her audience in both Irish and English, Ní Ghríofa reminded us that reading and writing poetry is good for healing and transformation: “[Poetry] has never failed to bring me comfort, even now, as we persevere through such dark, uncertain times.”

Dr. Sara Malton researching hunger and fasting in the Victorian era

Current cultural dialogues about womanhood and agency are popular topics of inquiry in today’s social science research, yet society’s apparent need to contain the female body has been a poignant issue for centuries. Dr. Sara Malton has been researching the representation of women’s bodies – and women’s physical and psychological health – by revisiting understandings of fasting, starvation and selfhood in 19th-century literature and culture.

Dr. Sara Malton

“This research could help us approach with greater care our thinking about women’s relationships with their bodies and questions of agency and help us critically consider the ways that we tend to pathologize everything,” says Dr. Malton, a Professor in the Department of English Language & Literature.

Malton’s current research focuses on representation of the “fasting girl,” which she describes in her research abstract as “a phenomenon which became the focus of much scrutiny in British, European, and Anglo-American medicine and the popular press, as well as nineteenth-century literature. Fasting girls were frequently purported to survive on nothing but the Eucharist and sips of water often for weeks, months, or sometimes even years. On the one hand, such young women evoked a pattern of behavior that recalled that of earlier miraculous saints, such as Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-80), who was renowned for what was then termed anorexia mirabilis. Yet into the latter decades of the nineteenth century, doctors largely discredited the entire notion of anorexia mirabilis.”

Last summer, Malton received a federal SSHRC Insight Development Grant for her project, entitled “Wondrous Hunger: Salvation, Starvation and the Nineteenth-Century 'Fasting Girl.'” Further investigation on the subject has led her to the Welsh girl Sarah Jacob, a figure who has been addressed by authors ranging from Charles Dickens to Emma Donoghue in her recent historical novel, The Wonder [2016]. Cases such as Jacob’s “were at the nexus of this transition from the perception of self-imposed starvation as redemptive sacrifice to a pathologized illness, anorexia nervosa, which was defined in 1873,” says Malton in her abstract.

With “intermittent fasting” becoming popular again as a weight loss strategy, Malton hopes her research will contribute to current discussions on gender, agency and the body, as well as tensions that remain between medical practice and religious belief.  

“There has been a battle of authority between religion and science, and during the Victorian era there was a desire to pathologize and reclassify. Prior to the late 19th century, there was no specific medical pathology for anorexia. So, who controls these women’s stories? After their deaths we have trial records and medical records, but no records from the women,” Malton explains.

“In a time when we are so polarized in our discussions, I think that it is now useful to add nuance to historical issues where religious discourse relates to scientific discourse,” she adds.

In much of her research, Malton explores the intersections of fiction, finance, technology and law, as well as consumer and commodity culture. Her publications include the book, Forgery in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture: Fictions of Finance from Dickens to Wilde (Palgrave-Macmillan 2009).

She is the current Secretary and a past Trustee of The Dickens Society, and hosted the international 20th Annual Dickens Society Symposium at Saint Mary’s in 2015. A few months ago, Chicago's Remy Bumppo Theatre Company invited her to present Between the Lines: The Chimes, a pre-show lecture for its virtual performance of the 1844 Christmas story by Dickens.

Learn more about Malton’s work at saramalton.com and follow her on Twitter at @saramalton.

Dr. Evangelia Tastsoglou recognized for research excellence

The 2020 recipient of the President’s Award for Excellence in Research is Dr. Evie Tastsoglou, Professor of Sociology.

Dr. Evangelia (Evie) Tastsoglou is the recipient of the 2020 President’s Award for Excellence in Research at Saint Mary’s, to be recognized during the virtual Winter Convocation ceremony on February 13.

A highly regarded leader in Sociology research, Dr. Tastsoglou has legal training and expertise spanning other fields such as Women and Gender Studies and International Development Studies. Much of her current research focuses on the urgent issue of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in migration.

Dr. Tastsoglou currently leads as principal investigator the Canadian research team of a major international research program that is analyzing causes and impacts of violence against women migrants and refugees, with a view to shaping effective policy to address it. Working “remotely yet at full speed,” her Canadian team of scholars at four institutions is supported by funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The program was developed in response to a call from GENDER-NET Plus, a consortium of 16 organizations from 13 countries, aiming to strengthen transnational research while promoting gender equality through institutional change.

With a team of academics in Canada and Greece, Dr. Tastsoglou is also the principal investigator of a SSHRC-funded project, with preliminary results now in review for publication. This research seeks to understand gender-based violence and precarity “in the forced migration journeys of asylum-seeking women toward the EU through what is known as the Eastern Mediterranean route, in the tumultuous, second decade of the 21st century,” she says. “Our findings locate five points in this forced migration journey where precarity interweaves with violence, reinforcing one another, as well as show their gendered forms: border crossing, the asylum determination process, living conditions, services, and state response to GVB.”

Additionally, she is co-investigator in a project on the impacts of the pandemic on Canadians’ mental health, as analyzed through social media. Funded by NSERC Alliance COVID-19, the project includes industry partner Diversio and research teams from Dalhousie’s Faculty of Computer Science and Department of Psychiatry.

“This is a truly rewarding collaboration not only in terms of building substantive knowledge but also in pioneering interdisciplinary methodology that combines, with sociological input, machine learning methods applied to text mining, followed by qualitative analysis. Team members learn how to negotiate a common ‘language’ across very different disciplines,” says Dr. Tastsoglou.

Interdisciplinary approaches have always been vital to her research but the NSERC Alliance COVID-19 project is further expanding those horizons, she says. “My educational background is in law and sociology and although I appreciate the distinct lenses of the two disciplines, I consider them complementary in approaching complex social phenomena. This project takes me one step further in the direction of addressing research questions in the social sciences by using artificial intelligence methodologies to assist in coping with large amounts of text.”

Since arriving at Saint Mary’s in 1993, Professor Tastsoglou has served as a mentor for many undergraduate and graduate students. She was Chair of the former Department of Sociology and Criminology from 2006-2012. Cross-appointed since 2017 to the International Development Studies Program, she serves as its undergraduate coordinator.

“It has been a privilege to have spent most of my academic career working at Saint Mary’s University,” she says, adding she is deeply honoured to receive the research excellence award. “I have learnt and continue to learn a great deal from my colleagues and students. Working out of a smaller university has some unique advantages in terms of having less pressure to produce and more freedom to engage your passions, which can ultimately enrich both your work and life. I am very grateful to the Saint Mary’s community, which I have experienced as personable, caring and supportive throughout my career.”

Currently president of the Canadian Ethnic Studies Association, Dr. Tastsoglou was proclaimed “Sociologist of the Month” by the international Current Sociology journal in July 2018, and received a Fulbright / Niarchos Fellowship in 2017. She was an elected member of the Research Council and Executive of the International Sociological Association (2014-2018), and former President of the ISA’s RC 32 (Research Committee on Women in Society (2006-2014). She is the single author, co-author, editor and co-editor of numerous publications, including 11 peer-reviewed volumes, in national and international venues.

Established in 1989, the annual President’s Award honours outstanding research conducted by a full-time faculty member at Saint Mary’s. Recipients must have a record of continued and exceptional contribution to research and scholarship, as well as national or international recognition as an authority in a major field of knowledge.

History graduate receives prestigious SSHRC scholarship

Alex Myrick

It’s an interesting time of transition for Alex Myrick, whose master’s level research is now evolving to the doctoral level.  

Myrick will graduate from Saint Mary’s with a Master of Arts degree in History on February 13. The M.A. program in the History department gave him a great foundation for his next steps: he’s already working on his PhD at the University of Ottawa – remotely from his current home in Halifax – and recently received a prestigious Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).  

In October, Myrick successfully defended his master’s thesis, titled ‘From Isolated Asylums to the Medical Mainstream: Psychiatry's Journey Towards Normalization within Somatic Medicine, 1900-1970’. His research focuses on the once isolated practice of psychiatry and how it became more integrated into medical schools and general hospitals. Psychiatry had been separated from general medicine and was mainly practised in overcrowded asylums up until the mid-twentieth century.

Myrick first became intrigued by the topic in 2017, during a journalism project in his undergraduate years at the University of King’s College. “I wanted to know how, as a society, we got to the point of a quiet crisis in mental health care, with an overburdened system,” he shares. “What intellectual ideas have created the system we live in today? I hope to at least understand how psychiatry and mental health care have developed over the century.” 

He concentrated his master’s research on the prominent  20th century psychiatrist Adolf Meyer, whose theory of psychobiology specified that the mind and body are indivisible aspects of the whole human organism. Through psychobiology, an individual’s health could be based on the premise that the body’s anatomical and physiological nervous apparatus work in conjunction with its mental activities and behaviours, and all are part of the human organism’s adaptive response to stimuli in their environment.

Meyer’s influence also extended to Nova Scotia’s medical history, which provided a case study in Myrick’s thesis. Dr. Robert O. Jones, a student of Meyer’s at John Hopkins University, developed a curriculum and post-graduate program for psychiatry at Dalhousie Medical School. Jones became an advocate for Meyerian ideas in the province while teaching the specifics of Meyer’s approaches to psychiatry and medicine. Through Jones and his work, psychiatry was established as a discipline on par with other medical specialties in Nova Scotia.

Myrick is expanding the scope of analysis for his doctoral research to include other Canadian cities that saw psychiatry integrated into their health care systems between 1900 and 1970. He will also further examine the debates among psychiatrists and “the rest of medicine” over psychiatric treatment in hospitals.  

He is delighted to be the recipient of a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship. This will provide federal funding of $35,000 annually for three years of his PhD program.

“The funding frees up so much financial stress,” says Myrick. “The nature of the scholarships means that I can focus entirely on my research. With this funding I also hope to travel to the United States or England to visit the institutions where Meyer’s students worked.”

Dr. Edna Keeble moderates U.S. - Canada Relations event

Dr. Edna Keeble

It’s a virtual event fitting the times. “Congress to Campus: U.S.-Canada Relations” on January 28 promises to be an engaging discussion directed to those in academia and beyond in Canada.  

The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States will have an impact on countries all over the world. Just hours after taking office this week, he revoked the permit that would have enabled western Canada’s Keystone XL oil pipeline project to expand into the U.S. On his first day, President Biden also indicated that his administration’s relationship with Canada is a priority – his first phone call to a foreign leader will be with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Congress to Campus event, which aims to explore many of the questions Canadians might have right now, is part of the outreach program of the United States Association of Former Members of Congress (FMC). It’s timely, as the effects of the recent U.S. election and the attack on the Capitol are still very fresh in the minds of the world. The event also has a connection to the Saint Mary’s community, with Dr. Edna Keeble serving as the discussion’s moderator.  

“It is important not only to discuss the possible directions of Canada-U.S. relations under the new Biden administration, but also to understand the future prospects of bipartisanship from those who have served in the halls of the U.S. Congress,” says Dr. Keeble, a professor in the Department of Political Science.

The two speakers for the event are former members of the U.S. House of Representatives, from both the Democratic and Republican parties:

• The Honorable Elizabeth Esty, who was the U.S. Representative for Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District covering central and northwest Connecticut from 2013 to 2019.

• The Honorable John J. Faso, who represented the 19th Congressional District in upstate New York from 2017 to 2019.

Dr. Keeble’s current teaching and research interests focus on Canadian foreign policy, re-definitions of security, and linkages between politics, gender and sexuality. She served as Chair of the Political Science department for six years (2003-2004; 2009-2014).

“I was invited to moderate by the U.S. Consulate General in Halifax, which was organizing the event with the Former Members of Congress organization before the horrific January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol,” she says.   

All are welcome to attend Congress to Campus, to be held Thursday, January 28 at 1:00 pm on Zoom. For more details about the speakers, see the SMU Events Calendar and sign up in advance for the webinar link.

Certificate in Health, Wellness and Sport in Society sees first graduate

At the end of a challenging year, it’s important to celebrate the positive highlights – including a milestone for the new Certificate in Health, Wellness and Sport in Society.

Julie Naugler BA’20

The first student to graduate with the new certificate, Julie Naugler BA’20 says it adds extra value to her Bachelor of Arts degree and nicely complemented her major in Anthropology. She graduated in May just a few months into the global pandemic, which brought another dimension of timeliness to the new program.

“Everyone has been impacted by this,” she says. “The pandemic will definitely strengthen interest in the program – it has shaped the way people are learning, and the things they want to learn about. The program offers a great opportunity for people to study health and wellness in more depth.”

Open to students in all three faculties at Saint Mary’s, the interdisciplinary program is administered by the Faculty of Arts in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Sport and Health. With three core courses and a flexible range of electives, the program delves into the social, cultural, political and moral aspects of health, wellness and sport.

“For me, it really broadened my education,” says Naugler. “Health and wellness are a really big part of workplace culture, so it’s valuable knowledge in a lot of different fields.”

The certificate can provide an extra edge going into further studies and job interviews. Upon graduating, Naugler landed a job right away with Manulife in Halifax. Health and wellness are central aspects of the insurance industry, so she’s grateful for the academic background. The certificate is also beneficial to students who are interested in health care administration, health policy, sport management, the personal wellness or recreation fields, and much more.

“I would also recommend it because it’s a unique classroom situation,” says Naugler. “The professors are great and the other students add so much to the whole experience, with a lot of open dialogue and class participation.” 

A rugby player and student leader at Saint Mary’s, Naugler was first drawn to the HWSS program because it combined her academic interests with her experience in sports. The 2016 AUS Rookie of the Year for women’s rugby, she was named to the AUS All-Star Team for three seasons. She volunteered on the SMU Athletic Council and also helped organize the first TEDxSaintMarysU event in late February, with talks by a wide cross-section of students, alumni and faculty.

“Athletics are my passion, so I hope to get back to campus soon to support the Huskies!” says Naugler, who also plans to stay involved with rugby through her summer league, high school coaching and volunteering.

Proud to be the first to graduate with the new certificate, Naugler watched the virtual spring ceremony with her parents and enjoyed a socially distanced driveby from friends. 

“It wasn’t a graduation I had ever pictured before but I will remember it forever,” she says. “It was really special. And I’m definitely looking forward to a day when we can be back on campus with friends to celebrate together!”   

• Find out more about the Certificate in Health, Wellness and Sport in Society at www.smu.ca/sportandhealth/certificate.html. The next application deadline is April 15.

International book award for Dr. Stella Gaon

Dr. Stella Gaon

A Political Science professor at Saint Mary’s is the winner of the 2020 Annual Symposium Book Award, presented by the Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy (CSCP/SCPC). Dr. Stella Gaon received the 15th annual award for her monograph, The Lucid Vigil: Deconstruction, Desire and the Politics of Critique (Routledge, 2019).  

The competition is organized by the CSCP/SCPC and Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy, and judging criteria include originality and the importance of a book in its field of investigation. The award results were conveyed on December 11 by Symposium’s Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Lorraine Markotic of the University of Calgary’s Department of Philosophy. As with previous winners, Dr. Gaon has been invited to deliver a plenary paper at the 2021 annual conference of the CSCP/SCPC, to be held at Memorial University next fall.

The Lucid Vigil: Deconstruction, Desire and the Politics of Critique

The Lucid Vigil is the first publication in Routledge’s new Psychoanalytic Political Theory series, which aims to “deepen our understanding of the complex relationships between the world of politics and the inner world of the psyche”. In this contribution Dr. Gaon explores the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud through the lens of his contemporary interpreter, Jean Laplanche. The intent, she explains, is to “demonstrate the imperative nature and the political implications of deconstructive practices of reading, particularly with regard to contemporary debates about political identity.”

The Saint Mary’s Department of Political Science held a book launch on campus last year, and since then The Lucid Vigil has received positive reviews in the U.S. as well. It's a “brilliant new work,” says a review by Michael Naas of DePaul University, Chicago. “This work should set the record straight once and for all and should cause anyone interested in questions of ethics and politics to return to Derrida’s work, both early and late, with renewed attention, passion, and urgency."

In another review, Elisabeth Weber of the University of California, Santa Barbara adds, “For Gaon, deconstruction exemplifies critical thinking: the unflinching interrogation of the categories through which good and evil, fact and fiction, the righteous and the reprehensible are established. With admirable conceptual clarity, Gaon’s captivating book explores the pivotal ramifications of a deconstructive mode of analysis for pedagogy, politics and ethics.” 

Dr. Gaon specializes in political theory and contemporary social and political thought. She is also Adjunct Professor of Women and Gender Studies. Previous publications include Democracy in Crisis: Violence, Alterity, Community (Manchester UP, 2010) and, most recently, an article entitled “Lies in the Time of COVID.”

Dr. Skye Stephens receives New Health Investigator Grant from Research Nova Scotia

Dr. Skye Stephens

Saint Mary’s University researcher Dr. Skye Stephens is receiving a New Health Investigator Grant from Research Nova Scotia. Dr. Stephens is one of 21 recipients across Nova Scotia receiving funding for new health research.

The New Health Investigator Grant supports new health researchers engaged in work that aligns with Nova Scotia’s health research priorities. The grant aims to provide two years of support of up to $100,000 for researchers who are within the first five years of their academic appointment in Nova Scotia or who are new to the field of health research. For the 2020-21 academic year, funding for this grant comes from the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness.

“There has never been a greater need to support new health researchers in Nova Scotia to help inform practice, policy and decision making,” says Stefan Leslie, CEO of Research Nova Scotia. “Today, we’re pleased to announce funding for these researchers and are confident their work will positively impact the health of Nova Scotians.”

Funding provided will support the establishment of independent research programs, support and expand the research productivity necessary for obtaining long-term funding from national and external agencies and expand the potential for early-career investigators to make significant contributions in their field.

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Project title: The Feasibility of a Program for the Prevention of Childhood Sexual Abuse.

Project description: Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a universal public health problem impacting 18% of girls and 8% of boys worldwide. Children are overrepresented as victims of sexual abuse, as 56% of police-reported sexual assaults in Nova Scotia involved victims under 18. Rates of sexual abuse in Nova Scotia are above the national Canadian average. CSA contributes to a significant disease burden, as it connects to a wide range of adverse mental and physical health outcomes. Effective prevention programs could stop CSA from occurring in the first place and prevent adverse health outcomes. In Nova Scotia, a significant gap in prevention programming is delivering comprehensive mental health services to individuals who may be at risk of CSA perpetration. Previous research has suggested that there are individuals who have not offended but struggle to stay offence free and experience mental health challenges. Through her research, Dr. Skye Stephens and the team aim to enhance capacity to provide CSA prevention programming in Nova Scotia by exploring development barriers. Knowledge gained during this study will lay the groundwork for developing and evaluating a prevention program that could reduce the occurrence of CSA and associated adverse health outcomes. Overall, the project could increase the health and safety of Nova Scotians by proactively addressing risk factors for CSA perpetration.

Team members: Etta Brodersen, Loren Klein, Angela Connors, Christina Shaffer, Amy Ornstein, Ray MacNeil, Ian McPhail, Jamie Livingston & Ainslie Heasman

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Research projects span a broad range of topics, including diabetes, cancer and dementia care, pre-term infant gut health, and food security during the COVID-19 pandemic. For a complete list of recipients and projects, visit https://researchns.ca/new-health-investigator-grant-recipients/.

Dr. S. Karly Kehoe helms national group of leading scholars

At a Canada-wide annual general meeting held November 29 on Zoom, Dr. S. Karly Kehoe became President of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. The role carries a two-year term and means Dr. Kehoe is also a member of the RSC Board of Directors.  

Dr. S. Karly Kehoe

“It’s important for Atlantic Canada,” says Kehoe. “It puts our early- to mid-career scholars on the national map, and that’s empowering.”

The College of New Scholars represents Canada's emerging generation of scholarly, scientific and artistic leaders. Elected members have demonstrated artistic or research excellence within 15 years of their post-doctoral program or its equivalent.

For faculty members in small-to-medium-sized universities, membership in the College can help boost the national profile of their contributions to Canada’s research ecosystem, Kehoe says. First elected to the College in 2017, she is an associate professor of History at Saint Mary’s, graduate coordinator of Atlantic Canada Studies, and the Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Communities.

Her new presidency comes with a lot of responsibility, but it’s a great opportunity, she says. She looks forward to working with colleagues on key priorities, including Reconciliation, increasing interdisciplinary collaboration within the College, and fostering a close relationship between the College and the RSC. One primary focus of collaboration right now is a joint Covid-19 Task Force.

“Internationalization is important for me as well,” adds Kehoe. “Making those connections with similar organizations elsewhere. It’s very good to have Canadian scholars at the table and participating in moving forward the important research development discussions happening around the world.”

Her primary research areas are religion, migration, and minority identities in the British Atlantic. Still, she’s also interested in sustainable development and rural change in Nova Scotia and the Scottish Highlands. She runs the SMU Emerging Researcher Program, a 12-week program for grades 11 and 12 students in rural Cape Breton. She also leads the Gorsebrook Research Institute for Atlantic Canada Studies and is an alumna of the Global Young Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy of Scotland.

Kehoe is a strong advocate for displaced, refugees and at-risk academics. She recently co-edited the book, Responsibility for Refugee and Migrant Integration, released in 2019. This year saw the publication of British Colonization in Atlantic Canada, 1700-1900: A Reappraisal, co-edited with SMU colleague Dr. Michael E. Vance.

Her research continues on 'A Catholic Atlantic? Minority Agency in the British World, 1763-1860', supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. This fall, a related conference was scheduled to take place at Saint Mary's but postponed due to the pandemic. With support from CLARI, Kehoe is also embarking on an exciting project on Nova Scotia's South Shore, titled "Kingsburg: A Social and Economic History in 10 Objects" with Dr. Seán Kennedy of the Irish Studies program and students in her Community Leadership course.

The Faculty of Arts at Saint Mary’s has four more 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, and Dr. R. Blake Brown, Professor of History, are members of the College of New Scholars. Dr. John Reid, Professor Emeritus of History and Atlantic Canada Studies, is a Fellow of the RSC’s Academy of the Arts and Humanities.

Kehoe first got involved as an active member of the RSC’s Atlantic chapter and highly recommends it. “What a great bunch of people to work with. It’s important for us to work together to see how we can harness the cutting-edge research that is happening here for the benefit of the region, and also make it more accessible to communities beyond the universities.” 

The Royal Society of Canada has existed since 1882. Established in 2014, the College of New Scholars now has more than 370 members. Learn more at rsc-src.ca/en/college-members.