Trailblazers recognized at National Retail Innovation Awards

On Nov. 1, Saint Mary’s University and the David Sobey Centre hosted the National Retail Innovation Awards at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront hotel. The annual awards recognize young retail and support companies that offer innovative contributions to the Canadian retail sector. This year’s winners were Poppy Barley, Six Hundred Four, and Dash Hudson.

James Lepp, the owner of the Vancouver-based shoe retailer Six Hundred Four, received an Instagram message inviting him to receive the award in Halifax. The award, which is for innovative customer experience, is the company’s first-ever. Lepp and his wife excitedly packed their bags and headed to Halifax.

“It’s nice that someone of importance [...] is recognizing what we’re doing,” he says.

“Retail is extremely exciting today,” says Dr. Ramesh Venkat, director of the David Sobey Centre. “We see companies focusing on customer experience and data-driven decisions, so it’s a very vibrant environment where innovation is not optional. The companies that take the road less travelled seem to be the ones that are making their mark.”

Each winner this year is making a mark in their own way. Poppy Barley won the Award for Sustainable Retailing Innovation for its socially and environmentally conscious approach to luxury fashion. Shoe retailer Six Hundred Four won the Award for Retail Customer Experience for its unique sneaker gallery, as well as its virtual reality shopping experience. Lastly, Halifax’s own Dash Hudson won the Award for Technology Innovation for its AI-driven platform that helps companies with their visual assets to increase customer engagement.

“As a company that is based in Halifax […] who primarily does business in the United States, it’s great to be recognized by a Canadian institution, and a Halifax institution, like Saint Mary’s for the work that we’re doing,” says Thomas Rankin, CEO and co-founder of Dash Hudson.

Dr. David Sobey, Chairman Emeritus Empire Company Limited, praised the winners and their contributions. “The opportunity to honour innovators in the retail industry has been a great benefit to the Sobey School of Business and Saint Mary’s University, as well as to the students. This event gives us all a great opportunity to dialogue with leaders of industry, and in particular, the retail industry,” he says.

The David Sobey Centre was launched in 2015 with the support of Dr. David Sobey. The centre focuses on three main areas: research, innovation and education. The centre is a leading source of retail expertise and helps to prepare the next generation of industry leaders.

Industry leaders, like Poppy Barley, Six Hundred Four, and Dash Hudson, that will go on to further innovate and disrupt the retail sector.

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.

Student-athlete Bhreagh Burke finishes 8K run barefoot

It’s certainly not the way she planned to race, but cross country runner Bhreagh Burke finished the women’s 8k race at the AUS Championship in her bare feet.

The championships were hosted by the UNB Reds at Kingswood Resort in Hanwell, N.B. on Saturday, October 26.

It was a remarkable finish for 2nd year Arts student. Burke lost one of her shoes during the first kilometre of the race.  She stopped to put it back on, only to have it fall off again, leaving her in 25th position.

Determined to continue, Burke removed the other shoe, racing in sock feet for the second kilometre before stopping again to remove her socks and run the rest of the race barefoot. Bhreagh finished 10th and was SMU’s first female runner to cross the finish line in 31:58.   

“This was, without doubt, one of the gutsiest performances that I have witnessed over my years of coaching cross country,” said Head Coach Kevin Heisler.

Bhreagh, along with first-place finisher Andrew Peverill, will compete in the upcoming USport Championships in Kingston, Ontario on November 9th.

Interculturalism in focus at Saint Mary’s

One of many International Education Week activities included The Day of the Dead community altar at the Patrick Power Library (Oct 29 - Nov 4), which celebrates the memory of departed loved ones and the continuity of life.

The important role of international education in fostering global citizenship is the focus of celebration this week as Saint Mary’s marks this year’s International Education Week.

“The enthusiastic reception of the cultural events and international opportunity sessions we are presenting this year speaks to the outward-looking ethos of our student, staff, and faculty community,” says Miyuki Arai of the Office of Global Learning and Intercultural Support at The Studio for Teaching and Learning who co-organizes the event each year. “Although many students are interested in study abroad opportunities, we’d like to see even more people take advantage of the more than 100 academic exchange agreements we have with partner universities in over 30 countries around the world.”

The power of international experiences and intercultural learning is a particular passion of University president Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray, especially in his capacity as Board Chair of the Canadian Bureau for International Education. Intercultural learning is a strategic priority for the university, and Saint Mary’s strives to “foster deeper relations between cultures and provide our students with a distinct and global perspective,” he says. ”We continue our commitment to graduating students with global perspectives and intercultural competence, while working to ensure that we as faculty and staff live these values ourselves each day.”

This year’s celebration includes the International Opportunities Fair hosted by the Patrick Power Library, several study abroad information sessions, the always popular Korean Cultural Café, and a music recital hosted by the Confucius Institute. The week winds up on Friday with the showcase event, Stories from Overseas, where former and current exchange program participants reflect on how their educational journeys have been shaped by international study. 

For more information on international learning opportunities at Saint Mary’s University, contact the Global Learning and Intercultural Support office at gocentre@smu.ca.

MTEI grads win $75k in US business challenge

The Ashored founders: Aaron Stevenson, left, Ross Arsenault and Maxwell Poole. (Photo courtesy Peter Moreira, Entrevestor.com)

Saint Mary’s alumni Ross Arsenault BComm'17, MTEI'18 and Aaron Stevenson MTEI'19 along with partner Max Poole BComm'17 on their company, Ashored, have won $75k USD Platinum win at the MassChallenge in Boston.

The company was selected back in May as the sole Canadian company to enter the well-recognized accelerator program, one of 100 start-ups competing for funding.

"Headquartered in the United States with locations in Boston, Israel, Mexico, Rhode Island, Switzerland, and Texas, MassChallenge strengthens the global innovation ecosystem by accelerating high-potential startups across all industries, from anywhere in the world for zero-equity taken." - MassChallenge.org

The MassChallenge Boston program provides training, collaboration space, connections to experts and mentors and is zero cost. Cash prizes are for zero equity. This isn't Dragon's Den, this is money to drive business growth, free of obligations.

Ashored Innovations were one of 12 companies awarded on October 24. Over $1 million USD in zero-equity prizes were awarded, provided via partnerships MassChallenge has with Boeing and the International Space Station National Lab.

This competition plants another flag in the Boston startup ecosystem, which Sobey School's Venture Grade and MTEI have been making inroads into for the last several years.

Ashored adds the winnings to their growing funding pool, including a recent $30,000 investment from Sobey School's Venture Grade group.

Alumni win top honours for athletic achievements

Justine Colley-Leger

Jackie Barrett

Suzanne Muir

Saint Mary’s has a long history of athletic excellence. This fall, three exceptional former student-athletes are being given top honours for their accomplishments.

Basketball legend Justine Colley-Leger BComm’14, powerlifter and Special Olympian Jackie Barrett BComm’98, and soccer star Suzanne Muir BComm’93, will be inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame on November 15 in Halifax.

They are among five athletes to be celebrated not only for their outstanding contributions to Nova Scotia sport, but each rising to national acclaim.

A force to be reckoned with in the sport of powerlifting, highly decorated Special Olympics athlete Jackie Barrett will make history as the first Special Olympian joining the Hall of Fame this year.

Originally from Spryfield, Barrett has dominated Canadian Special Olympics powerlifting competitions throughout his career with 20 gold medals, and he has represented Canada well at the World Special Olympics competition with an incredible 13 first-place finishes. In his final year of competition (2015), he set three Special Olympics world records, lifting 277.5 kg, 297.5 kg and 697.5 kg in the squat, deadlift and triple combination events respectively. In the same year, he also became the first Special Olympics athlete to be nominated for the Lou Marsh Award as Canada’s top athlete.

Justine Colley-Leger is the all-time leading scorer in the history of CIS women’s basketball. Her impressive play earned her two CIS National Player of the Year awards and she led the Saint Mary’s Huskies to four consecutive AUS championships and CIS silver and bronze medals. She was also a two-time AUS MVP, four-time All-Canadian and five-time AUS first team All-Star, while playing more than 40 games with the Canadian national team.

Suzanne Muir was named AUS Rookie of the Year during her time playing with the Saint Mary’s Huskies women’s soccer team. Her standout skills also earned her two AUS MVP awards, five-time AUS All-Star status and two-time All-Canadian honours. Twice named Athlete of the Year at Saint Mary’s University, Muir went on to play with Canada’s national women’s team from 1992 to 1999. She played with the national team at the 1995 and 1999 World Cups. She was inducted into the Saint Mary’s Sport Hall of Fame in 2014.

On a related note, Justin Palardy BA’11, geography major and former Husky, was a pro football player with CFL and now a coach for the Dalhousie Tigers. He is being inducted on Nov 1 to the Colchester County Sports Hall of Fame.

Tickets for the 2019 Induction Night are on sale now at the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame. Call 902-404-3343 to place your order.

Celebrating the new Dr. Hari Das Commons

Saint Mary’s students now have access to a newly renovated space to study, connect, and relax - the Dr. Hari Das Commons. 

Completed at the end of September, the 1,725 square foot area, located on the second floor of the Loyola Residence building, is named after the late professor, Dr. Hari Das. The commons honours his connection with Saint Mary’s and was made possible by the family of Dr. Hari Das.  

Dr. Hari Das

“Dr. Das had a special connection to Saint Mary’s and it’s wonderful to see him recognized in this manner. His relationship with students and faculty, along with his contributions in the Sobey School of Business, make the naming of this space especially fitting,” said Saint Mary’s President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray.  

Sustainably designed, the Dr. Hari Das Commons was conceived as a hub of student activity. The modern, bright space includes 50 seats and a large meeting table for learning, socializing, and collaboration and features new comfortable furniture, a higher ceiling, new lighting and finishes.

Overlooking the quad, track, and athletics field, the Dr. Hari Das Commons is ideally located to bring students together from across all faculties, creating a sense of community in the space.

“The Dr. Hari Das Commons is a beautiful addition to our network of learning commons which are emerging across campus,” said Saint Mary’s Vice-President, Finance and Administration Gabe Morrison. “It reflects Dr. Das’s commitment to students and leading-edge scholarship. The renovation reflects the concept and design standards established for the adjacent and upcoming Sobeys Entrepreneurship and Innovation Hub.” 

A professor in the Sobey School of Business for 32 years, Dr. Das was deeply connected to students, faculty, and staff. While at Saint Mary’s, he taught several graduate and doctoral courses and continued his research in understanding human behaviour. His memory lives on at the university through the guidance and direction he provided for many business students. 

“Dr. Das had a tremendous impact on me and also influenced my own teaching,” says Saint Mary’s alumnus Dr. Scott MacMillan, Associate Professor in Management at Mount Saint Vincent University. “He was a brilliant teacher who knew what he wanted his students to know. He had very high standards, always worked hard, and demanded the same of others.” 

An eminent national and international scholar, Dr. Das received his MSc and PhD from the University of British Columbia and published several journal articles and textbooks. Dr. Das’s interest in human resources led him to co-author the best-selling textbook, Canadian Human Resource Management. Now in its 12th edition, with almost 300,000 copies sold, it is one of the most successful textbooks published in Canada and is used in over 70 universities in the country.

In addition to his work as a scholar, Dr. Das published two novels and several short stories; however, his passion was filmmaking. Active in the Atlantic Filmmakers’ Cooperative, he wrote, directed, and produced a number of documentaries and commercial films. His short films on child labour and female infanticide received recognition and won awards.

Dr. Hari Das passed away in 2010. In honour of his memory and relationship with Saint Mary’s, the family of Dr. Hari Das has funded several philanthropic investments at the university. “We are very grateful to the family of Dr. Hari Das. Their generous support of the university through the Dr. Hari Das Commons, Dr. Hari Das Conference Room, Dr. Hari Das Global Scholars Award, and Dr. Hari Das Memorial MBA Scholarship is extraordinary,” said Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray. “Dr. Das’s legacy will live on in this space, bringing students together to make important interdisciplinary connections.” 

Two Planks and a Passion Theatre coming to The Oaks (Saturday, Oct. 26)

Elapultiek (ehl-ah-bool-dee-egg) - "we are looking towards" - marks the first time Two Planks and a Passion Theatre commissioned an Indigenous playwright from Nova Scotia to create a new work for the company. The show was a great success during the 2018 summer season and returned this year for two special fireside shows and a provincial tour that reaches Saint Mary's for a performance on October 26.  

Playwright shalan joudry is an oral storyteller, hand-drum singer and poet the traditional district of Kespukwitk (southwest Nova Scotia). Following years of raising children, performing, writing and ecology work, shalan now lives and works in her community of Bear River First Nation, sharing messages of reconnecting to both land and culture.   

“We are thrilled to bring shalan’s play to a broader audience. The response to our first production in 2018 was overwhelmingly positive -- the play has been so important to so many people, and it is clear that we need to bring this story to as many Nova Scotians as possible,” says Artistic Director Ken Schwartz. It's presented at Saint Mary's by the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Science, and Student Affairs & Services.

Find out more about the play at www.artscentre.ca/elapultiek.html. 

Celebrating Ursula Johnson’s work at the Art Gallery

On Wednesday, October 16, an eager crowd gathered at Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery for the launch of the catalogue Ursula Johnson: Mi’kwite’tmn (Do You Remember).

First presented at Saint Mary’s in 2014, it toured Canada from 2014 to 2018. Mi’kwite’tmn examines ideas of ancestry, identity and cultural practice. Johnson deconstructs and manipulates the function and image of Mi’kmaw basketry, using traditional techniques to build non-functional forms.

The catalogue includes essays and interviews about the work. It is a trilingual publication – with texts provided in Mi’kmaw, French and English.

The launch included a ceremonial welcome and a discussion between Diane Mitchell (Mi'kmaw translator), artist Ursula Johnson and Director/Curator Robin Metcalfe on the intricacies and challenges of translating text into Mi'kmaw.

The Saint Mary’s University Art gallery has been a leader in working with contemporary Indigenous artists and curators. Over the past decade, it has presented five major Indigenous exhibitions.

Ursula Johnson is a performance and installation artist of Mi’kmaw First Nation ancestry. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally since graduating from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design with a BFA in Interdisciplinary studies in 2006.

Her performances are often place-based and employ cooperative didactic intervention. Recent works include various mediums of sculpture that create consideration from her audience about aspects of intangible cultural heritage as it pertains to the consumption of traditional knowledge within the context of colonial institutions. Johnson has been shortlisted for the Salt Spring National Art Prize and the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award. In 2017, she was the first Indigenous artist from Atlantic Canada to be honoured with the Sobey Art Award, the pre-eminent prize for young Canadian artists.

Saint Mary’s launches Career Week

Saint Mary’s Student Affairs and Services is pleased to announce the first-ever SMU Career Week 2019, from October 28th - November 1st.

The free conference is curated for 3rd and 4th-year students, recent graduates, and alumni.

Over the course of five days, participants will have the opportunity to attend fun interactive sessions, networking opportunities, social events, skill-developing workshops and more. There are also career fairs for Indigenous students and students wanting to pursue international opportunities.

Session topics include:

• Resume and cover letter help

• New and emerging careers

• The impact of AI and what this means for entry-level positions

• Government-funded employment initiatives and how to access them

• The Atlantic Immigration Pilot Project and the best path for permanent residence

Students can sign up at career360.smu.ca. For more information see the schedule below or visit smu.ca/careerconference

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.

Undergraduate Astrophysics student publishes a lead-author scientific paper

Saint Mary’s University Astrophysics student Sophia Waddell

Publishing a lead-author scientific paper is always an exciting milestone for graduate students, one that comes after a lot of research, hard work and persistence to work through multiple edits with advisors and journal editors.  

Sophia Waddell has already achieved this goal after her third year of undergraduate studies, having published a paper with the Royal Astronomical Society. The Astrophysics student has also co-authored four other papers: one with a graduate student after her first year at Saint Mary’s, two with her supervisor Dr. Luigi Gallo, and another led by a postdoc.  

After coming up with the idea for the paper in her High Energy Astrophysics course, she wrote the paper and worked with Dr. Gallo on a series of revisions. She then submitted the paper to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society for an anonymous review, which resulted in just a few changes before the paper was accepted.  

“It’s very rare that an undergraduate student is able to publish a lead-author paper,” said Dr. Luigi Gallo, Professor of Astronomy at Saint Mary’s. “Sophia has an amazing work ethic that is driven by her passion for the subject matter.  She is constantly reading papers, working the data, asking questions, and often stumping me.”  

Waddell’s paper, titled Multi-epoch X-ray spectral analysis of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 478, explores X-ray data from a supermassive black hole (SMBH) called Mrk 478. “This black hole in particular is called an active galactic nucleus (AGN), which means that it is actively sucking in material, forming an accretion disk around the black hole,” explained Waddell.  

“The material located closest to the black hole gets so hot, that rather than radiating optical light (light our eyes can see), it emits high-energy X-rays. Using special space-based observatories, we can study the X-rays coming from active black holes, which can tell us about the structure and properties of the innermost regions.” 

In her paper Waddell used different models representing different physical structures of the inner region of this SMBH, and applied them to data collected with X-ray satellites. 

“Using the models, and a couple of other techniques, we were able to determine the structure and geometry of the inner region of this black hole, which can help tell us more about the evolution of galaxies and the Universe itself,” she said. 

“Sophia is currently following up on her results and is now looking at the rapid variability on time scales of a day, to see if those fast changes are consistent with the same model,” said Dr. Gallo. 

Black Holes

A black hole is a region of space that has experienced a gravitational collapse leaving behind a region from which nothing can escape, not even light. Supermassive black holes are the largest type of these astronomical objects, and are considered to be at least hundreds of thousands of times the mass of the sun. The concept of black holes was first considered in the 18th century, and the formation of supermassive black holes, first mentioned in the 1960s, is still a topic being researched by astronomers. The first photo of a supermassive black hole was only captured in the spring of 2019.   

Plans for the Future

Waddell has “loved all things math and science” since she was a small child, and with two parents who graduated from the Engineering program at Saint Mary’s, she had plenty of support at home for her STEM interests. After a unit in astrophysics in a high school physics class she was hooked and now plans to pursue an academic career as a physics and astrophysics professor. She’s currently applying to grad schools and would like to continue studying X-ray astronomy.  

“I think it’s incredible that we get to work with data taken by satellites in outer space, studying some of the most extreme objects in the Universe,” said Waddell. “I also love talking about my research and science in general, and I can’t wait to keep sharing my science with others!”